# Spoiler with text on the same line as the tag no longer works
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [19. Juli 2017 um 18:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456 "2017-07-19T18:49:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dfabulich](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dfabulich)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 18:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/1 "2017-07-19T18:49:24Z")
It used to be possible to conceal multiple spoiler lines like this:
[spoiler]Darth is Anakin
Rosebud is a sled
Everybody dies[/spoiler]
But this no longer works.
You can still do a mid-line spoiler like this but multi-line spoilers require the [spoiler] tag to appear on a line by itself.
```
[spoiler]
multi
line
spoiler
[/spoiler]
```
Can we get the old behavior back?
---
### Author:  [@dfabulich](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dfabulich)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 18:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/2 "2017-07-19T18:51:54Z")
The behavior of [quote] seems to have changed as well.
> [@](#):
>
> This should be a quotation, but it isn’t.
BBCode quotations now have to include [quote] on a line by itself, which is annoying.
---
### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 18:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/3 "2017-07-19T18:57:48Z")
> [@dfabulich](#):
>
> The behavior of [quote] seems to have changed as well.
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > This should be a quotation, but it isn’t.
>
> BBCode quotations now have to include [quote] on a line by itself, which is annoying.
BBCode for quote is only block, no more inline now.
> [@dfabulich](#):
>
> It used to be possible to conceal multiple spoiler lines like this:
```plaintext
[spoiler]
This still works?
[/spoiler]
```
This still works?
On the block syntax you need a line break, you can’t mix inline and block.
The discussion is here:
> [@CommonMark testing started here!](https://meta.discourse.org/t/commonmark-testing-started-here/65121):
>
> Per our [migration plans](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-commonmark-migration-plans-confetti-ball-balloon), I just enabled [markdown.it](https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it) at Meta. It is an excellent [CommonMark](http://commonmark.org/) compliant engine. I expect quite a few edges to be found during this period of testing. Do not open bugs about the new Engine, just reply here. I/we will be updating the top post here with the list of issues and striking out stuff as it is fixed. Current known issues (to be fixed)white_check_mark Onebox vanishes after you start typing and works not-super consistently white_check_mark pending…
---
### Author:  [@dfabulich](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dfabulich)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 19:10 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/4 "2017-07-19T19:10:22Z")
This seems like the key post talking about this issue:
> [@Discourse CommonMark migration plans confetti\_ball balloon](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-commonmark-migration-plans-confetti-ball-balloon/64234/6):
>
> Inline multiline quote[quote]that
> spans
> lines
>
> and blocks
>
> [/quote]Is a terrible format should not be supported
I think I agree with that for [quote], because [quote] affects the entire block of text; it’s nonsensical to start a quote in the middle of a non-quote line.
But there’s nothing terrible about that for [spoiler]. An exception should be made for inline multi-line spoilers.
There already appears to be some special case code. Consider these examples:
```plaintext
[spoiler]spoiler text[/spoiler]
[quote]quote text[/quote]
```
These behave totally differently. The spoiler works, but the quote doesn’t.
spoiler text
> [@](#):
>
> quote text
P.S. I don’t really care about [quote] but I think that last [quote] example should work, too.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 19:24 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/5 "2017-07-19T19:24:00Z")
`[spoiler]` is an inline / block level element
`[quote]` is block only
What I eliminated was “mixed” mode.
What about this text:
```plaintext
I **think this should be bold
but it is not**
```
Which render as expected when you remove the newline?
```plaintext
I **think this should be bold
but it is not**
```
Supporting mid-sentence multiline `[spoiler]` is at odds with CommonMark philosophy. No other CommonMark syntax operates like that.
---
### Author:  [@dfabulich](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dfabulich)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 19:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/6 "2017-07-19T19:26:14Z")
I think you’ll find that **HTML**
**operates like that** , and HTML is part of CommonMark; we should think of BBCode as more like HTML than like CommonMark asterisks and underscores.
If it were a \ tag, there would be no question that it should span multiple paragraphs.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 19:28 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/7 "2017-07-19T19:28:34Z")
> [@dfabulich](#):
>
> operates like that, and HTML is part of CommonMark; we should think of BBCode as more like HTML than like CommonMark asterisks and underscores.
Sort of, but the spec is creates broken HTML which we normalize
```plaintext
This is bold
and this is only bold in preview
```
This **is bold**
**and this is only bold in preview**
---
### Author:  [@dfabulich](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dfabulich)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 19:32 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/8 "2017-07-19T19:32:24Z")
I’ve filed a separate bug about the preview. The editor and the post result should never differ in that way, right?
“Broken HTML” is a rather philosophical idea. The HTML5 parsing spec explains in detail how user agents are supposed to render unbalanced tags like this: `bold bold italic italic`
It’s supposed to render like this: **bold _bold italic_** _italic_. “Normalizing” the HTML by ending the \ without reopening the \ is not correct behavior for HTML. I claim that it’s not what HTML users would expect it to do, nor is it desirable.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 19:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/9 "2017-07-19T19:34:04Z")
Broken HTML is:
```plaintext
test test
test
```
There is nothing philosophical about what is broken there, run it via a validator.
---
### Author:  [@dfabulich](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dfabulich)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 19:35 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/10 "2017-07-19T19:35:13Z")
The validator will tell me that it’s invalid, and the spec makes it clear how it should render: the second paragraph should be bolded. This is what it means to be HTML; it’s specified behavior in response to invalid HTML.
More generally, the HTML parsing spec makes it clear that invalid HTML _isn’t_ “broken.” It’s “invalid,” but it has a specified rendering output, and Discourse is not following it for `` tags. Despite that, Discourse _should_ follow that for `` tags, and it should use the same behavior for BBCode.
---
### Author:  [@dfabulich](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dfabulich)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 19:39 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/11 "2017-07-19T19:39:22Z")
For comparison, consider XML. XML’s specified behavior is to render nothing when the document contains unbalanced tags. Unbalanced XML tags are _broken_.
Unbalanced HTML tags render exactly the same way in all browsers. Unbalanced HTML tags are “invalid” but _not_ broken.
P.S. I’ve discovered that I can use `` instead of `[quote]` and get back great-looking one-line quotations.
```markdown
[quote]this is broken[/quote]
but this works great
```
> [@](#):
>
> this is broken
> but this works great
But I still don’t really care about [quote]. I care about spoilers.
---
### Author:  [@dfabulich](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dfabulich)
#### Post date: [19. Juli 2017 um 20:59 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/12 "2017-07-19T20:59:44Z")
This conversation about misnested tags has kinda moved to the other thread. (Including a workaround for nokogiri’s busted HTML parser.)
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/html-b-across-paragraph-breaks-differs-between-preview-and-result/66458/5?u=dfabulich](https://meta.discourse.org/t/html-b-across-paragraph-breaks-differs-between-preview-and-result/66458/5)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [1. Juli 2019 um 20:36 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/13 "2019-07-01T20:36:54Z")
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [21. Dezember 2022 um 22:08 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/14 "2022-12-21T22:08:53Z")
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [21. Dezember 2022 um 22:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/spoiler-with-text-on-the-same-line-as-the-tag-no-longer-works/66456/15 "2022-12-21T22:34:45Z")