I'm pretty sure that quoting previous posts in order to provide clarity on which post you were replying to has been in practice for ages. I don't really see what the big deal is, it limits the amount of navigation needed to see what someone is talking about. For example, if somebody says "@Hara- clean your mirror" I would have to scroll up the page, and possibly go from page to page in order to see the picture; similarly, if somebody quotes you, removes the image and posts their comment I then have to click the link at the top of the quote in order to see the picture, but maybe my computer is really slow and takes a long time to load the page, making the entire endeavour quite the pain in the arse.