Quote attribution name removed and tested :)

I noticed that some quotes are losing attribution altogether. Why?

Edit: like right now.


When I added the attribution manually, the quote is gone completely. Very strange.

I think it's a sign for me to take the day off from the forum anyway :s

the quote feature is going through change. that's all i can say at the moment.

Please fix it soon so that the attributions return. Many jerks on this forum quote fragments of complete sentences from other posters in order to serve their own stupid arguments and so attributions are really needed so that the reader can easily find the complete text of these nefariously truncated quotations.

this is the reason for change. in other words: posters will have to get involved in conversation rather than quoting and causing disruption.

Quoting will be allowed after writing 5 sentences per post. That is closer to proper conversation.

So attribution will no longer be automatically provided when quoting a thread's previous posts, and if so why have a quotation function for previous posts at all?

Without attributions it is impossible to know who is responding to who and a whole discussion makes no sense very fast. Total chaos. I hope that's not what admin is planning as a permanent feature.

And...what's new?

Might as well just remove quotes, though.

To avoid personal attacks. Those who complained in public and private had a point so we should now be happy :).


I think you complained about personal attacks? Now it should be resolved in some way, we'll see..


Quotes are needed to focus on content. If someone who you don't like posts something wise, you'd still (in most cases) reply whatever s/he wrote is stupid. Maybe now it will change ;).

This sentence makes as much sense as the new policy.

.

It's a f*cking retarded sentence, and you have to be a complete and utter idiot to write such sentence.
However, with the new system, I don't know who wrote the sentence in question, so I can't attack him
personally!

WOW! It really works!

If the quote is clickable to take you to the original posting to check the context it might work. Though I suspect Mr Vendetta will do:

--------------------------------------
Poster Name you said:

[quote here]

You are an arse!
------------------------------------------------
Or
------------------------------------------------------------
[Quote here]
@Poster name, You are an arse!
--------------------------------------------------

We can still put the quoted poster`s name in the quote. It takes time, though, but works. Someone else invented it.

But this way you would be able to attack said poster personally! Without his name you JUST CAN'T do that.

*rolling eyes*

So far we had only Seanus skipping quotation so (cos it was making no sense to me, not cos I had something against him personally) I generally ignored his posts altogether. Now admin is introducing no attribution policy as a way of battling personal attacks. It's called in Polish wylewanie dziecka z kąpielą; what about just taking those few habitual abusers out and leave forum the hell alone as it was? Not your brightest idea, admin.


I bet it will only increase abuse as the accountability is significantly diminished.

That wasn't an attack, that was a diagnosis. The most moronic idea I ever met in this virtual reality. Internet is about communication, on topics. Forums are about discussion, and it's almost impossible to discuss a particular sub-thread if most of my effort goes in hunting my own words in the deluge of sheer crap and, although possibly absolutely valid, still irrelevant utterances in other sub-threads.

Most threads develop such sub-threads, completely on-topic. Many people answer to many people in one post, and, if there's no easily recognisable address on a quote, I have to read a screen or two of text currently of no importance to me, and I do not have the slightest indication if the next paragraph is from somebody rational or from that obnoxious troll whose post has already been deleted anyway. I've omitted reading the original trollish post, thanks to the signature on it, now I have to read it anyway simply because my disputant did care to answer, but neglected to laboriously indicate who the author is.

I repeat, this is the most moronic idea I've met in the net so far. Admin is a moron. I only hope it is a temporary condition, and given the opportunity to clear his system of unnatural chemicals he will return to the realm of reason. Happens to everybody, so to speak.

I can't believe anybody could've even contemplated this nonsense. Unless this is just for fun, then please accept my apologies. This is your place, oh Admin, and you are the boss. Take it or leave it, nott. Et al.

Wouldn't it just be easier to ban those who make personal attacks?

Still, it makes PF different from all the rest :)

Now that I think of it - Admin should just hide all the user names altogether. That way we wouldn't know
who made the post! So, let's just have posts with no usernames at all :D

Exactly. It's impossible to see response to your own posts and, eventually, to continue discussion.

First went avatars, now quote attributions. So much for improvements.

And the graphics of this forum sucks. It's the ugliest it ever was. Highlighting buttons are annoying and completely unnecessary.

I don't usually complain about Admins decisions but this really is ridiculous.

the other day the quoted text author was in RED, now its none existent, talk about one extreme to another.

You jest, but I was thinking the same. Then - personal attacks are irrelevant, because how can you personally attack someone without a username?

What the heck is going on with the quotes??? I just replied to several people and there are no names attached to the quotes anymore?? How the heck am I supposed to remember which quote belonged to whom?? Seriously, that's a huge downgrade... Bring back those names plz!!

How many times have you read just the username, without the quoted text? I've done that most of the times. Now I focus on the message, not on the poster. And it makes the forum a different and better experience. Hopefully at least 1 person agrees :

...to answer your question - I've never done that. If I don't bother to read someone's post I won't bother to reply to him/her either.


I'm sorry but that is ridiculous. You'll end up losing the line of though, all quotes will be meshed into an anonymous quotation and you'll have a ton of replies stating "I didn't say that." You know, every time someone brings up a "fact" we all ask him/her to give us a link and a quote to prove it. Here you're doing something totally opposite. Frankly it looks like you're trying to make things easier for you, the moderator rather than making things better for us, the users.

A quotation without a name is not a quotation, it's plagiarism and shouldn't be used. It's also putting someone else words into a person's mount and/or it's simply confusing. It's your forum and some of your recent improvements have been great; this latest idea is wrong.







PS. I'm having a conversation with myself and you (or the regular PF member) can't even tell I'm quoting myself...

You desperately trying to make your point, but the problem is only few listens..

Let's say posterJohn created a topic about:

"The best way to get from Zakopane to Gdansk?"

The first post is answered by postieEwa and is on topic and answers the question. For example:


Then another person, posterDontcare, replies to Ewa, quoting her:


Hey, I'm from Germany. Sprechen Sie Deutsch?


Ja wohl! It was a great trip. Are you from Berlin?


Yes. If you visit Germany let me know. Are you a student?


I'm not a student yet, but I'm trying to get a scholarship in Germany. Maybe you have experience in that?

etc. etc.

And off-topic conversations between postieEwa and posterDontcare begin. Then another poster joins them and the discussion of 100 posts actually has 1 (ONE) relevant answer to the topic starter's thread.

In fact, the private conversations could be done via Private Mail. But, obviously, most users don't care and don't respect the person who started the thread and stray off-topic.

It could as well happen without quoting attribution, but in reality it's harder then. Agree? :) If not, then do you care?

Back atcha, pal.

How many here agree with me? Now, how many here agree with you?
I rest my case.

Those who like the change agree with me and ignore this thread. Those who don't, post here :)

Shyt happens so what? You are trying to stop the natural flow of the threads. Sometimes they wander for a while only to return to the original topic.

I'm not calling you any names and am simply trying to convey my point. Message forums are about communication, we can't see each other but we sort of know who're talking to. Let's say person A scolds person B for something ridiculous, in the past I knew exactly who the person being scolded was but now I have to reread the thread to figure that out. In the past I could simply say I agree with Person A but now I have to re-quote the anonymous quote and say, I agree with this quote. ...or I can re-read a possibly lengthy thread to figure out who had said those words.

I frequent several other forums, primarily aviation related ones but I've never seen an anonymous quotation function. It's illogical, not user friendly and within just a few replies becomes very cluttered and hard to follow. I know you're trying to stick to your guns here but you're not winning any brownie point here.

How about this - incorporate a "vote" function on this forum and let the members decide. I bet you $100 that the vast majority will disagree with you on this one and will ask to have the names back next to the quotes. Deal or no deal?