So we all knew you could hit the Quote button on a post and quote the whole thing? And most of us knew if you hit Reply and then hit the Quote button it would quote the whole thing as well? I just found out if hit Reply and then highlight some of the post before hitting that Quote button it only quotes what you selected. Am I the only one who didn't know about this incredibly useful way to quote just some parts of a post?

* mind blown *

:D

Just used it for the first time :D

Nick Gravelyn:

* mind blown *

Ha! mindBlown++

:)

I had no idea that the quote button was context sensitive on what you highlight... man thats a great feature that would have saved me hours over the last year.

I didn't even notice the Quote button until a couple months ago (until then I thought the only way to quote was by typing quote in brackets!). But highlighting text and only quoting that came naturally. Maybe a tutorial or FAQ on forum usage would be handy?

What I would really like is being able to quote from multiple posts above me as I'm writing the message.

I agree. I never new what I was missing until another forum I visit enabled it. Another nice feature would be a link to the original post from the quote. And slightly OT, inline editing of posts.

I can't believe you guys didn't know about it. I stumbled on it a few months ago. I would have figured you guys would have known it forever.

Nick Gravelyn:

Am I the only one who didn't know about this incredibly useful way to quote just some parts of a post?

you mean you didn't know about this until now? I've been using it ever since the "new" site came online.

Catalin Zima:

Nick Gravelyn:

Am I the only one who didn't know about this incredibly useful way to quote just some parts of a post?

you mean you didn't know about this until now? I've been using it ever since the "new" site came online.

Ha yea I always thought this was common knowledge.

Catalin Zima:

Nick Gravelyn:

Am I the only one who didn't know about this incredibly useful way to quote just some parts of a post?

you mean you didn't know about this until now? I've been using it ever since the "new" site came online.

Well how was I to know that the button would know what I highlighted and quote just that? :)

Nick Gravelyn:

Am I the only one

Nope, I had no clue either. I can't believe how many times I manually edited quotes down this last year...well, thanks for sharing the tip now :)  At least my future of quoting looks brighter. I wonder what other forum secrets I don't know about...

The ZMan:

context sensitive on what you highlight

wow

just tested, thats awesome!

Nick Gravelyn:

l knew you could hit the Quote button on a post and quote the whole thing? And most of us knew if you hit Reply and then hit the Quote button it would quote the whole thing as well? I just found out if hit Reply and then highlight some of the post before hitting that Quote button it only quotes what you selected. Am I the only one w

Great! :P

Nick Gravelyn:

I just found out if hit Reply and then highlight some of the post before hitting that Quote button it only quotes what you selected

*Chuckles* - You've been living in the dark ages :P

Nick Gravelyn:

Am I the only one who didn't know about this incredibly useful way to quote just some parts of a post?

It certainly seems not.

On the topic of nice quoting features... I would love to be able to easily quote fragments from multiple posts. In the ziggyware forums you get to see all posts above your reply editor, which is great, but would obviously be a problem for those 3+ page threads. Maybe the forum developers could show all previous posts (other than the one you replied to) minimized to single lines with a "+" button to expand and quote from them.... now that would be truly awesome and mind blowing :D

Roonda:

On the topic of nice quoting features... I would love to be able to easily quote fragments from multiple posts.

This is what I had suggested above (see, it would come in handy now since I could quote myself from several posts up!). It would make things MUCH easier. Right now if I really want to the only option is a combination of tabbed browsing via FireFox and some clever copy-pasting with the help of Notepad. Far from ideal.

Roonda:

Maybe the forum developers could show all previous posts (other than the one you replied to) minimized to single lines with a "+" button to expand and quote from them.... now that would be truly awesome and mind blowing :D

Agree 110%!!!

Sounds like a great feature. I think we have a place for feature requests. ;)

Nick Gravelyn:

it only quotes what you selected

Wow!

Nick Gravelyn:

Am I the only one who didn't know about this

Nope!  What a useful feature!!  Thanks, Nick.

Nick Gravelyn:

* mind blown *

Well, Nick. That's only 6276(ish) copy and pastes.:)

Nick Gravelyn:

So we all knew you could hit the Quote button on a post and quote the whole thing? And most of us knew if you hit Reply and then hit the Quote button it would quote the whole thing as well? I just found out if hit Reply and then highlight some of

Wow pretty cool ^^ First time i used this...

I'm sorry but you guys have to much free time!!!

crazzzy stoner:

free time

Please do not continue to perpetuate the myth that this actually exists.

Anyone who uses this quote feature, which now I am shamefully guilty of too, should read this amazing article:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BuildingCommunitieswithSo.html
"Q. Why don't you show me the post I'm replying to, while I compose my reply?
A. Because that will tempt you to quote a part of it in your own reply. Anything I can do to reduce the amount of quoting will increase the fluidity of the conversation, making topics interesting to read. ... Sometimes people still try to quote things ... because they're mindlessly nitpicking and they need to rebut 12 separate points. These are not bad people, they're just programmers, and programming requires you to dot every i and cross every t, so you get into a frame of mind where you can't leave any argument unanswered any more than you would ignore an error from your compiler. ..."

The recent threads I've participated in, in which everyone is picking apart posts sentence by sentence, was a reminder of how evil this quoting feature is.  This article immediately came to mind.  Nick, you'll find the entire article interesting; you won't regret the time reading it.  It talks about how forums thrive, and even touches on the whole topic-splitting / branching issue when threads go off-topic.  I'm not saying this is a solution to all mod's problems, nor that you should change your style, but any mod on here (or any forum participant) will find this interesting. :)

JasonD:

:)

:)

JasonD:

and even touches on the whole topic-splitting / branching issue when threads go off-topic.

Yep, by completely reinforcing what we preach:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BuildingCommunitieswithSo.html:

Better to force people to start a new topic if they want to get off topic.

Too bad people don't seem to listen.

JasonD:

I'm not saying this is a solution to all mod's problems, nor that you should change your style, but any mod on here (or any forum participant) will find this interesting. :)

What I found interesting (apart from the quote-hate) is that he actually encourages all our practices. The thread splitting, discussion branching, deleting useless threads that repeat the same thing over and over, reasons for deleting threads/posts. I especially like the following answer.

that page:

Q. But that's censorship!

A. No, it's picking up the garbage in the park. If we didn't do it, the signal to noise ratio would change dramatically for the worse.

We've been following these practices all along, so I don't really see how that article could "change our style". Maybe it should change the style of all the people complaining about how mods do their job. :)