Quoting Ettiquette

[Swiss Cheddar]

I have been using forums for years and i was under the inpression that when you 'quote' and respond to someone the quote should be on top and your comment below.

This is the most logical way to do this.

On here i have found that alot of people do it the other way around (including many forum vets).

Comments, abuse etc... welcome

[Swiss Cheddar]

	Quote:	Swiss Cheddar
	I have been using forums for years and i was under the inpression that when you 'quote' and respond to someone the quote should be on top and your comment below. This is the most logical way to do this. On here i have found that alot of people do it the other way around (including many forum vets). Comments, abuse etc... welcome

Logical way......

[Swiss Cheddar]

The other way......

	Quote:	Swiss Cheddar
	I have been using forums for years and i was under the inpression that when you 'quote' and respond to someone the quote should be on top and your comment below. This is the most logical way to do this. On here i have found that alot of people do it the other way around (including many forum vets). Comments, abuse etc... welcome

[DaveA]

This arguement has being raging since the early days of usenet. I am sure you will learn to cope using this correct method.

dave

	Quote:	Swiss Cheddar
	I have been using forums for years and i was under the inpression that when you 'quote' and respond to someone the quote should be on top and your comment below. This is the most logical way to do this. On here i have found that alot of people do it the other way around (including many forum vets). Comments, abuse etc... welcome

[Lob]

	Quote:	Swiss Cheddar
	Logical way......

I agree - quote-under not quote-over. And that's how the quick reply box with quote selected works (like this)

[AbFab]

[quote=Swiss Cheddar;157780]I have been using forums for years and i was under the inpression that when you 'quote' and respond to someone the quote should be on top and your comment below.

This is the most logical way to do this.

On here i have found that alot of people do it the other way around (including many forum vets).

Comments, abuse etc... welcome /quote]

Don't forget the bodged way...

[Lob]

from www.mozilla.org/community/etiquette.html

	Quote:
	Top-posting vs bottom-posting. Some people like to put reply after the quoted text, some like it the other way around, and still some prefer interspersed style. Debates about which posting style is better have led to many flame wars in the forums. To keep forum discussion friendly, please do interspersion with trimming (see above for trimming rules). For a simple reply, this is equivalent bottom-posting. So, remove extraneous material, and place your comments in logical order, after the text you are commenting upon. The only exceptions are the accessibility forums, which are top-posting.

[DaveA]

I pointed out to Mark (in the days when I thought he actually wrote the forum software) that there is a problem in selection of text which seems to overlap the tags in square brackets even when not intentionally highlighted by the cursor. The problem remains in the editor, but it doesnt lead to some corrupted quotations due to missing tags.

dave


[quote=AbFab;157792]

	Quote:	Swiss Cheddar
	I have been using forums for years and i was under the inpression that when you 'quote' and respond to someone the quote should be on top and your comment below. This is the most logical way to do this. On here i have found that alot of people do it the other way around (including many forum vets). Comments, abuse etc... welcome /quote] Don't forget the bodged way...

[Tilia]

To me it is obvious that the quote should come after your text, simply because it lets the reader choose whether to read your text or not. If you put it on top, the reader is forced to scroll through the text and try to find your respons, then read it and _then_ go back and read the quote.

In a paper-document this isn't as much of a problem as you see the whole page at the same time and thus, there I can understand that quoting comes first.

[Swiss Cheddar]

But they would have to scroll down anyway to see what on earth you are talking about/refering to.

Dr Spok is clearly not a friend of yours........

[Natasha]

	Quote:	Swiss Cheddar
	Dr Spok is a great friend of mine, as we share a genetic trait in regards to our ears.

I prefer interpretive forum dance

[Tilia]

The point is that quoting in forums isn't used for the same purpose as quoting in paper-documents. On forums you use it to make it easy for the reader to understand what you are answering to when there are several parallell discussions going on in one thread. You can more often than not assume that all the readers already have read the text you are refering to. The reader just casts a quick eye on it to see what your answering to, nothing more.

There are some forums out there which have a great lay-out in the sense that they are threaded and that you always see the first line of each post as the header. There you will see that quoting is basically no-existing as it isn't needed.

	Quote:	Swiss Cheddar
	But they would have to scroll down anyway to see what on earth you are talking about/refering to. Dr Spok is clearly not a friend of yours........

[Lob]

I've moved this to Forum Support as it's less of a complaint and more of a dsicussion point as to what's accepted (both).

I believe you can adjust your preferences for how the threads display - try it for yourself www.englishforum.ch/usercp

It's in the options - more information here http://www.englishforum.ch/faq.php?f...b_threadedmode

[DaveA]

This is an important point. Google groups (old deja news, really a view on usenet) is an example.

dave

	Quote:	Tilia
	they are threaded and that you always see the first line of each post as the header. There you will see that quoting is basically no-existing as it isn't needed.

[Swiss Cheddar]

	Quote:	Natasha
	I prefer interpretive forum dance

[EastEnders]

I don't mind the quote below or above as long is it is clear what the replying person is answering to, but what i mind very much is when in certain forums and/or groups, people just lazily reply to a post and thus create ginourmous chains of postings/e.g emails, if you are subscribed to get a daily digest,it's a nightmare to read through......

	Quote:	Swiss Cheddar
	I have been using forums for years and i was under the inpression that when you 'quote' and respond to someone the quote should be on top and your comment below.

But what about when you want to respond to individual statements within a post?

	Quote:	Swiss Cheddar
	This is the most logical way to do this.

Like this.

	Quote:	Swiss Cheddar
	On here i have found that alot of people do it the other way around (including many forum vets). Comments, abuse etc... welcome

The statement leading to the response is always on top.

I think I'm a convined topper.

[hugh_abu]

who

	Quote:	swissbob
	really

cares?

[chiguy]

	Quote:	Tilia
	To me it is obvious that the quote should come after your text, simply because it lets the reader choose whether to read your text or not. If you put it on top, the reader is forced to scroll through the text and try to find your respons, then read it and _then_ go back and read the quote.

I disagree (respectfully, of course!). By placing the quote before your comment, you provide the context for your comment before your prose/BS/ramblings. If the reader of the thread has been paying attention (i.e., reading what's going on in the thread), a quick scan of the text and/or contributor will be all they need to quickly understand what you're commenting on.

If the quote comes after your comment, I find it often doesn't make sense until I reach the quote, at which point I might have to go back and re-read the new comment.

[chiguy]

	Quote:	swissbob
	But what about when you is always on top. I think I'm a convined topper.

?!?

I've never been able to figure out how to do this quote thing...