# Nested quotes have been discontinued **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 18, 2010, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502 "2010-10-18T01:12:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/121 "2010-12-03T22:53:41Z")
The “which is preferable” argument is moot: we tried the nested quotes experiment, we encountered a huge number of problems with badly edited quotes that often led to quote misattributions, we decided against allowing nested quotes. There is absolutely no intention at this point to bring them back. **twickster** , for the SDMB ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/122 "2010-12-03T23:02:43Z")
Yes. Really, **Rhythmdvl** , to an extent I appreciate your “this is why we can’t have nice things” frustration. But given what has been demonstrated about the ability of people on this board to correctly edit out unwanted nested posts, I for one am glad to see that there is no intention to return to using them in the foreseeable future. There’s another board I post at where people are able to handle having them, and it doesn’t really bother me to have to edit them out when I don’t need them–but seeing posts constantly getting broken in very bad ways here was just ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/123 "2010-12-03T23:51:31Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > The “which is preferable” argument is moot: we tried the nested quotes experiment, we encountered a huge number of problems with badly edited quotes that often led to quote misattributions, we decided against allowing nested quotes. > > There is absolutely no intention at this point to bring them back. > > **twickster** , for the SDMB I get you aren’t, but, jsut for teh edification, may I ask how much problem there was, not with the existence of the misattributions themselves, but _consequences_ of the misattributions? In other words was it a case of: “Dammit, eveyrone is screwing this up! it’s not working, stop it!” or “Dammit, everyone is screwing this up, and as a _result_, there is a huge rise in anger, fights, personal misunderstandings, and overall misery.” Cuz. if it was A…yeah, well, so? If it was B…pretty weak that it was happening, understandable that you addressed it the only easy way you could, taking away the toys everyone was fighting over. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/124 "2010-12-04T00:47:53Z")
There was a significant number of people who were pissed off that words they had not written were attributed to them. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/125 "2010-12-04T01:18:23Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > There was a significant number of people who were pissed off that words they had not written were attributed to them. I’ll echo this. I got many many more reports about misattribution under the giraffed system. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/126 "2010-12-04T01:45:50Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > I’ll echo this. I got many many more reports about misattribution under the giraffed system. I actually benefited from the system, the quality of my quoted posts improved substantially due to misattribution. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/127 "2010-12-04T01:50:52Z")
What puzzles me is that we had many years of nested quotes before they were discontinued with nary a complaint. Then for a short time we stopped them. I really can’t recall exactly for how long but my best guess was for a couple of years. Why we bothered to try again with nested quotes if they were a problem just a few years before is puzzling. It didn’t take very long for the recent experiment to fail. Why no problem with nested quotes for many years ? Why a problem with nested quotes after a few months ? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/128 "2010-12-04T02:01:44Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > I’ll echo this. I got many many more reports about misattribution under the giraffed system. > [@RaftPeople](#): > > I actually benefited from the system, the quality of my quoted posts improved substantially due to misattribution. Now _that’s_ funny. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/129 "2010-12-04T11:57:18Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > What puzzles me is that we had many years of nested quotes before they were discontinued with nary a complaint. I have posted here for over ten years, and never saw nested quotes until the giraffication. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/130 "2010-12-04T13:14:20Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I have posted here for over ten years, and never saw nested quotes until the giraffication. I don’t recall having had it here either. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/131 "2010-12-04T16:36:12Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I have posted here for over ten years, and never saw nested quotes until the giraffication. > [@twickster](#): > > I don’t recall having had it here either. Same here. To the best of my recollection, we never had nested quotes here before the recent experiment. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/132 "2010-12-04T16:44:01Z")
Well I’m simply going to have to concede that maybe I’m wrong. This is truly worrisome to me. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/133 "2010-12-04T16:46:17Z")
It’s a sad state of affairs when a messageboard that prides itself on its superior intellect is incapable of handling nested quotes, a function that 13 year olds on anime boards can handle with nary a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/134 "2010-12-04T17:10:55Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > Well I’m simply going to have to concede that maybe I’m wrong. This is truly worrisome to me. Whoa, whoa, _whoa_. Let’s not get crazy here. I’m quite certain we used to have them. As evidence, I submit this post from 2004: > [@Nested Quotes](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes/241936/7): > > The hamsters used to automatically nest internal quotes, but the feature was dropped in one of the vBulletin updates (I think it was when we came back from the Winter of Missed Content, about two years ago). It makes for much cleaner-looking threads, since a lot of folks habitually “quote” an entire post, unedited, before making their own reply. The exponential growth of those posts–as folks merely continued to quote the responses to the responses with all the old responses still intact–got to be pretty ridiculous in many instances. And this one from 2003: > [@Inserting multiple quotes in posts](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inserting-multiple-quotes-in-posts/151925/8): > > Multiple quotes were indeed a feature of 1.x. From what I understand, the hack required to go back to that style is quite involved - or, let me say, more involved than the SDMB is going to do, I am 99% certain. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/135 "2010-12-04T17:25:19Z")
Whew ! Thankyou Giraffe ! I was beginning to think that I should get tested . ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/136 "2010-12-04T17:27:10Z")
So it’s been 8 years? I thought I remembered nested quotes for the first few months I was here but it looks like I was mistaken. I have always hated nested quotes on any messageboard and strive to remove them whenever possible. During our Giraffe-inspired test run this ended up being virtually every post, and it was a huge PITA. I probably managed it correctly 98% of the time. Does that make me an incompetent worthy of derision? I have to agree with the quote from **minty green**. Nested quotes get carried along for the ride far more times than they’re needed, and it very quickly devolves into an eyesore on par with animated avatars and giant blinking hello kitty signature pics. We’re better than that, people. The raison d’etre of the SDMB is clean communication. Nested quotes run contrary to that. [Here on the Giants.com messageboard](http://boards.giants.com/forums/10/1970902/ShowThread.aspx#1970902) is an example of what nested quotes lead to “in the wild.” (Keep scrolling down the incredibly busy page to watch them grow even more as the conversation continues.) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/137 "2010-12-04T17:34:38Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > It’s a sad state of affairs when a messageboard that prides itself on its superior intellect is incapable of handling nested quotes… Equally sad that those people who have the rare occasion to nest quotes can’t manage to do it without imposing it on Every. Single. Quote. the rest of us make. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/138 "2010-12-04T17:37:34Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > And this one from 2003: > > > [@Una Persson](#): > > > > Multiple quotes were indeed a feature of 1.x. From what I understand, the hack required to go back to that style is quite involved - or, let me say, more involved than the SDMB is going to do, I am 99% certain. Multiple quotes are not the same as nested quotes. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/139 "2010-12-04T17:44:41Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Multiple quotes are not the same as nested quotes. That’s true, but in that thread **Una** used the term to refer to nested quotes. (See [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2929990&postcount=11).) ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502/140 "2010-12-04T17:54:37Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Equally sad that those people who have the rare occasion to nest quotes can’t manage to do it without imposing it on Every. Single. Quote. the rest of us make. They can. It’s just a fuckton more work than 5 seconds with the backspace key. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nested-quotes-have-been-discontinued/557502.md?page=8)