Edit Time

Discussion in 'Site Help & FAQs' started by sokanasanah, Nov 24, 2013.

Restore edit deadline to 24 hours

  1. Yes

    17 vote(s)
    89.5%
  2. No

    2 vote(s)
    10.5%
  1. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    You made it till "accessible"? I was still dissecting the baroness. :)
     
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  2. TheAlchemist

    TheAlchemist Silver IL'ite

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    laugh1smiley Maybe I too would get stuck there but my mind automatically replaced it with Rebekkah Brooks (guess I got lost in the gripping story) ... I realized the mistake only now, thanks to you Ri :thumbsup hmmmm ... this one must be a typo or maybe he thinks this is Malathi Jey, the founder thinkingsmiley Only Soks can solve this puzzle console1
     
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  3. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    It is very much possible to restore deleted posts. I have done this often in the past when there were already many replies and the OP had been deleted. Of course the mod can help edit a post by the OP in such a way as not to be too obvious, remove any worrisome details etc.
     
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  4. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    I have also seen this happen. When the edit window is/was 24 hours:

    The OP posts something with the understanding that the edit window is 24 hours. OP goes back and deletes her post in that window. Mods go and restore deleted post. The "thread with missing original post" problem is fixed, but, if the OP was not warned before creating thread that delete will not be allowed, something is not right.

    If deleted original posts are going to be restored, that policy should be made known to the thread starters.

    And if deleted original posts are a problem, so are posts anywhere that get deleted after others have spent time responding to it.
     
  5. sokanasanah

    sokanasanah IL Hall of Fame

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    Yes, I did! I forgot that she is Indus Lady! I notice that this 'Jey' is the first-gentleman. There goes the discussion about men on IL.

    PS: Jey, you need to add Kathir to your profile. Other babies (toddlers? tykes? young social-media entrepreneurs?) mt be txtng hm n ths lapse alrdy & he mt de-frand u n fb!
     
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  6. Uttaraa

    Uttaraa Platinum IL'ite

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    Jey - thanks for the clarification. If the sole reason why edit window has been deflated is because of OP deleting the main post, I'm with Ri and Soks here. There may have been incidents, brought to the notice of the admin team, to make it cephalous, as I see that sometimes even in the most controversial threads, the OP has not truncated. I thought there may have been other reasons like , someone like, you know, the likes of Soks hammering with frequent edits that took down the server a fine day when you and Malathy were sharing that yirgacheffe coffee and you had to rush to attend.

    From the discussion here, I feel the advantage in having 24-hour edit window outweighs the occasional discomfort one may feel in talking in a ghost thread. You have 10-12 active members participating in 'edit' referendum; tells you that it makes little difference to anyone out there who has not yet voted here. Would love to revert to the 24-hour edit window, the least invasive change in the system. And you know, weekend is a good time for patch release.

    <digression>
    My frilly approach to resolve the problem is amuse myself with the grimace on reader, I often conjure, when the client says - "Why can't you get the data from Sydney, process in NY, store in Mumbai and display it on my terminal @Zurich. It does not work that way, eh?"
    </digression>

    <balderdash>
    Doh! and here I was next to the tumbrel for the nayers to take to the guillotine.
    </balderdash>
     
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  7. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    However, we would like to make a few points absolutely clear..

    1. First and foremost, it is being noticed that some posters start threads requesting help and after getting a few replies/suggestions, delete out their original post. This is unfair on the other posters who have spent their precious time and energy posting replies. It is a mockery of their effort as it makes their posts meaningless. In future such posts will be reinstated and deletion of threads/posts will NOT be entertained. So think carefully before starting threads in relationship forum. Please refer our
    No Post/Username Deletion Policy!

    Rihana, this warning has been issued very clearly in a sticky in the Relationships forum. OPs indulging in such practices were also warned individually again and again.

    Anyway, this is something that can be handled in a suitable way if it is felt that the OP's life is being compromised because of what she has posted. The moderators and admin could take a call on the post and decide whether to edit it or remove it ..... However, a "headless" thread becomes totally meaningless.
     
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  8. Jey

    Jey Administrator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Srama, Ansuya, Sok, Rihana, TheAlchemist, Satchi, Uttaraa,

    The deletion happens at a pretty regular interval for this to be an ongoing source of frustration to users (who report those posts), administrative work for us (to clean it up) and a drip-by-drip progressive devaluation of the site content. See attached. That is why we even chose to clean this policy up.

    While we can restore it, it is an inconsistent expectation that we have set with the user about the 24-hour window. Also, we can restore only if someone notifies of a headless thread. Most of the time we won't know.

    As we were exploring options, we wrote back to some OPs who deleted their first post asking for the reason. The response wasn't, "On thoughtful reflection, I would like to delete...". It was mostly, "I got my answer and I don't want it available online anymore..".

    While the OP's opinion counts for majority, we also have to look at what will add value to the overall community. Many headless threads or deleted posts within a thread doesn't give a good impression about the site.

    When an experienced user sees a headless thread, they understand what has happened and move to another one, as Rihana says. But when a new user (which is 70% of site users) land on a headless thread, they don't get a good opinion about the site. Even for existing users, they might casually make a note that such deletions are acceptable.

    Ansuya's point was also a big consideration - "It is not just an issue of site-wide structural integrity, but also one of not respecting the time and trouble of the people who have responded to the thread."

    While this practice of deleting old threads is more pronounced in the OP post, we find that members do it in other posts as well, but to a lesser degree.

    Having said that, I was willing to explore the idea of different edit windows. Unfortunately, there currently isn't a technical setting to have different edit window for OP vs rest of the posts. There is only a single option. We have to do custom development to provide this option.

    What if we do this? For now, increase the edit window to 1 hour. Lets see how that works out. If it continues to be a source of frustration after a month, then we explore additional options.

    Sometimes, to ansya's original post, an imposed requirement helps. Imagine a twitter without a 160 character word limit...!

    Jey
    Post Deleted.jpg
     
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  9. Ansuya

    Ansuya Platinum IL'ite

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    Thank you. I think an hour will be an improvement over 15 minutes, especially because I now feel added pressure before posting to edit thoroughly, and it isn't always possible or desirable right after writing. It's exhausting.

    Jey, I do appreciate your looking into this, especially since I don't realistically think it is as serious a concern for the majority as opposed to just a few of us.
     
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  10. Laks09

    Laks09 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Soka,
    I did vote to get the edit window extended but I've been at the receiving end of malicious posts by a poster who no longer visits the site. She took advantage of the 24 hrs edit window and would rip me apart and later edit her posts before the mods could catch her.
    The best part was she always responded to my posts while I was online ensuring I saw all her snide remarks. I'm glad it's IL and M&J have a strict no personal attack policy, elsewhere on the Internet that one user could have driven me off the forums.
    Just saying that such things do happen so there is that issue as well. People can drive relatively new users off the site with such high handed behavior.
    I just thought of mentioning it here.
     
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