I posed a similar challenge to someone and it appeared to be sufficiently hard that I'll post it here. Sooo... Find the hidden message! It's right here!
2 Answers
Yay, you found it!
So, I started with @Joe-You-Know's answer, and figured there would be more.
I took the text, reduced it to a pattern of "a" for not zero-width-non-joiner, and "X" for is zero-width-non-joiner.
a XaaXaXaa Xa XaXaaaaaXa XaXaXaXaaaXaaaX aXaX aaaaXaaa aaaX XaXaX aaXaaXaXaaXaX XaXa XaXaX aXaaXaaaXaaaaaa XaXaaaX XaaaXaX aX'XaXaX aXaXaXa XaaX aXaXaaX.X XaaaXaX...X aaaaX aaa aaXaXaaXa aXaaXaXaXaaX! aa'Xa aaaXaa aaaa!
It didn't look quite right, and after looking further, I decided that spaces and punctuation count as "a"s.
aaXaaXaXaaaXaaXaXaaaaaXaaXaXaXaXaaaXaaaXaaXaXaaaaaXaaaaaaaXaXaXaXaaaXaaXaXaaXaXaXaXaaXaXaXaaXaaXaaaXaaaaaaaXaXaaaXaXaaaXaXaaXaXaXaXaaXaXaXaaXaaXaaXaXaaXaXaXaaaXaXaaaXaaaaaXaaaaaaaXaXaaXaaaXaaXaXaXaaXaaaaaXaaaaaXaaaaaaaa
This then gave me that an "X" always had an "a" before it. So: "aX" became 1 and "a" became "0". At this point, it broke up nicely in groups of 8.
01011001 01100001 01111001 00101100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110101 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100001 00000000
Became hex
59 61 79 2c 20 79 6f 75 20 66 6f 75 6e 64 20 69 74 21 00
and then ASCII
Yay, you found it!^@
-
$\begingroup$ Yes, finally someone found it! My thinking was: Every character of the visible text either has a "non-breaking space" behind it or it doesn't. That's 0 or 1. A binary translator like paulschou.com/tools/xlate gives you the hidden text. I'm not sure if I also tried to hide something in the title (for example "Hi!" would fit), but I think it didn't save. After 17 months it's hard to remember. :D I'm happy that someone finally guessed it! $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 2, 2020 at 1:08
So I noticed
After some letters (it seems to be random) is the character  which is Unicode Character 'ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE' (U+FEFF)
Here is what it actually is
I 😊 po😊s😊ed 😊a 😊s😊imila😊r 😊c😊h😊a😊lle😊nge😊 t😊o😊 some😊one and😊 😊i😊t😊 ap😊pe😊a😊re😊d😊 😊t😊o 😊b😊e😊 s😊uf😊fic😊iently 😊h😊ard😊 😊tha😊t😊 I😊'😊l😊l😊 p😊o😊s😊t 😊it😊 h😊e😊re😊.😊 😊Soo😊o😊...😊 Find😊 the hi😊d😊de😊n m😊es😊s😊s😊a😊ge😊! It's😊s rig😊ht here!
This is where,
😊 = 
-
-
$\begingroup$ @jwi, I'd like to know as well... $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 23, 2018 at 15:51
-
1$\begingroup$ How did you notice the unicode character? I just see plain text except for the second spoiler tag you put $\endgroup$– R.DCommented Aug 24, 2018 at 4:17
-
1$\begingroup$ @R.D I'm I web designer currently. Using the inspect element is second nature to me now. Especially if I suspect that their could be hidden code. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 24, 2018 at 5:05
-
1$\begingroup$ @R.D It can also be found by copying the whole thing into Notepad++. Not only does it show little dots above the characters where I put the special character behind, but when you go through it with the cursor, it also does an extra zero width step there. And as an extra advantage, you can search for it to find all easily. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 24, 2018 at 8:17

or‌
for a similar character) instead of the literal character be an acceptable compromise? I understand it may essentially reveal a secret to anybody editing, but the secret is shared knowledge at this point anyhow. $\endgroup$