Inserting a quote.

The simplest way is to find the post you want to quote, then press the link in the lower right corner of the post frame that says "Quote". You can then edit out the parts that don't apply and only display the portion of the quote you are responding to. Add your own comments after the [/quote] closing tag.

You can manually create the quote attribute in a post by cutting and pasting the text you are quoting and bounding the copied text with {quote} and {/quote} tags (Note: replace the braces with square brackets). If you do this, please cite the source that you are quoting in your comments.

Agreed. Posters handling quotes have already attributed the quotes of others to me!

dobs108

I think I got it. Thanks.

Seeing this reply got me curious as to whether there was a way to put square brackets into a forum post without messing it up. There does seem to be a way using HTML entities. If you type...

[quote]This is not a quote.[/quote]

...the post will display...

[quote]This is not a quote.[/quote]

Dunno what will happen if someone tries to quote that, though. Maybe we'll find out....

** EDIt: Works OK

than the way I did it

If you do quote someone, avoid taking their post, breaking it apart sentence by sentence, quoting each sentence, and replying to those sentences.

This is acceptable:

This is not:

Not only is post dissection a sign of a weak argument on the part of the person doing the dissecting, it's also annoying as all hell. If you can't make a coherent point without breaking down posts into individual sentences, then don't try making your point as you'll end up looking like an idiot.

P.S. All "you", "your" and "you're" statements here do not refer to a specific person or persons but the readership in general.

There are times when breaking down a post almost sentence by sentence IS required. If the original poster asks a series of questions, which a lot of new users in this forum do, the only way to ensure all the topics and their alternatives are covered is to break down the post and answer each individually.

Like Box Car, I also believe that there are times when dissecting a post and replying to individual points (not necessarily sentences) is a Good Thing. When used appropriately that technique can make the reply more concise and easier to follow.

What I find "annoying as all hell" is when somebody replies to a very long post by quoting the whole thing, and then somebody else does the same to that reply. That's when I lose interest ("TL;DR" as you like to say, Strephon).

I do agree that unnecessary or excessive post dissection can be an annoyance, and quotes taken out of context are inappropriate.

Like Box Car and VersitileGuy, I have found that there are times when a poster has multiple dissimilar points. In my opinion, one should comment separately on individual points for purposes of clarity as well as ease of understanding by later readers.

In another vein, a entire post is often quoted when the person replying wants to comment on a specific sentence. If the rest of the post is not required for context, my preference would be that non relevant parts be "snipped" (I personally use "..." to indicate that I have removes part of the original post).

I do think that Strephon's basic point is valid, however.

A poster who dissects a post runs the risk that forum participants find it too difficult to follow and avoid reading it.

Quotes taken out of context can change the meaning to something the original poster never intended.

dobs108

Thanks