# This post was last edited by...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [August 13, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408 "2012-08-13T21:20:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/1 "2012-08-13T21:20:31Z")
On most forums I’m on, if you make the edit quickly then this message isn’t left on the post.
I’ve noticed that for whatever reason the time you have to make edits to a post here is very small anyway, but could you consider allowing “silent editing” for at least a couple of minutes please? It just looks better - and I see no way it can plausibly be abused.
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### Author:  [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/2 "2012-08-13T21:26:31Z")
Do a search on this to see how much drama there was about being allowed to edit posts at all.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/3 "2012-08-13T21:32:26Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#):
>
> On most forums I’m on, if you make the edit quickly then this message isn’t left on the post.
>
> I’ve noticed that for whatever reason the time you have to make edits to a post here is very small anyway, but could you consider allowing “silent editing” for at least a couple of minutes please? It just looks better - and I see no way it can plausibly be abused.
\*\*donkeyoatey \*\*is correct that there’d be tons of drama about it, and I can’t see what good it would do anyway. What do you care if people know you’ve fixed a typo?
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/4 "2012-08-13T21:40:40Z")
If you don’t want your post cluttered up with the “edited” tag, you can use “preview post” as many times as you need to before hitting “submit.” Previews are not tracked.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/5 "2012-08-13T22:36:42Z")
> [@Simple\_Linctus](#):
>
> - and I see no way it can plausibly be abused.
After modding here for five years, all I can say is HA!😛
A couple of minutes is plenty of time for it to be abused. And considering the creativity of our posters, if something can be abused, it will be abused.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/6 "2012-08-13T22:37:28Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> After modding here for five years, all I can say is HA!😛
>
> A couple of minutes is plenty of time for it to be abused. And considering the creativity of our posters, if something can be abused, it will be abused.
Challenge accepted!
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### Author:  [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2012, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/7 "2012-08-13T23:13:44Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> After modding here for five years, all I can say is HA!😛
>
> A couple of minutes is plenty of time for it to be abused. And considering the creativity of our posters, if something can be abused, it will be abused.
Good point [smirk.]
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### Author:  [@Simple\_Linctus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Linctus)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2012, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/8 "2012-08-13T23:15:32Z")
> [@twickster](#):
>
> If you don’t want your post cluttered up with the “edited” tag, you can use “preview post” as many times as you need to before hitting “submit.” Previews are not tracked.
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> After modding here for five years, all I can say is HA!😛
>
> A couple of minutes is plenty of time for it to be abused. And considering the creativity of our posters, if something can be abused, it will be abused.
No objection to my edits being tracked. It’s the “last edited by” thing that I don’t like.
I know that it’s possible with vbulletin to have settings such that that wouldn’t appear if the editor didn’t want it to. It would still appear to mods though if anyone complained that someone was abusing it, so I don’t see it being abused except by an idiot that thinks just because it isn’t on the screen it’s disappeared. It may even help you catch wrong 'uns…
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/9 "2012-08-13T23:16:46Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#):
>
> Challenge accepted!
You’re doing fine with your polls. You don’t need to start abusing the edit function too.😉
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2012, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/10 "2012-08-13T23:24:06Z")
I could be wrong, but I thought even with that function turned on, it’s not that the “Last edited by:” line didn’t show up if you edited within a few minutes, but rather if you edited before someone else viewed the thread. IOW, you posted and edited your post before someone else had a chance to see the original post and more importantly quote or reply to it.
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### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2012, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/11 "2012-08-13T23:46:41Z")
Yes, you get a couple of minutes grace for silent editing on the other boards I visit. I kinda like it, mainly because that ‘last edited’ line makes the post untidy and if your post has a short and pithy punchline which you’ve separated from the rest of the text to make it stand out it can blunt the overall effect to have an edit line tagged on.
A minor quibble certainly and we always have Preview. But then if everyone used Preview we wouldn’t need an editing facility at all, would we?
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### Author:  [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/12 "2012-08-14T14:42:14Z")
Meh. It’s in slighlty smaller, italicized font. It’s easy for it to become background noise and overlook. I only read them when my attention is drawn to it by something said in the thread.
Then again, I tend to gloss over a lot of the boilerplate, like post dates and custom titles and usernames ;).
If there’s a feature that turns it off if you edit before someone else posts, I’d be okay with that. Otherwise, no big deal. You changed your post, suck it up.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/13 "2012-08-14T14:49:34Z")
I vote for the status quo. It works, don’t fuck with it.
Edited within 30 seconds to test.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/14 "2012-08-14T14:52:48Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#):
>
> I could be wrong, but I thought even with that function turned on, it’s not that the “Last edited by:” line didn’t show up if you edited within a few minutes, but rather if you edited before someone else viewed the thread. IOW, you posted and edited your post before someone else had a chance to see the original post and more importantly quote or reply to it.
I just did a test. Posted a message, immediately edited it, total time taken to edit & re-post, 30 seconds, but the “last edited by” message still appeared, and no one had posted between my posts. (Although I can’t tell if someone _viewed_ it between posts.)
So I don’t think there is any grace period at all the way the board is configured, or if there is, it must be less than 30 seconds.
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### Author:  [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/15 "2012-08-14T14:56:35Z")
Let’s see how fast I can edit it.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/16 "2012-08-14T14:57:16Z")
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> I just did a test. Posted a message, immediately edited it, total time taken to edit & re-post, 30 seconds, but the “last edited by” message still appeared, and no one had posted between my posts. (Although I can’t tell if someone _viewed_ it between posts.)
>
> So I don’t think there is any grace period at all the way the board is configured, or if there is, it must be less than 30 seconds.
We don’t have the feature turned on, I was just saying that with the feature turned on, I think that even if you do edit within a certain amount of time, it still has to be done before someone else looks at it. Or maybe it’s two separate controls. Either way, for reasons that we’ve gone over a million times, I’m pretty happy with it the way it is.
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### Author:  [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/17 "2012-08-14T14:57:54Z")
I just figured out you can actually click on your own “last edited by” line and compare different versions of your post. Nifty?
This one goes to 11 times edited.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-post-was-last-edited-by/631408/18 "2012-08-14T15:03:02Z")
What’s the matter with the ‘last edited’ note? I expect to see them a lot as people correct spelling mistakes and the like. I think it indicates people are checking their own posts, which should improve the quality of those posts. And occasionally if you run out of time, you just add another post starting with the phrase ‘Missed the edit window’. People also add humorous notes in the ‘last edited’ section, provided some more content. I was very impressed with Indistinquishable who repeatedly added posts to correct his own in the .999…=1 thread. When I see that in GQ I know I’m looking at the posts of someone who has a great deal of concern with the accuracy of their statements. There’s nothing wrong with correcting mistakes after the fact.