A real apology from Andrew T.

[AndrewT]

Hi to all.

I have been referring to a Forum Rule regarding the quoting of "whole posts".

I have done this more than a few times, and worse without checking the facts.

I apologise to all that I have offended with my comments.

There is no rule on quoting whole posts to be seen in the current http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/site-announcements/167561-diyaudio-rules.html

Sorry.

 

[DF96]

Perhaps there should be such a rule? Some quotes include large pictures too.

 

[poynton]

That is especially true when the posts are repeatedly quoted (nested quotes)



If I need to quote most of a previous post, I break it down into points and answer each in turn.
I think this is acceptable?

.

 

[jitter]

My view on this is that it should remain possible to quote entire posts, but should be done only when necessary.
And instead of replying like this:

l
o
n
g

q
u
o
t
e

l
o
n
g

a
n
s
w
e
r

I assume poynton means to break a quote down this way:

first part of quote

answer relevant to first part

second part of quote

answer relevant to second part

last part of quote

and so on to the end.

If so, I agree.

What really gets in the way of readability are (too) large pictures exaggerated by quotes including these pics. Perhaps quotes should only include pictures if they're below a certain size and if the reply ends up on a different page of the thread than that of which the quote was taken from.

 

[wintermute]

There isn't any rule about it, but I do seem to recall a thread about the practice of quoting entire posts in the post immediately following (or shortly after), this is annoying and un-necessary.

If someone is replying to only a small portion of a previous post then it is often best to delete the rest of the unneeded material. A lot of members put a --- snip --- in when they do this to make it obvious. However it is important not to edit in such a way as to change the context and make it look like someone said something other than what they intended.

I find what jitter has suggested above to be one of the most useful ways of quoting if you wish to address multiple points in a post.

Tony.

 

[godfrey]

There is no rule on quoting whole posts...

Well, keep up the good work anyway! I guess now you'll just have to say "please".

 

[Tripmaster]

'A real apology from Andrew T'

A sincere apology?

 

[regiregi22]

That is especially true when the posts are repeatedly quoted (nested quotes)

In fact, this is an already addressed issue. More or less. Try to quote, for example jitter's post which already has quotes in it, and press "Preview post". The previous quotes are already removed.

I agree with jitter's opinion of splitting the different ideas in different quotes, each with each own answer. Something that, despite the attention, my brain sometimes refuses to do, so sorry for that. Specially if quoting a big post with 30 ideas and you are answering to just one

 

[godfrey]

Selective quoting is normally good but sometimes you want to reply to an entire post in general, not just part of it. In that case, I often just address my comment to the person. e.g.:

@jitter: totally agree

 

[poynton]

.....................I assume poynton means to break a quote down this way:

answer relevant to first part

answer relevant to second part

and so on to the end.

If so, I agree......................

Exactly what I meant.

Thanks for the illustration.


Andy


.

 

[Pano]

Over-quoting is my top forum pet-peeve. There was a thread on it, but few people seemed to care. Nice to see some more comments on it here. I've asked some prominent forum posters (via PM) not to do it. The answer was "I never do that" - only to see it again in the very next post!

As a Mod, I spend a lot of time removing the quotes of the entire previous post. A least it makes me feel like I'm doing something. Also spend a lot of time fixing bad quote tags.

I'd love to see the quote button moved to a less obvious place that would make it harder to just click "Quote" instead of "Reply". Might help a lot as it seems that many people just click Quote without thinking about it.

 

[jitter]

Now that I'm writing a reply to a relatively short post that will likely end up right below Pano's post, I don't feel the need to quote (part of) it. If it were longer, I would have done so and broken it down into parts, and that's why it should remain possible. After posting I will obviously have to look at the thread again to see if someone beat me to it and edit if necessary.

I'm not sure I agree with moderators removing quotes from other people's posts when there's no rule that forbids quoting entire posts... Perhaps an amendmend of the rules is needed first.

IMHO, the move of the quote button to a less obvious place will only help temporarily as its new place will be found and remembered, unless... there will always be more effort needed to use the quote button than the reply button.

 

[regiregi22]

You can interchange the URL that are pointed to by Quote and Reply buttons

 

[poynton]

The icon for a "Quick Reply" is already there just to the right of the "Quote" button but it is not obvious (no words)

Perhaps changing the "quote" button to a plain icon and the "reply" button to a "text button" would solve the problem. (is that what Regiregi22 meant ?)




But as Jitter says, there will always be those ...................



Andy


.

 

[godfrey]

But as Jitter says, there will always be those ...................

Aaaaand, we have a winner!!! Here's Groove-T quoting his entire (immediately preceding) own post, without adding any further comment.

There should be a prize for that.

 

[regiregi22]

I have noticed something curious. If you look at the URL where the three bottom-right buttons are pointing, it is the same for both, so the action performed by those three buttons it's the same.

Is there a reason for this to be this way? Perhaps a coding bug?

 

[godfrey]

The buttons do perform different actions, so I guess there's JavaScript to handle the button clicks.

 

[a.wayne]

Wow and all along i thought you guys only cared about THD, improper star gnds, toobs vs SS and NFB, this is deep ..s

 

[jacco vermeulen]

Frequently, I contemplate why folks start these useless and utterly boring threads ?
Sometimes, the answer seems all to obvious.

Fortunately, when the nagging about posted or linked image size, proper Anglo-English spelling, punctuation, or forum rules, once again totally peed me off, I seek refuge in reading and posting at audio fora originating from Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Russia, or Japan.
(not Dutch fora, those are stupendously annoying, and I've yet to read something of interest at a British forum)

 

[5th element]

I dislike it too when people quote ridiculous amounts, especially when it involves a large picture. I've also seen some people not even using quotes and simply copy/pasting the text from some previous posts and this makes it extremely difficult to actually read their replies.

I think there should be a set of guidelines on how to actually use quotes properly and then effectively.