Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

eppur_se_muova

(42,650 posts)
Tue Mar 3, 2026, 11:28 PM Mar 2026

Why are apostrophes -- or is it hyphens -- in some posts suddenly showing up as a scrambled mess ??

I posted this to GD, but maybe it's more appropriate here.

Recently, I have seen a lot of posts containing a nonsense string of characters. At first I thought it always replaced apostrophes, but now it seems I am seeing it in places where dashes/hyphens seem to be intended.

Given that the Great Election Night Hack involved some strange chicanery with superscripts or something like that, I'm a little concerned that this might be something that adversely affects DU. It just suddenly started a few days ago, and I can't recall changing any of my settings or anything (I *could* be wrong about that, obviously, given how most software suffers from auto-upgrade-incontinence these days). Strangest of all, the string seems to have reproduced itself in triplicate in my original post, which strikes me as worrying.

Here's the thread from GD: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221067937

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Why are apostrophes -- or is it hyphens -- in some posts suddenly showing up as a scrambled mess ?? (Original Post) eppur_se_muova Mar 2026 OP
I don't know, but ... Tasmanian Devil Mar 2026 #1
It's nothing nefarious EarlG Mar 2026 #2
Thanks ! It started rather suddenly, so that provoked my suspicions. I guess repeated copy/paste just ... eppur_se_muova Mar 2026 #3
I've seen this too. mahatmakanejeeves Mar 2026 #4
I noticed this in one of my posts dweller Mar 2026 #5
For example , see this post dweller Mar 2026 #6
Also here question everything Mar 2026 #7
Did the cut and paste function of some browser or operating system change? hunter Mar 2026 #8
If you edit your post dweller Mar 2026 #9

Tasmanian Devil

(238 posts)
1. I don't know, but ...
Wed Mar 4, 2026, 12:16 AM
Mar 2026

‘Peace president’ has unicode open/close quotes around the Peace President text. They display as single characters but are encoded as 3 bytes (each). It displays fine in my browser (Safari). Idk why it would not display correctly for you.

EarlG

(23,735 posts)
2. It's nothing nefarious
Wed Mar 4, 2026, 12:32 AM
Mar 2026

If you copy and paste from an article which is using curly quotes, or some other special character, and for some reason there's an encoding issue, the character will show up as a weird glyph.

It might be possible to fix at your end (see this article), but it might be a DU issue. Either way, it's nothing to worry about from a security perspective.

eppur_se_muova

(42,650 posts)
3. Thanks ! It started rather suddenly, so that provoked my suspicions. I guess repeated copy/paste just ...
Wed Mar 4, 2026, 02:52 AM
Mar 2026

makes things worse.

mahatmakanejeeves

(71,098 posts)
4. I've seen this too.
Wed Mar 4, 2026, 09:46 AM
Mar 2026

Single quotes, double quotes, apostrophes, dashes. This morning:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143626005

�It�s particularly significant given the ICE tactics we�re seeing in the streets � so counter to the way policing has evolved and improved over the last several years,� she said.

Seen on MacBookAir running Safari browser and Amazon Fire 8 running Via browser.

Thanks.

dweller

(28,772 posts)
5. I noticed this in one of my posts
Wed Mar 4, 2026, 12:18 PM
Mar 2026

At first it was fine , then i went through some editing , and then the squiggles showed up .
I tried to edit them out but eventually gave up and deleted the post .
Now when I see them in a post , I check to see if it’s been edited , and it usually has been .

Could that be the cause ?
Something with the editing software ?

🤔




✌🏻

hunter

(40,897 posts)
8. Did the cut and paste function of some browser or operating system change?
Wed Mar 4, 2026, 02:30 PM
Mar 2026

If I go the original linked article and cut and paste this doesn't happen; at least not that I can see it.

This looks correct to me:

“It’s particularly significant given the ICE tactics we’re seeing in the streets — so counter to the way policing has evolved and improved over the last several years,” she said.


In reply #4 above, by mahatmakanejeeves, the same excerpt does not.

For all I know, my text might not look correct to others.
Latest Discussions»Help & Search»DU Community Help»Why are apostrophes -- or...