At the bottom of each entry in this site’s blog, I use </30> to designated the end of the it.
In my own way, it’s a nod to the tradition of ending newspaper stories (and occasionally broadcast and magazine pieces) with - 30 -.While no one’s sure why 30 was used as an end sign, there is no shortage of ideas. —Craig Saila —Why end with 30? (Living Can Kill You)
Somebody e-mailed me this question. In the back of my mind, I thought, “An obsolete typesetting symbol?” but I didn’t know.
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Thanks for the reference, Julie.
In one of my corporate communications classes I learned that they used the thirty because they transmitted articles via telegraph, and they would tap XXX to signify the end, and somehow someone decided to use a thirty instead because that’s what XXX equals in Roman Numerals? Anyway, that’s a very strange excuse for it and it doesn’t explain the use of “###,” unless a pound sign is just a fancy “X.”
Anyway, it’s just another version of the 30-telegraph story to add to the “Why end with 30” debate.
Blame this explanation on _Mass Media Writing An Introduction_ by Gail Baker-Woods, et al.