I deleted all rows from the shoutbox table, again. With NO data in this table, the shoutbox will still not function. So I'm not sure it could be a malformed character issue.
We hid the shoutbox, as it wasn't working. It is now back up on the right if you want to see for yourself. If you try it, it should hang on "Sending", and I am sure that your shout post will be in the shoutbox table. You won't see it in the shoutbox, however.