what should it do?

this but without the spaces:

[ foo ]

  --John Abbe.....Sun Jan 16 22:03:44 -0800 2011

k. sounds right.

  --Ethan McCutchen.....Mon Jan 17 10:57:00 -0800 2011

Are we broken on a single set of [ ] ?

  --Gerry Gleason.....2013-03-07 16:10:40 +0000

no, the issue is links with brackets inside them

  --Ethan McCutchen.....2013-03-07 18:51:33 +0000