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.
Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
31–40 of 129 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#32Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#33Earlier 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?
#34Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#35Absence of the period (aka full stop) after the timestamp appears to indicate that a commenter had previously (perhaps recently) posted a comment which was subsequently flagged. Or that the commenter is new (see below).
Here's what I did:
I used ctrl-f/cmd-f on a well-commented post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25190668) looking for the following search terms: ". [–]" and "o [–]"
Then I reviewed some of the posters' recent commenting history. Those that had no period after the time-stamp had recent grayed-out comments. I did not find any commenters with a period who had recent grayed out posts.
For instance, here's a page from esteemed commenter buran77's profile: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=buran77 . You'll notice that not only does buran77 have grayed out posts without the period-after-timestamp feature but so does grayed-out commenter elmo2you.
The absence of the period also appears to apply to recently created accounts. See green commenter jn6118 in this thread.
This appears to be a subtle indicator designed to be used in HN's comment moderation. If so, what can we glean from this quirk of HN's comment moderation procedures or policies?
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#36Earlier 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
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#37Looks 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 not have a dot.
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#38Looks 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.
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#39Looks 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.
Seconded; this can be seen on Hemmert's last two comments (both of which are on this post): https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=hemmert
Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?
#40Earlier 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