Should there be a time limit on editing?

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An edit to the original post was attempted but not allowed. This unsavory practice is forbidden by the decree which states that an attempted change must be made within 15 minutes following an original post. This decree will be strictly enforced by undercover thread monitors and unauthorized attempted edits will be monitored closely and dealt with accordingly. The aforementioned post is hereby modified as follows in order to comply with the new decree:

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From: I agree with Magna. If it's not broke - why fix it. I vote for unlimited editing. I sometimes like to modify my posts to try to make them more clear or elaborate on a point.

For the folks who try to drastically revise their posts, people will notice and call <b>them them</b> on it. Folks will still be held accountable for what they write.
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To: I agree with Magna. If it's not broke - why fix it. I vote for unlimited editing. I sometimes like to modify my posts to try to make them more clear or elaborate on a point.

For the folks who try to drastically revise their posts, people will notice and call <b>them</b> on it. Folks will still be held accountable for what they write.
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Summary of change: In the second sentence of the second paragraph, the first word "them" was removed as it was mentioned twice in the original post.

As a result of this change, the substance and intent of the original post remains unchanged. :p
 
Wireless,

With all respect, I think your example is attempting to belittle the serious rationale for why highly respectable forums like Silicon Investor have cut-off periods. The cut-off period exists to allow post modification but prevent abuse of their forum. You say you agree with Magna. I too agree with Magna (please read his SECOND post on the subject), that adequate time should be given for post modification. 30mins-1hour should be more than adequate to remove the word 'them' from your post. However, if you make a point in a post, and somebody highlights a weakness of argument in your post, it is only fit and proper that you should not be allowed to go back and delete or modify your post, making the replyer look like he is talking nonsense. Such abuse mitigates the efforts of the replyer and could easily result in him becoming so frustrated that he stops posting altogether. SiliconInvestor has the correct policy, albeit 15mins is slightly on the short side.

In a nutshell: 30-60mins should be more than adequate time for making typographical modifications. After that, posters should be held accountable for what they have written.

Candle
 
It might make sense to allow an "edited version" to be posted up "inserted" next to the original. That way you maintain the chronology for auditing purposes, and yet mistakes in grammar and other needed changes could be shown. Rather than have an additional post that shows up after others, thus out of sequence, have it (the modified post) be linked to the original.?? Just a thought.
 
I noticed on several message boards there is a message [edited on **/**/****] next to edited text. This way readers will know that this part of the text was edited and when.

Cathy
 
I hadn't thought that anyone would edit anything other than spelling and grammer but I guess people could be so desparate as to change the substance of their post. If it is to be changed then I'd vote with making the change apparent. But it really doesn't matter... if I'm following a thread I can remember what someone has posted. Thanks for working to improve a great board!

~EC
 
I think editing should be allowed for some reasonable amount of time (anywhere from 15m to 60m works for me), but I dislike allowing unlimited editing. Sometimes if you are reviewing a thread for education purposes, you lose the whole point because what one poster responds to has been entirely changed by the original poster.

Great forum Baron.

JB
 
Thanks for the change Baron. Your constant attention to improvement is one of the many things that make this forum so special.

JB
 
Having unlimited editing and indicating edited posts by displaying "edited by xxx on xx-xx-xx" is ok but it doesn't really solve the problem of people going back and totally changing the meaning of their original posts. Just because you see that a post has been edited, you don't know what exactly was edited unless you remember what the text was originally. The post content could have been changed significantly, or the edit could have simply been a grammatical or spelling correction. There's no way to really know.

So with that said, the editing time has been changed to 60 minutes, which should be plenty of time to make any necessary corrections. That will be the "Elite Policy" from this point forward :)

Thanks for your input everybody.
 
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