@ TaosGuy:

When you hit the "quote" button the quote will be at the top of the reply box. You can either space down to when it ends, or start at the top. If you misplace your cursor slightly you will remove [ bracket and the quote will not appear as a quote.

I fixed that for you.

If you want to NOT quote someone, use the Large REPLY button instead of the quote button. On some viewing options here it is on the left bottom but some other skins it may be in a different place. Using Reply will not put the quote into your reply box at all.

I hope this helps.