It's important to bear in mind that incorrect capitalisation can be a genuine error. For example, as a native English speaker, I might assume that the months of the year and the days of the week are capitalised in French, Italian or Spanish, but I'd be wrong, and I'd be grateful if someone took the time to correct me. Equally, I would not be surprised if a native speaker of one of those languages failed to capitalise the days of the week or the months of the year in English, and I'd point out the error. It's another matter when someone demonstrates that he/she thinks that capitalisation and/or punctuation are optional. That's a great way to piss off, and get yourself ignored by, people you're asking for help.

I have asked this before on Italki. I think it is connected with people typing on smart phones and laptops and being lazy with the Shift key. It's not that they don't know the rules.Of course occasionally there are learners who don't know the rules, because there is no capitalization in their language (Chinese speakers for example) and therefore it's hard for them to grasp how important it is. Additionally I see native speakers not using it (on Facebook for example) so there you go.

You are charitable, Karen. When I see language deliberately abused by native speakers because "all the cool kids do it," I cannot take them seriously. To do it here, where it can mislead people who sincerely wish to learn, is delinquent. There is a difference between an honest mistake and a juvenile affectation.

What bothers me is when English speakers, on correcting a notebook, SOMETIMES do not bother to correct that fundamental mistake. I know with some languages the "I" is always lower case and that it is hard to break that habit...but for English speakers that miss that major mistake as well as capitalization of countries...it is beyond me. I also look at the level of the emergent language learner and if they make the mistake in the beginning I can excuse that. I am not saying that I am 100% accurate in my corrections either. I have missed ways of saying things and others have said it better but the most basic things such as those above, as correctors, should be obvious to us. Yes, texting has made things a little bit gray.

Eltoy, are you trying to wind him up? As far as I can tell, you are very careful about capitals and punctuation every time you submit writing on this site for comment or correction :)