# Please consider allowing more than five minutes for edits **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 28, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427 "2011-08-28T22:51:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/1 "2011-08-28T22:51:33Z")
Could the admins please give some thought to allowing ten or 15 minutes for edits, rather than just 5? Five minutes is not long enough to look up and fix what you did wrong with some BB code tag, and since the tiny windows for composing posts don’t lend themselves to proofreading, it’s very often not even long enough to fix simple typos in a post of any length. I understand the rationale for not allowing someone to change the substance of his post after being challenged on some point, but I doubt that would happen within ten or 15 minutes very often, and in any case the edit time would be noted. I think the small chance of lasting harm done is far outweighed by the convenience of allowing people to read and correct a complex post before it’s set in concrete. Thank you for your consideration. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/2 "2011-08-28T22:56:33Z")
You can use “preview post” (available in “post reply,” or if you start with “quick reply” by clicking on “go advanced”) to see what your post will look like, check your links and coding, etc. You can use the preview button as many times as you want/need to; the clock doesn’t start until you hit “submit.” ---
**Author:** ![brocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@brocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brocks)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/3 "2011-08-28T23:03:58Z")
Oh. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/4 "2011-08-28T23:41:51Z")
> [@brocks](#): > > Could the admins please give some thought to allowing ten or 15 minutes for edits, rather than just 5? Five minutes is not long enough to look up and fix what you did wrong with some BB code tag, and since the tiny windows for composing posts don’t lend themselves to proofreading, it’s very often not even long enough to fix simple typos in a post of any length.\ You can make the tiny window for composing larger by clicking on the little arrowheads at the top right just outside the typing field, above the smilies. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/5 "2011-08-29T02:21:04Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > You can make the tiny window for composing larger by clicking on the little arrowheads at the top right just outside the typing field, above the smilies. \ Whoa! I never knew that! Useful. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/6 "2011-08-29T03:07:42Z")
You can also drag the six dots at the lower right of the reply window for more control over the size. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/7 "2011-08-29T03:17:49Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > You can also drag the six dots at the lower right of the reply window for more control over the size. Okay, that one I didn’t know. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/8 "2011-08-29T03:25:43Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > You can also drag the six dots at the lower right of the reply window for more control over the size. Wow, you can do this with both standard and quick replies. Thanks, I’d never known about this. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/9 "2011-08-29T03:55:07Z")
I can’t find the six dots. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/10 "2011-08-29T04:01:20Z")
I, too, did not know about increasing the field size. Cool! (But I would still also like to see more than 5 minutes for edits.) ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/11 "2011-08-29T05:06:39Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > You can make the tiny window for composing larger by clicking on the little arrowheads at the top right just outside the typing field, above the smilies. > [@ultrafilter](#): > > You can also drag the six dots at the lower right of the reply window for more control over the size. Thanks for the tips! ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/12 "2011-08-29T05:20:10Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > I can’t find the six dots. They don’t really look like six dots. Look at the actual box you type your replies into. Bottom right-hand corner there’s what looks like two little horizontal lines (it’s actually six dots). Click and drag that just like you would a window in Windows. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/13 "2011-08-29T05:32:49Z")
I was confused by the “six dots” thing, too. They don’t show up for me in Opera or IE; I had to load the page in Firefox to see them. [Here’s a screenshot](http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5851/dotsq.png). ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/14 "2011-08-29T05:59:06Z")
> [@Roland\_Orzabal](#): > > I was confused by the “six dots” thing, too. They don’t show up for me in Opera or IE; I had to load the page in Firefox to see them. [Here’s a screenshot](http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5851/dotsq.png). For some reason, the dots don’t appear in my Firefox (on a Mac) and the arrows above the smilies don’t appear to work. Oh, never mind, I was using the arrows incorrectly… :smack: The dots still aren’t here tho! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/15 "2011-08-29T12:24:24Z")
I think the dots are a Firefox 6 thing. They showed up on all text entry blocks on web forms after a fairly recent FF update. They are not specific to the Dope (I never knew about the arrows, though). Knowing FF, the dots (or something that does what they do) are probably an HTML standard now, but that does not mean that browsers other than FF will have implemented them (they are not there in IE 9 64 bit). Despite this, I would like to second the OP’s plea for more edit time. I am a lousy typist and sometimes even make new errors in my corrections through rushing them. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/16 "2011-08-29T12:35:50Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Despite this, I would like to second the OP’s plea for more edit time. I am a lousy typist and sometimes even make new errors in my corrections through rushing them. So do I, but I try to catch them in preview. That’s what it’s there for. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/17 "2011-08-29T12:41:29Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I think the dots are a Firefox 6 thing. They showed up on all text entry blocks on web forms after a fairly recent FF update. They are not specific to the Dope > . . . With Chrome, there are two little lines in the bottom right corner. Same function though. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/18 "2011-08-29T13:27:28Z")
Wow, I never saw the dots before now … learn something new every day if you’re not careful! Thanks for the good tips here. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/19 "2011-08-29T15:40:43Z")
If I’ve screwed up a post so much that 5 minutes isn’t enough time to fix it, I copy the code and delete the post and start over with a fresh one. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427/20 "2011-08-29T15:42:41Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > If I’ve screwed up a post so much that 5 minutes isn’t enough time to fix it, I copy the code and delete the post and start over with a fresh one. Delete the post? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-consider-allowing-more-than-five-minutes-for-edits/594427.md?page=2)