Most online platforms have forcible autocorrect. It’s getting worse now that everything is coded by Claude.
Wasting time on Substack, I answered a random question:
When was the last time you went bowling?
I randomly wrote
1966. I was better at bowling than other sports.
What appeared was
1. I was better at bowling than other sports.
So I tried adding an edit to explain why I seemed to write 1.
1. I was better at bowling than other sports.
Edit: I wrote NINETEEN SIXTY-SIX at the start of the previous line, not ONE.
This was instantly autocorrected to what appeared in my edit box as
1966. I was better at bowling than other sports.
1967. Edit: I wrote NINETEEN SIXTY-SIX at the start of the previous line, not ONE.
The version visible to others was:
1. I was better at bowling than other sports.
2. Edit: I wrote NINETEEN SIXTY-SIX at the start of the previous line, not 1.
A third line continued the sequence, with 1968 visible to me and 3 visible to others.
Automatic sequencing is useful as an option in spreadsheets and programming editors, totally useless in a text-only social platform. A sequence with different internal and external numbers is NEVER needed.
