Editing by anybody?

[HW Mueller]

It looks like we need a discussion on being able to edit our own contributions (I didn´t know this is possible until today) AFTER they have been posted. For instance, the original question in "about isomer separation" was "edited" to a totally different statement. I find this unacceptable as answers become completely useless, hence a chain will become at least partially useless. There are other unpleasent consequences. A corrollary to Halasc´s statement (related by Uwe) could be that one should stand up to ones errors.

(Can any statement be edited by anybody? That could introduce legal aspects).

[PJ8]

You can only edit your own posts as a normal user.
I've used this a couple of times to correct minor typos, but never to re-write my posts entirely as seems to have happened.
I agree that too much revision of an early post in a thread could lead to confusion, but it is a useful feature for correcting of small typos etc.

[tom jupille]

As the administrator, I can edit (or, for that matter, delete) any post. In practice, I have limited edits to correcting obvious typographical errors (in things like links), and the overwhelming majority of deletions have been obvious spam.

Anyone can edit their own posts, at least until a topic is locked (after about 30-45 days of inactivity). I don't know whether or not a locked topic can still be edited (if someone could check, I would be grateful; go back to one of your posts in an old thread and see if the "edit" button is there).

The software allows only limited flexibility in changing settings. For example, I have no way of allowing typo corrections while disallowing major editorial changes. Historically, it has been on the "honor system" (if you make a major change in a post, you should leave the original and put in an addendum or correction), reinforced by the fact that the software indicates that a post has been edited.

If the general consensus is that we should limit edits, then I can disable all editing of posts. If you wanted to make a change, you would have to e-mail the request to me.

Any opinions?

[GOM]

I'm with PJ - despite previewing, I often have to modify or add a bit soon after posting. To have no editing facility would be awkward.

For major edits the honour system makes sense and is probably (although I don't know for sure) not abused much.

Another possibility is to disable it when reply has been added.

Ralph

I've just edited a comma

[rhaefe]

I agree with Hans on that. Editing posts after replies have been already made can be very confusing. And the typos usually don't do too much harm anyway.

Tom, is it possible to lock the editing feature once a reply has been posted?

cheers,

Robert

[rhaefe]

Tom,

locked posts cannot be edited.

[tom jupille]

Thanks for the feedback on editing locked posts. The idea of disabling editing once a reply has been posted is a good one. Unfortunately, there's no option for that in the current version of the phpBB program. There are a lot of add-ons an "mods" available, though. I'll check and see if it can be implemented without messing up anything else.

[tom jupille]

Well, that was easier than I expected. You can now edit your own posts only until a reply has been posted. After that, the "edit" button is still visible, but you will get an information message to the effect that editing is not allowed.

[GOM]

Thanks for sorting that out Tom.

Ralph

[HW Mueller]

Great Tom! Thanks, one can live with that.