There was a strange spectacle that just played out

The question or statements about links seems much ado about nothing. Is not linking to X really that important as long as you cite who wrote it? Are you really plagiarizing a quote as long as you credit who wrote/said it?

Technically there should be a link for this as well as for your recent Victor Davis Hanson article.  In my case, I identified the author, the publication and the approximate date of publication, but was still berated and had my intelligence demeaned for omitting the link.

But I agree, you’re clearly not passing the work off as your own (nor was I).

When you site the source of a quote, you aren't plagiarizing.  If it's an historical quote, such as quoting Mark Twain, JFK, or Thomas Jefferson, the quote plus attribution is sufficient.  When it comes to a recent twitter.com/Twitter quote, why not just copy the URL from the twitter.com (Twitter) post and use the Forum's posting feature (the   [ </> ] box icon on the top right) to post the quote and link?  That way, if someone wants to read more of the author's quotes, reply to the author, etc, he/she is easily able to do so.

In regards to copy/pasting an article, the issue is more clouded.  Not only do you need to state who the author is, but Federal Copyright and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) laws may come into play.  If the website has warnings about using copyrighted information, you should either follow their rules for sharing or abide by the "Fair Use" doctrine.  If you get permission from the original source to share the quote in its entirety, you should link to the original source.  For "Fair Use," you should provide an excerpt (but not the entire article) as well as post the link to the source.   Additionally, Forum rules also state you should include a link to the original source.  


I hope this clarifies your question. If not, please let me or one of the other moderators know.

This is a fair request.