Site Admin Question

[David M.]

How does the thread edit work here?

Seems like I can edit shortly after I post as long as I don't back out of the page. I think once I leave the page I lose all ability to edit.

For other automotive sites I blog on I can get back in any time, weeks even years later to edit typos or add more info pics, etc.

I understand maintaining archives but if new info arises it will only serve to improve.

Am I missing something?

If we do not have edit privileges may I add that to the suggestion box...

[Gary B.]

[Don H.]

Re: Site Admin Question

Dave
As Gary says, your edit button drops off after some period of time, might be 12 hours or up to 24 hours I'm not sure.. Moderators did not dictate that. IT set up the website that way. I don't believe your edit feature allows you to modify your subject or title. But moderators can alter that for you at anytime, as well as edit your text at any time. If you need a change made to a post, just drop a pm or email to Moderators listed at the bottom of the Home page.

Add-
I spend more time here than any of the other moderators. Probably best to drop me a note for any change.

[David M.]

Re: Site Admin Question

Copy that Don & Gary. Good to know.
Didn't want to be a pain. Thank god for "Grammarly" it catches 99% of my errors.

[Richard M.]

Re: Site Admin Question

The timeout for edits is 720 minutes(12 hours). Keep in mind that this timeout will expire even if you are in the middle of a edit. If it's a long edit duration and the timeout expires you can loose all of your changes.

Note that the "Restore Auto Saved Content" does not work for edits after the timeout.

So keep a accurate tally of the start time when you created a post and complete your edits before the timeout expires.

I learned my lesson Here.

Rich

[John W.]

Re: Site Admin Question

The edit timeout is to prevent someone from changing the content of a post to make answers to the post to look bad. It is a setting that is brought up rarely, so I doesn't seem to be a big problem.

If a person posts something and then notices a typo they have plenty of time to correct it. Always read over your posts before you save it, and then read it over again.

[Richard M.]

Re: Site Admin Question

I agree we should always proofread and correct posts immediately, but...

The real problem is when a "technical" error gets posted, then after the edit timeout expires, the poster corrects it in a later post as opposed to editing the original post because of the timeout.

As I stated previously in the link in my earlier post discussing the questionable need for a timeout...

"Posts with errors can be misleading and readers of errors are misinformed. If the error is corrected in a later post, and the user never sees the correction, the errors continue forever."


To compound the issue, some users are not aware of the Hybrid Mode oddity where some posts won't be seen in sequential time order after a user replies to a post thats "Quoted". This is the most common reason it happens.

Rich

[John W.]

Re: Site Admin Question

Richard,

There is certainly a trade off either way it is done. Early on we had a lot of problems with members pulling stunts on one another and things like that. It may have been fun for those members, but for new members or prospective members it made the NCRS look bad. That is one of the reasons we eliminated handles and created the Firstname Lastname (member number) usernames. No one could remain anonymous while posting.

In the 20+ years we have had the forum I have only been asked to fix an error in a post a few times. I am always glad to do that if needed.

[Richard M.]

Re: Site Admin Question

John, I follow your reasons based on past experience, but these days, I'm not so sure if it still applies.

Oh yes, early on, the old site had a few jokesters I recall. One of them got me. You may remember some C1 guys saying that the '56 to '62 hubcap spinners should point to the valve stems. Then eventually this got added to one or more of the Judging Guides. Then later the truth came out that it was made up.

The members on here these days are responsible and trustworthy, and as you say First/Last user names, to me, the chances of someone editing their post for some kind of undermining reason is slim to none.

Just a FYI, over at corvetteforum.com, there is no edit timeout. User handles abound. I've never seen a undermined edit there in the 15 years I've been there. And that is a wide open public place.

For the record, I think we should change the Edit timeout to none for a test period, say a few months or so. See how it does. If it goes bad revert back to the timeout. But I really doubt we'd need to.

Rich

[Don H.]

Re: Site Admin Question

John
I agree with Rich.. I would be very surprised to see any of the past problems you've described.

[John W.]

Re: Site Admin Question

The edit time limit has been removed completely. We will see how that works out.

[Richard M.]

Re: Site Admin Question

I hope it works out too!

Thanks John

[Gary C.]

Re: Site Admin Question

who's gonna monitor and check for bad edits ?

Gary
....

[Richard M.]

Re: Site Admin Question

Well, Since it was my idea......

I'll volunteer.

Is there a feature to show us when a post is edited? If not, is there a way I could access the database by running a Perl script on it or similar method?

Rich

[John W.]

Re: Site Admin Question

A member has 30 minutes to edit a post before it shows that it has been edited. We can reduce or lengthen that time if is seems like that would help.