Any progress on making it impossible to quote the opening post?

[jamtarty]

I seem to remember this was possibly in the works. It’s so frustrating when someone posts a long opening post and then people quote it!

I like it as you know what they are replying to.

Jeez. Live and let live! I like that feature, if a thread gets to multiple pages it's useful to have the OP quoted so you don't have to go all the way back to it.

Aren’t you hilarious doing that.

You know what they are replying to when it’s the original post.

Is it not obvious they are replying to the opening post??

I find it frustrating too. Surely everyone is replying to the OP (unless they make some kind of reference to the pp they’re addressing…)

Cross posted with Guest.

I've just seen a thread where the first reply has quoted the lengthy original post. Why??

Is it that Quote is the first option under a post and Add Post is third? Can't they be swapped round?

I would love it if there were restrictions like this on using the quote facility. People overuse it to a ridiculous extent, and quoting the opening post is particularly daft.

If you need to indicate who you are replying to, just use the @ tool. That's why it is there!!!
If you need to highlight particular words that you are responding to, quote the post by all means (if it is short) or cut-and-paste the relevant words like we all used to do before the quote tool was introduced. It isn't hard!!!

Yes please do this, so frustrating when people keep quoting a long OP. Scroll, scroll, scroll...

Every single time someone starts a thread on this someone does that in the first reply, it's absolutely side splitting ! 🙄

I'd be on board with this feature. It makes some posts completely unreadable. I don't know why people would need to go back and refer to the opening post if a thread was long. You don't have to reply if you can't remember what they are posting about.

I used to read the threads like a conversation.

I also wish you could quote just part of a post, but I suspect that wouldn’t stop the people who immediately quote the OP.

Probably what's really needed would be for the quoted post to show in a collapsed form with say just the user name and first line showing so you could choose whether to scroll by or expand it if you wanted to remind yourself of its contents.
I'd guess that's harder to implement though I'm sure I've seen it elsewhere for decades.

I've noticed people are getting a lot better at copying and pasting sections or sentences and emboldening them, rather than the whole post, so it is becoming more normalised behaviour not to over-use the quote feature.

While waiting for your tech solution MNHQ could you, in the interim, put in bold letters at the top of the thread

Please don't requote the Opening thread or you risk being flamed by the vipers

or some such witty remark. Sometimes people just do it automatically and yes it's very annoying!

I've noticed people are getting a lot better at copying and pasting sections or sentences and emboldening them, rather than the whole post, so it is becoming more normalised behaviour not to over-use the quote feature.

It's what we all used to do before the quote feature was added. And quoting a quote doesn't work on the app so for that it's still the only way.

But you can. Just copy and paste the bit you want to quote and use the @ function. Simple 😁

Not sure what was so hilarious about what I wrote. If an extra second of scrolling is your biggest problem in life, you're doing pretty well. It's not for you to police how other members use the site.

Anyway, here's your OP, just to refresh everyone's memories!

If people want to quote it does it really matter?

I was reading a thread when another poster was 'told off' for quoting the entire first post. The poster apologised and said she was blind and had not worked out how to just quote part of the original post using her software.

Do we really need to make life more difficult for people who are struggling to use the site? I simply could not care less if everyone quotes the original post if it makes it easier for everyone to use the site.

Edited for stupid typo

It's not too bad if the original post was short, eg only one paragraph, but some posts are almost essays and, yes, it is a pain in the arse when posters keep quoting long posts in their entirety. I've seen threads where a single page of posts only has about 6 posts because most of them contain a repeat of a long, multi-paragraphed post. You scroll through the whole length of the page to find a handful of comments, most of which haven't added to the discussion.

I ask again, does the placement of the Quote icon make it too easy for people to automatically select it to reply, regardless of whether they actually want to quote the post, and would moving the Add Post icon to first place reduce the use of the Quote function?

How is it making it more difficult for people who use accessibility software to remove a function people don't like? It just means that poster wouldn't have done what she did by accident as the facility wouldn't have been there to use.

Presumably poster wanted to quote part of first post to show she was actually replying to that rather than a later post. Threads often change dramatically as they progress.

I suppose removing the option is better than people complaining about it on a thread to a poster, who may be blind or partially sighted.

Not necessarily, no. Especially not on threads with hundreds of posts, and where the OP has also posted updates.

I can't do that on my Chromebook.

Oh right. I only really use the app so can't remember what could be done on a laptop