Forum:Why is quoting yourself so bad?

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So, if you think up something that is funny, (not stupid) why can't you put yourself as the person who thought of it?

ie, you think of a funny quote, so you sign it as yourself on whatever topic you put your quote on, only to return to that same page later to either see the name of the quote changed, giving credit to someone else, or the material deleted entirly.

Why? --Composure1 20:06, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

guess partly because it looks like vanity, which it may be, or not. also partly because people think a quote is funnier if it comes from obscure meme celebrities, which it isn't. - jack mort | cunt | talk - 20:15, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

“That's just crazy.”

~ Modusoperandi on whatever it is that we're talking about

“Hey, this looks like vanity!”

~ Modusoperandi on whatever it is that we're talking about

“Odd, normally Wilde would get the credit for this.”

~ Modusoperandi on whatever it is that we're talking about

“Who the hell is Modusoperandi?”

~ User on reading the above

“Etc.”

~ Modusoperandi on whatever it is that we're talking about

--Sir Modusoperandi ^Boinc! 20:18, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Anyone catch my subtle joke? (check the edit history on this topic) -- 20:26, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

I call shenanigans!.--Sir Modusoperandi ^Boinc! 20:37, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Those two edit just made my head heart. Really. What happaned? --The Zombiebaron 23:18, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Somebody set us up the bomb. --Composure1 00:55, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Vanity?

That's a horrible excuse.– Preceding unsigned comment added by Lord Gneo (talk • contribs)

We try to avoid vanity because it's, well, vain. And who the hell is Modusoperandi, anyway? --Sir Modusoperandi ^Boinc! 04:47, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Except it's not an excuse, it's a policy. And a damned good one, if I may say so. To be utterly, totally, mercilessly, inconsiderately, unequivocally, and adjectivally blunt: Not enough people find "funny quotes" generated by an internet persona–about whom they know nothing and whose opinion carries no weight–to be at all funny. Even if something you thought up seems to be humorous in relation to the article, pages with multiple quotes at the top are boring and ugly. I apologize if my commentary seems like a personal attack, because it isn't. I simply hate quotes in general, and demand (with Famine-esque indignation) that any quotes on a page be universally funny and few in number. Again, nothing personal. --»The Acceptable Cainad (Fnord) 08:11, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Tell you what, come on IRC. Then you can quote yourself as much as you want using the QDB (only if it's funny enough to get through, though). -- 11:19, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Lord Gneo, I'll say to you what I said to the other person who I told off on the same day:

“The quotes sections on pages are for things that are more funny because they're attributed to someone - if what you're saying yourself is actually funny, it ought to be good enough to go into the main article. That, and quotes get deleted on a fairly regular basis by people more scrupulous than I.”

~ Me

Ooh - that was a quote, too - how delightfully ironic. -- (but) Untrue  Whhhy?Whut?How? *Back from the dead* 14:12, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Please TELL me how giving credit to your own humor is vain.

Does that make stand up comics the most vain people on earth?

And let's exclude Andy Dick from this conversation.– Preceding unsigned comment added by Lord Gneo (talk • contribs)

• I can think of times when quoting yourself would be funny. ----OEJ 16:17, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

“The preceding comment is a pile of bullshit.”

~ OEJ on quoting yourself

That's true actually, by creating a forum page about it, suddenly for a moment it becomes more funny to do it. But it's only funny as a quote because we know you as the person who was just talking about quotes. (Aaaaand I've just killed that joke for myself by trying to explain it - d'oh.)

A lot of stand-up comics are the vainest people on earth, right enough - it works for them because people know them well I guess (I'm thinking Woody Allen here for self-referential-ness). Then again, I'm not sure this is quite the same thing. You get your attribution in the edit history for what you've written - quoting yourself on a page is like going up on stage, telling a joke, and then saying: "This joke was told by me!" I.e. a bit Redundant. -- (but) Untrue  Whhhy?Whut?How? *Back from the dead* 17:27, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Quoting oneself is vain because it presumes that the audience knows whom one is and why what one has to say is amusing. Stand-up comedians are (usually) funny because they're the only ones on stage, and also that they're on stage. Uncyclopedia articles are not a stage for one person, because every single John Q. Funnyperson can think of something that would be funny to say, as in real life. When five or so John Q. Laughs-at-his-own-jokes's shows up and quotes himself, the result is boring sludge that nobody wants to read. In summation, the Uncyc policy on vanity (excuse me for standing on a soapbox here) interprets any reference to oneself as vanity. It doesn't mean the person who deleted your quotes thinks you're vain (i.e. it's not personal), they just didn't think your self-reference added any value to the article. The moral of this story is: if you think of something funny to add to an article, just put it in the article. Without the quote template. (P.S. sign your posts with four tildes ~~~~, or nobody will take you seriously. Ever.) --»The Acceptable Cainad (Fnord) 17:43, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

Alright, but...you talked about the stupid people lauging at their own jokes...does that not fall more under...say the Uncyc policy to "be funny and not just stupid"?

So posts should be deleted for not being funny, not quoting yourself.

If it's fine to give credit to yourself in the body of an article, why not the quotes section?

The policy stated earlier sounds like it would take care of the whole article---body, quotes, and all.

So I don't see the need to exclude credit in the quotes section.

And if you are talking about the audience not knowing who the person is...just talk to us.

I'm lonely/bored.

Talk to me.

Try visiting their user page or e-mailing them to get to know them.

Then it won't seem so bad.– Preceding unsigned comment added by Lord Gneo (talk • contribs)

“Why doesn't he sign his forum edits?”

~ Modusoperandi on Lord Gneo

Well if you're going to force me to say it, the quotes weren't particularly funny. But anyway, if you want to get known, make a few good articles, be generally useful, go on IRC etc. (Sometimes I wish I had enough time to be bored enough to be on there more than practically never.) -- (but) Untrue  Whhhy?Whut?How? *Back from the dead* 22:53, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

And if they were funny quotes? --Advertising Rights for this space is available.(Terms} Wildy I'm jumping on the bandwagon @You have something to say? 05:52, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

“And if they were funny quotes?”

~ KWild on quoting self and how to break HTBFANJS

I suppose there is a good question lurking underneath all this, isn't there? In my opinion, there's no funny quote that couldn't be made even better by being attributed to the right person. Plus, whenever I see a user signing quotes it makes me want to gouge my eyes out instead of laughing, even if the quote is funny. It just seems like too much of a cry for attention. -- (but) Untrue  Whhhy?Whut?How? *Back from the dead* 08:07, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

“Please love me! Look, I'm funny!!”

~ Strange but untrue

“I have often pondered the character of Lord Gneo, and the ways he made me think. Of course, such speculation led me to the obvious conclusion that I and my allies were correct and the honorable Lord Gneo was full of, shall we say, bologna. Yet there was an inexplicably explicable quality to his bologna that created a level of activity within my diminutive brain that I have experienced but a few times in my lifetime. I was forced to ask myself; why are quotes attributed to people like Lord Gneo not worth preserving? Why are such quotes, even when amusing, condemned to the abyss when the persons to whom they have been attributed are of little renown? The vanity policy of Uncyclopedia answered those questions for me, but more troubling issues remained: Why did the honorable Lord never sign his posts? Why, pray tell, did he feel compelled to put paragraph breaks in between each sentence; was it perhaps an attempt to place greater emphasis on each individual sentence? Also, why does this quote seem so pompous and obnoxious? Perhaps it is because my name carries minimal significance, and my conversational written humor is of a different nature than the form I use when writing an article. It occurs to me that everything I just wrote would have been easier to read if it were not a quote, and would have made just as much sense (nay, more) if I didn't feel the need to attach my insignificant and meaningless name to it. Alas, the most important question of all remains: Will the advice here given, in good faith despite its sarcastic nature, be understood, or will this tepid conflict escalate into a flamewar? And if it is the latter, will Benson have to deal with it?”

~ Cainad's Autobiography on this forum topic

Please ignore the sloppy transition from past to future tense. --»The Acceptable Cainad (Fnord) 08:41, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Okay, okay, oaky.

At least I put up a good arguement.

And I put breaks in between sentances out of habit from other forums.

It looks nicer.

I will try to find someone to give credit for my quotes.

I don't fell like having a flamewar...I get eniough of that on Gaia.

Besides, flamewars are against my belief system...

Lord Gneo 20:29, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Good, we agree on something. I would continue the argument by saying snobbish things about putting breaks between sentences, but I would still be retarded. --»The Acceptable Cainad (Fnord) 01:10, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

“But why shouldn't we quote ourselves? And I was sure that I had all the tags correct.”

~ KWild on quoting self and tags