# My Posting Style: Which Doper Started It? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 29, 2009, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953 "2009-09-29T06:32:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/1 "2009-09-29T06:32:36Z")
Having been a member here since 2000, I know there _must_ have been a veteran Doper who initiated it. By “style” I mean the double line separation. I know that I’m not the only one who uses it, so I was just curious (yellow)😉 I know it wasn’t _me_, so because _somebody_ has to ask these kinds of questions. I nominated myself!😉 Thanks Quasi PS: Are y’all gonna tell me that this posting style uses more band-width and slows down the server? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/2 "2009-09-29T10:40:40Z")
Double-line spacing is a fairly standard layout format for a lot of things (all my assignments have to be double-spaced, which irritates me no end because I find double-spaced copy quite hard to read). So, I don’t think anyone here “started” the style- it’s been around for at least as long as there have been typewriters, and probably much, much longer. Sorry to disappoint you, **Quasi**. 😉 ETA: The other thing to bear in mind is that what looks like “paragraphs with a single line between them” often comes out as double-spaced single lines. Like this post here. It looks like three paragrapghs of 3/2/1 lines with a single line between them, but when it’s posted, it looks like three double-spaced lines. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/3 "2009-09-29T15:31:34Z")
That was the posting style of the exalted, venerated, and “departed” **WallyM7**. He posted practically everywhere, so it was easy to run across his posts. Then came that dreadful accident in which he was crushed like a can of tomatoes. So WallyM7 is gone, but his posting style lives on. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/4 "2009-09-29T16:14:46Z")
Okay **Earl** , you’re going to have to help me a little more with this one, 'cause my memory isn’t so good. Didn’t **WallyM7** also once have his own smiley which was awarded posthumously? Every once in a while some of the “cobwebs” in my brain part and let in a little “sunlight”, so I hope I have all that right!🙂 Thanks Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/5 "2009-09-29T16:30:35Z")
Yeah, it was the “putz” smiley, a 😉 with an word bubble that said “Putz!” ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/6 "2009-09-29T17:26:01Z")
Was **Wally** a real person, or one those “pseudo-guys” like Cecil? Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/7 "2009-09-29T18:32:27Z")
As far as I know, he was a real person. Most people don’t think his demise was real, although at the time most of us–and that includes me–took it at face value. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/8 "2009-09-29T19:01:01Z")
There was some human element behind Wally. All too human, really. ---
**Author:** ![CT\_Damsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CT\_Damsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CT_Damsel)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/9 "2009-09-29T19:04:22Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > Was **Wally** a real person, or one those “pseudo-guys” like Cecil? > > Thanks > > Q What? What? Cecil is not real? 😕:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/10 "2009-09-29T19:47:15Z")
> [@CT\_Damsel](#): > > What? What? > > Cecil is not real? > > 😕:eek: Of course Cecil is real, Santa needs a secret identity don’t he? ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/11 "2009-09-29T20:18:27Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > As far as I know, he was a real person. Most people don’t think his demise was real, although at the time most of us–and that includes me–took it at face value. Okay help me, Earl. Why do most people doubt Wally’s demise? If I recall several dopers actually attended the service. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/12 "2009-09-29T20:46:44Z")
> [@Doug\_Bowe](#): > > Okay help me, Earl. Why do most people doubt Wally’s demise? A 99-er Charter Member is asking this? 😕 Anyway, there was nothing that could corroborate it. The report of his “death” came in the form of an email from his “daughter” to a poster who called a (former?) mod/admin. The announcement thread has been long since deleted, and if the posters involved (who are both still active members) wish to offer any more insight, they can, but I’ll not out them. > [@Doug\_Bowe](#): > > If I recall several dopers actually attended the service. Nope. No one knew his name. No one could find any reports of any industrial type accidents. There were no obits remotely resembling his purported biographical info. Nothing. Here’s [an older thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=364525) with some discussion. ---
**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:** [September 29, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/13 "2009-09-29T21:01:53Z")
First off, the “daughter” who had announced his death had joined only a month beforehand. Second, there was no mention in the news or death notices of any death consistent with what we had heard of his. Third, it later turned out that many of his most beloved stories were plagiarized from other sources, so his credibility was in question. And finally, to pry the last nail out of the coffin, the board software had a record of activity on his account over a year after his “death”. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/14 "2009-09-29T21:07:06Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > Nope. No one knew his name. No one could find any reports of any industrial type accidents. There were no obits remotely resembling his purported biographical info. Nothing. Yeah. Absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence, but in this case a _complete lack_ of the kind of evidence nearly everyone leaves behind upon death is certainly very telling. Whoever used the username **WallyM7** here wasn’t living out in the sticks in some third-word country. He wasn’t even living off the grid in rural Canada or someplace like that. He was, by all available evidence, living the kind of life that ends with an obituary. Nobody could find one. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-posting-style-which-doper-started-it/511953/15 "2009-09-29T21:35:52Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > A 99-er Charter Member is asking this? 😕… > > Here’s [an older thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=364525) with some discussion. Thank you for the info. Also thank you Chronos and Derleth. Ignorance fought. I can’t hang out on the board as much as I’d like, and with the speed of subjects that show up it’s likely a discussion will disappear before I can come back. Thank you for the link. Heck, once somebody (I think it was Lib) voted to bring back Satan. I put in a vote in favor…thinking by now Brian was past his demons. Then a mod came up not with a “NO!” but a “HELL NO!!.” What followed was a complete education on why that was a really bad idea. Please note: a 99-er Charter Member with (given a decade) a pathetic post number. Thank you again for the link and info.