Since we have this discussion every time a top-voted comment does this, and nobody has ever suggested a solution that I've seen, I don't think it can be done. Just throw a > or two in there and we'll figure it out.

I mean for content contributors. I'm sure an HN code change could make the site smarter. * Asterisks work for italics * (remove inner spaces), but they seem to crap out for a passage longer than about a line, making them tedious for block quotes.

Yes, makes sense. HN could use a few minor tweaks and upgrades.

Judging by the frequency with which this issue is complained about, it is -- apparently -- an impossible problem to solve.

It makes sense to me. A formalised quoting mechanism is a recipe for everyone quoting everyone else, resulting in 50-70% of the words on screen being redundant and pointless.

This is par for the course in most other forums.

I'm sympathetic to what you're saying; however, quoting is still happening – just in a manner than leaves 50-70% of the text annoyingly difficult to read on mobile.

Absolutely. But by providing no formal mechanism, quoting is used extremely sparingly. Which is good.

(The mobile formatting issue wouldn't happen but for a few rare crazies who attempt to hijack the wrong syntax.)

Not with a little bit of JavaScript.

There isn't. No one knows why.