Q: what is Best Arabic encode?

[MALSAEED]

Dear All,
as I'm going to setup my new forum I need your advise regarding the Best encode for Arabic . for MySQL and VB language .
Thanks

[Andy Huang]

If oyu're starting out fresh, I highly recommend to start with UTF-8 for all languages. While some local email providers may not fully support it yet, it will save you a lot of headache to convert to character encoding later. This recommendation goes for all languages, not just Arabic. Because in the long run, local dependant encodings (IE: ISO-8859-1 for English / French etc. that uses A-Z, BIG-5 for Chinese Traditional, etc. etc. etc.) are going to be phased out and replaced with an unicode variant... and from what it seems now, UTF-8 is the one people will use online.

[vicmarconi]

I'm having some difficulties with my forum encoding.
My database uses utf8, I've uncommented utf8 (at config.php) and I've configured my language to place UTF8 (at Edit Settings - language and phrases).

But (in any phrase), when it finds an "special character" (é, ç, ã) the word simply ends.

Ex.: Notification in portuguese is "Notificação". But it only shows "Notifica"

Thanks!