Phone Number Standarization

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
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aebrown
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#41

Post by aebrown »

lajackson wrote:Then it simply would be a matter of convincing everyone that they should use periods instead of dashes in the number. (000.000.0000)

I'm confused. What do periods instead of dashes have to do with the topic at hand? In my experience, any system that can handle periods can handle dashes just as well. Why do you think anyone would have to be convinced to use periods?
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lajackson
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#42

Post by lajackson »

aebrown wrote:I'm confused.
My fault. I should have put a smiley at the end of the last sentence.
aebrown wrote:What do periods instead of dashes have to do with the topic at hand?

This is a thread on phone number standardization.
aebrown wrote:In my experience, any system that can handle periods can handle dashes just as well.
My experience differs. Most systems I use reject periods and require the use of dashes.
aebrown wrote:Why do you think anyone would have to be convinced to use periods?

Many parts of the world use periods. I have not sampled the whole world, but every international region I work with uses periods or spaces. Not a single one of them uses dashes. This comes as a surprise to most folks (not all) in the US when I mention it.

In any event, a smiley at the end of my post hopefully would have alleviated confusion, sorry. And I am grateful that MLS will accept anything in the phone number field. I hope it stays that way.
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aebrown
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Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:48 pm
Location: Draper, Utah

#43

Post by aebrown »

lajackson wrote:My fault. I should have put a smiley at the end of the last sentence.

Yep, that would have been helpful. I missed the subtle irony, I guess.
lajackson wrote:
aebrown wrote:In my experience, any system that can handle periods can handle dashes just as well.
My experience differs. Most systems I use reject periods and require the use of dashes.

It sounds like your experience is the same as mine. Note that I said that systems I am familiar with that can handle periods can also handle dashes, which implies that dashes are more universally accepted than periods -- I did not say or imply that most systems would be more accommodating of periods. So we agree!
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