# Clarification request, re: Rules about changing text within quote tags **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 28, 2014, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarification-request-re-rules-about-changing-text-within-quote-tags/684746 "2014-03-28T08:51:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 81
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarification-request-re-rules-about-changing-text-within-quote-tags/684746/81 "2014-03-28T17:57:10Z")
I was never confused about this rule until today. Twickster’s comments which have never been mentioned by any other mod including herself when the subject came up previously contradict everything I thought I understood. In the thread Czarcasm linked to earlier, three mods including Twickster weighed in with identical interpretations of the rule which is that you can put anything you want inside of quotation marks - even if it is a deliberate misrepresentation of something another poster wrote, but that you can never, ever, alter the text within a quotebox even if it is an obvious parody or meant only in jest. > [@Re-writing someone's post - against the rules?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-writing-someones-post-against-the-rules/590685/3): > > **cochrane** has the right of it. So long as you’re not doing it within a quote box, you’re okay. > [@Re-writing someone's post - against the rules?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-writing-someones-post-against-the-rules/590685/7): > > Modifying in what way? If you’re editing to remove extraneous material – e.g., you only need one paragraph of a seven-paragraph post – that’s already legal. If you’re editing to change the intent or significance of what was said, you shouldn’t used a quote box. > [@Re-writing someone's post - against the rules?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-writing-someones-post-against-the-rules/590685/10): > > The problem with using the quote box, with or without attribution, is that is gives the appearance that the quote was taken from some post _verbatim_ by the software. This would be misleading for modified quotes. > Italics, CODE boxes, offsets and indentations, quotation marks, and other techniques do not give such an immediate perception that the quote is a direct copy. It is not that any form is utterly free of confusion, but keeping the QUOTE boxes sacrosanct for unmodified quotes imposes a certain consistency of application that provides a level of expectation for any reader at any time. In this more [recent thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=697180) a poster was upset that their words were misreprestented inside of quotation marks. While no mod ever answered them, other posters advised them that this was allowed because it was not done inside of a quote box. Colibri closed the thread because it was getting adversarial but indicated, indirectly at least. that the correct answer had been given to the OP. Since the thread has been closed it is a hassle to take quotes from it, but I will put the pertinent remarks inside generic quote boxes, unaltered. > [@](#): > > Poster mischaracterizing your posts > Is it okay for another poster to deceptively and intentionally misrepresent another person’s posts? Repeatedly? > [@](#): > > Altering your posts inside a quote box is not allowed, but creating a strawman argument by paraphrasing your post in a less than accurate way is a common debating style for certain posters. You can pit, ignore, or call them out on it. > [@](#): > > "Wow I can see why she seldom actually quotes people. I guess I figured it would somehow be against the rules or something if it was so blatant and constant, like how she almost permeates that thread with it. > > But it’s good to know what’s the deal. I’ll handle it by doing one of the things you suggest. Thanks. > [@](#): > > Since the question seems to have been answered to the OP’s satisfaction, I’m going to close this. I don’t have time to find them all now, but I know there have been many other threads that echoed this one basic rule - never edit the text inside a quote box, do whatever you want inside quotation marks, italics, etc. But today Twickster has completely contradicted what I thought I had understood so clearly (even from her own previous comments on the subject) > [@twickster](#): > > As a current moderator, I consider anything treated as a quote to be a quote – I make no distinction between quotation mark and a quote box. Quotes is quotes. > [@twickster](#): > > First, where does it say that material quoted with quotation marks is handled differently than material in a quote box? Unattributed parodies _are_ treated differently, but attributed quotes, however presented, should not be tampered with. This is the first and only time I have ever understood a mod to be saying that it is not permitted to do whatever you want with someone’s quote inside of quotation marks or other means of quoting besides quote boxes (italics, etc.). Even when posters have opened up ATMB threads specifically to complain that their words were changed inside quotation marks by another poster, they were told that is permitted as long as they didn’t use a quote box. So it would be nice if a PTB could clarify as I think this new interpretation of the rule is broken quite regularly around here if it is valid. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clarification-request-re-rules-about-changing-text-within-quote-tags/684746)._