What does &quot mean

I could be wrong, but I think it's a result of someone posting a quote from someone else, and the new forum software the forum switched to a few months back. With the switch over I noticed this too. I've noticed that posts made with the old software where quotes (") were used, now appear as you describe. It's probably just a SNAFU with the new forum software. It does make some older posts harder to decifer.