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The QUOTE Function

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The QUOTE Function
Posted by tree68 on Sunday, January 23, 2022 8:33 AM

Just a little primer on using the quote function here on the forum.

Most folks seem to have quoting an entire post down pretty well.  Did you know that you can highlight only a portion of what you want to quote?  Only that portion will then be inserted into your post.  Doing so can help reduce those lengthy posts where quote upon quote upon quote makes for a long post.

Look for the {/quote} (I used those brackets so as not to confuse the forum software).  It will be at the very bottom of the reply posting box.  Often it is several blank lines below the last line of the quoted material, and out of sight at the bottom of the box.  Scroll down until you can't scroll down any more.  There it is. Make your comments below that.

Posting your reply anywhere between the opening {quote} and the ending {/quote} will place your reply within the quoted material.  This gets very confusing for the reader, as they have to figure out what and where your actual comment is.  

Hit the "quote" button only once.  The function seems to put a lot of white space in - scroll down in the reply box to see what's already there before hitting the "quote" button again.

I have no intention of insulting anyone, so don't take it personal.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Sunday, January 23, 2022 12:11 PM

One can also delete parts of the quote. But don't accidentally delete the quote code. And as Larry says, put your reponse outside the quote symbols.

Still in training.


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Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, January 23, 2022 1:24 PM

My norm is to write my response.  Put the cursor at the start of my response and insert a line above my response and then use the quote function to bring in the quoted material.  I then go through an delete 'extra' lines, as they become two lines when it is finally posted.

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, January 23, 2022 2:33 PM

Lithonia Operator
One can also delete parts of the quote. But don't accidentally delete the quote code.

As of iOS 15, iPhones can no longer select text in a quote -- it pastes the whole, possibly convoluted post.  And since the block delete works no better than in WordStar, and backspacing is slow as molasses, you're best off cutting and pasting, then typing in the BBcode quote tags manually.

Some bright spark, probably the same one who hard-coded spacing the paragraphs apart when a return follows a period, decided to suppress nested quote tags in a post body.  Unfortunately he did not also suppress a couple of extra line feeds when he did this.  Therefore unless you carefully go back and backspace out the extra spaces... and there are problems with screwed-up formatting if you inadvertently take out the 'wrong' ones, making you find and use the forum 'undo' feature... the post will be long and sloppy, including ... and this is important ... spacing that final /quote tag down below the obvious end of the inserted quote.

When you bring that /quote up to right at the end of the last quoted sentence -- the first line of your response starts IMMEDIATELY to the right of that ] bracket character.  Not a line, or a paragraph, lower.  Don't you love helpful incompetence?

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, January 23, 2022 3:20 PM

tree68

I have no intention of insulting anyone, so don't take it personal.

 



When I first joined the forum it took half a dozen posters a week to teach me how to use the quote feature. Moral or the story, if you don"t know, as and someone will help you figure things out. 

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Sunday, January 23, 2022 5:13 PM

Overmod

 

 
Lithonia Operator
One can also delete parts of the quote. But don't accidentally delete the quote code.

 

As of iOS 15, iPhones can no longer select text

I don't know about selecting. But I can delete with the delete/back button. iOS 15.1, iPhone 8.

Still in training.


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Posted by jeffhergert on Sunday, January 23, 2022 7:57 PM

Oh sure, tell everyone about it.  (I just deleted out parts of a post I didn't want.)  Now the IT department will change things and we'll have to relearn everything we've gotten used to.

Jeff  

 

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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Sunday, January 23, 2022 9:52 PM

jeffhergert

Oh sure, tell everyone about it.  (I just deleted out parts of a post I didn't want.)  Now the IT department will change things and we'll have to relearn everything we've gotten used to.

Jeff  

 

 

Jeff, I'm not sure what you're saying to me. I just assumed most people already know about the ability to delete quoted parts. I mentioned it for the benefit of the few who might not know ... 

Still in training.


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Posted by Convicted One on Monday, January 24, 2022 10:00 AM

jeffhergert
Now the IT department will change things and we'll have to relearn everything we've gotten used to.

Hopefully that will be among the fixes they have scheduled to roll-out early next year

MischiefMischiefPirateMischiefMischief

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, January 24, 2022 10:21 AM

Convicted One
 
jeffhergert
Now the IT department will change things and we'll have to relearn everything we've gotten used to. 

Hopefully that will be among the fixes they have scheduled to roll-out early next year

MischiefMischiefPirateMischiefMischief

Wasn't that the statement that Trains made towards the end of 2020?  It is now 2022.

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Posted by Convicted One on Monday, January 24, 2022 11:13 AM

BaltACD
Wasn't that the statement that Trains made towards the end of 2020?

Hard to tell, I can no longer find the thread where that was promised, anywhere. Smile, Wink & Grin

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, January 24, 2022 11:38 AM

Lithonia Operator

 

 
jeffhergert

Oh sure, tell everyone about it.  (I just deleted out parts of a post I didn't want.)  Now the IT department will change things and we'll have to relearn everything we've gotten used to.

Jeff  

 

 

 

 

Jeff, I'm not sure what you're saying to me. I just assumed most people already know about the ability to delete quoted parts. I mentioned it for the benefit of the few who might not know ... 

 

 

I think Jeff is poking fun at the forum mechanics and Kalmbach's IT department, not at you. Clown

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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Monday, January 24, 2022 12:20 PM

Murphy Siding

 

 
Lithonia Operator

 

 
jeffhergert

Oh sure, tell everyone about it.  (I just deleted out parts of a post I didn't want.)  Now the IT department will change things and we'll have to relearn everything we've gotten used to.

Jeff  

 

 

 

 

Jeff, I'm not sure what you're saying to me. I just assumed most people already know about the ability to delete quoted parts. I mentioned it for the benefit of the few who might not know ... 

 

 

 

 

I think Jeff is poking fun at the forum mechanics and Kalmbach's IT department, not at you. Clown

 

 

I think you're right. But I don't see why they would mind if folks here edited quotes.

Still in training.


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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, January 24, 2022 12:26 PM

Lithonia Operator

 

 
Murphy Siding

 

 
Lithonia Operator

 

 
jeffhergert

Oh sure, tell everyone about it.  (I just deleted out parts of a post I didn't want.)  Now the IT department will change things and we'll have to relearn everything we've gotten used to.

Jeff  

 

 

 

 

Jeff, I'm not sure what you're saying to me. I just assumed most people already know about the ability to delete quoted parts. I mentioned it for the benefit of the few who might not know ... 

 

 

 

 

I think Jeff is poking fun at the forum mechanics and Kalmbach's IT department, not at you. Clown

 

 

 

 

I think you're right. But I don't see why they would mind if folks here edited quotes.

 

I think you might be expecting logical actions from a place where that hasn't been typical in the past. Mischief

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, January 24, 2022 2:12 PM

Convicted One
Hopefully that will be among the fixes they have scheduled to roll-out early next year?

What I did not realize at the time, I think, is that 'stage 3 next year' was actually the Kalmbach equivalent of that bar sign down the street from me: "FREE BEER TOMORROW!"  

It's always free beer tomorrow, today.  A bit like the way we'll have fusion power in 40 years... just like in 1975.

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Posted by jeffhergert on Monday, January 24, 2022 4:57 PM

What I was getting at is that all IT people seem to think they have to reinvent the wheel on how to do certain things on the computer.  The railroad IT people are no different.  It seems every time they try to upgrade or improve something, it actually makes it harder for the end user, us.  Part is the learning curve, but sometimes they add additional steps to do something.  And it seems to happen after everyone is comfortable and profficient with a system.

We have functions that used to be simple and quick to do.  Then they decided to make them "better" for us.  Instead the changes make it take longer with more "hoops" to jump through.  I think sometimes the changes are to make things easier for the IT people.    

Jeff

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, January 24, 2022 5:38 PM

jeffhergert
What I was getting at is that all IT people seem to think they have to reinvent the wheel on how to do certain things on the computer.  The railroad IT people are no different.  It seems every time they try to upgrade or improve something, it actually makes it harder for the end user, us.  Part is the learning curve, but sometimes they add additional steps to do something.  And it seems to happen after everyone is comfortable and profficient with a system.

We have functions that used to be simple and quick to do.  Then they decided to make them "better" for us.  Instead the changes make it take longer with more "hoops" to jump through.  I think sometimes the changes are to make things easier for the IT people.    

Jeff

When I was employed in the IT arm of CSX (besides being removed from RRB) the thought patterns were, that no one wanted to be tasked with maintaining any form of a legacy system or application.  Everyone wanted to 'reinvent' the wheel and create new applications so they could point to the new applications as 'resume builders' for the next job they were going to seek - in or out of CSX.

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Posted by Lithonia Operator on Monday, January 24, 2022 8:12 PM

I never realized anything had changed. It never occurred to me that one might be able to select text and that's all that would show up as the quote. I've always just deleted what I didn't want, a subtractive process.

I'm like the sculptor who was asked how he made a statue. He said, "I just chipped away everything that didn't look like Abraham Lincoln."

Still in training.


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Posted by tree68 on Monday, January 24, 2022 8:17 PM

jeffhergert
We have functions that used to be simple and quick to do.  Then they decided to make them "better" for us.  Instead the changes make it take longer with more "hoops" to jump through.

I usually say that they're watching what we're doing, and if they see us using a given function a lot, then the next update will eliminate it, make it unusable, or hide it somewhere.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by blue streak 1 on Monday, January 24, 2022 10:09 PM

Cannot all this round about procedures?.  I just highlight whatever I want and then CTRL C,  Then place cursor where I want it and use CTRL V.  Just a copy and paste.

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Tuesday, January 25, 2022 10:06 PM

   In case anyone is interested, we had a discussion about this back in 2018:

https://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/269547.aspx

   The one thing I always make sure of is that I start my entry after the "/quote" in brackets at the end of the quoted text.

____________

edit:  Hmm, the use of "url" in brackets to make a link active doesn't seem to work any more.

_____________

edit again:

   After a little experimentation it seems a straight paste will make an  active link even though it looks like a bunch of text.  This is new to me.  Try this:

Using the Quote Function - Trains Magazine - Trains News Wire, Railroad News, Railroad Industry News, Web Cams, and Forms

_____________

edit again:

   Never mind.  The method in that last edit worked in the Testing section in the Trains.com forum, but not here.  And the use of the "url"s in brackets worked in the Testing section, too.  Oh well...

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, January 26, 2022 1:36 PM

blue streak 1

Cannot all this round about procedures?.  I just highlight whatever I want and then CTRL C,  Then place cursor where I want it and use CTRL V.  Just a copy and paste.

That doesn't add the quote /quote tags to the inserted material, though.  They're easy enough to add, though, and if you do use the "add quote" function, you can see the format to include the orginal poster's information.

I've done that when quoting an outside source (like a news story), inserting the source within the quote brackets.

News Source

Yada yada yada, blah blah blah, etc and so on...

LarryWhistling
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Posted by RKFarms on Thursday, January 27, 2022 2:37 PM

This dumb farmer don't know nothin about quotes but agrees with Mr Blue Streak and is able to use cut/paste functions as needed. 

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, January 27, 2022 2:48 PM

That's nice.  Now you two mavens tell me how to do that on an iPhone.

I can copy and paste text and go back and insert quote tags, but that better not include more than about 5 already-shortened lines of visible text...

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, January 27, 2022 4:48 PM

Overmod
That's nice.  Now you two mavens tell me how to do that on an iPhone.

I can copy and paste text and go back and insert quote tags, but that better not include more than about 5 already-shortened lines of visible text...

There is no way I would even consider using this forum on my phone.  It is shakey enough using it with a computer - laptop or desktop.

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