From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2001-05-20 15:58:00 UTC
Subject: poster primer
Recently, I have several times had people confuse posts to which I
replied with my replies, and have heard that some who did it are new
to computer discussions. I figure that a bit of a primer on
recognizing quotes may be in order.
> Sukie is such a knock-out
Would be a quote; only accurate if discussing punches, but a quote,
never-the-less. A bar at the start of the lines is the equivalent of
the ">".
"Watch out for her jab."
Would also be a quote, but many have found over the years that the
">" at the beginning of each line is easier to spot, though either
can work when a lot of spacing is also used.
A few people set off an entire message with >>>>>>> or <<<<<<< at the
beginning and end, and then use a lot of spacing to further emphasize
the separation between original post and reply.
If a message appears as:
>>> Did you see Sukie...
>> Sukie is such a knock-out.
> Yes, but she lost a tooth from that upper-cut
Which tooth?
you are encountering the original message with the most ">"s. The
reply with two of them, and a quoted reply to that with one, then
finally the most recent message with no quote.
I don't mind that people are answering with info about other's
problems to which I also replied; information is a good thing and I
really like seeing it shared (plus, really enjoy how helpful everyone
tries to be to all), but some have also sent private messages to the
wrong address by sending them to me, and I figure maybe this will
help them target the actual original poster instead of those who are
replying.