Time limit on editing posts on this forum

[chadrt]

I understand why the feature has been implemented but my personal opinion, for what little its worth, is that it should be ok to edit up till a followup reply has been made.  Of course if you gave me a penny for my thoughts I would owe you change...

[neylitalo]

The last time I checked, such a condition didn't exist in the settings, so I don't think that can actually be done. A good idea, but I'm not sure if it's possible.

Then again, the last time I was in the permissions settings, I broke stuff, so take it with a grain of salt. :P

[ober]

neylitalo is correct.  That cannot be done with the current settings, but I'd agree that it's a good point!

[GingerRobot]

Have you decided to change this setting now? There appears to be no time limit for editing?

[ober]

That's odd... it got shut off.  It's back now.

[revraz]

Now it's at about 5 mins, or less, not 15 like stated earlier.

[ober]

It's 2 minutes, and we're discussing it.

[GingerRobot]

Personally, i think two minutes is fine. I only really use the edit to fix typo's anyway.

[revraz]

Ok, this was the last post I noticed about the timeframe, so I was just mentioning it if 2 mins wasn't correct.

 

 

 

The time limit has been increased to 15 minutes. 

 

[SuperBlue]

From own experiance, i can say that limiting the functionality is bad. Not allowing users to atleast "hide" their messages, and or edit their posts, is a very unprofessional approach. How many users are we not, who have felt the pain from this on other forums, and in some way or the other getting annoyed by this limitation every day elswhere allready?

 

 

Ultimately we as users are the Author of our own posts, and as such should be entitled to decide as to what extend we allow it to be handled, and or used. These forums have the ability to allow the Author's of a given text, or post, to be the moderator of their own work, Sadly with the exception of a working delete button, i see no reason to limit the functionality further by putting a time-limit on edits.  :'(

 

It is true that some may delete their post's because they think that they in some way make them look bad, or for other unknown reasons. However this forum have a decent amount of quality posts, and posters, it should easily be able to handle a few deleted posts; Not intire threeds though!

As such, it may or may not be something you want to entitle reguler posters to, trough the existing forum ranks.

 

The above is minding that Author's sometimes may want to delete, and or modify their original text's, and should be able to do so. Their motivations for doing it, isent really any of our buisness; If the reason for not allowing author's to delete posts, is to preserve threeds, then i would say work around it by only deleting the first post, being the orginal text of the author. In case of abuse, a "hide/unhide" button may actuelly be a much better choice, then the post would be hidden from reguler users, and over time the post could fade out from the system.

 

As for Edits, instead of a time limit, i propose a actual limit of how many times a post can be edited, old versions could be saved in the system in case of abuse. I couldent help to note, that admins got contacted by users who for whatever reason wanted their post's deleted, that wouldent have happend if they where able to delete them by temself. In my case i never contacted you to delete anything, even though i've been annoyed by the limitation's of this forum, i've chosen to live with this unjustified limitation of my online experiance, but only because phpfreaks is what it is.

 

 

One way to encourage the use of the preview button (not saying its the best), would be to display a warning to users, who is found to commit to frequently accouring edits, after a post, also since this tend to hit down on the server.

[ober]

I appreciate the arguments made, but apparently you haven't read the entire thread or you refuse to see our side of the story. 

 

And your comment about "being the author of the thread gives you supreme ability to do whatever with it" doesn't hold up.  Anything you post here immediately becomes intellectual property of phpfreaks, therefore we can tell you what you can and cannot do with it.

 

It goes beyond people editing posts for errors.  It's also about maintaining a communication flow.  As it's been pointed out COUNTLESS times, it stops people from editing the first post in a thread and making the rest of the people offering help look like a bunch of fools.

 

End of story, the time limit sticks whether it is increased or not is still under discussion.

[revraz]

Sometimes I think of other things to add to my post and I only add them if no one has posted since I did.  But if the mods don't mind a new post since we can't edit the first one, no problem here.  Many forums consider that spamming.

[redbullmarky]

Many forums consider that spamming.

sure - but personally i'd rather have a board clogged up with additional posts with additional useful info, than a board clogged up with threads that make no sense due to a user editing a post that has been replied to, be it to delete it or change it beyond initial meaning.

 

it's not very often we have to remove topics or warn users for spamming in this way, if the content is going to help the topic be more clear (as opposed to many mindless bumps within tiny amounts of time). after all, clear topics that help people are why we get so many visitors and members. i'd rather live with occasionally doing this than removing entire threads due to the fact they make no sense.

 

on another point, @BlueBoden - you're entitled to an opinion, but unfortunately we cant make everyone happy - and ultimately the admin's have the final say and need to make decisions because the place would fall to pieces otherwise. in this case, i 110% agree with having a time limit. If you'd have been around before the timelimit was introduced, you'd agree too - trust me.

[tomfmason]

If you'd have been around before the timelimit was introduced, you'd agree too - trust me.

 

Ah.. I remember those days. I have seen on many occasions where someone would ask a really simple question and then would decide to switch out the content of the first post with something like "mod please remove this post" or whatever. Questions that many find easy or stupid may indeed be what is hanging other people up on their work.

 

For the people like my self that can't spell or make many common grammatical errors, just make sure your post is correct before posting it . Firefox has a built in spell checker that makes my life easier. Now all I need to do is learn how to form a sentence correctly...

[448191]

I've been against this 'feature' from the start, but I'll agree on some people misusing the ability to edit their posts.

 

IMO, misusing === misbehaving === warning, potential ban, eventually.

 

Yes, in my humble opinion, people should be allowed to edit their posts. If the editing is in some way inappropriate, well, that's what you have moderators for.

[Daniel0]

Man... I was beginning to like being able to edit my posts again

 

Still though, while the time limit for some reason was off some people did go back editing their topic so the repliers would look like complete morons asking for details which were already provided (after the edit).

 

In a "real" conversation you can't go back and edit what you've previously said so it makes sense not being able to edit what you say here after a certain amount of time as well.

[revraz]

Would be cool to only allow and edit only if no one replied after you.

[ober]

Wow... how many times do I have to respond to that? It's not a feature of SMF currently!

[revraz]

Thats where the "would be cool" part comes from.

 

And this is a PHP community, you're telling me with all this talent someone can't make a mod?

 

Wow... how many times do I have to respond to that?  It's not a feature of SMF currently!

[trq]

And this is a PHP community, you're telling me with all this talent someone can't make a mod?

 

Yeah, whats stopping you?

 

However, even if there was a mod, we are reluctant to mod the board too much.

[tomfmason]

However, even if there was a mod, we are reluctant to mod the board too much.

 

I would have to agree with Thorpe on this one. I am not all that familiar with smf or writing mods for it. However, as a general rule modifying an application can become a real problem when updating that application. So by the administration keeping the smf modifications to a bare minimum they are saving everyone from a potential major headache. Keep in mind that future versions of smf may have conflicts with modifications already in place. Why add to this potential headache if it is not absolutely necessary?

[SuperBlue]

And your comment about "being the author of the thread gives you supreme ability to do whatever with it" doesn't hold up.  Anything you post here immediately becomes intellectual property of phpfreaks, therefore we can tell you what you can and cannot do with it.

Dont belive the useragreement reflect that atm, you may want to correct it.  ???

 

On the other hand, the suggestion about not being able to edit after someone replied to a post, still violates my usability idea. I've experianced this on other forums aswell; There would be times where such a edit might be needed, or would be beneficial for the content in the threed. Perhaps a better practice would be to, have the forum alert the user that a new reply was made, while they where editing.

 

 

But since you are out of other options at this time, i'd say leave the limit in peace for now.  :'(

[ober]

That option you're talking about either is in place or is in a patch we haven't applied yet (I need to get around to that).  And yes, I'm aware that the user agreement needs some work.

[Cep]

Has the time limit changed, I posted and then several seconds later went to modify and can't. I know we have a time limit but I think this was a little ridiculous

[ober]

The limit is still several minutes.