Copying text from an article as FPP?

October 18, 2005 7:06 PM

Is it considered bad form to engage in Slashdot style summaries? [rant inside]
posted by sbutler to Etiquette/Policy at 7:06 PM (21 comments total)

halekon may have linked to an interesting article, but his post is horrible. He simply copied the introduction paragraphs of the Salon article into the summary box. Not only does this make for an ugly and large block of text, but it borders on plagiarism.

The submitter is just being lazy with his post. And it doesn't add any quality to what's essentially a single link, op-ed article. At least when y2karl does it he bothers to offset the quote and attribute properly.
posted by sbutler at 7:06 PM on October 18, 2005

I'm sorry, you'll have to wait until we're all through one post down castigating I Love Tacos for his pedantry involving concierges. You're next on the castigation list, if you don't mind waiting.
posted by yhbc at 7:44 PM on October 18, 2005

"This is what a quote should look like." Or this. Or even this. Not this.
posted by smackfu at 7:50 PM on October 18, 2005

what smackfu said, the linked post is disingenuous.
posted by moift at 7:58 PM on October 18, 2005

Submitter should have set off the quote somehow. But I can't see getting my pitchfork out of its custom, velvet-lined case for this.
posted by LarryC at 8:01 PM on October 18, 2005

Sorry, my torch is lacking kerosene tonight. Bad quotation form to be sure, but hardly worth getting bent over, unless it was your work that was not cited and quoted properly.
posted by caddis at 8:15 PM on October 18, 2005

this is odd. I mean, you're technically right, but if I had a brick for every metafilter post that quoted without indicating as such, I could have built a mansion by now.

I was considering taking acid today, but instead I'm just going to keep reading and re-reading today's callouts until they seem reasonable.
posted by shmegegge at 8:28 PM on October 18, 2005

Even if it wasn’t halekon’s intent to be lazy, the cut-and-paste method is sloppy. In seeking to induce thoughtful, original discussion, it’s better to summarise the link’s material in an insightful manner, rather than repost the material in a manner normally reserved for press releases.

This is part of the reason why matt’s declined to reward moderation “points” toward posters. The threads on MeFi would become a steeplechase, in which people would throw up whatever they could grab on short notice, for little reason other than gaining another “+5, Interesting” for the day. As part of the larger web, MeFi readers expect more from the front page than a photocopied article.
posted by Smart Dalek at 8:30 PM on October 18, 2005

halekon's just done what y2karl's been doing since day one. Why's one any better than the other?
posted by xmutex at 8:38 PM on October 18, 2005

y2karl puts his quotes in small text
posted by jessamyn at 8:46 PM on October 18, 2005

yes, but it took a 200+ post flame war for him to acknowledge that might be a polite thing to do.
posted by shmegegge at 8:57 PM on October 18, 2005

.sdrawkcab era setouq ym fo llA
posted by wakko at 10:17 PM on October 18, 2005

i put my insults in super small text. you guys all suck
posted by keswick at 11:17 PM on October 18, 2005

y2karl puts his quotes in small text

And I still kind of wish he didn't, though it doesn't really bother me that much either way. Makes everything he quoteposts unreadable at the font size I've got set for 'small' in my preferences, with the resolutions I use on my work and home monitors. Short sections of text (insults, asides, teh hum0r) are fine, but multiparagraphers, no so much.

No biggie, but I do hope that it doesn't become more common.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:50 PM on October 18, 2005

I still don't understand why people don't properly use block quotes for long passages.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:58 AM on October 19, 2005

I still don't understand why people don't use vi. It's a strange world.

:wq
posted by cortex at 7:59 AM on October 19, 2005

I'm sorry, you'll have to wait until we're all through one post down castigating I Love Tacos for his pedantry involving concierges. You're next on the castigation list, if you don't mind waiting.

~mumbling softly to herself and sharpening her knives as she waits patiently in line~

Oh dear. I do hope I chose the right line. Is this the line for flaying of gustatorially-hip name-droppers? I do want to be in the right line because I don't like castigating people. It is a very messy procedure and you get little bits all over your nice clothes. Flaying, now. That's good clean fun. A bit of arterial spray never hurt anybody.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 8:33 AM on October 19, 2005

I still don't understand why people don't properly use block quotes for long passages.

In Firefox, when I try to use block quotes, I get a lot of extra space before and after the quote.

Detailed analysis from some smart person, as a blockquote.

And so I tend to use y2karl's convention instead. Sorry, stavros.
Detailed analysis from some smart person, using small text.
posted by russilwvong at 11:10 AM on October 19, 2005

Good callout. And, what stavros said.
posted by nthdegx at 11:21 AM on October 19, 2005

russilwvong: Matt's comment code inserts line breaks around certain tags, including the blockquote tag. As a result, you need to start your blockquote on the same line as the paragraph preceding it. Like so:

Dolore luptatum ut quis consequat in autem nisl ullamcorper. Delenit, autem aliquam. At consequat vero dolor esse consequat minim tation vel sed. Nonummy ut suscipit amet consectetuer eros, ad, autem veniam hendrerit, laoreet te veniam suscipit iriure consequat. Eum commodo aliquip sed diam enim accumsan iriure tation velit dolore facilisi tation ut hendrerit eu. Illum nulla dolore, euismod velit, quis dignissim veniam, blandit nibh facilisis vero blandit commodo exerci magna vel. Dolore facilisi consequat vel odio praesent exerci augue ut duis accumsan augue nulla. Vulputate ut ut quis ad eu ut praesent molestie lobortis te aliquam iriure dignissim. Illum dolor aliquip vero magna odio accumsan ea ea augue dolore, delenit. Nostrud nulla, hendrerit exerci nulla adipiscing dolore.

And line spacing appears as normal.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:24 PM on October 19, 2005

Thanks, monju!
posted by russilwvong at 1:29 PM on October 19, 2005