New Forum Post Editing Time
SiCo
EnglandPosts: 1,371M
Good morning, can I gather some opinions on post editing. It appears the old forum had no editing limits, whereas the new forum by default limits you to 15 mins of editing after posting.
I can change this, however in my opinion you shouldn't be editing a post you should be adding to the topic. However, I gather some users are using it to keep detailed lists and information, which I do agree it is useful to edit the post.
The other option is I can create a new group of users with permission to always edit. I am a little loathed to allow everyone to edit as I can see posts being wiped or changed. Obviously though this is how it was and I am happy to change it back.
Please let e know your thoughts below.
Simon
Comments
Well I can’t recall the edit function ever really being abused (wiping or changing posts) for the whole time it was a thing on the old site (or at least for the 5 years or so I’ve been a member), so I don’t think it should be restricted on the new site just because there might be a chance it could happen.
15 mins seems fine to me.
For an example of why sometimes its essential to be able to edit posts even months later, see Revelator's thread where he compiled his collection of Fleming's book reviews: hyperlink to thread here
It took him over a year to add all those Fleming rarities as individual posts one by one, and as he did, each time he went back to his opening post and edited it to add the latest title to a "table of contents" and hyperlink directly to the appropriate post. Makes that thread a nice resource for all to consult for years to come, very well organised, and would not be so easy to consult if there were no "table of contents" in the opening post.
Fellow members using the technology to share their research like that is one of the reasons I appreciate this forum. I think a 15 minute time limit on editing would discourage such contributions, and instead encourage silly banter which is of less interest to me.
Yes, that's a good point.
I think caractacus potts has a valid point...perhaps it could be left as is and we can see if it’s abused…?
oh no, after linking to Revelators thread as an example of the potential of Editing months after posting....
I see all his carefully formatted hyperlinks to his own posts no longer work!
each one leads to a page that looks like this, I think its a blank page for starting a new thread?
I'm wondering if maybe all the unique IDs per each individual post got lost when moving everything to the new software? or replaced by all-new all-different Vanilla unique IDs?
i.e. Revelator's hyperlinks are trying to link to a unique ID that no longer exists?
that's probably going to affect any other hyperlinks to individual posts within the forum!
(sorry, nothing to do with the editing time limit, I know, it's just in the the context of this discussion I noticed the problem)
I'll chime in here and say that I would be in favour of the 15 minute post editing limit being removed and the old AJB system of no post editing time limit being restored. Like the others have said I don't remember it ever being abused by members here when there wasn't a limit.
I personally think it's great to be able to edit posts in a minor way, such as correcting spelling or grammar. It's also good for correcting factual mistakes after the fact. Putting a time limit on editing posts means mistakes of grammar, spelling and fact are effectively trapped in amber and can never be corrected again. For a stickler for detail, spelling, grammar and accurate facts such as myself that would be rather frustrating. I don't see people abusing it as being a problem really as people didn't do that under the old software so I don't see why they would do it now under the new software. That's just my take on the matter.
Ok I’ve turned the limit off let’s see how it goes. As there wasn’t one before I can’t see why we need it now!
@caractacus potts i will look into those post links and see if I can’t fix them. I’m hoping the ids are the same. I’m not sure if Vanilla has the concept of linking to individual posts. I will sort something out.
That's great news, @SiCo! Thank you so much! I don't anticipate there being any problems with it as members here are pretty responsible.
@SiCo if you look at a post with a quote within a quote, the nested quote seems to be getting replaced by a link to the original post, including a long numeric string. Also, the results of the Search tool you installed produces links to individual posts, and when you follow the link you will see the URL also ends with a long numeric string.
for example, here's Barbel's latest Imaginary Conversation, as returned by the Search function: https://www.ajb007.co.uk/discussion/comment/1014910#Comment_1014910
quoting Sillhouette Man here just to illustrate how the quote within a quote is actually a hyperlink to the original post.
@caractacus potts Good spot, so hopefully the id's are the same and I can just redirect them.
@caracara I have added the post number feature to the posts. I will work on fixing old post links next. Also as I have recently found out the date on every post is also a link back to the comment (not very obvious!).