Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Web Hosting Lounge : Should Forum Members Be Able To Edit/Delete Their Posts?

[Sean101]

Hey..
I have a xbox forum & im not sure weither i should allow my members to be able to edit and/or delete their posts.
What have you got set on your forum?
Whats your thought on allowing editing & deleting posts by members?

[Aniruddh]

I think you can allow them to edit/delete their post for next 5 after they have posted it.

[BiggyMike]

yea, i do remember being able to edit mine after x amount of time

[Doran]

Cant see any reason why you cannot edit your own posts. Spelling mistakes and all that.

[The_Cow]

Some sort of version control though would be good, so to ensure things dont get wiped out.

[SoftWareRevue]

WHT allows members 15 minutes to go back and edit their post in case the notice a typo or something. We do not allow members to delete their posts, no matter what. We prefer to maintain the historical accuracy of the industry.

If I had an "xbox forum", I probably would do it pretty much the same. You can imagine if someone were to post some good guides and then gets mad at you. Months later they can go back and remove those posts or edit them to nothing. That probably wouldn't be good.

So I'd do it much the same - "In the interest of maintaining historical accuracy.".

[Steven F]

Originally Posted by SoftWareRevue

WHT allows members 15 minutes to go back and edit their post in case the notice a typo or something. We do not allow members to delete their posts, no matter what. We prefer to maintain the historical accuracy of the industry.

If I had an "xbox forum", I probably would do it pretty much the same. You can imagine if someone were to post some good guides and then gets mad at you. Months later they can go back and remove those posts or edit them to nothing. That probably wouldn't be good.

So I'd do it much the same - "In the interest of maintaining historical accuracy.".

But vBulletin saves edits.

[SoftWareRevue]

Interesting. I didn't read where he said he'd be using vBulletin.

Besides, version history to roll back hundreds of posts ain't much fun.

[KMyers]

Originally Posted by SoftWareRevue

WHT allows members 15 minutes to go back and edit their post in case the notice a typo or something. We do not allow members to delete their posts, no matter what. We prefer to maintain the historical accuracy of the industry.

If I had an "xbox forum", I probably would do it pretty much the same. You can imagine if someone were to post some good guides and then gets mad at you. Months later they can go back and remove those posts or edit them to nothing. That probably wouldn't be good.

So I'd do it much the same - "In the interest of maintaining historical accuracy.".

It would be nice if members could at least edit the title of their own posts (as long as the post remains open). I have seen many forums that it is customary to put "(Resolved)" next to any question that the OP feels has been resolved.

It would also be nice in the "Offers" section if a host can put "Expired" in front of those "3 day sales/auctions", or "Sold" if someone was selling a domain, website, tangible item, license.

Originally Posted by EndServer

But vBulletin saves edits.

On a large forum like WHT, this revision history can easily grow by 5-10 GB a week. It may not be wise to do it IMHO

[Steven F]

Originally Posted by SoftWareRevue

Interesting. I didn't read where he said he'd be using vBulletin.

Besides, version history to roll back hundreds of posts ain't much fun.

He didn't, it was more of a question to you. I do believe that MyBB also has post edit history, though.

Edit:
@Keithy
That's what I thought, the massive edits history database. It could also cause a lot of problems on this forum especially.

[Sean101]

Currently i have it so my members cant edit or delete their posts.
I have 2 groups on my forum "XLF Reviewers" & "Forum Welcomers". These members help out on the forum & they can edit & delete their posts. But im thinking about making it so no one can delete posts, but everything can edit them upto to 30 minutes after posting then no more.

As well as members being able to post allowed content, then go back a while later and change it to spam content.. I dont like the idea of a member posting a thread, then after getting replies to it, change it to say differant text to make it look as if the members replied on that instead of the thread which was there before the edit.

I also saw on a thread somewhere that its bad for your SEO if members can delete their posts.

[SWH-Ritchie]

Give them a max of 1 day to edit the posts. But to delete the posts, let them ask the moderators or the admins.

[Sean101]

Originally Posted by Ritchiesame

Give them a max of 1 day to edit the posts. But to delete the posts, let them ask the moderators or the admins.

I was thinking just to do..
- Members can not delete posts at all..
& - Members only have 30 mins - 1 hour to edit them after posting it.

[Mike - Limestone]

I like time limits of 15-30 minutes to edit posts. After that point, it can really confuse things with regard to replies by other members (e.g. if the original post is substantially edited).

-mike

[Ceekeigh]

Edit should be fine but that should be within a specific time frame like 60 minutes after it was posted. But the delete part is too much.