Weird question marks replacing quotes, apostrophes, and three dots

[81dmc]

I noticed sometimes if I type ?what?s going on? , it will replace the apostrophe and quote marks with question marks. Only noticed that on this forum.

[Helirich]

My posts look like that here also. Not usely question marks, sometimes Swedish letters. (Lol) How about ?now??

Edit, I guess it question marks now.

[Ron]

...
Edit, I guess it question marks now.
Nothing has changed here -- The difference is what is being used to create/send the characters...

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Check out THIS link (https://smallbusiness.chron.com/pages-displaying-strange-letters-27347.html).

[81dmc]

So basically because the forum is old, it can?t accept characters from an iPhone?

Never seen this on other forums.

[Ron]

So basically because the forum is old, it can?t accept characters from an iPhone?

Never seen this on other forums.Yes. (It's a common problem with email, Word docs, ect.)

As I understand it, the iPhone may be using a character set that is not backwards compatible (ISO-8859, 1 byte, 128 characters v/s UTF-8 multi bite, ~2 billion characters). So one character may be interpreted as several, or set to a question mark (or other default) when unrecognized.

[Citizen]

This finally bit me too. So I decided to do an experiment. The following tests are typed exactly alike using the indicated applications, then copied/pasted into this post (except #6, which is typed in directly).


--[ Begin Test ]--------------------------------------------------

1-MS Word
?‘single quoted?’
?“double quoted?”
?question mark?

2-MS Wordpad
'single quoted'
"double quoted"
?question mark?

3-MS Notepad
'single quoted'
"double quoted"
?question mark?

4-Notepad++
'single quoted'
"double quoted"
?question mark?

5-Email (Windows Live Mail Client)
'single quoted'
"double quoted'
?question mark?

6-Typed-in Directly into DMCTalk thread (this post)
'single quoted'
"double quoted"
?question mark"

--[ End of Test ]-------------------------------------------------

Notes:

Apps are used offline, outside of DMCalk (excpet #6) on a Windows 10 based PC only (no Apple, Android, Linux products tested).
MS Word used for longer posts, so to better organize thoughts and correct grammatical errors, while preserving spell-check utilization.


Conclusion: Don't type your post in an older version of MS Word (or equivalent), then copy/paste into a DMCTalk thread. Use one of the other applications, if needed. This is determined before posting by utilizing the "Preview Post" option. This is not a solution, but at least a temporary work around until a newer version of MS Word can be obtained.

Hope this helps.
Thomas

...

[Dangermouse]

Are you using the web version of DMCTalk or the Tapatalk version?

[Citizen]

Are you using the web version of DMCTalk or the Tapatalk version?
Web version only, I don't use Taptalk at all.

...

[Helirich]

Conclusion: Don't type your post in an older version of MS Word (or equivalent), then copy/paste into a DMCTalk thread. Use one of the other applications, if needed. This is determined before posting by utilizing the "Preview Post" option. This is not a solution, but at least a temporary work around until a newer version of MS Word can be obtained.

Hope this helps.
Thomas

...

I?m not real puter literate, so I always just type in the reply box. (On an IPad)

?Single quote?
?Double quote?
?Question mark?

[81dmc]

Simply put, if you are using anything modern, it will cause this problem.

dmctalk VB4 is old for 2023.
69312

Most forums have moved to XenForo as it?s easier to use and more modern, secure, etc. I admin on one of them.


I noticed the DMC forums are starting to die though. Many are moving to Facebook.

But I personally hate FB, so if DMC forums completely go belly up, I?ll just stay disconnected.

[Mark D]

Copying and pasting text from a web browser can also cause similar issues. I was copying text from an article on a website the other day and had to delete all the random ? that appeared and manually replace with " and ' where needed.

[Helirich]

Simply put, if you are using anything modern, it will cause this problem.

dmctalk VB4 is old for 2023.
69312

Most forums have moved to XenForo as it?s easier to use and more modern, secure, etc. I admin on one of them.


I noticed the DMC forums are starting to die though. Many are moving to Facebook.

But I personally hate FB, so if DMC forums completely go belly up, I?ll just stay disconnected.

I hope your wrong. (About the forums) I have the same feeling about FB.

[Mark D]

I'd love to see this forum get refreshed with modern software. E46Fanatics went through this process a few years ago and they are now running XenForo.

The new software allows for more customization (including dark mode) and the user experience feels like something of this decade and not the 1990's. The search function actually works! And you can also filter new content by sub-forums, like posts, and private messaging is greatly improved. Uploading and posting full size images inline with your post text is also much easier, and you don't have to maintain albums of photos to link to. And on and on.

I'm guessing it would not be worth the investment though.

[81dmc]

I'd love to see this forum get refreshed with modern software. E46Fanatics went through this process a few years ago and they are now running XenForo.

The new software allows for more customization (including dark mode) and the user experience feels like something of this decade and not the 1990's. The search function actually works! And you can also filter new content by sub-forums, like posts, and private messaging is greatly improved. Uploading and posting full size images inline with your post text is also much easier, and you don't have to maintain albums of photos to link to. And on and on.

I'm guessing it would not be worth the investment though.
Yep, and you can tag people as well.

Only way I could see it happen here is if we all chip in as it takes significant time, effort, and $$

[bitMuse]

I'd be willing to at least discussing it. I'm a professional software engineer and super familiar with forums tech and SQL. My SWAG estimate is a week or so of effort.