It's gotta be some weird content programming issue, because the backslash doesn't appear in datafield in the maintain threads form. I had to replace the apostrophe with the entity for an apostrophe to get it to look right. Thank goodness I had ita's entities page bookmarked.

It's as if somewhere the backslash is being put in to escape the apostrophe.

Actually, the strange keeps on coming. I know we've used apostrophes in titles before with no problems, so I inserted one into a different thread's slug for a moment, and it worked fine. So I went back and overwrote the entity with an apostrophe, and now it's working right, too.

It must have had something to do with yesterday's thread creation mishap.

It\'s all my fault. I\'m certain of it.

You know, I hear there's this new disease that affects actuaries. It results in occasional blackouts of several seconds, along with multiple (>100) rapid spasms of the index finger (or the thumb if you're using a laptop).

You mean thereminitis?

I've heard that thereminist repetitive stress syndrome is a very underreported problem. I mean, have you ever watched Jon's hands during a performance? All that motion with no wrist support?

(Heh, x-posted.)

I suspect the backslash comes from PHP's "magic quotes" feature, designed to protect against SQL injection attacks but mostly just driving programmers insane.

It's a strange time for it to pop up, though. Not sure which conditions were satisfied this time that hadn't occurred before.

And to have it come and go on its own is odd. Is Istrata doing some upgrades on the server?