Change maximum amount of time allowed to edit your own posts
 

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:)

There are many situations where the ability to edit a post a "long" time after it was originally made is useful. Three come to mind right away:

- Because of new information. One could always make a new post, but that fragments things. If one adds enough context to avoid fragmentation, the thread may become unnecessarily long. Better to just edit what was affected.

- To correct errors pointed out in later, often much later, posts.

- To keep threads such as Do programs, participant lists, flight/hotel plans, etc., up to date as plans develop and people sign up or cancel. Editing a master participant list is much more effective than creating a new one each time.

While editing can be abused, I don't think the benefits of a time limit outweigh the downside.

It may be annoying, and yes, I agree, it is, but I've seen several posters do this in response to removing the entry requirements to Omni, plus allowing the google bots to index Omni. Google can't index what isn't there any longer :)

FAQ threads would be very difficult to manage without the ability to edit posts.

I believe the wiki post functionality will be able to take care of the above concerns.

However, even this wiki post suggestion had long been made since 5/8/08, we have no idea how much longer IB needs to implement this over-due feature.

IMHO, wiki post feature is much needed for FTers than skimlinks.

While a wiki post feature would handle these, it's overkill. Editing your own posts is much more restricted than a wiki would be. Wiki posts open doors to all sorts of abuse, as some of the linked thread points out. I wouldn't get rid of my eight-ounce* tack hammer just because I also own a full-size, ten-pound* sledge, use a pound* of dynamite to get rid of a weed, or drive a 60-passenger bus to the store unless I had absolutely no alternative. This is analogous. Wiki posts, sledgehammers, dynamite and buses all have their uses, but they should be used only when more limited tools won't do the job.

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*Metric: approximately 225g, 4.5kg, and 450g, respectively.

Agree. Just to clarify, I am not saying wiki post feature would satisfy the need to edit someone's own posts. Sometimes I update my own posts after a long while to correct the wrong (or typos...etc), not because I need to delete the posts.

I was simply pointing out that some updates are better handle by wiki post feature. The president dollar coins thread and miles redeemed for magazines thread are two perfect examples.

I am not sure if the time limit to edit posts would fix the problem in the OP (removing the whole post and/or original questions). There's something else deeper in the act of post/thread retraction.

LOL
OP does make a point...Spelling errors are VERY easy to correct and any reasonable person should correct them right away. We do have dictionaries. Going back and deleting your entire post after a few days is pretty ridiculous. Absolutely reeks of some misguided attempt to make some obscure point that the majority of us really doesn't care about (like Omni being open to everyone). :)

You started a thread and now you've deleted the body of your post? Might as well close the thread.

I think that's the whole point of the OP.

;)

^