# Improved UX for external quotes
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688
**Category:** UX
**Tags:** markdown-it-review
**Created:** [9월 24, 2015, 10:32오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688 "2015-09-24T10:32:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [9월 24, 2015, 10:32오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/1 "2015-09-24T10:32:18Z")
Currently when I’m quoting a post from a different topic, it looks nearly identical to quotes from within the same topic:
I think external quotes should be more similar to the embed you get from a single-line topic link, more like this:
I simply added an “in” after the post author and then include the topic title.
(slightly confusing example since the top-most quote is technically also an external one, but manually added. That was mere coincidence so please disregard it)
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [9월 24, 2015, 11:12오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/2 "2015-09-24T11:12:19Z")
Yeah, this was raised in smart things forum as well, also the click target is tiny now
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [9월 24, 2015, 11:50오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/3 "2015-09-24T11:50:45Z")
Is this a bug? The arrow should point up if the quote is from the same topic.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [9월 24, 2015, 11:52오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/4 "2015-09-24T11:52:36Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> click target is tiny now
Here is a quote from this topic. Note the arrow at upper right.
> [@erlend\_sh](#):
>
> Would be useful as a general purpose demonstration of the feature as well.
Here is a quote from a different topic. Note the arrow at upper right.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [9월 24, 2015, 11:53오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/5 "2015-09-24T11:53:04Z")
Nope @erlend_sh this looks correct to me. Up arrow meaning “quote is from above in the same topic” right arrow meaning “quote is from other topic”.
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [9월 24, 2015, 11:55오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/6 "2015-09-24T11:55:07Z")
Okay, let me rephrase: They look _nearly_ identical. The arrow is a fine additional clue, but I want to add the topic title as a much clearer callout that says “This quote is from a different topic”.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [9월 24, 2015, 11:56오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/7 "2015-09-24T11:56:11Z")
Does this (and by this I mean **selective quoting of posts in other topics** ) really happen enough for it to matter?
Subtle cues might be fine for rare actions.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [9월 24, 2015, 11:57오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/8 "2015-09-24T11:57:14Z")
See
> **[Can't link to posts in a thread, just first post](https://community.smartthings.com/t/cant-link-to-posts-in-a-thread-just-first-post/21320)**
>
> Since the recent forum upgrade, it is no longer possible to create a clickable link to any post except the first post in a topic. If you include a different post link, you will get the summary of that post, but it will not be clickable. This makes...
The complaint is that there is only one tiny arrow to click, when stuff is in another topic repeating the title and making linkable seems rather sane
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [9월 24, 2015, 12:16오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/9 "2015-09-24T12:16:37Z")
Another argument in favour: It makes a lot of sense to show context (topic title) when quoting from an external topic.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [9월 25, 2015, 12:33오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/10 "2015-09-25T00:33:19Z")
Maybe, but showing category is a bit much. Should we also show all the tags? I think the topic title should suffice, if we do anything at all here, @sam.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [9월 25, 2015, 4:09오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/11 "2015-09-25T04:09:18Z")
I agree that quoting off topic is not terribly common, however linking off topic by simply pasting a link is common enough.
The code path for linking off topic and quoting off topic is pretty much identical, in both case we use the same renderer:
```plaintext
[quote="codinghorror, post:3, topic:13999"]
Yeah there is still a lot of work to do in this area cc: @eviltrout
[/quote]
https://meta.discourse.org/t/when-moving-posts-links-quotes-that-were-moved-too-dont-get-updated/13999/3?u=sam
```
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Yeah there is still a lot of work to do in this area cc: @eviltrout
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/when-moving-posts-links-quotes-that-were-moved-too-dont-get-updated/13999/3?u=sam](https://meta.discourse.org/t/when-moving-posts-links-quotes-that-were-moved-too-dont-get-updated/13999/3)
I started patching this up here:
>
I do feel this is ripe for a review when we move to the new Markdown engine
- Preview don’t work right cause of [Zalgo API](https://meta.discourse.org/t/wrong-avatar-in-preview-window-when-quote-replying-from-multiple-topics/19684/3)
- The whole quote format is not robust enough to handle topic moves.
- We do not support the ability to quote (or onebox) secure topics and get title expansions cause applying security is a nightmare. (do all the users looking at this topic have permission to see the other topic? very hard to answer)
- This ?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [9월 25, 2015, 6:49오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/12 "2015-09-25T06:49:08Z")
Sure, I like that, just the topic I can get behind. Good idea @erlend_sh.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [10월 24, 2015, 4:38오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/improved-ux-for-external-quotes/33688/14 "2015-10-24T04:38:35Z")