4 ms·

Honest question - what the heck are those characters?

orangepurple 5y ago
In digital typography, combining characters are characters that are intended to modify other characters. The most common combining characters in the Latin script are the combining diacritical marks (including combining accents). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combining_character https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combining_character
- db48x 5y ago
  Specifically _Vietnamese_ combining characters. The Vietnamese writing system uses multiple combining characters at a time, and stacks them vertically. Throw in a few that wrap around the character like t҉his, some 𝑎lternatᵉ lꬲttꬲr fᵒrms, disturbing imagery, and perhaps a few other tricks, and you have zalgo. See also https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/823846 https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/823846
sdenton4 5y ago
Zalgo text: https://zalgo.org/ https://zalgo.org/ It was a great joke for a couple weeks two internets ago.
- Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
  > two internets ago It's been like three internets since I heard someone using "internet" as a measurement of time. It's actually interesting to think about "generations" of internet, just like generations of people, and how the culture shifted between them. There was a time in the early '00s when broadband was catching on, yet YouTube didn't exist. A time when Ebaumsworld and Newgrounds ruled the internet. When Homestar Runner was pop internet culture. Weebls Stuff. The frog blender.
grishka 5y ago
Combining diacritic marks.
Valgrim 5y ago
It corrupted text or "Zalgo" text, it relies on diacritics. See this answer on stackoverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open...
- lmkg 5y ago
  I disagree with calling it "corrupted." We're not tricking the browser into trying to render garbage bytes that are actually the middle of a jpeg or something. It's actually valid Unicode. It's an edge-case which is not seen in regular usage, but it's technically following all of the rules.
  - Valgrim 5y ago
    It's just the way it's called, not a statement of fact.

In digital typography, combining characters are characters that are intended to modify other characters. The most common combining characters in the Latin script are the combining diacritical marks (including combining accents). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combining_character https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combining_character

db48x 5y ago
Specifically _Vietnamese_ combining characters. The Vietnamese writing system uses multiple combining characters at a time, and stacks them vertically. Throw in a few that wrap around the character like t҉his, some 𝑎lternatᵉ lꬲttꬲr fᵒrms, disturbing imagery, and perhaps a few other tricks, and you have zalgo. See also https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/823846 https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/823846

sdenton4 5y ago

Zalgo text: https://zalgo.org/ https://zalgo.org/ It was a great joke for a couple weeks two internets ago.

Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
> two internets ago It's been like three internets since I heard someone using "internet" as a measurement of time. It's actually interesting to think about "generations" of internet, just like generations of people, and how the culture shifted between them. There was a time in the early '00s when broadband was catching on, yet YouTube didn't exist. A time when Ebaumsworld and Newgrounds ruled the internet. When Homestar Runner was pop internet culture. Weebls Stuff. The frog blender.

grishka 5y ago

Combining diacritic marks.

Valgrim 5y ago

It corrupted text or "Zalgo" text, it relies on diacritics. See this answer on stackoverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags/1732454 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open...

lmkg 5y ago
I disagree with calling it "corrupted." We're not tricking the browser into trying to render garbage bytes that are actually the middle of a jpeg or something. It's actually valid Unicode. It's an edge-case which is not seen in regular usage, but it's technically following all of the rules.
- Valgrim 5y ago
  It's just the way it's called, not a statement of fact.