including quotes

[squeakers]

What I can't understand is why some people seem to think they need to include the entire OP in a quote when they post a response.  It just takes up space needlessly, as if you're responding in the thread, it's obvious what you're responding to.

That's something my mother would do, and she does it because she's not really all that technically proficient. I've seen other posters here mention that they don't know how to trim the text within the quotes.

I think in some cases people are confusing the "Quote" button with the "Reply" button. 

I think it depends on how many responses there are in between the OP and person quoting the OP.  If basically everyone between has been responding to the OP then no need to quote them.  But if the posters in between have went off on a tangent, the responder might be trying to show they are responding to the OP and not the new tangent.

Another thing tangentially related, the posts you see when you respond to a new post might not be the same ones another person might see.  It depends upon how often your ISP pulls in new info. So 1 person see 3 posts, another sees 5 and some poor person only sees the OP cos they have a less than worthy ISP      I try hard to remember that tidbit when I see 6 responses saying basically the same thing at the start of a new thread 

[Paper Roses]

I was referring to something I've seen several times, which is the very first reply in a thread containing the entire OP in a quote, with a 1- or 2- line response.  I think in those cases, people are hitting "quote" instead of "reply."

[sparksals]

One thing I noticed while using my blackberry is when people post the stories from the ehell site and then make comments within the story, usually in a different colour within the paragraphs rather than at the end of the story.  I have always found that distracting and confusing on the computer, but it is downright impossible to understand on a mobile device b/c we cannot see any formatting and thus cannot discern what is part of the original post and what is added in by the poster commenting within the story. 

It would be most helpful to leave comments to the bottom of the story rather than within it b/c those of us on mobile devices cannot see the formatting attempts, it just makes the story more confusing and impossible to understand. 

[MDefarge]

One thing I noticed while using my blackberry is when people post the stories from the ehell site and then make comments within the story, usually in a different colour within the paragraphs rather than at the end of the story.  I have always found that distracting and confusing on the computer, but it is downright impossible to understand on a mobile device b/c we cannot see any formatting and thus cannot discern what is part of the original post and what is added in by the poster commenting within the story. 

It would be most helpful to leave comments to the bottom of the story rather than within it b/c those of us on mobile devices cannot see the formatting attempts, it just makes the story more confusing and impossible to understand. 

Definitely - I just got a 3G phone and it is really hard to tell the difference between different posts, as well as everything else you mentioned.