the intrawebs
I found this one day on the tubes garyc.mooo.com:3232/rr/
it is SFW by the way
(seshmarls, Sat 8 Nov 2008, 10:38, 6 replies)

Lol
like it!
(uscmrisc Rules!, Sat 8 Nov 2008, 10:44, closed)

Oh,
very good.

A nice twist on an old trick!
(dchurch bah, Sat 8 Nov 2008, 11:00, closed)

can
someone please explain how this is done? is it an easter egg?


oh, and click
(knackerz is skinning up, Sat 8 Nov 2008, 13:52, closed)

I see
nothing

:(
(bamboozled Can hear you getting fatter, Sat 8 Nov 2008, 14:19, closed)

I too
would like to know how this is done.

Click'd.
(posthumous mince is tiptoeing through the tulips, Sat 8 Nov 2008, 14:49, closed)

here comes the science:
Briefly - The page has an embedded flash object, with the text as a 'label' or 'tag'.

It's invisible to most browsers, who allow them by default. But if you're running Firefox with Flash Blocker to screen out those blimmin' irritating flash ads that swarm the web; you'll just see a placeholder instead, alerting you to it's intended presence, and waiting for permission to execute.

The page relies on most users click-dragging to select the character, and since it looks like there's only one symbol on the page, people will drag imprecisely and select the hidden flash object too.

Since text editors generally can't display flash objects, they'll show its 'tag' instead.

Hope this helps!

(edit: Oh, and clicked.)
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Sat 8 Nov 2008, 15:23, closed)