# Edit Button



## TigerWoman (Jun 14, 2004)

Why does the edit button show sometimes and you can change something you posted and then after some period...you can't? Can you tell me what the time period is?  Or are you supposed to be able to edit/correct something always and use the "reason for editing" line? Thanks, TW


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## michaeledward (Jun 14, 2004)

TigerWoman said:
			
		

> Why does the edit button show sometimes and you can change something you posted and then after some period...you can't? Can you tell me what the time period is? Or are you supposed to be able to edit/correct something always and use the "reason for editing" line? Thanks, TW


I think you get 1 hour to modify your post. You do not need to enter a 'reason for editing', but if you do, it shows in the modified post why you altered your original entry.

mike


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## Bob Hubbard (Jun 14, 2004)

Mike's right, 1 hour time limit.


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## MA-Caver (Jun 14, 2004)

I guess at 59 minutes (and counting) you're trying to decide if you're really committed to that post... that's why (on my other discussion boards) I encourage folks to proof-read before submitting their posts so that they know exactly that is what they wanted to say. A lot of people _do_ -do this but a lot of people don't.


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## TigerWoman (Jun 14, 2004)

Thanks, guys for the info.  TW


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## Taimishu (Jun 15, 2004)

MACaver said:
			
		

> I guess at 59 minutes (and counting) you're trying to decide if you're really committed to that post... that's why (on my other discussion boards) I encourage folks to proof-read before submitting their posts so that they know exactly that is what they wanted to say. A lot of people _do_ -do this but a lot of people don't.


My problem with proof reading my own work is that I miss my mistakes and only see them after a while.
Anyone else the same?

David


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## marshallbd (Jun 15, 2004)

Taimishu said:
			
		

> My problem with proof reading my own work is that I miss my mistakes and only see them after a while.
> Anyone else the same?
> 
> David


I frequently edit because I invariably forget something or decide it would better illustrate my point reworded.  But I do it before moving on to another area or continue reading.   Otherwise I leave it alone and will post a retraction or rewording underneath it in another post :asian:


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## Dronak (Jun 15, 2004)

Yes, there's a time limit.  I was going to say 30 minutes or 1 hour, but it's already been confirmed that it's 1 hour.  Most of the times this isn't an issue for me because any typos or such that I missed the first time, I'll fix right away when skimming the posted version of the message.  I also do the quick rewording or new example things.  There were only a few times when I wanted to add something to a post after coming back later and couldn't do it.  I thought it would be easier to add to my last post rather than make a new one esepcially since there were no posts made after it, but wasn't allowed to.  That's how I learned that there was a time limit on editing.  I kind of wish we could edit all the time, maybe with a forced (modified X times added), some boards allow it, but it's not a major problem.


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## Bob Hubbard (Jun 15, 2004)

The reason for the time limit is thread and post stability.  There have been cases on other boards where someone has 'gotten their dander up' and removed all of their posts (yeah, I saw a guy with 1000 posts do that once...was interesting) , or worse, deleted the thread starting post which deleted a thread.

If its a minor thing, a correction post usually works.  ON the rare occation, feel free to contact an administrator who will make the corrections for you.


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## MA-Caver (Jun 15, 2004)

Kaith Rustaz said:
			
		

> The reason for the time limit is thread and post stability.  There have been cases on other boards where someone has 'gotten their dander up' and removed all of their posts (yeah, I saw a guy with 1000 posts do that once...was interesting) , or worse, deleted the thread starting post which deleted a thread.
> 
> If its a minor thing, a correction post usually works.  ON the rare occation, feel free to contact an administrator who will make the corrections for you.



Well, you're not going to let someone get away with foot-n-mouth disease are you? I mean if they realize their *oops* too late then hey... pppffttt right? :idunno:


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## Dronak (Jun 16, 2004)

Yes, I can understand that, Kaith.  I've seen things like that happen.  As a matter of fact, on one board, people got me so ticked off that I erased the content of almost all of my posts in that thread.  I couldn't outright delete the posts, but could give them zero content.  Of course, what people had already quoted from them remained, so enough of the context was left for it to generally make sense.  I'm not such a big fan of that board or most of its posters anymore.

Anyway, I think a solution other boards use is to allow you to edit posts all the time, but not allow you to delete them (or maybe you can only delete them if no one has posted after you).  And every time you make an edit, a little note gets put at the bottom of the post: "This post has been edited X times, the latest by <user>", something like that.  So if someone decides to go back and totally alter their post when an argument arises, hoping to mislead people, it's fairly easy to tell this happened, especially if the other person hasn't touched his/her original posts.

The time limit on editing isn't a big issue, it's just that sometimes I'd rather not add a new post when I can edit a previous one, especially if no one has posted after me yet.  Typically anything I don't catch right away isn't worth asking a mod to edit my post for me.  I can just make another one.  I just don't like doing that because it's like I'm getting an extra post added to my total when I shouldn't.  But that's still rare enough that it doesn't have much effect anyway.


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