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Web site to fix punctuation formatting in Free Republic posts
January 15, 2015 | me

Posted on 01/15/2016 6:41:54 AM PST by reaganaut1

I have found that the site Replace smart quotes with regular straight quotes fixes the problem Free Republic recently has with quotes and dashes. For example, a New York Times article As Germany Welcomes Migrants, Sexual Attacks in Cologne Point to a New Reality that when originally pasted looks like this:

COLOGNE, Germany — In early December, the Cologne police made their New Year’s Eve preparations. Drawing on the previous year’s experience, they identified their biggest worry as pickpocketing and fireworks among the crowds. So they increased their holiday deployment, to 142 from 88, concentrating on the banks of the Rhine River, where revelers traditionally gather for a giant fireworks display.

As 2016 neared on Dec. 31, however, some 1,500 men, including some newly arrived asylum seekers and many other immigrants, had instead assembled around Cologne’s train station. Drunk and dismissive of the police, they took advantage of an overwhelmed force to sexually assault and rob hundreds of people, according to police reports, shocking Germany and stoking anxieties over absorbing refugees across Europe.

“We were just pressed on all sides by people,” recalled one victim, Johanna, 18, who agreed to speak by telephone from Lake Constance, Germany, where she lives, only if her last name was not used, fearing hostility, particularly over social media. “I was grabbed continually. I have never experienced such a thing in any German city.”

becomes this

COLOGNE, Germany -- In early December, the Cologne police made their New Year's Eve preparations. Drawing on the previous year's experience, they identified their biggest worry as pickpocketing and fireworks among the crowds. So they increased their holiday deployment, to 142 from 88, concentrating on the banks of the Rhine River, where revelers traditionally gather for a giant fireworks display.

As 2016 neared on Dec. 31, however, some 1,500 men, including some newly arrived asylum seekers and many other immigrants, had instead assembled around Cologne's train station. Drunk and dismissive of the police, they took advantage of an overwhelmed force to sexually assault and rob hundreds of people, according to police reports, shocking Germany and stoking anxieties over absorbing refugees across Europe.

"We were just pressed on all sides by people," recalled one victim, Johanna, 18, who agreed to speak by telephone from Lake Constance, Germany, where she lives, only if her last name was not used, fearing hostility, particularly over social media. "I was grabbed continually. I have never experienced such a thing in any German city."


TOPICS: Free Republic
KEYWORDS: format; fr; frpinctuation; frpunctuation; html; quotes; smartquotes
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1 posted on 01/15/2016 6:41:54 AM PST by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

Smart Quotes are Stupid!!!! I said it yea!!!


2 posted on 01/15/2016 6:43:23 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: reaganaut1

What I still don’t understand is why this suddenly started happening a few weeks ago. What changed?


3 posted on 01/15/2016 6:45:42 AM PST by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

If you favor straight quotes, you are homophobic.


4 posted on 01/15/2016 6:46:05 AM PST by null and void (This war starts in the spiritual realm-it will end in ours though.)
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To: reaganaut1

‘Straight’ quotes?? That’s homophobic!!


5 posted on 01/15/2016 6:46:26 AM PST by ObozoMustGo2012
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To: reaganaut1

You can c&p from FP posts and the formatting problem shows up.

I still think it’s a windows 10 problem. That’s when it showed up. Some where there’s a server that’s set for a different font.


6 posted on 01/15/2016 6:47:47 AM PST by dynoman (Objectivity is the essence of intelligence. - Marylin vos Savant)
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To: Menehune56
A million thanks!

quotation mark photo: Quotation marks pure_brand_communications_quotation.jpg
7 posted on 01/15/2016 6:48:02 AM PST by golux
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To: reaganaut1

There is only one website on the Internet that needs to fix Free Republic’s problem with character encoding. That website is freerepublic.com.

While it is good to inform posters of a workaround for the BUG on this site, the real solution is to fix the BUG, not have users jump through hoops to use the website.


8 posted on 01/15/2016 6:48:17 AM PST by perfect_rovian_storm
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To: ObozoMustGo2012
21 seconds.

Neener Frog photo neener_frog.jpg

9 posted on 01/15/2016 6:49:38 AM PST by null and void (This war starts in the spiritual realm-it will end in ours though.)
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To: Menehune56

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3356831/posts?page=46#46

Just the curly ones. Seriously. Straight quotes should cut and paste fine. Something went haywire after our last systems software upgrade and apparently fouled up the ms-smart character routine.

Hoping John solves the problem soon.

46 posted on 11/5/2015, 2:26:53 PM by Jim Robinson


10 posted on 01/15/2016 6:50:17 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: dynoman
I don't have Windows 10...and I still have problems.

(Yes, that was an intentional opening)

11 posted on 01/15/2016 6:52:22 AM PST by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: null and void

MaY i QuOtE yOu oN tHatt?


12 posted on 01/15/2016 6:54:48 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: dynoman

“I still think it’s a windows 10 problem.”

Not on the user side — I have had the problem with punctuation formatting using Windows 7, 8.1, and 10.


13 posted on 01/15/2016 6:55:57 AM PST by reaganaut1
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

iF yOu MuSt...


14 posted on 01/15/2016 6:56:46 AM PST by null and void (This war starts in the spiritual realm-it will end in ours though.)
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To: reaganaut1

I never saw it on FR until windows 10 rolled out. I’m using Windows 7.


15 posted on 01/15/2016 6:58:49 AM PST by dynoman (Objectivity is the essence of intelligence. - Marylin vos Savant)
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To: reaganaut1

I like strange characters.


16 posted on 01/15/2016 6:59:13 AM PST by Jeff Chandler (I shot Schroedinger's cat with Chekhov's gun.)
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To: reaganaut1

What’s so “smart” about quotes that can render the text unreadable?


17 posted on 01/15/2016 6:59:23 AM PST by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: reaganaut1

http://blog.luminoso.com/2012/08/20/fix-unicode-mistakes-with-python/

Isolate where the code is jumbling the characters and most of the code has already been written for you to fix it.


18 posted on 01/15/2016 7:00:38 AM PST by andrewinhd
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To: reaganaut1

What is this...the second or third thread this week on how to fix a stupid problem that shouldn’t be a concern for a website in 2016? Sheesh.


19 posted on 01/15/2016 7:01:51 AM PST by Carpe Cerevisi
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To: reaganaut1

Yeah; I’ve been using the linked site for a few weeks now when posting on FR. It doesn’t “fix” the problem; it’s simply a work-around. The FR web people need to deal with the glitch at that level.


20 posted on 01/15/2016 7:02:43 AM PST by MayflowerMadam (Bless the beasts and the children, for in this world they have no voice... they have no choice)
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