[Maxim Litvinov]

from: Some Journal, printed sometime, by some bozo.

Earlier today in an extraordinary move, a poster on politicsforum.org decided simply to start a thread with one enormously long quoted article.

The article must have been very good, because it was very long. And it also came from a very reputable and non-biased source (Neo-Conservatives Web Journal, Stalinists Online Colloquium or similar). And it must have proven its point very well, because the poster involved never even bothered to say what his point was.

Reponses to the post have been enormously positive. One forum member said: "It was like a breath of fresh air to be able to read twenty pages of someone else's unsourced comments. It really makes a change from people simply using their own nous to make convincing arguments off their own back". Another pointed out: "You know, it's quite convenient really, because now I don't just have to click on a link to read important articles. Every page of the whole journal is already there in politicsforum.org, so I don't even have to open a new window."

Given the success of the move, other posters are now planning to conduct their arguments from now on by just quoting swathes of text that they know other people will never bother reading. As an added bonus, those that might disagree with the substance of the article will refrain from replying with anything significant, because they just don't have the time to post a detailed summary listing all the problems with the original article.

This quote posting boom will no doubt prove to make politicsforum.org a source of more interesting and engrossing debate in the coming months. Don't expect anyone to take their hands off the Control+V keys any time soon.

[fastspawn]

agreed. Sources need to be impartial and non-partisan.

[Al Khabir]

The poster isn't named for legal reasons I take it?

[Vivisekt]

Heh.

[Enigmatic]

Sounds like a true story to me.