# Indicate which post # is being quoted?



## Reina de la Aldea

Hello.

I'd like to offer the suggestion of including the post # being quoted within another post, in addition to the name of the poster.  It would help me greatly to be able to glance back at the post being quoted, especially in long threads, and the post # will take you right there

Thank you for considering this


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## swift

Each quote enables you to go directly to the quoted post by clicking on the arrow next to “said:”.


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## Reina de la Aldea

Brilliant!  Such a simple trick.  Thank you, @swift!


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## wildan1

Reina de la Aldea said:


> I'd like to offer the suggestion of including the post # being quoted within another post, in addition to the name of the poster.


Please, no.

One of the behind-the-scenes functions of our Forum's moderators is that we consolidate, combine and generally clean up threads to make them clearer, more concise and/or comprehensive. This goes on when we have the available time--not on a predictable schedule.

To do so, your contribution may end up combined with a similar thread somewhere else, but the numbering in the new version will be applied by the Forum's software to reflect the new order in which it appears. So then the reference number you gave no longer is correct.

It is far better just to quote the post (or relevant part of it), using the software's quote function.

(However, if you are quoting the post directly above, no need to do so in most cases, unless you are just citing a specific part of a post). That preceding post is generally visible to the reader along with your new post.

wildan1, Moderator


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## Reina de la Aldea

Thank you, thank you wildan1!  Thanks to you and swift, I understand much better now  Not only should the number not be indicated in the quote (as swift pointed out to me, one has only to click on the arrow next to the name), I should also avoid mentioning a post # within my post, as it's number may change sometime in the future.  I'm afraid I'm amply guilty of having done that on numerous occasions 

It was very generous of you to answer my suggestion at length 

Paula


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## elroy

Reina de la Aldea said:


> I should also avoid mentioning a post # within my post, as it's number may change sometime in the future. I'm afraid I'm amply guilty of having done that on numerous occasions


 Many, many people do that.  It's a pet-peeve of mine.  

(Admittedly, the alternative, copying and pasting the link to the post, is more inconvenient.)


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## Reina de la Aldea

elroy said:


> (Admittedly, the alternative, copying and pasting the link to the post, is more inconvenient.)


Wow!  I never new that was possible.  I had to Google how to find the link to a post in WR to find out how.  _Thank you_, Elias.  I don't mind a little inconvenience

I should contribute more often to this forum.  You all have been so helpful.  Thanks a bunch!!

Paula


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## elroy

Reina de la Aldea said:


> I had to Google how to find the link to a post in WR to find out how.


 There are two ways.  Pick the one that's more convenient / less inconvenient (or flip a coin).

1.) Go to the top right-hand corner of the post and hover over, or click, the thingamabob with three circles and two lines connecting them, and in the popup window that comes up, click the two-pieces-of-paper icon in the bottom left-hand corner.  This copies the link to the post, which you can now paste wherever you'd like.

2.) Click the post number in the right-hand corner of the post, and copy the URL that is generated in your browser's address bar.  This is the link to the post, which you can now paste wherever you'd like.

Here's what I do:

In this post, @wildan1 discourages the practice I have identified as one of my pet-peeves.​
Here's what many people do, and what I don't do:

In #4, @wildan1 discourages the practice I have identified as one of my pet-peeves.​


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## Reina de la Aldea

There are even more ways.  The answer I got from Googling was to right click the number of the post, which gives a copy option.  Surprisingly, the text of the post includes the number of another post in a different thread with the wrong link to that post. The person should have taken their own good advice


elroy said:


> Here's what I do:
> 
> In this post, @wildan1 discourages the practice I have identified as one of my pet-peeves.


From now on, I'm on board with this method

Thanks again, my fellow night owl 

Paula


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## Reina de la Aldea

I'm pleased as punch:  I just used @elroy's technique to refer to a post in a thread I'm participating in.

Ah, life's simple pleasures


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## swift

My favorite method is the BB code →[post=19403625]BB code[/post] trick. It also works for threads → [thread=212075]threads[/thread]!


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## Reina de la Aldea

swift said:


> My favorite method is the BB code →[post=19403625]BB code[/post] trick. It also works for threads → [thread=212075]threads[/thread]!


I don't understand.  Could you be more detailed?  Thanks, swift


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## swift

Each post/thread has a unique code/number that can be used to create hyperlinks using the BB codes [post=1234567]keyword[/post] and [thread=1234567]another keyword[/thread].


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## Peterdg

swift said:


> Each post/thread has a unique code/number that can be used to create hyperlinks using the BB codes [post=1234567]keyword[/post] and [thread=1234567]another keyword[/thread].


I'm afraid this would still be too cryptical for the average user. I had to hit reply on your first post to understand what you were talking about. The method you are mentioning isn't even documented in the BB-code section of the "Rules/Help/FAQ" paragraph.


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## Reina de la Aldea

swift said:


> Each post/thread has a unique code/number that can be used to create hyperlinks using the BB codes [post=1234567]keyword[/post] and [thread=1234567]another keyword[/thread].


How does one locate the post/thread BB-code?


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## jann

Reina de la Aldea said:


> How does one locate the post/thread BB-code?


 A postid or a threadid is just a unique identifying number.  It's not actually BB code.  BB code is the syntax described on the help page in Peterdg's link; it allows you to use various tags in square brackets to apply formatting, insert clickable links, etc. in your posts. Though very long, the help page is not an exhaustive list of all BB code options enabled on WordReference.

The threadid is the number in the URL after the title of the thread. For example, the id of this thread is 3799306 -- visible directly in the URL bar and highlighted in green below:

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/indicate-which-post-is-being-quoted.3799306/​
Please note that linking to a threadid is undesirable for the same reason that referring to a specific post number is problematic:  when moderators merge two threads without a permanent redirect (a common and beneficial clean-up operation: it serves to remove duplicate entries from dictionary thread title lists!) then one of the two thread ids no longer exists.  Likewise, if moderators remove a thread from view, links to the threadid won't work. Moderators try to check for and fix any broken links they may create during merge & clean-up operations, but mistakes happen. 

Once you have the URL for a for a specific post -- which you get using any of the methods discussed previously -- the postid is similarly visible, highlighted in orange:

Right-click the arrow next to "said:" and copy the link location. The format will look like this:
https://forum.wordreference.com/goto/post?id=19418199​
Use the sharing icon per Elroy's method 1 or right-click the post # per Elroy's method 2 and copy the link location. The format will look like this:
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/indicate-which-post-is-being-quoted.3799306/post-19418199​
Linking to a specific post will work even if the thread containing that post is merged into another discussion (provided the discussion isn't hidden from view).  However, if the post itself is deleted or merged in a clean-up, the link to the postid will break.  Hint: if a member posts 2x consecutively in the same thread, don't link to the second postid since it's a prime candidate for clean-up!


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