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[Watno]

How about this:
Have you heard of the best game ever ("Dominion)?"

[ashersky]

I would write:

I have not heard of this new game called "Why First?."
Do you like the game called "Why First?"?

Wow.

The first example has changed the name of the game to which you are referring.  The second example is contrary to your position - you say punctuation should go inside the quotes.

This is disingenuous at best.  You are making the argument that, by including the end punctuation of the sentence within the quotation marks, I have somehow changed the actual name of the game, or your understanding of the name of the game.  That seems to be many people's argument, in fact -- that the inclusion of a period or a comma within the quotation marks somehow physically/spiritually/genetically modifies the quote itself.

I call bullshit.

Let me try to make up a computermathrobot example.  Imagine there's a program or something on a computer that requires the human using the computer to press a series of keys on the keyboard in a specific order, separated by pressing the enter key.  Imagine those keystrokes are:

ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY
zR.we;l3-5*&%^a5-lo
meo.412834+)_2c,v23.23c

Now, I've been tasked to write a short instruction for the user that explains that they must input those three strings of keystrokes, with each one followed by pressing the enter key.

I believe that you all have argued against me by saying that the following sentence would be unclear or difficult or something.

To start the program, the user must enter "ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY," "zR.we;l3-5*&%^a5-lo," and "meo.412834+)_2c,v23.23c," following each series by pressing the enter key.

Is that your argument?  Is your argument that the reader might accidentally include my commas in their keystrokes, thereby not succeeding at starting the program?

Because that means your argument is that I don't know how to use commas at all to separate a series of items (oxford comma discussion notwithstanding), and that I just wrote a series of items without commas at all.  And how is that a logical argument to make at all?

Isn't the logical assumption that the commas are separating the three items?  Or do you truly think it is more logical to assume that I do not know the basic use of commas?

If you read that sentence and actually would consider that the commas are part of the string of characters, that's your own fault: you may have assumed I am an uneducated writer who doesn't know what a comma is.  Or maybe you are ignorant of the specific rules of the style guide I'm following.  There may be many reasons you, the reader, make that mistake.  But it isn't because I made an error.

(Note: I'm not arguing that the example sentence is good; I definitely would have written it differently, listing each item on a separate line, etc.  I'm just illustrating my point.)

[ashersky]

How about this:
Have you heard of the best game ever ("Dominion)?"

It's wrong for both sides of the argument.  I also can't come up with a reason you'd use both parentheses and quotation marks, but...

Have you heard of the best game ever (Dominion)?
Have you heard of the best game ever "Dominion"?
Have you heard of the best game ever ("Dominion")?

Are all correct to me.

[Witherweaver]

Someone told me, "To start the program, the user must enter 'ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY.'"

What string do I enter?

Edit: Or more specific to your example, the strings

ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY,
zR.we;l3-5*&%^a5-lo
meo.412834+)_2c,v23.23c

would have the same typesetting as your strings under typesetters' quotation style.

[Witherweaver]

To start the program, the user must enter "ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY," "zR.we;l3-5*&%^a5-lo," and "meo.412834+)_2c,v23.23c," following each series by pressing the enter key.

And, god, this sentence is so confusing.  Reading it, it's very, very, very hard to tell whether there is a mistake by the writer or not.

Edit: Plus, it just doesn't make sense.  Why are the commas inside the same quote pair different?  They look the same but they are entirely unrelated to each other in every possible way. 

[scott_pilgrim]

So to branch out, what footnote practice have you guys seen in regards to punctuation?  I generally put footnotes after punctuation, the idea being the footnote relates to the entire sentence or clause, not just a single word.  However, if the footnote were to relate to only a single garg¹, which itself is followed by a punctuation mark such as a comma, then I could be motivated to move it inside.

A quick search told me almost all style guides agree that footnotes go after punctuation,² and in most cases at the end of a sentence unless there is a compelling reason to put it inside. (Footnotes inside parentheses go inside parentheses.³) Has anyone ever seen other styles?

¹"garg" means "word".  Okay really I just needed to use a footnote to illustrate.  But really you could say "why did I need to read this after reading 'garg'?  Why not finish the sentence, or clause, and then go to the footnote?".  So maybe there's no good reason to do what I did here, and it would be better to say, "if the footnote were to relate to only a single garg,¹ which itself..." or even "if the footnote were to relate to only a single garg, which itself is followed by a punctuation mark such as a comma, then I could be motivated to move it inside.¹".  Can footnotes reference themselves through a footnote? Cue appropriate xkcd comic.

²I.e., like this, not like that dirty ¹ above.

³Like this.

I think we need LastFootnote's opinion on #3.

[ashersky]

Someone told me, "To start the program, the user must enter 'ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY.'"

What string do I enter?

Edit: Or more specific to your example, the strings

ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY,
zR.we;l3-5*&%^a5-lo
meo.412834+)_2c,v23.23c

would have the same typesetting as your strings under typesetters' quotation style.

From your actual quoted sentence: ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY would be my assumption.

In your style, it would say:

Someone told me, "To start the program, the user must enter 'ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY'".

Right?  You really think that is better aesthetically?  The final three characters are ' " . but in your style looks like an ASCII drawing of the black parts of Snoopy missing the outline.

[ashersky]

To start the program, the user must enter "ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY," "zR.we;l3-5*&%^a5-lo," and "meo.412834+)_2c,v23.23c," following each series by pressing the enter key.

And, god, this sentence is so confusing.  Reading it, it's very, very, very hard to tell whether there is a mistake by the writer or not.

Edit: Plus, it just doesn't make sense.  Why are the commas inside the same quote pair different?  They look the same but they are entirely unrelated to each other in every possible way.

I mean, of course it's a terrible sentence.  It's written for the purpose of this discussion.  As for the commas being different...I don't understand.  I used the same font for all commas.

I'd probably write it more like:

To start the program, the user must enter the following three series of characters, separated by pressing the enter key once:

ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY
zR.we;l3-5*&%^a5-lo
meo.412834+)_2c,v23.23c


Or something like that.

[Witherweaver]

The point is, in the typesetters' style, the sentence:

Someone told me, "To start the program, the user must enter 'ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY.'"

is grammatically correct for both strings:

ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY

and

ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY.

There is no such ambiguity in the more natural way to use quotes.

PPE: The commas are different because in (your use of) "ad,f93'.39*36/;93GF,BY,", the first two commas are part of the string to enter, and the last one is not.  Being inside the quote suggests they're the same, but they aren't.

[XerxesPraelor]

Re: creative writing

Worm, the best web serial (this is an opinion, but it is extremely popular) uses logical punctuation, I think.