Something I find rude - Quoting bits of a post arguing each bit individually

[Pinko]

Am I the only person annoyed when they see someone write a rant that is several paragraphs long, only to have others dissect each of them by quoting specific parts of the post and commenting them? I personally believe a post should be considered in its entirety, since it was posted as one entity. Doing otherwise is somewhat humiliating, condescending and denatures the spirit of a post, in my personal opinion.

To give an example:

Am I the only person annoyed when they see someone write a rant that is several paragraphs long, only to have others dissect each of them by quoting specific parts of the post and commenting them?

When people post like this.

I personally believe a post should be considered in its entirety, since it was posted as one entity.

Then that.

Doing otherwise is somewhat humiliating, condescending and denatures the spirit of a post, in my personal opinion.

Doesn't the whole post sound different, this way?

[Sol]

Yeah, you are right. And in some forums this kind of thing is forbidden.

[sindroms]

I honestly do not see the problem why this is a bad thing, since most people do not bother with paragraphs or punctuation. You really have no other way to reply to someone without having to dissect the wall of text into more manageable parts.

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[Lythrilux]

I understand where you're coming from, but it can allow people to easily get to the point about what they're talking about.

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[Luke.]

It encourages discussion but by doing that the defendants point can be taken horribly out of context which is a bit silly.

There's no way round it though, really.

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[Echo 7-7]

I don't have an issue with it, particularly when segments of the post being examined are quite distinct entities. This is appropriate as long as the quotes are not decontextualised.

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There was a sig here, once.

[lIceColon]

I don't have an issue with it, particularly when segments of the post being examined are quite distinct entities. This is appropriate as long as the quotes are not decontextualised.

You really have no other way to reply to someone without having to dissect the wall of text into more manageable parts.

I agree. If I were to ever get into an argument I'd much rather quote than say "You said that..."

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No atmosphere? GTFO.
The propeller is the greatest invention of all time.

[Thyrzul]

One post may be one entity, but it can easily address several points in a discussion and I personally find addressing each point of the poster individually a valid way to reply as long as the replier does not take anything out of context, which in my opinion is another topic.

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[Jihadjoe]

Doesn't the whole post sound different, this way?

Not really. A single post, particularly a long post, may contain many points which can be argued seperately. Often it is necessary for the sake of clarity.

I couldn't really care less how people quote my posts in order to respond to them... The only thing I give a damn about is the content of their reply.

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[Champ]

I'd echo the sentiments of particularly sindroms, Echo and Joe.

If somebody has written a huge wall of text and not well formatted it (separating their points between paragraphs as I try to do) then I will take sentences or bits and pieces and reply to them. I am not only reading the sentence, I've read the context but am responding especially to whatever was posited in that sentence / paragraph.

Decontextualising is definitely where you should be careful to use this, but I think it's rare that that would happen unless the initial post really is wildly disorganised or you're very intentionally quoting something completely unrepresentative.

And absolutely on Joe's point, I don't care how they organise their reply, I care about whether it's a well put and accurate reply or not. If they've misinterpreted my first argument because of how they quoted something, that's their own fault and I'll tell them to try again.

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