Nameless Voice on 7/12/2009 at 09:21
Quote Posted by Thirith
BTW, ZylonBane (or anyone else): what are top-posters?
Replying to a post and then quoting the entirety of the message after your reply. This is often done in emails and private messages, but really doesn't fit on a threaded forum.
ZylonBane on 7/12/2009 at 15:24
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
Replying to a post and then quoting the entirety of the message after your reply.
Not necessarily the entire message. The critical distinction is putting the reply on top of the quote. Canonically derided as follows:
Quote:
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
theBlackman on 8/12/2009 at 02:15
However, there are times when a one line post should be quoted. For example, you intend to post a reply to a post by ZZZZ, and someone makes a comment before your post appears.
It is often confusing as to which post (the one by ZZZZ or the one by AAAA who posted inbetween) you are responding to.
Enchantermon on 8/12/2009 at 03:48
But in this case you're not quoting the post directly above yours, which is the whole point of annoyance.
ZylonBane on 8/12/2009 at 04:21
Quote Posted by Enchantermon
But in this case you're not quoting the post directly above yours, which is the whole point of annoyance.
There's nothing wrong with doing that.
theBlackman on 8/12/2009 at 05:05
The point is, Enchantormon, you don't know that someone will not post before you get through with your comment or response.
As you should be aware, many times one to four people will post during the time you take to compose your reply.
You can, of course, post and hope, or try a edit with (copy/paste) to bring things back on track, or post and edit if no-one did get in between.
Enchantermon on 8/12/2009 at 08:51
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
There's nothing wrong with doing that.
You mean with quoting one line if someone posts in-between? I know. Perhaps I worded that poorly.
Quote Posted by theBlackman
The point is, Enchantormon, you don't know that someone will not post before you get through with your comment or response.
Of course.
What I do is just post and not worry about it. When I finish, if someone happened to post before me, I go in and add quotes. That's what's nice about the quick-edit feature. It could go the other way, too: post with quotes and then remove them if no one posts in-between. I just choose to do the former.
ZylonBane on 8/12/2009 at 15:45
Quote Posted by Enchantermon
You mean with quoting one line if someone posts in-between?
No.
Enchantermon on 8/12/2009 at 22:04
I see what you mean. Took me a second.
I don't see the point in doing that, though. If the post is right there above yours, why quote it?
Al_B on 8/12/2009 at 23:45
In the above case ZylonBane quoted the entirety of your post. Meanwhile, tBM replied to you without quoting any of your post even though there was a post in between your post and his. Neither caused any ambiguity or annoyance (to me) as the subject was in both case perfectly clear.
Ultimately, it's a subjective judgement. Quoting a post for emphasis is not, in itself, bad. Quoting everything because it's easier than thinking about what you're saying is something that should be discouraged.
