In this thread, I admit to the transgression of sometimes posting before I’ve read the entire thread. So now I can register this complaint with a clear conscience.
When you quote someone, please include their name. I like to be able to put things in context, and I don’t like having to scroll back in order to figure out who said what.
<crickets chirping> That’s all. <crickets chirping>
Actually, if you read the entire thread, most quotes will be clear, unless it’s a 5-pager.
But yeah, you’ve got a point. It’s easier when the quote is attributed to a person directly.
I sometimes do this either because I’m in a hurry or because it is a poster I would rather not confront directly. I am responding to words somebody said, not to the person who said them. Why would it matter who said them? Do you need to know who said something to agree or disagree with it? Is it enough if I just identify the poster as belonging or not belonging to the clique?
The problem comes in when bad quoting leads people to misattribute quotes, and assume that someone other than the proper poster wrote those words. Quoting a post with such an unattributed quote and misremembering who said the original can lead to confusion and hard feelings.
Snarky remarks about “the clique” aside, doing something simple like leaving in attribution when using “Reply as Quote” is a good idea; it reduces the chance for confusion and misattribution later if that thread does develop into a 5-pager and someone references your quoting post rather than the original.
I’d rather the quote was attributed, so I can backtrack and find out its context, or find out if the quote was the post.
And of course, after I post I remember something else I wanted to add - note the “do not misattribute quotes” warning from Ed Zotti? When people make up quotes or parody someone else’s words, now they will often leave it as an unattributed quote. Not attributing real quotes can make it difficult to tell who really said what, especially for close parodies that only change a few words.
I most certainly agree. I have almost started a similar thread many times, because of confusion caused by reading quotes that didn’t give the name of the poster. Even some posters that I respect completely are guilty of this. I mean, jeez, it’s easier to leave the name of the poster in the quote than to remove it, isn’t it?
Anyway, I was waiting until I had 5000+ posts to air this grievance. Thanks, Rilchiam.
When it is a large thread, it’s quite helpful; not because I agree or disagree with a statement because of who said it, but it is helpful in locating the (sometimes quite large) post from which the (sometimes quite small) quote is extracted, so I can read the quoted portion in context with all of its qualifiers.
Of course, having read the entire thread before posting, I should just be able to remember exactly who said it, but my memory isn’t nearly that good.
Furthermore, if someone quotes me and attributes it, this enables me to immediately see when somebody is addressing me (again, maybe I should just perfectly remember everything I have ever said, but it doesn’t work like that).
The reply with quote button isn’t always exactly what you need; if you want to break up a quote into pieces to respond to a series of points (although here you would only attribute the first, I suppose) or quote more than one person, you have to do it manually. in such cases, it is tedious (but necessary, IMO) to include the proper attribution.
OK, I’ll admit I sometimes leave out the poster’s name, but only when I’m replying within a post or two of the original quote. My only excuse it that I generally cut and paste and manually add the quote tags, instead of hitting “quote” and waiting for the reply page to load. Trying to spare the hamsters and all that. Plus, I’m just impatient.
But while we’re here addressing the quote tag issue, I have a request of my own.
Use Them!
Sweet bleeding monkeys, there’s nothing that irritates me more than reading half-way through the first paragraph of a post and realizing it’s actually something poster xyz said above, but poster pqr was too lazy to add the quote tags around it. Grrrrrr. :mad:
We have a couple posters that consistently do this even though they’ve been around more than long enough to know better. Why? Why, I ask you? ::broken sobbing::
bella
I’m one of the worst about this, Rilchiam. I’ll endeavor to do better.
Not necessarily. Until fairly recently, I couldn’t use the quote function at all (nor the reply frame at the bottom of the post). So I would :
-copy the post I wanted to respond to
-Hit “add reply”
-Past the post
-Add (quote) (/quote) myself
-Type my response
And actually, most often I wasn’t done with that. I still couldn’t submit my reply. So I would have to :
-copy my post (quote included)
-hit the “back” button
-Hit “add reply” again
-Relog
-paste my response
-submit the reply
Take into account that at each step, I had to wait since the board is quite slow, as you might have noticed…
The whole process was so tedious that I wasn’t willing to add one more step by adding manually “Originally posted by Whoever”, nor adding (b) (/b) at the beginning and the end of each quote.
So, if other posters are, like I was, unable to use the “quote” function and have the same kind of problems I had, that could easily explain why they don’t include the name of the original poster.
Good point, and that goes for what Mangetout said too. I know it can be a hassle, and the lack of attribution isn’t usually a huge problem anyway–I can just scroll up to find who is being quoted, if I don’t remember. The problem is worse when the quote is from a previous page, and the board is slow. Then I find myself opening the other pages in a new window, waiting for them to load, etc.
Actually, if I’m doing a somewhat complicated quote, like breaking it up into separate points or quoting more than one person in a single post, I almost always open new windows and then copy/paste. Also a little hassle sometimes, I know. Anyway, I see the point that it isn’t always easier to leave the name in.
I prefer to attribute who said what, too, and it bothers me but doesn’t REALLY annoy me to look back as to who said what if someone else does not do it.
When I want to quote several different people in a thread (which I don’t really do very often, anyway…but that is beside the point), I just open two windows, one for typing my response, and the other for reference, and I just cut from the second window and paste into the first, quote tags and all. It’s very easy to do. Maybe a little slow when the hamsters are tired, but a lot easier than just using one window. 
I can’t remember who said it, but as far as I’m concerned :
I can understand the irritation at having to backtrack after a busy few minutes of scrolling rapidly forward.
Now, I could say, for my part, I don’t have time to qttribute every flippin’ quote in every flippin’ post.
But instead, I’ll say: valid complaint, and I’ll work against the habit.
See the difference there?
Certainly! Thank you!
So am I.
So will I.
Awwww…you people are too nice!
Including this post, all my further posts are in pig latin.