25-01-2022, 06:46 PM
The 'quote' feature in this forum is very useful and appropriate for indicating which specific post you're replying to or for picking out a certain point or line of text to answer - but unfortunately the feature is often used when there's simply no need.
The problem is that unnecessary or excessive quoting clogs up the forum with the same messages being quoted over and over again. There are threads where most of the space is taken up by great swathes of quotes, quotes within quotes etc, and most of the time the continual quoting just isn't needed.
Plus it gets dramatically worse the longer the thread goes on. Poster #2 quotes the OP in full, and then Poster #3 quotes Poster #2 in full, including the OP again, and ad infinitum. Some threads become overwhelming repetitive with new posts adding a lot more quoting than new content.
Not to mention that it totally defeats the purpose of quoting in the first place - to show which post you're replying to or to pick out a specific point to address.
For the sake of tidiness and good order, and to ensure the forum is easy to read and not overwhelming repetitive, I would like to suggest that posters don't use the 'quote' feature when there really isn't any need to, and when there is a need to quote then perhaps only quote the text necessary and not the whole post.
If you don't need to quote anything in your reply, the best way of replying is to use the "New Reply" button rather than use the "reply" button at the bottom of the specific post you're replying to.
Of course sometimes it's very useful to quote, especially if you're replying to a message a few posts further back, or reacting to a single point in someone else's long message, and nobody should feel any reluctance to quote when there's a good reason to do so. But if you don't need to quote then using 'New Reply' rather than 'reply' just seems like the sensible option.
The problem is that unnecessary or excessive quoting clogs up the forum with the same messages being quoted over and over again. There are threads where most of the space is taken up by great swathes of quotes, quotes within quotes etc, and most of the time the continual quoting just isn't needed.
Plus it gets dramatically worse the longer the thread goes on. Poster #2 quotes the OP in full, and then Poster #3 quotes Poster #2 in full, including the OP again, and ad infinitum. Some threads become overwhelming repetitive with new posts adding a lot more quoting than new content.
Not to mention that it totally defeats the purpose of quoting in the first place - to show which post you're replying to or to pick out a specific point to address.
For the sake of tidiness and good order, and to ensure the forum is easy to read and not overwhelming repetitive, I would like to suggest that posters don't use the 'quote' feature when there really isn't any need to, and when there is a need to quote then perhaps only quote the text necessary and not the whole post.
If you don't need to quote anything in your reply, the best way of replying is to use the "New Reply" button rather than use the "reply" button at the bottom of the specific post you're replying to.
Of course sometimes it's very useful to quote, especially if you're replying to a message a few posts further back, or reacting to a single point in someone else's long message, and nobody should feel any reluctance to quote when there's a good reason to do so. But if you don't need to quote then using 'New Reply' rather than 'reply' just seems like the sensible option.