Italics in posts?

Mandelbrot

Has anyone else noted any problem TODAY - it only seemed to start today - over the use of italics in posts?
Often the italicised word/text seems to be replaced by a complete blank.
Sometimes it shows up when you drag & run the cursor over the area - as we do sometimes in 'jokey' posts.

Is there some confusion happening over the use of the and tags, where I is being interpreted as 'Invisible' (or something)?

It all seems very hit and miss ... occurring in some situations but not others.

I am using Chrome on the old (green) version of MSE.

ETA: Hmmm ...
A few lines above this, I had typed "the (I) and (/I) tags", with the round brackets here standing for the square brackets I actually put.
What I am seeing in the resultant (posted) post is a big gap between "the" and "tags" - which is compatible with an interpretation of 'Invisible', rather than simply seeing the word "and" in italics (as I would have expected).

fermi

Not seen that on Firefox at all today.

Can you link to a specific post where it happens? Or is it too erratic for that?

Mandelbrot

Thanks for responding, fermi.

The first post in this thread ...
(It looks fine in the editor.)


Maybe my Chrome browser is up the creek.
I'll have a try with Firefox.

fermi

Your 1st post shows the 'and' in italics in Firefox and Chrome OK here. Both latest versions, but not Windows ones, but that shouldn't make a difference.

Mandelbrot

Yes, it looks fine for me too, now, in Firefox. (i.e. same as you are seeing).
Must be something wrong with my Chrome browser.

Thanks again, fermi.

Quasar

I seldom have problems with Opera. Even Safari often won't even open some sites (perfectly legit and wholesome ones, I hasten to add).

Mandelbrot

Hmmm ...
I'm getting the same sort of problem again (with Chrome again, latest version).

It shows up most markedly in the parts of posts where a previous post is quoted (the header line is fine, then most of the quote (which of course is in italics) is 'missing' (generally displayed in white) but where a part of it has extra formatting e.g. emboldening, then that appears as it should.

The strange thing is that these quoted areas all were perfectly normal a couple of hours ago, and nothing has changed on the browser, and no other sites apart from MSE have been linked to (on that computer) in the interim.

If I didn't know better, I'd say that some MSE Techie is playing with something on the live system, which (with my particular set-up) has unforeseen consequences.

Oh, hang on ...
That is just the sort of thing that they do.
<rant over ... off to try MSE in other browsers>

fermi

Still not seen it happen on any browser yet.

Have you made sure your graphics drivers are up to date? Sometimes odd rendering issues can be because of those.

Mandelbrot

Thanks for the suggestion, fermi.
But as I said, it was fine at about 10.30 am this morning, but not fine a couple of hours later. That doesn't particularly sound like a driver issue to me.

It is also fine when I looked at the same things subsequently in Firefox and Opera.

<Off now to take another look in Chrome.>

Mandelbrot

Back to normal now in Chrome.
Nothing changed with the browser in the interim (i.e. since it wasn't fine), about half an hour or so ago.

fermi

Mandelbrot wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestion, fermi.
But as I said, it was fine at about 10.30 am this morning, but not fine a couple of hours later. That doesn't particularly sound like a driver issue to me.

I've had some that come and go. Some where even scrolling the page slightly, or taking it off screen and back on again fixes it temporarily.

There was nothing wrong with the BBCode and HTML/CSS etc in the example you showed earlier in the thread. There is no 'invisible' BBcode here to be confused either.