Where's my edit button at?

[Hank Fletcher]

I've noticed some forum changes lately. My favourite part of this forum was the "edit" button. I hate typoss! I mean, typos. The edit button seems to disappear and never reappear after I leave my post. I think other members were using this manner of improving coherence in their posts, too, and it's more convenient than proof-reading or copying into Word to check before you post. Bring back the edit feature!

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I think it's a 15 minute edit timer. IMO it's a good idea.

 

[Pommie]

Hank,

I agree completely. On forums where opinions are posted and arguments won and lost the lack of edit facilities may be a good thing, on a technical forum editing is essential.

How many times do you see posts that have been corrected due to a later post pointing out the error. With this new system you will get numerous posts pointing out the error in post 3 because that error cannot be rectified. This is and will be a valuable archive, to have it full of errors is plain silly.

Whilst I think a 15 minute edit time is far too short, I don't think going back to infinite edit time is a good thing. Maybe make it something like a week. My reason for this is that a thread I spent a lot of time answering became pointless when the OP went back months later and deleted all his posts.

Mike.
Edited to point out I was agreeing with Hank.

 

[dknguyen]

Testing Editing Button.

EDIT: THe button works...at least for a time. If it does expire it should be at least an hour. I've spent an hour before editing and rediting particularily important and complex posts.

 

[Pommie]

I think it's a 15 minute edit timer. IMO it's a good idea.

Why do you think it's a good idea?

Mike.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

For the same reason as you originally posted, some users would delete entire threads if they were unhappy or reedit and put the post out of context. If you make a mistake just post a message saying so in a reply, most people seem to only read the most recent posts anyway.

 

[Torben]

When I first noticed the change I agreed with Hank. After a while I changed my mind and now agree with Bill. Technical corrections can be made in a followup post, but going back after the fact and revising earlier posts can invalidate (or at least render confusing) any following discussion of the post.

There are cases where I've learned quite a bit from following a thread through a bad initial circuit post, followed by several posts in which the designer is coached toward a better solution. Some of those conversations would have been harder to understand if the original post were not intact.

The time limit could be longer, though.


Just my $0.02,

Torben

 

[Pommie]

Maybe posters views are swayed by where they tend to post. Personally, I post mostly in the Microcontroller section and tend to post a lot of code examples. The idea of not being able to correct erroneous code will make me far less likely to post in the future.

I can only think of one example where the edit system has been abused and that would have been fixed by setting the edit time to 1 week. Most poster also add an edit note to prevent any confusion.

As I said earlier, this is a valuable archive and should be kept as error free as possible. Deliberately making it difficult to correct errors just seems silly.

Mike.

 

[dknguyen]

I can't edit my last posit anymore!

 

[Torben]

Maybe posters views are swayed by where they tend to post. Personally, I post mostly in the Microcontroller section and tend to post a lot of code examples. The idea of not being able to correct erroneous code will make me far less likely to post in the future.

I can only think of one example where the edit system has been abused and that would have been fixed by setting the edit time to 1 week. Most poster also add an edit note to prevent any confusion.

As I said earlier, this is a valuable archive and should be kept as error free as possible. Deliberately making it difficult to correct errors just seems silly.

Mike.

I see where you're coming from but I disagree that it's any harder to make corrections. Posting a correction doesn't seem to me any worse an option than editing the earlier post and has the added benefit of not invalidating any following discussion.

I think a week would be a bit long but maybe the lesser of one login session or 24 hours would be good.

I agree with your point on the "which forum you post on" thing but that would only apply to those posting nearly exclusively in **** Chat. The other forums are all technical (well, maybe General Electronics Chat too).


Torben

 

[Pommie]

When people use the search engine to find the solution to a problem or a particular piece of code they don't read the whole thread.

Hands up, who wants an archive with fewer errors? I do.

Leaving the errors will reduce it's value.

Mike.

 

[Torben]

When people use the search engine to find the solution to a problem or a particular piece of code they don't read the whole thread.

Hands up, who wants an archive with fewer errors? I do.

Leaving the errors will reduce it's value.

Mike.

Whatever; I honestly don't think it's a big issue one way or the other. People who can't be bothered to scan a thread for corrections have only themselves to blame.

I was happy with it before except when people would edit their old posts, and I'm happy with it now (so far).


Torben

 

[Hero999]

Test post.

Edit

 

[Hero999]

Another Test post

 

[Hero999]

I've noticed this to.

This is odd, I would have thought it only disabled the edit button after someone else has posted, unless it doesn't work if you double post.

 

[Hero999]

Actually, I think it might disable the edit button, after another member has viewed your post.

Also, I know that too has two 'o's in it, it was a typographical error and the forum won't allow me to correct it.

 

[Papabravo]

Less errors -- more freedom!

 

[Hero999]

I think it's a 15 minute edit timer. IMO it's a good idea.

You're right, there is a 15 miniute timer.

I created an edit link for a post I typed over 15 miniutes ago, in the hope I could get round this limitation but I was presented with the following error:

The administrator has specified that you can only edit messages for 15 minutes after you have posted. This limit has expired, so you must contact the administrator to make alterations on your message.

 

[ericgibbs]

hi hero,
There is now a 15min limit on editing.

Its a pain, especially if you are trying correct an error, so it dosn't get misread in the future.

Also when you are working with a OP and he asks another question relating your previous post, you just cant go back and add an update.

 

[Hero999]

I don't see any need for this time limt.

The forum software keep a log of all the changes to a post, so if someone replaced the first post in thier thread with gibberish a moderator could revert it back to the origional.

To see this, create a post and edit it several times. You'll notice that there's a link saying "Lasted edited by X at date and time", click it and it'll take you to a screen where you can compare different versions.