Editing of posts has been restored for a TRIAL period

[holly]

Tom has temporarily restored the ability to edit posts after the 30-min time limit. This should NOT be construed as a perminant decision, and might be revoked if abuse of this feature becomes evident.

In previous debates about this feature there has been no clear concensus which is worse: allowing endless editing and deletion of posts which might disrupt the flow of threads, or locking all posts after a short window of 30-minutes which might prevent clarification or retraction of old posts.

Since the forum software has been updated and now includes a notice when posts have been deleted, it's my hope that changes won't be as confusing as before. Obviously, friendly and responsible posting is a MUST for these forums to continue, so PLEASE think before you post, and consider making a new post rather than deleting an old. If you are involved in a flamewar STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER rather than saying something you will regret later.

[dansmachine]

Having been in the circumstances of regretting some posts (deleted after request by PM), I know stepping away from your pc can be quite hard, and emotions don't really cool down within 30 minutes. I agree though that endless editing/deleting of posts might cause other problems, so maybe a 24- or 12-hour window would be a better solution?

By the way: since over a year and a half I'm hosting the visualJockey-forums and until now never there have been such problems, but maybe that might also be because the general mood toward each other is a lot nicer than here (sorry to say so).

[elbows]

Well the smaller and more specialised a forum is, the less likely you are to have trouble. A forum for a specific app is more likely to be free of mac vs pc debates or discussions about hat vjing really is etc. At the end of the day we re all responsible for how this place is, and all have our part to play in making it better. But its a broad church, people will make mistakes, we will let ourselves down from time to time, people will argue and disagree.

Its always a difficult balance between the freedoms of the majority vs security against a minority who will occasionally end up troublemaking. As Holly said, there was no clear concensus in the past, and to be honest there still isnt. But a change is being tried, lets see what happens.

[holly]

... so maybe a 24- or 12-hour window would be a better solution?
There is a more complicated issue than just flamewars. It's possible that a member will become fed up or disillusioned with the VJ scene, with their longterm treatment by other members, or go through a serious life change that causes some regret with how they were involved or represented themselves here. In these extreme cases there might be a desire to erase their entire history by deleting ALL their posts....

Even in these extreme (but not so rare) situations there is still no clear concensus where individual freedoms end and sanctity of forum info begins. Hours, days, never...? The value of an individual member just can't be weighed against an unprovable need to preserve years-old technical information.... And even with the loss of an "important" member, I'd have to believe the forums could continue.... I don't know the best solution. I guess I'd prefer a "balance" of editable for a few days, but extending the time might just be splitting hairs. I doubt there is any one solution that everyone could agree to.

The good thing is that no decision is ever final. Presumably if a time limit is restored you could still ask a sympathetic mod to do the editing for you.

[dansmachine]

Yeah, I'll be a good boy (-:

[akira_k]

allowing endless editing and deletion of posts which might disrupt the flow of threads, or locking all posts after a short window of 30-minutes which might prevent clarification or retraction of old posts.
You want to clarify? You want to retract? Post again. Say "to clear things up...", or "ok my bad, i didn't mean to say that..."

Thread disruption is a huge problem which cannot be solved once done, but clarification, retraction and related, can be corrected easily by posting again.

People agree to have their views posted here in a public forum by accepting the forum's EULA, and having in mind one's views will be public, one should try to think carefully what to post and what not to, or be responsible of what you posted herein. Otherwise, why not maintain a private conversation?

I haven't yet seen the productive point of having unlimited edition capabilities. In which case this might be useful?