I thought the reminder from GP was fair and I'm disappointed that it's downvoted as of this writing. One thing I've always appreciated about this community is that we can remind each other of the guidelines.
Yes it was just one word, and probably an accident—an accident I've made myself, and felt bad about afterwards—but the guideline is specific about "word or phrase", meaning single words are included. If GGP's single word doesn't apply, what does?
But again, if that is what the guideline is referring to, why does it say "If you want to emphasize a _word or phrase_". By my reading, it is quite explicitly including single words!
I’m saying that being pedantic on HN is a worse sin than capitalizing a single word. Being technically correct isn’t really relevant to how annoying people think you are being.
Imagine I capitalised a whole selection of specific words in this sentence for emphasis, how annoying that would be to read. I'll spare you. That is what the guideline is about, not one single instance.
I’m not the GP, but the reason I capitalize words instead of italicizing them is because the italics don’t look italic enough to convey emphasis. I get the feeling that that may be because HN wants to downplay emphasis in general, which if true is a bad goal that I oppose.
Also, those guidelines were written in the 2000s in a much different context and haven’t really evolved with the times. They seem out of date today, many of us just don’t consider them that relevant.
> Please don't use uppercase for emphasis. If you want to emphasize a word or phrase, put asterisks around it and it will get italicized.