That depends
on the country of origin of the poster. In the US the convention is that John said, "I told her that I was an American and she replied, 'I thought so, based on your lack of the letter "u" in most of your words.'"

In other words, it starts out with the double mark, then goes to the single mark for the nested quote, then back to the double for the nested nested quote, then back to the single, ad nauseum. In England it's the reverse, starting with the single and going to the double, and I have no idea past that.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 18 Apr 2011, 2:45, 2 replies)

No, it's the same in both countries - starts double, goes single for a nested quote, and then alternates.

My point, if it could be termed such, was that the second instance of the double-quotation was a suggestion rather than a quotation, and the double quotation marks had previously been used to indicate a direct quotation. Whilst the rules are somewhat ambiguous, I'd suggest that as a rule of thumb, one should not use a double quotation for different pursposes in the same passage, when perfectly viable alternatives exist.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Mon 18 Apr 2011, 2:51, closed)

Ah.
Okay then. I misread your post.

However, I have noticed that in older books from England- old editions of Agatha Christie, for instance- they started with the single quote and went to double for nested quotes. I assumed it just went differently over there than here.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 18 Apr 2011, 3:04, closed)

She was writing post/ante/interbellum - she was merely saving ink to beat the Hun. That, or she was senile. Either way - by modern standards, she was wrong.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Mon 18 Apr 2011, 3:14, closed)

I don't remember where I saw it
but there was a recent article on how Britain has been gradually eliminating punctuation from abbreviations and titles and whatnot. It speculated that it was to save on ink or some such (humorously). Damned if I can find it though...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 18 Apr 2011, 3:29, closed)

I've yet to see fo'c'sle rendered as focsle - but this could, in part, be due to the decreasing importance of the forecastle since our Navy went to shit.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Mon 18 Apr 2011, 3:33, closed)

Hallowe'en

( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Mon 18 Apr 2011, 5:31, closed)

I saw a news item recently
outlining the fact that Birmingham City Council have eliminated all the apostrophes from its street signs as it "causes confusion". The same suggestion has been made about the sign outside King's Cross Station.
(ConanTroutman thought we would free the vulture, Mon 18 Apr 2011, 11:19, closed)

Brummies are thick.
I should know, I live in Brum :(.
(Vigilante Man weeps because you're stupid., Wed 20 Apr 2011, 0:08, closed)

I still sometimes put an apostrophe
in front of 'phone and 'bus.
I don't think anyone does that anymore.
Just as 'bus was dying out when I was little, as no one knew it was called an omnibus I think we will see the same with 'phone very soon. I think we will find the word telephone dropped in the next 10 years.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Wed 20 Apr 2011, 23:51, closed)

there's a story on The Straight Dope about it at the moment
it's an old one though. Removing unnecessary periods from abbreviations etc.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 18 Apr 2011, 11:42, closed)

Such as the full stop
From Dr Pepper.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Mon 18 Apr 2011, 12:23, closed)

That was it!
Thank you- that was bothering me.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 18 Apr 2011, 16:22, closed)

Thanks.
I didn't know that.
(dchurch bah, Mon 18 Apr 2011, 8:06, closed)