Block quote CSS and/or fancy protection for "quotes"

[refinedrobot]

Simple version

The simplest version of this feature request is just a bit of CSS for something marked as a block quote, but there are fancier things you could theoretically do, and I think this speaks to a broader idea that's related to multiplayer.

In Roam, you add a > at the beginning of a block, and the block is marked with CSS that signals "this is a quote." This formatting also persists for block quotes that are inside block references or block embeds (although theoretically, because of the CSS customization, you could change how they look inside block refs/embeds).

More sophisticated version(s)

However, alternate or more sophisticated versions might include:

• setting the status of an entire block as a quote by right-clicking its bullet;
• marking either large chunks of a text or inline parts of text within a block as a "quote" through some other means (e.g., something more like the way back tics work for code blocks and inline code respectively).

Both of these could confer certain special status to what's been marked as a "quote." This status would then focus on preserving the integrity of the original quote against formatting, page linking, etc.

Explanation

More broadly—and I think this is worth thinking about for any future multiplayer stuff—I'd like a lot of granular control for quotations where I need to be really careful about exactly preserving the integrity of the original quotation when I do things like add links, or add in my own formatting for emphasis (vs. whatever formatting was in the original quote) etc.

The reasoning for this is simply that preserving the integrity of quotations is obviously important, but it can be a pain to keep on top of that without disrupting one's workflow or limiting what one can do with a quote.

As an example, having more granular control over text marked as a "quote" would be valuable for stuff like links inside a quote, so that if you update page names you never end up inadvertently messing up quotes. That is, since Athens knows that what's inside a quote is "special," then if I update a page name in the future and I have a link to that page inside a quote, Athens will also know, "Okay, wait a sec, let's not silently bork up this quote all willy nilly..."

In my own case, in Roam, for links in quotes I always use markdown aliases, like this:

[original wording]([[wording that matches my personal whims]])

This is just to make sure the integrity of the quote is preserved, even if I end up changing a page name somewhere down the line, or if the author's wording doesn't quite match my own. (Example 1: differing capitalization of nouns. Example 2: proper names where sometimes it's John Smith, John S Smith, J. S. Smith, etc.)

Often I use aliases "just in case":

[ABC]([[ABC]])

In Roam, I've mostly given up with preserving italics and emphasis in block quotes with page links inside them, since I can't italicize individual page links or especially parts of page link aliases. I have my own idiosyncratic system but I also just know... I gotta be careful.

Anyway: my point is "hey adding some CSS for block quotes would be great but also... there's a bunch of other cool stuff that could be done and I think that stuff is very relevant to future multiplayer ideas."

Stuff on aliases is related to...

• Allow multiple page names, or aliasing, for better linking - Allow multiple page names, or aliasing, for better linking #828
• Page alias - Page alias #733

[tangjeff0]

Thank you for this deep dive on quotes. This goes a lot deeper than first glance. Have you seen Codex's work on annotations? I feel that he's thought the most and done the most when it comes to granular formatting that still preserves original text.

[refinedrobot]

Yeah, very much agreed re: depth. I was almost trying to open a discussion in that regard because I feel like anyone interested in networked thought more broadly has surely thought about this and/or wrestled with it.

I haven't seen Codex's project, but I'll check it out more. Very much my jam. I came close to mentioning this example from Conor (about picking apart a longer quite by replacing bits of it with block refs) and I see now it was... literally in response to Codex and his project.