Why doesn't this work and what fix does it need?

set %str $timestamp [ $+ $me $+ ] [ $+ ctime ...
echo -s %str

The desired output should be:

[08:57][myname] [236203845 ...

output is showing:

[236203845 ...

so I removed the $+ from [ $+ $me $+ ]

then I removed the [ and ] around $me and it worked, but how can I keep [ and ] around $me?

I registered; you should too.