Ok, let's think of an instance when the 'quote' function is removed. ...
I've quote appropriate text forever without a "quote" feature. It's not at all a necessity, but merely a convenience and like many or most conveniences it becomes misused simpy because it's convenient.
I agree that's a good idea. It would force people to delete the irrelevant quoted parts and keep the strings from getting so long. Good idea!
You're not immune from hackneyed comments either HotFlow. Complaining about the complaining is nothing new here.
You're not immune from hackneyed comments either HotFlow. Complaining about the complaining is nothing new here.
LOL
Less is more.
1. Complicated and error-prone. I have found that unless you type something new at the bottom of the quoted text BEFORE selectively deleting, the formatting tends to go haywire.
2. Marking multiple pieces of text in one go for quoting is supported by very few applications. The alternative, on chess.com, of copying & pasting one piece then replying, copying & pasting a 2nd piece then replying, etc. is unwieldy.
May I suggest to cut and paste the pieces of text say in a word document in a table format and then recopy and paste in the post your reply section.
A sensible tactic - but you have to watch out for the extraneous gunk brought in when you paste back from a Word document.
HERE'S A DIFFERENT SOLUTION, AFTER QUOTES ARE POSTED ADD SOME LOGIC TO AUTOMATICALLY COLLAPSE SECTIONS THAT ARE THE SAME AS THE QUOTED TEXT, WITH A PLUS SIGN NEXT TO IT ALLOWING YOU TO EXPAND THOSE BLOCKS. MIGHT NOT BE TOO EASY TO IMPLEMENT THOUGH.FOR EXAMPLE, SOMEONE QUOTES A POST WITH 3 PARAGRAPHS AND ENTERS TEXT BETWEEN THE FIRST AND SECOND. ON POSTING THE FIRST PARA IS COLLAPSED INTO ONE LINE WITH A PLUS SIGN NEXT TO IT, THE ADDED TEXT REMAINS IN ITS ENTIRETY AND THE 2ND AND 3RD ARE COLLAPSED INTO ONE BLOCK WITH A PLUS SIGN NEXT TO IT SORRY FOR CAPS, WRITTEN ON MY PHONE AND THE SITE CONTINUALLY FORCES THE SHIFT KEY.
I have only ever seen one application that supported marking multiple, separate pieces of text AND THEN allowed you to copy all of those fragments in one go, and subsequently paste them.
Where on the toolbar do you find this function?
I disagree - and I notice you didn't attempt it. When you try to split up the original text, the grey background ends up in the wrong places, so do the quote marks.
If it's so simple, why not reply to these points - while retaining the appropriate formatting and quoting?
Why make this so complicated?
I agree
Honestly, this is pretty easy to do.
Yes it is.
Like this?
But, for myself, I think quoting is easy. Judicial editing is also easy and there are so many ways to do it. The problem is that, while folks seem to have time to reply to a post, they must not have the few extra seconds required to do so in a reasonable fashion. So, I still maintain the feasibility and practicality of limiting the length of quotes to force the issue.
I have only ever seen one application that supported marking multiple, separate pieces of text AND THEN allowed you to copy all of those fragments in one go, and subsequently paste them.
Where on the toolbar do you find this function?
I disagree - and I notice you didn't attempt it. When you try to split up the original text, the grey background ends up in the wrong places, so do the quote marks.
If it's so simple, why not reply to these points - while retaining the appropriate formatting and quoting?
The gauntlet thrown down! (And please note the mess above)
FWIW I'm not a complete idiot and yet I've found quoting judiciously to be a pain in the ass and now I generally take the lazy way (that batgirl despises -- gosh, I hope I'm not really being judged as harshly as you suggest, batgirl!) and quote the whole mess. If the quotes are really big, I use colored highlighting. But editing the greyed in quote area is buggy on my machine at least... There's some bug where if I click inside the quoted area to edit it, I lose my cursor... it's quite annoying.
And --"Where on the toolbar do you find this function?" Yeah? Where?
*edit* -- Batgirl picked up the gauntlet and ran with it I see... Batgirl... a tutorial please on how you accomplished that nice looking post. It's not laziness that prevents me from doing it, really, just ineptitude!
JG27Pyth:
There's some bug where if I click inside the quoted area to edit it, I lose my cursor... it's quite annoying.
It just seems to me there are many ways to skin this cat.
JG27Pyth:
I hope I'm not really being judged as harshly as you suggest, batgirl!
I'm not judging you at all. But in order to find a solution to an irksome (to me) problem, I trying to attack a possible cause of the problem.
While understanding the root cause is important, if it is in fact laziness -- as I suspect is the case in most instances -- it's just not something that you're really going to be able to correct by tackling the root cause.
That's why, if it were deemed important enough to warrant some development time, the solution most likely to acheive the desired result is to provide a some means of better formatting quotes that is as easy (as is the case with the collapsable suggestion) -- or at least minimally more work (as is the case with the more robust quoting inteface suggestions) -- than the current "quote everything" method that seems to be the default .
I don't find the problem being discussed here nearly as annoying as when someone says, "I feel, quote unquote, fine."
I had an English professor who did it all the time. I asked him why he quoted nothing, and he told me it was just an expression.
It wouldn't bother me so much if it was "quote, fine, unquote".
It wouldn't bother me so much if it was "quote, fine, unquote".
Agreed, but that requires an application of logic.
I have only ever seen one application that supported marking multiple, separate pieces of text AND THEN allowed you to copy all of those fragments in one go, and subsequently paste them.
Where on the toolbar do you find this function?
I disagree - and I notice you didn't attempt it. When you try to split up the original text, the grey background ends up in the wrong places, so do the quote marks.
If it's so simple, why not reply to these points - while retaining the appropriate formatting and quoting?
The gauntlet thrown down! (And please note the mess above)
FWIW I'm not a complete idiot and yet I've found quoting judiciously to be a pain in the ass and now I generally take the lazy way (that batgirl despises -- gosh, I hope I'm not really being judged as harshly as you suggest, batgirl!) and quote the whole mess. If the quotes are really big, I use colored highlighting. But editing the greyed in quote area is buggy on my machine at least... There's some bug where if I click inside the quoted area to edit it, I lose my cursor... it's quite annoying.
And --"Where on the toolbar do you find this function?" Yeah? Where?
*edit* -- Batgirl picked up the gauntlet and ran with it I see... Batgirl... a tutorial please on how you accomplished that nice looking post. It's not laziness that prevents me from doing it, really, just ineptitude!
Yeah, but sometimes, annoying people with my laziness is just plain, good, old-fashioned fun. ;)
Sometimes it's beneficial, perhaps almost necessary, to quote a specfic section from a previous posting to serve as a reference point for one's reply. Many people find using the "quote" feature the easiest way to do this. Unfortunately, as a general rule (unless it's used judiciously, which is seldom the case) it's just the laziest, most wasteful, annoying and ridiculous way. You can find instance after instance where someone "quotes" 50 lines or more, or "quotes" nested quotes of improbable sizes just to reference one single statement. Well, not only does this negate the purpose of the "quote" feature, it disrespects the fellow members who may be trying to follow the thread, wastes resources with nonsense, lessens the enjoyment and reveals something about the poster.
I propose the hopefully simple solution, if it is possible (I know nothing about programming), that a severe limit be installed on the "Quote" feature of, say, a few lines, or so many (250?) characters. Perhaps, when you click on Quote, the entire posting would be displayed in the preview box, but if it wasn't edited down to X number of characters (and I suggest a very limited amount), it would give a "quote too long" error message when submitted.
This would force people not to subject others to the annoyance of their laziness.
oh. sorry if i destroyed scotland by doing this
It should be fairly obvious if the quote is cropped judiciously.
If, on the other hand, you're referring to post #5 in a thread with, say, 120 responses, you'd need to add a little more.