Why some Postings cannot be Edited?

[Merlion]

As we know we can go back and edit our own postings. Recently I notice this cannot be done for quite a few of mine, while some others are all right?

Does this happen to others recently?

I am a bit puzzled.

[Landseer]

Yeah, Russ changed the settings, it WAS editability at any time if I remember right, now it's limited to I believe 24 hours. Personally I like the unlimited edit time because very often you want to go back and either update a minor thing rather than make a whole new post, or remove a minor thing later.

[Merlion]

I agree, 24 hours is too short a limit.

This limit means we have to put in a new posting, and sometimes quote our old posting, or part of it, to explain the connection.

[Landseer]

I agree, 24 hours is too short a limit.

This limit means we have to put in a new posting, and sometimes quote our old posting, or part of it, to explain the connection.Russ? any way you can set that edit time back to unlimited?

[Merlion]

I do understand there are some reasons to impose a limit.

As very few people look into old postings, from this point of view, there is not much point going back a long time to change what we wrote. They say we have to stand by what we uttered if this has do with opinions.

On the other hand, people do make 'searches' and look through interesting/useful threads written some time ago. So, it is good to correct our earlier mistakes, especially if they are factual mistakes which we subsequently notice.

So it is tough to balance this, as cannot have it both ways.

Perhaps we have a compromise, Russ, and limit editing to within one week.

Is this a fair enough analysis?

[fritchie]

I really shouldn't speak for Russ, but I suspect the problem may be one of practicality. This forum has gotten quite large over the 3 - 4 years (??) it has been up, and allowing people to go back over long time periods to make changes simply may be impractical. A day should let you get your thoughts clear and correct any minor errors. Beyond that, "You said it and you are stuck with it", so we just have to be careful with posts.

[Merlion]

A day should let you get your thoughts clear and correct any minor errors. Beyond that, "You said it and you are stuck with it", so we just have to be careful with posts.

Thanks. I have already addressed this point in my comments. But you have not responded to the other consideration in my third paragraph, and the need to find a balance for both aspects.

[Landseer]

I administer a forum and chatroom for a radio show host, I have the forum set to unlimited edit since i feel the posts are authored by someone else who holds all rights to them, HOWEVER, in the user agreement it does say we are allowed to move, edit any posts of course.

I also go through and periodically dump older posts and those with zero replies, otherwise the database would just keep growing and growing with no end taking up massive disk space. Aother issue there is if the database has to be reinstalled for any reason, the larger it is the bigger headache it is- mySQL/phpadmin doesn't like uploading huge files and I've had to use a patch to do it.
After a while these forums just become so full of stuff that when people search for something they are met with results like "Viewing page 1 of 458 results pages" much of which is months or years old, maybe outdated.