How To Use [EX] and [ARTICLE] tags for quoting external content

[Mick West]

When quoting content from an external source use the [EX] tags. Examples

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johnavlon416087.html
[EX]A wingnut is someone on the far-right wing or far-left wing of the political spectrum - the professional partisans, the unhinged activists and the paranoid conspiracy theorists. They're the people who always try to divide rather than unite us.[/EX]

becomes
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johnavlon416087.html

A wingnut is someone on the far-right wing or far-left wing of the political spectrum - the professional partisans, the unhinged activists and the paranoid conspiracy theorists. They're the people who always try to divide rather than unite us.

You can also EX something by selecting the text, and then clicking on the "External Quote" button in the tool bar (next to the quote button)

You might find it easier to click the button first, and then immediately post in the text you copied (the cursor will be in the right place).

When you quote an external source, always add a link if one is available, like:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory

The chemtrail conspiracy theory posits that some trails left by aircraft are chemical orbiological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for purposes undisclosed to the general public in clandestine programs directed by various government officials.[1] This theory is not accepted by the scientific community, which states that they are just normalcontrails, as there is no scientific evidence supporting the chemtrail theory.

ARTICLE TAGS

The [article] format is a useful way of quoting a snippet from web page, and looks like this.

Article:

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. -- According to Fox 5, Fulton County has a delay with processing and counting tens of thousands of absentee ballots due to a pipe break in the State Farm Arena.

Source: https://wgxa.tv/news/beyond-the-podium/pipe-burst-at-state-farm-arena-causes-delay-in-absentee-vote-counts-in-fulton-county

To do this by hand you use code like:
[article=https://wgxa.tv/news/beyond-the-podium/pipe-burst-at-state-farm-arena-causes-delay-in-absentee-vote-counts-in-fulton-county]FULTON COUNTY, Ga. -- According to Fox 5, Fulton County has a delay with processing and counting tens of thousands of absentee ballots due to a pipe break in the State Farm Arena.[/article]

However an easier way is to add a bookmarklet to your browser, with the following code

javascript:(function() {

function copyToClipboard(text) {
    if (window.clipboardData && window.clipboardData.setData) {
        /*IE specific code path to prevent textarea being shown while dialog is visible.*/
        return clipboardData.setData("Text", text);

    } else if (document.queryCommandSupported && document.queryCommandSupported("copy")) {
        var textarea = document.createElement("textarea");
        textarea.textContent = text;
        textarea.style.position = "fixed";  /* Prevent scrolling to bottom of page in MS Edge.*/
        document.body.appendChild(textarea);
        textarea.select();
        try {
            return document.execCommand("copy");  /* Security exception may be thrown by some browsers.*/
        } catch (ex) {
            console.warn("Copy to clipboard failed.", ex);
            return false;
        } finally {
            document.body.removeChild(textarea);
        }
    }
}

var markdown = '[article=' + window.location.href + ']'+window.getSelection().toString()+'[/article]';
copyToClipboard(markdown);
})();

The simplest way to do this is to create a bookmark, then edit it, rename it to something like [article] and then copy in the code.

Then just highlight the text you want, and click the bookmarklet, and then paste into a post. Magic!

For quoting internal content (i.e. other posts on Metabunk), see:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/how-to-quote-another-post-using-quote-tags.2561/[/EX]

 

[Mick West]

I'm going to be fixing up quotes as I see them, in both new and old posts. So if you see "Edited by Mick" under a post, it's probably that.

One advantage of these EX tag is that the quote still shows up when you "Reply with Quote"

I might add a "BUNK" tag to label things that are probably bunk.

 

[JFDee]

May I suggest that the URLs in the EX tags are automatically length-reduced, just as the inline ones?
Mainly for aesthetic reasons, of course ...

 

[Mick West]

I've changed it so it just links the "external source" now, so it's always the same size.