meta_compare is breaking

Hello,

I really like this plugin and it is working pretty well. I have multiple meta requirements that I want my code to pass. The first is that the post is less recent than when the page loads. The second is that the scrollcontent_page meta_key is a certain value (which I calculate in php).

I used the shortcode builder and my meta_compare=”<:=”. When I use the less than symbol, the shortcode returns the text of the shortcode, as opposed to any posts. I know it is the less than symbol because when I remove it, it loads fine, but the comparison doesn’t work as I need it to.

Here is the relevant code I have:

if ( !isset($time)){
    $time = ( isset($_GET['pagestamp']) ? $_GET['pagestamp'] : time() );
}
$scrollcontent_page = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'scrollcontent_page', true );
echo do_shortcode('
    [ajax_load_more
    post_type="scrollcontent"
    post_format="standard"
    meta_key="scrollcontent_pagestamp:scrollcontent_page"
    meta_value="'.$time.':'.$scrollcontent_page.'"
    meta_compare="<:="
    meta_relation="AND"
    orderby="meta_value_num"
    order="desc"
    offset="0"
    posts_per_page="8"
    scroll_distance="-300"
    max_pages="0"
    transition="fade"
    button_label="Loading Fun..."]
');

This is on http://www.memerize.net. I can put it to the less than symbol if you want to see the message for yourself.

Thanks!

https://ww.wp.xz.cn/plugins/ajax-load-more/