(no subject)

[pensnest]

I. Am baffled.

I followed a MetaFilter link to a page on Longreads (this one) and noticed that there are no x, y and z letters on the pages.

Is there some unprecedented quirk in my browser? When I cut and paste this sentence, it all shows.

Longreads publishes and curates powerful writing, from personal essays to investigative journalism — and we wouldn’t exist without supporters like you

But when I read it online, it looks like this: Longreads publishes and curates powerful writing, from personal essas to investigative journalism — and we wouldn’t e"ist without supporters like ou.

I… have no idea what is going on. i thought perhaps it was a means of making articles available to people who haven't paid a subscription, but on the Join Longreads page there is no mention of getting your end-of-alphabet back if you pay. Beast suggests they are using a weird font that—for reasons passing understanding—doesn't show these letters.

Take a look! Do you get this y-less effect?

Comments

[copracat]

The page with the adorbs illustrations has x,y and Z for me. I'm using Firefox on a Mac.

[pensnest]

I am also using Firefox on a Mac. Very weird indeed.

[chalcopyrite]

Chrome on a windows machine works fine. My guess would be concur with Beast's -- they're forcing a font, and you don't have it installed, maybe?

Thank you for linking that adorable essay, anyway!

[pensnest]

It's strange, because the whole thing looks like a perfectly normal font. On the grounds that my eyes will glaze over if my Beast attempts to explain in detail, I think I may have to remain baffled.

[sperrywink]

How bizarre! Enough so that I had to go check, and it worked for me in Chrome on a PC.

[watervole]

Likewise

[pensnest]

It is bizarre, isn't it! I mean, I prefer my own suggestion that it might be a "this is an incentive to get you to pay for our stuff" application, but apparently not.

Thanks for checking!

[wenchpixie]

It displays okay for me, but it sounds like CSS weirdness - possibly you've an addon somewhere that doesn't quite get on with their code.

[pensnest]

I did get a new setup quite recently, so perhaps something has snuck in that I can't think of... anyway, thanks for checking.

[ephemera]

I have all the letters (Firefox on Ubuntu) and also really enjoyed the read - I' sorry that technology is thwarting you!

[pensnest]

I'm a little bit disappointed they aren't taking the ys out on purpose! Glad you enjoyed the article.

[turlough]

I can see them in Firefox on my aging Mac.

PS That was a fun and interesting article!