How to properly quote and reply to posts without quoting entire paragraphs?

[Iggy Wolf]

Topic question. I noticed when discussing things on the forums, that when you want to reply to someone, their entire post gets quoted. What if I only want to respond to sections of it, and not the whole thing? How do I go about doing that so the whole post doesn't get quoted and extend the size of the page length and discussion?

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

How do I go about doing that so the whole post doesn't get quoted and extend the size of the page length and discussion?

After you click reply you're put in an editor. So.... edit stuff.

I basically removed the rest of your message and only left the above. Just be careful not to misquote someone because that could result in nastiness.

[B-o-B]

Formatting Help. Below the REPLY box.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

What if I only want to respond to sections of it, and not the whole thing?

Then you delete the text that you don't want to respond to.

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

How do I go about doing that so the whole post doesn't get quoted and extend the size of the page length and discussion?

Divide the quoted text. Don't forget to add either the header (first quote part between brackets) or the closer (last quote part between brackets) so it doesn't mess up the formatting.

[Iggy Wolf]

Thanks guys.

[Xautos]

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

How to properly quote and reply to posts without quoting entire paragraphs?

I always double quote and copy the thread title in the first quote overriding what was there in selection.

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

Topic question. I noticed when discussing things on the forums, that when you want to reply to someone, their entire post gets quoted. What if I only want to respond to sections of it, and not the whole thing?

Well at first the whole thing will come up when quoted, you can edit what you like within the quoted text after that. that is the way it works.

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

How do I go about doing that so the whole post doesn't get quoted and extend the size of the page length and discussion?

Triple tap enter between sections, copy and paste the bracketed quote formatting specifically around each section.

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

After you click reply you're put in an editor. So.... edit stuff.

Sadly this.
It ends up in you making the wrong person quoting a text they didn't say more times than you could imagine. Specially when quoting posts with quotes within quotes...

Something as simple as a WYSIWYG editor for the forums (Wich we HAD on the old Vbulletin Steam forums) has been a suggestion and a pet peeve of mine since the dawn of the Steam Community.

Yet here we are still cutting quotes and writing BBCode tags by hand as of today.

[Xautos]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

After you click reply you're put in an editor. So.... edit stuff.

Sadly this.
It ends up in you making the wrong person quoting a text they didn't say more times than you could imagine. Specially when quoting posts with quotes within quotes...

one missing square bracket is usually enough to cause the trouble and may not be immediately apparent. an example:

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

How do I go about doing that so the whole post doesn't get quoted and extend the size of the page length and discussion? /quote]
After you click reply you're put in an editor. So.... edit stuff.

I basically removed the rest of your message and only left the above. Just be careful not to misquote someone because that could result in nastiness.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

After you click reply you're put in an editor. So.... edit stuff.

Sadly this.
<cut>
Something as simple as a WYSIWYG editor for the forums (Wich we HAD on the old Vbulletin Steam forums) has been a suggestion and a pet peeve of mine since the dawn of the Steam Community.

Although I haven't lived that time I do think there's something to say for both (which is also why many fora allow you to switch between markup or BBCode). Honestly I'd rather have the code than the markup editor, although it does depend on the editor.

For example: on some of the Microsoft tech fora it's almost impossible to edit a quote and thus many people end up not bothering and just adding the whole post. This does get cut off while reading but it also makes replying a huge burden sometimes.

In which case I really think the code is a better choice. Also because this will prevent people from overdoing it with the markup unless they really meant to (which I personally also consider a pro). Better all caps than all caps and in bold ;)

Originally posted by Xautos:

one missing square bracket is usually enough to cause the trouble and may not be immediately apparent. an example:

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Now we're mortal enemies!

(just kidding of course, but I couldn't resist anyway ;))

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Although I haven't lived that time I do think there's something to say for both (which is also why many fora allow you to switch between markup or BBCode). Honestly I'd rather have the code than the markup editor, although it does depend on the editor.

For example: on some of the Microsoft tech fora it's almost impossible to edit a quote and thus many people end up not bothering and just adding the whole post. This does get cut off while reading but it also makes replying a huge burden sometimes.

In which case I really think the code is a better choice. Also because this will prevent people from overdoing it with the markup unless they really meant to (which I personally also consider a pro). Better all caps than all caps and in bold ;)

Sure there's pros and cons to having a markup editor. However I've always found the post editing in the forums too much barebones. Specially considering the community already has an editor in the guide section.

One thing that IMO the Vbulletin editor did better than what we have here is quoting only quoted the post you refered, but didn't include any internal quoting the post had.

So when quoting this

Originally posted by bob:

Stuff

Originally posted by Mike:

another Stuff

What you got in your reply was

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by bob:

Stuff

My reply to the quoted post

Here it's easy to end up in a situation in which without manual editing you get into something like:

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by bob:

Stuff

Originally posted by Mike:

another Stuff

Originally posted by Dan:

More Stuff

Originally posted by Billy:

More writing!

Originally posted by Ed:

I can quote too!!!

It can make annoying following up a conversation and makes you screwing stuff when pulling text from there by hand really easy.

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Originally posted by Xautos:

one missing square bracket is usually enough to cause the trouble and may not be immediately apparent. an example:

Now we're mortal enemies! :innerfiredemon:

(just kidding of course, but I couldn't resist anyway ;))

You'd be surprised how often a mistake quoting someone devolves into a real argument.

[Anarch]

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

How do I go about doing that so the whole post doesn't get quoted and extend the size of the page length and discussion?

Just a test dont mind me :)

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Anarch:

Originally posted by Iggy Wolf:

How do I go about doing that so the whole post doesn't get quoted and extend the size of the page length and discussion?

Just a test dont mind me :)

Why do you need to test anything?