Reasons for editing posts?

I am curious. For what reasons do we usually edit our posts? Spelling? After thoughts?

For me, it is always, always the same two issues. I forget to bold the name of posters that I mention, so I edit to go back and bold it.

Any other time I edit, it is because I have used slang terms. I go back and remove them so that you guys don’t have to put up with what I really sound like!

How about YOU?

Usually spelling though I don’t worry so much about that. Sometimes I realize I didn’t complete my thought and have to add another sentence or two. For some reason these thoughts never come to me when I preview, only after I submit.

Often, it’s just that I was typing quickly and not fully paying attention to what I was posting, so I misspelled something, used slang no one here would understand, or brutally raped the English language (grammar).

I notice some people post random letters so that they can quickly fill a post slot (get their post in early) and then spend the 5 minutes composing their message properly now that they’ve got the early slot.
ETA: I’m terrible for afterthoughts, so most of my edits are those.

Some people edit their posts but don’t change anything.

Just to make people wonder what was changed.

My reasons for editing, in approximate order of occurrence:

*Noticed a misspelling or missed word after posting.
*Decided to revise what I wrote.
*Thought of something more to say.
*Saw that somebody else had already said what I said and deleted post.
*Decided my post might be misconstrued and deleted it.
*Hit the submit key accidentally and hadn’t finshed my post.

[ul][]spelling[]formatting[]bad grammar[]add somethingrephrase for better clarity[/ul]

Mostly spelling or grammar, I suppose.

Mostly because of an afterthought. If I notice the typos, that’s reason number two – but I usually don’t notice the little sods 'till way too late. shrug

Mostly I edit for missing a keystroke somewhere. The other reason I edit is pre-emptive defense–realizing some dingbat is probably going to take offense to something I said unless I add some kind of qualifier.

Edit: No particular dingbats in mind, of course.

Mostly either punctuation or clarification (it just looks unclear when I see it posted.)

Second most common is to react to simulposts.

Spelling errors are rare – not because I’m such a great speller, but because FireFox has a built-in spell checker. I love FireFox :slight_smile:

I end up editing as the result of a misplaced sense of confidence that what I write is coherent on the first try. So sure am I of my authorial brilliance that I often hit “post quick reply” without bothering to carefully review my keyboard blurts.

Then, once the post is out there, I have a tendency to read it. Admiring my own insights, I guess, not that they deserve it.

That’s when I notice that in my haste I have written one or more sentences that are impossible to understand, so I quickly hit the edit button in order to clean them up.

I think I am better about this than I used to be. I usually try to preview my posts now.

Hits “preview post.”

Grammar.

Sometimes I’m feel like I’m rushed to get out a point before I forget it. The grammar suffers.

Number one reason is typos.

Number two reason is I’ll have composed my thoughts, edited it all and hit post…

Then remembered something else I want to add.

I’ve never used edit to remove anything apart from the odd duplicated word.

Coding errors.

Spelling errors.

[sup] . - . [/sup]

'Cause I shouldn’t of wrote that.

Clarification, maybe half the time. The other half is to correct mistakes resulting from many, many revisions. I change things and change them and finally submit and then I realize I changed part of a sentence but not another part, and now it makes no sense, or my verb tenses no longer agree, or I have an unneccessary comma or something.

:rolleyes:

I usually post something, and then look at it, and realize I left two of my thoughts incomplete, and edit them in. I really need to start using preview more, and the quick response box less :stuck_out_tongue:

Fixing a messed up url