Query: How do I edit my old posts?

B

Benjamin Marks

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Joined
Mar 27, 2005
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I see that this was an issue in 2021. Has it been resolved? I saw that I made an error in a post I put up yesterday. When I had just posted, there was an "Edit Post" button below the text. But a day later, it is gone, and there is no obvious way to go back an make a correction or edit a typo. Any hints, tricks, tips, or just plain instructions for the codgers amongst us who remember the old days?
 
You only have about 1-hour to make edits. Not sure if there is a forum administrator function to extend it.

One option is to quote your old post in a new post, then reference corrections in that new post.
 
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Yes there is a time limit.

Use the report button to summon a mod, and detail what you want edited.

:)
 
Unlimited editing is the ideal but there are those that would abuse it, editing posts after the fact to change their argument.

It’s set to 12 hours
 
Hmm. Well, I find that hard to believe, but I guess folks can argue about anything. I don't think I have ever been in an argument on RFF so heated that I would engage in that sort of behavior. I appreciate all that the staff here does, but I'd argue for just letting folks edit what they write. The words are "mine" according to the terms of service, are they not? In my case, I noticed a typo. I'd just as soon fix it, but it isn't important enough to bother anyone else with it.
 
splitimageview said:
I've created a new user tier that gives unlimited editing. let me know if you can't edit the post in question.
Click to expand...

How does one know if they are in this tier? Or do we request? I have found an annoying number of typos in old posts - I often compose hurriedly while waiting for other things to happen.

Benjamin Marks said:
Hmm. Well, I find that hard to believe, but I guess folks can argue about anything. I don't think I have ever been in an argument on RFF so heated that I would engage in that sort of behavior. I appreciate all that the staff here does, but I'd argue for just letting folks edit what they write. The words are "mine" according to the terms of service, are they not? In my case, I noticed a typo. I'd just as soon fix it, but it isn't important enough to bother anyone else with it.
Click to expand...
It happen(ed) all the time.

And when I have edited my posts for clarity, I have been hassled on- and off-list by persons who accused me of changing my argument. Amusing.
 
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You could copy your post.

Then re-post.

Make your corrections.

Then delete your original post.

Just a thought.

Or ask a moderator to make your changes.
 
Benjamin Marks said:
Hmm. Well, I find that hard to believe, but I guess folks can argue about anything. I don't think I have ever been in an argument on RFF so heated that I would engage in that sort of behavior. I appreciate all that the staff here does, but I'd argue for just letting folks edit what they write. The words are "mine" according to the terms of service, are they not? In my case, I noticed a typo. I'd just as soon fix it, but it isn't important enough to bother anyone else with it.
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Just post a follow-up to clarify your original post. Problem solved!
 
I can see the point, being someone who goes back regularly to correct typos, add clarity or correct details; however I still find it a bit dangerous. Many of us remember reading something and then go back to find it. If it’s not what we remember, how do we know if it’s our memory or if it has beed edited. I realise it will say “edited”, but we won’t know where. I lean towards the model of scientific publishing whereby you issue linked corrigenda, or in extremis, make a retraction which is signalled at the original point leaving the name of the author.

I’m not willing to fight about it though as it’s much more fun fighting about cameras 😊


Edit: It was early in the morning and I didn’t notice it was an old theead!

Edit 2: I meant “old thread”.
 
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Sometimes links to photos in a thread stop working, and it’s good to go back and insert a new, working link to the picture to restore it.
 
Taipei-metro said:
the 'Edit' button is gone (1-18-2025 8pm California Time), can you bring it Back?

Thank you very much!
Click to expand...

Your permissions indicate full editing privileges, although I've been testing some various features and may have screwed things up, as I do from time to time. :) Let me know if you can see the edit button.
 
Like other posters here, I too find an annoying number of typos in many (okay, most) of my posts. Being me, ever in search of almost perfection in all things, I appreciate the edit function so I can go in and tidy up what I've written and posted - usually in first draft form. This is one of my lifelong faults. At my age I should have learned to write on a separate word processing program and let my first draft lie fallow for a while before I go back to it for my last minute changes, corrections and editing before I post. But being human, I find this too logical a solution for my liking, so I write directly and often as not I post too often.

Admittedly also, at times when I return to my old posts I find my train of thought no longer makes much sense to me. In these situations I've tempted to rewrite, but so far I've (more or less) resisted this urge, other than to clean up some of my more long-winded sentences and add new breaks to my seemingly endless paragraphs.

What I am guilty of, and I admit it, is I occasionally return to an old thread and add new thoughts. This to me makes good sense, but I do wonder if somehow in doing this I'm breaking any forum rule(s).

Every now and then I write something I later regret posting, or return to and decide it's inflammatory, wrong or generally unpleasant. Then I return to it and edit. As a young journalist in the '60s I regularly got into trouble for this (the newspapers I worked for published what I wrote, so there), but now in my dotage I've somehow acquired some common sense. Here for me the edit function is valuable, and important. Of late our sad planet has shiploads of toxic just about everything, and we here at RFF do want to keep the peace and not offend others unnecessarily.

Human I am, perfect I am not. Though I try and try to attain the later, so far no good. Long may it all go on.

PS (Added later as usual) I just checked, the edit button is here at the bottom of this post. Many thanks!!
 
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