Just Jenney

There's nothing worse than coming across a thread that's got a very interesting and lively discussion going on, only to be ruined by participants who don't know how to quote each other's posts correctly. After giving up on a couple of recent threads like this, I thought I'd write up this simple "How-To" in the hopes that other posters will learn how easy it is to use the "Quote" feature.

What is "quoting"?
It's when one person writes a direct response to a previous person's post in the same thread. By "quoting" it allows the other readers and posters to know to whom you're directing your comments. Otherwise your comments don't make sense because the other readers don't know who you're talking to.

Here's an example of INCORRECT quoting (no offense is intended to the person who posted it). It looks like Folinskyinla wrote the quoted text -- after all, it says, "Originally posted by Folinskyinla". However, the quoted text was ACTUALLY written by makidesuu. Misquoting like this can create all kinds of confusion, since the quoted text often loses all sense when attributed to the wrong person. After reading this post, Folinskyinla would think, "Wait a minute, I didn't say that!"
How do I quote someone's post correctly?
It's VERY easy! All you have to do is simply click the blue "QUOTE" button that appears on the bottom right-hand corner of that person's post -- it looks like this:
Once you click that button, the next page that appears on your browser is the "Reply to Thread" page. Instead of being a blank text field, though, it will show the other person's post with the HTML code around it for quoting:
After you've written your response -- remember, the "[/QUOTE]" must be at the end of the other poster's comments in order for it to quote properly -- then hit the "Preview Post" button. The preview will look something like this:
By doing these simple steps, everyone -- including YOU -- will be able to follow the thread and not get confused about who's responding to whom.

And that is my public service for the day.

~ Jenney

meauxna

Can I offer a more direct way to the same result?
There is a multi-quote button on the right side of the post screen. I won't make any cool pictures, but the buttons read, in order, 'edit' (to make changes to your own post within a certain period of time) 'quote' (to reply directly to only that post), multi-quote (unlabeled icon that looks like multiple pieces of paper--label appears if you hover over it) and the 'quick reply' icon that looks like an arrow (activates the quick reply box at the bottom of the page).

As you are reading through the thread and see something you will want to reply to, click the multi quote button. It will turn red.
When you reach the last of the thread and are ready to write, click 'new reply' or the 'quote' button in the last post you want to include. All the posts you want to reply to will appear in the order in which you clicked the button(s). (IE you could reply to post 4, then post 2, then post 8 in that order if you prefer).

If you want to edit out some of the quoted text, take care to not knock off one of the closing brackets (most common error & way to screw up the quoting).

Then it looks like this. FTW!