Bad things.

They were there in the very early days to try do good things. That was a long time ago & the people who created them now say it was a bad idea.

Magic Quotes where an attempt to get PHP to try and look after MySQL. As they are 2 very different systems, this was never going to be a happy relationship.

Magic Quotes are going to be gone.

Don't believe me ? PHP: Magic Quotes - Manual

So, when you are setting up a server, or are using an external server - make sure that they have magic-quotes turned 'off'

Else poor Mr O'Reily can quickly become Mr 0/////////////////////////////////'Reily as strip slash and mysql_real_escape_string do not get on

As I was also a real nOOb, and wanted to know about setting up queries etc, and protecting from MySQL injections, I started this thread --> [other] MySql Injections - Ubuntu Forums

It is well worth a read.

You will see a certain bobince pop in, his views are slightly less extreme than mine. I'm now interested in removing the knee-caps etc. of those people who have the default server set up with magic_quotes = on.

Phill.