About Editing Posts
 

I can't help but noticed that this time, after a few hours, I can't edit my post. Before, we have about 72 hours to edit our posts. I thought it was just me, until SJH mentioned that he couldn't edit his post either (re: the oversized image), and it was barely even 3 days. How come?

Mm, yeah. I'd also like a bit more time, please (if we really need a time limit at all). I wanted to go back and add a picture to my Day 1 post of the 5DAS playthrough, but after only a couple of days it wasn't editable.

It wasn't even 24 hours and I couldn't edit my post in another thread.

It must be a recent problem... I was able to edit the first post of my Beneath a Steel Sky thread once, which gives an edit limit of at least a week.

Peace & Luv, Liz

Guess we need a mod/admin to answer this one. I'm glad the subject's come up because I was going to ask how long you could edit a post myself.

Yoohoo. Founts of all knowledge to whom we bow in gratitude for all the hard work you put in to make this a great place to be. Please answer our most humble query.

OK, that comes across as sarcastic. I really do appreciate the hard work the staff put in here. Honest!

Only the admins have the answer. I have no edit limit, so wouldn't have noticed.

Only Doug has the answer, really. :)

It's possible the length of time changed when the latest bulletin board update was done. I did notice at that time that "edited by..." with a timestamp stopped appearing when you edit a post.

In the meanwhile there are ways around this. For one, be more conscientious about how final your post is before posting it. If you find that you had to add/fix/subtract something and you can't edit post #17, then link to it from a new post within the same thread and type that you wanted to add/fix/subtract post #17. Another way is to quote yourself and type something like "This is what I actually meant to say".

This should be fixed now. There's still a limit, but it's something like 3 days. If anyone has trouble editing a post in a shorter timeframe than that, please let us know.

Why is there any limit to begin with? What if I get drunk and post a compromising picture on the What Do You Look Like thread, but don't realize it until a week later? Or suppose I get googled by a potential employer and they deny me a job based me on me calling the people at StarForce a bunch of b*stards (which I wanted to edit out a few days later, as it really was a stupid and immature thing to say, even if they are), will AG.com intercede on my behalf? Am I going to have to take serious responsibility for everything I say in fun, and "say what I mean, and mean what I say?"

Is this just one of those things where the board software has a time limit and it has to be something, so 3 seemed like as good a number as any? What about the community playthroughs? And finally, does this post have enough question marks?

???

Well, if any of those things happens, I think you'll have learned an important lesson about posting responsibly on the internet. If you get drunk and post a compromising picture, and then don't notice it for a week, why is that our fault? Likewise, if you're searching for a job in software, maybe you shouldn't be publically calling people at software firms names, eh? The internet is a public forum, and just because you're not talking to us face to face doesn't mean you're not accountable for what you say. Real life doesn't work that way, be glad you get a few days.

:) Exactly, tabs. That's what I meant when I stated this above:

If you feel strongly that you want to edit a post and are no longer able to do so, you can always ask a moderator to do it for you.

Like tabacco said, you don't get to take back things you've said in person, so three days is a luxury.

I think there needs to be a limit to editing. A discussion can become impossible to follow if everyone keeps going back and changing things they said a week ago. There's really only a few good reasons for editing a post (for example, someone just pointed out I posted spoiler material in clear so I've fixed that)

If you've posted something you regret, the chances are anyone who was going to be offended will have seen it after 3 days. If you want to retract your statement they are much more likely to see a new post apologising than notice your old post has changed.

As for compromising pictures, the chances are someone will already have copied it to an e-mail and forwarded them round the world if you've left them a week. :D

EDIT Editing is good for fixing typos too. But that really is something you should fix BEFORE posting. Hoy Trep. Can you change that "wekk" to "week" in your quote?

:P Or is making tons of money from it on eBay.

Bah, being responsible is too much trouble. I'll take my chances otherwise. :P

Besides, now that I think of it, after having worked with some very interesting characters in the industry, I'm probably pretty safe anyway. I once knew a guy who came to work in the summers wearing speedo bikini bottoms and no shirt - and we didn't work at SeaWorld. If they can put up with a guy like that, I probably don't have much to worry about. Then again, he was terribly brilliant... okay then, maybe a bloke like me should be more careful about what he says and does. No more posting Purity Test scores for me. :D

I mainly want to edit my posts in order to fix typos, improve grammar or wording, clarify unclear sentences, or sometimes do things like add a link or a picture. It doesn't matter how old the post is; if I'm browsing and I notice I made a mistake, I want to correct it. It's mildly annoying to not have the option, which I'm used to from other forums.

I don't get the impression that edit-abuse or revisionism is a big problem on these forums, but I suppose there's a theoretical danger of it if there was no time-limit on editing. So it's a trade-off. But could we please get a bit more time? Like a week?

^ A week sounds good to me. At least let us have more time to edit the first post in a thread, if not the others.

Three days is fine. Chances are, everyone's read your post by a week and are not going to look at it again if you edit.

What he said.