Why you dont use quotes?


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Sorry my provocative topic but I have seen a lot comments without quotes, for a long time, and I wonder why people doesnt use quote. There is only @mention and reply and thats about it.

 

As you know there are always bunch of people who lurks in the background, who just follows the discussion. For them it is difficult and annoying to know what was the question or comment where this comment is answering. They have to jump back and forward to see the question and the reply. This is issue especially with the long threads with several users.

 

Does this have something to do with the other social channels, they dont have quotes and people have used not to use quotes? 

 

This is truly first world problem but I am sad about this behaviour :D

 

 


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Hiya!

I’m Blastoise186 and I’m a regular around these parts. :)

Good question this one. I’ve seen the opposite problem on many forums, where people overuse quotes and you end up with a giant quote pyramid. That tends to get rather messy!

It’s also because to be honest… Being able to @mention is much easier and quicker than doing a quote. I still use quotes for certain things but it’s usually to chop down to a particular point halfway through my own comment.

I don’t use social media myself, but let’s just say 20 years of forum experience has taught me not to build gargantuan quote pyramids!

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I’ve seen the opposite problem on many forums, where people overuse quotes and you end up with a giant quote pyramid. That tends to get rather messy!

Yeah, good ol´ quote pyramids. I totally understand this but platform should have limits how many level quotes are possible. To avoid pyramids.

 

It’s also because to be honest… Being able to @mention is much easier and quicker than doing a quote.

Yes, it is easy but also same time confusing to other people. I am from Finland and forums where I am active quotes are in use but abroad situation is different. What does this tell about us, I dont know :)

 

I don’t use social media myself, but let’s just say 20 years of forum experience has taught me not to build gargantuan quote pyramids!

I´ve been VERY active in Facebook, in my personal page and in several groups but over year ago I decided to leave from there. I dont like the negative culture and the pubbles, disinfo, also because people doesnt share their own thoughts and what they do just now, whats happening and so on, just like old days. FB is just market place for the brands, no thanks. Twitter, I havent use for 4-5 years? I dont want to read the “cheeky” tweets, I dont want to follow daily “gates”, and so on. I am active on Instagram but their algorithms…

 

Long story but I like the forums a lot. Since 90´s :D

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Hehehe, well… inSided doesn’t let me manually build 50 level deep quote pyramids! Not sure about use of the quote button though.

However… I wonder… Don’t worry, I’ll (maybe) clean this up if it works!

 

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😂

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Yeah… You can already see how much space that takes up, even when each quote is just a single line!

I might leave it there for now actually as an example of the potential issues. Assuming that is, @Alistair FIeld and @Julian don’t throw the banhammer at me for spamming! But yeah… I won’t make that pyramid any bigger. Just to be safe.

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Thanks for mentioning me and, with that, pique my interest. :) 

This is truly first world problem but I am sad about this behaviour :D

No need to justify - exactly this is the place where to ask such a question!

Sorry my provocative topic but I have seen a lot comments without quotes, for a long time, and I wonder why people doesnt use quote. There is only @mention and reply and thats about it.

So just to share my pseudo-sociological 2 cents here: I think that it is a mix of people either really noticing, or appreciating the value this part of forum-etiquette can have.

As you know there are always bunch of people who lurks in the background, who just follows the discussion. For them it is difficult and annoying to know what was the question or comment where this comment is answering. They have to jump back and forward to see the question and the reply. This is issue especially with the long threads with several users.

I would argue that most authors of replies do not focus too much on preserving context, as they truly think the author of the post they are responding to will get it. Especially in multiple-page threads, new users joining will sometimes post comments that read quite weird without knowing the context. They truly think that somehow the other side will understand, and they don't even think about others who might read it.

In my experience, only a few new users will use it, while mostly this is used by Superusers as well as Community team members. Usually the younger a Community Manager is, the less likely he/she will be to use quotes (I feel).

Does this have something to do with the other social channels, they dont have quotes and people have used not to use quotes? 

Most likely this has an effect. To chime in on your take on social media: Social Media is not really designed for keeping context / longer conversations any more - at least this feels as a trend as everything is focussing more on visuals and a shorter average consumption time (TikTok, Youtube Shorts, Stories, etc.). I'd say it is a competition with the attention span of the audience. ;) 

But it could also be the discoverability of the quote button itself. Though likes are also used, but maybe here the outcome is clearer. Would be interesting to see what happens if we put a small box around these buttons, probably usage would go up.

It’s also because to be honest… Being able to @mention is much easier and quicker than doing a quote. I still use quotes for certain things but it’s usually to chop down to a particular point halfway through my own comment.

100% true, and (coming from someone being a customer from the pre- @mention era of inSided), mentions have largely replaced quotes ever since they have been introduced - though I often enough see cases where quotes are still being used together with mentions.

@Blastoise186 ☝🏻 you will probably agree that this is only being done by the kindest, most thoughtful Community Managers out there. 😛@revote for your context: Blastoise is a superuser on Tim's Community 😎 ) 

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Eh? Noooo!!! Only the most evil, most horrible community managers leave quotes littered all over the place when they know Mentions are the FUTURE! XD

Nah, I’m just messing around because I can. It really can be useful to be strategic to be honest. 🤣

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In my experience, only a few new users will use it, while mostly this is used by Superusers as well as Community team members. 

In our community there are members who uses quotes and they are not, least yet, superusers. Some users even ask how to use quotes 🙂 I am not saying there are cultural differencies between the countries, or community platforms, but it is interesting to see what happens when we launch our inSided based community :)

To chime in on your take on social media: Social Media is not really designed for keeping context / longer conversations any more - at least this feels as a trend as everything is focussing more on visuals and a shorter average consumption time (TikTok, Youtube Shorts, Stories, etc.). I'd say it is a competition with the attention span of the audience. ;) 

Shorter average consumption time, you mean per visit? I think companies want that users spend all of their time with their services or channels :)

@revote for your context: Blastoise is a superuser on Tim's Community 😎 ) 

Thanks, I didnt know. I am newbie here 😗

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To chime in on your take on social media: Social Media is not really designed for keeping context / longer conversations any more - at least this feels as a trend as everything is focussing more on visuals and a shorter average consumption time (TikTok, Youtube Shorts, Stories, etc.). I'd say it is a competition with the attention span of the audience. ;) 

Shorter average consumption time, you mean per visit? I think companies want that users spend all of their time with their services or channels :)

Per piece of content consumed. 🙂 Of course the goal is to have them on your platform as long as possible, this is achieved by shortening clips (or the time to spend per post to get a positive experience) because a user can e.g. enjoy 15 funny moments in 2 minutes instead of 5. Reading longer threads is not something that is in line with this trend, hence making a large amount of comments readable is not a priority for providers. Just look at Instagram or Facebook comments, they are usually relatively “flat”. There are a few comments that get a lot of replies, but usually nobody is replying to those replies.

Another reason why I think communities and social media can co-exist perfectly, as you can direct questions or further discussions to the community.

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Reading longer threads is not something that is in line with this trend, hence making a large amount of comments readable is not a priority for providers. Just look at Instagram or Facebook comments, they are usually relatively “flat”. There are a few comments that get a lot of replies, but usually nobody is replying to those replies.

Yeah, I think that is the commenting culture what occurs mostly in other social channels. Actual discussions takes place in online communities. Discussions what takes days, weeks and even years. Just like you said:

Another reason why I think communities and social media can co-exist perfectly, as you can direct questions or further discussions to the community.

 

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Btw just noticed and appreciated that you did not start it as a question, but as a discussion. 😉 This is not something that could be marked as answered, unless a behavioural Scientist is among us to share their research paper about just that. :P 

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Yeah mate, there are times when I would like to discuss :) 

Hi All!

Just to confirm, if I use the Quote feature, will it post my reply at the bottom of ALL comments in the thread? Or will it be posted directly below the comment I am quoting? 

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Hi All!

Just to confirm, if I use the Quote feature, will it post my reply at the bottom of ALL comments in the thread? Or will it be posted directly below the comment I am quoting? 

It will behave like this - bottom of all comments.

And this is how like it. Khoros platform have option to use threading, like Facebook does. Horrible I have to say. Because it makes difficult to follow the topic, you have to scroll up and down, all the time, to find the new comments.

Thank you for the clarification @revote !! 

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