Your words and a quote in the same sentence

this thread is "no longer useful."

 

That's the best advice. The partial quote doesn't really add enough to justify what can be an awkward construction.
Just paraphrase.
I've got a reporter on the news side who is in love with the partial quote. They bog his story down. You don't have to say: John Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said it was "hot" Thursday but some "rain" expected by early next week should "cool things down."

 

Smith said he told Jones to mind his own business.

The quote isn't special enough make readers leap over boundaries of commas and quotation marks.

Agree on partial quotes. Makes a story sound like a Zagat's review: Diners found the room "noisy" and didn't like the staff's "stuffy" attitude.