Etiquette when quoting - which is best ?

Discodog

I usually selectively quote meaning that I extract the part of the post that I want to quote - my logic in doing this is that it avoids the thread being clogged with large repeat posts. Others quote the whole post & then highlight the part that they are referring to.

Someone suggested that I was selectively quoting & as a result taking the section out of context - even though the whole post was on view.

So is their an accepted Boards etiquette as to how we should quote ?

Thanks

BTW sorry mods if this is in the wrong place please feel free to redirect it.

Cherry Blossom

FYI - "Someone" did not suggest you were selectively quoting. A poster (shall we call them poster # 1) deliberately attempted to take a thread off topic by selectively quoting part of what I posted in a few different posts in succession for the purpose of what I believe to be an attempt to sabotage a perfectly reasonable discussion because they wanted discussion of the subject matter to end for their own agenda. A second poster (poster #2) replied to this person regarding another of their posts and you replied to poster no. 2 with post #183

Discodog wrote: »

Is this a discussion forum or the inquisition ? Surely we all have a right to choose what we post & whether we post.

If I had a cat & someone complained, it would depend entirely on the nature & validity of the complaint & the attitude of the complainant.

which appears to me to be some form of back-seat moderating. It was this post that I replied to with the following:

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

Yes It's a discussion forum - where trolling isn't tolerated, selectively quoting from others posts to suit your own agenda and deliberately take the thread off topic isn't a discussion.

Perhaps I should also have quoted the half a dozen posts from poster #1 that I was referring to as 'selective quoting'. Perhaps I could have been more comprehensive in clarifying what I was referring to, perhaps I would have were I not dealing with an extremely sick dog and yet another post being reported from the thread every 5 minutes, but that is neither here nor there. I still would not have done it any differently.

Since we are already here, as you are perfectly aware I have been a moderator of this forum for only a few weeks. Let me make it quite clear now once and for all that I am not going to tolerate PM's making accusations that I am making moderating decisions based on my personal opinion, nor to appreciate being told whom I should or should not have as a role-model to base how I moderate the forum. As I have already told you in my reply to your PM I will moderate based on my own judgement calls and instincts and that's final!

As you have also already been told there seems to have been a campaign to stop discussion on the subject matter which you now seem to be joining in with. For anyone who is interested this is the thread in question:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=73800669#post73800669

This is a helpdesk thread made by someone who wanted to censor the subject matter:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056354877

There are also the many, many reported posts - some which were report worthy some which wern't (imo).

Now discodog you have made many accusations in the past that moderators on Boards have tried to censor some topics. Yet that is exactly what a handful of users have tried to do with this thread, and here you are accusing me not remaining impartial because of my opinions?

This is the last thing I have to say on the topic of that thread, it's completely ridiculous that a simple debate on whether cat owners should be responsible for their animals or not has escalated to this.

Discodog

My question has nothing to do with that thread, the A&P forum or you. If it had then I would of mentioned it.

I have made no comment about anyone.

In view of this maybe you could delete your post so that I can get some input as to which way people think it best to quote.

-Chris-

My €0.02

I'd prefer if you only quoted the part you were replying to rather than the whole post.

If you take it too far and selectively quote a section that that's out of context, then that's an obvious ploy and will make me disregard your post and lose respect for your opinion.

It's not about whether you edit down the post for brevity, it's whether you edit down the post for your own advantage, that decides whether it's ok or not.

P. Breathnach

I don't see much point in quoting lengthy posts, especially if I want to respond only to some of what has been said. I use ellipses (...) to indicate that I am quoting only part of a post.

It doesn't save me from occasionally being accused of selective quoting, but that doesn't bother me: it is selective. It's not done for any nefarious purpose.

Morag

Quote what you are making rebuttal to, quote enough of it so that there is context.
Quoting selectively to skew or take part of a post of context can be considered 'being a dick' and so be breaking the rules of the site.

Discodog

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I don't see much point in quoting lengthy posts, especially if I want to respond only to some of what has been said. I use ellipses (...) to indicate that I am quoting only part of a post.

It doesn't save me from occasionally being accused of selective quoting, but that doesn't bother me: it is selective. It's not done for any nefarious purpose.

Well that has been my normal method. Usually the original post is pretty nearby so it's easy for anyone to see if they have been quoted out of context. Personally I find nothing worse that the same post being repeated in full over & over again.

I even wondered if we could do with a symbol or some indication so that when subsequent posters want to quote, the whole of a post that has already been quoted, they just refer to the post number or use the equivalent of ditto marks.

MitchKoobski

Quote what you are replying to but quote in context.

Nobody likes seeing a wall of text quoted only to have a one sentence response.

If you are quoting out of context, you are being a dick and you will be called on it.

biko

I don't mind lengthy quotes if the answer is of similar length.
To quote a long post just for a one liner answer (or even worse - an emoticon) is usually just plain rude.

Discodog

Well the one that made me ask was in the Footie forum & the same article was quoted about 6 times so the page was full of it & most of the replies were a few choice words

Corsendonk

Depends on the forum and the mods I find. The great human element:D In one particular forum I always quote the entire post because the mod kept accussing me of selective quoting so now I quote the entire post even with one line replies but I do highlight the section in bold that I am responding to. Lately the same mod pulled me up in a thread for quoting entire posts as he seems to find it a pain to navigate on his phone.:rolleyes: No win situation to keep some people happy.

Discodog

That's why I assumed that there was a Boards policy. I expected someone to post a link to the Charter.

-Chris-

If it were to be policy, what wording would you suggest was added to the Charter?

Discodog

I don't know maybe something along the lines of:

When quoting remove the sections of the post that are not relevant to your reply, rather than quoting the whole post & highlighting the relevant section.

Adyx

Discodog wrote: »

I don't know maybe something along the lines of:

When quoting remove the sections of the post that are not relevant to your reply, rather than quoting the whole post & highlighting the relevant section.

It's all very well "selectively" quoting if that's your style, and for long quotes in particular I'd agree with Biko but I don't think it is something users should be compelled to do. There is no need for it to be in the charter. Even on my tiny low resolution phone, long quotes aren't that big a deal.

Steve

You can only be accused of selective posting if the context of what you are quoting is lost.

If you wish to make a point in isolation then there's no need to quote at all.

If you wish to address part of a post then quote that part.

If the part you address / answer is part of a reply to a previous post of yours and you choose only to answer the bit that saves you face then you could be on dodgy ground.

This type of thing can not be legislated for in any charter and that's why we have (mostly) human mods here to make a call on it

Discodog

Adyx wrote: »

It's all very well "selectively" quoting if that's your style, and for long quotes in particular I'd agree with Biko but I don't think it is something users should be compelled to do. There is no need for it to be in the charter. Even on my tiny low resolution phone, long quotes aren't that big a deal.

Oh I agree. I only offered a wording because I was asked the question. I started the thread because I could not find a Boards answer as to how it should be done. But I do find pages with the same large quote repeated harder to read.