Quoting previous posts

[simoncn]

Please don't quote previous posts every time you reply to a post. This can cause large chains of previous posts to be included in every post, cluttering the forum thread and making it hard to read.

When you reply to a post, there is a choice of a small Reply button at the bottom of the post and a larger New Reply button at the bottom of the thread. The Reply button automatically quotes the post in the reply, leading to the problem described above. The New Reply button creates a new reply with no quoted text.

There is normally no need to quote previous posts when replying to a post. Quoting a previous post or part of a previous post is sometimes necessary when you are replying to a specific comment from earlier in the thread. In this case, you should use the Reply button from the earlier post and edit the quoted text to the minimum needed to provide a context for what you are saying in your post. In all other cases, you should use the New Reply button and not include any quoted text.

It is also helpful to use the Preview Post button to see the exact text that will be posted when you click Post Reply. If anything is there that shouldn't be there, you can make adjustments before clicking Post Reply.

Following these guidelines makes forum threads easier to read for other users browsing the forums and enables them to find the information they need without needing to scroll through large amounts of duplicated text.