[ntp:questions] Quoting Practices (Was: Re: Test internal clock)

Steve Kostecke kostecke at ntp.org
Fri Mar 20 13:33:51 UTC 2009


On 2009-03-20, Unruh <unruh-spam at physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
> Steve Kostecke <kostecke at ntp.org> writes:
>
>>On 2009-03-20, Unruh <unruh-spam at physics.ubc.ca> wrote:
>
>>> And it makes even more sense to have it at the top so that I can see that
>>> the response is totally off topic without having to scroll through the
>>> whole rest of the ancient history of the post. 
>
>>A good writer, who is considerate of his readers, will take the time
>>necessary to edit the quoted material in an article (as I have done in
>>this case) to focus on the salient material.
>
>>http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html
>
> Yes, and remove all of the context of the quote,

I left _exactly_ what I was replying to.

> and in this case remove the clear sarcasm which was the pupose of the
> post in the first place,

If I had intended to reply to your sarcasm it would have been included
in the text I cited. But I didn't, so it wasn't.

> While it is completely irrelevant in this case, context is often
> crucial to meaning,

Quoting with appropriate context, on the other hand, is shows respect
for the readers time by focusing their attention on the exact
information which is being addressed rather than forcing them to wade
though reams of (often irrelevant) text.

> ... quoting out of context is a well known editorial device of
> distortion.

Quoting with excessive context is a well known editorial device of
sowing confusion by making a discussion unfathomable.

There _is_ a reason why we have threaded news-readers to read threads of
articles in a news-group.

> I would much rather have someone overquote and top post, than strip
> out the whole context

The definition of "whole context" is only relevant in the context of the
discussion at hand.

Not unlike what the definition of "is" is.

> and answer with a one word bottom post ( or worse, and interleaved
> post without any whitespace to indicate where the interpost lies).

Really?

-- 
Steve Kostecke <kostecke at ntp.org>
NTP Public Services Project - http://support.ntp.org/




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