Some non-breaking spaces are converted to ` ` by seemingly unrelated edits performed by WikEd ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Parkinson%27s_disease&type=revision&diff=791796008&oldid=791791493|example]]).
**Discussed here:**
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:WhatamIdoing#Hard_spaces
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=817123554#Stop_adding_ |https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Cacycle/wikEd#Stop_adding_ ]]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?&oldid=817326506#Non_breaking_spaces
**Summary:**
It seems that when content is copied from a page in "Read" mode, and then pasted into "Edit" mode, nbsp characters are added to the clipboard, which thus sneak into the wikicode version as people copy the content into a wikicode editor. As people later on use WikEd to visit, these characters get converted to their entity representation, which makes them more noticeable to people.
**Steps by Doc James:**
Chrome v62, windows 10
>>! @Doc_James wrote:
> 1) Take this section of the article [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septic_arthritis#Signs_and_symptoms | Septic_arthritis#Signs_and_symptoms]]. Hit edit using VE.
> 2) Copied it here within VE editing mode [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Doc_James/HardspaceTest | User:Doc_James/HardspaceTest ]]
> 3) Copied it from[[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Doc_James/HardspaceTest | User:Doc_James/HardspaceTest ]] but did not hitting edit in VE first (just copied in reading mode).
> 4) Pasted it back https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Septic_arthritis&type=revision&diff=817270489&oldid=816873518 (with VE: version contains UTF8 encoded nbsp: **c2 a0**, see attachment)
> 5) They appear. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Septic_arthritis&diff=next&oldid=817270489 (wikEd converts them to nbsp entities).
> In this version I cannot separate "fever" and "is" so even when not visible they are there. These are NOT being added by WikEd but by VE.
This is the wikicode of the revision that introduced the nbsp, which according to the tags was made by VE.
{F12221832}
```
000012c0 68 65 20 6d 6f 73 74 20 63 6f 6d 6d 6f 6e 20 6a |he most common j|
000012d0 6f 69 6e 74 20 61 66 66 65 63 74 65 64 20 69 73 |oint affected is|
000012e0 20 74 68 65 20 6b 6e 65 65 2e c2 a0 48 69 70 2c | the knee...Hip,|
000012f0 20 73 68 6f 75 6c 64 65 72 2c 20 77 72 69 73 74 | shoulder, wrist|
00001300 2c 20 6f 72 20 65 6c 62 6f 77 20 6a 6f 69 6e 74 |, or elbow joint|
00001310 73 20 61 72 65 20 6c 65 73 73 20 63 6f 6d 6d 6f |s are less commo|
```
**Unanswered questions:**
# Does this happen when copying from the preview surface?