Pajiba

"Streets behind"? Nicely played!

Love,

Anonymous Human Being & Fello Libra

Sorry, I'm about as likely to single space between sentences as I am to renounce being a Taurus. This is probably one of the things that will increasingly put me in the 'old' category, but when I took a year of freshman typing back in the dark ages of 1990, the rule was two spaces. You can't unlearn this. The right thumb has spoken.

Double spacing after a period is just wrong. It's simply disconcerting seeing all that wasted area.

I couldn't disagree more. As a double - spacer, it's therapeutic to double tap after a sentence. There . Thought complete. If it were a single space, it might as well be a period.

On a practical level as well, it it difficult to tell if a printed mark is a comma or a period. The extra space helps.

And notice how this damn site presumptuously as all get the fuck out just goes ahead and swallows that god-given second space.

Fascists.

Joanna, you officially rule for that clip.

I didn't even know double spacing after a sentence was a thing until today. Guess I never pay that much attention, but it does seem kind of wasteful spacewise.

No way am I going to start being a Taurus now. Gemini til I die!

From the astronomy blog: "Ophiuchus (which I pronounce oh-FYE-uh-cuss)"

WRONG WRONG WRONG. My darling hubby has a Ph.D. in Astronomy. It is a pronounce oh-FYU-cuss, which is fantastic. Try it! oh-FYUUUU-cuss.

Oh, and there should always be 2 spaces after a period, otherwise the sentences look like run-ons.

So some guy writes on his blog that it's one spaces instead of two.
He has no documentation to back up his assertion.
He has no bibliography to site his references (even Wikipedia has a bibliography section).

Allow me to officially retort using the exact same amount of credibility and authority.

*achem*
Nu-uh.

There.
Settled.
Let's have pie.

(you will note that I have chosen to give each sentence it's own line rather than suffer the indignity of having only one space appear between my sentences, which is Pajiba's default setting)

"that Potato kid you guys like to hate on"

Delightful. It was just funny in a real understated sort of way.

I'll give you my double-spacing when you take it from my cold dead hands.

So apparently the inarguable reasons you should never use a double space are it's always been single spaced (at least since a convention was adopted), and typographers think it looks icky. Riiiight.

I think I'll start really caring about this when the pop in my fridge magically transforms into a soda.

Crap. That Slate piece on double-spacing convinced me. It is going to be very difficult for me to break the two-space habit, which I learned not only in a typing class using a typewriter (the culprit in the double-space phenomenon) but also from typing software on a computer. In this passage alone, I had to backspace after "crap" and "computer," and my brain made a major pause at that second period.

Looking at that paragraph I just typed, the damn thing sure does look cluttered and less readable, though. Maybe I'll cling to my two spaces. See? Much nicer.

DarthCorleone, I realized after attempting to put nine spaces in between each of my sentences that the site automatically places one space after a period, no matter how many extra you put there.

Another Libra feeling the sting of being bumped to Virgo here. Over my dead body, you star reading cretins. I am a balanced person and your "discovery" is tipping the scales towards stabby.

Posted by: Robert at January 14, 2011 1:55 PM

Ha! Having been with my Libra husband for 18 years I've never thought of the scales as balanced. You're either up, or you're down.

Having only most recently been introduced to the Green Bay concoction that is beer dip I fully admit that it is in fact, my kryptonite. Pimento dip, always awesome, but beer dip on its face sounds gross, looks gross when you're making it (and it is made with POWDERED RANCH). But oh, does it taste soooooo good. The stuff is an absolute must at every get together.I'm pretty sure there is a local ordinance requiring it be served at every convergence of more than 5 people.

And for the record, I double spaced just like I was taught in typing class. Though, whenever I go back and edit something of importance, I whittle down to one. It is an impossible habit to break.

I. Am. Not. A. Virgo. I'll give you your fucking single space, but Virgo? I don't even know what a Virgo is. I am a Libra and that is final.

I throw my double space in the air sometimes singing aaaaayyyyyooooooo I'm a typo!

Single spaces aren't Pajiba's fault, it's a web standard. All browsers will render multiple spaces as a single space.

But if you look at the html source for this page, you'll see that for those using double spaces, the spaces are actually still there.

"But if you look at the html source for this page, you'll see that for those using double spaces, the spaces are actually still there."

Are they really there? Is the html source code the reality, or is this the reality? Red pill or blue pill?

I refuse to accept your reality and substitute my own.

I've been preaching the virtues of the single space for over thirty years now, but tell that to the bastards at Microsoft Office or the iPhone who won't put a period in unless one double-spaces and who highlight a supposed error if one single-spaces.

I learned to type with two spaces. When I became a typesetter a few years later, the style manual said one space.

Back when I was manually doing full-justification of text for a typewritten high school newspaper (talk about a PITA job), the extra space would just have made it harder to avoid "rivers". My daughter is now writing for her school paper, and they don't even let the software do full justification. It's not a big deal, either way. I still automatically do the double-space after end punctuation out of habit.

Wither Kballs? I miss him.

You know, PaddyDog, that the autocorrect is programmed to replace certain words with ones you use often. Soo, this leads me to ask what you've been texted.

On a similar note, my autocorrect seems determined to change can't to the same word minus the apostrophe and replacing the "a" with a "u" so that tells you the kind of person I am.

I cannot put only one space after a period. I have been typing too long to adapt, and attempts to do so slow me down precipitously. The double space is a convention still used in legal and business writing, so I doubt it will go away any time soon.

However, when I format a manuscript, I do an auto-replace of all double spaces after end of sentence punctuation, as well as indenting paragraphs (which is uncommon in most business writing), and dropping the first paragraph of each chapter 1/3 of the way down the page which I find irritating, but that's what publishers want, or so they say. More than a few agents also want those double spaces at the end of sentences, so I'm not convinced there is a single standard out there.

You don't want to know what withered Kballs look like.

I took typing in the spring of 1986. The class was taught on IBM Selectrics. The teacher drove a Corvette, used spray tan back when it was even AWFULER, wore jeans looking like they were spray painted on, three inch heels, and had hair up to the ceiling. She was in her 50s.

She'd call out in her thick twang "ELL! ELL! ELL! SPAYCE! ELL! ELL! ELL! SPAYCE!"

And I LEARNED TWO PUT TWO GODDAMNED SPACES AFTER ENDING PUNCTUATION. YOU HAD POINTS TAKEN OFF IF YOU DIDN'T. YOUR TYPING TEST WAS RETURNED TO YOU RED-INKED AND GOD HELP YOU IF YOU GOT A FAILING GRADE IN GODDAMNED TYPING, WHAT ARE YOU AN IDIOT? DO I HAVE TO GET OUT THE BELT AND BEAT SOME SENSE INTO YOU?

NO DADDY NO!! NO!! I'M SORRY! I'LL REMEMBER NEXT TIME! I WON'T GET A FAILING GRADE IN TYPING, I PROMISE, IT'S JUST ONE TEST GRADE, I'LL DO BETTER!

I! BET! YOU! WILL! GOD! DAMMIT!

AAAAAHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

So, kids. There are some of us who will stop placing two spaces after ending punctuation when we DIE. Ok? Some of us were rather traumatized about it, alright? So you can take your hoity-toity removing Pluto as a planet. You can jerk around the astrological signs. (What's next, wanna take something out of ROYGBIV? Wanna change up the notes of the musical scale?)

BUT NEVER WITH THE SPACES.

Double-spacers: have you ever truly had difficulty reading Pajiba comments, which, as many note, are automatically single-spaced?

Btw, nice to know that my Cancerial moodiness remains astrologically infallible. Or as infallible as astrology gets.

More cowbell. Tee hee.

Paultera, it's cute how you think the way you type a manuscript has anything to do with the way it's typeset. My book will have the same number of spaces after a sentence as yours, but in the meantime, it's easier for me to edit because I can see each sentence in a paragraph due to some extra spaces.

The reason you shouldn't add two spaces after a period is it's unnecessary. If there was a reason for an extra space, it'd be understandable. But there isn't a reason.

As others have indicated, I think I learned the two spaces between sentences convention in typing class. And there are still some punctuation references that dictate it (like Gregg Reference Manual).

What annoys the fuck out of me is when people use BOTH single space or two spaces after a period. Goddam, how hard is it to decide on one or the other?

The spacing issue has absolutely nothing to do with whether one way is more proper than the other, or whether it's easier to see the sentence breaks. That's all just a bunch of bull.

The truth is that typing is ingrained into our brains. For those of us who have learned it, we don't think to ourselves, "Hey, how many spaces should I put at the end of THIS sentence?" It just happens because that's how we were taught. If we were taught one space and you were taught two, you'd be just as averse to change as we are. It's part of the communication switchboard of our brain, and nothing short of a serious head injury will change it.

So don't change. Keep plugging away. Nobody really cares.

Not like they care about fucking comic sans.

Fucking comic sans.

psst, Figgy: that's what the original Pajiba Love link said. I think people are fauxing their outrage.

Yes. I single space, and I use "faux" as a verb.

How long has it been since most of you have been in college? The double space thing was gone long,long ago. I just had to correct an article written with double spaces and it looked horrifying and also alien since I hadn't seen it in so long. If you are using a computer, you do not double-space after a period or any other punctuation mark. Are some of you still using typewriters?

Isaywedoawaywithallpuncuationsspacesforeverbecausereallythisisnotthathardtoreadandthentherewouldbeevenlesswastedspaceandthinkofallthetreesthatwouldbesavedthisisagreatideaeveryoneyouwillallthankmeforthisoneday

How long has it been since most of you have been in college?

Fuck You, that's how long.

Strangely enough, Fuck You that's my name.

Awwwwww, sheeeiiit! My mom's response, verbatim:

"I believe in two spaces after periods, but I've heard that the standard is changing to one space, so I put spaces in at random."

I kinda love my mom today. And never doubt that she can be and is a STICKLER and HARDASS for grammar, usage, punctuation, style, etc. when she wants to be.

Late to the party, but I feel I should point out,
Go Ravens.
This game is going to ruin my shit.

I was a 2-spacer all my life. It was the rules. It came to my attention online about 6 months ago that the rule had changed, and my high school teacher mom confirmed that it was now being taught as 1-space.

I rebelled at first, outraged. But I forced my stubborn hands and now 2-space looks flat out crazy. 1-space is second nature now, just as 2-space used to be. RIP, 2-space.

Double spacers are lunatics. There's no point arguing with them; just smile and leave them be in their lunacy.

The important thing is that "period" is a portion of time and not an alternative name for the full stop.

I'm a freshman in college, and this is the first I've heard of this single spacing business. Given, I'm not the most astute person on the subject of computers and whatnot.

Also, I know this isn't the main topic of discussion, but Forever Fucking Lazy!? I thought that was a joke. Goddammit. I really hope the people in third world sweatshops who are stitching those things together don't know what they're called.

Joanna, you are great. I am really tiny, can I crawl inside your ear and live within your skull? I just want to hear your mind sing while it creates such wonderful joy!

Wanna change up the notes of the musical scale?)

BUT NEVER WITH THE SPACES.

Posted by: Snuggiepants at January 14, 2011 3:52 PM

Well, that FA has always bugged the shit out of me, so...

But seriously, folks, two periods? That's fucking anarchy. I changed over in nineteen dickety seven.

Jeebus H. Pancake on a Cracker! The emotional attachment to space usage is pretty flippin' remarkable. I mean sure, lazy bum that I am, I rarely, if ever, use proper spacing (i.e. double) for informal writing. I honestly didn't even know single space usage was the cool and happenin' thing these days. I'm in my mid-twenties and attended a reputable university on the east coast (not some podink, online thingamagoo) not too terribly long ago, so I can only attribute my obliviousness to being not hip, with it, or one of the cool, rebellious, no underpants-wearin' greaser-kids.

In closing, if using a single space makes you cool, I'm no Miles Davis. Which is to say, I'd rather pee my pants.

Thankyouandgoodnight.