# Question about rule about bolding in quotes **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [February 22, 2023, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198 "2023-02-22T16:27:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/21 "2023-02-22T18:50:07Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > The other option is to only quote the parts that you want to emphasise, which gets into complaints about quoting out of context. > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > You can’t change the meaning of a quote, either through omission or bolding I’ve also never had any issues with bolding/italicizing etc and noting that you did so. However, lately I’ve taken to untagging the quote if I’m going to do anything more than that. I’ve seen people get noted for ping in way that maybe could change the meaning of the post and figured I’m probably safer just to do that then risk anything. My, possibly incorrect, understanding has been that you have some extra wiggle room with quote if it’s not clearly attributed to the person. > [@Dissonance](#): > > his post has been graped by the grapist. To be fair, that would be genuinely helpful for those of us using the Vincent theme which, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t work. Bolded text appears nearly identical to regular text. The only time I see it is when someone says ‘bolding mine’ and I go back to look for it. ETA, huh, quoting that disappeared all the formatting. I only quoted that one line, so I’m not surprised the bullet is gone, but I didn’t expect the color to disappear too. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/22 "2023-02-22T18:54:48Z")
I thought the “My Bolding” was mandatory and not optional. I’m surprised to learn it is not. But if **ECG** says it isn’t; good enough for me. I don’t know if it is official but I consider **ECG** our Lead Mod. But honestly I don’t care much about it anyway and wouldn’t be likely to hand out a warning for such a minor thing without some extenuating circumstance. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/23 "2023-02-22T19:03:12Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > > > Same goes for italics or underlining if you want to use them instead of bold. > > There’s an existing board culture of using bold for this purpose. Isn’t it better to stick to that? I disagree. The board culture reserves bolding for usernames. Emphasis should be italics and underlining. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/24 "2023-02-22T19:04:05Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I disagree. The board culture reserves bolding for usernames. This certainly used to be the case; it seems like relatively few of us continue to do so these days. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/25 "2023-02-22T19:04:55Z")
Well with discourse it makes more sense to @ them than bold their name. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/26 "2023-02-22T19:16:12Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I disagree. The board culture reserves bolding for usernames. I disagree with your disagreement 🙂. Not strongly enough that I couldn’t be bribed for half a candy bar. But still…I have never used bolding exclusively for user names. That’s something those old, traditionalist '99ers are concerned about, not us young '00er hepcats. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/27 "2023-02-22T19:18:40Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > The board culture reserves bolding for usernames. Emphasis should be italics and underlining. Can’t it be both? On my box, anyway, the bolding stands out better in a block of text than either italic or underlining. If a reader can’t distinguish between **Pleonast** and a long **line of bolded text** , that’s on them. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/28 "2023-02-22T19:23:28Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Well with discourse it makes more sense to @ them than bold their name. I wish @’d names were bolded, instead of being grayed. > [@Tamerlane](#): > > But still…I have never used bolding exclusively for user names. That’s why you’ll never fit in around here. 😉 > [@DesertDog](#): > > If a reader can’t distinguish between **Pleonast** and a long **line of bolded text** , that’s on them. It’s easy—I’m the cute one. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/29 "2023-02-22T19:48:15Z")
Bolding and italics for emphasis in quoting has always been allowed to my knowledge, provided it is made clear. What has been ostensibly prohibited is the altering of quoted text or pulling it completely out of context, although even this rule has been subjectively and inaptly applied. I once had a poster quote a part of a sentence from a post to make it appear that I was stating something that was completely at odds with my actual statement (which was clear from the entire post in context) and the response from the then-moderation was that if I had an issue with it was to start a Pit thread, which I did and then for which I received a ‘private warning’ and a prohibition from interacting with that poster regardless of what they said or did regarding my posts. So the inconsistency in moderation is scarcely a new thing. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/30 "2023-02-22T19:58:10Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > That’s why you’ll never fit in around here. Are you suggesting that it’s not a good idea to boldly go where no one has gone before? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2023, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/31 "2023-02-22T19:58:31Z")
Just wanted to say to @What_Exit - classy retraction and apology in the original thread. That’s good modding. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2023, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198/32 "2023-02-23T18:19:31Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > > [@Pleonast](#): > > > > I disagree. The board culture reserves bolding for usernames. > > This certainly used to be the case; it seems like relatively few of us continue to do so these days. From my days as a journo I remember that the convention was that a **Name** was in bold the first time it appeared in a text, but subsequent use of that Name was not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-rule-about-bolding-in-quotes/980198.md?page=1)