I posted something. Then I noticed that it was formatted wrong! I went back to fix it in edit mode. It seemed fine in edit mode. I saved it again. It was still wrong.
The thing that was wrong: In source / edit, my sentences are separated with the charcters "period space space". This is a typing standard that improves legibility, which is extra important in effortposts. However, in the displayed mode, one of every double space had been eaten! Every post, every comment, mangled! Sentences are separated with "period space" instead of "period space space" and the text is slightly less legible for it. I noticed it for questionmark space space and exclamationmark space space as well. There's some secret life form eating spaces.
Testing behavior: Period Space: Sentence 1. Sentence 2.
Period Space Space: Sentence 1. Sentence 2.
Period Space Space Space: Sentence 1. Sentence 2.
Yep, saw it in preview, all the spaces are getting eaten. This is a crime against good style. I won't go so far as to say this is a hate crime against anyone who struggles with reading and visual processing... yet. But the site is editing my comment in order to enforce an objectively worse typographical standard (period singlespace). Literally 
. 
on Communist Bear Site they automatically censor out your punctuation marks in order to make your writing conform to a worse standard, calling double spaces a bourgeois decadent waste of space.
Please help
(Also, should this go in /c/technology or in /c/hexbear? It's about both)
(Should I be submitting this as a bug report on github instead?)
Was there an accessibility angle to their argument beyond "makes it harder for some users to read"? (not that that's an invalid argument but I don't think it's self evident)
I'm not a double space user and don't necessarily think this behavior needs to change, but if you, like OP, subjectively find something easier to read and are accustomed to it, I don't think "no, its a historical relic and doesn't make a difference in readability" will be very convincing in that situation...
Ultimately, hexbear is not using a wysiwyg editor, but it is frustrating when there's no good way to make your post look how you want it to, whether that's for an effort post, a dumb meme with emotes or ascii art type drawings or whatever, and space collapsing is much more disruptive than newline collapsing in that way
The person I was working with was an accessibility librarian in her regular job (this project was for an org) and I mostly just took her word for it since I didn't care too much one way or another; it was just a habit I'd had from learning to type in the early 1990s. She did mention that it can confuse some screen reading software, which is wild but again I believe she probably knows what she's talking about--she is a pretty well known advocate in that space, and was up on all the best practices research.
fair enough. I wonder if/how modern screen readers still have such problems
I'm an educator with primarily adult learners who have learning disabilities. So I can share a few insights into ways that digital fonts are handled for accessibility. These are guidelines, though, and often the best solution is to create text that can be tailored by the end-user for whatever best suits them using their individual accessibility software.
Screen readers (as far as the ones I've seen in action) aren't the reason behind dropping the extra space. They work just fine, they ignore the extra space and read the sentences out no problem. It's actually because of space rivers. Space rivers are an optical phenomenon in which space between words is seen as a river wending through text: in other words, the spaces can create a seeming pattern that are distracting for readers (especially those with dyslexia). That extra space makes spacing inconsistent, which draws the eye to trace the rivers (though dark mode has some success in cutting down on perceived rivers).
More important is consistency. Consistent spacing. Consistent kerning. Legible fonts. Extra space between lines is a huge help as well, All bold text can also be a big help for dyslexic readers, though less helpful in dark mode.
Space rivers... I finally have a way to call it. And it's not for everyone? Huh, I somehow thought it was a common thing.
Thanks for explaining about the space rivers! Since html controls it all I guess it's moot anyway; I can write it how I want to and then html will alter it.
I'm not kidding when I say that the extra space seems helpful to me. I read the arguments about "modern kerning" but if I open a text editor on my computer, using Helvetica font, and type up a couple paragraphs, the double spaced version is easier on my brain. Less fatigue. If I replace all the double spaces with single spaces it becomes harder to read.
This is an interesting thread and I wonder if part of why I struggle with reading very long comments is because of the spacing. A browser extension that detects when there's only one space after a period and changes it to 2 might be the best solution for me.
This is exactly why text being controllable by the end user is always the best accessibility choice--not everyone's accessibility needs are the same! You're definitely not alone in preferring that extra space. I have had learners that have a much easier time with two or three spaces between sentences, and even a couple that preferred extra space between words.
Usually as long as the spacing was consistent the river problem was avoided. Though of course, many people never see or notice rivers, and that particular accessibility issue isn't one that touches their experience.
I hope you find an extension that works for you. I don't know any that add that extra space (though there are options in word processors to add that). Sentence Segmenter breaks lines after periods, so it's certainly possible for one to add space after periods I would have to assume.
My total shot in the dark guess would be that it messes up the rhythm of reading on some implementations, with extra long pauses between sentences. Software can be very weird though so who knows.