# Any trick for somehow preserving the prior quote, even if only during editing?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-trick-for-somehow-preserving-the-prior-quote-even-if-only-during-editing/660934>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [June 13, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-trick-for-somehow-preserving-the-prior-quote-even-if-only-during-editing/660934 "2013-06-13T21:48:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-trick-for-somehow-preserving-the-prior-quote-even-if-only-during-editing/660934/21 "2013-06-15T04:12:26Z")

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For anyone who’s interested, here’s the thread from 2010 when nested quotes were turned off again. [Nested quotes have been discontinued - About This Message Board - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=582220)

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**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-trick-for-somehow-preserving-the-prior-quote-even-if-only-during-editing/660934/22 "2013-06-15T13:06:16Z")

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> [@Stoid](#):
>
> It’s such a bummer when we all have to be inconvenienced because some people are…ahem…less than savvy. For a board like this one, which by it’s very nature attracts a more competent, savvy, ignorance-fighting type of person, it seems counter-intuitive to set things up for the convenience of the least competent, savvy, ignorant-and-apparently-content-to-remain-so among us.

I too wish nested quotes would be turned back on. I wasn’t terribly inconvenienced by the occasional screw-up, and I managed to figure out the proper context most of the time. But I can’t agree with the above.

We all have different levels of competence in different areas of endeavor. If you need to deal with a spitting cobra or a black mamba, an eagle or a crocodile, call me – that kind of thing is my wheelhouse. I’m a pretty savvy guy in a few other areas as well. But when it comes to coding, well – not so much.

What might be useful, but probably would require a hack of vbulletin, would be adding a “nested quote button” next to the “quote button”. That way a user could choose to include or not include the nestings, and wouldn’t have to struggle with the manual deletions that seemed to cause such a problem. Since nested quotes can be turned on or off globally, I’m confident somebody with the requisite skill set could find a way to turn it on or off for individual posts. But again, that skill set sure isn’t mine.

ETA - another hack-- since those deletions were often screwed up because the “]” was auto-selected along with text, could the quote facility itself be modified to insert a " " (space) before/after the brackets? Then text selection tools might more easily select only the proper portion of the quote. Making it easier for us less-skillful non-coders.

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