Deleting quotes

[GostHacked]

I have seen the huge trend by the Moderators in the way quotes are deleted.

Personaly, I think leaving the quotes there is important. You can follow flow of the thread and how it is between several people. I quote someone because I feel it is important. But the quote line is still there eventhough you have deleted the text. I am not sure what you are saving by doing this. Bandwidth sure is not being saved.

If the post is only a line or two, then fine include it in the quote. But if it is a few paragraphs then yes, please remove the entire post. But I think it is getting out of hand when even one liners are removed by the mods, but the quote line is still there.

I also feel quotes are important for the fact one can go back and change the previous post that no longer matches the quote. I don't really like the option of editing posts in the first place. Forces one to think out their post a bit more instead of reactionary posting.

[Charles Anthony]

Indeed, quotes are important but you have to trim them down. Please refer to the following thread:

Trim Your Posts and Quotes, Don't just hit "Reply"

Do not quote the entirety of a previous post. That is rarely necessary. The only quotes that are deleted are ones that quote

1) the entirety of a previous post, the reply is shorter than the quote and the original quoted post is within one or two posts away.

and

2) the entirety of the Opening Post

Those two situations are excessive quoting and nothing but clutter. They make the thread more difficult to maneuver and read.

I have seen the huge trend by the Moderators in the way quotes are deleted.

It is just me.

I quote someone because I feel it is important. But the quote line is still there eventhough you have deleted the text. I am not sure what you are saving by doing this. Bandwidth sure is not being saved.

What is being saved is the hyperlink -- the little red/brown boxed arrow. By clicking on the link, you jump to the quoted post.

It is not a question of bandwidth. It is a question of easy of flow as somebody scrolls through the thread.

I also feel quotes are important for the fact one can go back and change the previous post that no longer matches the quote. I don't really like the option of editing posts in the first place. Forces one to think out their post a bit more instead of reactionary posting.

You are right. Somebody can edit their previous post and it can appear that your reply makes no sense. That is why edits are timed and dated.

If you re-quote the entirety of a previous post, it suggests either laziness on your part for not indicating exactly to what your reply pertains in the quote. If your reply actually pertains to the entirety of a previous post, the hyperlink is sufficient. Get into the habit of making your reply easier to read.

-----

If you find an example where you think a quote is unjustly deleted, post a link to it and I will discuss the reasoning behind the deletion. I might also be wrong and I am willing to modify this.

However, I will repeat one thing that is consistent: the only posts that are deleted are ones that quote the entirety of a previous post. If you trim your quote, it will be left alone.

Edited December 10, 2008 by Charles Anthony

[Sir Bandelot]

...

Some people just hit the Reply button and start typing, which ends up quoting everything. Why not make it just a little more difficult to quote, so that you have to intentionally want to quote the message, rather than the default behaviour which automatically quotes everything.

There is a Reply and a Quote button, as well as an "Add Reply" button further below. This one probably gets overlooked by people in their haste to reply. The purpose of the "Quote" button is somewhat obscure... I don't see the need for it. How about just having one Reply button, which does not quote the message at all, just sets you up to reply in a blank window, and another button that lets you reply with a quote. In other words, remove the Quote button from the form, move "Add Reply" further up so its easier to click, and change the text on the "Reply" button to "Quote", which is what it really does. That would eliminate at least some of the excess quoting going on. You don't really need to write much software to do that.

[cybercoma]

While we're complaining, is there a way to modify the software so it doesn't throw the "edited by:" tag in there when you edit your post within 60 seconds of posting it? Quite frequently I will post a message and immediately after want to re-phrase something or add a line or edit a typo. You want to talk about cluttered... all those "edited by:" lines are messy and annoying. They serve a good purpose when someone goes back and edits a post after others have replied, but anytime before that is useless.

Another forum I post at that uses the same software has it setup so that it will only show "edited" when someone has replied after your post. Is there any way of setting it up here like that?