Posted on 10/29/2015 8:48:48 AM PDT by CGASMIA68
Whats with the ? marks in the diamonds in the posts? Noticed more earlier.
View your settings. You are in the wrong “text encoding” mode.
It’s often caused by a page/encoding setting in your browser or in Windows e.g. ISO vs Western etc.
I’ve got those too! All of a sudden, there they are. No setting changed, nothing. Weird. It’s a sign.
I’m getting occasional things like this: ââ¬
I haven’t been into any settings for years.
Note that the special character you see appears to be determined by the operating system you are using.
So far, they are related to ‘ “ and ;
Some systems show the BLACK DIAMOND. (WIndows 10, for example)
Some show a black box with nothing inside (Win XP, 7, 8). (example: What the new �Long Range Strike Bomber� is replacing)
Some show these (Win XP,7,8)... ââ¬Ëapostropheââ¬â¢
So... yesterday a black box, today something altogether different.
Even the last example I listed above ( ââ¬Ëapostropheââ¬â¢) because what I cut and paste into this reply is not what shows up when I post it.
Why was my "text encoding" mode OK for years, and suddenly yesterday it changed ? I didn't change it.
Why is it happening to many others here on FR , if it's just MY text encoding ?
These things, be they a black diamond with a question mark inside, or a string of 3 or 4 odd keyboard characters, for some reason, replace a certain type of apostrophe and/or quotation mark. Although the black diamond thing is rare, the other happens quite often. If your apostrophe is like this one ( ‘ ) you should not have a problem. If it is the type that is slanted, it will likely be replaced by some weird symbols or the black diamond.
I’ve got it too.
example 1.
example 2.(the word "don't").
All well and good but it just started today early AM
Happened to me on my Firefox browser on a Mac running El Capitan beta. Others browsers are fine. Chalk it up to another 'outer mystery.... ;)
There are other weird things going on in the past week. If I’m at FR and then open google, the site itself is accessible, but the search engine won’t respond until I clear the browser cache of previous FR use. I think google is blocking FR users who reported FR as a safe site and list it on an exception list for malware. Bing still works just fine. I guess google is having a hissy fit over our complaints of FR being listed as a dangerous site.
The black diamond thing started yesterday. That apostrophe replacement is pretty rare. The other, where the following string of characters replaces a slanted apostrophe actually happens a lot here.
Re: the word "don't" (below...)
Note the string of 3 weird keyboard characters replacing the apostrophe. This only happens with the slanted variety of apostrophe, not this one: '
I have this going on (suddenly) also.
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