[HPFGU-Feedback] Re: An Elfly Reminder

[Jordan Abel]

> bboyminn:
>
> That looks good on paper (or on electrons), but in a sense
> you cheated (in a vague metaphorical sense) by indentifing
> the person in their fake post 'Whatever /B/ said', but let's
> try it for real.
> . . . . . . . . . . . .

(example snipped, it was an incorrect interpretation)

Random832:
This is not how it would appear in an actual "standard" post.

What you would see would be this:

Begin sample message
----------------------
Subject: Re:
From: Abraham Lincoln
----------------------
Benjamin Franklin wrote:
> Thomas Jefferson wrote:
> > It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience
> > for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of
> > others: or their case may, by change of circumstances,
> > become his own.
>
> Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase
> a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
> safety.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected?
I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us.
It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we
must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of
freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

-- 
Abe
----------------------
End sample message

Random832:
You may think it's counterintuitive. and maybe it is. But it's
systematic and has been thus for decades.

> So, who does the middle quote belong to? It belongs to
> Ben Franklin.

You _left out_ the attribution for the middle quote. I did _NOT_
advocate leaving out any attribution. In the standard system, _each_
attribution line applies to all text following at exactly one
quotation level below the level of the attribution itself, until (in
the rare case of a combined response), another attribution line at the
same quotation level supersedes it.

> The reason for the signature is to say that this is
> definitively the end of my post. I didn't just
> accidently hit Send,

What if you accidentally hit send and there _was_ a signature?

[...]
> As I said before, if I were to reply to that sample post,
> I would probably cut off your signature as you did the
> signatures of Tom and Ben. In that case we would have...

[snipped]

No, that is NOT what we would have. You're butchering the standard.
And before you say your inability to follow it is evidence that it is
confusing, keep in mind that the attribution line that you're leaving
out is the one that (you in the role of abraham lincoln) your email
client inserted for you when you hit "reply".