5

I have no idea what this is nor how to describe it but it looks like a bug to me.

Funny thing is, I tried visiting other users' profile pages but this "error" only appears on iBug's profile page. No idea why.

enter image description here

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4
  • I've seen that user use that kind of stuff before in e.g. the Sandbox (deleted post link: meta.stackexchange.com/a/315869/369802, look at the revision history). I wouldn't be surprised if they did this themselves ;)
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 10:00
  • @Tinkeringbell wouldn't that be considered a defacement?
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 10:01
  • Hmm. I'll ask around, I'm not sure myself. It looks quite harmless, though it's confusing.
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 10:03
  • 4
    Looks like a bunch of combining characters placed in the Location field.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 10:05

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7

So, I've checked, and this isn't a bug.

This user set a bunch of combining characters in their location field (where users are supposed to enter their 'location') themselves. Like I said in the comments, they're known to be fond of these characters (See the revision history of this deleted answer in the formatting sandbox).

For now, this is just confusing, and it doesn't seem to be breaking anything. I've asked around, and this is one of those things moderators generally don't intervene with, so I'm not going to reset the location field/profile. After a few more people chimed in, it was determined this was enough of a disturbance to reset. So it was.

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7
  • They also once changed their username to a sequence of these combining characters, and it had to be reset by a moderator. (Interestingly, it was preventing their chat profile from syncing, so a mod had to do that manually as well.)
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 10:13
  • Oooooooh, it l000ked like it was generated from the top bar, not rising upwards from the geography/location icon below. I see!
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 10:13
  • But why is the line "verticle" and not horizontal??
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 10:16
  • 3
    @Mari-LouA See stackoverflow.com/questions/6579844/how-does-zalgo-text-work
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 10:18
  • 2
    No more Zalgo text --- IBug -> meta.stackoverflow.com/a/379000/965146
    – 4b0
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 10:26
  • 2
    While not being a bug, it is still very annoying. It even shows up in the user's expanded usercard.
    – Wrigglenite
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 10:40
  • 9
    Anything that breaks out of the boundaries of a field is something a mod can and should remove. This can break other parts of the UI, and it's generally confusing and disruptive
    – Mad Scientist
    Commented Jan 28, 2019 at 11:03

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