TechnoLust's Journal: /. "Fencepost" error?

Slashdot seems to be exhibiting a fencepost error (a sub-type of the off-by-one error) of late. I noticed that every time I submitted a response, it was missing the punctuation. I'm usually very anal about proper punctuation, so this disturbed me. Then I noticed that if I hit preview before I posted then corrected the punctuation, it would still be missing. However if I put TWO punctuation marks, there is only one after preview or submission. It seems to be doing it even in JEs and spaces seem to work.

Has anyone else noticed this? I'm using Netscape 4.76 on my Windows box at work, and that is where I noticed it. I don't know if it has been happening on my home boxen.

UPDATE: Apparently I was unclear. It is only the last character of a post. So I'm assuming they are doing a char by char check of the post to filter "evil" chars out. And they have underestimated the string length by one. It doesn't do it within the post, just the last car of the post. So if I end this JE with 3 Xs there should only be 2 when I save.
XX

UPDATE AGAIN: Ok, it's no longer happening in Netscape, so I don't know if someone saw this and fixed it, or if by going to /. in IE, it fixed it. I'm not exactly sure why that would make a difference, but oh well. It's working again on comments, but not on this JE. It's still stripping the last char off the JE Edit.

Check... 1... 2...

[Keith Russell]

Testing with Mozilla 1.3, one preview.

Single, punctuation. Playoffs? Playoffs? Diddly-poo!

Double,, punctuation.. Playoffs?? Playoffs?? Diddly--poo!!

Re:Check... 1... 2...

[leviramsey]

Jim Mora, is that you?

testing

[red5]

testing 1, 2,, 3.

I haven't seen this happen

[turg]

This sentence ends with one period.

This sentence ends with two periods..

IE6

Re:I haven't seen this happen

[TechnoLust]

It's only the sentence on the end. See the JE update above.

Re:I haven't seen this happen

[turg]

Hmm. I did notice that your previous journal entry ended with "during the conversatio" but browsing through my/amigos [slashdot.org], I don't see it happening to anyone else.

Maybe your browser has the fencepost error?

Re:I haven't seen this happen

[TechnoLust]

Could be. I'll do more testing when I get home. And I will try IE here at work. Strange thing is, I haven't updated the browser lately, and it's never happened before. Odd..

Re:I haven't seen this happen

[TechnoLust]

Yeah, apparently it only happens in Netscape 4.76, but I haven't noticed it on any other website. Odd.
Hold up, it isn't happening anymore. Ok, this is very strange. I didn't exit the browser, it just stopped happening after the IE test.

Weird.

yep, notices some crap too..

[andr0meda]

I had a lot of "'s converted to ?'s in a few of my latest posts. It was a pain to re-correct them, but it seems to be ok right now.

Re:yep, notices some crap too..

[phyxeld]

That always happens when pasting "smart quotes". If slashdot didn't filter them, they'd still be broken for many people on other platforms. So use dumb quotes instead.

That said, they really ought to replace smart quotes with dumb ones, instead of question marks...

Testing...Galeon

[daoine]

testing 1 period. 2 periods.. 3 periods...

No preview

Re:Testing...Galeon

[TechnoLust]

It is only the last sentence of the post. See the JE Update above.

Re:Testing...Galeon

[daoine]

What, now you want me to *read* the journal entry? Mighty high expectations. :) Ok, so if there's a period at the end of the very last sentence, then it works. If there isn't, then it doesn't.

Hmmm. Paragraph tags?

[Keith Russell]

Maybe it has something to do with <p> tags? I used them on this one.

Re:Hmmm. Paragraph tags?

[Keith Russell]

I'm not using <p> tags on this post. I am, however, waiting for the flood-stopper. Oh, if any editors are reading this, I'm from Pittsburgh. Smile when you call me "cowboy".

Re:Hmmm. Paragraph tags?

[TechnoLust]

Unlike FK [slashdot.org], I'm not important enough to have editors browse my journal. Or tell me to get a life for that matter. :-)

Testing with IE5.5sp2 and all service packs

[TechnoLust]

Ok, the line below should contain 3 Xs.
XXX

off-topic question: why not 4.79?

[eugene ts wong]

Why don't you upgrade, even if the browser isn't @ fault? 4.79 should be just as compatible as what you have now.

Re:off-topic question: why not 4.79?

[TechnoLust]

Corporate standard for browsers are IE5.5sp2 and NS4.76. I have Netscape 7 as my default browser on my Windows PC at home.

Re:off-topic question: why not 4.79?

[eugene ts wong]

I see. I thought that you & your boss would set the corporate standards. Who actually does? & why do they not let you upgrade to a compatible browser?

I just ask out of curiosity. You don't have to answer, if you don't want.

Re:off-topic question: why not 4.79?

[TechnoLust]

It's complicated. The group I work for is a DIVISION of the global corporation, so even though our division is about 20,000 employees of the corporations 60,000+ we don't set the corporate standards. There are several groups that set standards. We have a security group that sets security standards and username/PC naming conventions, a desktop engineering team that works on common software setups, a procurement team that works on making deals with vendors so we get volume discounts on hardware and softwa

Re:off-topic question: why not 4.79?

[eugene ts wong]

Sounds very interesting. It seems that it would be wisest to upgrade Netscape, because it is such a non-critical application, from my limited understanding. But, hey, it's all up to you guys. The 4.* versions have the advantage of having Java installed & working, & the browser appears to be faster, so it's not all loss.

Can you guess who now has the fastest laptop in the building?

I won't guess just yet, because life has a funny way of happening. I vaguely remember a laptop story in your journal that

Re:off-topic question: why not 4.79?

[TechnoLust]

Netscape, because it is such a non-critical application
Actually I've been web enabling every application that it makes since to from the time I came here. All ones I write will work on IE5/NS6 or later. Some of the ones written by other groups at other locations require a plugin that only works for Netscape 4.x. Those are accounting applications so I ould say they are critical (I like to get paid). ;-)

I vaguely remember a laptop story in your journal that had something to do with your manager taking i