# Topics with period at end of abbreviations don't keep the period

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [2월 20, 2015, 9:35오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463 "2015-02-20T21:35:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![downey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/downey/32/166878_2.png) [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [2월 20, 2015, 9:35오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/1 "2015-02-20T21:35:01Z")

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**Reproduce:** Create a topic with a period-laden abbreviation at the end of it, e.g.:

> `I like Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.`

**Expected behavior:** The topic title is rendered exactly as the user entered it (see above).

**Actual behavior:** The period at the end doesn’t persist, e.g.:

> `I like Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc`

_This topic was created with a period at the end, too, but you’ll never know. Period._

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### Author: ![elberet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/elberet/32/122404_2.png) [@elberet](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elberet)
#### Post date: [2월 20, 2015, 10:28오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/2 "2015-02-20T22:28:03Z")

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It’s not a bug, it’s a feature:

> <https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/lib/text_cleaner.rb#L33-L34>

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### Author: ![downey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/downey/32/166878_2.png) [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [2월 20, 2015, 11:08오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/3 "2015-02-20T23:08:09Z")

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Ha ha, nice joke. 😉

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### Author: ![elberet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/elberet/32/122404_2.png) [@elberet](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elberet)
#### Post date: [2월 20, 2015, 11:14오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/4 "2015-02-20T23:14:10Z")

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No, really. That piece of regex _specifically_ removes trailing periods from post titles… no joke at all.

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### Author: ![riking](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/riking/32/170938_2.png) [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [2월 20, 2015, 11:16오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/5 "2015-02-20T23:16:50Z")

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If you want to disable this, turn off the `title_prettify` setting.

Note that this will also turn off other features, such as deduplicating exclamation marks and question marks, downcasing all-uppercase titles, capitalizing the first letter of the title,

> <https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/lib/text_cleaner.rb#L8-L17>

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### Author: ![downey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/downey/32/166878_2.png) [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [2월 21, 2015, 12:25오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/6 "2015-02-21T00:25:40Z")

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> [@elberet](#):
>
> Remove unnecessary periods

The bug is that it’s not an “unnecessary” period or an “extra . at end” as the so-called feature describes. It’s a single, very necessary period.

I’ll turn off the setting, of course, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a bug.

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### Author: ![elberet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/elberet/32/122404_2.png) [@elberet](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elberet)
#### Post date: [2월 21, 2015, 12:45오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/7 "2015-02-21T00:45:47Z")

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If it is a bug, it is _at least_ dependent on the locale.

In German, for instance, “the period does not occur after detached (from the remaining text clearly separated) lines” (translated from [Duden, Regel 153](http://www.duden.de/sprachwissen/rechtschreibregeln/punkt#K153)), and regarding English there’s even a topic at StackExchange about it that indicates that titles generally should not end with a full stop.

> <https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/32884/should-i-use-a-period-at-the-end-of-a-headline>

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### Author: ![downey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/downey/32/166878_2.png) [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [2월 21, 2015, 12:54오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/8 "2015-02-21T00:54:15Z")

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And from the [Chicago Manual of Style](http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Punctuation/faq0040.html) (a bit more authoritative on grammar than Stack Exchange 😄) … “[a]n abbreviation that ends with a period must not be left hanging without it”. (Which is actually the issue in the example above.)

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### Author: ![elberet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/elberet/32/122404_2.png) [@elberet](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elberet)
#### Post date: [2월 21, 2015, 1:08오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/9 "2015-02-21T01:08:06Z")

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Fair point, but that’s a different bug report:

“Text cleaner should not remove periods from abbreviations even at end of title”

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![downey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/downey/32/166878_2.png) [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [2월 21, 2015, 1:09오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/10 "2015-02-21T01:09:56Z")

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Edited title of this post to refer to the original example.

_Even the despised mobile OS autocorrect allows users to recover from its “software knows best” suggestions of what’s right. Why doesn’t Discourse?_

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2월 21, 2015, 1:40오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/11 "2015-02-21T01:40:01Z")

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This feature already exists, just disable topic title prettify.. nothing left to discuss.

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2월 21, 2015, 1:40오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topics-with-period-at-end-of-abbreviations-dont-keep-the-period/25463/12 "2015-02-21T01:40:04Z")

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