Apologies if this already has a thread, and I don’t mean to sound rude or ungrateful, but I’m continually surprised that NB still doesn’t recognize/can’t properly display special characters in name links (á, ç, è, ð, å, ß, ï, etc) considering how many people use names that feature these characters (especially accents/fadas). Many names are actually incorrect without these characters - for example, the name Ruairí would not be pronounced the same without the fada over the final i, [name_u]Fran[/name_u]çoise would not be pronounced the same spelled Francoise, etc. It seems like it should be a relatively simple matter of coding?
I’m Norwegian and I can see all these characters in your post (and your siggy!). Maybe it’s only in the US or in countries that don’t have these?
This is the one time my Typography class in college comes in handy!
A large number of accent marks (including fadas, umlauts, tildes, etc) are actually not included for a lot of American script/programs, because they are not on a standard American keyboard.
They’re considered “foreign language”, and often need to be accomodated for. In other words, these letters with accents are completely different letters when translated over to English (the accent changes the sound, almost creating a secondary alphabet to follow).
I live in Canada where both English and French are spoken, however my physical keyboard is in American English. If I wish to use any French accent marks, I have to change the keyboard setting on my laptop from USA English to Canadian Multistandard. Then you have the fun task of trying to figure out where all the symbols have switched to, as your accent marks override many typically used symbols (such as the question mark and forward slash).
Many states in the US do not even have the functionality to include these marks on official documentation, so they are either banned outright, or ignored.
Even with iPhones, you need to install a separate keyboard from another language if you wish to use accent marks - which is why I often don’t include accents on names while typing from my phone - it’s a large hassle really.
Often the accented letters cause broken links (NB isn’t the only place! if you look in the URL of any thing with an accent in it, it often shows a “random” symbol between the last “normal” letter and the accented letter - this random symbol is taking the place of the accent that cannot be recognized. This is how computer languages solve the issue of unrecognized characters).
It’s almost like attempting to type in iOS 10 emojis to someone who is still on iOS 8, if that makes any sense at all?
The issue is not that the special characters don’t appear at all (I’m in the U.S. and see them), but rather it messes up the name links that automatically form from names without those characters.