On Internet Discussion Boards And Referencing Slashdot

Sir Joltalot asks: "I'm writing an essay about the role of Internet discussion boards in our society. I'd like to quote some comments I've found in various Slashdot discussions that have occurred, and I'm just wondering if any of you have suggestions or have devised methods for referencing such quotes (giving full credit to the author, if non-anonymous) in a formal way." We have such things for formal printed publications, why not Internet publications? Have such things been determined yet or not?

Re:Extend slashdot user info with quotability flag

[TwistedGreen]

No, Sorry, I completely disagree with you.

You're posting on a PUBLIC bulletin board. Anyone can view it. You should be able to quote it, as it is a public board. If you don't want people quoting you, don't post. Have a private peer-to-peer discussion if you'd like, but if you post it, it's public domain material.

It would be nice to ask permission of the poster before quoting though, but I don't believe it is necessary.

Referencing quotes

[Bodero]

I haven't seen this anywhere, but why not keep it in line with printed material, in regards to formatting? As for quoting the person, the order I would provide one source for the indentification, in order of whichever is provided:

Real Name
Nickname
Email Address

and in the format,

([Realname, Nickname or Email Address]) wrote "(quote in italics)", much the same way as you would reference a quote by an author in a book.

Any other thoughts on this?

footnoting/bibliography

[cvincent]

There is a proper format for "Posting from a discussion list or online bullitin board" in a bibliography:

Coward, Anonymous. "Re: First Post"
Online Posting. 12 Apr 1999.
<http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=BLAHBLAH>
(viewed 13 Apr 1999).

hope that helps

How I would do it

[CentrX]

For this particular comment for instance, this would be the Works Cited entry using a combination for what would be done for "Source within a source" and "citations from online databases":

Hagar, Chris, "How I would do it." _Slashdot_. Ask Slashdot Section: "On Internet Discussion Boards and Referencing Slashdot" 27 May 2000. Available from: http://slashdot.org/ Internet. 27 May 2000.

Author, "Comment Name." _Forum_. Section: "Thread" Date of Comment. Available from: http://Website/ Internet. Date when material was accessed.

Chris Hagar

Referencing internet discussion boards

[prairietoad]

I would refer you to the "MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th Edition" by Joseph Gibaldi. It specifically refers to "online posting" on page 200. You should include the author's name and the title of the document, in quotes, as given in the subject line, followed by the description "Online posting", the date when posted, the name of the forum, date of access and in angle brackets, the online address of the list's Internet site. Hope this helps.

Extend slashdot user info with quotability flag?

[kzanol]

The question on how to quote also lines up with the trouble seen with the plan of releasing a book on the "hellmouth" series of discussions containing quoted material.

It could be a good idea to add a setting to user preferences to indicate authors preferences wrt. to reuse of posted comments outside slashdot. Granted, it won't cover AC postings, it will leave the situation just as unclear as it's now for those useres who don't bother to enter any info - but it would give a standardized way to explicitely express the authors wishes on what may be done with posts.

If there's a lot of comments to chose form, it would make external use much less controversial if you could just pick some where the authors explicitely agreed to have to stuff reused.

Re:Referencing internet discussion boards

[Just Your Average Li]

There is an official MLA style guide available from www.mla.org and clicking on the "mla style" link. Too lazy to link and/or find the exact link. (MLA is modern language association; it is one of three styles in use)