How to quote and reply and edit and stuff like that

[irrational_John]

Continuing the discussion from Do Diabetes Pharma Companies Have a Monopoly?:

Do Diabetes Pharma Companies Have a Monopoly?

I notice that we are not talking about Do Diabetes Pharma Companies Have a Monopoly? anymore! I thought about quoting the original posts to the topic at hand but found it to be a pita! LOL

Isn’t there another area for how to quote and reply do stuff like that around here?

Well, that is what I always assumed the "Reply as linked Topic" button was all about. I just wasn’t quite sure if the previous digression was enough of one to try starting another discussion topic. But, at the risk of falling spot on my face, here goes …

---

Do Diabetes Pharma Companies Have a Monopoly?

to quote a reply, simply highlight the text you want to quote, and a big grey box appears on it that says “quote reply”

Do Diabetes Pharma Companies Have a Monopoly?

But, be sure to first hit “Reply”, then go back up to the desired text, highlight, and the gray “quote” box appears…

While what you suggest does work, it is not necessary to start the reply before selecting the text you wish to quote.

You can also begin by simply highlighting (selecting) the text you wish to quote. The ”quote reply button should appear after you select the text. Clicking on the ”quote reply button will open up the reply edit window with the selected text inserted as a quote.

Here’s a screen capture which may help to illustrate this.

---

Do Diabetes Pharma Companies Have a Monopoly?

to quote this Roxanne, I hit the Reply at the bottom of your comment, then clicked the very top left icon next the the capital black B (what I call the cartoon talk circle), and wah lah!! You are quoted in two clicks…plus my slow typing. No highlighting necessary and it’s PDQ

If you want to quote the entire post, then that is a good way to do so. But quoting everything is often overkill and can also obscure what it was in the post you were replying to. Selecting allows you to quote only the portion of a post your reply addresses.

Besides, when you selectively quote the entire text is still always immediately available to anyone who wants to view it. If someone wants to see the the complete text of the post you quoted from, they only have to click on the expand/collapse button in the upper right hand corner of the quote to do so.

Another alternative is to navigate to the quoted post to view it. You can do that by clicking on the go to the quoted post button which is usually to the right of the button in the upper right hand corner of the post.

cc: @jjm335 @MarieB @jim26

[irrational_John]

Wow! I think it took me nearly 5 minutes to do all that quoting. It sure can be time consuming!

[Shadow2]

What would be nice too is if people would put in the word EDIT followed by an explanation as to what the edit was if they are editing after replies have been made. Without that, some replies can appear redundant or nonsensical when the edit addresses concerns that were specifically raised in those replies.

[Brian_BSC]

I will often use elipses ("…") to marked edits in original quotes. This if snip off something, it will look like this

… if people would put in the word EDIT …

Usually no explanation is needed as a reply is focused on something that was said, but if needed it can be put in the response

[Shadow2]

Your edit of yesterday in the protein discussion is the perfect example of why an EDIT explanation is very useful. Your message now reads as though you believed Mike’s formula was consistent with the number of grams you suggested was necessary. But you didn’t think that until I actually pointed it out. Now that you’ve edited, but not noted that, it makes my message look a bit silly – i.e., it looks like I’m pointing out something you had already stated in your message, when in fact that was not the case.

[Brian_BSC]

Your edit of yesterday in the protein discussion is the perfect example of why an EDIT explanation is very useful. Y

It is my understanding that all of us should be able to see the revision history of posts by clicking on the little orange pencil in a post. Please try it.

ps. I also went back and edited my post to explain that clearly I am silly.

[irrational_John]

What would be nice too is if people would put in the word EDIT followed by an explanation as to what the edit was if they are editing after replies have been made.

Your edit of yesterday in the protein discussion is the perfect example of why an EDIT explanation is very useful. Your message now reads as though you believed Mike’s formula was consistent with the number of grams you suggested was necessary.

It is my understanding that all of us should be able to see the revision history of posts by clicking on the little orange pencil in a post.

Another possible way to help clarify an edit is to leave the original comments as strikethrough text by wrapping it with either the HTML <s> or the HTML <del> markup tag.

An example. The text
     "My <del>new</del> old car is <s>yellow</s> chartreuse." is formatted and displayed as
     “My new old car is yellow chartreuse.”

While it is obviously more technically tedious to do, this technique can make it more obvious to a reader what was changed and how it was changed without having to look through a post’s revision history. (Still, it sure is nice to be able to look at a revision history, don’t ya think? )

Of course, it can also be used in a way that will confuse the heck out of most people. Prudence and “common sense” are always advised.

[Tapestry]

It is my understanding that all of us should be able to see the revision history of posts by clicking on the little orange pencil in a post. Please try it.

Wow, I just checked the discussion in question Vegetarian and Type 1 and sure enough both versions appear by clicking the pencil icon in the upper right hand corner of the post in question. It was almost like I had a compare software program open.

Thanks for sharing!

Edited to fix the link.