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Post editing
#4902 10/12/09 01:08 PM
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Gregg Offline OP
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Sorry if this has been answered before. I can't find it.

Is there a time limit after which the ability to edit a post expires? If so, how long do I have?

I noticed a typo in a post I made, but could not fix it. I suppose it wasn't too hard to tell that I didn't hit the 't' hard enough and ended up with "no" instead of "not", but I'd like to be able to fix such things. Can the time limit be changed? If so, I'd like to request a 48 hour window. (I think most recognize that it's unwise to make major edits after the first hour or two has passed.)

Re: Post editing
Gregg #4915 10/12/09 10:53 PM
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There is a time limit. Currently, the limit is set to 60 minutes for deleting a post, and 24 hours for editing a post.


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Re: Post editing
Gregg #4921 10/13/09 02:30 AM
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Originally Posted By: Gregg
I noticed a typo in a post I made, but could not fix it.

If you can let us know where the typo is located, we can fix it for you.


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Re: Post editing
alternaut #4931 10/13/09 12:40 PM
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Thanks. smile

Quote:
This is no an accurate, word for word ...

Lounge: Unexplained Scientific Principles #4868 (pg. 10)

Re: Post editing
Gregg #4934 10/13/09 01:38 PM
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Typo in post #4868 corrected.

BTW, the page a post appears on depends on each member's forum preference setting, so #4868 isn't necessarily on page 10 for everyone.

Originally Posted By: Gregg
(I think most recognize that it's unwise to make major edits after the first hour or two has passed.)

Most, perhaps, but IME enough don't that even the 24 hour edit window is problematic sometimes.


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Re: Post editing
cyn #4942 10/13/09 05:21 PM
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Thanks. I was just trying to give as many hints as possible about the location. I know there is a way on some forums to provide a link that skips down to a particular post. I've even done it myself once or twice, but I don't remember how I did it.

What's the worst thing that can happen if a post is edited after more posts have been made?

Re: Post editing
Gregg #4944 10/13/09 05:39 PM
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See the "Posting Icon" (typically it's the "book") in the top left corner of the rectangle demarcating your post, above your user name and preceding the Subject of the post?

Right- or Control-clicking that icon and choosing Copy Link (or your browser's equivalent) will give you the URL to display that post directly. Or simply click that icon and copy the URL from your browser's address bar.



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Re: Post editing
dkmarsh #4948 10/13/09 08:14 PM
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Well that's a goodie that I did not know existed, even from the old MFIF, after all those years.

Is there a compendium of stuff like the above "click-on-URL tip" for other things throughout this site?


On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
Re: Post editing
Gregg #4973 10/14/09 08:41 AM
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> What's the worst thing that can happen if a post is edited after more posts have been made?

Editing a post after responses have been posted is simply bad form;" changes to such posts should be made in "the full light of day."

Editing a post to which no responses have been posted, on the other hand, is, in my opinion, of no consequence.

If nobody's looked, who cares, and if nobody who's looked has realized that a post includes a typo or mistake, then, again, who cares?

My personal feeling is that our right of authorship supersedes cyn's right to make arbitrary decisions.

(All of which is not to say that I consider 24 hours to be an inadequate edit window; I'd be happy with it as a universal rule, as opposed to the current patchwork.)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Post editing
dkmarsh #4976 10/14/09 12:54 PM
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Thanks. Now all I have to do is remember that. It's probably different depending on the software. I wonder if there will ever be one standard everyone uses, you know, like the showdown between Beta and VHS, to name a dead technology. wink

Back to the time limit... The reason I think 24 hours is not long enough: I visit the site at the same time on weekdays. It's possible I could see a typo in a post of mine at 24hours and 1minute, and I would not be able to fix it myself. And 1 hour for deleting a post? That's too short! Sorry, but I have other things to attend to...

Re: Post editing
Gregg #4991 10/14/09 09:32 PM
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I agree that allowing unlimited editing of a post based on whether or not there have been replies may appear to be two different things. Unfortunately the forum software provides no mechanism for making such a distinction. Would that be based on a post that "descends" from the post to be edited or any reply to any other post in the entire thread chronologically. Just to get an idea of what I mean, look at this thread in Threaded Mode. (Topic Options > Switch to Threaded mode.) Viewed in "Flat mode" all you see is the chronological sequence. Viewed in Threaded Mode it becomes more complex. Just as an example although I wrote this as a reply to Artie505's reply, I actually replied to Gregg's post.

Editing a post after more posts have been made in the same thread can result in a very confusing thread where a subsequent post references statements that were since modified or deleted by the OP. I have seen a few examples of that here in FTM. If you consider any given thread in light of someone finding it for the first time days, weeks, months, even years later it can potentially leave a troubleshooting thread totally incomprehensible. If there were some way of limiting edits only to spelling and grammar errors it would be a different matter, but I know of no bulletin board software that sophisticated.

While I do not want to put words in their mouths, I believe Cyn, Alternaut, Dianne, DKMarsh, and I share a common view of the troubleshooting threads not just as a means of solving the OP's immediate problem, but as an invaluable archival resource to be used by future users with the same or similar problems with their problems rather than having to re-invent or re-create the wheel every time a situation arises.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Post editing
Gregg #4997 10/14/09 10:52 PM
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Originally Posted By: Gregg
Back to the time limit... The reason I think 24 hours is not long enough: I visit the site at the same time on weekdays. It's possible I could see a typo in a post of mine at 24hours and 1minute, and I would not be able to fix it myself. And 1 hour for deleting a post? That's too short! Sorry, but I have other things to attend to...


I definitely get what you're saying (and I also usually look at the forum once per day or sometimes once every other day, depending on how heavy my workload is).

I'm of two minds on post editing. On the one hand, I've noticed typos or problems in things I've posted a day or two after I've made the post, and ended up frustrated that the editing window has expired.

On the other hand, I've also been on forums that allow unlimited editing with no time window, and I've seen how it can be abused, either non-maliciously (when someone whose question has been answered, or who didn't get any answers that worked, removed or deleted the question) or maliciously (when someone who is angry or upset changed a post for the purpose of making other posters in the thread look bad).

I do think that forums, especially technical forums, have value that goes way beyond just answering a single question for a single user; they serve as archives of problems and solutions--and sometimes solutions that don't work are as valuable as solutions that do. I've solved many problems (usually Windows rather than Mac) by doing Google searches and stumbling across some post in some forum I'd never even heard of that outlines the same problem and a solution, and I can see why there's value in not letting people remove a post or alter it just because they have (or even just because they haven't!) received a solution.

I've gone back and forth on how I feel about post editing windows several times; right now, the place I'm at is "they're sometimes frustrating but the value outweighs the frustration."

As far as FTM goes, I've adopted a kind of hands-off approach to moderation, though; I'm the hosting/technical/engineering guy, so on things like this I let the moderators make the call. smile


Photo gallery, all about me, and more: www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
Re: Post editing
Gregg #5013 10/15/09 08:36 AM
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After others have taken the time to reply to a post, I really don't think it's fair to go back and change the substance of the original. What purpose does unilaterally altering the record really serve, when clarification or second thoughts can be added in a new comment, and thus come to the attention of those engaging in the conversation?

With typos, I generally figure that if they make it through the preview window, a lot of folks will probably read right over them the way I did, or understand what I intended easily enough. Unless they obscure or alter the meaning, going back to dot i's and cross t's, always strikes me a waste of time. I admit, however, that the powerful impulse to make corrections when my errant fingers type "their" instead of "they're," or "it's" instead of "its" can be hard to overcome!

Re: Post editing
cyn #5586 11/06/09 08:12 AM
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Has the edit window been changed from 24 hours to a smaller period of time, cyn?

It is now 3:08 AM, Fri, Nov 6, and my three posts beginning with this one, posted between 3:28 and 3:49 AM on Thurs, Nov 5, are no longer editable.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Post editing
artie505 #5589 11/06/09 12:09 PM
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Quote:
It is now 3:08 AM, Fri, Nov 6...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that the time stamp on your post reads 11/06/09 02:12 AM, which would mean you made it between 24 and 25 hours after the posts you linked to.

My guess is that your server offset adjustment, set in your prefs, is for 3 hours, which was correct during Daylight Saving Time, in effect from FTM's inception until last weekend, but is now off by an hour because the server—located in Arizona, which doens't observe DST—is now only 2 hours later than behind your local time.

Last edited by dkmarsh; 11/06/09 12:11 PM.


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Re: Post editing
dkmarsh #5591 11/06/09 12:28 PM
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Originally Posted By: dkmarsh

Quote:
It is now 3:08 AM, Fri, Nov 6...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that the time stamp on your post reads 11/06/09 02:12 AM, which would mean you made it between 24 and 25 hours after the posts you linked to.

My guess is that your server offset adjustment, set in your prefs, is for 3 hours, which was correct during Daylight Saving Time, in effect from FTM's inception until last weekend, but is now off by an hour because the server—located in Arizona, which doens't observe DST—is now only 2 hours later than behind your local time.


The time stamp on my post, which I posted at 3:12 AM, is #5586 - 11/06/09 04:12 AM, which I never noticed, so you're on the mark. (I've always thought AZ was Pacific time, and who knew the server is in AZ, anyhow.)

I'll change my offset, and I'll also suggest that this tidbit be posted for the benefit of others.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire

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