You broke the meaning of that sentence on purpose, you don't get to blame it on the brackets.

Look at it done correctly: tomc1985 objects that "[he is] one of these people, and [he] most definitely exists!"

You may not like how it looks, but it completely solves the fake issue you were making fun of.

>Look at it done correctly: tomc1985 objects that "[he is] one of these people, and [he] most definitely exists!"

You also need brackets around "exists" since the original quote had "exist". I think you're proving the point. I completely agree with the author that sentences like this are absolutely miserable to read. You can quote him as saying "I am one of these people, and I most definitely exist!" and, because we all have basic reading skills, we all understand that the "I" refers to the person speaking. Mangling quotes with unnecessary brackets is bad writing.

> You also need brackets around "exists" since the original quote had "exist".

That's fair, I put too much trust in hedora's version.

> I think you're proving the point.

I may be demonstrating the article's point, that it looks awkward, but I still strongly disagree with hedora trying to make it look like the subjects get all wonky and confusing.

Done correctly is keeping the quote very close to the original and changing your text to make that work, instead of the other way around. Much better is:

tomc1985 objects: "I am one of these people, and I most definitely exist!"

> Hey now, I am one of those people, and I most definitely exist!

Who? How do you know?

The problem you’ve presented has nothing to do with brackets or changed words; the same problem is there even with the original words (as above), when the quote is given without attribution as in your example.