Topic: Tip and Tricks: Replying and Quotes

[JoeCamper]

You may have seen a shaded text area in some post and wondered what it is, why it's there, and how do you add it to your posts. These are Quote Boxes. They are intended to help you under stand the content of the current post by referencing information from a past post. And there are three ways to include Quote Boxes within your post. A Basic Reply, a Quoted Reply and an Authored Quote Reply.

To begin with, Quote Boxes should used sparingly and really only when the information you wish to quote is off the screen. In other words "Don't quote the last post"! Also, there is no need to quote the entire previous post, only the relevant information.

1) Basic Option: Reply to an existing thread by clicking on the top or bottom 'Reply' menu option on the forum page.



2) Quote Option: By using the 'Quote' button, you can manually add a quote to your post.

Click on the 'Insert Quote' button and type the quoted information.

Example:  [quote] The CG was nice [/quote] Results:

The CG was nice

3) Authored Quote Reply

 

Your pop-up camper is an investment you have made in the long term comfort and camping fun for your family.  Pop up campers are a nice compromise between the discomfort and bother of tent camping while retaining the feel of “roughing it”.  It is also a nice compromise in a more comfortable camping experience while avoiding the large costs of buying and maintaining a full sized camper.

You'll note that using the third method will not only insert a Quote Box containing the entire post, but also tags the Quote Box with the original author. The author's tag is a link back to the original post, so if the reader wishes to review the entire post, all they have to do is click on the author's tag. And before adding your comments, edit the quote down to the bear essentials required to highlight your post. So instead of the entire original posts, reader would see something like:

Your pop-up camper is an investment you have made in the long term comfort and camping fun for your family.

Quote Boxes help the reader understand the flow of the conversation. But use them sparingly and only use enough information to refer back to the original post. Remember, the reader most likely has already read what you are quoting. There is no need for them to read it twice.