CUTTING DOWN ON THE CLUTTER

[GailL1]

I wonder why the "QUOTE" function cannot be set up to ONLY quote the last post in a specific conversation instead of all of a particular conversation.

After all, it should be the last post which another is responding to -

It would sure cut down on post that travel a mile down the page, most of which is unreadable, unusable.

if you need an example of what I am talking about - just ask me - I could even provoke one cause I know which posters never edit the conversation to the points which they are responding.  Post that are very, very long because of how the OUOTE function works, and then the post adds one sentence.

[retiredtraveler]

"....It would sure cut down on post that travel a mile down the page, most of which is unreadable, unusable...".

All one needs to do is to highlight, then copy/paste the salient point(s) one wants. This response is an example.

  It's simply lazy posters who don't take the 20 seconds to do that.

[GailL1]

While I agree with you on the manual individual solution and the laziness factor - I do know that passion sometimes cuts corners to an end result.

We could / would / should still edit but it will not be as much.

Yes, it is pretty easy to edit a quote on a PC but more difficult on a mobile device especially when the text keeps getting longer and longer, lighter and lighter and I think my fingers are getting fatter or lighter. 

We are Americans - why should we have to put more work and decision-making effort when technology could be used to correct the problem  - I.e. the QUOTE function only picks up the last reply.  I mean why are all the other replies still attached anyway - they are easy to find in the thread in original form.

If we need a reference point, perhaps the QUOTE function could also pick up the date and time in addition to the posters name of the post we are responding to in our response.

Let's Work Smarter Rather Than Harder -

[LouisW339465]

I beieve it takes will power. Your mind needs to remind itself to stop!!!

Support of other people you respect, such as wife, ex, or co worker.

LouinOmaha

[fffred]

(no quotes)

This all reminds me of the good old days of Usenet and news groups. Early days of the internet. (In fact, I met my now-wife through a newsgroup. 1990's). I miss plain text sometimes; so fast to use.

Totally agree that excessive use of quotes is silly. I think it's often done by inexperienced users through not knowing. But then in some forums I see people doing this who have been there for a very long time and in such cases it must be "just them" for whatever reason. 

I saw a couple recent discussions here at AARP that were illegible due to the excessive quoting. I thought something was broken.

[nctarheel]

---

@retiredtraveler wrote:

  It's simply lazy posters who don't take the 20 seconds to do that.

---

I review the post to which I am responding, and usually, try to delete all sentences that DO NOT APPLY to my response so that one can easily see TO WHAT POINTS I am directing my supporting comments or my conflicting comments.

For example, if my argument(or agreement for that matter) with @retiredtraveler was about the comment, "IT'S SIMPLY LAZY POSTERS WHO DON'T TAKE TWENTY SECONDS TO DO THAT", then that's the only comment I would leave from the original post as I have done above.

PAGES UPON PAGES of COMMENTS UPON COMMENTS serves NO PURPOSE. I think some do it to see their written comment OVER AND OVER........ gives them a warm fuzzy feeling, I guess.