I would like to be able to edit my own threads. (in Off-topic)
I have only wanted to edit my own posts a few times, but I am sure there are other people out there who would want to edit thier own threads. I am not sure how difficult it would be to do (as I don't program or anything of that nature) but if it were fairly easy, I can see it being somewhat beneficial. People would be able to condense all of the "oops, I forgot to mention" posts, and allow people to remove non related content posted by other people. Plus I think it would be cool to have control over your own posts. Maybe limit it to non pr posts or perhaps only to FS/WTB posts since they are the ones that generally have the most junk in them. This was just a thought. Feel free to flame me (esp. Jon if he gets people bugging him about this) but all in all I can't see much wrong with it. Lets see what you think.
Todd
February 9 2005 3:20 PM EST
Surely it doesn't take much to figure out how to abuse that one.
My suggstion? Actually read the confirmation screen when you post.
See? I already have something I wanted to change in this post. I think the edit feature should not be included in pr posts because people might erase important info about deals to try to rip people off. But if it were possible, maybe limit it even further to only include FS/WTB posts, as they generally have the most junk in them. that is what I meant.
CooperTX
February 9 2005 3:20 PM EST
This has been suggested before, the problem with it is that those with naturally criminal minds will edit their posts to get out of bids and/ or perhaps up a buy it now that someone has already accepted. There are many other devious things that can also be done, see if anyone else can come up with some.
Todd: I don't see what could be abused, if the only person able to edit the posts would be admins and the creator of the post. Please explain :p
bartjan
February 9 2005 3:44 PM EST
Let's see, you have 2 lochs, put the bigger one up for sale and after bidding is almost ended edit your post to list the smaller loch instead.
How can buyers trust the seller if the merchandise can change at any moment?
It would not be much different than now. Now someone could potentially do the same thing just by adding another post. That is something that every seller has the right to do anyway, (change their buy now) and if you were to add a box that had the number of times the post was edited, or even what was previously posted. Most of those things could be sorted out, probably with minimal extra effort from admins. After all you know how much you agreed to pay for the item and if it changes you have to decide if you are still willing to pay it. I know this may be over complicating things, and I am sure as admins or ops you have seen worse scandals caused by similarly simple things (ie CB1 Jonathan2 who scammed people for their stuff and sold it to the store). Yet most everything has worked out fine anyway. I dunno, I just thought it would be a cool feature, but why mess with success. Still I would like to hear what others think of this.
private
February 9 2005 6:25 PM EST
Apparently NSFC doesn't get it. Here's how it goes:
Person A places loch up for sale.
Person B bids on loch.
Person A says, "You win."
Person B send 5M CBD to Person A.
Person A edits original post.
Person A sends person B a dagger.
I realize logs etc. would make this easy for admins to catch but it's simpler just to remove the concern. Similar tricks could be used to up interest on loans a little or whatever. There is a similar concern with contest forum. I think just disallowing it altogether works fine.
I don't know. I'm kind of divided on this issue, but I think NSFC addressed Private's concern with the idea of a time/date stamp reflecting the most recent edit to a post. I've seen such a system used in other situations. If it really is a concern, it could also be addressed by making FS/WTB non-editable, as well as Public Record.
AdminJonathan
February 9 2005 10:35 PM EST
It's just a bad idea all around from an archival standpoint. Anyone who runs forums and actually thinks things through comes to the same conclusion. Won't happen.
a20sidedninja
February 11 2005 12:52 PM EST
Another forum I go to all the time has taken a unique approach to forum editing:
-You can only edit a post within the first five minutes of it being posted.
-It displays the percentage of the post that was changed.
It's nice because it allows you to fix typos, or add something you thought of right after clicking confirm, but it's not nearly as open to abuse.
That being said, I do NOT support the ability to edit a post in PR, FS/WTB, Contests, or Forging. But I don't see the harm in being able to edit General, or especially off-topic. But I could certainly see that as being a pain to code, so it's probably not worth it.
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<a href="/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001CCv">I would like to be able to edit my own threads.</a>