I think it's a convention, but I could well be wrong. Maybe it refers to LISP. But maybe it's wrong too. Nonetheless, the lisp being discussed in this thread is Common Lisp
Quite the opposite I'd say... in my experience, Lispers tend to say "Lisp" when they are being inclusive of the whole family of languages & its philosophies. This convention began way back in pre-Common Lisp days, when there was literally no common standard: much as we say "Unix" to refer to the family of related-but-different OS's that once proliferated.
Generally I've seen capitalized LISP used only to refer to the original language, from McCarthy's lab (e.g., versions 1 and 1.5). By the time Interlisp landed in the late 60's, the all-caps convention has already begun to slip.
That's not to disagree with your own experiences: I just suspect they are "regional", so to speak, and not reflective of the larger Lisp community.
> I just suspect they are "regional", so to speak, and not reflective of the larger Lisp community
yeah i think there is definitely a component of that which led to my claim. i think it is better that 'lisp' should refer to a whole family of languages when context is not obvious. even when context is clear it is helpful to distinguish what lisp one is talking about in order to avoid ambiguity
Since when? Lisp is, and has almost always been, a family of languages.