"Snipped", as in a reply.

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1

Sometimes I’ll delete part of a message I reply to that isn’t relevant to my reply. I’ve seen others do the same, but they type “snip” or “snipped” in the reply.
I don’t want to be rude, but I can’t find any information about this in the rules or the etiquette parts of ATMB. I also searched, but got a lot of unrelated posts.
Is it okay to simply chop out the part of the post that I’m not replying to?
Educate me, please.
Thanks,
mangeorge

2

I usually just cut out the part I’m not responding to unless it will change the meaning or intent of the poster, although I sometimes do that for humor’s sake. I suppose one could use an elipsis instead of a <snip>. . .

3

Instead of putting [snipped], you could just put ellipsis marks (i.e., three periods). The real question is whether you have distorted the meaning of the post that you are quoting. As long as you’re making a good-faith effort to not distort the meaning of the post you’re quoting, you’re O.K.

4

Newspapers do something similar when shortening a quote but they use ellipsis. I guess it’s less important on a board when the original is visible to everyone, but I think it could be considered politeness to indicate that a quote is not the entirety of the original, and <snip> seems as good a way as any. Not that anyone cares what I think.

5

Thanks, all.
I’ll continue to just cut unless doing so will change the context of the part of the post I’m replying to.

6

I use an ellipsis only when I’ve edited out part of a sentence. If it’s part of or a complete paragraph or more missing, I don’t bother.

7

There is a rule in the pit to indicate “snipped” material. I’ve always assumed it was a good move in all the fora. See here: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=365973

8

The Rule is found in Post #11 of this thread FAQ - Rules for Posting on the Straight Dope Message Boards.

[quote]
Text inside

[QUOTE]
tags is sacrosanct. Normal editorial rules apply: that is, you may indicate omitted portions of a quote by the use of ellipses “…” and you may add text to clarify a word using square brackets (e.g., “her [the sister’s] friend”), but you may **not ** add editorial comments or edit a quote so as to change the substantive meaning; nor may you substitute text such as “some blather” or “more nonsense” inside the

The use of <snipped> instead of elipses (…) has been deemed reasonable.