Adding attribution to quotations

February 13, 2002 3:07 AM

In my dotage, I sometimes find it difficult to identify italicized quotes in longish threads, specially when they're short and there are a lot of comments between the excerpted comment and the rejoinder. So I do a lot of scrolling up and down looking for the original comment. Would it be too much, just for time-saving purposes, to ask ourselves to add a quick attribution to our quotations, when they're difficult to locate?[ Here's an example from the Pazz and Jop thread, where eyeballkid's recent excerpt of a post by almostcool was not easy to find.]
posted by MiguelCardoso to MetaFilter-related at 3:07 AM (14 comments total)

I don't know how potentially difficult this would be to implement, but here's my idea in this regard:

Below each comment there could be a "copy selected text with citation" button. One would select comment text and then click on the button, which would copy that text, put italics around it, and add a link to it with the author's name as the text. I can't think of a way to do it in HTML (my skills are not 1337, as they say), but in Java I think one could copy the text that the user has selected to a variable and work it from there. So you'd end up with:

cited text, that's what I am [from: so'n'so]

Pony up!
posted by j.edwards at 3:37 AM on February 13, 2002

I think you mean almostcool's exerpt from a previous eyeballkid post. (Ah seniors. If they're not having primary senior moments, they're having secondary senior moments trying to describe their primary senior moments.)

Anyway, I think I agree with you, Miguel. Unless the quoter post is within pixel-drip distance from the quotee post, I think attribution is helpful.
posted by Opus Dark at 3:41 AM on February 13, 2002

::..Excerpt..:: [Spelling violation.]
posted by Opus Dark at 3:46 AM on February 13, 2002

It's really not hard to just type <a href="#26025">j.edwards</a> or whatever.
posted by nicwolff at 5:44 AM on February 13, 2002

Opus Dark, although(this gets better and better...)almost cool first quoted eyeballkid it was early in the thread and very near eyeballkid's original comment. The quotation I found difficult to find was eyeballkid's quote from the same comment by almostcool, namely:

Actually, statements like this are for those who haven't tried to dig past the piles of mediocre music. It's not that hard, though. This year was probably one of the best in terms of new music that I heard in a long time. I won't subject everyone to a "your music sucks, my music rocks" rant, but I'll just say that 2001 was chock-full of good stuff. If you don't think so, it's your own damn fault.

Much further down in the thread. eyeballkid quoted the line "I won't subject everyone to a 'your music sucks, my music rocks' rant" and added "You just did". This was the one I found difficult to find. Oh, you disrespectful youngsters! ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:44 AM on February 13, 2002

italics after "your damn fault". What a train wreck - and a model of the correct quotation method, eh?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:58 AM on February 13, 2002

Looking back at the thread, I realize that I was initiating a conversation with almostcool and neglected to consider the readability of each post. If you just filtered out our comments, it would run more like an answer/reply email. My bad. I probably could have been clearer. (Not to mention that fact that this morning I added another one before coming here to MetaTalk.) I didn't mean to make you run around in circles Miguel.

As for the quote attribution system, it's a good idea, but it kind of breaks up the simplicity that is the MeFi/Ta submission method.
posted by eyeballkid at 8:35 AM on February 13, 2002

Eyeballkid: I wasn't singling you out. it was only the most recent example at hand. Almost all the threads on MetaFilter have at least one italicized quotation which takes a while to find. I'm always doing it too. My suspicion is that it's just "copy and paste" laziness. It's also confusing if - as sometimes happens - you can't be bothered to look for the original comment.

Nicwolff's solution seems perfect. But can't one do it with the "link" button?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:58 AM on February 13, 2002

j.edwards said: One would select comment text and then click on the button, which would copy that text, put italics around it, and add a link to it with the author's name as the text.

A while ago, I created some bookmarklets that do something similar to the first half of the above statement. I've updated them in accordance with j.edwards suggestions. In fact, I used the latest version of these bookmarklets to cite j.edwards in this comment.
posted by iceberg273 at 9:36 AM on February 13, 2002

In fact, I used the latest version of these bookmarklets to cite j.edwards in this comment.

But, of course, I neglected to note that MeTa pages include a base URL. Thus merely including <a href="#26038"> will not work. Instead, the URL needs to be <a href="mefi/1810#26038"> .

*quickly fixes bookmarklet and instructions*


posted by iceberg273 at 10:00 AM on February 13, 2002

Iceberg273, that's awesome. And I'd like for it to be on record this is the first time I've found it necessary to use this word, as none else would do your bookmarklets justice.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:00 AM on February 13, 2002

Iceberg, you are a clever clever man. I wonder if a bookmarklet could take the whole comment in document.selection, walk document.links for the thread and comment numbers, and insert the whole comment in italics with linked attribution without having to open any dialogs? That'd be neat.
posted by nicwolff at 11:18 AM on February 13, 2002

Oops. Sorry Miguel. No excuse for insufficient research, especially when masturbating a peripheral light-hearted roast. My mortifying bad. AND a misspelt word...followed by your unclosed italic...like we're doing prop comedy using MeTa as the prop...

Seems like proof everlasting that attribution is often a good thing. Tagging to the anchor is overkill, I think, and even attribution is unnecessary in many cases - often, especially when discussion distills to dialog (a common phenomenon here) attribution becomes a distracting speed bump. I attribute when my MetaMan sense tingles in warning. We should all attribute when our MetaMan senses tingle in warning. We should all have MetaMan senses. Mine is tingling now. Off to save the world...
posted by Opus Dark at 1:28 PM on February 13, 2002

srboisvert said: {savg*pncl} said: Should be the opposite...

The system works! Icy rocks, as well.
posted by j.edwards at 8:29 PM on February 13, 2002