# Alert when one of my posts gets quoted? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 30, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540 "2011-03-30T19:00:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/1 "2011-03-30T19:00:41Z")
Let’s say I participate in a thread, and sometime after I’m no longer paying attention, another poster decides to respond directly to something I’ve said by quoting my post. Is there any way to set up an automatic PM that says, “Hey, someone just quoted you in this thread over here; you might want to go check it out”? I usually do monitor the activity of threads I’ve posted in via the “Posts Made By: Wheelz” page, but by the time something falls off the front page it’s usually either a dead thread or I’ve lost interest, so I rarely go beyond there. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve ever missed somebody responding to something I said a while ago. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/2 "2011-03-30T19:16:22Z")
I’m pretty sure something like this _used_ to exist but at some point when they were going through the upgrade process a couple of years or so back the capability was not carried forward. Pity because it was one of the more useful and practical tools. ETA: Thinking about it, I believe it was less an “alert” and more something that you could perform a search on. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/3 "2011-03-30T19:38:17Z")
If you perform a vanity search on your username, that will bring up posts in which you are quoted. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/4 "2011-03-30T19:46:57Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > If you perform a vanity search on your username, that will bring up posts in which you are quoted. Yes, but (in my case) it also brings up discussions of a TV program about a vampire-slayer that I’ve not taken part in. Of course, I should have chosen a more distinctive name, like “Wheelz”. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/5 "2011-03-30T19:52:11Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Yes, but (in my case) it also brings up discussions of a TV program about a vampire-slayer that I’ve not taken part in. Of course, I should have chosen a more distinctive name, like “Wheelz”. Plus, now that **Giles** has used my name here, this thread will forever appear in a vanity search, but I won’t know if it’s because of that post or a subsequent quoting. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/6 "2011-03-30T19:53:30Z")
The only alert like this built into vBulletin is the default thread subscription settings, which are a little blunt: you pretty much only have the option to get notified every single time a thread you post in gets replied to at all. I’m not sure why anyone would want this option turned on. There are vB hacks to do what you want ([this one, for version 3](http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=112498), and [this one for version 4](http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=242358)), but I doubt the admins are going to want to install them – they’ll hit the database a lot harder (as every quoted post now has to query if the user wants a PM) and given our tiny PM quotas will probably fill people’s inboxes up too fast to be useful. So the vanity search is probably the way to go. Here’s a direct link to a vanity search w. various options that you can bookmark for quick access: [http://www.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?do=process&titleonly=0&searchuser=Giraffe&searchdate=30&exactname=1&showposts=1](http://www.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?do=process&titleonly=0&searchuser=Giraffe&searchdate=30&exactname=1&showposts=1) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/7 "2011-03-30T20:14:16Z")
Is there no way to do searches within subscribed threads only? ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/8 "2011-03-30T21:09:39Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > If you perform a vanity search on your username, that will bring up posts in which you are quoted. I’m pretty sure this is incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/9 "2011-03-30T21:14:07Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/10 "2011-03-30T21:16:21Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > I’m pretty sure this is incorrect. No, it’s correct. If your username appears as text in the thread, including in the quote attribution box, the search will (usually) pick it up. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/11 "2011-03-30T21:18:00Z")
I just did a search for “twickster” in this thread, and it brought up her post, but not the one quoting hers. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/12 "2011-03-30T21:22:12Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > I just did a search for “twickster” in this thread, and it brought up her post, but not the one quoting hers. Hm. I think we’re talking about different things, because the search results I’m thinking of just show threads; not individual posts. I’m specifically talking about using the main search tool to search for a user name as a keyword search. (I.e., not a user name search.) ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/13 "2011-03-30T23:43:13Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > I just did a search for “twickster” in this thread, and it brought up her post, but not the one quoting hers. Did you do “twickster” as the keyword? Ignore “all posts by” for these searches. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/14 "2011-03-31T03:07:32Z")
For the future, how about a Google alert? Set the search for something like ‘site:boards.straightdope.com “originally posted by wheelz”’ plus additional keywords. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/15 "2011-03-31T04:44:23Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > So the vanity search is probably the way to go. Here’s a direct link to a vanity search w. various options that you can bookmark for quick access: > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?do=process&titleonly=0&searchuser=Giraffe&searchdate=30&exactname=1&showposts=1](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?do=process&titleonly=0&searchuser=Giraffe&searchdate=30&exactname=1&showposts=1) Just realized I had a typo in my original link. Also, it’s not actually a proper keyword search, and thus not at all relevant to the OP. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/16 "2011-03-31T06:53:13Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Hm. I think we’re talking about different things, because the search results I’m thinking of just show threads; not individual posts. > > I’m specifically talking about using the main search tool to search for a user name as a keyword search. (I.e., not a user name search.) I just did it exactly as you described, and searching for the name of the poster with the initials **F-P** , whose full name appears in the quote box of your first post, as a keyword. He is named, outside quote boxes, in two _threads_ of this subforum; this thread doesn’t appear. Repeating the exercise but asking for results shown as posts yields three results, again none of them here (most recent from 08-24-2010). Until somebody spells the name out outside quote boxes, the thread won’t show up at all in keyword searches on the name. > [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > For the future, how about a Google alert? Set the search for something like ‘site:boards.straightdope.com “originally posted by wheelz”’ plus additional keywords. That _will_ find all posts that quote the user named, but the results will be ordered by arcane Google formulas, not by date or anything so straightforward. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/17 "2011-03-31T10:57:27Z")
Search ignores quote attributions. It only searches usernames, or words within the text of the posts, which are different fields in Advanced Search. I think this began when the “button that takes you to the source of the quote” feature was introduced. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/18 "2011-03-31T13:27:11Z")
Search on Google. [site:boards.straightdope.com “Originally Posted by rowrrbazzle”](http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aboards.straightdope.com+%22Originally+Posted+by+rowrrbazzle%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) [site:boards.straightdope.com “Originally Posted by twickster”](http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aboards.straightdope.com+%22Originally+Posted+by+rowrrbazzle%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&source=hp&q=site%3Aboards.straightdope.com+%22Originally+Posted+by+twickster%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=3ea5322f77d9e72d) The order of the results is a little wonky. Go to the side menu, click “Show search tools” and hit “Latest” - that will put them in chronological order. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/19 "2011-03-31T15:14:54Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > I just did it exactly as you described, and searching for the name of the poster with the initials **F-P** , whose full name appears in the quote box of your first post, as a keyword. He is named, outside quote boxes, in two _threads_ of this subforum; this thread doesn’t appear. Repeating the exercise but asking for results shown as posts yields three results, again none of them here (most recent from 08-24-2010). Until somebody spells the name out outside quote boxes, the thread won’t show up at all in keyword searches on the name. Ah, yes, I see - sorry for the mistake here; when I did a test search yesterday on a particular user name in a thread, I didn’t realize it, but that user name was also mentioned once outside the quote box, so that’s what the search picked up. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540/20 "2011-03-31T19:47:50Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > The order of the results is a little wonky. Go to the side menu, click “Show search tools” and hit “Latest” - that will put them in chronological order. That last part may make me more likely to be able to get back to threads. I honestly often forget which threads I’ve posted in, so I usually just wait for them to pop back on top. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alert-when-one-of-my-posts-gets-quoted/576540.md?page=2)