Wait, am I in the wrong here? (a punctuation situation)

[rass]

Holy shit. I mean holy shit. I saw this floating around twitter in a couple of places this morning, but being stingy with characters there makes sense. I always use two spaces after the end of a sentence. To learn that there is an entire world out there, an angry dismissive movement, that insists that using more than one space is odd, unexpected, unnecessary, psychotic, is... Stunning. And it's been right in front of my face all of this time. Swampers (well spoken ones, even). Articles on regularly read websites. Work emails (well spoken ones, even). I feel shocked! Why didn't someone tell me?

[A_B]

It's not neccesary with modern computer word processors but I still find myself doing it too.

[rass]

And I knew messaging apps would go ahead and throw in a "." after you hit space twice, but I never noticed one of the spaces was being sacrificed in order to make that happen. I was happier an hour ago. I need the blue pill here.

[Johnnie]

Rass, in your initial post, it looks like you have one space after a period and two after a comma to me. I click the "reply with quote" button and I see that it isn't. My eyes are playing tricks on me. At first I thought you were being clever.

Anyhoo, for officially correspondence I use two spaces because the Tongue and Quill says so.

For everything else ever (school work, meagre board posting..etc), I use one.

[Giff]

One of the bigger fights I've been in with my wife where I walked away pissed off and stayed that way for a while was over this. I'm a 2 space guy while her and her journalist friends berated me for it. I'M GETTING ANGRY AGAIN.

[brian]

Don't have a dog in the fight, but wasn't honestly sure what I was. Guess I'm a one space guy. Good to know.

This is what two spaces looks like. Weird.

ETA: I'm sure one space was drilled into me during J-School if not before and like many other things, probably scarred me for life.

[Gunpowder]

I use one space because I'm not an old fuck, you old fucks.

But I'm getting pretty close.

[mister d]

Two 4 life.

[Shirley]

I know it's supposed to be 1 these days, but I pretty much always use 2. There's no one right answer.

(Unlike with the pronunciation of "gif." If you say it like the peanut butter, you're a bad person.)

[P.D.X.]

One space you troglodyte typographers. You're not on a typewriter.

[Sabo]

One space you troglodyte typographers. You're not on a typewriter.

This. Anyone who uses two spaces is wasting time and electrons. Monsters.

[GoodKarma]

2 spaces. The only...and proper...way.

What is more aggravating is my texting app that automatically capitalizes the first word after a colon (which also should be 2 spaces). Fukcing computers.

[Johnny Carwash]

I used to use two spaces, which I'm pretty sure I was taught back in school, until a couple years ago that I learned that one space seemed to be overwhelmingly considered the correct way by people who are supposedly the arbiters of these things.

I have to admit that now that I've changed, when I go back and see my past work with two spaces, I cringe.

[P.D.X.]

Blocks of text should have a uniform texture to them. Unnecessary spaces lead to undesirable rivers.

[Johnny Carwash]

Blocks of text should have a uniform texture to them. Unnecessary spaces lead to undesirable rivers.

Cloud possibly go in the OCD thread, but I had no idea this bothered anyone besides me.

[Pruitt]

I had a Story Editor who I worked with a lot who insisted on the two spaces. This was the first time I had ever heard of the practice (15 years ago or so). Never had a Prof or a teacher ask for the double spacing and in fact I had no idea that it was a thing. Since then, I have worked on a couple of dozen series and have only encountered one other guy who demanded the two spaces.

I just don't see the point of it.

(I just looked at some of the books in my office - the reprints of a couple older books have the two spaces, but the more current printings all have one space.)

[Sabo]

Blocks of text should have a uniform texture to them. Unnecessary spaces lead to undesirable rivers.

Cloud possibly go in the OCD thread, but I had no idea this bothered anyone besides me.

It's a standard "things to look for and eliminate" when doing desktop publishing.

[wlu_lax6]

I have heard that the double space after a period gives away how old you are and a bad thing on resumes because of that.

[brian]

I have heard that the double space after a period gives away how old you are and a bad thing on resumes because of that.

Unless someone's resume is woefully incomplete or they don't have a degree, shouldn't be too hard to figure out how old someone is from the date of their degree if not the summary of their work experience.

[wlu_lax6]

I have heard that the double space after a period gives away how old you are and a bad thing on resumes because of that.

Unless someone's resume is woefully incomplete or they don't have a degree, shouldn't be too hard to figure out how old someone is from the date of their degree if not the summary of their work experience.

Yeah but older people start dropping dates too.

[A_B]

I have done a find and replace to get them all down to one space before.

[rass]

I have done a find and replace to get them all down to one space before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HqyEHqEYho

[Sabo]

I have done a find and replace to get them all down to one space before.

Adobe InDesign and InCopy have a saved find-change preset to convert double spaces to single spaces. Wouldn't be surprised if Word has something similar.

[sancarlos]

I know it's supposed to be 1 these days, but I pretty much always use 2. There's no one right answer.

(Unlike with the pronunciation of "gif." If you say it like the peanut butter, you're a bad person.)

Co-sign this whole thing.

[bfj]

2 spaces or go fuck your mother.

[Sabo]

2 spaces or go fuck your mother.

One space or go fuck your self.

(I get the sense this argument will be more divisive than the Great Condiment War.

[bfj]

You one spacers are all the same.

[rass]

No need to be spacist.

[Giff]

2 spaces or go fuck your mother.

One space or go fuck your self.

(I get the sense this argument will be more divisive than the Great Condiment War.

That's an easy choice. I'll go two spaces and the self-love I've been perfecting for 28 years now.

[Pruitt]

2 spaces or go fuck your mother.

One space or go fuck your self.

(Long day, so I'm feeling aggressive.)

Here's the always reliable "Grammar Girl" to explain things...

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/educat ... r-a-period

The modern and easy-to-follow style is to put one space after a period.

I’m not making this up to torment you. Typesetters write and beg me to tell people to only use one space. If you use two spaces, they have to delete them. Yes, it’s not that hard to do it with search-and-replace, but it’s not that hard to put dishes in the dishwasher either, and you don’t like doing that, do you?

[bfj]

I'm neither modern or easy to follow. Ok, I'd be pretty easy to follow.

[Sabo]

All false vitriol aside, I've never known two spaces between a period and a new sentence was a thing. But it seems unnecessary these days. I assume it's a carry over from those who learned to type on typewriters instead of computers.

[bfj]

All false vitriol aside, I've never known two spaces between a period and a new sentence was a thing. But it seems unnecessary these days. I assume it's a carry over from those who learned to type on typewriters instead of computers.

That's where I learned it.

[The Sybian]

I learned two spaces in high school, but was berated in either law school writing course or my first boss. I was shocked at the time, but was told that 2 spaces was necessary during the typewriter days, and not acceptable on a computer. Double spaces drove me nuts as a recruiter, and I'd remove all double spacing from resumes and cover letters. Especially in resumes, it'd fuck up the aesthetics.

[Baloney]

RIP, The Apostrophe Protection Society

"We have done our best but the ignorance and laziness present in modern times has won,"

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canad ... YWlZaaEvUY

[mister d]

Two 4 life.

So ... I lied.