OpenChess

How do you see, in this Forum, who is answering whom?
(if the guy doesn't "quote" somebody, it's difficult to see, since there seems to be no "thread view" as in talkchess)

ernest wrote:How do you see, in this Forum, who is answering whom?
(if the guy doesn't "quote" somebody, it's difficult to see, since there seems to be no "thread view" as in talkchess)

You can't. phpbb3 doesn't support the "threaded view" hack. So, quote early, quote often, but quote considerately and safely.

jb

No thread view could be considered an advantage in reducing peripatetic (hehe, love that word) posts.

Personally, I think some forums suffer from severe quote spam. If you’re responding to a post directly above, why quote it? I’ve seen recursive quotes on TalkChess (thread view) so deep you can barely read it. It doesn’t clarify the point to me, quite the opposite.

At first, my impression of all the quoting was it seemed somewhat derogatory. I rarely direct my posts at a specific person’s post anyway. The way I see it, it’s public discourse and not an e-mail exchange.

But when in Rome, I’m perfectly willing to do as the Romans do. How do they do do?

(Sorry, just my feeble attempt @ humor, not belittling the subject. Feel free to take a swing at me; it’s a slow pitch right up the middle )

MoldyJacket wrote:If you’re responding to a post directly above, why quote it?

But precisely, when you "answered me", I wasn't sure at all it was me you were answering...

Quoting also has the immense advantage to show what particular point you are answering to.

Hi Ernest, first I want to thank you and Uly for showing interest in my first post! I probably should have mentioned it before; I’ll try to be more cognizant of things like that in the future.

I would quote something from above, but I don’t have a specific point to make based on any exact words (not trying to prove a point). You can paraphrase too, which has the added benefit of reassuring the original poster you fully appreciate and understand their point.

Quoting is useful in referencing what was specifically said, but I don’t see it as a particularly polite way of addressing someone. Quite often quotes are used menacingly by taking them out of context or attempting to embarrass, which also runs the risk of doing so unintentionally. (And if the whole damn thread is quoted, all meaning is lost! Sorry, just my pet peeve)

To me, quoting also implies a closed conversion. Not quoting opens things up, it says “I’m speaking to everyone including the poster, all are welcome to participate”. It just seems more open and friendly not quoting something directly above; but then again, I like to put cheese in my coffee too.

All in all, I’m just trying to be friendly and inclusive. Let’s lighten things up around here, have some fun and not be so formal and serious in situations where we don’t have to be.



BTW: I don’t want to bring up the great emoticon debate, but the “smile” looks more “apologetic” to me: I’m always fearful of choosing an emoticon based on appearance not realizing the meaning of the symbol underneath too. I’ve got enough trouble expressing myself, don’t I?

Disclaimer: absolutely no changes of icons is being purposed here, nor were any injured in producing this reply. But poking fun at them is such good sport.