NavList:

Yes, occasionally when a post author goes looking for a degree symbol to add to a post, that person will pick a symbol that resembles a degree symbol, but it is not a degree symbol. I try to catch these and replace the degree-like non-degree symbols, since they can lead to weird issues later when they are copied into follow-up messages. For example, there have been cases where creative folks have used the "superscript" capability with a lower-case letter "o". This produces a little "circle" to the upper right of a digit that resembles a degree symbol. But semantically, this is still a letter "o". The case that you have noticed of a degree-like non-degree symbol that appears as a small circle with an underscore below it is an example of the "masculine ordinal character" --the linked wikipedia article explains it thoroughly and even mentions the confusion with the degree symbol. Fundamentally this is an abbreviation similar to the "-th" "-rd" in English ordinals, for example 3^rd floor and 4^th floor. In Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and some similar languages, the equivalent is an "-o" as in "primero" and "segundo" represented as 1º and 2º. Note that symbol resembles the degree symbol, but it is not the same.

A reminder to all: 
On the NavList website, there is a full-fledged visual message editor that allows you to create messages with all the expected formatting, like bold and italic highlighting (shortcuts are ctrl-B and ctrl-I) and subscripts (H_s) and superscripts (ẟ²) and bulleted lists:

• index correction
• dip
• refraction
• semi-diameter

as well as blockquotes:

You must never fool yourself... and you are the easiest person to fool.

and you can create a link, e.g., to a Wikipedia article just by highlighting text and tapping ctrl-L.

And of course there is a little button that inserts a degree symbol wherever you need it with a single click (I've represented it with a "faded" 5 and a degree symbol next to it since the degree symbol alone was not sufficiently inviting). All you have to do is tap that button, and, ta-da!, degree symbol. Finally, there is a button that inserts a "middot" to represent multiplication. For these latter two cases, one can always just paste in those characters from any other reasonablly modern document, online or otherwise, that incudes them. For Windows users, you can select characters in the old "character map" application (on your keyboard hold down the Windows button, then hit R... in the "Run" dialog that pops up, type charmap and off you go...). Additionally, if you prefer to type your messages offline (because you are a time-traveler from the 1990s perhaps?? ;) ), then you can type d in square brackets in any messages (like [e] but with a "d" instead of an "e") and it will automatically be converted into a degree symbol. 

You can use any UTF-8 characters in NavList messages, no worries. Want a litte Russian? Feel free: Сегодня хороший день. Perhaps a bit of Japanese? No problem: おはようございます。Or maybe you just want some letters from the Greek alphabet... Help yourself: αβγδεζηθικλμνξοπρστυφχψω.

Frank Reed
Clockwork Mapping / ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island USA