Editing

Discussion in 'Technical Issues & Suggestions' started by Wise owl chick, Jun 25, 2014.

  1. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Hi

    I wanted to edit the world clock post but it's not possible now, yesterday it was possible. I wanted to add Sarah and then edit the Infos for example correct the time zones.

    can we edit only the first day after a post?

    Thanks
  2. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    1500 minutes
  3. luke

    luke Member VIP member

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    Being able to update a post if you notice a typo or something is a feature I like, even if it's a month after the origainal post. This is especially helpful for language logs, but really applies to anything where you think of your post as "online documentation" or "backup".
  4. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    I personally prefer a limit on editing. It is annoying when you respond to a post only to have the OP edit later, making your own comments irrelevant or even seemingly foolish. While most posters don't intend that to happen, others do. If we grow large enough here, that will happen. We all slip up and make typos, it's not the end of the world if we can't correct them later.
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  5. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Now I can't update the world clock's list, this is frustrating. This isn't typos but the others' infos.
  6. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Start a conversation with me, send me the new text, and I'll update it for you.
  7. Iversen

    Iversen Member VIP member

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    I would personally think that that showing the day and time for the last change would be enough to meet the objection of Peregrinus, namely that a comment may become irrelevant or misleading if the original text is changed. I am more worried that we may write incomplete or factually wrong information, discover it two days later and then be unable to supplement or correct the information. Or we might get a comment that makes us rethink the original formulation - in which case the proper thing to do would be to acknowledge the cause of the changes by writing an "Edit" to the original post.

    As owner and administrator Big_dog will of course decide the rules, but the consequence of blocking edits will be that messages with a lot of factual information must be squeekily correct from the beginning - and then they may never be written.
    rlnv likes this.
  8. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    While that would show something had been edited, it still would not prevent comments based on the prior version from looking irrelevant/foolish, and subsequent readers may not realize why.


    Well isnt' that the way discussions go, ideally anyway? We discuss an issue and based on evidence or reasoning of others adapt our original position. While we may be unable to reformulate our original post, we can restate our current belief/understanding in a subsequent post. While someone else could come along and quote our original post, they can be referred to the later one (which is why posters should prefer to read through all the comments before replying to an early posting in a thread).

    Where you have a good point though, is with precisely the first post in an informational/resource thread, which might need to be an evergreen type of post that is occasionally edited. In that case, presumably we can get an admin to make the necessary edits.

    As a compromise, assuming the forum software allows it (or could be altered via an addon), perhaps the editing period could be extended a day or two. But at some point, if there is not an end to editing, a lot of mischief can be done, intentionally or otherwise.
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  9. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Yes you can.

    99.9% of the time there is no problem with having unlimited editing. But I've seen some nasty stuff happen in that other .1%.
  10. hrhenry

    hrhenry Member VIP member

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    This is the reason I usually quote when replying in a thread. The original poster may change the original post, but they can't change what I quote/am responding to if I include it in my reply.

    Of course, there are also cases where people completely fabricate quotes, just to stir the pot.

    R.
    ==
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  11. rlnv

    rlnv New Member

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    Big_Dog, I hope that you reconsider this policy. I understand perfectly some of the reasons you may have for limiting editing (thread deletions, spiteful members, etc.). I've ran forums in the past, and had similar no edit policies after x number of days. I found that the majority of the users disliked this setting immensely.

    Eventually on a large forum that I ran, I reversed my policy and allowed trusted members to freely edit. A trusted member was one with x number of posts and no infractions. The harmony on the forum with respect to people feeling ownership of their content was much better. There were very few problems, and no major issues. I attribute that to the nature of the forum, and thus the quality of the members posting there. I also feel that change may have been one of the reasons my forum grew quite quickly afterwards, compared to a competitor that did not allow edits and had equally upset members.

    In my opinion, a forum such as this, with people keeping logs and monitoring challenges and whatnot, almost requires the ability to edit. I think you will find over time that a no edit policy will frustrate members, and cause undue work for moderators. Again in my opinion, in the long term editing would work better for everyone.
  12. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    When we have a conversation with each other, to some degree, we own the content mutually, not individually. It is disrespectful to fellow forum members who have participated in a conversation for one of them to be able to fundamentally change or delete their part of a conversation. Often when someone else makes a good point, others don't feel the necessity to then make the same point, which one of them would if not made first by someone else. And if that person who made that point, or contributed information or resources deletes their own contributions, then they have injured the common interest we all share in this forum's content.

    You were lucky. Other forums have not been so lucky, and the problems caused can be major.

    So not allowing edits after a certain reasonable point was not the only factor, but one of many contributing to the dissatisfaction of some members in that other forum. It may not have even been the major factor.

    I think we can count on Big Dog and his fellow admin to be both reasonable and helpful. So if there is a need for an edit at a later date, they will be happy to take care of same.

    If forum members don't want to realize that contributing content to a public conversation is different than a private conversation or a single-user blog, then they should simply not post anything they may later want to delete. And they always have the option here of using private conversations.
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