tractorian wrote:P.S. How does one copy a post to which one wishes to respond?
If you want to post a reply to a post, click on the “ button at its top right. You'll get a post input window that already contains the BBCode instructions to quote that post with all of its formatting. Enter your reply above it, below it or both, but not within it (otherwise you'll end up with something that indicates that the author of that post said what you say in your reply, rather than that you're saying it). Before submitting your reply, it's a good idea to check that it says what you want it to by using the "Preview" button, especially the first few times that you try it. Also, if you want to reply to just one short bit of a long post, it's a good idea to edit the quote down, but do take care not to alter the meaning of what you leave in the quote (known as "quoting out of context"), be very careful about editing the BBCode sequences, and always check that what you end up with is sensible by previewing it, at least until you're very familiar with the process.
If you want to try it out without disturbing existing discussions, you can use the Testing 123... board - post something, reply to yourself, etc. Your posts there will last for a while, but eventually be deleted.
If you want to reply by private message, again start by clicking on the “ button, but then select the contents of the post input window and copy them (CTRL-A, CTRL-C within the post input window on a PC). Then abandon that reply and start up a private message by clicking on the "Private messages" button near the top right of any TLF page, then on the "New PM" button in the resulting page, and pasting (CTRL-V on a PC) those contents into the resulting private message input window. You'll have to enter the correct recipient for the private message separately, and also a suitable subject.
This is a rather cumbersome procedure for what really ought to be an easy thing to do, I'm afraid... There are hundreds of extensions available for the phpBB software that powers this site, listed at https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/extensions-36, but unfortunately I haven't found any that claim to provide "reply by private message" functionality... :-( That might of course be due to me missing something that does provide it rather than to it not being there - but if it is there, it's not obvious. Doing a more thorough check for such an extension, and if it doesn't exist, possibly even developing one, would IMHO be a very worthwhile improvement to this site - it would be useful both for moderators and ordinary users.
Gengulphus