# Do charter members get a longer edit window?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-charter-members-get-a-longer-edit-window/739303>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [December 3, 2015, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-charter-members-get-a-longer-edit-window/739303 "2015-12-03T11:12:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 10

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-charter-members-get-a-longer-edit-window/739303/10 "2015-12-03T18:29:43Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> It’s not just trollery. I’ve seen threads on other message boards fall apart into complete nonsense because of the thread-starter editing the OP to “clarify” it every so often, leading to all of the posts before any given clarification referring to things that weren’t there. No ill will was intended, but it still ended up as a mess.

Exactly. It’s hard to have a conversation when what was said previously can change. There’s also the problem of people quoting text that ends up being changed subsequently.

The five-minute edit window was selected to try to give a balance between allowing people some time to fix mistakes in their post, while also giving the conversation some permanence. The longer an edit window that’s allowed, the greater the possibility for confusion.

But when all is said and done, it’s only a message board post. Typos shouldn’t be a big deal unless they radically change the meaning of a post. And even if they are, and you miss the edit window, you can post a clarification subsequently.

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