Google Groups changed its interface in early 2005, making it slightly more difficult to quote the message to which you are replying. If you don't want to annoy other Usenet users, you should quote.
Someone wrote: > So this isn't a real post? No, it's just a figment of my imagination... -- Example http://www.example.com/
Reply
Shown above is an example message on Google Groups. Usually you would click on the 'Reply' link to post a reply, but this doesn't quote the message to which you are replying. Instead you should click on the 'show options' link at the top (highlighted above with a red border), which gives you more options:
Someone wrote: > So this isn't a real post? No, it's just a figment of my imagination... -- Example http://www.example.com/
Reply
If you click on the 'Reply' link on the left under 'Subject' (highlighted above with a red border), Google Groups will now quote the message to which you are replying. Don't forget to 'trim' the quote, deleting lines which aren't relevant to your reply.