Recently I have noticed a few threads in which part or all of the title text was enclosed in brackets, meaning something like [Question about use of brackets]. Is my feeble old fuddyduddy brain missing some sort of meaning here?
Order of Kilopi
Recently I have noticed a few threads in which part or all of the title text was enclosed in brackets, meaning something like [Question about use of brackets]. Is my feeble old fuddyduddy brain missing some sort of meaning here?
Order of Kilopi
I think they're all titles written by Mods, when they pull posts off of another thread and create a new thread.
Then again, I don't think there is actually anything that would prevent anyone from using brackets if they felt like it.
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Order of Kilopi
That's often me.
I use the brackets to signify that the title (or part of it) wasn't created by the poster.
Sometimes I do it when the title is useless (that irritates me).
For example, a Q&A thread titled: I have a question [about blackholes and quasars]
Other times it's done when a new thread is created by splitting off part of another thread. The new thread needs a title, and it's only fair to show that it wasn't made by the maker of the first post (the whole title will have brackets). Usually when this is done there's a note to that poster that they can suggest a new title for the thread. (i.e. if they make a report to the mods saying "please change the title to 'XYZ'").
It's not really an "official policy", more of a thing that's just done.
(Just to be recursive, I added detail to this thread title (I hope you can see the significance of the added bit) - let me know if that's annoying and you'd like it removed. I'm also going to move the thread to where discussion about the site usually occurs.)
Get up, a get-get, get down.
Order of Kilopi
Why do people call them square brackets when they're just a straight edge?
Order of Kilopi
Because they're not groovy brackets, man. Do ya dig it?Originally Posted by Paul Beardsley
It's actually because there are square* brackets [] and angular brackets <>.
Some people erroneously call braces {} brackets. Then there are parenthesis ().
However, bracket can be used as a general term for any grouping sign.
(* Square does not necessarily mean "rectangle with sides of identical length." It can also mean "90° angle.")
Honored Member
To distinguish from curly brackets, e.g., Dirac's bra ({) and ket (}).
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