How to edit an old post

Discussion in 'Forum Announcements and Feedback' started by mr.shep, Oct 8, 2007.

  1. mr.shep

    mr.shep Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    This subject may have been covered
    already, if so, sorry for the redundancy
    but I noticed some posts in the past
    such as three years ago that I'd like to
    amend or delete out some of the content.
    I noticed there is not an edit button on
    the post page of the thread after signing
    in for me to do this to an older post of
    mine that at certain times I feel should
    to be changed.

    Jim
     
  2. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Have you changed your profile or password at at any time? If yes, you'll need to log off and log back on with your old identity to edit them.
     
  3. mr.shep

    mr.shep Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    My settings have not changed on this
    end. The more recent posts I've made
    I can go back in and edit after logging
    in but cannot do the same procedure for
    an older post as then I do not get an edit
    button to make some of the changes I'd
    like to make to them. Michael, sometime
    see if you can edit one of your older posts
    in this forum. If you can edit a post you
    made a few years ago then the problem
    or the issue probably is on my end but as
    of now I do not believe that to be the
    case. I tried using Mozilla first when I
    noticed I could not edit an old post this
    morning and tried again just now using
    the current version of Firefox and it does
    the same thing for me, no edit button.
    When I made this second post in this
    thread there was an Edit button showing
    right where it should be for the first post.
    Might be a time factor involved in which
    a post can be edited.

    Jim
     
  4. joclyn

    joclyn Rising Contributor

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    there's a timeframe attached to being able to edit your posts - i'm not sure how long the ability to do so is there - 24 hours i think.
     
  5. mr.shep

    mr.shep Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    I've felt for a while there was a timeframe
    involved in order to edit a post. Perhaps
    we may learn how long it is for this forum
    host. I feel it is more of a software issue
    as some other forum hosts can have posts
    edited by the poster, but cannot be deleted
    out without access to administrator tools,
    for seemingly longer periods of time.

    Jim
     
  6. joclyn

    joclyn Rising Contributor

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    the time limit for ability to edit is set by the admin and can be anywhere from a couple of minutes to a week. other types of software have no limit on editing posts.
     
  7. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    I can still edit one from 2 months ago. Finding older posts to experiment on is a bit tedious, though!
     
  8. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    90 days or 129600 minutes. There used to be no limit, but a few folks felt that it was important to delete their old, thread-starting posts and render threads useless (thereby also tossing out the contributions of other people who had participated in the thread).

    The best, though not optimal, solution to update older content is to post a reply in the thread (and hope people read through).
     
  9. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    And just had another incident, where someone decided to render a bunch of threads useless in the plant ID forum. Ended up having to delete them all. *sigh*
     
  10. joclyn

    joclyn Rising Contributor

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    well, then. i'd change it down to 5 minutes.

    one of the main purposes of these forums is for EVERYONE to learn from each other...that can't happen if people delete things once they get their answer - and then the whole thread is trashed due to nothing making sense.

    it's very selfish for someone to delete their post once they've recieved help and answers to their questions. you never know when your question and the answers received help someone else too.

    although i haven't been on this forum too long, i've already added more than 20 threads to my watched list - useful info that i'd like to be able to refer back to in the future. i hope none of those threads are in the bunch you've had to delete!
     
  11. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Well, the default is / was 10 minutes. I'm trying to balance giving people freedom to make small changes / updates (particularly in image galleries) with free-for-all. On the other hand, as you correctly note, there is also the balance of what the community deserves - I did make it clear to the person that I thought they were rude and inconsiderate of the others who shared, but it was after the fact.
     
  12. chimera

    chimera Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    Thanks Daniel, appreciate the existing time to edit. It's easy to lose train of thought when typing with one finger {myself} and for those whose English is a second language , it's nice to have the time to make corrections or add a little info.
     
  13. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Agree that ten minutes is too short! I can't see that I'd ever want to edit a post after 90 days, but have done occasionally up to about 2 or 3 days.

    Maybe a week would be a suitable?
     
  14. Eric La Fountaine

    Eric La Fountaine Contributor Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    In response to Mr. Shep's original post, if information is in error or mispelled, one can send a message to Daniel or me to have it corrected. Obviously, this should only be done for serious correction, because we don't have time to edit grammar or poor word choice. Otherwise I think replying to the thread with new info will add to the conversation and the original posts are important for context and discussion even if some of the info may have been wrong.
     
  15. mr.shep

    mr.shep Well-Known Member 10 Years

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    I have added image attachments to an old
    post rather than make a new post before.
    I know of a post in the Citrus forum whereby
    I came back in and updated the names of the
    misses Citrus collection over a year after the
    original post in the thread was made. There
    is some benefit at times to amending an old
    post but it is not something for everyone as
    I've also seen a thread starter wipe out what
    was an informative thread before in another
    forum host. Does make an outsider to that
    thread wonder why someone would deliberately
    delete out others posts in the thread just because
    they were not thrilled later on with their postings.
    In that particular case the deletion of the thread
    was not an accident. Errors of enthusiasm are
    going to happen in a forum format. I've made
    my fair share of them.

    On the other hand, I have made some posts in
    which some of the content probably should be
    watered down a little or perhaps certain parts
    in the olden day post be amended or the off
    topic portions therein in the post be deleted
    out due to lack pertinence.

    Eric, as you well know, I asked for your help
    a while back when I misspelled the name of
    the Maple I started a thread with and you fixed
    my error rather quickly.

    Jim
     

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