Suggestion for the board

[PTVroman]

I realize I am new to these boards, and probably won't stick around (nothing personal, you all seem like a nice bunch of people, but the subject matter is rather narrow, and I do not have the time nor the enthusiasm to actively help in the fighting of these scams), but I do have a suggestion -

Remove the editing capability, please.

I've been brousing the boards for the last couple of days, learning what a Matrix site is, how wide-spread they are, problems with them, etc. Today, I come upon this thread: New UK Pyramid Laws (http://www.matrixwatch.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1980). In it, DaveyBoySmith makes a post, then gets lambasted for being rude. Why? Then, I scroll back up. Oh, "last edited by DaveyBoySmith...." Or, a better example. On on of the long GotMatrix threads, Sig went in and edited all of his posts to erase what they said. You have people responding to him, but I have no idea what they are responding to. As a public forum for discussion and education, this severly harms the education.

Just my $0.02 (or 2p for our friends from the UK).

Paul

[MatrixWatch]

hmmm... This is a good issue to discuss. Old posts have been toned down by their authors, even pruned down to a single word. This makes it difficult for those who read the posts late. However, in the short term, someone might want to correct a spelling error, or tone down overly-emotional outbursts after the fact. That would indeed flood the requests to mods for post-changes.

When we first launched I decided that the best middle ground was to allow editing, but not allow post deletion. This way, if a person edited their post the rest of the board could see that they did it and know why there was a gap in the dialogue. I was hoping that a culture of shaming post-edits would develop and the members wouldn't do it so much as a result.

I'm open to your suggestions though. What does everyone else think about this one?

[nicoleeubanks]

hmmm... This is a good issue to discuss. Old posts have been toned down by their authors, even pruned down to a single word. This makes it difficult for those who read the posts late. However, in the short term, someone might want to correct a spelling error, or tone down overly-emotional outbursts after the fact. That would indeed flood the requests to mods for post-changes.

When we first launched I decided that the best middle ground was to allow editing, but not allow post deletion. This way, if a person edited their post the rest of the board could see that they did it and know why there was a gap in the dialogue. I was hoping that a culture of shaming post-edits would develop and the members wouldn't do it so much as a result.

I'm open to your suggestions though. What does everyone else think about this one?

I edit my posts sometimes if I make a bad spelling error or something, but I am one of probably few who could care less what my "old posts" say. If I said it I am not going to go back and pretend I didn't. Just like after I realized Greg was a "big fat liar"(for a lack of better/more mature words :D ) I did not go back and delete/edit my posts on Matrix Agency or here or anywhere. If I defended him before-which I freely admit- it was because I thought I was right at the time. If I am wrong, I have no problem admitting that. There obviously are WAY too many people who have many problems on being true to who they are and just admitting they were wrong. Now in the case of people going back and editing their posts to try and "hide" what they said before, I wish there was a way to stop that(if for no other reason than to leave me looking like the sole idiot here). As far as people needing to edit for going a little crazy and later regretting it or wanting to edit for bad grammer or spelling, I am all for that. Me I tend to just leave things as I type them usually, but that is just me. My point(small as it may be for so many words). I wish that you could just force everyone to be honest and then the whole editing wouldn't matter. As far as if most people agree, maybe taking the edit feature away would be a good idea and then the mods could just edit those who lose their temper too bad. Either way, I don't care. The way things are going I may be the only verifiable (by my old posts) previous "matrix supporter" if everyone else decides to cover their tracks... So be it! :crazy:

[Dreamer]

For a site like this, if you get frustrated because you don't know what the original post is, by all means, respond to the thread and ask. Maybe the participants originally kind of remembered what was said. Yeah, it wont be verbatim, and, well, thinking about it, it probably wont do any good, but if you are that curious, I'm sure some members won't mind picking their brains trying to recover the lost postings

[sisco50]

I have always considered the edit feature to be not only useful but needed by most posters that take pride in their abilities to use correct spelling. In my case, my bad typing requires some editing at times. Just hate seeing a common every day word spelled wrong due to flying fingers on the keyboard. I like the edit feature for that reason only. If total rewording were needed, it would be just as easy to make a new post.

[DaveyBoySmith]

I also use the edit feature to correct any spelling or if i wish to add a sentance or two that i forgot. I do not use this feature to remove any debate points. Keep it as it is i reckon.

[MatrixWatch]

Sometimes I'll spell somebody's name wrong, or I'll have run-on sentences that need correcting, and I know how helpful that must be to other people as well.

I suppose that one possible solution would be to use the quote feature once and a while when responding. What do you all think of that as a solution? This way, we could at least see what was originally said by checking out the responder's post.