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I realize that posts can be edited for a few minutes after posting but it would be nice to be able to edit the post without time restrictions as well as delete our own posts. Many times one may make a post then notice 15 minutes later it looks like you wrote it after hitting your head, or you have posted a new thread that doesn't belong in the subforum or you have answered on your own and would like to delete it.
That's one of those ideas that seems great, but can lead to messes later. On other boards that allow unlimited editing, I've seen far too many instances of a member who has made hundreds of posts getting into a snit and deleting many or all of their old posts. This spiteful deleting effectively wrecks the conversation in 100s of threads... which is exactly what it was designed to do.
It might not be something you would ever do. But there are far too many people who would.
One of the major problems inherent in allowing members to edit or delete their own posts is the issue of "orphaning."
When one posts to a thread, one expects that others will respond to that post. If a member then goes and edits or deletes what they've already posted, say days or weeks later, then all the responses to the original post may not make any sense at all.
I believe that is the main reason this board does not allow the editing of posts. Even the 90-minute window may lead to the situation described. I think that 90-minutes is generous.
Even when asking a moderator to edit one of your posts, if too many responses have to be edited or deleted, a moderator will usually refuse to make the edit.
Bottom line, IMO, is to think carefully what you want to say before you post. Make sure it's exactly what you want to say and beware of emotional responses as sometimes it may not be possible to retract what you've said.
The forum that I post on most often is more active than this one and allows unlimited editing/deleting. I can't think of a single instance of someone deleting a post and having a thread not make any sense. Most often it is used for someone to edit a post to clarify what they want to say without having to post additional info which may end up being separated by several other posts.
The forum that I post on most often is more active than this one and allows unlimited editing/deleting. I can't think of a single instance of someone deleting a post and having a thread not make any sense. Most often it is used for someone to edit a post to clarify what they want to say without having to post additional info which may end up being separated by several other posts.
I'm surprised. If you post something and then two weeks later, for instance, you change (edit) what you said, then all those posts that may have responded to your original post could very well not make any sense at all because they were responding to what you originally wrote which could, in theory, be totally different than the edited version.
It would be a nightmare in terms of moderation so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for this forum to change the rules on that.
As has been said, you can always contact a moderator to make a slight edit but keep in mind, many will quote your post when composing their own post so a moderator would then have to go and change each of those quotes too. If dozens of responses have been responding to your post, then it would take a moderator a lot of time to go through and change each and every one of those quotes and not only the quotes, they'd have to read each responding post to make sure it wouldn't have to be orphaned ...most moderators I know don't have the time to do that.
And, because of the feature of being able to quote another member's post, if one were given editing ability with no time limit, they could not go and edit another member's post to either remove or edit their original quote in the responding post.
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Last edited by scirocco22; 04-30-2011 at 06:06 PM..
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sinking
The forum that I post on most often is more active than this one and allows unlimited editing/deleting. I can't think of a single instance of someone deleting a post and having a thread not make any sense. Most often it is used for someone to edit a post to clarify what they want to say without having to post additional info which may end up being separated by several other posts.
I agree with the moderators on this point. If I ever felt the need to edit/clarify a post after the 90 minute time period, I usually just quote myself and clarify or update in my post.
The bottom line. The Moderators edit, delete and clean up the messes. You can always ask any Mod for help thorough the Report Post icon or a DM (direct message).
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