# Question about quoting etiquette

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-quoting-etiquette/593959>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [August 24, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-quoting-etiquette/593959 "2011-08-24T22:16:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-quoting-etiquette/593959/5 "2011-08-25T00:55:05Z")

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> [@Who owns the copyright?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-the-copyright/593865/31):
>
> (Can I make a second request for you to use the native quoting function? You’re making more work for the rest of us.)

> [@Who owns the copyright?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-the-copyright/593865/45):
>
> What are you talking about?

This is what I’m talking about. **Chronos** quotes like this:

> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Quoth **Ascenray** :
> 
> > [@](#):
> >
> > For it to be a work for hire, the agreement must be written. Oral agreements do not count under U.S. law.
> 
> It’s my understanding that oral contracts are perfectly legitimate, so long as there’s no dispute between the parties to the contract as to what the contract was. And it looks like, in this case, there’s no dispute between the OP and the band.

When you hit the “quote” button or the “multiquote” button to reply, this is what you get:

> [@Who owns the copyright?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-owns-the-copyright/593865/30):
>
> Quoth **Ascenray** :It’s my understanding that oral contracts are perfectly legitimate, so long as there’s no dispute between the parties to the contract as to what the contract was. And it looks like, in this case, there’s no dispute between the OP and the band.

You see the erroneous “Quoth **Ascenray** ” stuck into the quote? Unless you make certain to go back and delete it, you’ve misattributed the quotation. The whole problem is that Chronos is sticking in an extraneous manual attribution instead of using the native attribution.

The advantages of using the native quote function include:

1. As others have pointed out, you get the automatic arrow link back to the original quoted post.

2. You automatically get the _correct_ attribution and later posters don’t have to make sure to correct the attribution when replying.

3. Using the automatic quote function ensures that you get the correct attribution (and also … **ahem** … you don’t have to worry about misspelling another poster’s user name).

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