macliam

I'm not sure if this is new, or whether I have just noticed it....

On a previous post I said I could not edit an earlier posting to correct an error. Now I've tried to edit another and again, no edit available.

In the box next to my name for the post, it says "macliam is offline", yet at the top of the postings it says "Welcome macliam" (as I've signed on) and in my profile it says "macliam is now online" .......???

It may be I need to ask this of the site management, but wondered first if any of you have had similar.....

(Oh, and of course it has allowed me to post this!)

Pollyana

The window within which you can edit a post is around 2 hours from the initial posting time (from memory). After that time if the post needs to be edited you will have to contact a Mod or Admin.

macliam

Oh, OK thanks - I wasn't aware of that.

Seems odd that you can't correct factual errors or typos beyond a short window, but rules is rules.

Pollyana

I think its really to prevent people changing posts after they have been quoted, or after people have used the info in them.
If someone posts something, then finds it is wrong and changes their post, then people who have already read the info may not realise it is changed as they may not read the original post again, they tend just to read new posts on the thread. By closing the edit window it means the original poster has to post a fresh post, with the correction, then others can see that the old info is wrong and they should use the new stuff instead....does that make sense?

macliam

Yep, not a rule often used elsewhere (or ever, in my experience) but it makes some sense. Of course, an alternate is to force the poster to provide an explanation for the change and to mark it as amended.......

Still, now I know!