Did you figure it out while reading backslashdot?
OK, now that we have the slashes thing figured out, I’m still not clear about multiple commas. The article that was posted seemed to imply that they mean ominous ellipses, whatever that is. I haven’t seen multiple commas, as far as I know, or I just thought it was an error.
So, what do multiple commas mean?
I haven’t the faintest, but I feel it’s vitally important to point out that Ominous Ellipses would be an outstanding band name.
I think it was originally just an error, or a joke.
Now it’s used as either (a) a “softer” ellipses, meaning a less ominous trailing off or (b) a more emphatic trailing off.
Which are obviously contradictory, but that’s online slang for you. You have to use the context to discern whether it’s a jokey/softer use of ellipses or a more emphatic one.
More to the point, perhaps, it’s a way to use ellipses to indicate trailing off without looking/sounding like your parents. With the added bonus points that it might piss them off or confuse them.
This is idiotic,
Not your post, of course, just that usage.
It’s working,,,
Dang, forgot the backslashes. (Or, are they forward slashes,,,?)
Backslashes they are ,,,
And see, I noticed the single misplaced comma and thought “hmm… maybe that was supposed to be a comma ellipsis” but had to snark anyway. Sorry!
Backslash. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Inconceivable!
I’m so old I can remember people reciting URLs. “H…T…T…P…colon…backslash…backslash…w…w…w…blahblah…dot…com”
Hence the website name backslashdot.
My “handy little trick” is to remember that regular slash is meant to show inline fractions, and “3/4” looks right as the best approximation of “¾” in a limited character set.
Comma comma comma comma comma chameleon
You come and go
You come and go
I don’t know how many people in the world use \TeX, possibly several million, and for us the escape character is the backslash \. The regular slash has always, in my lifetime, been for fractions.
Now let me try ,,,. It works!
So if you want to do it, you type backslash comma backslash comma backslash comma?
,,,
I wonder why I couldn’t get it to work before?
ETA: Was it the single quotes?
‘,,,’
Nope! Well, I’m confused.
Modern browsers are smart enough to be able to figure out whether a back- or forward-slash is required, so it rarely matters anymore.
I had a friend who often peppered his emails with ",,," (comma x3) and I asked him what that meant. He appeared mystified by my question. “What commas?” Then I noticed him typing another email, and his eyesight was so poor that a comma and a period looked the same to him. He thought he was writing ellipses.
So that’s what multiple commas mean. Bad eyesight.
Probably a merge error, not normalized.
In addition to TeX, backslash is a common escape character in many contexts.