Whatever it was, I can't see it anymore

July 26, 2002 3:14 PM

Is anyone else seeing this sort of thing in threads? just wondering what could be causing it.

Mozilla 1.1b on OSX
posted by PugAchev to Bugs at 3:14 PM (13 comments total)

I see it sometimes. I can't recall right now whether it's only on the Mac at home or not. I think it's related to bugs still in this.
posted by timeistight at 3:17 PM on July 26, 2002

Yeah I saw that today with IE6 on XP. Weird thing was that it was OK on the front page, but the comments page looked like that, albeit without the outlines of the white squares filled in.
posted by machaus at 3:25 PM on July 26, 2002

I forgot who?, yet I think it is an error as every time this member posted the last several days it was there in the pattern of the posting. Their " ' " key, showed as a box, and I don't think they did it on purpose. They were making things possessive. I don't have that key, on my keyboard, I'm still waiting for one with the "any key".
posted by thomcatspike at 4:09 PM on July 26, 2002

I'm still waiting for one with the "any key".

Screw that, I'm still waiting for the Tab I ordered. Oh wait, no time for that, the computer's starting!

And yes, I've been seeing the same thing. IE5.2, OS X 10.1.5.
posted by toddshot at 4:55 PM on July 26, 2002

Yep. IE 5 in OS 9 and X.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:12 PM on July 26, 2002

i'm seeing those little boxes too, but they're hollow. using ie6/win98
posted by t r a c y at 6:14 PM on July 26, 2002

It's when people (like myself) type out their posts in WordPerfect and have "smart quotes" turned on, smart alecks. That feature in WordPerfect (and maybe Word, too) turns left and right single-quotes and double-quotes into nice little pictures that don't translate well yet. They used to just be disregarded, I think, and read as either ' or " regardless of whether they were right or left.

Don't know what to do about it in the bigger scheme of things, but I've stopped typing out my posts in WordPerfect ahead of time, so don't blam mee for any speling errrors.
posted by yhbc at 7:13 PM on July 26, 2002

That font sure is purdy.
posted by Succa at 8:28 PM on July 26, 2002

Insead of boxes I see a diamond with a question mark in it.
Im using mozilla for windows XP.

I assumed they were just caused by people useing funny character sets.



posted by Iax at 8:36 PM on July 26, 2002

This thing has an 'any-key'. Neat, huh?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:13 PM on July 26, 2002

I've been seeing variations in IE under both OS X and Win XP.
posted by donkeyschlong at 9:24 PM on July 26, 2002

Could it have something to do with someone inadvertently pasting in curly quotes/apostrophes?
posted by donkeyschlong at 9:24 PM on July 26, 2002

I think it is in fact those curly quotes and apostrophes. The funny thing is that they render just fine on the home page, but I get the boxes when I click through to the thread. Mozilla 1.0/Mac OS X.
posted by jjg at 11:29 PM on July 26, 2002