Weird boxes and symbols

[leroybrown]

Sorry if this has been talked about but I tried a search and didn't find anything.

What does it mean when every now and then a bunch of boxes and other things flash on the screen realy quick like someone is trying to say something?

Heres what I mean, say I'm playing against a guy named Joe. Every couple of minutes, real fast, his name comes up like he's talking but its just a bunch of boxes that dissapear real fast.

I've seen this on several servers now and I'm just wondering what the deal is.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

{edit} When I say talking I mean text, not using voice.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I get this as well, just as the text fades away, squares, triangles and weird symbols. The fading text turns into random crap, i'd like to know if there was a fix?

 

[C1Team]

This shows up cause people use the alt keys and make there name look retarded. If it annoys you that much find public servers that don't allow them.

 

[leroybrown]

No thats not what I'm talking about. I dont mean this:

ŸıïæÉë∏æ

What I'm saying is that it looks like they're trying to type something but just plain square boxes come up and then fade out real quick.

 

[Milkman]

I think it is somekind of text flood control, as it pops up, takes up all the space for text and disappears quickly.

 

[antimatter]

No thats not what I'm talking about. I dont mean this:

ŸıïæÉë∏æ

What I'm saying is that it looks like they're trying to type something but just plain square boxes come up and then fade out real quick.

It happens to me as well. What others are saying is that its caused by people who have names like that. It never happens when people with normal names type something.

 

[DarkCanuck]

Ya i know what your are talking about. it looks like a quater box, like a backwards capital L .
maybe it does that when people try to spam messages?

 

[samfox]

cuz it different fonts/language packs, people from different countries type in their own characters and your HL2/CSS version will not support the language pack.