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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

... To be coming reluctantly round to the idea of an edit facility?

30 replies

RustyBear · 22/01/2011 11:14

I've always been against the idea of being able to edit posts, but the Irresistable Rise of Auto Correct is beginning to change my mind...

Some of the examples I have collected recently:

He put> Benoit
Nspcc> maids
Mnhq> Gwen
Towards> toasted
Someone> dimwit
Get home> gerbils
So if> sonic

This morning, when I typed 'interrupt' with only one 'r', my ipad ignored the correct spelling and autocorrected to 'interior'. Confused It's often difficult to see the problem on a small phone screen, so you don't notice till you post.

If we did have it, I think it should be limited in time and obvious that the post has been edited, otherwise you get the situation where Tech someone gets the date of a planned shutdown wrong, fifteen obsessives people tell him it's wrong and he goes back and changes it, leaving them looking like the ones who can't read a calendar...

OP posts:
southeastastra · 22/01/2011 11:15

i said this ages ago, an edit button but only for 30 seconds or so!

bubblewrapped · 22/01/2011 11:18

I am not sure I understand your last paragraph, but I have plenty experience of running various chatboards and the edit button is a much abused facility, which it is better to be without.

I would rather see typos than the malicious editing that I have seen on many other occasions.

KatyMac · 22/01/2011 11:20

Edit would work but only if it left the old post (strikeout/in grey/otherwise marked) with the correction next to it

GabbyLoggon · 22/01/2011 11:28

I have witnessed several systems. They all
have advantages and disandvatages. People tend to like what they have got used to. cheers "gabby"

OnlyMeUK · 22/01/2011 11:29

sorry, I find the whole lack of edit facility peculiar. Confused I like the form content and its contributors, but the format of the forum posting facility is shiite.

Original poster
RustyBear · 22/01/2011 11:30

Bubblewrap - currently only MNHQ have the power to edit, and a few years ago it was quite common for Tech to post that MN would be down for planned maintenance 'at 9 am on Tuesday 27th', when the 27th was a Monday. Lots of people would then post to ask if he meant the 27th, or Tuesday and he would correct it, which meant a lot more people would post to say 'the 27th is a Monday'....

I do agree that malicious editing is a problem, which is why I've always been against it before and why I think there should be limits, but I think the autocorrect thing is one more factor to take into account - apparently the MNHQ/Gwen post caused lot of confusion...

OP posts:
purepurple · 22/01/2011 11:31

I would like an edit facility and a quote facility too.

nickelbabysnatcher · 22/01/2011 11:34

I think that an edit where your original error shows would be useful.

so I put puttign but go "oh bollocks"
then i go back and change it to putting and the orgiginal puttign stays -

maybe like puttign putting (but in a different colour or font so it doesn't override the strikeout function
Confused

StealthPolarStuckSpaceBar · 22/01/2011 11:37

Why do ipads have such strange autocorrects anyway? Why is someone turned into dimwit?

StealthPolarStuckSpaceBar · 22/01/2011 11:37

what I mean is, 'someone' is a word!

OnlyMeUK · 22/01/2011 11:38

Just show what time/date a posting had been edited, each and every time, say a footer. That should be enough, no need to mark each correction, removal etc..

You soon know who abuses the edit facility, especially when you have a quote facility in place also.

bubblewrapped · 22/01/2011 11:41

Ah, I see what you mean Rusty, yes I can see that would cause some confusion.

I see that happen a lot on the DM website, where an article has been updated, and the readers comments below then make no sense at all.

I think being able to use a quote facility would be an improvement rather than an edit one though.

I also think an avatar would be very useful as it would be much easier to find your own posts, and look for other posters to find something you want to re-read.

I use the Digital Spy forums quite a lot, and think their format is perfect.

OnlyMeUK · 22/01/2011 11:43

I agree with bubblewrapped and also use digitalspy and it is a much better system used there!

usualsuspect · 22/01/2011 11:45

No to avatars ...but a time limited edit facility would be much appreciated

purepurple · 22/01/2011 11:46

I now want
a quote facility
an avatar

an edit facility would be useful but I want the other 2 first.

Original poster
RustyBear · 22/01/2011 11:51

Stealth - I think it's not so much that the autocorrect changes words which are correct (though it does sometimes if it hasn't heard of them)

It's more often that if someone makes a slight error, the corrections tend to be a bit strange (as in my interupt/interior example) If the original misspelling had remained, the sentence would still have made sense, whereas changing it to 'interior' is just bizarre...

Of course, autocorrect does provide a lot of amusement

OP posts:
meantosay · 22/01/2011 12:17

I post on another forum where you can edit and people often do to correct a spelling or some such.

I only remember one occasion where someone actually changed his post and he was pulled up pretty quickly by posters reminding him of what he had actually said and how he was now trying to manipulate the argument by editing his original comment. He ended up looking really stupid. I don't think mumsnetters would let anyone away with that either.

MardyBra · 22/01/2011 12:37

YABU cos you've got an ipad and I want one so I can have that problem too. [mardy strop emoticon]

Seriously though, I think it would end up with people editing previous posts and loads of bickering about who said what and why they changed it.

StealthPolarStuckSpaceBar · 22/01/2011 12:40

thanks, that makes more sense!

Mishy1234 · 22/01/2011 12:42

Can't you switch it off?

Original poster
RustyBear · 22/01/2011 12:51

You can switch it off (for iPhone and iPad it's Settings-General-Keyboard-AutoCorrection off) but it is useful for common typos like teh for the. I just wish it wasn't quite so random on other stuff.

OP posts:
mutznutz · 22/01/2011 13:02

I'm not fussed about an edit button but I'd really like 3 basic functions.

  1. A quote button
  1. A symbol to appear next to the threads to show they've been updated since I last opened them.
  1. To be able to open a thread where I left it...I know there's a bookmark thingy but it never bloody works.
Tee2072 · 22/01/2011 13:08

Well, you could preview before you post. I manage to do that on my iPhone, so on your iPad it should be even easier, with it's bigger screen.

However, a temporary edit function would be nice, say 1 minute after the post. I wouldn't want people to be able to go back 3 hours later, especially in AIBU, and change what they said just because everyone told them, yes, YABU. Grin

Quote function would be great!

Don't care about Avatar.

cunexttuesonline · 22/01/2011 13:15

What mutznutz said. I'd also like to click on threads i'm on and be able to click to go to my actual post, not the start of the thread. This is the only forum I have been on which does not have any of this functionality.

bubblewrapped · 22/01/2011 13:18

Oh definately a function to go to last read post. That really is one of the most irritating things.

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