Item — HN Reader

> Writing in a plaintext editor before copying into HN

Yes, I think it is a thing where people type into Microsoft Word (or similar). Given how moving around the web can cause text in fields to be lost, I don't blame them. But it was a surprising discovery for sure.

2 comments

Mobile devices is my guess. For example, iOS by default does not use straight ASCII quote, all quotes are "typographically-correct" curly quotes, pretty much in conformance of Apple design-obsessive reputation.

It’s the default substitution done on iOS devices - the OS used on the most widely used smartphone in the US - this is a lot more common among HN users than copying and pasting out of MS Word??