To wish people would stop quoting a long post and typing This.

[CateTown]

It's doing my head - and my scrolling finger - in.

@QuentinWinters

I do it to show i appreciate what someone has written, and to give people another chance to read it if they scrolled past. Not going to stop either OP.

This

@JesusInTheCabbageVan

The first person who writes a really, REALLY long, detailed, thoughtful response to the OP is going to break the thread.

Am I going to try to be that person? Well...

It's an interesting point, OP, and I think several people have advanced some valid arguments both for and against the practice. I won't reiterate them here.

To properly address the issue, we first need to examine the etymology of the word 'this'. Wikipedia tells us that the word originates "[f]rom Middle English this, from Old English þis (neuter demonstrative), from North Sea Germanic base þa- "that", from Proto-Germanic þat, from Proto-Indo-European tód, extended form of demonstrative base to-; + North Sea Germanic definitive suffix -s, from Proto-Indo-European *só (“this, that”)."

So there's that.

Next, let's explore the origins and purpose of the website 'MumsNet'. Again, Wikipedia is our friend here.

Mumsnet was created by Justine Roberts who came up with the idea of a website to help parents pool information and advice following a disastrous first family holiday with her one-year-old twins. Once back in the UK, Roberts persuaded friends Carrie Longton and Steven Cassidy to help her build the site that is now regarded as one of the most influential women's sites in the UK.

In November 2009, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, opposition leader David Cameron and many leading ministers took part in live webchats with Mumsnet users.

Mumsnet's 10th birthday party was hosted by Google UK at their London headquarters in March 2010. Guests included Ed Miliband and Steve Hilton, and both the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and his wife Sarah Brown gave speeches. Gordon Brown referred to Mumsnet as one of the great British institutions. In May 2011 Roberts founded Gransnet, a sister site to Mumsnet for the over-50s.

Roberts, CEO, was named in the Media Guardian's 2010 power 100. In February 2013 Roberts and co-founder, Carrie Longton, were assessed as the 7th most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4. Roberts was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to the economy.

In 2018 Mumsnet had 1.3 billion page views from 119 million unique users, and revenue of £8.6 million.

In April 2020, Mumsnet announced a premium option.

Also of interest is the 'favourite biscuits' section:

David Cameron Oatcakes (Harrods brand)
Gordon Brown Did not answer ()
Nick Clegg Rich tea and Hob Nobs (greedy)
Ed Miliband Jaffa Cakes
Boris Johnson Chocolate Digestive (prick)
Nicola Sturgeon Tunnock's Caramel wafer
Nigel Farage Did not answer (prick)
Jeremy Corbyn Shortbread
John McDonnell Broken rich tea biscuits from his Mum's counter in BHS
Anna Soubry Ginger Nuts

But I think, ultimately, we need to consider the Talk Guidelines, which state:

No personal attacks
No posts that break the law, including hate speech of any kind
No trolling, misleading or deliberately inflammatory behaviour
No trollhunting
No spamming

Now, I think the practice you describe could not reasonably be described as a personal attack, hate speech, trolling or trollhunting.

'Spamming' is an interesting one. It is defined as 'sending the same message indiscriminately to (a large number of internet users)'. I think the key word here is 'indiscriminately'. If one were to quote a particular post, followed by the word 'This' on a large number of threads across MumsNet, then that would certainly be in breach of the Guidelines. However, I do not believe that quoting the same post on a single thread constitutes spamming, as the post would remain relevant and repeating it is not, therefore, indiscriminate.

But.... does the aforementioned practice (i.e. quoting a pp and then typing 'This') constitute deliberately inflammatory behaviour? Well, not ordinarily. However, IF someone were to start a thread professing their intense dislike of the aforementioned practice, and a number of posters chose to display the very same behaviour on the thread in question (perhaps by quoting a lengthy and detailed response in exactly the manner the OP finds most objectionable) then I think an argument could be made that the aforementioned practice does, in fact, breach the Talk Guidelines.

I do hope this helps.

Bingo!

I wish that you could quote part of a post instead of an entire one. They may have written 15 paragraphs, but you are just trying to respond to one of them.

😆😆 Whatever makes you sleep at night.

@folloyourarro

I find it very validating when someone does it to my posts doesn't happen very often......

This!

I just do it so the writer will know I appreciated their post.

That was to DrSbaitso

@ComDummings

I do it I would prefer a like button thought

This

@Lessthanaballpark

I just do it so the writer will know I appreciated their post.

This.

What PolarnOPirate says

That

FYI folks.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4211544-OK-lets-settle-a-debate-Should-Mumsnet-have-a-LIKE-button-Or-not?watched=1

Please vote. Thank you!

Will be interesting to see the result!

@SummerHouse didn't work 😔

@whenthebellsring

😆😆 Whatever makes you sleep at night.

And this is why a like button is a good idea.

We now have one poster who misquoted me quite egregiously, by changing quotation marks and leaving out important sentences. Because people have no other way to show their feelings, they leapt on it and are now adding more and more comments about it. At best, they merely repeat the misquoting and lack of context. At worst, they reduce the level of debate to this devastating response, which as you can see is utterly dazzling in its intelligence and sound rebuttal. M

Meanwhile, my original post, with the correct quotation marks, proper context and, well, what I actually said (ie: we could more easily get an idea of what people think as a consensus) has been drowned out by a flurry of angry posters who just leapt on the dishonest post...possibly because they had no like button to show their support in a way that didn't perpetuate the lie, or fuck up the signal to noise ratio.

The level of feeling against it does surprise me a bit, as does the idea that it could prompt bullying and cliques and pile ons in a way that, well, more posts apparently couldn't. It certainly reads like a load of people who are just worried about writing posts that nobody thinks are good.

Gosh, I was replying to your last post, not the quoted post. That had nothing to do with the correct or incorrect quote (I saw it and it changes nothing still - inverted commas or not) but the ridiculous "conclusion" you reached after "sound observation", apparently. Chill! The diatribe wasn't necessary, Einstein.

I agree with everything @ThornAmongstRoses said.

@ThornAmongstRoses

There is absolutely nothing worse than someone typing: “I agree with everything you said (insert username)”

But not actually quoting what that poster said....

So nobody has any bloody idea what is being agreed with

Sometimes I scroll back but it’s so so so irritating!

This annoys me too.

Either quote what the person has said, or say what time the post was (and what day if it's not the same day,) so I can go look at what they said!

I canna be arsed to scroll back through 1001 posts to find out what the post said! Grrrrr.

@TheRealForReal

I think if someone has given great advice there's a chance the OP might miss it, especially of there's loads of posts. So copying and pasting it and saying you agree or whatever means the OP is more likely to see it surely

This

@CateTown

It adds nothing to the conversation to just type This.

I disagree. It reaffirms what the poster has said is a view held by more than one person.Especially on AIBU where you want to know what the overall opinion is but also why people have their answers it is valuable to say “This”.

^this. 👍

@Lessthanaballpark

I just do it so the writer will know I appreciated their post.

This ^

Also, when someone quotes my post and "thisses" me, it just makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside, like finally someone gets me!

@OlympicProcrastinator

Oh no. People not using MN as other posters want them to is a big problem this week.

This

🤣

This. Deffo.

The "this" does add to the conversation in that it shows there at either posters who agree with that point of view especially of therr have been a number of posters with contrary views. In effect an indicator that the view they respond to with a "this" is not held solely by that poster.