Q Talk

[Moonchilde]

What bothers me most is posters who insert their reply ABOVE the quoted text and not AFTER it.  Should anyone want to reply to such a post, it’s more of a mess than it’s worth.

While I have my limits, as far as length of back-and-forth posts, I think quoting is usually necessary. I see threads all the time where an OP comes back to a thread and writes as many as 10 responses that simply say “thank you”, “great idea”, “love that”, “that’s not what I said”, etc - and to me they are a complete waste of everyone’s time, especially the OP. No one has a clue who/what they’re responding to, so the response is pointless.

When it gets to extremely long strings of back-and-forth quoting it becomes impossible to keep who said what straight. I don’t care if those two (or three) posters do it, but I stop bothering trying to follow. There are ways to shorten the posts, but not everyone wants to put in the effort. 

[proudlyfromNJ]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

What bothers me most is posters who insert their reply ABOVE the quoted text and not AFTER it.  Should anyone want to reply to such a post, it’s more of a mess than it’s worth.

While I have my limits, as far as length of back-and-forth posts, I think quoting is usually necessary. I see threads all the time where an OP comes back to a thread and writes as many as 10 responses that simply say “thank you”, “great idea”, “love that”, “that’s not what I said”, etc - and to me they are a complete waste of everyone’s time, especially the OP. No one has a clue who/what they’re responding to, so the response is pointless.

When it gets to extremely long strings of back-and-forth quoting it becomes impossible to keep who said what straight. I don’t care if those two (or three) posters do it, but I stop bothering trying to follow. There are ways to shorten the posts, but not everyone wants to put in the effort. 

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@Moonchilde.  Agree with everything you said.

[Mz iMac]

I just "quote" what I want & delete the rest.....

"Is it helpful to others (or not) to copy the quote before the reply?"

[excpa]

I usually skip the comments with quotes and go on to another topic.  Too much work.

[SeaMaiden]

it does not bother me one way or the other.

[Moonchilde]

I don’t see the very long quoted posts here all that often.  When they do occur they are most often in a discussion/debate thread where opinions are heated and a couple of posters are just boxing each other, with a third occasionally throwing a punch. They have zeroed in on each other, don’t care about whether other posters approve or not, and don’t give a fig whether anyone is into their trying-to-impress back-and-forth or not. Nor really, should they. 

It’s easy for me to recognize such an event and pass it on by, no harm no foul.

[faeriemoon]

I find that those really long multiple quote posts usually go on when two people are sparring with one another.  If you are careful to quote just the person you wish to quote, the really long list of quotes can usually be avoided.  It gets very annoying when a poster decides she/he must have the last word.

I admit to getting fed up and moving on.

[Pearlee]

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@Shanus wrote:

Is it helpful to others (or not) to copy the quote before the reply?

Sometimes I think it makes my reply too long, but it does clarify the subject at hand.

Comments?

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It just all depends on each particular circumstance and thread.  For example, I think it's pretty much essential to quote someone's post if the person replying to it is doing so several pages after it was originally posted.  Sometimes I wonder to whom a poster is even replying because the post is so far away from the person's to whom the poster is replying.

I also think, in many but not all, circumstances, it's import to quote a post and highlight which part of it the person is responding to in her post.    

Sometimes it's just a complete waste of time and space to quote a post.  

So...it all depends on the circumstances; it's on a case-by-case basis.

And it doesn't bother me in the least for a person to respond before the quote. Or after.  I can always easily tell what is going on.

[Lipstickdiva]

Many times yes.  It just depends.

What really drives me bonkers are when someone responds to a post that has multiple photos. Then they copy the photos to respond. Then someone else quotes them to respond and copies the photos again so the photos are in the response 3 different times.  At that point I'm out.

[VanSleepy]

I don't understand why people quote the entire original post before responding.  That's what we're supposedly responding to, so why quote it.  I've seen it done on response #1.  Unless the thread has gone totally off course, I don't see the reason.

And when two people are going back and forth and back and forth quoting the entire conversation of ever-lengthening quotes, just use the @ already.