Thank you very much! It now works.
All the * characters added by me to post this. Take out all * to get the correct understanding.
I first tested to make sure the bug was still there. It was. I then took out all the text from the Censored Words box in my control panel. The bug with the title characters was fixed.
I then put all the text back in the Censored Words box in my control panel. The bug was still fixed. I am leaving all the text back in the Censored Words box.
There is a topic that was started before this bug started. It's title is " * :*) :*) :*)". I tried just now, after doing all of the above, to start another topic called " * :*) :*) :*)", and I also tried to edit the first post in the original " * :*) :*) :*)" topic without altering the " * :*) :*) :*)" title. Both times I got an error message that the subject does not contain at least one letter or number.
The person that started the " * :*) :*) :*)" topic edited their post about an hour before I fixed the bug apparently without problems. Looking at my moderator notification email records, I think that the original title of the topic was " * :*)". I can't now post a topic titled " * :*)".
After doing all the above, I again confirmed at 4:22 PM my forum time that the bug is gone.
Please feel free to post a test topic to my forum and edit it to attempt to recreate the bug.
Bug fixed about 3:00 PM September 13, 2002 my forum time.
Thank you very much for your help.
This is the text that was and is in my Censored Words box in my control panel:
Edited by LK: final warning - there is a reason why the words have *'s in them. If you edit my edit again to add them back, you won't be able to edit any post again