# Quote Boxes Screwing Up **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 27, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139 "2010-07-27T02:24:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/1 "2010-07-27T02:24:11Z")
Twice this week, the quote boxes in someone’s post has attributed a quote to me that was made by someone else. And just now, when I quoted someone, the box attributed someone else. See [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12724502&postcount=192) (the quote was actually made by **Spoke** , not by me), [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12729086&postcount=19) (quote made by **Bridget Burke** , not by me) and [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12730486&postcount=22) (quote made by **Chefguy** , not by **Bridget Burke** ). Something is up with the quote boxes. This did’t happen before. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/2 "2010-07-27T02:28:07Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Twice this week, the quote boxes in someone’s post has attributed a quote to me that was made by someone else. And just now, when I quoted someone, the box attributed someone else. See [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12724502&postcount=192) (the quote was actually made by **Spoke** , not by me), [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12729086&postcount=19) (quote made by **Bridget Burke** , not by me) and [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12730486&postcount=22) (quote made by **Chefguy** , not by **Bridget Burke** ). > > Something is up with the quote boxes. This did’t happen before. Isn’t that what happens when someone quotes a nested quote, and clips off the final quote tag? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/3 "2010-07-27T02:28:23Z")
We have nested quotes now, and, by the look of things, some posters have not yet realized how to properly excise material from within them. Note that in all three of those posts, there’s an opening quote tag that was never closed. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/4 "2010-07-27T02:31:32Z")
> [@j66](#): > > > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > > > Twice this week, the quote boxes in someone’s post has attributed a quote to me that was made by someone else. And just now, when I quoted someone, the box attributed someone else. See [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12724502&postcount=192) (the quote was actually made by **Spoke** , not by me), [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12729086&postcount=19) (quote made by **Bridget Burke** , not by me) and [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12730486&postcount=22) (quote made by **Chefguy** , not by **Bridget Burke** ). > > > > Something is up with the quote boxes. This did’t happen before. > > Isn’t that what happens when someone quotes a nested quote, and clips off the final quote tag? No edit … ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/5 "2010-07-27T02:33:02Z")
[quote=“j66, post:2, topic:548139”] > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Twice this week, the quote boxes in someone’s post has attributed a quote to me that was made by someone else. And just now, when I quoted someone, the box attributed someone else. See [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12724502&postcount=192) (the quote was actually made by **Spoke** , not by me), [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12729086&postcount=19) (quote made by **Bridget Burke** , not by me) and [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12730486&postcount=22) (quote made by **Chefguy** , not by **Bridget Burke** ). > > Something is up with the quote boxes. This did’t happen before. Isn’t that what happens when someone quotes a nested quote, and clips off the final quote tag? Clipping final quote tag … ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/6 "2010-07-27T02:33:46Z")
(Of course, one of the OP’s examples is just a quote of another one, with the malformed coding carrying over, so there’s really only been two mistakes) ETA: This post is in reply to the OP, not **j66** ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/7 "2010-07-27T02:35:20Z")
I can’t keep up with these newfangled developments. I just got my first cellphone this month. I’m having too much new technology thrown at me. ☹ So I accidentally clipped off a quote tag on mine? And the other guys did, too? What is “nested quoting”? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/8 "2010-07-27T02:37:04Z")
You didn’t make the mistakes; **BlakeTyner** and **Chefguy** did. Nested quoting means you can have one quote box inside another quote box. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/9 "2010-07-27T02:38:05Z")
Let’s see… would it look like this? [quote=“j66, post:2, topic:548139”] > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Twice this week, the quote boxes in someone’s post has attributed a quote to me that was made by someone else. And just now, when I quoted someone, the box attributed someone else. See [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12724502&postcount=192) (the quote was actually made by **Spoke** , not by me), [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12729086&postcount=19) (quote made by **Bridget Burke** , not by me) and [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12730486&postcount=22) (quote made by **Chefguy** , not by **Bridget Burke** ). > > Something is up with the quote boxes. This did’t happen before. Isn’t that what happens when someone quotes a nested quote, and clips off the final quote tag? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/10 "2010-07-27T02:42:47Z")
No, it’s not because of clipping of the final quote tag. The mistakes were of the following form: Somebody hit the quote button and got the following well-formed post: ```auto [quote=Spoke] [quote=Siam Sam] Stuff Siam Sam said [/quote (Closing Siam Sam's quote)] Stuff Spoke said [/quote (Closing Spoke's quote)] ``` Then they tried to remove things, but did it improperly. They removed the Stuff Siam Sam said and they removed the Siam Sam-ending quote tag, but they didn’t remove the Siam Sam-opening quote tag. Thus, they got the following: ```auto [quote=Spoke] [quote=Siam Sam] Stuff Spoke said [/quote (This should've closed Spoke's quote, but now it's closing Siam Sam's quote instead)] ``` Now the opening quote tag for Spoke’s quote box is never closed, and a stray opening quote tag for Siam Sam has been left in that should have been removed instead. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/11 "2010-07-27T02:53:40Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > You didn’t make the mistakes; **BlakeTyner** and **Chefguy** did. > > Nested quoting means you can have one quote box inside another quote box. But in the third example, how could I have made a mistake? All I did was click on the Quote button. I did not go in and trim anything. Just clicked Quote and left my message at the bottom. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/12 "2010-07-27T02:55:01Z")
You didn’t make a mistake; but you were quoting someone who did make a mistake ( **Chefguy** ). Their mistake left their post having more opening quote tags than closing quote tags; their post had malformed code in it. And so, when you quoted their post, that malformed code became part of your post, and thus your post had problems as well (unfortunately, the design of vB code lets this happen; quoting improperly bracketed code can make your post improperly bracketed as well). But you didn’t make any mistake. You just happened to quote a post that was improperly coded by someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/13 "2010-07-27T02:58:56Z")
I still think this is screwy. It never happened before. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/14 "2010-07-27T03:03:18Z")
Because previously, when poster A clicked the quote button on a post by poster B which itself contained a quote from poster C, the system automatically removed the poster C quote. Now, though, the system no longer does that, because some posters prefer the option to keep the nested quote. However, in this adjustment period, posters who haven’t yet gotten used to this are sometimes making mistakes in editing their posts when they try to remove nested quotes manually. That is, previously, if you wanted nested quotes, you had to manually insert them back after they were automatically removed. Now, it’s the opposite; if you want to get rid of nested quotes, you have to manually remove them, and sometimes people fuck up the coding when doing so, because they’re not used to it yet. This same problem was always possible; it just happened less often because people dealt with nested quotes less often before. Give it time and I suspect people will learn not to make this mistake anymore. (For example, the boards originally behaved the way they currently do, and everyone got along fine) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/15 "2010-07-27T03:04:45Z")
My gut feeling is this is another example of The Man sticking it to the people. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/16 "2010-07-27T03:08:51Z")
Yeah, alright… a lot of us like and in fact asked for the nested quotes (a return to the way the board originally behaved). I say give it time and people will learn not to remove text improperly. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/17 "2010-07-27T13:11:56Z")
The same thing happened to me a few weeks ago, when nested quotes were still unavailable. People still made mistakes with the quote tags, even then, so what happened to yours isn’t that big a deal. Blame the person who screwed up the quote tags. That’s what I did. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/18 "2010-07-27T15:55:24Z")
So not only is it easy to make mistakes, but it’s even easier to _repeat others’ mistakes_ unknowingly. Doesn’t feel like progress. Exactly what problem was solved by the reintroduction of quote nesting, which was larger than the problem of widespread potential misattribution? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/19 "2010-07-27T16:00:52Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > I say give it time and people will learn not to remove text improperly. But the simplest way to avoid screwups is going to be for people to not touch quoted text at all–to just leave everything in there, every time they make a post. We’ll have gargantuan many-leveled nests of quotes every time somebody wants to respond to one little bit of it. Wouldn’t it be better for the default to to be the minimal action, with those who want more context and know what they’re doing, doing the extra work to add the rest in? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139/20 "2010-07-27T16:12:12Z")
It’s not hard to edit quoted text, and people do it all the time when quoting large posts. And it was always possible to create nested quotes, if one wanted to do so. The mistake a lot of people are making now is, when removing initial nested quotes, to forget to remove the opening tag. When selecting the nested quote to delete, they start (properly) at the end of its closing quote tag and then scroll up and stop (improperly) at the end of the initial block of opening quote tags, instead of at the end of just the first opening quote tag (the only one they actually want to keep). They’ll easily learn to change their habits given a little time to realize this. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quote-boxes-screwing-up/548139.md?page=2)