Your thoughts on a forum function

[retroleds]

I've found a MOD I can install so posts can only be edited for X hours or days after originally being made. Obviously a moderator/admin can still edit something if you write them and indicate something is terribly amiss in one of your posts. I was thinking about setting it for one week - basically you'd have one week to fix your typos, then it's permanent.

Any thoughts on this idea? - we generally can't change the past, but possibly the future.

This suggested change seems necessary: apparently some fairly old threads were maliciously stripped of large blocks of text by a poster a few weeks ago, throwing off the context of the other posts within the subject.

[LEDluvr]

I think it's a great idea Ed. I say move forward with that.

[abem]

That sounds just fine. I do appreciate the ability to edit posts immediately or for some period after posting since I often don't seem to catch my spelling errors, bad grammar, or just plain boneheadedness right away.

[rewolf]

A great idea at first thought.
But in the past I have already edited posts of mine even months later to fix broken links to imageshack (or other image hosters), or to add new information, or to correct errors (information that proved incorrect). Just for consideration...
But these are very rare cases - I think a one-week period is ok.
Maybe you could add a button "request editing permission" instead of "edit" after that period?

[retroleds]

I appreciate the input - yeah, maybe even 2-3 weeks. And obviously a thread with a major flaw or change of information could be opened up for editing. I think we all understand that we don't want to change factual infromation in an old thread, that would change the context of the subsequent posts. I'm thinking the game plan would be if an old thread was opened for updating, that the information would be aded as a defined block of edit text, with a time/date stamp...and possibly continue on in a new thread if appropriate.

Sucks for me I have to spend the time on this...I suppose I should be grateful this glaring security hole was brought to my attention. Riiiiiiight!

[rewolf]

...And obviously a thread with a major flaw or change of information could be opened up for editing. ... if an old thread was opened for updating, that the information would be aded as a defined block of edit text, with a time/date stamp...and possibly continue on in a new thread if appropriate.

As for me you could just install the MOD you mentioned in the opening post, with a one-week period.
For the rare cases where editing of older posts is required to update a broken link etc. the members would have to bother you (or the forums mod) to open a thread or single post for editing, and if this functionality isn't available - don't mind. We'll then see how it works out. IMO better than losing lots of information and disrupting valuable threads by members gone berserk...

[xevious]

I think 30 days is a reasonable period of time, just in case a person needs to make corrections in reaction to their posting.

But what I'd like to propose is that the first post can always be edited by the topic starter. This is especially helpful when someone has written an informative article or review, as more information will be found later and could be useful to add.

[rewolf]

...But what I'd like to propose is that the first post can always be edited by the topic starter...

Good idea, I second that. But only edit, not delete (and with it the whole thread).

[retroleds]

Yes, the thread could always be edited - person types their edit, sends it in a PM to the admin. or a moderator, they change it. No big deal, like answering an email, for the few times it would come up. I'll attend to it. Thanks for the brain cells guys.