Let me summarize the current conclusion LOL
This is a common problem that CJK users encounter when using the Mirror editor：
You can view this video:
The entry is here test — 0x147b…4b14.
The root cause in Mirror in here, store the content as Markdown and parse the content by using Markdown parser and give it to the ProseMirror Editor. According to the Markdown parser, the content is incorrect. This also answers the question of why everything looks fine when Editing, but after publishing, the writer will find some Weird Asterisks showing up. It’s very frustrating for an editing platform that uses Web3 technologies, and normally the content should not be changed after release. The writer must edit and try to remove those Weird Asterisks!
We have found the issue is related to Markdown standard:
The creator of Markdown has noticed this issue, but they can do nothing for it in a short period.
After research and discussion, we have three solutions:
1 RECOMMENDED Mirror continues to use ProseMirror, but uses JSON to store the content. Just like Confluence dose. Confluence uses ProseMirror and has no issue, because they use JSON format to store the content.
This scheme may need to consider the compatibility of previous markdown and JSON storage formats, but this is not a big problem, as Mirror stores static data on AR.
2 replace with other editors or buidl Mirror Editor. Like Medium/Notion, None of their editors have the above problems. Because they buidt their Editor for their needs. We would not recommend doing it, as Confluence works very well with ProseMirror as one of the most famous document products.
From long-term, customize Editor will have more room to improve or buidl features.
3 Tell CJK users not to include the punctuation marks when using bold fonts
DO NOT USE **中文。**
USE **中文**。
As we think this isn’t an easy fix, we will make a poster to explain why and how to avoid it. After we see this issue, will send it to the author to know. The poster will be finished within the week.
Is this issue important?
There is a very influential creator platform https://www.jianshu.com/ (MAU 16 Million in 2019) in China, which used markdown at first, then gradually abandoned the markdown editor because of Chinese compatibility and experience issues. More details and reasons:
Suppose Mirror wants to become one of the best Editors. In that case, we believe that Mirror is committed to improving the editing experience of all users, and care about CJK users (as other mainstream Editors won’t have this issue). We hope that the above research will be helpful.