(I originally posted this on another thread, but it was an interruption and really belongs here.)

The basics:

1. To quote a single post, click the " Reply button at the bottom of the post.

The entire post will be quoted, along with the quote formatting elements. You may edit out anything of the quote between the [quote=postername, date, time, post number] and the "end-quote" [/quote], as long as you leave these two elements intact, which includes the brackets and slashes ([, [/, and ]) at the beginning and the end, and you don't add carriage returns between the "begin" and "end" quotes and the quoted text. An "end quote" must always have a forward slash ("/") after the opening bracket.

2. To quote multiple posts, click the "+ quote" button for each post -- the button will turn red and read "- quote", and then click the "Add Reply" button at the bottom of the thread.


More complicated:

1. "Nested" quotes. If a post is quoted, and that post includes a quote, the posts will be nested. To be formatted properly, these must included a "begin quote" [quote=postername, date time, post number" and "end quote" [/quote] for each quote. These will be added by the software, but it's critical to leave a pair for each quote you want to retain.

Example:

[quote=poster A, date, time, post number]Poster A's post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text.
[quote=poster B, date, time, post number]Poster B's post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text. [/quote] [/quote]


2. Breaking up a single quote into multiple quotes:

If you click " " Reply", the post will look like this in the edit box:

[quote=poster name, date, time, post number]Point 1: Post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text.
Point 2: Post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text.
Point 3: Post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text.[/quote]

To break up a quote, each part of the quote needs to have [quote=poster name, date, time, post number] at the beginning of each part, and [/quote] at the end of each part.

For example:

[quote=poster name, date, time, post number]Point 1: Post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text.[/quote]
RESPONSE to Point 1.
[quote=poster name, date, time, post number]Point 2: Post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text.[/quote]
RESPONSE to Point 2.
[quote=poster name, date, time, post number]Point 3: Post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text post text.
[/quote]
RESPONSE to Point 3

Added by software
Added by you


Troubleshooting:

If the post won't format quotes properly, there are usually three issues that cause this:

1. There isn't an even number of "begin quote"s -- [quote=poster name, date, time, post number] -- and "end quote"s -- [/quote].

Example A:

[quote=poster name, date, time, post number]Poster A text, text, text, text
[quote=poster name, date, time, post number]Poster B Quote, quote, quote [/quote]

Example B:
[quote=poster name, date, time, post number]text, text, text, text[quote]. (Notice that "[quote]" is missing the forward slash, that indicates "end")

Should be:
[quote=poster name, date, time, post number]text, text, text, text[/quote]


2. There is a carriage return between the "begin quote" and the text and/or the text and the "end quote."

Examples:
[quote=poster name, date, time, post number]
text, text, text [/quote]

OR

[quote=poster name, date, time, post number]text text text text
[/quote]


3. There is a missing bracket:
[quote=poster name, date, time, post number text, text, text, text[/quote]

which should be:

[quote=poster name, date, time, post number]text, text, text, text[/quote]