I’m running forums at Renewable Heating Hub using wpfofo, and I’ve come across a strange formatting issue. When I enclose text with two pairs of triple asterisks (e.g., *\*\*some text*\*\* (without the \\\)), the result is bold red text with the asterisks removed.

The same issue occurs on the forums here too. *\*\*some text*\*\* = some text

The issue only happens occasionally. For example, yesterday it occurred with some R output that unintentionally used two pairs of triple asterisks.

Does anyone know:

1. What might be causing this behaviour?

2. Is there an escape character or method I can use to stop the asterisks from being processed this way?