Why do people use quotes in forums?

[ki4jgt]

Yahoo post by me:



I have almost completely given up on forums b/c people are always telling me what I said. You said this and I can prove it. I'm quoting you! See, now everyone knows you said this. They can only know it when I quote you though, never mind the fact that you just posted your idea in it's entirety on the forum. I mean I totally get the fact that it helps other people who don't want to read the entire forum to know what's been said, but it's like the people who quote you, they don't even read what's been written just skim through and then quote their own skimmings, and then they try to tell you that you need to do this or that, when you just wrote about doing this or that in your post. Which burns the question, if a forum is a string of posts to make a conversation, why can't people just read and skim themselves if that's all they're gonna do forget the quotes!


Not directing this at anyone here. Have other forums I'm going insane with.

[NightwishFan]

Well quoting someone (at least on vbulletin) is an easy way for them to quickly see you are addressing them. As you see in the link on my sig if used in a harmless way it can make funny jokes too.

Forums are a good and bad place for discussion because it is hard to convey intent through text sometimes and people seem to be demeaning or etc. I learned to just take it all in stride or just be (in a respectful way) just as mean back. :)

[ki4jgt]

I know I should do that, and I know I can make the same mistakes so I have no room to fuss, but it's like the forums I visit are idiots. You say something and people become so obsessed with quoting you that they don't even read anything. What ever happened to saying hey Jeff . . . . . or @JohnDoe I really like your bodybag :-)

[NightwishFan]

True. :)

[slooksterpsv]

Yahoo post by me:



Not directing this at anyone here. Have other forums I'm going insane with.

Now I quoted this, to direct it at you for one. And also if the conversation were to be moving towards a different direction than possibly resolutions, I'd quote and say, try this. Also, another instance is thread hijacking, one person posts, another person posts with the same issue and two separate issues are being worked on in one thread.

Mainly I do it, to point at who I'm talking to, I don't like the @, and sometimes I like to bold what they put to ask questions regarding, so if you see me do this:


abcd efg hijlk asldjkf alsdkjf

I could say, what did you mean by what I've bolded?

I like quotes personally, cause if someone's quoted on something and miss typed or gave incorrect information, we can quote the previous person who quoted and say, you missed this part.

Get my drift?

[julio_cortez]

Just a couple of things from the top of my head.


Maybe you made a long post and someone wants to respond to it point after point?
Maybe the thread has drifted a little so the one responding to you is quoting you to make people aware it's you he's responding to?

Of course I've also met the "I quote you, it's the proof you said X or Y before you coward run editing the post" but they're not many.

[ki4jgt]

No, I mean the ones who are like say I posted something like:

I have a doggie that I would like to give away for free.
I don't like the responsibility of taking care of him.
He poops everywhere. He whines every night and tries to attack the neighbors dogs. here's a picture of him http://www.my-dogs-pic.not
I would like to make sure he goes to a new home though
and I would like to pick out some of his toys

I would get people who pulled this number:

You're saying you would like to get rid of your dog and you would like to see what happens to him after he's moved to another home.



I don't like the responsibility of taking care of him.
He poops everywhere. He whines every night and tries to attack the neighbors dogs.


He's not your dog so:



I would like to make sure he goes to a new home though
and I would like to pick out some of his toys.


This'll never happen

and how much is he. I can't believe you are trying to sell a dog and won't even tell me how much he is after all you probably already hate him, by the way it sounds.



O and by the way I do not own a dog, but this is about how most of my conversations go on forums. It gets really annoying!

[slooksterpsv]

I know how you feel on that, it's irritating, I just try to let it go, if it's excessive and repeating from a specific person I may pm them and ask politely what the deal is. If it's offensive or that, you can report them - or even if its OT completely and its went completely off of your topic and your issue isn't being resolved, report them.

[ki4jgt]

And the How much is he part is more like:
HOW STUPID DO YOU THINK WE ARE? WE'RE NOT BUYING A DOG LIKE THAT! HOW MUCH ARE YOU SELLING HIM FOR, PROBABLY TRYING TO RIP US OFF!

I tried to tone it down a little but it made it sound too sweet. I mean, I plainly said in the forum FREE how else could I say it?

[slooksterpsv]

... I mean, I plainly said in the forum FREE how else could I say it?

Cost: Nothing, Free, Zip, Zilch, Nada, $0.00, None, Cero, Less than a penny, pay only 0% of nothing, FREE = $0, Half a penny, your weight on a scale in a vacuum, etc.

I couldn't think of anymore haha. Yeah, I'd just state he's FREE and bold it and put a price $0.00 bolded as well, at the top and at the bottom of your post.

[Mark Phelps]

Well, I have to admit my own faults at using quoted text a lot in my replies ... but I do that when the OP has a series of different questions or issues, each of which warrants a different reply.

What gets my goat is when someone quote a screen full of original text and then puts "+1" as their sole reply. To me, at least. just the "+1" would have been enough.

[_outlawed_]

Not directing this at anyone here. Have other forums I'm going insane with.

Might I ask why it bothers you so much?

[msandoy]

I just hav eto say, that your weight on a scale in vacuum might be really close to outside of vacuum, since it is possible to make vacuum right here on earth. Your weight would be almost the same.
Should I do quoting here to address the correct person?

[samalex]

For forums that support hierarchical threading (NNTP for example) quoting isn't needed that often since the thread can show a tree-view of who replied to whom. But Ubuntu Forums and most web-based forums I've seen don't do this outta the box, instead I think the way it works is called conversational threading. In cases like this your reply just gets tagged to the end in date order so for a thread that has a dozen conversations you have to quote the upstream text you're replying to for it to make since.

I admit I probably quote way too much, but until more forums go back to hierarchical threading quoting can't be avoided in many cases.

Edit: Interestingly in clicking around to see if UF supports different thread modes I found it under Display Modes. But given this isn't the default and each post in the thread doesn't have an obvious Reply button (most just click Reply at the end) I don't know if the threading is of much value here. Plus, the way they present the thread in the smaller window above the text is really clunky. So yeah looks like UF supports hierarchical threading, but it doesn't look all that usable.

Sam

[slooksterpsv]

...

What gets my goat is when someone quote a screen full of original text and then puts "+1" as their sole reply. To me, at least. just the "+1" would have been enough.

+1... ok I can't do that I'd say

@Mark - I agree
@Mark - +1
@Mark #10 - +1

Something that's a bit descriptive to what post you're replying that you agree with. I don't like the full original text sometimes so I'll ... out places I don't speak about.

EDIT:
@msandoy #13 - Well you catch my drift though right? Weightless, 0, nothing haha.

[forrestcupp]

If they're quoting something you have written, just warn them that they are infringing on your copyright. :)

[ki4jgt]

LOL ok I get it. Quotes are needed :-) but that doesn't mean you can't use your brain while you're selecting what to quote.

And @_outlawed_ it doesn't bother me so much until two or three people come in the forum and start doing it and then everyone of them ask the same question over and over just to avoid reading what they haven't quoted or altogether they're so focused on quoting that they don't even bother reading, and then ask the same questions one after another.

**EDIT: I mean what good is following a conversation, if you're not gonna read what everyone has already said forty times before you?

[cammin]

and how much is he. I can't believe you are trying to sell a dog and won't even tell me how much he is after all you probably already hate him, by the way it sounds.




I have a doggie that I would like to give away for free.

make quotes work in your favor

[slooksterpsv]

...

**EDIT: I mean what good is following a conversation, if you're not gonna read what everyone has already said forty times before you?

I've said something that many people iterated on before, I didn't read the other 25 pages worth of posts cause everyone kept going back and forth on and off topic. So... I guess it's more of how lost the conversation gets in between where others say it again. What I'd do is update the initial post with additional information or what you tried, I'm going to do that if my threads get long say

I tried post #54 which had me do xyz, and I did abc, def, ghi, etc...

[dmizer]

Forum threads are much different than other forms of communication in that many people can read the entire history of the conversation and reply to any part of it at any time. So, while your reply without quotes may make sense when you first post it, after 20 other people have participated in the thread and it gets longer, a newcomer may be confused by who you are replying to.

Also in forums, people have the ability to modify their original post. So your reply may end up becoming invalid if the OP decides to change something. By quoting the OP, you are insuring that others understand exactly what your reply is about even if the original message changes.

Because of this, quotes have simply become standard operating procedure for forum communication. It helps other forum members (including the person you're responding to) know exactly who and what your reply is in response to.

Granted, some people use quotes better than others, and they're not always necessary but they are useful and make sense for forum based communication.

[alexan]

Yahoo post by me:



Not directing this at anyone here. Have other forums I'm going insane with.

What do you just did say?

[johnb820]

Use quotes when you want to reply to someone's post directly. It's really pretty simple. If you don't quote how does anyone know who you mean to direct your reply to? Not to mention, the post you are replying to may be several pages back in the thread. Often times with long threads people read from the most recent post and work their way backwards and with quotes you can read the flow of a conversation much easier.

[ki4jgt]

Use quotes when you want to reply to someone's post directly. It's really pretty simple. If you don't quote how does anyone know who you mean to direct your reply to? Not to mention, the post you are replying to may be several pages back in the thread. Often times with long threads people read from the most recent post and work their way backwards and with quotes you can read the flow of a conversation much easier.

Nope! still hate em! anyway, I'm more of the other way around. I read the forum from start to finish and then by the time I'm finished reading it, the conversation is over. :-)

[cpmman]

Nope! still hate em! anyway, I'm more of the other way around. I read the forum from start to finish and then by the time I'm finished reading it, the conversation is over. :-)

No - it's not over - just got to the last contribution. The next one may be decisive.

[forrestcupp]

make work your favor

Work is my favorite, but what does that have to do with this thread? :)

[mkendall]

stuff


Ah, that kind of quoting. Seeing the title of the thread I thought it would be about using famous (or not-so-famous) quotes, like the one in my signature. To answer that question, I paraphrase Stewie Griffin: "I use other people's words to express my individualism."

[pommie]

Well if I just posted, This speaks volumes, nobody would have a clue what I am on about, but if I quote you,


I know I should do that, and I know I can make the same mistakes so I have no room to fuss, but it's like the forums I visit are idiots. You say something and people become so obsessed with quoting you that they don't even read anything. What ever happened to saying hey Jeff . . . . . or @JohnDoe I really like your bodybag :-)

And then post "This speaks volumes" you would know, wouldn't you.

By the way its just a bit of fun, but you did say it didn't you http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/imagess/smiley-rolf.gif

Cheers David

[slooksterpsv]

...

By the way its just a bit of fun, but you did say it didn't you http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/imagess/smiley-rolf.gif



OT, but I love that image, they should integrate that smiley into the forums, I love it =D [-X - I like that one for some reason haha.

5 stars for you: :KS:KS:KS:KS:KS

[ki4jgt]

@slooksterpsv +1 LOL :-)