# Suggestion:  restore nested quoting

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [July 22, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536 "2010-07-22T00:47:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**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:** [July 22, 2010, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/1 "2010-07-22T00:47:26Z")

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Over at my board, **Fenris** figured out how to make automatically nested quotes (where if you quote a post that itself contains a quote, the quote isn’t removed) – it turns out it’s _ridiculously_ easy. This used to be the default behavior, but was changed in a later vBulletin version.

It came up last year in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=542987), but at the time it appeared the only solution was to install a hack, which TPTB were understandably loathe to do, but this is so simple that I thought I’d post it and see if someone with admin rights and three spare minutes might go ahead and implement it.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Log onto the server
2. Edit the file includes/functions.php (e.g. using nano)
3. In the function strip\_quotes (starts on line 1693, or search for strip\_quotes), make the following line the first line of the function:

```auto

return $text;

```

1. Save the file. That’s it.

So, to be completely clear, the function will change from:

```auto

function strip_quotes($text) 
{ 
        $lowertext = strtolower($text);

```

to

```auto

function strip_quotes($text) 
{ 
        return $text;
        $lowertext = strtolower($text);

```

(Since nothing after the return is going to get called, you could of course delete the rest of the function code, but you may as well leave it there in case you decide to restore things back the way they were.)

I like the nested quote functionality enough that I figured I’d share – feel free to disregard if you prefer it the way it is, of course. 🙂

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**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 22, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/2 "2010-07-22T01:33:22Z")

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And here I’ve been cut&pasting to do that! Joseph Smith, I’ve been wasting a lot of time, if it can be done that easily! I will vote for that idea, the instant this board becomes a democracy!

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**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/3 "2010-07-22T02:55:08Z")

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Please please PLEASE!!!

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/4 "2010-07-22T06:23:19Z")

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I dunno. There still are a lot of people who just push the quote button and don’t edit to the relevant part. This would make that problem worse. An ongoing conversation would wind up repeating everything that had ever been said before.\

I actually am on a board that has removed (well, never implemented) the quote button to avoid this stuff.

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**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/5 "2010-07-22T07:03:09Z")

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If laziness is a complaint, there are far more people who don’t go through the hassle of multi-quoting, resulting in confusing posts. It can be a particular pain in the ass to quote posts that have non-board quotes. That is, if a person quotes a snippet or three from an article with commentary, rebuilding a coherent quote of that poster means a lot of copy and pasting.

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**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/6 "2010-07-22T13:17:51Z")

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Oh how I would love this to be fixed.

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**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/7 "2010-07-22T14:56:56Z")

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I would love this function.

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**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/8 "2010-07-22T19:32:04Z")

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While I like nested quotes, how is this suggestion not a hack?

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**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/9 "2010-07-22T19:45:17Z")

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> [@Pleonast](#):
>
> While I like nested quotes, how is this suggestion not a hack?

I think he means the difference between _installing_ a hack and adding a single line of code. While both are hacks, the former would require someone with a lot of knowledge and probably a lot of time to review the hack’s code to look out for malicious or buggy code. In the suggested case, while it’s technically a hack, the primary reasons to be wary don’t apply.

ETA: Of course, that doesn’t mean that TPTB won’t still balk at making any changes to the code no matter how minor seeming. And the above refers to what I think Giraffe was thinking, not what I think the admin’s rationale is.

But please-oh-please-oh-please!

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/10 "2010-07-22T19:52:14Z")

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I can’t think of a reason NOT to have nested quotes as the default. Even if you can give one, it’s easier to remove some lines than do some careful copy&paste magic to add them.

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**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/11 "2010-07-22T20:00:30Z")

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Note: the following was not Musicat quoting Rhythmdvl - sorry for the against-the-rulesness of it.

> [@Musicat](#):
>
> > [@Rhythmdvl](#):
> >
> > But please-oh-please-oh-please!
> 
> I can’t think of a reason NOT to have nested quotes as the default. Even if you can give one, it’s easier to remove some lines than do some careful copy&paste magic to add them.

Careful? Magic? I multiquoted both posts (clicking on the “+” in your post), highlighted Rhythmdvl’s portion, and dragged it into your quote. Done.

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**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/12 "2010-07-22T20:23:44Z")

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So copying, pasting and dragging is easier than clicking Quote?

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**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/13 "2010-07-22T20:50:00Z")

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> [@Munch](#):
>
> Note: the following was not Musicat quoting Rhythmdvl - sorry for the against-the-rulesness of it.  
> Careful? Magic? I multiquoted both posts (clicking on the “+” in your post), highlighted Rhythmdvl’s portion, and dragged it into your quote. Done.

Sure, there are simple cases (yet as MOL said, just hitting “quote” is even easier).

But say it’s post 57, and the poster is quoting posts 12, 17, and 42. Absolutely not unusual. That means searching through the thread to find those internal quotes, then multiquoting, then rearranging. The rearranging you did was straightforward; if this hypothetical poster is commenting between lines it can get fairly obnoxious.

Heck, just look at your post and consider the two you quoted being 15 to 20 posts apart. Replying to you and leaving out the nested quotes is (IMHO) rude, if the nested quotes are relevant. It’s similar to being too lazy to post a link in the OP of a Pit thread or similar.

Or consider how many people post quotes of non-board material. Discussions of a court cases and news stories are routine. There is no multi-quote button for that. Sure, it could be a nice, simple, tidy case of one poster quoting one block of text, but it’s often much more complicated than that.

The elegant nested quote feature eliminates the entire mishagosh with no loss of board integrity, and because it makes quoting easier, actually _adds_ to overall clarity.  
Other than “I won’t use them,” is there any reason (from a member’s perspective) to argue against their restoration?

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/14 "2010-07-22T20:51:21Z")

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Easier for TPTB, who don’t like messing with the board’s default software. 😉

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**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:** [July 22, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/15 "2010-07-22T21:12:53Z")

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> [@Pleonast](#):
>
> While I like nested quotes, how is this suggestion not a hack?

Sorry, sloppy language on my part. I meant it wasn’t a hack like the usual vBulletin hacks – [vbulletin.org](http://vbulletin.org) is filled with software add-ons you can install to modify the behavior of the boards, most of which aren’t supported and could possibly have unintended side effects. Because the installation of these is a bit more opaque, I think TPTB have tended to avoid them entirely to prevent possible problems down the road.

This is still a hack in the strict sense of the word, but because it’s so simple, it’s not likely to affect future upgrades (and could be trivially reversed if it did).

Again, TPTB may prefer to keep things the way they are, which is fine – I just wanted to make them aware of the option if they’re interested.

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**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/16 "2010-07-22T21:53:31Z")

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> [@Lute Skywatcher](#):
>
> Easier for TPTB, who don’t like messing with the board’s default software. 😉

Yeah, sure, a blanket _don’t meddle with things you don’t understand_ policy can make sense. But that’s why I added the “from a member’s perspective” bit.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/17 "2010-07-22T22:11:52Z")

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To me, this doesn’t look so much like a hack, as a removal of a hack. Basically, for some reason they deliberately wrote a function that removes the nested quotes (why?), and this is just disabling that function.

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**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/18 "2010-07-22T22:30:20Z")

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> [@MeanOldLady](#):
>
> So copying, pasting and dragging is easier than clicking Quote?

I didn’t say “easier” I said “not magical”.

> [@Rhythmdvl](#):
>
> Other than “I won’t use them,” is there any reason (from a member’s perspective) to argue against their restoration?

Nope. But considering how much of a hassle your hypothetical was (and that’s probably a heck of a lot more common than my side-by-side quotes), I wouldn’t say that not going through those hoops is “rude”. You can always preface your quote with “You responded to [Poster]'s comment about [subject] with:” It’s certainly not easier than automated nested quotes, but it’s easier than manually doing it.

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/19 "2010-07-22T23:02:10Z")

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> [@Munch](#):
>
> Careful? Magic? I multiquoted both posts (clicking on the “+” in your post), highlighted Rhythmdvl’s portion, and dragged it into your quote. Done.

Yeah, I think you proved my point. Look what happened.

Not that preview wouldn’t have called it to your attention.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggestion-restore-nested-quoting/547536/20 "2010-07-22T23:20:42Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> To me, this doesn’t look so much like a hack, as a removal of a hack. Basically, for some reason they deliberately wrote a function that removes the nested quotes (why?), and this is just disabling that function.

Good point. I don’t really have an opinion, but an answer to **Chronos’** question would be appreciated.

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