Hi, Y'all, can you do us a favor when quoting someone here?

Don't look at me!

 

I'll keep my quotes LONG and FULL from now on.

 

EXAMPLES....please.

 

Then there is the "there, I've corrected/fixed your words" post.

 

In management theory, this called Malicious Obedience

 

This is an example of what not to do!

 

I honestly don't think making the quote short would be an issue as long as the context of the quote is not changed so as to misrepresent what was being said.

Here's an example, using my earlier post:

OK now, you don't want someone to quote the following:

...in order to respond with, "Well, you obviously don't"!

Joking aside, though, I think that truly does illustrate what I believe to be the gist of what Steve wants. That, and also to make sure that what is quoted is still understandable.

Of course, there will be times when the only way to ensure these objectives is indeed to quote a whole post, and possibly bold the relevant part, but I bet that doesn't that necessarily have to be the case every time.

I often shorten what I quote, and I do it for the same reason as you: to improve readability. But if one keeps the big picture in mind while doing so, I'd think that would still be OK.

I bet Steve wouldn't have a problem with the following:

...followed by (for instance) some examples which led to this thread.

 

This is a good idea, because some people on this forum (you know who you are) like to take specific parts of post and then try to use them to abuse, insult, and harass other people. Especially other people who are more intelligent, more talented, more educated, and just plain better looking than they are.

 

It's simple. It's quoting someone out of context. That makes it easy to misrepresent (twist) their words around to make it look like they are saying something they didn't. It's about the same as taking a cheap shot at someone.

And, BTW, you know when people change someone's words in a quote and says "Fixed that for ya."? Unless a person is bothered to scroll back through the thread to find the original post, the reader won't know what was really posted.

And, while i'm at it, how about people not remove the formatting tags when quoting someone. It makes it frustrating to go back and read every post just to find the original post the line was quoted from, especially if it is a long thread.

 

Good example!

 

Like this ?

 

Then the request ("can you do us a favor when quoting someone here?") should simply be to preserve context.

 

In politics, the "out of context" card is generally played when someone is struggling to extricate foot from mouth.

 

I've had this done a few times to me.

Only a sentence - or a fragment of a sentence - is quoted, then followed by a response tailored to the altered context.

It's really annoying, but I don't think there's much than can be done about it. It's like imposing a rule demanding that people have to be polite - some folks will always find a way around it.

Last time it happened, I responded:

 

You got it!


(I promise I won't do this again!)

 

Like we did last summer.

 

How about making it possible to quote an entire conversation or relevant parts of it and not just the post one is directly replying to.

 

I don't think you should do that at all.

 

You can do that by using that little square quote button to the right of the main "Quote" button.

 

Do you mean, don't do this?

Doug

 

There are some people who refuse to, or their mommy and daddy never taught them how to, be civil. Either that, or they are mentally ill.

 

Good point (and the rule still has not changed yet)

 

What does having an illness have to do with being civil?

 

, the best way really!!

 

I guess not everyone is reading this thread - this just happened to me again, late last night. Got my posts edited to pieces via one line quotes with an explanation to me on what their meaning was. It was actually a bit condescending, this time (last time it was just a little sarcasm, at my expense).

No worries, though - I was starting to spend too much time posting here anyway, so I guess this is my cue to pull back a bit. I know that's what our host was probably trying to avoid, so apologies for that.