If I use the
reply with quote button, and do not alter anything between the left square bracket preceding the Q at the beginning of your quoted post HTML, and the right square bracket following the E, my text would be linked to yours, so if you edited your post after the fact, it would alter the quoted section of my post.
If the semi colon and the thread tag number, (the excerpt I'm quoting now is numbered 600148), were removed, that link would be broken. The link would also be broken, if the 'quote' and 'unquote' HTML tags were manually inserted, with selected text from a previous post pasted between them.
You can tell the difference by whether or not a mini avatar is displayed after the handle of the person who has been quoted. The blue
left double quotes are created by the HTML tags, as is the balloon frame.
If you click on the mini avatar, you'll go to the page where the quote originated, so that serves no purpose if the post being quoted is on the same page, provided that the original post and the quoted post
remain on the same page, as posts that may potentially be deleted in the future can change the page numbers of posts in the present sequence.
If the semi colon and tag number are not present, the quote balloon looks different, because it's all just text in a quote balloon.
Compare the two displays:
I'm a moderator on another board, so I would know something like that.
The purpose of this is to prevent someone from defaming another forum member, by typing
handlename said:
, typing anything they want to, and closing the quote tag, to intentionally mislead the reader into thinking that the person quoted actually posted the text marked as having been quoted. That would be potentially libelous, in the eyes or moderators, where malicious intent is perceived. It's generally permitted, when exercised with some discretion, in a playful way, as with a
Fixed your post post of some sort.
Fixing a post made by
IfYouSeekAmy, however, as an hypothetical example, might be deemed to have malicious intent, because she has posted publicly that she finds that behavior to be personally offensive to her.
If, hypothetically, she quoted her own post, and that of a post in which such a violation occurred, and contacted a moderator privately, the possibility would exist that disciplinary measures could be exercised. The principle of
Ignorantia juris non excusat, ("ignorance of the law does not excuse", in Latin), could be deemed applicable.
The practice of 'Fixing posts' is generally permitted, (but frowned upon), unless a documented complaint is made, by an individual who has previously stated objection to such actions. That's how we would do it, anyway, on the one I moderate, (not just me moderating; I'm one of 45, and some pop in only every couple of years).
We don't get that sort of thing much. 'Fixed your post' is more of a low brow forum amusement.
I believe I have just dis-proven the old adage
You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Go ahead and delete the previous post and prove you are right