Why is editing of posts not allowed?

I am a newbie here but post rather more frequesntly than I should on a couple of other boards. This is the only board I know of that doesn’t allow you to edit your own posts. As one who types rather more quickly than well,I find this a bit annoying. I can imagine some sort of “it’s in the public record” argument, but that seems spurious. If you make a typo and would like to fix it, it seems that you should have that ability. And even if you change the substance of your post, so what? Why can’t people change their opinion, or retract it? I know I’ve posted after a bit too much of the grape and thought better of what had seemed so clear the night before.

It’s a great board, but I’m curious about this one thing.

And I see there are typos in my post. I really wish that I could fix them.

Sitting right next to the “submit” button is one that says “preview.” It allows you to do just that, preview your post before you send it. Read twice, hit once, that’s our advice.

As for why we don’t allow edit, it’s because we get enough arguments and etc. as it is without people going back in and removing/editing statements they made. It works for us.

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

That’s fine of course.

I wasn’t really aware of the utility of the “preview” function (which is my main reason for posting this reply - to check it out).

Okay…I’m in “preview” mode now. It doesn’t really do a whole heck of a lot, does it?

Oh, well…

Dude - When you click preview, it puts a preview of your post at the top of the page, and returns you to editing your post. If you scroll to the top, you can see what you had just typed, looking how it would if you clicked “submit”. Preview has to be clicked each time you want to see a preview - it does not set a mode or anything.

Thanks HardCoalPerson - when I clicked Preview before it seemed like I was right where I had been before - and now I see why! Got it.

You just need to be special.

Bwahahaha!

5 completely worthless waterj2 points to the first person to guess the trick.

[Edited by waterj2 on 07-21-2001 at 2:25 PM]

You just typed it in, you little weasel. Besides, you edited before you even wrote the post, man. :slight_smile:

That’s five points for you. You are now tied with zut for first place. But the time is correct. The “edited by” timestamp uses Central Time, where the server is.

It’s a fake edit message.

I love you dearly but DON’T DO THAT AGAIN.

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Is there something in the water? Phase of the moon? What?

::hangs head in shame::

OK, sorry.

Guess that was a “funny-once”.

And, to be useful, I’ll mention a couple points about preview. First, when previewing a new thread, everything in the title after a quotation mark gets deleted. You need to either replace it, or go back to the post reply page before submitting. The mods are pretty good about editing it back in for you, but why make them?

Second, when you preview, but not when you submit, html escape sequences are resolved. For example, if you include ± in your post and submit, it will display as ± but if you submit from the preview page, it will display as ±. Note: it will appear incorrectly in the preview, but will submit correctly.

“Funny once”? Heck, no! It was funny the first million times we saw it, and hey, guess what–it’s still funny! :smiley:

[sub]i love you[/sub]

:slight_smile:

Speaking of Funny Once’s That Break The Rules…

Back in some thread I can’t find, I almost pulled a FOTBTR but decided not to because I didn’t want to be a bad boy. You see, Kat was having a fight with someone about who got to have Russel Crowe delivered to their front door.

Or something like that.

Anyway, I was going to log out, re-register a Sock Puppet and Russel Crowe then stroll coyly back into the thread and post:

[Australian Accent]
I hears someone was looking for me.
[/Australian Accent]

Figured the gals would go nuts. But, since I’m a goodie-goodie, I didn’t do it. That good behavior gives me bragging rights.

:slight_smile:

I got something of a thrill hearing TubaDiva give that order … I wonder if I should spend more time in the Pit? Maybe my problem has been that I need more discipline, not less. :slight_smile:

Yeah, you’d be surprised at the number of commercial establishments that don’t accept entirely worthless waterj2 points. Or maybe you wouldn’t. Anyway, my point is, Zoggie, that it’s a good idea to ask the waiter about the redeemability of waterj2 points before placing one’s order. Voice of experience, you know.

Tuba, I know this won’t change anything, but I’ll say it anyway. I think there’s a point of diminishing returns for the use of the ‘preview’ function: the more likely you are to get it right the first time, the less point there is in previewing. Once every…oh, I don’t know, maybe 50-75 posts, I leave in a bracketed B at the beginning of a quote that I’ve broken up into bits with comment in between, turning the whole post bold. It just isn’t worth previewing all 50+ times to catch that single extremely ugly goof.

The UnaBoard (which is also vB) has a sensible compromise, I think - allow edits for only an hour after posting. It eliminates most of the potential for abuse that you mention, while allowing users to fix their own blatant goofs.

Think about it, anyway.

The Pizza Parlor gives people four hours.

I always catch the formatting errors with preview because they’re easy to see. My pet problem is extra or missing words because of cutting and pasting, which I usually don’t catch it until I see the final post. I should try using Word’s grammar checker to see if it’ll catch them.

I gotta say that the few times I’ve made a mistake, an email or IM to Tuba or the Mod in that Forum has led to a correction, usually within 2 hours or so.

If they are willing to run around after me and clean up my messes, they must really have a good reason for not wanting to let us edit or posts, don’tcha think?

My first post contained an error, and I chased it for a week.

There is an intrinsic beauty to a board which records EVERYTHING. It instills a certain discipline.

The first on-line software I had did not allow for correction (early 80’s). To press backspace in CHAT created gibberish. It tended to tighten one’s prose, a limitation that serves me to this day.

If you type it, it’s yours. We’re all grown-ups here. (NOTE: If you are NOT a grown-up, log off NOW.) You better be big enough to back it up, or big enough to apologize.

I LIKE the lack of ability to edit, here. We should be disciplined, in Unca Cece’s house.