Bitcoin Forum

There is currently a topic with the title 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 in the Beginners & Help section. It uses a special font or special encoding? This makes it look like the function mark read has no effect on this thread. Is this allowed or is this a bug? It seems to me that it should not be allowed.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5545619.0

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/06/04/UX78Rz.png

I have visited all the threads in that board and all reacted the exact same way it is meant, which is marking as read.
There is no better explanation to this than bug.
Every topic after being visited automatically changes from bold to narrow which marks it as read, but this particular topic is not marking which means it must be a bug.

It is not a bug, in my guess, and it is a customization by the user somehow.

Like this one with customization on font-size and font-weight.
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=582242.0

According to Theymos he has been making some little changes that might lead to several malfunction or bug.

This could be one of those bugs which he said we should report if found. Since the behaviour is very unusual, unlike every other thread it's supposed to respond accordingly by marking read but doesn't which means it's a bug.

Here is Theymos statement regarding this.

Should it be allowed then? It already breaks a function, and if more users start using this kind of thing to improve visibility of their threads compared to others the function will be even less useful.  :-\

Thanks. I hope this thread is enough but I also will send him a message.

The link you drop is a question on how to code in bold title or topic and the code there is a CSS code.

Which means only the admin can input such special code to a topic or title, it is meant for a general forum code and not a specific topic customization.

so next time before you drop link to anything make sure you understand what it is meant for.!

I will advise you disregard this information as it's not accurate!

There will be no need to send him a PM as it's not a good idea, perhaps Admin (Theymos) is already seeing this thread or will see it eventually.

I suggest you report it to this thread Little things that bug you/me about the forum (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5503118.0)

On closer inspection I also confirm that this seems to be a question which provides a solution for forum administrators. It does not explain how this user has managed to achieve this, I'd really want to know how.  :)

Alright, let's see if we can get a response or maybe some other member knows how to do this trick and can explain it to us.

𝐈𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞'𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐭𝐭𝐩𝐬://𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐣𝐚𝐦.𝐜𝐨𝐦/𝐁𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐓𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐧𝐭.
It's not normal text. Try it: search for the word "future" on that page: it doesn't exist.

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Easy solution: click Ignore. He's screaming for attention, I'll do the opposite.

I consider it's not a bug, just like the way people can use other emojis aside from the default emojis.

It does exist in my browser.

https://imgvb.com/images/2025/06/04/1f187498342f2e261e2086d120933966.png

So it varies per browser: it works in Chromium, but not in Firefox.

No, @Satofan44, he didn't use any special font, encoding or function, everything looks normal.

Where the mistake arose is that, in the picture you captioned, all threads have been visited or worked on, but one ("How to secure bitcoin for future"). That's why others look read and just one looks unread. I've gone through the section, it is marked as read from my end.

It reminds me of technique used by scammer to create URL that appear to be real[1]. Now i wonder what is moderator stance regarding thread/post that use these characters.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDN_homograph_attack (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDN_homograph_attack)

The homograph attack on Bitcointalk was mostly used to avoid plagiarism detection, and theymos' filter now turns those back into normal ascii text.
One solution would be to only allow real ascii characters, but that would mean reducing everyone's freedom a bit because of one Newbie.

Interesting, thanks I'll use ignore until there is some information from the admin on it.

Thanks for the implication but I am not an idiot, your spam post is not welcome here. I made the screenshot after clicking Mark Read.

The extra emojis do not break any forum functions though, this breaks a very useful function. At least for me it is very helpful.

After reading most posts of this thread, I found that some users are quite good at attention seeking mostly the scammers or the newbies. The newbie figured out the way to create such type of bold font. It's first time I'm seeing such type of font usage on the forum, I believe there should be some action against the user so other may not do something similar. Or, the simplest way is to put such users in ignore list.

Probably the reason I thought it was a bug, it works on my browser since it's chrome.

And this leaves me to wonder why the OP of that thread choose something of this nature to make a post, perhaps it's a way to keep people trying to figure out that it is he is using.

And additionally it seems his intention is almost achieved as a lot of people will be visiting the thread through this thread, hence the attention seeking has worked in my opinion.

Looked at the users profile and figured out that he has used this special effect of text for two different threads and they are merely simple or seems like Loyce said to be attention seeking. which means it's not a bug as I previously thought.

Here is a screenshot.
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/06/05/UX8iDW.jpeg


That will not be nice, more like one against thousands.

The threads he used it on are not really bad nor good ones hence deleting might not be an option or maybe serve the user a warning something like that.

I noticed this as well however I could tell by the way the title appeared in my tab that the user was using some sort of custom font/characters to make this effect. Not sure why someone would go out of their way to do that/create such a slight annoyance ::)

There is nothing wrong with the title and everything is perfectly fine maybe it should be that since I am on mobile I wouldn't get it clearly or even have to come noticed the changes you are pointing at.  You know to explore forum more better it's always advisable to use PC with then you can also noticed changes you have been saying. Although it could be that op made his title to be that bold so attracts more people who come to post over there.

Guy, you are very arrogant and rude. You Alts are not difficult to know, as no true new user would talk in such a rude manner in light matter like this. You want people to know you are a tough guy, right? ??? Tough guy my foot, your headache.

I am happy to have added my inputs as I saw them after checking through that link and the section. Whether or not it escalated beyond what I thought does not warrant your arrogant and audacious response.

There are two points here. First, it is marked as read normally and becomes the same as other topics after being read:

Not yet read:
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/06/05/UXbMLI.jpeg

After reading:
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/06/05/UXbGTg.jpeg

In this field everything is fine, and it works as intended.


The second point is the font used in the title of the post. I still have to do some tests to confirm, but this depends on the type of keyboard or browser used by the creator of this topic. It could also be that he writes the text in Word, in a certain format, and then copies and pastes it there, ending up assuming that formatting.

But as I said, I went to do some tests and I'll come back later with more details (if I have time).  :P

Coming back (sorry for the double post) but to highlight what's going on.

As I expected, it is using Unicode character text. Either you directly configure the keyboard to type this way, or you use tools that do this. Here is an example of one such tool, which I used to style the title of this post: https://lingojam.com/FancyLetters


🅴🅳🅸🆃: 🆈🅾🆄 🅲🅰🅽 🆂🅴🅰🆁🅲🅷 🅵🅾🆁 "🆄🅽🅸🅲🅾🅳🅴 🆃🅴🆇🆃 🅶🅴🅽🅴🆁🅰🆃🅾🆁" 🅰🅽🅳 🆈🅾🆄 🆆🅸🅻🅻 🅵🅸🅽🅳 🅾🆃🅷🅴🆁 🆃🅾🅾🅻🆂, 🅻🅸🅺🅴 🆃🅷🅸🆂 🅾🅽🅴 (🅽🅾 🅿🆄🅱):
https://qaz.wtf/u/convert.cgi


EDIT 2:
Using this as a form of writing is highly discouraged. Normally, screen reader programs (useful for those with visual problems) do not read these characters, nor do translation tools or other reading support tools.  ;)

I got a reply from the admin, I won't quote it directly without permission. The issue has been acknowledge, but it is not a priority of course. He will probably prevent these kinds of things. With that I will lock this thread, thank you everyone.