[quote] tag kills smiley at beginning of quoted post

Hi, bringing back this closed (wont fix) ticket: http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/phpbb3/ticket.php?ticket_id=19015
Kellanved talked about a possible workaround; searched in support forums and found nothing, opened a topic (http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=820055) and got no reply.

[edit]
Now it got a few replies. We're discussing it, as I can find no sense in it.
Anyway, I'm happy there's a fix already implemented. Just wondering why it's not on by default.
[/edit]

The issue:

• write a post beginning with a smiley, e.g.
  

  _:)_

  (notice that there are whitespaces before and after the smiley code)

• send it, it gets trim()'d, e.g.

  :)

• the smiley is displayed properly

• quote the post, you get

  [quote="Someone"]:)[/quote]

• damage is done: the smiley won't appear.

(Supposedly) Easy fix: add a whitespace after automatic [quote] tags; that won't change anything in post appearance (as preceding whitespaces are ignored by browsers), except that the smiley should now be parsed.

If that's not doable, would someone please elaborate over the "workaround" thing, as the issue is quite apparent and somewhat annoying.