# Why the double periods for edited posts? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 30, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034 "2014-10-30T17:21:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/1 "2014-10-30T17:21:19Z")
Like this: > [@](#): > > Last edited by iiandyiiii; Today at 01:21 PM… Why the two periods after the time? ---
**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:** [October 30, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/2 "2014-10-30T17:33:28Z")
[Who knows?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=719141) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/3 "2014-10-30T17:37:25Z")
I dunno, **iiandyiii** , I always see extra dots when I look at your posts… can’t quite put my fiiinger on it… ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/4 "2014-10-30T18:09:18Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > I dunno, **iiandyiii** , I always see extra dots when I look at your posts… can’t quite put my fiiinger on it… You missed one. It’s 2 i’s, then “andy”, then 4 i’s. Many people get this wrong. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/5 "2014-10-30T18:12:14Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > [Who knows?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=719141) Damn… I did searches before starting this thread, but I didn’t find that one. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/6 "2014-10-30T18:23:35Z")
[This one, too.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=729147) It’s very curious to me that as far as I know, the two periods has been a quality of the edited tag as long as editing has been a thing, but no one has either noticed or been bothered by it until 2014. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/7 "2014-10-30T18:24:32Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > [This one, too.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=729147) > > It’s very curious to me that as far as I know, the two periods has been a quality of the edited tag as long as editing has been a thing, but no one has either noticed or been bothered by it until 2014. Perhaps this is a sign that Dopers will no longer tolerate such an imperfection. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2014, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/8 "2014-10-31T02:31:09Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Perhaps this is a sign that Dopers will no longer tolerate such an imperfection. And don’t EVEN get me started on “Please try again in **1 seconds** ”! ---
**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:** [October 31, 2014, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/9 "2014-10-31T04:00:45Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > And don’t EVEN get me started on “Please try again in **1 seconds** ”! And let’s not take up the issue of banks and utility companies that send their customers bills for $0.00 and then _will simply not_ cease and desist with the dunning letters until it is paid in full! I once wrote an add-on module for an existing application that produced reports, full of records with time stamps. It turned out to have an annoying habit of occasionally – not at all consistently – displaying elapsed time intervals (in HH:MM format) like 03:60 instead of 04:00 It took me a while to figure out why it was doing that and how to make it stop! It turned out to be yet another manifestation of that infamous rounding error problem whereby floating-point numbers that happen to be whole numbers may just happen to be a miniscule amount off. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2014, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/10 "2014-10-31T04:19:27Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > And let’s not take up the issue of banks and utility companies that send their customers bills for $0.00 and then _will simply not_ cease and desist with the dunning letters until it is paid in full! > > I once wrote an add-on module for an existing application that produced reports, full of records with time stamps. It turned out to have an annoying habit of occasionally – not at all consistently – displaying elapsed time intervals (in HH:MM format) like 03:60 instead of 04:00 > > It took me a while to figure out why it was doing that and how to make it stop! It turned out to be yet another manifestation of that infamous rounding error problem whereby floating-point numbers that happen to be whole numbers may just happen to be a miniscule amount off. What would happen if you sent them a check for $0.00? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/11 "2014-10-31T16:41:20Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Why the two periods after the time? It’s the Powers That Be’s way of telling us, “if we can’t be arsed to change this tiny little typo, why do you think we’d ever take on the monumental task of [updating vBulletin/fixing the rolleyes smilie/adding avatars/entertaining the gripe du jour]?” ---
**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:** [October 31, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/12 "2014-10-31T18:20:40Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > What would happen if you sent them a check for $0.00? In at least one such horror story that I read (some years ago), the beleagured payor did just exactly that, and the problem was solved. ETA: Then, what I wonder is: What happens at the bank when such a check is presented for payment? ---
**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:** [October 31, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/13 "2014-10-31T18:24:36Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > It’s the Powers That Be’s way of telling us, “if we can’t be arsed to change this tiny little typo, why do you think we’d ever take on the monumental task of [updating vBulletin/fixing the rolleyes smilie/adding avatars/entertaining the gripe du jour]?” Or, currently at issue, [re-indexing the database since it’s getting slow again](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=739123). ---
**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:** [October 31, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/14 "2014-10-31T18:30:14Z")
Since this ATMB thread has morphed into a discussion of idiotic software bugs (just the thing to be discussing in ATMB!) (the double-dot issue of the OP having been already treated in multiple earlier threads), there was this story that went around, mid-1980’s or so. I saw it kicking around on Usenet: Some guy had overdraft protection on his checking account. And it just so happened that he had written his account down to _exactly_ $0.00 which I suppose would have been okay even without overdraft protection. When he later tried to deposit more money to the account, he found that the account had been closed. Vanished without a trace, even. It turned out that in the bank’s software, setting an account’s balance to zero was exactly synonymous with closing (and even totally disappearing?) the account. That’s how they closed accounts in that software. So it turned out that he didn’t actually lose anything, because this would only happen when the account balance was zero anyway. But it was a hassle to get the bank to deal with it, and figure out what happened, and re-instate the account. The final step, re-instating the account, didn’t actually happen. Not at that bank anyway. He took his zero dollars and zero cents and opened another account elsewhere. Presumably with some additional money as well. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-double-periods-for-edited-posts/703034/15 "2014-10-31T20:01:50Z")
nemmine