Profile description text changes when editing?

[Asj]

Has anyone noticed this? I changed the text for my profile description awhile ago and copied it into the description box from my word processer. It showed up fine.
Today, I wanted to edit it a little bit, and in the box, the apostrophies showed up as something like... a type of A and two boxes. I figured I'd leave them be, but after saving the changes, the profile displayed the A and two boxes instead of the apostrophies.
I went back to change the messed up code to the straight apostrophies, which I knew would show up right. In the editer, the code changed to � (an A, a cent sign, something else, an upside down question mark, a half, and then it repeats the something else, question mark, and half).
I left one of them just to see what it would do. It changed to that in the profile after I saved it, and I edited it again. In the box, it changed to �¢ï¿½ï¿½ (an A, a box, a different A, a cent sign, an A, a dash looking thing, the different looking A, an upside down question mark, the different looking A, a half, an A, the dash thing, the different looking A, an upside down question mark, the different looking a, and a half).

So, the profile description can show the curved apostrophies, but every time the profile is edited, the code will change to something else, each time to something around twice as long. Is there a way to fix that (have the editing textbox not change the code?), or is it just something that people have to remember not to use? (I find it odd that the code changes each time, because usually online, once those types of things change, that's it)

[eishiya]

The change happens due to encoding differences and improper character escaping between the profile text being output from the database, then sent back by your browser to the server and put back in the database. This is something that can be fixed, but I think it's safer to just stick to ASCII in any sort of text box online because this is pretty common.

[Asj]

I mainly just found it strange that it keeps multiplying. I thought once it changed, it wouldn't change again.

[eishiya]

It changes because every time it's displaying the encoded characters wrong, then tries to encode the wrong characters as if they're the right characters. Then when that gets displayed, it gets reencoded again and again.

[xiaa]

Uhm I had a similar problem on a different website, but the problem was apostrophes in microsoft word are different from the ones you see online. So if I were you, I'd do a Find / Replace and replace all of Microsoft's quotes (””) with the internet quotes symbols ---->"

and their apostrophes (') to ---> '

[Admin]

I tried copying � into one of my comics' profiles and I didn't get the weird transformation problem. Can you confirm or reject this? Or does it only happen with different characters?

[Asj]

When I use the formatted ' 's, from a word processer, and then edit it, it changes.
these things: “” ‘’ Each time I would click to edit the profile, it would change to something else. Looks like the first change is to â��

doing it just now, after a few edit-submits, I ended up with this for one apostrophe, and ran out of room in my profile description (I doubt anyone could miss it after two or three edits, but someone may not notice the first time). ����¯�¿�½���¯���¿���½����¯�¿�½������¢����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½����¯�¿�½������¯����¯�¿�½������¿����¯�¿�½������½

edit: Oh, when I tried copying what you tried, it changed to �¢ï¿½ï¿½. After putting it in the description, you have to push submit, then edit and submit again. It changes when hitting the edit button.