[OT] Posting under ones full name

[Chris Angelico]

On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 1:56 PM, Ben Finney <ben+python at benfinney.id.au> wrote:
> Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 12:06 PM, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
>> <PointedEars at web.de> wrote:
>> > Please use `[...]' or `[…]' to indicate omission instead. I could
>> > have written `politeness...' myself.
>>
>> Incidentally, how _do_ the square brackets help?
>
> They are a long-standing convention for marking an editorial addition or
> clarification.
>
>     Square brackets – also called simply brackets (US) – are mainly used
>     to enclose explanatory or missing material usually added by someone
>     other than the original author, especially in quoted text.
>
>     <URL:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracket#Square_brackets_.5B_.5D>

Right, as is often done with dangling pronouns. "[Square brackets] are
a long-standing convention..." would be a valid way of quoting your
above statement. What I mean is that putting brackets around the
ellipsis adds nothing, and certainly doesn't eliminate ambiguity; the
only advantage is that [...] cannot be confused for a written-in
pause.

ChrisA