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Thread: Allow Mods to Edit Posts (for excessive swearing, touch-ups at request of user, etc.)

  1. #1
    AO Antique pwaring's Avatar
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    Originally posted here by Negative
    I'm sure that if we'd have the power to delete avatars, they'd come up with something else (attachments?).
    Mods should be able to edit posts as well, AO is incredibly restrictive - most other forums I go on (and am a mod on some of them) allow mods to edit posts. Personally, I would be quite happy for mods to be able to edit posts, so long as they made a note within the post that they had done so, e.g.:

    edited by Negative: please cut down on the swearing

    It would also be nice if we could ask the mods to edit our posts sometimes, e.g. when you create something that needs to be updated every so often (although unlimited edit in tutorials has helped this).
    Paul Waring - Web site design and development.

  2. #2
    Just a Virtualized Geek MrLinus's Avatar
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    MsMittens points pwaring towards site suggestions ..
    Goodbye, Mittens (1992-2008). My pillow will be cold without your purring beside my head
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  3. #3
    I swear this thread had a first page to it...

  4. #4
    AO Antique pwaring's Avatar
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    It did, I asked MsMittens to move my post into site suggestions since that's where it really belonged.
    Paul Waring - Web site design and development.

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    I disagree with what you're saying. I don't think that mods should be able to edit members posts because it would be possible to damage people's freedom of speech if that was the case; something which is especially important on a site like this.

    If you are worried about swearing (just as an example...I don't really mean you), something could be introduced like on certain irc channels where swear words are censored, but I don't really see a point in that since I really doubt that most of the people who come here are going to become corrupt by reading some dodgy post. If it's just excessive swearing that's the problem, there could be some sort of swear counter that only censored when there were "too many" swear words on the one post.

    But the thing is that there is the hide post feature that any sensible member should use if they think that people might be offended by their post, and instead of editing the post to fit in with the rest of the forum, if a member refuses to hide their post perhaps the moderators should simply delete it. This would solve any freedom of information/expression issues that could come about from mods editing people's posts.

    On the point of touch-ups at the request of the user, you shouldn't expect someone else to edit your post for you, so perhaps instead of that there should be some mechanism where users can request their post to be re-opened for editing for a short period if they feel that they have some good reason for editing it. With this system, the user would have to give a decent reason for their request which could be decided upon by the moderator for the forum that they posted on. That would be all down to whether or not a mod had enough time to do that (which they would if they have enough time to go around editing peoples posts for them )

    ac

  6. #6
    Just a Virtualized Geek MrLinus's Avatar
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    There is a mechanism by which members can edit their posts (within a period of 1440 minutes). After that, it would take an admin to do it.

    But the thing is that there is the hide post feature that any sensible member..
    What if they are not sensible? (e.g., trolls).
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  7. #7
    Senior Member Zonewalker's Avatar
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    hmm... I must admit I'm with Gothic on this one. I understand where you're coming from pwaring - but start editing posts and theres a whole can of worms to be opened. Besides I think the mods do a good job of keeping things under control as it is - example the spate of bannings on seniors done today (in fact in the last couple of hours (came as a bit of a surpsie to be honest with you). But I definitely think people should make more use of the hide post option - maybe instead of editing a post we can have some kind of automatic 'hide post' if theres any swearing in the post - not sure how mnstrgrl would implement it mind but... just a suggestion
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  8. #8
    AO Antique pwaring's Avatar
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    Originally posted here by gothic_type
    [B]I disagree with what you're saying. I don't think that mods should be able to edit members posts because it would be possible to damage people's freedom of speech if that was the case; something which is especially important on a site like this.
    They can damage your free speech in exactly the same way by just deleting your post. Besides, I know a lot of high-profile forums with lots of members and generally mods are the kind of people you can trust not to go around editing posts and changing what people say. I really am surprised that AO doesn't allow edits already.

    If you are worried about swearing (just as an example...I don't really mean you), something could be introduced like on certain irc channels where swear words are censored
    Unfortunately, such filters are ludicrously easy to get round. Say for example you banned 'bob' as a swear word (ok, extreme example but you'll see what I mean), all I have to do is post: 'b o b' or 'B**O**B' or whatever. You get round the censorship whilst still using the same language.

    But the thing is that there is the hide post feature that any sensible member should use if they think that people might be offended by their post, and instead of editing the post to fit in with the rest of the forum
    Unfortunately, not every post that should be hidden is done so.

    if a member refuses to hide their post perhaps the moderators should simply delete it. This would solve any freedom of information/expression issues that could come about from mods editing people's posts.
    Surely deleting their posts would be an even worse issue of FOI/E? If a post is hidden, then anyone who wants to can see it, but it's not as if the author's opinion is being supressed.

    With this system, the user would have to give a decent reason for their request which could be decided upon by the moderator for the forum that they posted on. That would be all down to whether or not a mod had enough time to do that (which they would if they have enough time to go around editing peoples posts for them )
    If you're going to go to all that trouble just to edit a post, you might as well PM a mod with the text and ask them to do it, rather than filing a request, mods looking over it etc. Or just not bother.
    Paul Waring - Web site design and development.

  9. #9
    ****
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    Now thats a properly hidden swear word

  10. #10
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    pwaring, I had thought about the fact that deleting the post was also not a perfect solution, but I still would rather that my post was just deleted than edited by someone else. I realise that you can generally trust the mods, but just because I trust someone, doesn't mean that I want them to be able to edit my posts.

    I realise that not everyone would hide their posts if they were "inappropriate", but if you l keep on reading I mention deleting the post after that. If someone violates the rules that are in place for certain forums, their post should be deleted. They can always re-post and it (hopefully) teaches them not to post crap in the first place rather than that whatever they post will get edited anyway, so why should they care?

    When I was talking about filing a request, etc. I was just attempting to suggest a system where the member is part of the editing process.

    And the filters bit...sure it is easy to get around that, but the people who would bother with it are generally going to be the ones who'll get banned pretty quickly in any case, and also, it is possible to insert filters that are slightly more advanced than what you were suggesting that notice an attempt to get past the filters.

    I do see where you're coming from though and will admit that deleting posts could be just as bad as editing them, I would just prefer that mine were deleted than edited, though.

    ac

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