Was this really necessary?

[theKed]

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So I was wandering through some of the DU Groups, this morning, that I check out from time to time (Cooking & Baking, Science Fiction, and, yes, History of Feminism) and reading a few threads. This one, "When Men on the Left Refuse to See Their Sexism" was new, so I read through it. Somebody named 'sigmasix' posts this:

I think you probably should edit your post so that it reads "some men" or even "a large number of men"- the way this OP is worded can be taken to mean that all men are this way. I'm sure that isn't what you meant to indicate though.

Strange. Kind of like he didn't realise the article was quoted from elsewhere. Of course, that's because there's no cues that it is: no quotation marks, no excerpt tags, no by-line, nor link, until the very bottom. Not that this is a big problem, but it's clearly confused some people as to the author of the writing. So I posted. The first time I'd ever posted in that group (and, might I add, trying hard to be diplomatic):

theKed
It may help

if you make it more apparent from the outset that you're quoting an article.
I was a good 2 or 3 paragraphs in before I scrolled down to see it there was a link. If you put it in quotations, or even dropped a by-line at the top, it would go a long way to clearing that up. (I would say 'excerpt' tags, but you have them throughout the quote and I honestly don't know if DU does nested excerpts like that).

Cool. I didn't mention anything about the body of the article, for or against. Inoffensive as I could make it, I thought.

seabeyond
no. i am not playing this stupid ass game. again...

thank you for the suggestion AND no.

Well, that seemed oddly belligerent. Did seabeyond misunderstand me? Is it some sort of massive affront to suggest a quotation mark at the start of the article, standard procedure when, you know, quoting? So I responded, diplomatically, again, I might add:

theKed
What game?

I'm entirely earnest and honest. It's not readily apparent that you're quoting somebody, and that might be contributing to at least 2 people not realising and asking you to alter the text.

Clarifying that it really wasn't my problem, that I was trying to help make it clear that the quote was a quote, and that I didn't think she should alter the text. So what's next?

seabeyond
first... this is the way OP after OP is created. title. then article in body

of text.

if you are confused over this ONE piece, you might ask yourself why.

secondly, another form of derailing men use when women speak up... ok, SOME men use when SOME women speak up is having to clarify with a some, many, vast, few, handful, before we can say anything.

the reality and simplicity is, if it does not apply to you (which i would suggest it does apply to you reading your posts) then do not take it as being one of the MEN that the article refers to.

Ad hominem attacks, obviously. Suggesting a quotation mark at the start of a quote is sexist, somehow. Remember, of course, that I was purposefully avoiding discussing the actual article in question since, well, I don't think my opinion is really valued on such topics 'round there. So...yeah. I was going to respond with this:

I really didn't come here looking for a fight

I read the article and, as I said, sorted out that it was an outside article eventually. And I noticed other people maybe not realising it was a quoted article, and offered a suggestion to make that more apparent. It's not a "game" and it's not intended to "derail" anything. It's a " at the start and end of it, to clear up any confusion. If it were anyone else's post and I saw people not getting that it was quoted, I would do the same thing.

I don't want to continue this debate, because it has no bearing on the article in question.

But...apparently I have been blocked on, I don't know, orthographical grounds?
Frankly such a blocking is a wild abuse of power, and utterly baseless.