Some character strings not properly rendered by forum software.

[StephenB]

If I enter data followed by : the forum renders it as data: 

It is possible to edit the html to fix it - if you use <strong>data</strong><strong>:</strong> you get data:

But you shouldn't have to do this.

[KennethL]

Hello @StephenB

The replacement to data&colon; is a security measure to prevent Cross Site Scripting XSS.  It just happens your combination of "data" followed by either ":" or "&colon" will be filtered out with replacement text.

Community users will have a replacement   data;      Certain roles, like, moderators, community managers, administrators will have replacement text    data&colon;

Some XSS attacks are listed >>  xss attack vectors  https://gist.github.com/soaj1664/9588791

                     

====

For signatures, the combination of "data" followed by either ":" or "&colon" will be filtered out with replacement text data&colon;    The workaround is the one you provided <strong>data</strong><strong>:</strong>   

Another less obvious html       data<i>:</i>

Regards,

Kenneth

Community Manager