# Do some people on this board simply not know how to quote others' posts? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [February 4, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339 "2013-02-04T21:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/61 "2013-02-11T05:12:42Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > I’d like to request that posters stop doing the **@ so-n-so** bit. > > Just use the damn quote button and give us some context. Huh?😕 Are you talking about when the whole OP is “What do you guys think of this” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/62 "2013-02-11T05:14:01Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Sometimes they are the simplest way to make clear what one is responding to–to set the last comment in the context of what _it_ answered. This is especially true in busy threads. > . Not to me. They just clutter up things to the point where i can’t make hide nor hair of what dudes are talking about. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/63 "2013-02-11T05:24:32Z")
@DrDeth: no. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/64 "2013-02-11T06:03:40Z")
@ DrDeth, No. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: OP, Post 1.) Do you guys like lemonade? Post 127.) @ PlainJain, Yeah, my mother used to do that too. Me not knowing what the hell post 127 is on about, scrolls up a page in search of **PlainJain** ’s comment. Finally, two pages later: **PlainJain** post 37.) My mom used to garnish our fresh made lemonade with maraschino cherries. It was the best! ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/65 "2013-02-11T09:40:23Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > @ DrDeth, No. > Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: > > OP, Post 1.) Do you guys like lemonade? > Post 127.) @ PlainJain, Yeah, my mother used to do that too. > > Me not knowing what the hell post 127 is on about, scrolls up a page in search of **PlainJain** ’s comment. Finally, two pages later: > > **PlainJain** post 37.) My mom used to garnish our fresh made lemonade with maraschino cherries. It was the best! IOW, using part of the Twitter format on the SDMB. Those who dislike off-board quotes in a quote-box, avert your eyes!: > [@Twitter](#): > > Users can group posts together by topic or type by use of hashtags – words or phrases prefixed with a “#” sign. Similarly, **the “@” sign followed by a username is used for mentioning or replying to other users.** To repost a message from another Twitter user, and share it with one’s own followers, the retweet function is symbolized by “RT” in the message. > **[Twitter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter#Format)** > > Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, images, and videos in short posts commonly known as "tweets" (officially "posts") and like other users' content. The platform also includes direct messaging, video and audio calling, bookmarks, lists, communities, a chatbot (Grok), job search, and Spaces, Twitte... ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/66 "2013-02-11T10:13:21Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > They just clutter up things to the point where i can’t make hide nor hair of what dudes are talking about. Nested quotes–or any quotes–are clutter where they are not needed to understand the present comment. The correct guiding principle is simply this: quote _as much_ of previous comments as is necessary for an ordinary reader working through the thread to understand exactly what you’re saying–but _no more_ than that. Quoting the OP in the fifth post of a thread? That’s clutter; we all just read that. Quoting the entirety of a long post when you’re only addressing one line? That’s clutter! But if a quote was necessary to explicate a previous post, somewhere back in the thread, and the thread has since had a bunch of discussion going in different directions, and now you want to refer back to _that_ comment–nesting the original reference within the one you’re answering (retaining the linkback buttons for both) makes the progression of ideas traceable. ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/67 "2013-02-11T11:07:17Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > Tiny quotation marks are easy to miss among walls of text, and italics for anything other than a short quote gets annoying to read. > > I think using the quote function for off-board quotes is ideal because it clearly delineates that something is not the words of the poster. Quotation marks and italics are not only easily missed, but since they’re also often used for purposes other than quoting, it can sometimes get ambiguous. If you ever stumble upon a so called book, for god’s sake, don’t open it. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/68 "2013-02-11T13:14:18Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Great Googly Moogly, it has been about 30 years since I last saw the go-to imaginary name “Fred Bloggs.” Nostalgia hit! Clearly you don’t read many of my posts then. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/69 "2013-02-11T14:45:15Z")
> [@Wakinyan](#): > > If you ever stumble upon a so called book, for god’s sake, don’t open it. Yeah, because reading a book is _so_ similar to a message board with multiple people carrying on multiple conversations. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/70 "2013-02-11T17:28:36Z")
Exactly. Message boards should be more like books with only one person having one conversation through-out the whole book. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/71 "2013-02-11T19:13:19Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Exactly. Message boards should be more like books with only one person having one conversation through-out the whole book. Not sure if that’s a failure of humor or of reasoning, but I’ll just giggle nervously, so as to cover both bases. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/72 "2013-02-11T19:45:55Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > Not sure if that’s a failure of humor or of reasoning, but I’ll just giggle nervously, so as to cover both bases. Just practising, after being chastised in another thread, pay no attention! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/73 "2013-02-11T19:49:23Z")
[QUOTE] [after being chastised/QUOTE] Working on only quoting a couple of words! ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/74 "2013-02-11T19:50:45Z")
Sorry still can’t get it right. That works for me on my desk computer but not on my tablet. Can’t see that I’m doing anything different, don’t know why?☹ ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/75 "2013-02-11T20:28:41Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Sorry still can’t get it right. That works for me on my desk computer but not on my tablet. Can’t see that I’m doing anything different, don’t know why?☹ You put your text between the first bracket [ and the /quote. It needs to be Your text then [/quote] at the end. ie: {quote} your edited text {/quote} But brackets instead. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/76 "2013-02-11T22:39:33Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > I agree. I use the quote function for off-board quotes, and I prefer when other people do the same. Tiny quotation marks are easy to miss among walls of text, and italics for anything other than a short quote gets annoying to read. I don’t believe that **Chronos** is objecting to using the quote box for most quotes (other than a few words as part of a sentence). He just doesn’t like the line “Originally posted by” when that person did not _post_ **anything** on this board. Plus, I don’t think he likes that phrase in general. > [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > But is there an easy way to do nested quotes? No, this site is not configured for nested quotes. You can quote one of the posts, or you can multiquote both posts, and then use some copy/paste to manually configure the nested quote. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Why do you want to do nested quotes? They look ugly and give me a headache. I see a _few_ instances where nested quotes are useful to aid the flow, nesting about 1 layer deep. Multiquote also works. > [@Peremensoe](#): > > Yes, but why would you want to? The linkback button is useful/desirable for some of your readers, and seems pretty unobtrusive. For a long time, I was a manual quoter. I did not use the internal quote feature, but copy/pasted all the posts myself. I did this partially because I did not like the “Originally posted by” verbage, but mostly because (1) I did not like the forced italics of quotes in the quote boxes when using the auto feature; (2) I did not know how to multiquote. Eventually I learned how to multiquote, and the board admins made a configuration change that means the text in autoquote boxes now retains the original formatting and is not forced to italics. When that happened, I began using the auto quote. The lack of a blue arrow was not by desire not to include it, but rather lack of desire to take the effort to encode it manually. > [@elbows](#): > > Sorry still can’t get it right. That works for me on my desk computer but not on my tablet. Can’t see that I’m doing anything different, don’t know why?☹ You dropped a bracket [ in the close quote tag. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/77 "2013-02-11T22:45:30Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > You dropped a bracket [ in the close quote tag. Actually the bracket is there, she inserted text between the bracket and the /quote]. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/78 "2013-02-12T17:20:43Z")
Oops, elbows, you misplaced the bracket [ after the open quote tag and put your text _inside_ the /quote tag. ---
**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:** [February 14, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/79 "2013-02-14T20:35:08Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Since this happened many years before you joined the board, how do you know this?:dubious: They’ve told me about it since then. If you’ll check your mod note history, you’ll find that I got a note for getting mad at some guy with a W name because he yelled at me for screwing up his quotation, since he used a weird method to pull it off. In that thread, he explained why he does it. Furthermore, **Chronos** has stated it before while I’ve been here. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was you who told me that it was my responsibility to make sure I didn’t screw up the quotes. I don’t appreciate the insinuation, BTW, and I note that you got a mod note for doing this before–probably the first time I’ve seen a mod note another mod, so it must’ve been pretty bad. I’m not exactly sure why you would do it again. (I think it was by **twickster** , matter of fact. I never had a chance to show my appreciation of that moderation. Wish it happened more often, instead of mistakes being handled behind the scenes.) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339/80 "2013-02-14T20:45:01Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > They’ve told me about it since then. If you’ll check your mod note history, you’ll find that I got a note for getting mad at some guy with a W name because he yelled at me for screwing up his quotation, since he used a weird method to pull it off. In that thread, he explained why he does it. Furthermore, **Chronos** has stated it before while I’ve been here. > > In fact, I’m pretty sure it was you who told me that it was my responsibility to make sure I didn’t screw up the quotes. > > I don’t appreciate the insinuation, BTW, and I note that you got a mod note for doing this before–probably the first time I’ve seen a mod note another mod, so it must’ve been pretty bad. I’m not exactly sure why you would do it again. > > (I think it was by **twickster** , matter of fact. I never had a chance to show my appreciation of that moderation. Wish it happened more often, instead of mistakes being handled behind the scenes.) Where do you see he got a Mod Note? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-some-people-on-this-board-simply-not-know-how-to-quote-others-posts/649339.md?page=3)