Psience Quest

Full Version: Should we stop italicising quotes?
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There's been a suggestion that we stop italicising quotes. Some proposed reasons for this include:
  • Italics are more tiring to read.
  • The different background colour of quotes is enough to distinguish them from unquoted text anyway.
  • The blanket italicisation of quotes obscures existing italics in the quoted text.
Thoughts and opinions?

Chris

(2018-01-19, 07:29 AM)Laird Wrote: [ -> ]There's been a suggestion that we stop italicising quotes. Some proposed reasons for this include:
  • Italics are more tiring to read.
  • The different background colour of quotes is enough to distinguish them from unquoted text anyway.
  • The blanket italicisation of quotes obscures existing italics in the quoted text.
Thoughts and opinions?

Yes for me, because of point number 3.
I suppose point 3 might have some logic to it. Personally, I think banning italics for quotes would be OTT though.
yes - point 3
About point 3... Usually software recognizes the italics that were originally in the quotes and converts them to plain text, doesn't this forum script do as well?

Chris

(2018-01-19, 01:53 PM)tim Wrote: [ -> ]I suppose point 3 might have some logic to it. Personally, I think banning italics for quotes would be OTT though.

This is what it looks like when one quotes a message with one sentence in italics and another not in italics.

The ideal solution would be to allow the replier to decide which part of the quotation should be italicised. But the software industry being authoritarian rather than liberal at heart, I don't suppose that option is on offer.
I voted No because Linda voted Yes.

Chris

(2018-01-19, 06:37 PM)Pssst Wrote: [ -> ]I voted No because Linda voted Yes.

[Image: psht.jpg]
(2018-01-19, 04:51 PM)E. Flowers Wrote: [ -> ]About point 3... Usually software recognizes the italics that were originally in the quotes and converts them to plain text, doesn't this forum script do as well?

Unfortunately not. In fact, the styling of quotes was something we added manually using CSS - we simply (to some extent) copied the Skeptiko forum's quote style so that it was familiar to the majority of members who had come from that forum.
Well... That sucks. I don't really oppose removing the italics, it just seemed like a bit of an overreaction if the change was automatic.
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