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by

Page history last edited by Chris Messina 14 years, 4 months ago

Author(s):

Chris Messina

 

In 140 characters:

"by" is used to quote someone, using from a long-form or analog source (i.e. not Twitter!).

 

Description:

 

If you're quoting a short passage from a book, blog post, magazine article, or other long form content, using the "by" pointer is a way to declare original authorship of a piece, similar to the <cite> and <blockquote> HTML tags.

 

Details and Use Cases:

Twitter / Chris Messina: "Activity is the new oil + ...

Alternatives

An em dash may also be used to show authorship or citation:

Twitter / Scott Boms: "Anxiety is the hand maide ...;

Comments (2)

Murilo said

at 7:30 pm on Nov 8, 2009

Why not something more iconic (as em-dash) but with some mnemonic linked. I'd go with "quote">@user. > could also be used instead of via, the difference from by being the quotes. I believe # made it because it evokes services as old as irc. @ works in English due to its "at" meaning, it isn't as good in other languages, but use overcomes the issues.

Chris Messina said

at 5:55 pm on Nov 9, 2009

I think the em dash is fine — it just doesn't daisy-chain together as well... i.e. /by @person1 via @person2. You could do

"..." —@person1 /via @person2

or

"..." —@person1 via @person2

It just may be that /by dies on the vine, and that's okay. Nobody has to adopt it if they don't want to! I was just proposing slashtags as a simple convention to build upon! ;)

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