# Before it became an internet site, "/." was? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 13, 2008, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488 "2008-11-13T04:42:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/1 "2008-11-13T04:42:44Z")
Google doesn’t really help - at least not with any string I can devise. So, what did a virgule (aka “slash”, pronounced “/”), followed by a period, (aka “dot”, “.”) mean? I’m guessing it identified a comment line in osme micro-based language I never saw. Is the old COBOLer right on this one? ---
**Author:** ![Pseudocode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/59ef9b/32.png) [@Pseudocode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pseudocode)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/2 "2008-11-13T04:50:34Z")
The name “Slashdot” was chosen to be purposefully confusing. See [http://slashdot.org/faq/slashmeta.shtml#sm100](http://slashdot.org/faq/slashmeta.shtml#sm100) ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/3 "2008-11-13T04:50:42Z")
Nothing that I know of; [Slashdot’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slash_dot) Wiki page claims the name was chosen as a parody of URL punctuation. But in MATLAB, “./” is a matrix division operator. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/4 "2008-11-13T04:57:43Z")
So far as I was ever aware it was referring to how you spell out a URL. Previous to that it wasn’t meaningful. h t t p colon slash slash something dot something dot something slash something slash something dot h t m l ./ on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/5 "2008-11-13T05:38:30Z")
Wow. I never made the connection with slashdot and web addresses. I thought it was referring to the root directory listing. Seeing that it was/is the top reference for all things open source nerdy and all. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/6 "2008-11-13T06:03:48Z")
I always thought that it was a reference to the root directory, also, but the dot there would then be redundant (though of course not incorrect: /././././././. is just as valid a path for root as / is). ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/7 "2008-11-13T06:12:21Z")
> [@Pseudocode](#): > > The name “Slashdot” was chosen to be purposefully confusing. > > See [http://slashdot.org/faq/slashmeta.shtml#sm100](http://slashdot.org/faq/slashmeta.shtml#sm100) Well, that just about sums up the whole culture then, doesn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/8 "2008-11-13T16:08:23Z")
Slash-dot is how you punctuate xkcd. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/9 "2008-11-13T16:26:24Z")
I want to know why BBC announcers consistently call it a “stroke” when reading out URLs. I presume because it’s a proper noun they’d still call SlashDot by its real name. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/10 "2008-11-13T16:39:26Z")
The words “oblique line” once appeared in my newspaper because the rewrite person typed in what she was told to type. She was supposed to type “/”. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/11 "2008-11-13T16:40:09Z")
It can be the beginning of a dotfile in the root directory, e.g. /.foo. Of course, you probably shouldn’t have dotfiles in the root directory. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/12 "2008-11-13T16:46:19Z")
I’m not sure what you guys mean by root directory. You mean the current directory, or /root? In UNIX, “dot slash” is the directory you’re currently in, so if you’re working on the desktop, instead of typing /home/me/Desktop/runprogram, you can type ./runprogram. I assumed slashdot was just a backwards dot-slash based on this. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/13 "2008-11-13T16:58:36Z")
Actually, I mean the / not /root ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/14 "2008-11-13T17:06:42Z")
> [@Fubaya](#): > > I’m not sure what you guys mean by root directory. You mean the current directory, or /root? The root directory is / Everything is under the root directory, including the home directory of the root user (heh) which may lead to confusing terminology. All absolute paths begin with / for this reason. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2008, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-it-became-an-internet-site-was/472488/15 "2008-11-13T17:10:00Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > The words “oblique line” once appeared in my newspaper because the rewrite person typed in what she was told to type. She was supposed to type “/”. I think I hired her at some point.