To wonder why the 'Chat' section on MN has an underlined blank space before the word 'Chat'

[WetAugust]

It annoys me.

Ooh me too.

Oh good Proudnscary

I thought it was just me

Me too!

There's an underscore. Back in the days when mn was intellectual, chat was the embarrassing relation so had to appear at the end of any lists

Is it deliberate? I thought it was a typo. Can't wait to find out.

TY for the explanation Stealth.

I shall sleep at night from now on knowing there is a purpose for it.

It just looks...

_wrong

_Agree

_Very wrong

I have wondered this too. Also why it's not in alphabetical order in the list

So that it comes last in alphabetical lists.

e.g. in Last 15 minutes, threads are arranged alphabetically by topic. _Chat comes last.

Stealthpolarbear interesting idea, but I am not convinced by this.The underscore doesn't appear on the menu at the bottom of the screen. And down there it is listed under C for Chat and not _ for underscore. And what about other "non-intellectual" subjects - Telly addicts, sleb talk. None of those have underscores.
I won't be able to sleep now ...

Yeah, it means it comes up at the end of lists

Arghhh! You spolit it now Bleurgh

I am having doubts again.

Come on MN Towers - spill all......

Is it not just to make the rest of us feel better abot typos?

I always thought it was because if you searched topics the underscore thing meant it would be at the top of the list it is in. Rather than being in alphabetical order.

I've always wondered this!

Trills has it.

It is historical - I still remember the shock when it first appeared. MN used to be fairly slow and you could log in a couple of times a week and read all of the messages. Then Cod appeared and the number of messages increased exponentially overnight. But the reason for _Chat is to ensure that those threads appear last when you look at "last 15 minutes", "last day" etc. Bear in mind there was a big skerfuffle lengthy discussion about whether any "non-parenting" thread could be allowed...

YABU to not put this in chat, I now have to go over to see what you're on about.

Who is this Cod of which you speak

Cod was the creator.
She is all knowing and all seeing.
And she likes donkeys.

Just flicked back - chat seemed to start in May 2003 after a thread about Mumsnet changing too much. Actually Mum2Toby seemed to be getting a lot of flack for introducing "silly threads". The pub/yurt type threads all moved to their new home Chat which didn't fill up the last x hour searches.

It's not an idea. This question gets askd every few months. That is the answer. Now we have a lot more "fluff" but _chat was the first

Oh Cod will still be on here somewhere I suspect. I can't keep up with names, but I suspect that she still has fishfingers can't type.

hopefully a trial

-AIBU

is forthcoming too