Strange characters showing on forum

[69eclipse]



I'm getting these strange characters showing up on my forum. Any ideas?

Thinking it may be a firefox encoding issue. Only shows up in firefox.

[ozzy47]

Have you tried on a unmodified default style?
Have you tried with all mods disabled?
What vB version and PHP version are you running?

[webmastersun]

when you create database, let create with utf-8 compatible with your information. It will disappear.
Last time, I got this problem and solved it.

[kh99]

It may be that you have those characters at the beginning of one of your php files, because that can happen when you use a word processing program to edit files (and whatever is in a php file that's before the <?php tag gets sent as output). This happens occasionally to people when they edit the config.php, So try checking your config.php with a programming editor like notepad++ (which you can download free).

[69eclipse]

I'm running VB 4.2.1, not sure which version of PHP, I would have to look.

All great answers here. Thank you very much. When I get this issue sorted I will update this thread. Thank you.

[Lynne]

That is a BOM. If it's on all pages, then check your config.php file and make sure it was NOT saved as UTF-8 (with BOM). That file should only be edited using a plain text editor such as notepad++

[Max Taxable]

I'm getting these strange characters showing up on my forum. Any ideas?

Strange characters can be a good thing and mostly are. Look at me - I'm a strange character who shows up here from time to time. As long as they are somewhat affable I wouldn't worry too much about them, you might even have a little fun with some of them.

I remember a strange character who materialized on one of my boards. He was from Latvia and unlike most all entities emanating from there, he was not a spammer. He posted some really strange stuff but it was always either humorous or thought provoking, or both.

Remember, be tolerant. Not everyone is the same and what may seem 'strange' to you is just normal for them.:D

[69eclipse]

That is a BOM. If it's on all pages, then check your config.php file and make sure it was NOT saved as UTF-8 (with BOM). That file should only be edited using a plain text editor such as notepad++

I wasnt the one who edited it last. I do have notepad++ and I will def try this fix. Thank you.

[ozzy47]

When editing your config, check out this article, https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=308457