[OT] Posting under ones full name

[Ian Kelly]

On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 9:18 PM, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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?

The square brackets clarify that the ellipsis was not part of the
original quotation but was added at some later point.

> Can a reader know
> that you put square-bracketed dots and that I didn't omit a lengthy
> quoted string?

Irrelevant.  Why would an author adhering to common principles of
style ever use square-bracketed dots in a statement that he authored
himself?  And if instead your quotation had been of Thomas also
quoting a third party, then it would not be important whether you or
Thomas had added the omission -- the main point is that it wasn't
there originally.

Be that as it may, the MLA no longer requires square brackets around
an ellipsis of omission, so at least from a scholarly standpoint
you're off the hook.