Looks like a dot means "most recent post for user". For those with only a single post, these users will have dots. For those with multiple posts, only the latest ones retain the dot.
This one will have a dot. Edit: Seems to be true, but porpoise's comments is a clear counterexample.
Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
81–90 of 129 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#82Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#83Well done! You have discovered part 1 of The Secret! Congratulations!! Clues to Part 2 of The Secret can be found in this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random Stakes are high! At the end of the trail of clues, the Council of Immortal Wizards will ask you to join their ranks, at which time they will confer immortality upon you. There are only 10E100-1 steps to go! Good luck!
Haha, this was great. I arrived at an article about “John Frum” which did sound like a secret, and was quite the rabbit hole [1]. It got me worried about history. The whole story sounds like 90s zine fiction, which I think it is - there is no record I could find beyond the original story from 1995 on Harper’s Magazine [2], yet it is now in Wikipedia, stated as a fact. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frum [2] h…
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#84Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#85Anyway, Facebook re-ordered them. And so I followed up with a post asking why that happens. It turns out some of my friends saw other orders, some got the order I intended. Intriguing.
Fortunately one of the scientists thought of a perfectly rational and testable explanation, she tested it, and demonstrated it's apparently right.
Facebook has some internal "How much you interact with this person" metric and it's using that for sorting. It has no way to know your relationship to Sarah and Dave in the real world, it's just putting Dave first (for example) because the two of you exchanged a dozen terrible fish puns last week, a measurable Facebook interaction, whereas that walk out by the lake with Sarah when her mother died isn't on Facebook.
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#86This reminds me of a time I wrote a Facebook post which tagged about a half-dozen couples I know. I consciously wrote all the het pairs as girl, boy e.g. "Sarah Smith, Dave Smith" not "Dave Smith, Sarah Smith" because on the one hand that's how I most often think of them, and I noticed our culture usually puts the man first so why not be contrary? Anyway, Facebook re-ordered them. And so I followed up with a post ask…
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
This one will have a dot. Edit: Seems to be true, but porpoise's comments is a clear counterexample.
This is my most recent message. Does it have a dot?
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#88Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
That random wikipedia link is awesome. Didn’t know you could do that.
What's the name of the effect that when you click on something random you still end up on something related to you and you think "it's not that random". Because I got that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbridge
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#90This reminds me of a time I wrote a Facebook post which tagged about a half-dozen couples I know. I consciously wrote all the het pairs as girl, boy e.g. "Sarah Smith, Dave Smith" not "Dave Smith, Sarah Smith" because on the one hand that's how I most often think of them, and I noticed our culture usually puts the man first so why not be contrary? Anyway, Facebook re-ordered them. And so I followed up with a post ask…