I thought about putting this in MPSIMS because I don’t want to single any specific posters out, but maybe this works better in the pit.
First, I can not stand when somebody quotes a multi-paragraph OP or post and then adds one sentence as a response. You don’t need to quote the whole goddamn thing; either quote a relevant sentence or just say something like “as regards to the OP:” and then say what you want. I already read the OP, I don’t have to read it again to know what the fuck you’re talking about.
Second, and I think this is worse, don’t over parse. Don’t quote the first sentence from a post, respond, quote the next sentence from the same post, respond, etc etc. I see some posts that have upwards of eight or ten quote boxes for a single fucking paragraph. That shit is unreadable. You break up the flow of the original post and all it says about you is that you can’t write a decent paragraph in response. Get your fucking thoughts in order and post something cohesive. It is possible to respond to a multiple point post without putting each motherfucking sentence in its own quote box.
Anyway, I’m leaving this open for everybody to bitch about whatever they hate.
Don’t post your answers within the quote block. It makes responding to you an absolute nightmare. I don’t think I know anyone here who does it, but boy are there enough elsewhere.
Along those lines there’s one or two people who seem to re-arrange the way VB’s quoting feature works which means when someone tries to quote them, things get mis-attributed. For example, if I had done this: Budget Player Cadet Said:
And then replied, when someone quoted me, it would look as if you said what I’m writing here. This happens since we have nested quotes turned off so the quoted part would dissapear. The only way to fix that would be for someone to delete the first part where it says BPC Said:
I guess I don’t hate that, but it’s mildly annoying and I’ve never really understood why people take the extra step to do it. I can only assume they do it to stand out from the crowed.
And to add to it, it not only looks like BPC said something he didn’t…it looks like I was the one who said he said it.
I’ve seen that cause problems in debate type threads until the poster has a chance to come back and explain that he/she never said that and that it was just a VB/editing/quoting quirk.
I am totally with you on the whole-post quoting.
I only have internet access through my phone and Oh My God is it a pain in the ass to have to scroll through multiple copies of an op or a long post. It doesn’t make me stabby or anything but, geez…
Aside from that, I don’t really have any complaints.
I kind of feel the same way. There might be things that annoy me but off the top of my head there’s only one posting style that I’ve seen on this board that truly makes me stabby. But since it’s only one person that does it, I’ll leave it alone at the risk of singling anyone out. I did find that the FFvB does a great job of calming my nerves since it actually disappears the person clean off the boards as opposed to VB’s ignore feature which is essentially useless IMO.
If I ever quote someone and fail to remove chunks of text that I should have, it’s because I was posting on my phone and editing the quote would have been a pain in the ass. It doesn’t happen often though.
I hate it when people put the quote they are responding to at the end of their post. Guess what, I just read your whole post; I’ve already figured out what you were responding to. Thanks for nothing!
“Stand” as short for “withstand”? If you can’t stand it, what do you do? Are you in mortal danger?
Sure, that an be irritating.
Preach it, brother!
Including non sequiturs?
But what if it’s been several pages, and one’s memory of the OP may have faded?
I’m not sure I understand what “parse” means, here. But I’ll read on. Maybe it will become clear.
Like this?
Like this?
Ah, I get it. I’ll be sure to never do this.
You know what’s unreadable? People adding two spaces after a period. Luckily, html erases that particular bit of silliness.
Really? There’s no chance that each point really deserves a response one at a time?
I’m not convinced that multiple quote boxes creates incoherence per se.
Yes, so what? The quote boxes often make each rebuttal clearer.
You know what I hate? People who get off on complaints about totally common and mundane internet forum behavior. Get over it. It certainly won’t be going away any time soon.
But to be fair, neither will the complaints about it.
I hate bitching about silly, harmless crap. But bitching about bitching, that’s ok.
Here’s one that’s less form and more content-based: “I’m smarter than you, therefore nothing you say will convince me that I’m wrong!” And to be perfectly clear, there’s a difference between calling the person you’re debating with an idiot and treating him like he is one; I try very hard to do the former without doing the latter (part of the reason why SDMB is one of the only forums I haven’t gotten kicked out of yet ^_^), because the moment you demean your opponent, treat him like he’s worse than you, whatever, you’re losing any chance to learn anything from the debate, and becoming no better than the god-botherers who so irritatingly claim “I’m a Christian and nothing can shake my faith!” and then try to debate with you anyways.
If you post in a style that makes your intended audience groan, you can’t fucking write, and they are going to view you as an idiot.
That’s my point. Honestly, what are you going to defend next? If I was to bitch about how I don’t want to read a wall of text without any paragraph breaks, or how It’s painful to read a poster that refuses to use the shift key, or SEEMS TO HAVE CAPS LOCK ON ALL THE TIME, would you defend that, too? I don’t care if it is common on the internet. That is not a defense. We should be a tad better than the comments on Youtube, don’t you think?
The coy re-phraser. “So, what you really mean to say is that you hate Jesus and America.”
The snark. “Okay, fine, whatever, I guess your mommy never taught you manners…”
And the back-and-forth analysis in insane depth. “In post 645, when you said, ‘I don’t agree with you,’ you are contradicting what you said in post 348, ‘I don’t necessarily disagree with you,’ and your response that the context was different is, itself, contradicted by post 988, where you said…” Peee-yuke!
I’m neutral on the gag one-liner post. “Oral Sex? I thought you said Oral Roberts!” I don’t admire 'em a lot, but they are often amusing. They’re a waste of time and space…but if they’re clever, they earn a grin.
