You mean beyond the obvious "you're being watched"?

Whatever the reason may be, the sloppiness (carelessness?;)) shines through.. both the trailing comma AND an extra space were also underlined. tsk tsk tsk.. I'm surprised an worldwide anything can be sustained at this level of competence and attention to detail. ;)

  Oh but what will really bake your noodle later on is.. why the heck do you go around highlighting your own weeks old text for?!

Unless....


I'll keep poundering...
Foxxy Scully.

Yep, and if you click your edit button you'll notice it doesn't have any formatting tags either.

  Not that I'd have access to your edit button or anything, of course. Just noting those square bracket tags are different than the ones the browser act2ally show. ^_^

  What I'd really be worrying about though is why on earth the forum seems to underline most instances of the terms "worldwide government conspiracy"..
  That alone is creepy to say the least! Perhaps your forum has been.. compromised? Mwahahaha


Danny Mulder.

hi dudes,

well... first of all, I don't experience that phenomenon myself. That's a first point...

next, I'm far from being a specialist in HTML code, much too bollocks-grinding stuff

however, I'd dare to emit some ideas: nowadays, most of this kind of stuff is handled through a CSS-style sheet, somewhere. The first difficulty being in the localization of the "somewhere". In order to help people using CSS sheets, web developers, etc... you got a nice plugin tool named firebug which can display a series of tabs, where you can find all the details of your page. One of these tabs displays the HTML structure of the page, and is able to highlight sections of html code while you hover your mouse cursor over the different elements of your page. On the far right side on this tab you got a specific block of text which displays the CSS properties of the part you have selected in the code / on the page.

In this case, I would prob use it in order to localize the CSS file that is used. In particular by placing the mouse cursor somewhere in the paragraph but outside the highlighted-underlined part, and then within that part, and see if I got any difference in terms of CSS source.

Then, you surely will see something related to "highlighted text" or sth like that having a different definition of style than the one of the regular CSS class used around.

Now, maybe before entering into that nitty gritty phase -because then you'd have to discover how to modify it, and I'd have to explain it to you... , I will try at least 2 or 3 different browsers to see if they all make the same thing. If they do, the issue is more to be found in the specific source of this block of text (like in which software it may have been edited before being pasted into the site article); if they don't, and for example only Firefox does it, it's more to be looked upon in firefox styles plugins, or stuff like that.

In any case, it's pretty weird stuff, dudes...! Everyone clean round here...? hmm...? 8D

Hi dudes,
...Curiouser and curiouser  :  )

I tried the same text in 'article submission' mode and this time, a different segment is underlined, as follows:
***
However, it is not possible to 'hack' serious mental problems with techniques such as are discussed here. Folks already under long term psychiatric care, or those who believe they are actually a horse, or the victim of a worldwide government conspiracy, or the greatest undiscovered genius since time began, or that aliens are sending them secret messages in pop songs, shouldn't be using this site.
***

'Remove formatting' does remove the effect. I haven't had time to mess with it anymore yet, but am wondering whether it will ever be possible to know why it happens, even if I figure out how to get rid of it?
Best,
AR

I wasn't clear in my statement.  When highlighting the entire block of text, I do see it as underlined. I was attempting to point out that if you scrutinize the effect by isolating the upper and lower lines by highlighting them separately, it is readily apparent that the affected characters are those on the lower line.  Meaning, the effect is not an underline, but an overline.

  What is truly interesting about this effect is the fact that it is interesting.  Would it be discussed had the words in question been anything other than  "world wide conspiracy"?  On this page, above in Scalino's post I see

" Now, maybe before entering into that nitty gritty phase -because then you'd have to discover how to modify it, and "
being underlined
(or more specifically... "I'd have to explain it to you... smile, I will try at least 2 or 3 different browsers to see if they all make the same thing."  being overlined)

in this case I think it is the smiley face causing the lines of text to be spread apart.


hmmm... looking again at your original text, the cause is clear.  You wrote
"them secret messages in pop songs, shouldn't be using this site."
and "worldwide government conspiracy" is right above "them secret messages in pop songs"

I now predict that when you highlight the preceding block of text, you will see "hmmm... looking again at your original"as being underlined.

Had this discussion not started with words already primed to engender a feeling of danger, would we even be paying attention?


P.S. I am familiar with the concept of negative space, and if it's the lady I presume* you are speaking about, I can make see it spin either way round.  If I relax and watch it long enough, I can see it as a 2D blob morphing from one shape to another with no rotational component.

* I don't use youtube

deleted double post.. ( is there a way to actually delete a post?)

Curiosity is all encompassing, but some things capture our curiosity more than others.

  'sex with five gallons'   made you turn around, and I believe would capture more peoples attention than had the remaining sign said 'uplet savings points every purchased'
  just as "worldwide government conspiracy" demanded more attention underlined than
" Now, maybe before entering into that nitty gritty phase -because then you'd have to discover how to modify it, and " did underlined.

For the former, I presume the priming was due the sexuality of the subject.  For the latter, I presumed the priming was due the excitement/danger/intrigue of the idea. Initially I thought it a good example of how we are programmed by media input and maybe too many action films.

curious-er and curious-er, 
   I just now see that Act2Ally had already sussed out the answer as indicated by the 'sub-liminal' that was inserted above.   
  I am curious as to why you didn't answer the question posed by Alex initially.  Did I miss the point of this game?