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Edit post feature

Posted: 08 Mar 2023
by Last Alternative
I noticed after I post in any forum and edit once or twice the edit feature disappears. Is it my phone/computer, or did the moderators do that on purpose?
I noticed a typo on my post and now I can’t fix it.

Re: Edit post feature

Posted: 08 Mar 2023
by jam-s
There's a timeout on how long a post can be edited.

Re: Edit post feature

Posted: 08 Mar 2023
by Last Alternative
Why tho? I hope the moderators can explain.

Re: Edit post feature

Posted: 08 Mar 2023
by joeyluck
This has been in place for a while. It's just to assist the moderators, who volunteer to do the job of moderating. It's simply to help regulate overuse/misuse of editing. Moderators can't see edit history and can't go back and revert a post.

Some users misuse it, removing context or completely changing what they said, making a thread very confusing. Sometimes we'll have someone ask for help, have a discussion, get an answer, and then essentially delete their first post by editing it and replacing it with "nevermind" as if the thread might not be helpful to other people who might encounter the same issue or question.

Another example is if someone says something ugly and offensive and someone else reports it and then when a moderator is available to look at the report, if the post has been edited, we lose all context. And some things that are said are not excusable by, "Well at least they edited it." Mods can't see edit history, so having a limit on editing at least increases the chance of seeing something.

Having an edit restriction is certainly not a perfect solution, but forums have these features for a reason. We could instead crack down on issuing warnings for misuse/overuse of editing, but that's just more work for moderators who are volunteering to help.

If you ever have something that you'd like to have edited and it's beyond the limit, you can reach out to the moderators and we can do that for you.

We can continue to explore solutions, but it seems to be working pretty well for the past couple years.

Re: Edit post feature

Posted: 08 Mar 2023
by Last Alternative
Oh I was away for a while. Thanx for the explanation, Joey. Makes sense.

So I posted a song in the music forum last night and there’s a typo in the title of you don’t mind fixing it:
Apples should be Appels - that’s how Billy Corgan named his song.

Re: Edit post feature

Posted: 08 Mar 2023
by joeyluck
Last Alternative wrote:
08 Mar 2023
Oh I was away for a while. Thanx for the explanation, Joey. Makes sense.

So I posted a song in the music forum last night and there’s a typo in the title of you don’t mind fixing it:
Apples should be Appels - that’s how Billy Corgan named his song.
Done :thumbup:

Re: Edit post feature

Posted: 08 Mar 2023
by Aosta
joeyluck wrote:
08 Mar 2023
Last Alternative wrote:
08 Mar 2023
Oh I was away for a while. Thanx for the explanation, Joey. Makes sense.

So I posted a song in the music forum last night and there’s a typo in the title of you don’t mind fixing it:
Apples should be Appels - that’s how Billy Corgan named his song.
Done :thumbup:
In my recent post about side chaining I typed Chimspanner and not Chimpspanner but couldn't edit it when I noticed. Could you be a darling and amend please? :think:

Re: Edit post feature

Posted: 08 Mar 2023
by DaveyG
It's not ideal but it does defend against a certain type of spammer who will make a few sensible looking posts, often copied from other forums (or even the same forum!) and then a few days/weeks later they will go back and sneakily add their evil spam links to the posts.