# How Do I Attribute Quotes? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 10, 2002, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321 "2002-08-10T21:22:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/21 "2002-08-14T13:51:09Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by White Lightning_ > **Arnold… What can I say.** Whatever you do, don’t tell him how many crippled tags with a missing bracket are out there. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/22 "2002-08-15T01:36:51Z")
Hey **Flamsterette\_X** , it’s nice to be noticed. 🙂 It’s good to be back – I wasn’t anywhere special, just had a lot of things going on and needed to take a step down in my SDMB time. Thank you for asking. I see you’ve continued to make the most of your time here as well. I’m sure we’ll be hearing from each other again soon. **femtosecond** , I wonder – all the times that people screw up and post [\*\*\*\*b] \* and [\*\*\*\*i] \*\* – do you think it all evens out, or are there unpaired tags of that sort out there too? ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/23 "2002-08-15T11:19:02Z")
That’s the second reply to me from someone posting in the wrong thread in two days. Is something wrong with me? 🙂 > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Chronos_ > **New HTML standard (or is it XML?). Whenever you have a tag that doesn’t come in pairs, such as \, you’re supposed to put a slash in the tag after the name, to let the browser know that there’s not supposed to be a \ tag somewhere down the line.** Both, XHTML. Thanks for a clue what to look for. From the XHTML specs: [XHTML 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (Second Edition)](http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xhtml1-20020801/#h-4.6) > [@](#): > > Empty elements must either have an end tag or the start tag must end with /\>. For instance, \
or \\. XML doesn’t allow unpaired tags, so in XHTML \
is a backwards compatible abbreviation for \\. Now I don’t really want to know why vBulletin uses a different standard for the post-generated code than for the rest of the page. **White Lightning** , which one of us will go and ask Jerry to shut down the server for a few hours to search through the database and count them? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/24 "2002-08-15T11:52:09Z")
My question on quotes is hoiw do i quote just oine or two lines and not the entire post ? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/25 "2002-08-15T14:26:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by nightshadea \* > \*\*My question on quotes is hoiw do i quote just oine or two lines . . . \*\* Just use the quote function and delete whatever you don’t want to quote within the ‘quote’ tags. However, it’s a good idea to indicate somehow, either with \ or dots, that you have only quoted part of the original text. (And in GD you will invariably be called on “quoting out of context” anyway). Note that it is a big no-no to actually change the words within someone else’s quote (with the exception of adding emphasis such as bold or italics, and even then you should clearly indicate “emphasis mine.”) ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/26 "2002-08-15T14:26:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by nightshadea \* > My question on quotes… Just edit the text that appears between > [@](#): > > and . ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/27 "2002-08-15T16:05:19Z")
If I want to quote part of a previous post (and in the fora of which I am a habitué, that’s most of the time) I normally copy and paste the particular material that I want to quote, inserting the appropriate codes before and after (which have been explained above _ad infinitum_. In particular, if I want to respond separately to several points made in a single previous post, it’s simplicity itself to type in the close-quote code in the middle of the quoted material, my response to that, a new open-quote code, and so on. What is/are the policy and coding requirements on nested quotes these days? ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2002, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/28 "2002-08-15T16:59:49Z")
) Since we’re being picky about this sort of thing, I thought I’d close **Polycarp** ’s parenthesis. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2002, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/29 "2002-08-16T00:51:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Polycarp \* > What is/are the policy and coding requirements on nested quotes these days? Use Preview! ---
**Author:** ![imthjckaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/imthjckaz/32/3223_2.png) [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2002, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/30 "2002-08-16T02:15:49Z")
Yes, ]b[ plaese preveew[/i[ !!! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2002, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/31 "2002-08-16T20:59:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Now I don’t really want to know why vBulletin uses a different standard for the post-generated code than for the rest of the page. Different people are behind it. The folks at Jelsoft decided how they wanted posts to be formatted, but that’s all fitted into a template created or customized by folks here at the Straight Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2002, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/32 "2002-08-16T22:29:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by White Lightning \* > \*\*Hey **Flamsterette\_X** , it’s nice to be noticed. 🙂 It’s good to be back – I wasn’t anywhere special, just had a lot of things going on and needed to take a step down in my SDMB time. Thank you for asking. I see you’ve continued to make the most of your time here as well. I’m sure we’ll be hearing from each other again soon. > > femtosecond, I wonder – all the times that people screw up and post \*\* \* and \* \*\* – do you think it all evens out, or are there unpaired tags of that sort out there too?\*\* Hey, when I took a 38-hour, 15-minute break from the SDMB from Wednesday night till this afternoon, and told various people about it, they were VERY surprised. The reaction ranged from “Uh, I can’t breathe now.” to “Wow! **Flami** actually taking a break from the boards? I can’t believe it!” So yeah, I kind of know what you mean, if only on a smaller scale. Heck, if I did that for as long as you did (and it wasn’t even that long), people would be hounding me to see where I was! 😃 As for my making the most of my time on the boards, I guess that could be true. Just don’t try to read all my posts from when you left to when you came back… that’s guaranteed to make for a lot of reading. 😉 (but you might want to read the **Spoz** welcome thread, and the thread that inspired it… just search for the keyword “Spoz” in MPSIMS during the past month or so) And as for those screwed-up coding tags, I’ve done that at least a few times, perhaps even as recently as today. You’ll most likely see \*\*[.b] or something like that from me, caused by my typing too fast and hitting the wrong key. F\_X ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2002, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/33 "2002-08-16T22:38:19Z")
Apparently, I’m also making a lot of double-posts to mark my return to the boards after that unprecedented break. :rolleyes: I think it’s the “no matter how quickly you hit the Stop button after you submit your post, your screw-up still posts” rule. Sigh… F\_X ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/34 "2002-08-17T14:07:06Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Chronos_ > **Different people are behind it. The folks at Jelsoft decided how they wanted posts to be formatted, but that’s all fitted into a template created or customized by folks here at the Straight Dope.** Sheesh, didn’t I say I _don’t_ want to know? 😉 Nice theory, but the board at [www.vbulletin.com](http://www.vbulletin.com) itself uses the inconsistent style, the Dope just adopted it. Oh well, it just shifts to different people, but in the same company. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2002, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321/35 "2002-08-18T23:49:58Z")
**femtosecond** , haven’t you learned by now that the quickest way to learn something at this board is to say that you don’t want to know it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-attribute-quotes/123321.md?page=1)