/lit/ - Literature

The arrow represents a QUOTE.
It has been used in emails and discussion forums for years before imageboards.

When you quote something, like in
>implying blablabla
Or
>he thinks nanana
>2012
You are quoting another person's actions, but instead of just copypasting it, you are translating it into what you think it means.
It's like an evolved form of parroting.

A "normal" example of parroting would be anon saying:
"I don't like racism, guys, stop."
And someone quoting him with
>I love to suck cocks, guys, stop.
But the meta evolved to a point where you can just say
>enjoying cock this much
and you are understood.

It is also a quote in cases like the ones posted by >>18207779, but you are quoting a piece of media/a joke from somewhere else.

Now, for greentext stories, things are a bit more complex than that.
I interpret
>be me
as a "imagine you are me", or "put yourself in my shoes for this story", like >18206291 said.
It is not that different from a "Enters me" we see some people writing on blogs and magazines, using theatrical language as a device.

Most of all, greentext denotes people's lack of skill with formulating their ideas into readable sentences, opting for simplicity because:
- Otherwise it would be too hard to piece their thoughts together;
- Readers are also not gonna face walls of text, so keeping it short through this "broken/simple grammar" style ensures people will have read and progressed a few lines before averting their eyes, raising your chances to hook people up to your story.

But now that it's a staple "technique", it might not be as effective, especially since even normal, long sentences are often greentexted purely "because others do it".
And since not everyone understands what he is doing, it stays into this gray area of acceptability and shaky rules.

>tl;dr: who am I quoting?