# Why don't quotes include nested quotes? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 3, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251 "2014-04-03T14:19:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [April 3, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/21 "2014-04-03T17:56:43Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Good, because there are tons of third parties. Why give up after one try? There are probably a hundred people posting today who could fix it. If it’s in C++, I’m pretty sure _I_ could fix it. Perfect! Here’s the link to the mod: [http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/misc.php?do=producthelp&pid=nested\_quotes](http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/misc.php?do=producthelp&pid=nested_quotes) Let me know when you’ve fixed it, I’d love to have it updated for my board. As a thank you, I’ll give you a free lifetime account. Charter member, even! ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/22 "2014-04-03T18:06:16Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [Previous thread that explains what happened.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=582220&highlight=nested+quotes) Thanks for the link. I read the first 50 or so posts, and my not very careful counting of that unscientific sample seems to show that more people liked nested quotes than didn’t like them, and that most of the problems were from people manually editing the nested quotes, rather than from a bug in the software. If so, my earlier suggestion of having the default be non-nested, but having another button for those who want nested, seems like a win-win. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/23 "2014-04-03T18:10:39Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > Perfect! Here’s the link to the mod: > > [http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/misc.php?do=producthelp&pid=nested\_quotes](http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/misc.php?do=producthelp&pid=nested_quotes) > > Let me know when you’ve fixed it, I’d love to have it updated for my board. As a thank you, I’ll give you a free lifetime account. Charter member, even! It says I need a vBulletin license to download it. And if the changelog is accurate, it also says that it was written in 2007, with no changes since. Seriously, there’s a lot of talent on this board. Why not let us try? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/24 "2014-04-03T18:23:03Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > It says I need a vBulletin license to download it. > > And if the changelog is accurate, it also says that it was written in 2007, with no changes since. > > Seriously, there’s a lot of talent on this board. Why not let us try? Perhaps because this board is owned by Sun-Times Media, LLC, and I think they’ve indicated (someone help me here) that there will be no unnecessary updates or modifications at this time. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/25 "2014-04-03T18:28:14Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > Just out of curiosity, how do you not take “no” for an answer in this situation? vBulletin software costs like $200 for a lifetime license. One customer jumping up and down isn’t going to do squat: they already have our money. > > In any case, they’re not going to go back and add features to version 3 of their software when they’re already on version 5. Now I can hear you now, thinking “well, shit, we just need to upgrade to verison 5, then!” The problem is version 5 sucks. It would cause way more problems than the lack of nested quotes is currently causing. You’d be unhappy. > > Accept that this message board has suboptimal software and try to move on with your life. I think one person complaining about a serious bug would do a lot more good than not complaining about it. As for them being on version 5 now, well, I guess that’s what happens if you wait four years to say anything. And there’s really no need to make me out to be a jerk and telling me to move on with my life. This is the proper forum to post questions and suggestions about the board software, and I don’t think I’m being a dick just because I express amazement that they found a bug and gave up, without even contacting the software company about it. And I didn’t just complain, I gave a couple of IMO constructive suggestions, namely an option for those who want it, and an automatic preview to make errors more obvious. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/26 "2014-04-03T18:30:06Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Perhaps because this board is owned by Sun-Times Media, LLC, and I think they’ve indicated (someone help me here) that there will be no unnecessary updates or modifications at this time. OK, I guess my question has been answered. I seem to be getting on someone’s last nerve, so I’ll leave it here before someone plays the “butthurt” card. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/27 "2014-04-03T18:33:53Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > OK, I guess my question has been answered. I seem to be getting on someone’s last nerve, so I’ll leave it here before someone plays the “butthurt” card. Looking at this post and the last one, I think you might be over-reacting just a bit. ---
**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:** [April 3, 2014, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/28 "2014-04-03T18:41:44Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > I think one person complaining about a serious bug would do a lot more good than not complaining about it. As for them being on version 5 now, well, I guess that’s what happens if you wait four years to say anything. vBulletin didn’t accidentally remove the nested quote feature, they did it on purpose. People did complain, but vBulletin did not chose to put it back in for whatever reason. Maybe it caused performance problems, maybe it was incompatible with some other code they wrote, who knows? But it’s not a “serious bug” from their perspective, it was a design decision. > [@](#): > > And there’s really no need to make me out to be a jerk and telling me to move on with my life. This is the proper forum to post questions and suggestions about the board software, and I don’t think I’m being a dick just because I express amazement that they found a bug and gave up, without even contacting the software company about it. The bug I refer to is in a free third-party software modification. There’s no software company to contact – some dude wrote a mod, it has a bug in it, so it’s not a good way to add this feature to the board software. I know of no other mods out there that implement the nested quote feature, so in my mind, that’s pretty much the end of it. I’m not sure what you’re looking for at this point. ---
**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:** [April 3, 2014, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/29 "2014-04-03T20:17:47Z")
The user error that resulted from people deleting the nested quote would have been entirely avoided if the script inserted a space after the “]”. That’s all that needed to happen. The problem was that when people selected the nested quote to delete, it would also select the “]” from the first tag, and then everything turned to crap upon submission. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/30 "2014-04-04T02:15:23Z")
We tried nested quotes, but they turned out to be evil, so they were dropped. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/31 "2014-04-04T06:20:13Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Perhaps because this board is owned by Sun-Times Media, LLC, and I think they’ve indicated (someone help me here) that there will be no unnecessary updates or modifications at this time. :rolleyes: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/32 "2014-04-04T06:58:24Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > We tried nested quotes, but they turned out to be evil, so they were dropped. I, for one, much preferred it when we had them. I think I said so in the thread we had on the topic back then, and I am pretty sure I was far from alone in that opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251/34 "2014-04-04T15:08:38Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > In other words, the denizens of the Dope are too stupid to be allowed to have nested quotes? That’s pretty much what it comes down to. Heck, a fair number of posters regularly screw up regular, non-nested quotes. There are at least one or two posters who I am sure make quotes by retyping the post they are quoting. I can tell because they occasionally introduce spelling errors or typos that weren’t in the original post. So apparently copy-paste is too advanced for some of us. I liked nested quotes and thought they made threads easier to follow, when used correctly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-quotes-include-nested-quotes/685251.md?page=1)