Re: International phone numbers (was Re: AOL Non-Lameness)

[Rick Kunkel <kunkel () w-link net>]

On Mon, 2 Oct 2006, Etaoin Shrdlu wrote:

> Judicious clipping; hope I kept the right attributions...
>
> Ian Mason wrote:
>
> > On 2 Oct 2006, at 23:39, Rick Kunkel wrote:
>
> > > I had users that appeared to be getting their email blocked seemingly
> > > because in their sigs, they write their phone number that stupid
> > > IP-Address-Wannabe method, like:
> > >
> > > 206.555.1212
> > >
> > > As an aside, is this something that's the norm in other places, like
> > > commas instead of periods for decimals in other countries?  I'd  hate to
> > > sound critical if it was.
>
> > Normal practice in France; Belgium too I think.
>
> It's normal in a lot of places. When you start to add in country codes, 
> I suspect it's easier to type number dot number rather than plus number 
> parenthesis number parenthesis number hyphen number and so on. I 
> converted all my phone list numbers to that format long ago. It's just 
> cleaner. Never thought about whether it was cool, or not. "Cool" is not 
> on my radar.
>
> -- 
> In April 1951, Galaxy published C.M. Kornbluth's "The Marching Morons".
> The intervening years have proven Kornbluth right.
>                 --Valdis Kletnieks

Boy, this is certainly OT.  But one more...  I just responded to someone
else off-list, but figured I'd paste it in here too.  Essentially, I don't
think it's a BAD way of doing it.  On the contrary, it's certainly more
consistently delimited than other ways.  I just get a little annoyed with
the American general public's motivations sometimes.  (Although, I'm quite
fascinated by it as well...)

---- PASTING ----

I had a suspicion it might be standard somewhere.  Now if only the metric
system would catch on in standard practice, and not just in the sciences.
   
Despite the fact that it is standard in some places, I feel that the
relatively recent American embracement of it is more a function of pop
culture at work than actual practicality.  I suppose if the end result is
a more internationally standard way of doing things, I shouldn't complain
about the reasons for doing it though...

--Rick