Quoting in the Forums: A Safety Guide

[Jason Dunn]

It's rare that I have to do something like this, but I need to get a message out to all Pocket PC Thoughts members participating in our forums: <b>when quoting a message, please trim the message down to only include the most essential part</b>. I just wasted 10 minutes cleaning up <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41399">this thread</a> where almost everyone was quoting long messages and adding a one-line response, or double-quoting (where two full messages are quoted) and adding their long response after it. Long responses are great - I love seeing people express themselves, but having to scrolling through an entire message you just read (or two) to get to the response leaves a bitter taste. :?<br /><br />This isn't about me being a Type A personality, it's about having a positive signal to noise ratio in our forums. Quoting a massive message and adding a one-line response is something I'd expect from someone in an AOL help forum, not the intelligent and witty community we have here at Pocket PC Thoughts. It's also important for people reading on a mobile device to have a fast and lean thread to browse though - it's painful to be reading on a Smartphone and have to scroll through 100 lines of quoted text that you've already read, only to see someone quoted all that and added "Me too!" at the end. :lol: Please be courteous to your fellow forum members and quote responsibly. ;-)

[Sven Johannsen]

You have no idea how much will power it took to not quote that entire thing and add...

Hear, Hear! ;)

[ctmagnus]

My favorite was the one that hit nine levels of quotes in one post. :lol:

[Horus]

It's rare that I have to do something like this, but I need to get a message out to all Pocket PC Thoughts members participating in our forums: when quoting a message, please trim the message down to only include the most essential part. I just wasted 10 minutes cleaning up this thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=41399) where almost everyone was quoting long messages and adding a one-line response, or double-quoting (where two full messages are quoted) and adding their long response after it. Long responses are great - I love seeing people express themselves, but having to scrolling through an entire message you just read (or two) to get to the response leaves a bitter taste. :?

This isn't about me being a Type A personality, it's about having a positive signal to noise ratio in our forums. Quoting a massive message and adding a one-line response is something I'd expect from someone in an AOL help forum, not the intelligent and witty community we have here at Pocket PC Thoughts. It's also important for people reading on a mobile device to have a fast and lean thread to browse though - it's painful to be reading on a Smartphone and have to scroll through 100 lines of quoted text that you've already read, only to see someone quoted all that and added "Me too!" at the end. :lol: Please be courteous to your fellow forum members and quote responsibly. ;-)

I agree! (sorry, it was just a matter of time before someone did this!) :devilboy:

[SHC]

Ditto

[saru83]

I agree! (sorry, it was just a matter of time before someone did this!) :devilboy:

Enjoying it, HuH!! :wink:

[surfer]

Ok Jason. When I quote something I will only quote the part im commenting on.

[ipaq_wannabe]

another issue that i would see is that some would make replies TOTALLY irrelevant to the original post... so, basically, what happens is that the LAST post has nothing to do with the original post

or, maybe im just being ANAL???

[Jon Westfall]

It's rare that I have to do something like this, .... ;-)

I agree! (sorry, it was just a matter of time before someone did this!) :devilboy:

:twak:

Ditto

:twak:

:mrgreen:

[bjornkeizers]

another issue that i would see is that some would make replies TOTALLY irrelevant to the original post... so, basically, what happens is that the LAST post has nothing to do with the original post

or, maybe im just being ANAL???

Yes, very.

Anyways, is anyone else having a serious deja vu moment? I recall Dunn posting the exact same thing about a year and a half ago as well... :?:

And I totally agree with him for a change - it's very, very annoying, especially if you're browsing on a PPC or similar. Pages take forever and ten minutes to load, and then I have to spend eternity scrolling down past the five levels of quotes to find a one-line reply... :roll:

It's particularly bad here as well. I visit a ton of other forums, and you rarely see excessive quoting there... very odd.

[pbg]

another issue that i would see is that some would make replies TOTALLY irrelevant to the original post... so, basically, what happens is that the LAST post has nothing to do with the original post

or, maybe im just being ANAL???

Do you mean like me asking whether people were aware of the new judging/scoring system for figure skating, and whether they thought it was an improvement? :devilboy:

[24va]

You have no idea how much will power it took to not quote that entire thing and add...Hear, Hear! ;)

I agree, in fact what I did was do it and then not submit it; that curbed the crave! :D

[daS]

It's rare that I have to do something like this, .... ;-)I agree!Ditto:twak:
Jason, Is this better? :treadmill: :mrgreen:

[G M Fude]

Bravo, Jason. You probably mentally wrung your hands for a while before making this request, but it needed to be said.

Now, if I give you a list of other forums I visit, can you go and make the same request there....!

[Darius Wey]

Jason, Is this better? :treadmill: :mrgreen:

:twak: ;)