this is rather annoying. i just double posted (stupid slow connection 
) and i cant even edit my own post. why not?
A list of similar threads.
The search button is your friend.
The basic answer is that “It’s been abused a lot.” Imagine a troll (someone who posts simply to cause trouble or stir up a reaction) posting something like “All gay people are pedophile rapists”, and then changing it after he gets a bunch of angry people calling him an ass.
abused? I don’t recall it ever having been turned on. It was the (legitimate) fear of abuse, I think…
Basically, the administration of this site have had enough experiences with complete and total lunatics, and several people who are simply dishonest, malevolent fucks, along with other assorted miscreants that they feel that this ability would be abused for evil purposes. When html was enabled, someone screwed with the banner ads that used to be displayed, while it was possible, someone repeatedly registered using other people’s usernames, with a hidden space at the beginning, someone hacked the server and stole passwords, and someone once managed to get the email server to send emails to posters claiming to be from the administration here. I’m sure I’m missing a few incidents as well.
In short, extra features are generally a liability.
Cuz the providers of this free board say so. Don’t like it? Start your own damn board.
< evil grin, hehe >
Not complaining, but at the forums at somethingawful.com I can’t recall ever seeing the ‘edit post’ feature abused, and that forum is a LOT more chaotic than this one. If I did happen to find a thread where everybody was complaining about how bad a seemingly innocuous post was, and saw that ‘Edited by XXXXXXX’ at the bottom of said post, I’d figure out what was going on.
yes, point taken that people can abuse it.
i double posted because my link kept timing out (was having problems with isp last night)
surely there could be a time limit on the ability to edit messasges? only be able to edit it for up to 1-2 hrs after it is posted, and put an “edited by:XXXX” at the top or bottom?
im not crazy. i just get these headaches 
Ah, but it’s been abused on other message boards. See, I didn’t specify the abuse on THIS board, did I? 
It’s not just your ISP. Many of us have been double posting (and I’d have to think it’s accidental!), mainly because after we hit the ol’ Submit button, the browser times out. We’re (and I am using the royal ‘we’ here) assume the post hasn’t gone through, so we hit Submit again.
No big whup.
Generally, you can assume that your post went through. In 97% of all cases where the browser times out or something, your post did go through. If you really doubt it, copy the text into Notepad and check to see if it posted, and if not, repost the text.
As they say “trust the CGI”. Even if we no longer use CGI scripting, “trust the PHP” doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Well, maybe the powers that be are afraid that if you EDIT your post, you will just make matters worse?
No, that can’t be it.
Or can it?
(eerie Twilight Zone music playing in the background)
Maybe…if you edit your post, it will change the time continuam? Is that last thing even a word?
My head hurts.
If I knew people had the ability to edit their posts, I’d feel a bigger compulsion to quote them (in the original) in my replies. The more rancorous debates (as I’ve seen them) have hinged on nuance and people accusing others of “misreading” them. Sometimes they are right–the other Doper is overreacting or is too goddamn stupid to know what a word means. Sometimes they are wrong–their post clearly demonstrates their Hidden Jackass is scratching at its cage dying to come out, and their fellow Dopers are fair in calling them on it. When you’re trying to sort all this crap our after the fact, you gotta have the original. It’s only when the original words stand that others can judge.
It’s annoying as hell when you’ve merely committed a spelling error or you’ve double-posted, but I’d rather it be this way. Otherwise I’d be quoting (often) and in toto because god forbid I get accused of taking something out of context.
I’ll bet that’s a rehash of the previous 18 threads on this topic.
This is one reason I decided to mod again. Post something stupid while drunk? I can change it later. La la la la.
I’m preserving this. Y’know, for posterity;-)
Scotti, it’s continuum, I think. Right idea, wrong letter:-)
Yeah, I got a copy archived too, just in case we come back tomorrow to find an “edited by JillGat on . . .” at the bottom of these last three posts . . . y’know, once she sobers up.
Would that be POSTerity?
Maybe, you’re not allowed to edit your posts because you still haven’t mastered the concepts of punctuation and capitalization.
Viva Literacy!