# The edit window seems rediculously short **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 19, 2011, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929 "2011-04-19T04:03:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anticounterrevolutionary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Anticounterrevolutionary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anticounterrevolutionary)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929/1 "2011-04-19T04:03:25Z")
This can’t be the first time it’s been mentioned, but why is the edit window so short? 😕 A couple times I have hit ‘submit’ and immediately edited my post only to have the edit window close before I re-submit. Is the trick to editing re-submitting every 60 seconds to keep the window open? That’s ponderous! Editing adds a time stamp to the post so it’s not like you can game the system. Say I post a reply in a thread and then I think, ‘hey, has this been covered in another thread? _Let me do a quick search_!’ If you don’t get those search terms right on the first attempt your edit window is closed due to the delay between searches! :smack: Since 10+ year old SDMB articles are being served up by Google wouldn’t it be fair if we had a bit more time to edit our posts before they’re set in stone? ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929/2 "2011-04-19T04:09:23Z")
> [@Anticounterrevolutionary](#): > > Since 10+ year old SDMB articles are being served up by Google wouldn’t it be fair if we had a bit more time to edit our posts before they’re set in stone? You’ve got 10+ years to edit your post **before** you click submit. (And to look up how to spell “ridiculous”) 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Anticounterrevolutionary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Anticounterrevolutionary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anticounterrevolutionary)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929/3 "2011-04-19T04:18:21Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > You’ve got 10+ years to edit your post **before** you click submit. (And to look up how to spell “ridiculous”) 😛 You caught a typo! :rolleyes: Well done you! Yeah, I know I could pore over an MPSIMS reply for an hour to make sure I convey every nuance and elucidate every detail but it would be simpler and more convenient to extend the edit window a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929/4 "2011-04-19T04:26:10Z")
It’s been discussed to death, but the reason the edit window is so short is because this is a very busy board with some very fast moving discussions. In some of the more heated discussions it’s common to see 3 or 4 posts per minute. The problem comes when you post something and the next person argues with you. If you then go and edit your post, it gets confusing. This can be made worse if the argument is over semantics…It gets just plain out of hand if you insult someone, they insult you back and you edit out your insult. Granted you can still do that with the 5 minute window, but less so. If you search in ATMB/Titles Only for the word Edit, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of discussions on the topic. Part of the reason it’s not a big deal is that for the people that have been around for a long time, this is still fairly new. Up until a few years ago we couldn’t edit anything at all, so most of up are fairly used to previewing before posting. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929/5 "2011-04-19T04:34:47Z")
My solution to the short edit is preview, preview, preview. I can check for new posts that way, too, so I don’t say something redundant in a hot thread. Besides, I think posts look a lot different once they hit the live screen, I like to preview them so I can see how it looks and for some reason I catch more typos that way, too. I rarely just do the “quick reply” except for times like now. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929/6 "2011-04-19T04:46:32Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > Besides, I think posts look a lot different once they hit the live screen, I can always spot typos better that way. I hit preview, start reading, find a typo, fix it, hit preview, start from the beginning, find a typo or want to reword something, hit preview, start from the beginning etc… and like you said, in a busy thread, I make sure to check for new posts before submitting…and then I always check it one more time after I post it. And I usually still end up missing something anyways. ---
**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:** [April 19, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929/7 "2011-04-19T04:51:13Z")
> [@Anticounterrevolutionary](#): > > Yeah, I know I could pore over an MPSIMS reply for an hour to make sure I convey every nuance and elucidate every detail but it would be simpler and more convenient to extend the edit window a bit. As has been said, previously editing was not enabled at all; to make a correction you had to make another post. Some years ago limited editing was allowed. If the window is too long, the post will often get quoted or otherwise responded to, so your original post will be preserved anyway. Five minutes was settled on as a reasonable time period to catch your mistakes without being too long that discussions would be disrupted by editing after people had responded. If you’re worried about getting your posts right, the best thing to do is preview before submitting them - which you can do all you want. ---
**Author:** ![Anticounterrevolutionary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f04885/32.png) [@Anticounterrevolutionary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anticounterrevolutionary)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929/8 "2011-04-19T04:57:15Z")
Alright. I hear you **Joey P** and **Colibri**. The short edit window is a reasonable safeguard against abuse of the system. Also, I rescind my rolled eyes, **voltaire**. The misspelling was my own. We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue; at our peril, risk and hazard. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929/9 "2011-04-19T09:56:32Z")
Also, if there’s a serious mistake in a post, such as a misattributed quote, it’s possible to report your own post and ask a mod to fix it. My understanding is they won’t do this for typos, or to add content, but you’d have to ask one of them to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929/10 "2011-04-19T12:10:03Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Also, if there’s a serious mistake in a post, such as a misattributed quote, it’s possible to report your own post and ask a mod to fix it. My understanding is they won’t do this for typos, or to add content, but you’d have to ask one of them to be sure. That is correct. We will fix egregious errors in the text only – most of the time, we expect people to have used preview and to be willing to live with the minor typos that we all make. If you forget a “not” or suchlike (“I am a crook” s/b “I am not a crook”) – quote yourself in the thread and state your correction (“I should have said ‘I am _not_ a crook’ there.”) At the same time, we’ll happily go in and fix a typo in a thread title, since you can’t fix those yourself. We’ll also fix coding, since that usually makes the post easier to read but doesn’t involve changing its meaning in any way. For these, you can report the post yourself (! in the triangle) and specify what you want done – it’s no biggie. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edit-window-seems-rediculously-short/578929/11 "2011-04-19T12:13:32Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > … I hit preview, start reading, find a typo, fix it, hit preview, start from the beginning, find a typo or want to reword something, hit preview, start from the beginning etc… … I previewed this post 17 times before I hit submit . . . it’s just teh way I roll! CMC fnord! Oops. :smack: