Brer Ardith Hinton wrote to Brer Roy Witt about 3xHa!:

 AH> Hi, Roy!  Recently you wrote in a message to alexander koryagin:

 RW>>  in a written medium such as Fidonet, sometimes there is
 RW>>  no way to express the actual quotation since it is out
 RW>>  of mind,

 AH>           ... and/or the message you're referring to has scrolled
 AH> off.  :-)

If I have an idea that the message will expire while the thread continues,
I keep an echo with that person's name, where I can save any controverial
messages they write. Even then, if I think the message will become a point
of contention during that thread or the next, I do the same.

i.e. There are undistributed echoes in my AREAS.BBS file that have names
like Dossche, Felten and Vlist, to name just a few. Areas like this can be
edited into that file at any time. It is quite easy to open an additional
copy of GoldEd and copy those quotes to the clipboard.

 RW>>  thus I use the apostrophe to indicate a paraphrased version
 RW>>  of the actual wording used by the original writer or speaker.

 AH>           Yes, you can use quotation marks with a paraphrase...

I was speaking of apostrophies...which don't indicate that an actual
quotation has occcured.

 AH> if you make it quite clear you're paraphrasing!

The above has been my MO for as long as I have been in Fido. My English,
Special Edu wife tells me that it is exceptable to do. Not because she
noticed, but because I asked.

 AH> The problem is that zillions of readers from other countries may
 AH> interpret this apostrophe as a quotation mark because they are used
 AH> to single quotation marks.

And they're always in error.

 AH> In much the same way, you interpreted the single quotation mark as an
 AH> apostrophe because you're used to double quotation marks.

No, I only use "quotation" marks when I deem it appropriate. If I wanted
to point out to you something you said in the above line, I'd use 'single
quotation' marks, aka apostrephes. And if you look at your keyboard, both
the "quotation" mark and the 'apostrophe' are on the same key.

 AH>  Folks Over There don't use single quotation marks to indicate +/-
 AH> half of the material is in (e.g.) Ronald Reagan's words & the
 AH> remainder is in their own words... they use them as we use double
 AH> quotation marks & vice versa.  :-)

They also don't use decimals the same as we do. When they quote a Euro or
Dollar amount, they use a comma in place of a decimal point. i.e. $5,00 is
actually $5.00 in American decimal language. Not to mention that they
write dates backwards. 11-12-2013 is actually December 11, 2013 in Euro
speak, while it would be November 12, 2013 in American. They also don't
use the decimal equivalent of the same speak in English. i.e. $12 million
dollars is referred to as $12 milliard in Euro English. Then they brag
about being heads up 'metric' over us, who still use the King's English
measure as a rule, but are taught in two different systems, Metric and
English measure. Who has the upper hand, again?

 RW>>  Example:

 RW>>  Quote: President Ronald Reagan once said; "Man is not free
 RW>>  unless government is limited." - Ronald Reagan

 RW>>  Paraphrased: The same meaning can be understood using less
 RW>>  verbiage; 'Men are free when government is limited.'

 AH>           Or, alternatively:

 AH>            Ronald Reagan once said something like "[Blah blah]."
 AH>                                    ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^

That's certainly a good point that I'll keep in mind, but that's two extra
words I don't have to type when using 'Blah, blah.'...

 AH> The simple addition of two words indicates this version may not be
 AH> exact. And in a big, busy forum like the FIDONEWS echo such
 AH> precautions may also save you hours of arguing with people from Z2
 AH> who think you're misquoting them....  ;-)

But, but, I like to spend hours and hours arguing with people, especially
dumb Euros... 8^)


         R\%/itt - K5RXT

 Reminder: "On Friday September 8th 2006, Mike Godwin's 16 year experiment
 was concluded and Godwin's Law was officially repealed by a MAJORITY vote
 among millions of individuals." http://repealgodwin.tripod.com/

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 * Origin: Lone-Star BBS - San Antonio, Texas - USA (1:387/22)