Quoting someone else’s post fairly

Quoting is the cheapest move on a timeline. Copy a line, add your take, post. It is also the easiest way to make someone appear to say a thing they never said, and most of the time nobody means to.

A quote borrows a writer’s name for your argument. You can disagree with them as hard as you like. You just have to hand back their words in the shape you found them. Here is how we would do that in a post of your own.

One test: would they recognise it?

Picture the writer reading your post. They may hate your response. Fine. The question is narrower: looking at the quoted part and the sentence that introduces it, would they say “yes, that is what I meant”?

If yes, you can be as blunt as you want. If they would say “that is not what I wrote”, or “I said that, but only about beginners”, the quote needs work, however accurate each word is.

That last part trips people up. A quote can be word-perfect and still unfair. The usual name for this is quoting out of context, and it rarely takes any malice. It takes a short post, a hurry and a line that happens to suit your point.

Cut words, not meaning

Short posts force you to trim. Trimming is fine. Take a made-up post to work with:

Daily posting made me a better writer for about three months. After that it mostly made me a faster one. If you are new, I would still start there.

Now three ways to quote it:

• Unfair: “Daily posting … mostly made me a faster [writer].” The three good months are gone, and so is the advice. It now reads like a complaint.
• Still unfair: “Daily posting made me a better writer.” Every word is theirs. The limit they took the trouble to set is not.
• Fair: “Daily posting made me a better writer for about three months. After that it mostly made me a faster one.” Then, in your own words: they still recommend it to newcomers.

Look at what got cut in the first two. Qualifiers go first, because they are the words that make a line less punchy: for about three months, mostly, if you are new. They are also where the writer did their most careful thinking. Treat them as the part you may not drop.

The marks are simple. An ellipsis (…) shows you removed something. Square brackets show a word you changed or added so the sentence still reads. Neither one is a licence: a clearly marked cut can still change the meaning. Do not use them to stitch two far-apart sentences into a claim the writer never made.

Keep the words themselves as they are. Tidying a typo is a small kindness. Leaving one in and flagging it so people can laugh is a cheap shot.

Quote the claim you are answering

Fairness is also about which line you choose. Every post has a weak spot: a loose aside, a joke that did not land, an example that went too far. Quoting that and answering it is easy, and readers can tell.

If you disagree, find the sentence that carries the argument, the one the writer would defend if you asked. Quote that. If they make the case over a whole paragraph and no single line holds it, summarise in your own words and link to the original.

Then check the verb you put in front of it. “She writes” and “he argues” are neutral. “She admits” suggests a confession. “He claims” suggests you doubt him. “She seems to think” suggests she has not thought at all. If you mean that, say it in your own sentence.

Dates matter too. Writers change their minds. If the line is two years old, or they have since written something different, say so. “She wrote this in 2024 and has softened since” is one clause, and it keeps you honest.

Show whose words they are

A reader should never have to guess where someone else’s words stop and yours begin. Three things sort that out:

1. Set the quote apart. Quotation marks for a phrase, a blockquote for a sentence or more. ReedSpot posts have room for quotes as well as headings and lists, so use the format.
2. Name the writer. Their name, in plain text, near the quote.
3. Link to the exact post. Not their homepage, and not a screenshot of the line. The link is what lets a reader check you, which is the whole point. Make the link text say where it goes: “Dana’s post on daily posting”, not “here”.

This is more than manners here. Our guidelines ask you to credit quotations you did not create, and the terms allow quoting “reasonable excerpts with a link back to the original post”. Check how the writer’s name is actually spelled, too. It takes five seconds and people notice.

How much, and what to leave alone

Quote what your point needs, then stop. If your post answers one sentence, quote one sentence. Is your post still mostly yours? If the quoted part is longer than what you added, you may be reposting with a caption. Trim it, or send people over with a link.

Posts belong to their writers, so ask before republishing one in full. A short note can make this tricky, because a forty-word post is nearly all quote by the time you have quoted the good part. Link to it, quote the phrase you need and put the rest in your own words. If you want the whole thing, ask.

Two things deserve more care:

• Private messages. Leave them out. Sharing someone’s private messages is on the never-allowed list in the guidelines, and an email or DM was not written for your timeline anyway.
• Replies from people passing through. A reply under a post is public, but its author wrote it for that thread, not for your audience. If you want to answer it, ask yourself whether the point needs the person. Often “a reader asked…” does the job, with a link to the post it came from.

For quoting inside a reply rather than a post, where a few words are often enough, see writing replies that add something.

Check it, and fix it if you got it wrong

A minute before you post:

1. Reopen the original. Compare your quote word by word. Do not trust the version in your memory, or the one somebody else quoted.
2. Read the lines either side. Does the next sentence change what this one means?
3. Find your cuts. Is every removed word marked? Would the writer miss any of them?
4. Test the link. Does it land on the right post, with the quoted words actually on it?
5. Run the test from the top. Would they recognise it?

And sometimes you will still get it wrong. A writer or a reader points out what you missed. Do not argue about it in the thread. The guidelines say to correct a mistake in the post, so do that, and leave a short note so people who already read it know what changed: “Corrected: my first version dropped the line about beginners, which changes the point.”

That one sentence costs you a little pride and buys back a lot of trust.

The habit underneath all this is the same one behind a short post that stands on its own: say the true thing plainly, in as few words as it takes. Next time a line makes you reach for the quote button, read the sentence after it first.