Why can't I edit my posts after 24 hours?

[tahayassen]

It seems that after a day, I can't edit my older posts. I've recently misled people in an older post of mine and I can't edit to correct it.

 

[phinds]

That's just the way it is here (on purpose). Actually, I thought it was 8 hours, not 24.

 

[tahayassen]

That's just the way it is here (on purpose). Actually, I thought it was 8 hours, not 24.

Well, now people are being misled... What's the point of this if it was done intentionally?

 

[micromass]

You can always post a correction in the thread.

Or you can report the post and say what needs to be corrected, then a mentor will correct it.

 

[tahayassen]

Alright, but what is the point of this feature? And if there is a point to it that I'm missing, why not just use moderated edits?

 

[Evo]

The point is that there have been many instances of people intentionally changing or deleting posts which makes a thread useless after many people already responded. This is why people should quote all or part of the post they are responding to, so if the OP goes back and changes their post, the responder won't appear to be the one making the mistake. There are many reasons that there is a time limit. We've had instances of members getting angry and going back and deleting all of their posts in numerous threads, making the threads meaningless.

If you realize a mistake after 24 hours, it's easy to just post a correction in the thread.

 

[jtbell]

why not just use moderated edits?

It could be that the forum software doesn't have this feature. Maybe one of the Admins can comment on this.

 

[tahayassen]

The point is that there have been many instances of people intentionally changing or deleting posts which makes a thread useless after many people already responded. This is why people should quote all or part of the post they are responding to, so if the OP goes back and changes their post, the responder won't appear to be the one making the mistake. There are many reasons that there is a time limit. We've had instances of members getting angry and going back and deleting all of their posts in numerous threads, making the threads meaningless.

If you realize a mistake after 24 hours, it's easy to just post a correction in the thread.

Doesn't vBulletin have post history? Aren't there rollbacks? Surely there is a more elegant method?

It could be that the forum software doesn't have this feature. Maybe one of the Admins can comment on this.

If the admins can't setup moderated edits and it does turn out to be a limitation of the software, then maybe after 8 hours, the edit button can redirect to the report button.

 

[Evo]

If the admins can't setup moderated edits and it does turn out to be a limitation of the software, then maybe after 8 hours, the edit button can redirect to the report button.

We don't have enough mentors to deal with minor edits. There would have to be a significant reason to have a mentor edit the original post when a new post containing the correction can easily be made within the same thread. We will do it as an exception.

In other words, it's always a good idea to proof read your post within the edit window.

 

[Vanadium 50]

why not just use moderated edits?

I see. Your position is that the mods aren't working hard enough.

Let me turn it around - what's to keep you from making a new post saying "I made a mistake yesterday, and..."

 

[tahayassen]

The unfortunate problem I have with creating a new post to correct an older post is when you make a mistake on the 3rd page, learn a couple of days later that you're wrong, and your correction is now on the 6th page.

 

[tahayassen]

@Vanadium 50: Don't take it personally. If my attitude seems a little off, it was probably caused by the frustration I felt before understanding the reason behind this intentional decision.

 

[mfb]

Doesn't vBulletin have post history? Aren't there rollbacks? Surely there is a more elegant method?

The board software has an edit history (well, you can activate it), but it is a lot of work to check many posts - or even revert 100+ edits.

A feature which allows edits below the original post only (after 8 hours passed) would be nice, but I did not see that anywhere, so it would probably require significant coding effort.

The unfortunate problem I have with creating a new post to correct an older post is when you make a mistake on the 3rd page, learn a couple of days later that you're wrong, and your correction is now on the 6th page.

That would be a reason to report your post, I think. No one likes wrong posts.

 

[Doc Al]

The unfortunate problem I have with creating a new post to correct an older post is when you make a mistake on the 3rd page, learn a couple of days later that you're wrong, and your correction is now on the 6th page.

I suggest creating a new post with your correction and then requesting (via the report button) that a short note pointing to the corrected post be added to the original.

Editing a post three pages back isn't a great idea, especially if it's been responded to. They won't see the correction.

 

[Evo]

I suggest creating a new post with your correction and then requesting (via the report button) that a short note pointing to the corrected post be added to the original.

Editing a post three pages back isn't a great idea, especially if it's been responded to. They won't see the correction.

I have to agree. This is not one of those "exceptions" where a correction to the original post would be important or helpful. Much better to post the correction as a new post.

 

[Fredrik]

Isn't it 11 hours and 40 minutes (=700 minutes)? If not, it's been changed in the last few months.

 

[mathwonk]

I made a mathematical mistake last night in a post and was unable to edit it around 10 am this morning, so I presume the time is less than 24 hours, which I personally find inadequate. I usually realize my mistakes after sleeping on them. Is allowing 24 hours a technical, or administrative hardship?

My concern is that although I worked quite hard to give a concise, clear, and correct account of an important topic, I failed by including a few speculative remarks, not marked as such. Now I cannot correct them and the result is that there is now no one place where just the correct remarks occur alone. I made a corrective comment in a later post, but that presents the reader with a more difficult challenge in trying to find a simple correct statement. If I try to excerpt the correct part and repost it, I feel guilty of "double posting".

I.e. the problem with later corrective posts is they are not marked in the earlier erroneous post, so you have to somehow accidentally read the correcting post in order to know about the earlier error. Is there some way to mark an erroneous post with a link to the later correcting one? That would not cause the problem mentioned above about causing other comments on the incorrect post to appear inappropriate. That would require some kind of augmenting edit of course, but not a deletion. But to me, just allowing at least 24 hours to edit would also go a long way to solving the problem.

 

[Fredrik]

The limit is 11 hours and 40 minutes. I think this is a bit on the short side, but for me it's usually enough to fix my late-night blunders in the morning. One thing you can do is to report your own post (use the "report" button), and ask a moderator to change it for you.

 

[Evo]

One thing you can do is to report your own post (use the "report" button), and ask a moderator to change it for you.

In rare cases, like this, where you couldn't spot the error until the edit window closed and it's not easily corrected by a subsequent post to clarify, just hit the report button and tell us what needs to be corrected. We don't mind doing this ocassionally for unusual circumstances.

The reason we had to put a time limit on edits is due to people going back and erasing their posts after people have responded. This can destroy a thread or make a member that responded look stupid, etc...

 

[Redbelly98]

The 11+ hours is a compromise. We also have to worry about people getting help on homework that is not allowed by their teacher. If we allow too much time, they can go back and delete the content of their OP after getting help, so that their cheating cannot be tracked down.

I've recently adopted the policy of quoting homework-help requests, if the OP is a brand new member, just in case the person is not supposed to be posting the problem.

 

[strangerep]

I made a mathematical mistake last night in a post and was unable to edit it around 10 am this morning, so I presume the time is less than 24 hours, which I personally find inadequate. I usually realize my mistakes after sleeping on them.
[...]
to me, just allowing at least 24 hours to edit would also go a long way to solving the problem.

I agree with mathwonk, as I also often need sleeping time to realize my mistakes.

Is it possible to keep the current (short) edit timeout on the 1st post in a thread, but a longer timeout (24 hrs) on all subsequent posts?

That would address the homework cheating issue, and also partially eliminate potential work for mods if a member wants to modify their own post the next morning and must "report" it to a mod, requesting changes.

 

[Evo]

I agree with mathwonk, as I also often need sleeping time to realize my mistakes.

Is it possible to keep the current (short) edit timeout on the 1st post in a thread, but a longer timeout (24 hrs) on all subsequent posts?

That would address the homework cheating issue, and also partially eliminate potential work for mods if a member wants to modify their own post the next morning and must "report" it to a mod, requesting changes.

Apparently it's not possible to have differing edit windows.

 

[strangerep]

Apparently it's not possible to have differing edit windows.

By "not possible", I guess you mean "not implemented" by vBulletin? Unfortunate, since the actual software mod would be dead easy. (sigh)

 

[Evo]

By "not possible", I guess you mean "not implemented" by vBulletin? Unfortunate, since the actual software mod would be dead easy. (sigh)

I don't know the answer. I know we've tried several different remedies and we're looking at options in future upgrades we will need to make. If we could stop only edits of the OP, that would be enough, IMO, but I'm under the impression that is not an option. It does concern us because the last thing we want to do is make things difficult for our members that have a real need.

 

[mfb]

Unfortunate, since the actual software mod would be dead easy. (sigh)

As far as I know, the posts do not have a flag "is starting post of a thread" in the database, you would have to check the posting time (!) of all posts with the same threadid. And any hack in the vBulletin-mechanics can lead to problems at updates of the board software.