this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
40 points (100.0% liked)

technology

24076 readers
170 users here now

On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.

Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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 19 84. yeonmi-park 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?)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Alice196498@hexbear.net 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That’s a good point : it can be more difficult to read if not acclimated to it, which ſomewhat negates the potential benefit. Seeming unneceſſary or being more complex is one reaſon it fell out of faſhion, but the primary driver, at leaſt in Engliſh, was ſocio-political. People at the time wanted to draw a diſtinction between the old way and new way as things were being more and more induſtrialized and ſtandardized—new typefaces alſo were being developed and adopted at the time, further reflecting theſe feelings and deſire for change. The arguments in favour of the long s and its potential benefits are far leſs objectively diſcernable than thoſe for wider ſpacing. It’s alſo true that being farther from what is familiar can take longer to comprehend or read, which could be poſitive if ſomeone takes more time to think about what they’re doing or what one is trying to convey, but negative if it detracts and diſtracts from the content, as you pointed out.

[–] tocopherol@hexbear.net 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I do appreciate your effort though, language is always evolving, things go out of favor and come back so it's cool to try different styles to see if they can catch on or can be useful. A lot of things that were modernized from the classical era to the industrial/post industrial era might not actually be ideal for things like accessibility or freedom of expression etc, compared to things that were developed over centuries. I find the style a bit odd because I don't see it much, but having more characters in English writing could definitely be useful and helpful for learning pronunciation possibly.

[–] Alice196498@hexbear.net 2 points 4 days ago

Language is always evolving, and that’s great. It’s intereſting when things go in and out of favour, much like faſhion. the really great thing is where it can help with acceſſibility and freedom of expreſſion or other elements, where modern tools and methods can really help it ſhine and be eaſier to write how one wants, or diſplay text how one wants or needs, than it ever was hiſtorically.
 Wider ſpacing is ſomething that is truly uſeful and of great benefit to both humans and machines ; the long s, I’d ſay that the main benefit is one of expreſſion and æſthetick overall, and juſt an orthographical convention and viſually different way of doing things. It can be beneficial, but I worry it can alſo be harmful, and looking at ſome of the language reforms in places like the USSR and China, or the Literacy Campaign in Cuba, we can ſee that having ſomething more ſimple might be more beneficial to literacy, but there is ſtill room for different preſentation or ways of writing, eſpecially when people can eaſily cuſtomize their viewing experience. The main iſſue with that, however, is the general technological barrier and fact that there’s no default way to do that without going out of one’s way to get the right addons or typefaces, which ought to be available by default. That would be a great acceſſibility feature.