Perhaps so. So very few seem to know how to use quoting with any sense and elegance. It's a button that often is pushed mindlessly. It drives me crazy to follow a thread where someone makes a long, rambling post and someone quotes the entire thing only to have a response of "yes" or some other simple reply. No wonder threads can reach hundreds of pages. I bet the entire forum volume would be 20% less if bad quoting were removed.

At a minimum, the quote feature should require concscious input on the part of the quoter and not automatically quote an entire post. Thoughtful quoting seems like common sense to me, but like they say, common sense isn't really so common.

I know is the overall quality of the forum would improve greatly if overused quoting went away.

EDIT: Title clarified to minimize hysteria.

MVP9596 said:yoregano said:Perhaps so. So very few seem to know how to use quoting with any sense and elegance. It's a button that often is pushed mindlessly. It drives me crazy to follow a thread where someone makes a long, rambling post and someone quotes the entire thing only to have a response of "yes" or some other simple reply. No wonder threads can reach hundreds of pages. I bet the entire forum volume would be 20% less if bad quoting were removed.

At a minimum, the quote feature should require concscious input on the part of the quoter and not automatically quote an entire post. Thoughtful quoting seems like common sense to me, but like they say, common sense isn't really so common.

I know is the overall quality of the forum would improve greatly if overused quoting went away.

No.

So tempted to leave it at that However, it is often the best way to keep your response in context.

what would we do without quotes?

MVP9596, yours is a rather uninspired reply, and from a staff member, too. Context? No, I don't need to reread a three paragraphs long post (as is often the case) to realize the context about what one is responding to. Why not at least limit the quote, as has been suggested? Perhaps only the first line is quoted automatically, followed by an ellipsis indicating text has been truncated. The aesthetics, bandwidth, and flow of a thread will absolutely be improved. One of the problems is that too many dopes hit the quote button for NO reason whatsoever when all they should do is simply state their point.

C'mon, let's raise the bar, just a little. I can't believe more people don't see some value in this.

TM1 said:Using quotes is the best way to preserve the original content of posts.
The original content already is preserved, in the original post. I don't understand your concern.

Are you defenders saying it makes sense to you to read long, verbose posts quoted and repeated over and over again throughout a thread? Surely something more efficient and succinct is better.

yoregano said:TM1 said:Using quotes is the best way to preserve the original content of posts.
The original content already is preserved, in the original post. I don't understand your concern.

No, the content is not preserved because the poster can go back and edit. However, once a post has been quoted, the text is preserved in that new quoting post.

Your problem isn't with the quote function but rather those that do not know how to use it properly. Just to pat myself on the back, notice that I only included the relevant portion of your post in my quote. If more people did that, your complaint would be moot.

EDIT:
And after re-reading your post above, it looks like you get my point before I even made it.

yoregano said:Perhaps so. So very few seem to know how to use quoting with any sense and elegance. It's a button that often is pushed mindlessly. It drives me crazy to follow a thread where someone makes a long, rambling post and someone quotes the entire thing only to have a response of "yes" or some other simple reply. No wonder threads can reach hundreds of pages. I bet the entire forum volume would be 20% less if bad quoting were removed.

At a minimum, the quote feature should require concscious input on the part of the quoter and not automatically quote an entire post. Thoughtful quoting seems like common sense to me, but like they say, common sense isn't really so common.

I know is the overall quality of the forum would improve greatly if overused quoting went away.

no

Sigh… this really isn't that hard. Some of these responses show that people just aren't getting it.

MVP9596, I know who you're talking to, and of course, quoting someone means that is who you are talking to or what point you are referencing. When I say "uninspired," I mean your response offers little in terms of commentary. You haven’t addressed any of my real points, you just seem to globally endorse the typical use of quoting in the forum. You may choose to edit what you quote, but far too many don't. I don’t need to read 50 lines of text just to see that someone is responding to a particular poster or thought.

tlaxson, you offer some good thoughts, but let's be honest: the OT forum practically begs to be full of inflammatory and outrageous content, so I do indeed suppose that people will continually try and pull shenanigans. My arguments require dealing with sane and rational people, which may be too much to ask for. And lastly, you lose some credibility for giving green to nomenclature’s one-word quip, which contributes nothing to the discussion.