# Multi-Line Strikethrough Not Covering Quotes
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [June 20, 2017, 12:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808 "2017-06-20T12:43:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@alexs](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alexs)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2017, 12:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/1 "2017-06-20T12:43:40Z")
I’m not sure whether this bug is specific to Discourse but when I try to strikethrough several lines of text & one of those lines is a quote, the quote’s text is not struck out.
The preview displays the quoted text as struck out -
but when posted, it renders like this -
Striking out each line instead like this -
does behave as I was expecting -
---
### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2017, 1:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/2 "2017-06-20T13:11:48Z")
You should really try that example at [https://markdown-it.discourse.org](https://markdown-it.discourse.org)
As that is the site testing implementing the common mark spec into Discourse.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2017, 1:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/3 "2017-06-20T13:19:09Z")
Works fine in Markdown.it
---
### Author:  [@alexs](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alexs)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2017, 1:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/4 "2017-06-20T13:41:04Z")
I’m still having the same issue in Markdown.it, in your example you haven’t got struck out text before the quote but in mine, I have -
looks like
From this topic -
[https://markdown-it.discourse.org/t/testing-multi-line-strikethrough-with-quotes/90](https://markdown-it.discourse.org/t/testing-multi-line-strikethrough-with-quotes/90)
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2017, 1:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/5 "2017-06-20T13:43:34Z")
Looks like nokogiri may be messing stuff up, I will investigate.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2017, 9:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/6 "2017-07-20T09:28:47Z")
Let’s see
~~Some text~~
~~
> a quote
~~
raw
```
Some text
> a quote
```
This still happens.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2017, 11:26am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/7 "2017-07-20T11:26:31Z")
Strike is an inline, not a block level element, I may just add a rule to balance inline tags
---
### Author:  [@mattman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mattman)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2018, 1:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/8 "2018-07-28T01:16:22Z")
So this is still a thing. The preview is different from the final product.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2018, 1:56am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/9 "2018-07-28T01:56:25Z")
Simple workaround, use strikethrough as a _line_ not block element.
Rather than expecting this to work
```
hey
> there
```
Strikethrough each line instead
```
hey
> there
```
~~hey~~
> ~~there~~
---
### Author:  [@mattman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mattman)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2018, 1:59am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/10 "2018-07-28T01:59:23Z")
Thanks, but I wasn’t asking for a work around. I was pointing out that this bug still exists. It’s weird that the preview gets it right but the actual render doesn’t.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2018, 2:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/11 "2018-07-28T02:00:34Z")
It’s unlikely we will be “fixing” this bug anytime soon, so plan accordingly 😉
---
### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/12 "2018-07-28T02:53:59Z")
I’m not so sure this is a bug. Phrasing content can’t be expected to work well with Flow content that is not itself Phrasing content. eg. `` or `
` tags.
> **[3.2.5.2.2 Flow content - HTML Standard](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#flow-content)**
>
> Living Standard — Last Updated 1 June 2026
> **[3.2.5.2.5 Phrasing content - HTML Standard](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#phrasing-content)**
>
> Living Standard — Last Updated 1 June 2026
What would be required is to parse the single opening and closing `` tags to multiple tags within the parent Flow content elements.
IMHO, that is most likely a bit much for something that is edge case and has an existing workaround.
---
### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2018, 5:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/13 "2018-07-28T05:06:45Z")
What’s happening is the browser is applying an age-old fix by copying the `` onto each paragraph until the close tag. The server uses Nokogiri which does not _Reconstruct the active formatting elements_ but instead inserts a close tag for the strikethrough at the end of paragraph, as you would for any non-formatting mis-nested tag.
It’s officially specified as applying to `a, b, big, code, em, font, i, nobr, s, small, strike, strong, tt, and u.`
See [https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/parsing.html#misnested-tags:-b-i-/b-/i:reconstruct-the-active-formatting-elements](https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/parsing.html#misnested-tags:-b-i-/b-/i:reconstruct-the-active-formatting-elements)
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [July 28, 2018, 6:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/14 "2018-07-28T06:25:39Z")
I am not against somebody submitting a patch nokogiri that works around this issue, or gives it a mode where it is able to handle it and we use it.
But I am moving this to feature … cause technically you provided bad HTML, if anyone is passionate about this raise it on the CommonMark site or Nokogiri bug tracker.
---
### Author:  [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2020, 9:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/15 "2020-01-28T21:28:24Z")
Here’s the Nokogiri bug filed on your behalf [as per your request](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/14?):
[https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/issues/1975](https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/issues/1975)
Could you please come back to me with the output of `nokogiri -v` as that’s what the developers over there need.
I feel like a human SMTP server forwarding messages between 2 servers who are **definitely not talking to one another**
😜 🤪
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2020, 10:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/16 "2020-01-28T22:18:46Z")
The way I see it, it works in the browser due to a browser quirk, not an HTML feature, strike is not meant to span divs and paragraphs
---
### Author:  [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2020, 10:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/17 "2020-01-28T22:24:27Z")
Understood. 😇 And if the Nokigiri group implements this feature request, this will eventually dribble down to Discourse. So can I have the:
```
nokogiri -v
```
output please as I have to add this to the bug description as per your and Nokigiri’s request because from an end-user perspective this now looks like a bait-and-switch in discourse:
(Please note the preview and final output)
😭
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2020, 10:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/18 "2020-01-28T22:26:17Z")
I don’t support changing nokogiri, if we must due to multiple customer complaints, we can sanitize these elements so preview matches, or open bugs with chrome and Firefox
---
### Author:  [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/19 "2020-01-28T22:31:59Z")
🤔
Sanitizing preview input is acceptable too:
- at least it’s consistent from a UI perspective.
- It’s not what I _want_, but it’s something _I’ll have to live with…_
😁 😇
Enough ~~dumb~~ end-user interaction for the day: I’ll let you get back to more important things like _actual development_… 😉
---
### Author:  [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2020, 3:40am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/20 "2020-01-31T03:40:37Z")
@sam As per off-line discussion, issue was opened with [nokogiri](https://github.com/sparklemotion/nokogiri/issues/1975), who told us it’s actually CRuby which is using libxml2.
Therefore a new issue was [opened over at libxlm2](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/issues/144) so that eventually it’ll get pulled in by nokogiri, then discourse and @alexs @codinghorror @mattman @Mittineague@riking can all be happier people for ~~strikethrough to work over multiple lines~~
My apologies to everyone to be so pedantic about this but:
_Easy people adapt themselves to their environment, whereas difficult people insist their environment adapts to them. Therefore, all human progress, from the taming of fire, the wheel, the pyramids, penicilline, … up to forcing electrons down a quantum tunnel to give us SSD storage **can be attributed to difficult people!** _
😁 😉
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