correct 'quote' syntax in forums like this

ColderThanIce

sr. member

Activity: 373

Merit: 252

I find that if you have a long quote such as:

Quote

The original message

inside of another message

inside of a THIRD message

and might as well add a fourth for good measure

And then finally your reply here.

Often the early messages (original, second, maybe even third) aren't even relevant anymore. When quoting a long group of quotes to me it would make sense to remove the early messages, and leave only the messages that my post is responding to. It goes from the above example to something like this:

Quote

and might as well add a fourth for good measure

And then finally your reply here.

Much easier to work with when you're typing up a message, plus the post is easier to read.

hikedoon

full member

Activity: 143

Merit: 100

i find it awkward reading when too many quotes are nested sometimes.
I've got to keep checking who is saying what.
I just hit the quote button,quote it all,then write what i was going to say underneath.
That's the only way i know how to quote.
Sorry for my incompetence Roll Eyes

altsheets

legendary

Activity: 902

Merit: 1001

Free trial of #AltFolio = save time, react faster

Interesting.

Thanks a lot for your opinions, viewpoints, and hints.
Let's all get even better at using our forums, and teach newbs.

May this thread help when you encounter a bad quoting,
perhaps then just link to here: ?topic=1195438
I think we have collected a balanced view on this here.

Enjoy your autumn!

ndnh

legendary

Activity: 1302

Merit: 1005

New Decentralized Nuclear Hobbit

Okay with everything except the part-by-part-sentence-analysis-thing. Grin

Most of the mistakes seen in quoting stuff are unintentional.

I have noticed some of the times I post:
1. a ] goes missing (no idea how), so it ends up breaking the format with a "[/quote"
2. The tags get added to the top and bottom of the entire post placing it inside a quote.
[quote]my entire post here[/quote]

Had these issues multiple times, and in each of the instances I usually edit it back to the intended way. But if I didn't bother, I wouldn't though I know how it is to be placed.

Quote

Hi

Quote

I

Quote

am

Quote

ndnhc

Quote

evidence

of

water

on

Mars

shorena

copper member

Activity: 1498

Merit: 1528

No I dont escrow anymore.

Quote from: altsheets on September 28, 2015, 02:10:39 PM

Hello want-to-deliberately-misunderstand-you shorena :-)

Quote from: altsheets on September 28, 2015, 02:10:39 PM

Quote from: shorena on September 28, 2015, 02:02:26 PM

So you want me ...

No.

Quote from: shorena on September 28, 2015, 02:02:26 PM

... to add 8 spaces in front of every line of a long post I quote?

You can add or not add spaces, myself I never do that.
Not to related to syntax anyways.

The purpose of those spaces was to illustrate that quotes are nested.

Alright, I think I was just a bit tired last night. It might help if you add bad exampled to the OP. Maybe even as picture next to good example to show the contrast better.

Quote from: altsheets on September 28, 2015, 02:10:39 PM

-snip-
For you as a Hero Member, perhaps this forum syntax detail is more interesting?

But thanks, shorena, for bumping the thread

Grin

You are very welcome and I in fact already use in-post links for one of my longer threads. Very neat indeed.

Quote from: PolarPoint on September 28, 2015, 05:34:02 PM

-snip-
You are basically telling people not to quote pages of nested quotes. Grin

I will agree to that. Too many lazy members quote chain of images and whole nested conversation to respond to one line someone made.

IMHO the point is to teach people how to quote properly and that not only about nested quotes. If the nested quote is important for the understanding of your answer it should be there. A whole conversation - as you also point out - should not be quoted in order to keep reading a post easy. I think there are not only the lazy that just click quote and start writing below, but there are also those that edit out too much and thus break the quote (examples are in the OP) and those - myself included - that remove too much from a post.

PolarPoint

hero member

Activity: 672

Merit: 500

Quote from: altsheets on September 28, 2015, 01:20:33 PM

Please be so kind, and when quoting ...
to delete all those sentences that you are not answering to.
Or, positively formulated:
Just keep those sentences in the quote,
that are necessary to understand your answer.

You are basically telling people not to quote pages of nested quotes. Grin

I will agree to that. Too many lazy members quote chain of images and whole nested conversation to respond to one line someone made.

--Encrypted--

copper member

Activity: 924

Merit: 1007

hee-ho.

oh that. I don't think they're intentional. I've done that a lot too when I tried to "snip" a multiquote. in fact I did it when I posted the post above. hence the whoops. Tongue

it just that some people only post and go to another thread.

altsheets

legendary

Activity: 902

Merit: 1001

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Quote from: --Encrypted-- on September 28, 2015, 03:31:17 PM

can you give an example of it?

Oh, I see it all over the place.
Usually, I can guess from the context, who said what - but sometimes not.

Just two examples ... the code:

Code:

[quote]
[quote]
[quote]
the question everyone ...
[/quote]years ?
[/quote
good question
[/quote]

= missing ], typo.

Code:

[quote]
we'd love to ...
[/quote]
It was funny ...
[/quote]
see, thats too ...

= double closing when only one opening tag was there.

Partly hectic, partly newbie, partly not knowing.

Because of the third interpretation, I thought it might be worthwhile to document it somewhere.

(Actually some such errors could even be caught by a (newbie prison only?) syntax checking automatic script - which refuses to post unless the syntax is correct, me was just thinking ...)

Quote from: --Encrypted-- on September 28, 2015, 03:31:17 PM

edit:
whoops.

nice sound.

:-)

--Encrypted--

copper member

Activity: 924

Merit: 1007

hee-ho.

can you give an example of it? IMO if it's like this then it's just due to habit and preference.

Quote from: altsheets on September 28, 2015, 01:20:33 PM

-snip-
Some people are using the [quote] ... [/quote] function of the BCT simple machines forum in the wrong way.
-snip-

edit:
whoops.

altsheets

legendary

Activity: 902

Merit: 1001

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Hello want-to-deliberately-misunderstand-you shorena :-)

Quote from: shorena on September 28, 2015, 02:02:26 PM

So you want me ...

No.

Quote from: shorena on September 28, 2015, 02:02:26 PM

... to add 8 spaces in front of every line of a long post I quote?

You can add or not add spaces, myself I never do that.
Not to related to syntax anyways.

The purpose of those spaces was to illustrate that quotes are nested.

Quote from: shorena on September 28, 2015, 02:02:26 PM

Ill pass.

I can live with that.
I will not reach everyone on this planet with those explanations, that's for sure.

For you as a Hero Member, perhaps this forum syntax detail is more interesting?

But thanks, shorena, for bumping the thread

Grin

-->

Quote from: altsheets on September 28, 2015, 01:20:33 PM

...
P.S.: ...
Please be so kind, and when quoting
...
Just keep those sentences in the quote,
that are necessary to understand your answer.
(for all other sentences, we can just scroll up.)
Will keep the threads much tidier. Thanks
;-)

shorena

copper member

Activity: 1498

Merit: 1528

No I dont escrow anymore.

Quote from: altsheets on September 28, 2015, 01:20:33 PM

In this forum: How to quote correctly.

Some people are using the [quote] function of the BCT simple machines forum in the wrong way.

The correct structure is like this:

Code:

[quote]

[quote]what i wrote[/quote]

what you answer

[/quote]

my answer to your answer.

then it will look like this:

Quote

what i wrote

what you answer

my answer to your answer.

So quotations are nested.

Makes it easy to read.

Advanced example, when you have understood the above:

Code:

[quote]
   [quote]
[quote]what i wrote[/quote]
what you answer
   [/quote]
   my answer to your answer
[/quote]
your answer to my answer to your answer

[quote]what I also wrote[/quote]
and your answer to that, too.

that then will look like this:

Quote

what i wrote

what you answer

my answer to your answer

your answer to my answer to your answer

Quote

what I also wrote

and your answer to that, too.

Helps?

P.S.: And while we are talking about this, anyways ...

Please be so kind, and when quoting ...
to delete all those sentences that you are not answering to.

Or, positively formulated:
Just keep those sentences in the quote,
that are necessary to understand your answer.

(for all other sentences, we can just scroll up.)

Will keep the threads much tidier. Thanks

;-)

So you want me to add 8 spaces in front of every line of a long post I quote? Ill pass.

altsheets

legendary

Activity: 902

Merit: 1001

Free trial of #AltFolio = save time, react faster

In this forum: How to quote

Some people are using the [quote] ... [/quote] function of the BCT simple machines forum in the wrong way.

The structure is like this:

Code:

[quote]

[quote]what i wrote[/quote]

what you answer

[/quote]

my answer to your answer.

then it will look like this:

Quote

what i wrote

what you answer

my answer to your answer.

So quotations are nested.

Makes it easy to read.

Advanced example, when you have understood the above:

Code:

[quote]
   [quote]
   [quote]what i wrote[/quote]
   what you answer
   [/quote]
   my answer to your answer
[/quote]
your answer to my answer to your answer

[quote]what I also wrote[/quote]
and your answer to that, too.

that then will look like this:

Quote

what i wrote

what you answer

my answer to your answer

your answer to my answer to your answer

Quote

what I also wrote

and your answer to that, too.

Helps?

P.S.: And while we are talking about this, anyways ...

Please be so kind, and when quoting ...
to delete all those sentences that you are not answering to.

Or, positively formulated:
Just keep those sentences in the quote,
that are necessary to understand your answer.

(for all other sentences, we can just scroll up.)

Will keep the threads much tidier. Thanks

;-)

Topic: correct 'quote' syntax in forums like this (Read 815 times)