Stop the "Quoted for Emphasis" spam

[iamaelephant]

This is a plead to mods to warn people about "quoting for emphasis." You know, where someone thinks someone else has a valid point, so they just quote the guy, type "quoted for emphasis," then add nothing to the discussion. This is just flat out spam, and something need to be done about it. People do this for the sole purpose of boosting post count. Can we have posts like this deleted, or at the very least the culprits PM'd with a warning?

Cheers.

 

[DoctorGordon]

I dont really care, but would you rather they do "quoted for emphasis", or just reworded the same concept?

Either way, its just another post...who cares?

 

[iamaelephant]

From the forum rules:

"Spam and Advertising

Purposely spamming the Halflife2.net forums with senseless, vacuous, or empty messages to gain a higher post count, or just to annoy others is highly frowned upon! Commercial spamming and advertising is just as unwelcome."

 

[Wraith]

This is a plead to mods to warn people about "quoting for emphasis." You know, where someone thinks someone else has a valid point, so they just quote the guy, type "quoted for emphasis," then add nothing to the discussion. This is just flat out spam, and something need to be done about it. People do this for the sole purpose of boosting post count. Can we have posts like this deleted, or at the very least the culprits PM'd with a warning?

Cheers.

Quoted for emphasis

 

[SpuD]

Some points need to be brought up, that would include quotes.
If you think anything is spam, report it, but MAKE SURE to say what post you think is spam.

 

[iamaelephant]

Oh, I thought the report would direct you straight to the offending post. I'll make my (numerous) reports more clear from now on.

 

[Shuzer]

How is QFE spam? Let's say there's a thread, "What game is best?"

Someone says "Half-Life!" That's it. Another person quotes it, and says, well, QFE.

How is this any different than the person reiterating "Half-Life?"

 

[iamaelephant]

Well logic tells me that thread would be a poll, in which case there is no need for fifty people to say the same thing. Discussion can, in fact, develop from threads like those.

Edit: And for Christs sake why must people on the internet abbreviate everything they say. It's just plain lazy. Is it really that much more difficult to say "Quoted for Emphasis," rather than QFE?

 

[Shuzer]

It is when you're typing with one hand, which I was doing at that moment

 

[Wraith]

It is when you're typing with one hand, which I was doing at that moment

............

 

[Shuzer]

............

Get your mind out of the gutter.. I wouldn't be posting at HL2.net while doing that

 

[Chris D]

We're not at this time changing the rules on QFE. We haven't seen it being mis-used. If it does get mis-used then please do so report the post. Rather than pointing us to the correct post, point us to what in the post you think is spam and then we'll consider action.

This thread was already being discussed here.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

hmm.. i have seen it being used very effectively in a large thread where a key point gets lost in the shuffle of spam or in the shuffle of many lesser points.
so some times its important to have the "quoted for emphasis" because it helps bring the focus back to key issues/situations.

 

[The Dark Elf]

If someone is running around using QFE without any point of their own, you could consider it spamming.. If they QFE and then add their own views/points. It's just a normal post.

If they do it a lot however, its probably spamming.

 

[CrazyHarij]

It's pretty annoying seeing people doing this:
-----------

Random quote thingie

i agree
--------------

I mean, if they need to point out they're supporting someone elses view , they might aswell point out why they're doing it and their own personal opinions..

 

[The Dark Elf]

It's pretty annoying seeing people doing this:
-----------


i agree
--------------

I mean, if they need to point out they're supporting someone elses view , they might aswell point out why they're doing it and their own personal opinions..

Quoted for Emphasis


agreed, something like that is just spam. But when they then go onto say something themselves, having their own point of view instead of being a sheep. It's fine and we won't get annoyed with that. Unless they just add a lot of random chuntering to try get around it. Since we'd probably spot that anyway

 

[Phisionary]

hmm.. i have seen it being used very effectively in a large thread where a key point gets lost in the shuffle of spam or in the shuffle of many lesser points.
so some times its important to have the "quoted for emphasis" because it helps bring the focus back to key issues/situations.

QFE

Edit: And for Christs sake why must people on the internet abbreviate everything they say. It's just plain lazy. Is it really that much more difficult to say "Quoted for Emphasis," rather than QFE?

chill out, mate.

If they do it a lot however, its probably spamming.

Okay. I've never done it before. This really isn't spam barely...

But I think if someone is on a thread and expends their time and effort to put forth a detailed and well reasoned argument, or something that's very effective saying what needs to be said, someone who supports what was said should not have to write it all over just to voice their support...

besides, it's infinitely better than an un-quoted 'i agree' popping up in the middle of a discussion.
although if someone puts out a six paragraph quote, i think it should be edited down to relevant sections only, instead of just putting the whole thing down again. I see that quite a bit.
If the original poster feels that it's out of context they can say so, and it would reduce the amount of scrolling neccisary.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

QFE

not to single u out personally but i think more than anything the short-forms are the most annoying.
i mean if u agree with someone, at least spell it all out instead of being a lazy ass.. whats the point of posting if its all short-formed?

theres already way too many short-forms in the intra-web lingo or whatever u call it... but please, don't be changing the whole english language with short-form after short-form.. its dumbs down the forums and i think thats a bad thing.

 

[Phisionary]

not to single u out personally but i think more than anything the short-forms are the most annoying.
i mean if u agree with someone, at least spell it all out instead of being a lazy ass.. whats the point of posting if its all short-formed?

theres already way too many short-forms in the intra-web lingo or whatever u call it... but please, don't be changing the whole english language with short-form after short-form.. its dumbs down the forums and i think thats a bad thing.

I disagree, partly. I have problems with abbreviations and 'short-forms' at the point at which it makes the discussion difficult to follow. I read 'QFE' and can easily substitute 'quoted for emphasis.' I hardly notice it. if the general audiance understands it, there is no good reason not to, I think. Many constructs of language are intended only for readability. Caps are useful to break up a paragraph and make it easier to read. ..or if you want to add Particular emphasis to a word. if it seems easy to read a sentance without em', why bother. I'm not saying that they're unnecisary in all situations, if I wrote a paper I'd use the best form I could, or if I was trying to make a reasoned argument or was submitting a large post that would be negatively impacted by a lack of proper formatting...
as to how it 'dumbs down' the forums, well, some people might make that assumption. but I don't care what they think, for the most part. If I feel I can be understood, that's enough.
actually, the biggest reason I find to use good form is people tend to make judgements about your education, intelligence, and use it as a distraction from the issue itself... in which case I supppose it serves yourself to write as well as you can.
I personally used QFE for ironic effect. besides, it would be under the 10charlimit
this isn't meant as an argument or a contradiction, btw, just my view....

 

[iamaelephant]

I completely agree with Dr Freeman. The short hand is destroying the English language, as far as the internet goes.

 

[Logic]

not to single u out personally but i think more than anything the short-forms are the most annoying.
i mean if u agree with someone, at least spell it all out instead of being a lazy ass.. whats the point of posting if its all short-formed?

theres already way too many short-forms in the intra-web lingo or whatever u call it... but please, don't be changing the whole english language with short-form after short-form.. its dumbs down the forums and i think thats a bad thing.

Ironic, no?

In my view, quoting something for emphasis isn't spam. If someone wants to express utter agreement with something, they should be able to do so. Sometimes people find their own views posted by someone else better than they could have worded it.. what's wrong with pointing out that they share the same views? Of course, if someone's last 50 posts consists solely of quotes with QFE written beneath them, then obviously they are spamming to get their post count up.

Personally, I think post counts should be abolished all together. Spam of all types would cut down a LOT.

 

[Dr. Freeman]

Ironic, no?

In my view, quoting something for emphasis isn't spam. If someone wants to express utter agreement with something, they should be able to do so. Sometimes people find their own views posted by someone else better than they could have worded it.. what's wrong with pointing out that they share the same views? Of course, if someone's last 50 posts consists solely of quotes with QFE written beneath them, then obviously they are spamming to get their post count up.

Personally, I think post counts should be abolished all together. Spam of all types would cut down a LOT.

i think u and may be even Phisionary missed my point...
i don't have a problem with pple "quoting for emphasis" infact if u go read an earlier post of mine i agreed with the usage of that phrase...however...

my rant (if u thats what u wanna call it ) was about using the "QFE" short-form when posting...and perhaps its slightly off topic for me to bring up the butchering of the English language on the net but the fact is there are already enough short-forms for phrases and if we continue like this.. then one day we will be communicating in short-forms like "lolilleetkthxbye!" on a everyday basis

part of why pple post is to convey their thoughts and i think this internet-lingo dumbs it down.. why bother posting if its all in short-forms? :|

for the record: i still can't remember what AFAIK or whatever the hell the short-form for it is. :x

 

[Phisionary]

AFAIK

As Far As I Know

i think u and may be even Phisionary missed my point...
i don't have a problem with pple "quoting for emphasis" infact if u go read an earlier post of mine i agreed with the usage of that phrase...

I made mention of the 'quoted for emphasis' topic only to relate the 'short-form' discussion to the original subject, as an example.

my rant (if u thats what u wanna call it ) was about using the "QFE" short-form when posting...and perhaps its slightly off topic for me to bring up the butchering of the English language on the net but the fact is there are already enough short-forms for phrases and if we continue like this.. then one day we will be communicating in short-forms like "lolilleetkthxbye!" on a everyday basis

part of why pple post is to convey their thoughts and i think this internet-lingo dumbs it down.. why bother posting if its all in short-forms?

several points:

I think that use of QFE (in particular) is acceptable because it the phrase 'quoted for emphasis' is no longer has any meaning in the writing. It is a concept, an idea, and once we started talking about it, it was also the subject of discussion. I've seen many forms of writing that will substitute an oft-used but unwieldy phase similar to this with a nice clear acronym. If its meaning is known and accepted, it can make the material more readable, reducing the clutter of words... As an example, research papers routinely use acronyms in this way.

I'm not suggesting "QFE" was a necissary substitution here, but in a forum environment, it is often the goal of a poster to get out his ideas and views as quickly as possible, with the least amount of effort, so as to move on to spam-- er, contribute-- elsewhere.

part of why pple post is to convey their thoughts

Exactly. Speaking personally, my thoughts are very rarely in proper english form. I write out as little or as much as I need to to make myself understood. In this place, informality and hmm, 'letter-efficiency', in one's writing style is more than accepted; it's common-place. I'm not saying thats a good or bad thing.

...short-forms like "lolilleetkthxbye!" on a everyday basis...

Yes, that would be ridiculous. Something like that may have it's uses (specifically in ridiculing people who do write like that), but if used all the time would be illegible. But... language evolves. In a few decades maybe that will be the norm for online communication. Who knows. Not to say we should accelerate the process, but the utility of language is all in it's usefullness to the users of that language. If it works, and they can accept not being understood by anyone outside the group, fine. English in it's proper form still be what's taught in schools, but if some people wants to 'short-form' everything, fine. They'll endlessly annoy everyone who hasn't gotten used to it, of course...

As an aside: Since this is a forum of gamers, a large number of whom participated in multi-player gaming, there is some background for 'short-form' an a neccisity, no less. I was many times affected by the particularly galling doom of 'death-by-typing'. As such, I adopted many of the phrases of this nature. gg, vgg, np, ppl, lol, rofl, ty (or thx), FU, wtf, stfu, and many others which I can't recall at the moment. When you are used to writing like that, it comes naturally.​

Lastly, as Logic pointed out, there's some irony in how you present you argument for abondoning short form...
From your posts:
Usages of u in place of you : seven
Usages of pple in place of people : two
Number of key-presses saved by these short-hand forms? : 18

Just kind of funny.

I seriously have too much time on my hands. This topic was not worth a full page, really.