Older people use dashes, younger people use dots

[Pryderi]

when typing phone numbers.

I thought it was interesting...

[Left Is Write]

1. And lazy people don't use anything to separate the numbers.

:D

[fishwax]

29. do spaces count as nothing?

I use spaces. (sometimes) :)

[Left Is Write]

31. I mean like...

9525558345

:)

I'm old fashioned. Sort of. I use dashes to separate the numbers, but I don't bother with parentheses around the area code.

[fishwax]

33. i can live with that

totally lazy :rofl:

I uses dashes sometimes too, but I also sometimes just write with spaces as a change of pace, as in [phone].

I'm maybe the only one :rofl:

:D

[DS1]

2. It's an internet thing

and corporations adopted the scheme for phone numbers in the late 90s early 2000s. Usually it was because they didn't have a website, so putting dots in the phone number made it look like they did. But only if you're an idiot who can't recognize a phone number.

It's really damn annoying, too.

[anarch]

3. I still use parentheses around the area code, thusly:

[phone]

Sometimes, anyway.

[Pryderi]

11. You must be ancient. :p j/k

[Left Is Write]

32. Hey! You know Jenny?

[RebelOne]

37. I am a copy editor for a publisher of 30 hunting and fishing

magazines around the U.S. and our style is to use parentheses for the area code.

[tjwmason]

38. That's still normal in the U.K.

Our standard telephone number is 6 digits, with a 5 digit S.T.D. (area) code - the 'phone number isn't normally divided.

Thusly round here the number would be put as 01494 756686 (that's not a real number, of course).

Some major cities have longer numbers to allow the whole place to stay within one (shorter) area code - thus Edinburgh [phone].

London has the longest of all and these are conventionally split without dot or dash: [phone]. All London numbers begin with either 7 or 8 due to a silly decision to split between central and outer London in dialing codes (now reversed that they're under 020), and some folk still keep the distinction by putting the code as 0207 or 0208.

Mobiles don't have a code but all begin 07 and when/where/if splits are put in these is a totally random and dependant on the person writing it.

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. I'm an older people

and I've been using dots for years.

212.456.1414



No generalization is worth a damn — including this one. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

[miss_american_pie]

12. Older people?

How many do you have in there? ;)

[Oeditpus Rex]

26. Dog knows

I lost count years ago. :scared:

[RedCappedBandit]

24. I'm a younger people

and I've always used dashes!

(123)456-789

[Mutley]

39. How old, eh?

:P

[JVS]

5. dots are wrong!

[woo me with science]

7. I agree. Looks too much like an IP address that way. nt

[ghostsofgiants]

9. My thoughts exactly, haha.

[Sequoia]

10. Dots are only good in ice cream.

[Mutley]

6. I'm a dash lady myself.

Sometimes I mix things up with parenthesis around the area code. :D

[ghostsofgiants]

8. I use dashes...

Dot's make it initially look like part of an IP address to me, because I'm a nerd.

[Midlodemocrat]

13. I use dots and I'm old. I do it because I am such a francophile.

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

23. exactly, dots are a european thing

:hi:

[Patiod]

14. I still remember when my phone number had an EXCHANGE

Mitchell6-5355 = 646-5355

Oh my God, am I dating myself or what?

[catmandu57]

15. I've tried putting in dashes

on registrations before and was rejected until I just put in the numbers. I remember our exchange was adams, damn senior moments won't let me recall the number.

[crispini]

16. I use dots because I'm lazy.

It's a lot easier to find the period key than it is to find the hyphen. Especially if you're using the keypad.

555.123.1234

[Duer 157099]

19. Exactly. It's all about the keyboard.

I'm a dot person myself. Been one for a long time.

[graywarrior]

17. I miss dialing. Sigh.

[crispini]

18. I have two rotary phones!

And they both still work! :bounce:

[graywarrior]

20. Man, I'd give anything to hear the whirring of the dial.

So comforting. You must be old as dirt.

[crispini]

28. LOL. No, I like old phones.

I bought one at a secondhand shop and the other at a garage sale. I'm weird like that. :D

[Nikia]

21. I have never used dots with phone numbers

I guess that I haven't even noticed dots used much for typed numbers. I am 28. Am I old?

[swimboy]

22. What is wrong with young people today?

A gentleman on the streetcar asked me this just the other day.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

25. I'm a dashing middle-aged man.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

27. I use a dash!

I'm not old!

Dots seem very weird to me.

:shrug:

:D

[RevolutionaryActs]

30. I do it like this: [phone]

and I'm one of those younger people. :P

[LSdemocrat]

34. Where did you get this from?

I'm 25 have never seen anyone in the US use dots in phone numbers.

[Starlight]

35. Dots are the modern "correct" way according to an executive job search

firm I where I recently attended some workshops.

[RebelOne]

40. Well, that executive job search is totally incorrect.

[Omphaloskepsis]

36. I use dots....

I'm 28...

541.255.1921

Works for me.

[ScreamingMeemie]

41. People use dots on phone numbers?

That's a new one for me and I am 35. :hi:

[RebelOne]

42. According to the AP Stylebook, which is the bible of journalists,

the proper way is with parentheses. The parentheses around the area code are based on a format that telephone companies have agreed upon for domestic and international communications.