Please Do Not Abuse the Quote button

[subversion]

i still use the quote function, but i EDIT away the unwanted portions- i think it's only responsible that we only retain the necessary quoted bits that we need & not retain the entire chunk, especially when there are pics included. :roll: if you think you are too lazy to edit the quote:

1. Don't quote
2. It's high time you change

 

[zhen]

hehe, try to cool down la james..i'm sure the word is getting around to avoid the quotable quotes

 

[MaeHeist]

its no wonder.. most of my quoted post get chopped of once i see them again. and now i know who is responsible for it ... haha..

 

[CrispyEgg]

I think the problem is:

1) Users who DO NOT take time to read this page, or have forum etiquette, simply go on with their lives clicking the QUOTE button because "QUOTING" is what the "pro's" do.

2) Many "popular" forums, such as SGCAFE, OVERuse the QUOTE button. It's so bad that i find it horribly boring to read those forums, simply because when you're at page 10, someone's post becomes "5x-pagedown button presses-to get to the next post" i.e. a single sentence reply takes 10 seconds to scroll through. I hope softies don't adopt that habit!!!

And a site note:
Thanks, James, for putting the QUOTE function back on! I found it a little awkward when i needed to quote someone (e.g. in a discussion topic) and i had to select-copy-paste-type-his-username just to do that. Personally, i love the quote function and i hope users don't abuse it and force it to be taken off AGAIN. RAWR. *volunteers to be the QUOTE SHAVER* if there's such a volunteer job available.

 

[weckl-x]

I think there's no need to worry, because in VB, nesting quotes is disabled by default.

 

[soft]

We just have to continue telling new users not to abuse the Quote function while maintaining good habits here.

I really cannot tahan when someone writes a 400 words post and the next person quote the whole post again. His input is "+1".

Faint.

 

[weckl-x]

Heheh. I can feel your pain. (in reference to Soft's post above)

If you're interested, there's actually a hack that was designed for this purpose - to allow users to thank each other for useful posts without making a post, but with a simple click.

Post Thank You Hack 6.3​

About this hack:
One of the biggest problems on forums as you may know is 'posts boosting'. There are users who LOVE to say 'thanks' when ever they can. How can it hurt? Their post count goes up, they have nothing to loose.

There are also users who really like to express their thanks to post but don't like posting a post that looks like they're post boosting.

Then comes the moderators who have to delete people's thanks yous so a thread can look readable with out the thanks yous thrown around.

Finally comes the posters of these useful posts. They have no idea how many people really likes their posts if only some people say 'thanks'.

What this hack does is fix ALL these problems - except those users who like post boosting. This places a button called 'thanks.' When a user clicks on it, it places his username in a box right under the post saying that so-and-so says 'thanks' for the post. Every-one who clicks is placed in one box.

By giving your users the extra feature, you forum will look allot nice and organized. It is a guaranteed liking by ALL the members of your forum.

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=122944

 

[soft]

weckl-x
Thanks for your input.

But, how come you QUOTE my post? That is exactly what I am trying to rid of. It is like you and I are having a conversation and we keep repeating what the other person is saying! Haiz... cannot like that ok.

Quick go edit your post.

Check out this post - http://soft.com.sg/forum/showthread.php?p=459383#post459383 This is abusing the Quote function.

 

[jbarks]

But he's not doing the "+1" thing what

 

[soft]

superkicky, if everyone think like that, i better remove the Quote Function. I can't possibly list out ALL the thing not to do.

We should understand the reason why Quote Function should be used with care. The rest is up to the individual.

 

[trianglebiscuit]

i sincerly dont see how i am abusing the quote function, as i am making reference something he is mentioning.

but, its not my forum so hey, ill edit it accordingly.

 

[soft]

i sincerly dont see how i am abusing the quote function, as i am making reference something he is mentioning.

but, its not my forum so hey, ill edit it accordingly.

This is how it looks like if I use the QUOTE function. It doesn't add to the discussion. Moreover, your post is just above my reply. Should be quite clear who I am responding to.

 

[soft]

Or, I can simply post with reference to what you said.

Like -

mattleesc, thank you for your understanding. I am sure we all want to make SOFT a nicer place.

 

[THOA]

I personally like the quote function. It serves well when I am trying to address a small point in an especially long para. Saves others the time of reading through EVERYTHING the previous poster has written, when I am only addressing a small point.

I try my best to refrain from using too much of it, though. I absolutely agree that is really annoying to see the quote function being abused.

 

[weckl-x]

Soft: well, if it bugs you I'll remove the quote in the previous reply, and swear never to touch the Quote button again. You're the boss

I think Quoting is one of the inherent functions that contribute to a great experience on a forum - making it easy to understand posts in context without introducing unnecessary scrolling up and down. But like all good things, abuse can give the opposite effect by introducing unnecessary clutter.

Why do I say that? Because...

- A reply to a question isn't always just for the benefit of the person who asked the question. Other people might benefit from it too. Which brings me to the next point...
- A reply to a question (like mine here) might not always be posted directly under the question asked.
- Thus, it can get very confusing for readers as they might have to keep scrolling up / down / up / down, to see what context the answer is given in, what the question was.

Take this post for example - I might put "soft:" at the start, but really - only you know exactly what I'm talking about when you look at it. I might as well PM you.

For anyone else reading this post, they'll have to scroll up, read your question, and then put my answer in context.

I think that's what quotes were designed to do. To put an answer/post/thread in context, making it easier for all readers (not just the person asking the question) to understand.

However, you're the boss, this is your house, if it bugs you, I'll never touch that button again in soft.sg. Thanks for everything here, still love it, rock on!

 

[Cheez]

James is not saying not use the quote function. He is saying not to abuse it. Otherwise, he can easily just remove the quote button entirely - which he didn't.

When somebody post a long post, the quoting can be really cumbersome. Then when it is constantly re-quoted again and again in the same thread, the entire thread is composed of only that long quote again and again. Even reading is a pain, as we have to keep scrolling down. Also, double, triple, quadruple or more quoting gets irritating as the readers have to read a box in a box in a box in a box etc... And the thread gets long as well - taking up both time to read and the storage space.

So if one really have to quote, just be careful. If somebody post a long post, you don't have to quote the entire post. Just cut off the part that's unecessary and quote the one sentence you want to respond to. And when somebody has already quoted somebody else, don't re-quote - it's easy to delete away the portion that's not needed.

In the past, there are threads that are 90% quotes and 10% actual responds. It's really easy to click the quote button, but terrible for the reader to read. Also takes up lots of storage...

A simple suggestion - if you are responding to the post above yours (or even just a few post above yours), you really don't have to quote. A quote is useful if:

1. You are responding to somebody who's post is a number of posts above yours
2. A person had posted a long post with a number of key ideas/topics, but you want to respond to one of the idea/topic in particular.

In these cases, a quote is actually helpful.

 

[soft]

Yes Cheez! I couldnt have said it better.

I am just worried users thought that they MUST use quote when replying to another person. Which is not true.

 

[weckl-x]

Cheez, Soft: I hear you guys, thanks for clarifying

 

[Reth]

hey does this apply for PM's too?

 

[weckl-x]

Alamak *smacks head*