# Board weirdness with dollar signs **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Created:** [July 26, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421 "2020-07-26T22:46:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/1 "2020-07-26T22:46:01Z")
This is my entire post from another thread (topic). I included dollar signs and they showed up in the preview window but disappeared when I saved/posted. Anybody know why? > [ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)[Member](https://boards.straightdope.com/g/Member) [1h](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gold-price-at-all-time-high/916282/3) > > When I was a kid, gold was 35/oz. Seriously. Of course, gasoline was .20/gal. Minimum wage was $1.10. Gold mining was especially dangerous because of the dinosaurs. > > ETA: I put dollar signs in front of the “35” and the “.20” --why did the bot remove them?? The dollar signs SHOW UP in the preview window, but disappear when I save. > > ETA #2 test: 35 per ounce, .20 per gallon > > ETA #3: I put dollar signs in ETA #2 – I thought maybe the bot didn’t like the slash. But the dollar sign was okay in “$1.10” What’s up with that? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/2 "2020-07-26T22:54:49Z")
$35.00 $0.35 It appears to need a decimal point with something in front of it, like some kind of Excel rule. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/3 "2020-07-26T22:56:46Z")
$ 35.00 $0.35 ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/4 "2020-07-26T22:58:14Z")
$cientology. Hope that works - can’t have a message board without that spelling. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/5 "2020-07-26T23:14:59Z")
35./oz .020/gal ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/6 "2020-07-26T23:20:43Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > 35./oz .020/gal - Imgur of post window: [[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/75v2D7Z.jpeg?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/MyQIrUP) Note the presence of dollar sign in the part of the post window that shows. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/7 "2020-07-26T23:25:46Z")
Escaped with backslashes: $35./oz $.020/gal ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/8 "2020-07-26T23:25:51Z")
Here is a longer sentence that uses dollar signs: $35./oz and $0.20/gal ETA: Well, this worked. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/9 "2020-07-26T23:26:32Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Escaped with backslashes: What? ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/10 "2020-07-26T23:29:30Z")
It’s a bug, it’s taking the dollar signs to be some weird formatting, I don’t know what. You can work around it by putting backslashes \ in front of the dollar signs. \$35./oz ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/11 "2020-07-26T23:38:33Z")
Okay. Interesting. But in my last post, the dollar signs came out okay… I’ll keep the backslash thing in mind… or maybe just write out “dollars and cents.” 😋 Just for my own information, should I have known what you meant by “Escaped with backslashes”? without asking for clarification? ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/12 "2020-07-26T23:44:53Z")
Sorry, that was probably a bit too technical. I think it worked in your later post because there was other text in front of it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/13 "2020-07-27T00:17:18Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Just for my own information, should I have known what you meant by > “Escaped with backslashes”? without asking for clarification? FWIW, it _is_ covered in [a recent ATMB thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-new-software-is-helpfully-inserting-registered-trademark-symbols/915941/2). That’s why I knew what your problem was as soon as I saw it. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/14 "2020-07-27T01:09:25Z")
Thanks. I never would have found that. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/15 "2020-07-27T02:06:11Z")
Testing. $25 worth of testing. – looks OK in the preview window, but I’ve noticed previews here don’t look exactly like the posts. Maybe the problem was the slash after it? $25/per dozen. Huh. Maybe a slash and a space? $25/ per dozen. I didn’t put any slashes in that aren’t visible. Discourse is weird. $25 / per dozen? ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/16 "2020-07-27T05:37:37Z")
Testing: E=MC^2 ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/17 "2020-07-27T05:51:12Z")
The MathJax plugin for Discourse allows you to insert mathematical formulas. Inline formulas are marked with a $ at the beginning and the end. My guess is that MathJax is disabled on the SDMB, but it’s still scanning for the pair of $ signs on a line. It’s removing the $ signs, but not processing what is between them as a formula. (I had to escape the two $ signs on the line above, or they wouldn’t display.) ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/18 "2020-07-27T14:11:54Z")
Testing again: by itself. Text with in the middle. Text with it at the end . at the beginning and again at the end $. Shows as normal in the preview box; and no I’m not using any escape slashes. aha! I was beginning to think that whatever it was doesn’t affect me at all, but there it is. I think others can figure out where the dollar sign originally was in the above. But I note that I didn’t have it show up at all when I used it with a dollar amount in multiple different arrangements – see post above, all of those $25’s. ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/19 "2020-07-27T18:18:30Z")
What about this? (a) (b) © © stay © even if I use \ before it: test1 \ © test2 © test3 \ © test4 \ © ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421/20 "2020-07-27T18:39:10Z")
It works if you escape the second bracket. (c) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/board-weirdness-with-dollar-signs/916421.md?page=2)