We are often asked why the edit time is limited - or why there is any limit at all. Here are some reasons:
1. If the OP can edit the first post (and there is no way to split 1st and subsequent posts, for this purpose), then in some cases the following posts will be rendered meaningless, or incorrect. We don't want that to happen , and when the edit time was longer, in the past, there were complaints about this. Someone posting further down the thread can be made to look a twit by the OP doing an edit.
2. If the OP can edit for too long, sometimes they change their mind - and delete their post by removing the content. This is more frequent than you might think. It renders all following posts meaningless, pointless, and a waste of time for those who put effort into creating responses. Needless to say, it drives people nuts.
3. Sometimes people go over the edge and suffer some sort of emotional issue. One effect of that is they try to remove all evidence they were ever on the forum. If the edit time was sufficiently long, they could remove many useful posts that now belong to the community. If the edit time is long enough, they could remove everything - thus creating chaos.
4. The first thing to take into account when weighing up the pros and cons is that you absolutely cannot rely on people's common sense - some just don't have any. So any rule has to fit all. It's just the way it is.
From my perspective the longest edit time should be 1 hour, as this has been found the longest practical time on other forums. But on ECF it seems to work as it is (a day or so), and the Mods don't want it any shorter. This is quite a long edit time comparatively, so that will be what it stays as. It will never be any longer. If it works as a longer period on other forums, well, that's those forums, not ECF. Maybe they don't have 3,500 posts a day. On some forums you have to keep it at 1 hour or less.
All you have to do to edit a post is to ask a mod. It's part of their job to help you. They get bored and start to feel unwanted if you don't ask them for help...
1. If the OP can edit the first post (and there is no way to split 1st and subsequent posts, for this purpose), then in some cases the following posts will be rendered meaningless, or incorrect. We don't want that to happen , and when the edit time was longer, in the past, there were complaints about this. Someone posting further down the thread can be made to look a twit by the OP doing an edit.
2. If the OP can edit for too long, sometimes they change their mind - and delete their post by removing the content. This is more frequent than you might think. It renders all following posts meaningless, pointless, and a waste of time for those who put effort into creating responses. Needless to say, it drives people nuts.
3. Sometimes people go over the edge and suffer some sort of emotional issue. One effect of that is they try to remove all evidence they were ever on the forum. If the edit time was sufficiently long, they could remove many useful posts that now belong to the community. If the edit time is long enough, they could remove everything - thus creating chaos.
4. The first thing to take into account when weighing up the pros and cons is that you absolutely cannot rely on people's common sense - some just don't have any. So any rule has to fit all. It's just the way it is.
From my perspective the longest edit time should be 1 hour, as this has been found the longest practical time on other forums. But on ECF it seems to work as it is (a day or so), and the Mods don't want it any shorter. This is quite a long edit time comparatively, so that will be what it stays as. It will never be any longer. If it works as a longer period on other forums, well, that's those forums, not ECF. Maybe they don't have 3,500 posts a day. On some forums you have to keep it at 1 hour or less.
All you have to do to edit a post is to ask a mod. It's part of their job to help you. They get bored and start to feel unwanted if you don't ask them for help...
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