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Comments have a very restricted markup ability. Currently supported text markups available are

  • Italic text
  • Bold text
  • code

One of the very common things people do in comments that is not supported is quoting other people's text. It is very natural to highlight what someone else has said to add more context to your comment.

The problem is that you cannot specify text is a quote via markup. Commonly people will use one of the previously mentioned methods to highlight text as being a quote. I find myself using the code markup to distinguish quotes from italic and bold text. And, frankly, it's weird.

Can we have an addition to the currently supported set of comment markup for quotes?

Perhaps mimicking the style of quote text in posts for each site?

Here's a mockup:

Mockup for the ... for Tim Stone

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  • 1
    Yeah... big, full-featured comments with a more... link would be nice too.
    – Ry-
    Jan 23, 2012 at 16:24
  • 5
    @minitech: Seems like it would hide important information, thus going against the mantra "comments are not where important stuff goes."
    – user1228
    Jan 23, 2012 at 16:26
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    "comments that is not supported is quoting other people's text" - LIES! But I might be swayed by a free-hand drawing of what this would look like, given the space constraints...
    – Tim Stone
    Jan 23, 2012 at 16:29
  • @TimStone: Its hard to freehand circle a background color change, but I did add a mockup for you.
    – user1228
    Jan 23, 2012 at 16:40
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    "One of the very common things people do in comments that is not supported is quoting other people's text." What's wrong with... dah, dah, DAAAH, ...quotation marks? ;)
    – Grant Thomas
    Jan 23, 2012 at 17:13
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    Nice, but then: would there be any standard Markdown element available, and could that then also be used for inline quotations in regular posts? Too bad Markdown does not specify <q>. (Note that using <cite> would be wrong.)
    – Arjan
    Jan 23, 2012 at 17:16
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    BACKTICKS FOR QUOTES IN COMMENTS
    – BoltClock's a Unicorn
    Jan 23, 2012 at 17:16
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    @BoltClock'saUnicorn: That's for code. Its weird to be using code markup for quotes.
    – user1228
    Jan 23, 2012 at 17:45
  • @BoltClock'saUnicorn and it might confuse those that are trying to quickly find code--bots like ohloh, as well as human readers on copy-paste autopilot.
    – hobs
    Jul 1, 2014 at 17:05
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    After 3 years, still we don't have quotes in comments!
    – Arashsoft
    Dec 23, 2015 at 14:39
  • @BoltClock'saUnicorn Please don't: meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/q/7437/88
    – Tobias Kienzler
    Oct 5, 2016 at 14:02
  • @Tobias Kienzler: Please. I'm the last person who'd endorse them. That hasn't changed in over four years.
    – BoltClock's a Unicorn
    Oct 5, 2016 at 14:23
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    Is everybody seriously spectacularly missing the sarcastic tone of my comment from over four years ago? Look all around you. How often do you see people using backticks for quotations in comments? Even those who oppose their use for highlighting keywords and the like in proper posts do it in comments anyway. Why don't you go and ask them why they do that?
    – BoltClock's a Unicorn
    Oct 5, 2016 at 14:26
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    @Arashsoft Infact, it's now 5 years, and there isn't even a status tag issued by a mod yet. So, have they declined or accepted this idea?
    – Unitato says Reinstate Monica
    Jul 12, 2017 at 10:30
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    Incredible, how many more people will come here and find this!
    – information_interchange
    Nov 17, 2017 at 3:05

1 Answer 1

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A simple permanent workaround is, to use browser extensions, like e.g. Greasemonkey or Stylish, to automatically replace quotation marks in comments with the appropriate HTML <span class="quote">…</span> and add an easily customizable style for it. (Or just <span style="background-color: #AAA">…</span> to save installing Stylish.)

Please remember to include all quotes. Legacy substituts like " and ', real English ones like “ and ” plus ‘ and ’, and real ones for your language, like e.g. „ and “ plus » and « for German

Of course it won’t be visible for others, but if it matters to them, they will end up here and install it themselves too.

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    (Never forget, that you are not obliged to display HTML in any specific way, and don’t even need to display it at all. It is YOUR computer. Hence why demands to display ads just because they are referenced in the HTML are so silly. If they wanted to put conditions on what they serve you, they shouldn’t have instructed their web server, to send anyone that data upon a mere request unless those conditions are met.)
    – anon
    Jan 7, 2018 at 15:24

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