I’m an idiot.
I make mistakes in typing.
And, more importantly, I make revisions in my wording after I read it 3 or 4 times.
And all this idiocy takes time.
We need a 10-minute edit window, not 5! Think about how many times we see a post starting with “missed the edit window”.
Surely this can be changed in the software settings with just one click?
Or, may I suggest a better solution, (but one that might need major programming skills, and probably more money than exists in the SDMB ):
Allow edits as long as no more than , say, 3 posts have been added to the thread. Or as long as nobody has quoted the post you want to edit (i.e your username doesn’t appear the next , say, 5 or 10 posts following the one you want to edit, even though several hours have gone by.)
Please?
Pretty please?
Pretty please with sugar on top?
The 10 minute idea really isn’t such a radical change, is it?
You can also use a word processor like Microsoft Word to compose posts (or one of the free ones like Abiword of Open Office if you don’t have Microsoft Office on your computer). Then you can take as long as you want and you don’t have to worry about accidentally clicking submit when you meant to preview, and you can have it check your spelling and grammar for you.
Yeah, I use the preview feature every time. And sometimes for long posts, I use Word or Notepad to compose my post.
But I still have too many times when I want to change something, but it’s too late.
And I’m not alone…judging from the number of times I see posts whose first words are “missed the edit window”.
Is 10 minutes really such a terrible request?
Five minutes is already long enough to disrupt conversation to some extent, on a board as active as this one. I’ve seen many cases where the post being replied to is not the one that everyone else is seeing.
And really, while I understand that there are some mistakes you don’t catch the first time around, how much benefit would there be in extending the time from five minutes to ten? You post, you see your post at the bottom of the list, you maybe see and read one or two other posts that snuck in while you were posting, and then you close the thread. If, in that time, you notice a mistake, you’re still in the 5-minute window. Then, a few hours or a day later, you open up the thread again, to see where the discussion’s gone, and by that time, you’re past a 10-minute window, too. How often do you really have a thread open, between five and ten minutes after you’ve posted to it?
The idea behind the five minute edit is that’s enough time to catch something but not long enough to make a comment then go back in and edit/remove it. Because that’s the kind of situation that some people have used to insult/slap at others.
We’ve had the five minute edit for many years and for most people it seems to work fine. The good advice you’re getting to compose/preview in such a way that you can edit more on your end is pointing you in the right direction.
You are not an idiot, but as Terry Pratchett has said, multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of a diseased mind, so now I’m really worried about you. All best.
You’re right…I think it should be changed from 5 minutes to one week!
I’m on a few boards where there’s no time limits. It always feels weird finding a post of mine from 5 or 10 years ago and knowing I can still edit it.
But still, 10 minutes would be nice. Yes, discussions can move fast, but if you’re that worried about replying to something that’s going to get edited, wait until 10 minutes have passed, I know I’ve done that a few times over the years.
I used to be active on a board with unlimited edits. So many posts would go
OP: ignorant and offensive post
Poster: that is wrong because ABCD and offensive to EFG because HIJK.
OP: (edits OP) WHA U MEEN? Y U H8 ME U R A DICK!!1 I NO SAY NUTTING! LIEK THAT!!
joke
jōk/Submit
noun
1.a thing that someone says to cause amusement or laughter, especially a story with a funny punchline.
“she was in a mood to tell jokes”
synonyms: funny story, jest, witticism, quip;
I’ve seen it cause problems on other boards even without malicious intent. OP posts a situation that’s an example of what they’re asking about. Other posters point out aspects of the situation that aren’t clear, or which are clear but which aren’t relevant for what the OP is really wondering about. OP thinks a bit, based on the first replies, and comes up with a new situation that more accurately reflects what they’re actually wondering about. OP edits the first post, and now everyone new coming into the thread is wondering what all the posts before the edit are talking about.
It’s a test to help you make better decisions. How in the world can you type out a post in Word, then look at it, then revise it, over and over, and finally(thank Og) post it, and then decide you made a mistake? Seriously. If you cant solve your reading comprehension problems in a reasonable amount of time, maybe the internet isn’t your cup of tea.
Five minutes is more than enough for edit. Mostly my edits are typos that I only discover when the post actually appears. (And, yes, I mostly preview.)
If you need more than five minutes to edit your post, that’s an indication that there is a major disconnection between what you posted and what you meant to post, and I don’t see how a ten minute edit window will fix that. Just post a correction.
I lot of the frustration and anger about the edit time out could be solved by a more reasonable time. Especially considering how slow the board is currently. There’s times it takes over a minute just to reopen my thread. Then I’m wondering if I can save the post or if it will time out. At least give people 10 minutes to edit. That would help tremendously.
