Alteing quotes

[Mikeus Caesar]

Or we could just adopt the imageboard system, if that's at all possible on a forum.

i.e My post is number 13564, and the next poster, 13565 wants to quote me, it would be as such:

~~~~~~~~

>>13564

Yes, your point really is great and you are the best person around here. We love you!

~~~~~~~~

Just place post numbers somewhere obvious so people notice them. Problem solved.

[KukriKhan]

This is an appeal for etiquette, yes? A consideration given the reader by the poster?

I vote: yes.

Quotes from outside sources are link-able, and should be linked, and a sample (less than half the material) provided to give the reader a idea of the context surrounding the poster's response.

Inside sources (i.e. quoting another members previous post) should only contain the bits salient to the poster's point, not the entire (sometimes) 20-paragraph essay. Especially if the poster's observation is: "I agree".

Both practices (100% copy/paste of outside stuff, and full quotation of inside stuff) are tedious in the extreme for the reader, and counter-productive to discussion. Hard copy publications use footnotes and bibliographies for this exact reason: to improve the readability of material and get quickly to the gist of what the writer wants to say.

Unless rory_20_uk means something else; in which case: "nevermind". :)

-edit-
re-reading rory's post: you propose that the quote button, instead of producing a ready-made "[ quote]--- [ /quote]" field, it instead produce : "[ spoil][ quote]---[ /quote][ /spoil]" field, by default?

[CountArach]

I for one disagree. I would find it very inconvenient to click on every spoil tag on the screen just to see which specific part of the post is being referred to, especially for those of us with Laptops. I know that in the background when quoting it is common to break quotes down into two or three line segments and address each point like that. I think it would lead to some mistakes when people think you are arguing about one thing and in fact they did not check to see what it is you are deating against.

All in all, I don't see it adding too much.