Michael_Molnar Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 I would like to start a thread suggesting a Manual of Style. I am sure others will suggest corrections about their own pet peeves. But here is mine. When you select "QUOTE", before typing your reply, DELETE the extraneous quoted content to highlight and emphasize the subject of your reply. This helps readers (ME) to focus on the salient point you want to make. Reading the entire referenced posting is usually bothersome, pointless, extraneous, and counterproductive. If you do not understand this, NEVER do a "QUOTE." My opinion. Mike
David Tseng Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 I am glade you point this out. Reading the entire reference posting is bothersome and offensive. I usually ignore the long quote.
Dean_Lapinel Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 I would like to start a thread suggesting a Manual of Style. I am sure others will suggest corrections about their own pet peeves. But here is mine.When you select "QUOTE", before typing your reply, DELETE the extraneous quoted content to highlight and emphasize the subject of your reply. This helps readers (ME) to focus on the salient point you want to make. Reading the entire referenced posting is usually bothersome, pointless, extraneous, and counterproductive. If you do not understand this, NEVER do a "QUOTE." My opinion. Mike I agree
GMM22 Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 Ditto Double ditto with clarification: I tried not to violate the very much needed manual of style just now, but was unable to comply.
GMM22 Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 It is also often unnecessary to quote the very last post if one is replying to it directly. Most readers can easily read and follow such consecutive dialog. If a post happens to slip in between while one is composing (thus breaking the sequence), one can then add a quote with an edit if needed.
zefir68 Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 It is also often unnecessary to quote the very last post if one is replying to it directly. Most readers can easily read and follow such consecutive dialog. If a post happens to slip in between while one is composing (thus breaking the sequence), one can then add a quote with an edit if needed. Some of us are as useless as a five string violin or a 'left-handed' one at adequately quoting and responding to posts. Sorry X20.
hollenbach Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 I move we adopt Kate Turabian's "A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations". CMS would work, too. MLAers need not apply. Just kidding. My pet peeve is the mixup between "you're" and "your". One person always and indiscriminately uses "you're" exclusively and it drives me up a wall.
Oded Kishony Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 One person always and indiscriminately uses "you're" exclusively and it drives me up a wall. If you don't explain the difference you will be spending a lot more time attached to that wall. YOU'RE is a contraction of you are. Maybe this mnemonic will help..... You're my friend (you are my friend) vs. I'm your friend. Oded you're welcome
gowan Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 I don't like rules about how to write posts but I do like good, effective usage. This venue hasn't yet succumbed to internet speak which is all too common elsewhere on the 'net. I'm not a "grammar Nazi", as they are called on the more freewheeling sites. However we have to remember that not all contributors are native English speakers or writers. If I can understand what is meant I don't get very upset if the syntax isn't perfect.
Magnus Nedregard Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 I would like to start a thread about pet peeves. Here is mine. Focus on the bothersome, pointless, extraneous, and counterproductive. Yes! But take care also, not to alter the original chain of thought in the post you quote. Easily done, only by deleting a bit here and there. It is easy to write some kind of an indication that you've taken away something, e.g. (...) and people will not feel mis-interpreted. Apart from that, I agree there has been a lot of over-quotation going on since the new quotation-friendly software was introduced, you can quote me on that.
Brad Dorsey Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 "When you select "QUOTE", before typing your reply, DELETE the extraneous quoted content to highlight and emphasize the subject of your reply." One problem is that it is not necessary to click on "QUOTE" for the entire message to appear. When one clicks "REPLY" the entire message being replied to comes up as a quote automatically by default, as it did when I clicked "REPLY" to respond here. It is necessary to delete the previous message from the reply to prevent the whole thing from appearing.
GMM22 Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 There is another interesting reason to use quotes judiciously. Take a typical thread infused with extraneous quoting that runs eight pages. Trimmed as per the Molnar Manual , that thread may run say five pages instead. Toggling though five pages for information, now or later, is much less laborious than toggling through eight.
brokenbow Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 When quoting a price, indicate what currency $150 (US). When asking one of those "Should I purchase model #245?" or "What do you think about this violin ebay #12345678910?" it would be nice to know the motivations of the person asking the question. Are you a player (beginner, intermediate, advanced, classical, old-time fiddle, psycho-punk, etc), someone practicing repair, an investor, a dealer, etc?
Chris Knowlton Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 It speaks well for this forum that everyone uses uppercase where required and correct punctuation. Contributors whose first language is not English have done very well in my opinion (Molnar Manual. I like that) Chris
Tim McTigue Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 If you do not understand this, NEVER do a "QUOTE." Another thing about quotes: There are those who quote an entire post, and embed their responses within the text of the quoted post. To the casual observer, such a post simply looks like a previous post quoted in its entirety, without further comment. Even placing the new content in bold doesn't always solve the problem. The solution: If you wish to quote several points within a previous post, and respond to them separately, PLEASE take the time to create several separate quotes within your post, and place your content between them. This makes the whole thing MUCH more readable. It really doesn't take much extra time. When you get to the reply window, just copy the quoted text as many times as you need, then from each one, delete everything EXCEPT what you want to respond to at that moment. Much like putting text in between pictures. Also: this board really has great functionality regarding bold, italics and underline, not to mention COLOR. It's not hard to use, but most of the features are severely underused here.
Mauricio Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 I agree Whoa, a return in true Dean-style! And I'm not saying you're being agreeable
Fjodor Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 Speaking of internet forums manners, I read a joke a couple of days ago that might fit in here: How many forum members does it takes to change a light bulb? 1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed 14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently 7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs 1 to move it to the Lighting section 2 to argue then move it to the Electricals section 7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs 5 to flame the spell checkers 3 to correct spelling/grammar flames 6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb" ... another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid 2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp" 15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct 19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb forum 11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum 36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty 7 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs 4 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL's 3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group 13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too" 5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy 4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?" 13 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs" 1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.
Brad Dorsey Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 "How many forum members does it takes to change a light bulb?" You forgot to say how many would discuss how Stradivari would have done it.
Jimbow Posted February 16, 2009 Report Posted February 16, 2009 Great topic, Mike One of my Pet Peeves is threads with vague titles such as " Help me out" or "Here is my problem". Jimbow
captainhook Posted February 17, 2009 Report Posted February 17, 2009 "One problem is that it is not necessary to click on "QUOTE" for the entire message to appear. When one clicks "REPLY" the entire message being replied to comes up as a quote automatically by default, as it did when I clicked "REPLY" to respond here. It is necessary to delete the previous message from the reply to prevent the whole thing from appearing. Brad, there are two ways around that problem. If you first click "+QUOTE" it will change to red "-QUOTE" and no quote will appear. Or you can go to the bottom of the page and click "ADD REPLY." Again, no quote. If you want a partial quote, you still have to trim it. Lyle
luthierwannabe Posted February 17, 2009 Report Posted February 17, 2009 As a relative new comer to Maestronet I am still fiinding my way around the site. I am most probably one of those who have been using the wrong methods to reply to posts. Sorry about that, now I have no excuse. Right? A set of "guidelines" would be very helpful to new visitors on how to use all the various functions and the correct protocol. Maybe a drop down box could be added to the top bar or included in the "Site Map".
Craig Tucker Posted February 17, 2009 Report Posted February 17, 2009 I move we adopt Kate Turabian's "A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations". CMS would work, too. MLAers need not apply. Just kidding. My pet peeve is the mixup between "you're" and "your". One person always and indiscriminately uses "you're" exclusively and it drives me up a wall. Hey, dfxr, do not you think your nit picking a bit here? then too, these specific style points sould be considered when posting: ALWAYS use three periods at the end of a sentence at least one time per paragraph, per post... ... or, perhaps you can use them at the beginning of a sentence. judicious use of the word "guffaw!", in addition to using too many parenthetical clauses, (sp?) in order to excuse being too lazy to use the spell checker (checker? sp?) or, using too may commas, should, if it is not already, be considered proper ettiquite. Mentioning beer can be a great conversation starter... Posting - ending the post - and then posting again directly in another post right after the last post (Sorry, I had to. Great thread!)
Craig Tucker Posted February 17, 2009 Report Posted February 17, 2009 Hey, dfxr, do not you think your nit picking a bit here?then too, these specific style points sould be considered when posting: ALWAYS use three periods at the end of a sentence at least one time per paragraph, per post... ... or, perhaps you can use them at the beginning of a sentence. judicious use of the word "guffaw!", in addition to using too many parenthetical clauses, (sp?) in order to excuse being too lazy to use the spell checker (checker? sp?) or, using too may commas, should, if it is not already, be considered proper ettiquite. Mentioning beer can be a great conversation starter... Posting - ending the post - and then posting again directly in another post right after the last post (Sorry, I had to. Great thread!) Like this.
Craig Tucker Posted February 17, 2009 Report Posted February 17, 2009 Like this. Then too is (are?) the incorect use (usage?) of the words "to" and "too".
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