Ok I'm nitpicking now

[electricmanscott]

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the functions of this board I will help you out. When you reply to a question under a topic all you have to do is click on the reply button and write your response. There is no need to quote the entire question again. It is annoying and a waste of bandwith. Especially on the longer questions. Maybe I am grumpy today but what the heck.

 

[Guest]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

[Edit add: I decided to quote you just to show my <snip> style]

Electricmanscott said: <big snip> There is no need to quote the entire question again. <snip>

Scott,
I'm with you (good point: I agree with you), but with a caveat. Sometimes when we reply we think it will be pretty clear to others what we are responding too. Other times when I reply folks think I'm replying to them personally or to another part of the thread. It can get tedious to scroll through all the "quotes". My solution is if I'm the first person to reply I won't quote the part of the thread I am replying to. If I'm immediately following somebody I might choose not to "quote" also. Here's one problem: When we reply, by the time we reply somebody else (or many folks) have already posted, and then folks assume our reply is to the post right above it, when actually we are replying to one or two posts back. Then we get off topic while people challenge our answers because they are read out of order (and out of context).

MY SOLUTION: Use "quotes" but try to prune the QUOTE to the bare bones. I use the <snip> tag and prune out as much of the post as possible in my quote.

So, there are two sides to the "quote" coin. Sometimes it's better to quote to qualify the context; other times it's just redundant and annoying.

Keep in mind that some folks are new here and don't have the quote thing down to any kind of science.

It's good Netiquette to prune (<snip>) your quotes if you use quotes. The <snip> also alerts us to the fact that the person has edited the quote. We can use <snip> or <big snip> when we quote things off the web too so we don't clog up the forum. <snip> away until the quote is at the bare minimum to maintain the context of your answer.

That's my $0.02. Your mileage may vary. Happy trails!

PS: If anybody quotes this in their reply, please prune it, or use the <snip> or <big snip> tag

[ October 30, 2003, 11:32 AM: Message edited by: awwt ]

 

[steve66]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

No quote.

I have had some luck trying to trim quotes. Does any one know how all the [qb]'s and [QB]'s and all that other formatting stuff works?

Steve

 

[Guest]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

Those are UBB "tags". They work like HTML tags.

You use a [Q B] tag to start quote bold.

Then you use a [/q b] to stop quote bold.

I can't provide a complete example here easily because HTML tags are not enabled in this forum yet (I added spaces to allow you to see the tag). If I try to use proper UBB tags here as an example, it will convert the examples to an actual use.

If you need more information I can email you. Send me your email address by PM and I'll send you some sample UBB tags and how & why they work.

Basically the [whatever] tag starts a UBB feature, and a [/whatever] stops a UBB feature. [] is called an opening tag, and [/] is called a closing tag. Each opening tag requires a closing tag. You can nest tags too.

If you want to quote something,

"[qu ote]"=Start quote.
"[/qu ote]"=Stop quote.
"[Q B]=Start quote bold.
"[/Q B]"=Stop quote bold.
(without the quotes or spaces)

Here is the word bold.
Here is the UBB tagged word bold.

You can either enter the tags manually, or you can use the buttons below (e.g.-

Hope this helps, and that I understood the question.

 

[electricmanscott]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

I am far from a computer whiz but this is a pretty easy one. Forget all that html mumbo jumbo. When you want to quote just highlight the words you want to quote, use the edit thingamajig to cut or copy, then when posting your reply hit the quote button below. Put the cursor between the

and click on paste back up at edit. The words will magically reappear!

 

[electricmanscott]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

Just to be clear I am not saying don't use quotes, just use them when needed. Thats all. There are some guys here that will automatically quote the whole question rather than just answering. Makes for tedious reading.

 

[Guest]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

I'm thinking Steve wanted a technical answer, as he already mentioned the [qb] tag so he's already seen it when hitting the "" when replying to(quoting) a post. It's pretty cinchy stuff once you know the conventions.

Here's some more helpful mumbo jumbo:

ctrl-c= Copy.
ctrl-x= Cut.
ctrl-v= Paste.

For example, highlight a block of text, hit ctrl-c to Copy it, then hit ctrl-v to Paste it where you want it.

That's the nickel tour

 

[charlie b]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

When you hit the "Post Reply" button, and you see a large white block of space into which you can type your reply, look under the block. There is a group of buttons under the title "Instant UBB Code." You can use these buttons to mark a web site's url, or to give text a bold or italicized appearance, or to do several other neat things.

 

[Guest]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

It just crystallized for me. I believe Steve wants to know how to snip a quoted reply without messing up the UBB [qb], etc. tags. Steve wants to know what to snip, and what to keep. Probably easier to quote using Scott's method of copying, and Charlie's suggestion about the Instant UBB buttons. Using the "Quote Reply" button can be confusing if you want to <snip> the quote and it's a double-nested quote. I'll stop for now, unless Steve posts back with further clarification about his issue.

 

[steve66]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

All good stuff. Now I know the simple way and the nuts and bolts to add more complicated replies.

The simple stuff:

when posting your reply hit the quote button below

(Sorry electricman, I just had to try out some new stuff.)

I also just noticed the "What is UBB code" under the instant ubb. More nuts & bolts
Steve

 

[brian john]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

A friend of mine in the internet dot com world says to waste bandwith, this will force improvements in the internet cyber world. Sometimes copying the previous post adds to the response.

Chill....................

 

[electricmanscott]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

I don't really even know what bandwith is!

 

[brian john]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

A fat drummer ?

 

[hillbilly]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

My head hurts, goodnight.

 

[tonyi]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

Originally posted by electricmanscott:
I don't really even know what bandwith is! .

Bandwidth is very similar to ampacity.

 

[hbiss]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

Actually some HTML tags work if you substitute brackets [] instead of <>. Lets see,
italics
bold

Of course you have to cut and paste what you want to quote.

 

[brian john]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

<what> [what]

 

[tim]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

check one two check one two

 

[hbiss]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

Well, normally in HTML formatting you use open and close tags. If you wanted your text in italics you would enclose it with tags like this italics likewise for bold
Note the open and close tags. If you don't close your formatting will continue forever.

On this board I found that italics and bold will work if you substitute brackets [ ] for < >. That UBB thing is really a crutch. On other boards you have to know some HTML if you want to format your posts. Here if you want to start another paragraph you hit return. Other places you have to insert

or
but you get used to it. Actually I prefer HTML because you can do alot with it if the board allows it like different fonts and sizes, colors, flashing and links that open in another window to name a few.

 

[bill addiss]

Re: Ok I'm nitpicking now

BTW,

If someone is curious about how a message was made to look like it does ie BOLD etc, just click on the edit icon ( )

Bill