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Zalgo text (http://textozor.com/zalgo-text/) takes advantage UTF8 and rendering. Some, like the user profile below are relatively benign. Some, not so much. The user below is brand new to Security.SE.

Question: Should we encourage users to remove zalgo text? Some devices may not respond well to it.

https://security.stackexchange.com/users/114005/andrew-sun%cd%88%cc%ae%cd%88%cc%ae%cd%88%cc%ae%cd%88%cc%ae%cd%88%cc%ae%cd%88%cc%ae%cd%88%cc%ae%cd%88%cc%ae%cd%88%cc%ae%cd%88%cc%ae

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  • I wonder what it looked like. ☺ Jul 19, 2016 at 22:43
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    I̹̩̬̮̗̘̺͛͆ͧͨ ̦ǵ̨͒ͪ̅͋́ȕ͖̤̘̽̒̆̍̓̋e̴͔͙̩͎̟̪s͉͉̫̱̱͕ͮ̉͒͑̃̒ŝ̮̝͈͒ͪ̽ ͍̦̦̳̊̈͆̐̈́i͕̺̬̙̰̦͋̈́̿ͣt̢̤̏ ̰̘̺̩̳͎͙ĺ̯͙̠͚̤̉ͬ̈o̧̹ͫǒ͆̊͗͐͆̚҉̼̱k̪͛̑ͤ̾̏̎ẹ̫̫͔͓̳̭̾d̷̘̀̓ͨͭͧ̐ ̴̲̹͙͊̊̽̀̏̈l̗͍͈͍̯͇ͤi̱̮̹̭̝̒͋̔͊̔ͯ͟k͓̩̋͆́̍͂ͬ͜e̲̩̲̼̹͍ͣͪ̋̚͟ ̲͍̳̱̠ͩ̐̕t͍͛ͫ͗͝h̷͉͉̖̺̼̟͇i̤͈̬̮̘͉̰͐̄ͧ̈̒̚͟s͚̝̤̫͓̠.̭͕̝͇̉͗ͣ̕ ̯͈̹̟̗͛ͥ̇̉̏͡l̖͕̎̎͋͊̂͆̎ő̓҉͇̳̟̹̙̱ͅl̘̮͖͇͕̊ͤ͋͂̅ͫ͘ Jul 19, 2016 at 22:44
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    ɐɔʇnɐןןʎ, there's some ¢σσℓ тнιηgѕ уσυ ¢αη ∂σ ฬเtђ tђคt รเtє. Especially !f y0u (4n r34d 7h!5. Jul 19, 2016 at 22:46
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    Incidently one of the most famous answers on SO uses Zalgo to good efect. stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/537897 Jul 20, 2016 at 10:12
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    Hey, that was me͈̮͈̮͈̮͈̮͈̮͈̮͈̮͈̮͈̮͈̮!
    – Andrew Sun
    Jul 23, 2016 at 4:05
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    +1 for your profile text: "Maybe I shouldn't prefer to keep an air of mystery about myself." Jul 26, 2016 at 15:05
  • sǝɯoɔ ǝɥ ʎɐs ʎǝɥʇ
    – user83389
    Jul 28, 2016 at 17:11
  • I have been aware of the HTML / Regex "answer" for a while, but never knew how it was done. Now I do. :)
    – TecBrat
    Jul 29, 2016 at 17:40

1 Answer 1

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Thanks - this is a good call. Generally, unless a username is flagged as offensive, we leave them alone, however after testing this with a varied set of devices, I'd have to agree - it does break things badly on one of my Android phones.

I'll edit and leave a note for the user in this instance - and please flag up further instances that cause rendering issues.

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