Does Israel have to stay where it is?

[Jonathan_Chance]

Indeed. The rules quote is

Originally Posted by Rules of Straight Dope Message Boards
Falsely attributing a quote to another user, or modifying another’s post in order to cast him/her in a bad light, even if meant in jest, is grounds for revocation of your posting privileges.

This does not apply to parodies to which no name is attached.

Text inside QUOTE tags is sacrosanct. Normal editorial rules apply: that is, you may indicate omitted portions of a quote by the use of ellipses “…” and you may add text to clarify a word using square brackets (e.g., “her [the sister’s] friend”), but you may not add editorial comments or edit a quote so as to change the substantive meaning; nor may you substitute text such as “some blather” or “more nonsense” inside the QUOTE tags.

So yes, altering things - other than removal of content extraneous to the discussion - from quote boxes is against the rules. But so is falsely attributing a quote to another user. YogSosoth did so in his post. By creating a quote - inside quote marks - for Terr he behaved as if Terr had actually written those words. Terr did not.

In short, this shouldn’t be difficult. Don’t put anything inside quotation marks - or quote boxes - that you wouldn’t be able to say that person actually said. Such behavior would get someone fired at any journalism position in the country (or should) because doing so is potentially damaging to the person being falsely quoted.