When debating is it really necessary to have to paste in the previous post completely?
Some people are getting really out of hand with this.
Some threads appear to be several "pages" long--but are really just a few respo nses that are nothing but complete copies of the previous post

How about just quoting the pertinent piece you are responding to...
or if it requires a serious rebuttal over the whole response why not take it to Notepad or Word and take your time in your response

This ain't Instant Messaging

Am I the only one offended by this?

Thank you for your patience with my outburst. Please return to your regularly scheduled debating.

How can this be resolved

How can this be resolved
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I agree. I figure that most people know how to scroll up to the original posting, so I quote only the most immediately pertinent comment, with enough preceding material to make the context clear. Makes everything cleaner.

You have an excellent point, Christopher.

Quoting the entire previous post (including all the possible quotes contained therein) simply leads to a loss of focus. Members are perfectly capable of scrolling up and understanding any post in a thread almost requires you to have read the previous posts.

I try to quote the pertinent parts when "rebutting". I'd hope that other posters will follow this rule of thumb. It keeps things more focused and organized.

I think people who make posts with another member's entire post and a line or two of their own are trying to get around the one-liner rule.

It also annoys me when someone quotes an outside source and finishes with a line or two of their own to the effect of, "Yep, that says it all for me." A monkey can point to a book, too. Sometimes we're short on time but thought should be given to every post... Casual Conversation need not apply.

Ditto to the sentiments expressed.

If you're quoting a previous post of several pages prior, it might be understandable to quote it entirely. However, when it is on the same page or immediately before your reply, it is a wasteful practice.

I have wondered why the Moderators haven't called some posters on this. Perhaps limiting this practice is something they should consider?

Primarily because we have a lot to do already (and we get called 'oppressive' enough as it is ). If any of you notice any members who do this often please PM a staffer so we can address it with that member. It takes a village...

Something you folks may not have realized is that unnecessary quotations fill up the database. Any efforts to keep the database clean and therefore, faster running, is greatly appreciated (particularly by your fellow members on dial-up!)

I see that those whom I have noticed abuse the quotation feature have not posted here. I hope they are reading this...

Wow lesly I was just going to say that, but now I don't have to--you beat me to it. It does look, at times, like smoke and mirrors. You are on top of your game today.

Nope.




How about we make a rule that you must quote only the person who quoted someone else's words to debate response? Think about it! We wouldn't have bits of someone's post from several thousand responses ago because people can't help but drag the mouse up two or three more lines in attempt to get outta the one-liner rule. Just a thought.

Is it possible to disable the quote button? If people had to cut/paste, I do believe big quotations would go away.

I'll confess to using the quote button, but that was only because it was there. Tempt me not, eh?

I love the quote buttons! Don't take away my quote buttons!!

Having used a quote button, it's very easy to edit the quoted post to remove all but the salient bit(s). We just need more people who can be bothered spending the extra few seconds it takes to do so.

Is it really all that much of an inconvience to have to scroll a bit further?

Along those same lines, I can ask "Is it really such an inconvenience to use the quote feature intelligently?"

The fact is that a selective and concise use of quotes may inconvenience you a little bit, but more than making things easier for EVERYONE ELSE, it also makes your post much more effective. Besides...

I'd like to reiterate that those who over-quote fill up our database. Our database is where all the information for the forum is stored. The more cluttered the database is with unnecessary crap, the slower the site moves and the closer we get to having to pay for a dedicated server. PLEASE be considerate of our resources and quote only that to which you are responding. And for the love of all things holy or human, please STOP hitting "reply" when you respond to posts and use "add reply" instead. Thanks.

Is it really that much of an inconvenience to edit the reply to remove unnecessary content before submitting?

Seriously...you just highlight, and hit 'delete'. Takes about 1 second.

This is not only an annoyance and clutters up the database and the screen...but it also seriously detracts from the response, since the reader cannot tell which part of the reply is being responded to. Further, not doing so indicates laziness on the part of the responder, further detracting from the response.

So are we talking about qoutes like or qoutes like this. I pretty much only use the latter.

Actually, what we are talking about are quotes that encompass an entire, lengthy post (usually immediately preceding it) versus a simple, trimmed down post.




VS.

I have to agree Wertz. The quote features were one of the best features of the upgrade, thanks Mike!

Of course, it can be used for both good AND evil

Wanted to focus on this again.

What exactly is the purpose of the reply button? Is it just to save the one click of hitting quote and then add reply, or am I missing something??

I'm in favor of eliminating just the reply button. The quote button itself is very helpful.

It depends on which reply button you're talking about. If you are referring to the one that appears at the bottom of each post window, then when you hit it, you go to the new post screen with a full copy of the post in question as well as the code needed for a nifty link back to the post. At this point, it is up to you to edit that down to what you need to help make you point, or kept the confusion down, and delete the rest.

If you're referring to the reply button at the bottom of each page in a topic then it serves two functions, depending on you. The first is simple, it opens a new post window that will post your reply in the topic you clicked from.

The second is more useful in popular debates. At the bottom of each post there is a quote button. You can click as many of these as you would like in a page of a topic (turning that button green). Then when you hit the reply button at the bottom of the topic page a new post window will appear with a full quote of each post you clicked the quote button on (and the link back coding). Again, it is up to you to cut this down to just what you feel you need from each quoted post.

Hope that helps, sorry I didn't see this sooner.