About editing posts

[ron_1]

I get it that editing posts shouldn't happen once more posts have been added to the thread. I was going to make an edit to one of my posts but I guess the time limit passed. Some forums allow edits no matter how much time has passed as long as no one else has posted in that thread past the point of the potential edit, which I think is the best way to go about it.

[Moonchild]

phpBB just doesn't support it.
It's either time limit or no limit

[ron_1]

Okay. Whatever I'm thinking about must use a different forum software.

[Mæstro]

If I may, I believe it would be better to permit editing posts at any time. A post’s contents can become obsolete after learning more, but I would rather not leave my old statement there with the potential to mislead others.

[vannilla]

There was a time where people would edit posts to cut off parts of a heated discussion or something equally nasty.
I don't think it would happen again nowadays, but what do you know.

[Mæstro]

Am I misunderstanding this? I read that to mean that a user who flamed, but realised the fact later and regretted it, has gone back to remove the incendiary post. One could suppose ulterior motives for doing this, eg to make oneself appear more level-headed. Even so, the result is a more civil thread for anybody reading later.

[Moonchild]

Why it was instated in the first place was because people would change narratives or outright remove posts resulting in splintered discussion snippets or outright unintelligible threads. Not only would that not be useful for forum readers, it could be outright rude or putting other posters in a bad light.
Additionally, necro editing could result in spam abuse and go undetected.

So, there is a pretty lenient editing window. If you really want something corrected send a moderator a message or use the reporting feature to report your own post and a mod can take care of it. As for "no longer relevant" that is always something a reader should consider if a post is old. It is the exact reason there is a post date listed on every post.

[back2themoon]

A post’s contents can become obsolete after learning more, but I would rather not leave my old statement there with the potential to mislead others.

This is true, but the confusion will become much greater if "editing posts at any time" is possible. After all, the reader should be able to understand that older posts are, well, older. The message date is there.

No one will pay attention to "post was edited at x date", let alone carefully check the edit history. If available, that is. Hope it's clearer now how the confusion, and misunderstanding risk is much higher with "full edit at any time".