Help Figuring out a Bug

Hey @GXV3, @Lars1091, @Zander_Hawk, @Duriansol, @robin, @Parker,

I've been working on an update to the forums to fix some lingering issues and I've encountered an edge case that I can't quite figure out. Some how you guys have managed to get a very unusual font tag into some of your posts and I can't figure out where it came from.

See these posts for examples:

GXV3 - http://www.stonewallgaming.net/forums/threads/45118-event-reflection-day-2#scroll=89600
Lars - http://www.stonewallgaming.net/forums/threads/45096-zandorian-allied-command-personnel-dossiers-mission-reports#scroll=90381
Zander_Hawk - http://www.stonewallgaming.net/forums/threads/91884-processed-introduction-new-recruit#scroll=91902
Duriansol - http://www.stonewallgaming.net/forums/threads/90788-for-the-admiralty-impossible-scavenger-hunt?start=20#scroll=92142
Robin - http://www.stonewallgaming.net/forums/threads/93337-how-to-get-into-the-fleet#scroll=93686
Parker - http://www.stonewallgaming.net/forums/threads/94734-swtor-seeking-members#scroll=94735

If you edit your post and then click on the last button on the toolbar (the View Source button), you'll see there's a font tag in there with a long list of font names starting with Lato and including "Helvetica Neue". That format isn't supported by the new parser so I need to prevent it from being entered.

For the life of me, I can't figure out where this tag is coming from. There's no Lato option in the font selector and I doubt you guys are typing all that in. All my attempts to reproduce it have failed and any input you guys provide would be appreciated.

Any ideas, guys? Thanks!!

My first though was that I typed that story out in notepad before copy-pasting it to the forums. However, I first posted that story in the biography competition thread earlier this year and as far as I can see, the font tag isn't shown there.
Could the font tag come from copy-pasting the story from one part of the forum to another part of the forum?

The following line is copy-pasted from another story that doesn't have that font tag.

All equipped with Antiproton weapons, this elite team of soldiers was raining absolute devastation on the Tholians.

And now I see the difference too. The view source thingy shows the font tag, whereas the original post (the story above the post you linked to) doesn't have it.
It seems that copy pasting the line adds the font tag somehow?

Edit: Well, this is weird. I can see the difference in font when writing and editing this post, but not once it is posted.

The link I copy-pasted is wrapped in the code. So must have come from Survey Monkey or the copy paste effort. In my case I didn't use the linking tool in tool bar of the post I merely copied it from the link Survey Monkey created for me when I clicked their button for sharing the survey.

The following is the source code as you have found: (I removed several brackets to be able to show the code here)
url=https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TBP25YG]color=#1abc9c]size=2]font=Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TBP25YG/font]/size]/color][/url

When really all I copied and pasted was https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TBP25YG  (this link was typed out and not copy/pasted and therefore no new source code)

As an Idea: Go to Survey Monkey and log in to my account, create a test survey then click the Collect Responses tab, then click the Web Link box, copy the new link and paste and boom I bet it will be there.

Quote by Lars1091

My first though was that I typed that story out in notepad before copy-pasting it to the forums. However, I first posted that story in the biography competition thread earlier this year and as far as I can see, the font tag isn't shown there.
Could the font tag come from copy-pasting the story from one part of the forum to another part of the forum?

The following line is copy-pasted from another story that doesn't have that font tag.

And now I see the difference too. The view source thingy shows the font tag, whereas the original post (the story above the post you linked to) doesn't have it.
It seems that copy pasting the line adds the font tag somehow?

Edit: Well, this is weird. I can see the difference in font when writing and editing this post, but not once it is posted.

That's interesting. So you're copying from the editor and pasting into the editor? I guess that's how it's being copied, but where did it originate?

It's not displaying in the post because the value isn't valid and the parser is currently filtering most of it out. What's left isn't valid and the browser is ignoring cause it's not correct either.

Im sorry but I have no clue.. I wrote it all out as you see it, didnt change any fonts or sizes.
The only thing i can think of is I put it all as "Center aligned".. but it didnt turn out that way.
Im cluelesss im sorry

Nope, not copying from the editor, just copying from the already posted post itself and pasted that in the editor.

Quote by Lars1091

Nope, not copying from the editor, just copying from the already posted post itself and pasted that in the editor.

Okay, that's odd. What browser do you use?

If I caught my earlier posts correctly (remember when you said you'd migrated to google?) 

Guess who the largest known user of Lato fonts are? That's right, boys and girls...

It would seem that Google has a bit of hidden code somewhere that creates a "failsafe" font code in cases where browsers are not capable of rendering the chosen font and then it drops back through the list of fonts in the failsafe until one is rendered properly. 

I know this doesn't answer your question, but you can always contact Google's support team to find out if this is intentional on their end or not and if there's a way to cut it.

Based on my understanding: it would appear that google is using the entire lato-font family as a default group.

Quote by Duriansol

If I caught my earlier posts correctly (remember when you said you'd migrated to google?) 

Guess who the largest known user of Lato fonts are? That's right, boys and girls...

It would seem that Google has a bit of hidden code somewhere that creates a "failsafe" font code in cases where browsers are not capable of rendering the chosen font and then it drops back through the list of fonts in the failsafe until one is rendered properly. 

I know this doesn't answer your question, but you can always contact Google's support team to find out if this is intentional on their end or not and if there's a way to cut it.

Based on my understanding: it would appear that google is using the entire lato-font family as a default group.

That's not Google's doing. That's how the font-family declaration in CSS works. Fonts are listed in order of priority and the first one available is the one displayed. This particular font stack is the one that our website uses. Lato and Helvetica Neue are both pretty popular fonts.

Only our domains (eg stonewallgaming.net) are hosted with Google. Not the hosting of the actual website. That's hosted on another service, OpenShift.

I have a preset text on Evernote.  If I am not at home, I use the Evernote app on my phone, there's an option to remove formatting which I have done consistently in the past because it is actually easier for me to copy from Evernote and paste into the website's editor.

If I am at home, I open my Evernote program, copy my preset welcome text and paste it into the editor.  That's about all I do, I hope this helps!

:)

Quote by NicholasJohn16

Quote by Lars1091

Nope, not copying from the editor, just copying from the already posted post itself and pasted that in the editor.

Okay, that's odd. What browser do you use?

Google Chrome.

I use Firefox, and I don't see the font change unless I actually view the code. Since I have FF locked the hell down with regard to tracking, scripting and ads so I opened a couple of those links in Chrome to see it in a less restricted browser, and instead of displaying in a Helvetica/sans font, they appear in Times NR. Dafuq???

These all seem to be posts from either before the forum engine change or very soon after...could it be an artifact of the DB export, maybe, when the original forum posts were migrated to the new platform? I think an indication might be if there are any of those font tags in more recent posts. If not, I'd suspect it was something in the migration process.

Otherwise, I got nothing.