Deciding not to "reply"

[Joatmon]

I know you should "look before you leap" or think first, act later. However if I do something rashly then I'm sure others do too.

Sometimes I post a reply and then wish I hadn't. Perhaps I quickly realise that I have misunderstood some-one else's post or that my reply is inappropriate in some way. If the "edit" facility is still available I can change the wording of my post - but I can't delete the whole post. Since I have to post something I end up, perhaps, posting an apology.

Would it be a good idea to allow use of the "edit" facility to cancel completely a whole post?

 

Example from one of my posts - "Changed my mind - might come back"

Edited May 24, 2012 by Joatmon

[swansont]

The flip side to this is that there are people who will post something outrageous or full of nonsense, and then go back and change or delete the post and try to play the innocent, which is a nightmare from a moderation standpoint. It used to be that the ability to edit expired after a few hours, so that changing the post could not happen. For my own part, even though as a moderator I can do this, if it's more than a typo and not noticed during a proof-read right after I post, I use the strike-out function.

 

There's also the view that having the reality that you can't put the genie back in the bottle might make people weigh their words a little more carefully.

[Xittenn]

Some sites add a history to posts like stackoverflow, but these sites tend to incorporate the concept of post edits and use them to improve the overall quality of threads. These sites are also more geared to final answers so this is very in contrast to SFN. I just thought I would through that out there though.

 

What had you posted Jo???

[Phi for All]

I often run across posts where someone has written "Cancel" or "Oooops" or "Nevermind". I soft-delete them, which removes them from the sight of everyone but the staff. We never fully delete anything.

 

I'll reinforce what swansont said about abuse as well. When we had greater editing capabilities available, we had members who got angry at something someone said and went back and deleted all their posts. It left many threads completely incomprehensible, except where they were actually quoted.

[Joatmon]

I understand the problem. Of course the present system doesn't stop you replacing an entire post with a just a full stop. I accept I should think more before replying but "old dog, new tricks" springs to mind. I shall reply with something like Oooops if and when it happens again.

I don't think I'm making a case for greater editing facilities per se . If anything I would like lesser editing facilities. Perhaps the window for deletion (and editing) could only be held open until someone else replies to that particular thread.

 

What had you posted Jo???

Assuming it was something that, although posted with innocent intent, could be misconstrued then it would defeat the object of the exercise to repeat it, don't you think?

Curiosity killed the Kitten .............

Edited May 24, 2012 by Joatmon

[timo]

Oh, and what also is annoying is when you spend 20 minutes writing a reply, and upon submitting the system tells you that the thread no longer exists (as just happened).

[Phi for All]

Oh, and what also is annoying is when you spend 20 minutes writing a reply, and upon submitting the system tells you that the thread no longer exists (as just happened).

It's likely that the thread you were responding to was moved to a different section. It still exists, just not in the section your reply was being posted to. That is a weakness of the system, and I've had it happen to me. I try to see if anyone is listed as reading a thread and if there is, I postpone moving it.

[timo]

That's presumably been it (I did check if I still find the thread, but apparently didn't go down far enough). Thanks. Happens that my reply was still my current paste element, so I didn't even have to rewrite it.

[Phi for All]

That's presumably been it (I did check if I still find the thread, but apparently didn't go down far enough). Thanks. Happens that my reply was still my current paste element, so I didn't even have to rewrite it.

Sweet! It's great when that happens. Too many times I've tried to go back after getting that error and my post is gone.