# A typo of sorts **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 22, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766 "2014-07-22T19:08:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/1 "2014-07-22T19:08:42Z")
The “Last edited by” message contains not one but two periods after the timestamp. A very minor thing, of course, but it irks me in its way. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/2 "2014-07-22T19:13:50Z")
[Previous thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=719141). ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/3 "2014-07-22T19:14:59Z")
Ah, I’d missed that. Carry on, then… ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/4 "2014-07-22T19:21:05Z")
Lest my terseness be misinterpreted, I don’t think it’s objectionable to have missed it. It was a quick thread in March in a seldom visited forum. The only reason I remember it is because I am cursed with a talent for remembering inane things. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/5 "2014-07-23T01:05:28Z")
sigh…and I \*just \*managed to forget about the extra period and stop seeing it all over the place. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/6 "2014-07-23T02:53:45Z")
And my own complaint in that previous thread: Why are the times always displayed as something like 09:52 AM? You’re mixing clocks. 09:52 would be the 24-hour military time and is necessarily AM. Or you should have 9:52 AM without the 0. Seems odd to mix it up. That’s not much different from Thailand, where you often see things like 18:30 PM. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/7 "2014-07-23T06:16:36Z")
**Leo Bloom** and **Indistinguishable** , however, profess to have very contrasting world-views regarding the degree of world-shaking, history-altering impact of this egregious programming malconstruction – Mr. Bloom finds this to be an error of mass destruction, leaving him flabbergasted and gobsmacked, calling into question the very commitment to quality control to be found on this board. (To be sure, **Marley23** subsequently questions his definition of “major”.) Mr. **Indistinguishable** , OTOH, finds this horrendous waste of decimal points to be nothing more than a “very minor thing, of course”. Is it possible that these two OPs are, in fact, talking about the _same problem?_ Or am I badly mis-reading something in one of these threads? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/8 "2014-07-23T09:56:57Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > And my own complaint in that previous thread: Why are the times always displayed as something like 09:52 AM? You’re mixing clocks. 09:52 would be the 24-hour military time and is necessarily AM. Or you should have 9:52 AM without the 0. Seems odd to mix it up. That’s not much different from Thailand, where you often see things like 18:30 PM. It’s actually slightly less computationally expensive to show the zero than to mask it. All of the UNIX time programs I’ve seen seem to default to two digit hours (and months and dates), and I’ve even seen some that don’t even offer the dynamic one/two digit option. So I think it’s safe to surmise that two digit hours came first in the computer world. I’m also pretty sure for similar reasons than AM/PM came later. So, since computer programmers in those days weren’t all that concerned with stylistic conventions, I bet they when they started also reading AM/PM from the internal clock, they didn’t bother thinking they would need to change anything else. And since history often informs defaults, and we run vBulletin in its default state, it doesn’t surprise me that the board uses the leading 0 format. At least this format is arguably not incorrect. The two period thing is clearly wrong, and the vBulletin programmers clearly missed that. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/9 "2014-07-23T19:00:49Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > At least this format is arguably not incorrect. The two period thing is clearly wrong, and the vBulletin programmers clearly missed that. There should be _three_ periods there. It’s not a valid ellipsis symbol with only two. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/10 "2014-07-23T19:06:44Z")
I don’t see any reason to think it’s supposed to be an ellipsis. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2014, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/11 "2014-07-24T02:44:10Z")
If it’s an ellipsis, wouldn’t there need to be three periods _and_ a space between the first one and the last letter? ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/12 "2014-07-25T09:22:46Z")
Nah, I think you can have an ellipsis with no space before the last letter. Of course, I’m not an authority on these matters… ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2014, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-typo-of-sorts/693766/13 "2014-07-26T01:42:16Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > Nah, I think you can have an ellipsis with no space before the last letter. Of course, I’m not an authority on these matters… Sacrilege!