Edit Time Constraints for Posting
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I’m starting this thread because I don’t want to derail the one in which the topic originated.
This forum has been very helpful with issues I’ve had, in particular, with help from PeterJones.
However, the forum has what I deem a serious problem with the time frame allowed to edit a post. It’s only a few minutes! (Peter, don’t ban me!). I’m literally on more than a hundred forums and this is the only one that has this in place.
Another problem is the PREVIEW panel. It doesn’t show the post as it will appear. Basically, the only difference I see is that it will display links. If someone makes a typo, it’s unlikely they’ll catch it.
Here are reasons not to have such a short time frame.
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Sometimes you don’t see a typo until after what you’ve composed is actually posted.
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You may want to replace a pic that was posted.
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Colorized texts. You pick a color, but it isn’t what looks right once it’s posted.
From my experience with forums, the main reasons someone edits a post are the three I’ve outlined. And I’ve had to abandon my posts in this forum because of the time limit for all of the above reasons.
Only once in a blue moon have I seen a post edited for a negative reason-one that “changes the past” of the post.
Here are solutions I’ve come up with to remedy the problem.
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Change the time limit. 24 hours seems a reasonable compromise. Most forums have no time limit.
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Another reasonable compromise would be to make it so that when someone edits a post after 24 hours, it will leave a notation that the post was edited.
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At the very least, if the person in charge doesn’t want to do either, revamp the PREVIEW panel so it reflects exactly what the post will look like. Many forums have such a preview.
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The topic of the time limit for editing posts has been beaten to death. As the current top-poster on this site, with over 6500 posts, I have to say, well, it doesn’t bother me.
What bothers me is trying to follow the “flow” on other sites where infinite editing is allowed. This really hurts popular threads on sites such as StackOverflow, IMO.
So let’s stop beating the dead horse, the editing limit is 5 minutes – deal with it.
Next topic: the PREVIEW panel…
After 6500 posts, I honestly can’t say I have any sort of problem with the preview panel. With the possible exception of the backslash-brackets issue, which goes beyond the preview panel as a problem.
Can you give some concrete examples illustrating the things that bother you about it? I mean, don’t just say “colorized texts” – let’s have some specifics. How often do people do colorized texts in a posting here? Without looking up how to do it, I don’t know how. And I guess I don’t see much importance in colorizing text here, but to each his own on that.
revamp the PREVIEW panel so it reflects exactly what the post will look like
Again, I think the preview is very representative; if it wasn’t it wouldn’t be useful.
BUT…and this is a big BUT… you speak of it like the administrators of this site control the forum software, and this is decidedly not true. The forum software is made by a vendor totally separate from Notepad++ and its personnel. Sure, there is configurability of some things, but something like a “revamp” is just not possible.
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After talking it over with the forum owner, he made a compromise between your suggestion and the status quo: the edit period is now 4 hours.
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@PeterJones Sorry I didn’t respond earlier. My mother has been in the hospital for several weeks and I had to tend to her.
Even though the adjustment hasn’t met the compromise I laid out, I’m glad that at least something was done about the length of time to edit a post.
