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I've already read through this post, and I know "OP" stands for Original Poster. Now I would like to know what is "OP" referring to for nested citation?

Assume,

asker A posted a question (question_1) where an article is cited,

and then Answerer B posted an answer to that question

and then asker C posted another question (question_2) where question_1 is cited.

Now, when answerer D use the term "OP" in answer to question_2, what is "OP" referring to?

when answerer B use the term "OP" in answer to question_1, what is "OP" referring to?

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  • OP would refer to original poster. While typically this would refer to the person who asked the question, which question may vary with context. Got an example to pick apart? – Journeyman Geek♦ Sep 28 '19 at 2:10
  • @JourneymanGeek What does "pick apart" mean? – yaojp Sep 28 '19 at 2:28
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    Analyse - who the OP is is heavily context based. – Journeyman Geek♦ Sep 28 '19 at 2:29
  • @SonictheAnonymousHedgehog Did you read my post carefully? – yaojp Sep 28 '19 at 2:58
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    @yaojp Did you read the glossary carefully? – πάντα ῥεῖ Sep 28 '19 at 6:44
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    It's not even as simple as that; OP can refer to both original poster and original post. Like any pronoun, there will always be times when it's not clear what the referent is. In those cases, all you can do is try to figure out what makes the most sense or, in a comment, actually ask the person who wrote it. – Jason Bassford Sep 28 '19 at 15:42
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    @Jason Bassford: In a Stack Exchange context it always refers to a person (that is, original poster). But it is a good argument for avoiding abbreviations (and other jargon) as much as possible (and at the expense of forgoing the in-crowd feeling - not really a loss of any significance). – P.Mort. - forgot Clay Shirky_q Sep 28 '19 at 18:05
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    @PeterMortensen No, that's false. At least at the sites I've been a part of, it's meant original post also. – Jason Bassford Sep 28 '19 at 19:08
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OP is always the asker of the question itself.

If a question cites another question that makes no difference. It's still the asker of the question being answered we'd call the OP not the asker of any cited questions.

So D would call C the OP in your second example, not A. After all asker C might cite more than one question when he or she asks question_2.

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  • Fyi, op stands for Open Poster and is widely used in Social Media as well, nowadays – Optimus Prime Sep 29 '19 at 8:27

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