Site Feedback PSA: No More Editing Old Posts

To clear this up for all, because I’m in the same boat.

ASSEMbler with his message condemning editing posts has done something behind the scenes to make it so that users are unable to edit posts older than a specific period of time. This clutters the site with need for more threads and restricts user ability and freedom. Users bring the content. Without users ASSEMbler Games would be nothing. Making changes to the site to restrict users in a non-nessasary way is not right in my opinion.

So yeah, saw your post @Stipo360. Now you know, and the rest of AG knows. I couldn’t edit my sales thread so now I need a new one to add more clutter to the site. Oh boy. Great edits @ASSEMbler @assembler_EX

 

The site isn't here so you can exercise personal freedoms. It's here as a resource.
When somebody guts a post, information is lost. Seems to me that protecting this information is worth a little inconvenience.

 

97% of my posts are not worth protecting.

 

It's an inconvience? So is 4+ months downtime.

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The owner and operator of an entirely free forum has decided that he wants old threads to stay the way they are? Blasphemy. Assembler owes you absolutely squat so get over it.

 

I think this affects long-term threads like those that deal with releases. For example, my thread cannot be edited anymore.

It is not a new thing to me because psx-scene also did it. I had to bother the moderators/admins to help with updating the first post for each and every release. Either that, or let the first post rot, which will mean that users will find it harder to get new releases (unless they visit my website).

 

This was more my point of how it effects end users. For users who meaningfully contribute it’s pretty huge. I don’t want a multi page sales thread being spread out so no one on earth can figure out what’s for sale. Same with content like this. We kinda deserve to edit our own posts freely. Not like AG owns us anyways.

 

But I can understand @ASSEMbler's logic behind this. I guess if he wants to go with this to prevent griefing, maybe this rule can be a applied to specific forums. Maybe he can split up the "general discussions" from "releases", and discussions cannot be edited after a long enough period of time. (Likewise, maybe the market place can be freed from this rule)

It would increase the number of sub-forums, but well...

 

chances are digmac and others these issues ur all complaining about wont be changed so if you dont like it dont go on ag simple even if shit was to change to where it gives user somewhat freedom mean think about how long the site took to come back online do you really think bitching about this small issue is going to do anything when people bitched about assembler stating week after week the site will be back mean yeah now its back but not due to the people complaining.

in the end grin and bear it leave ag and go elsewhere or just clutter it as stated since you cant edit it since chances are since this was implanted he wont delete even a old sales thread which means if you start another due to the fact you cant edit then either the mods will have no choice to close the one u have and delete it or everytime you need to make changes u keep opening new sales thread having old and new combines taking up space aswell as pushing your thread to the top everytime u make a new one

mean it seems stupid to me to not have certain things restricted so certain things dont cause clutter but complaining about it wont do shit.

 

At least they'll get to know that there are people who do not think it is a good idea.
There is always a slight chance that they'll listen. On the other hand, if we totally kept quiet, then there is totally not a chance that they will know that.

For example, I am pretty sure that Assembler doesn't write homebrew software. Would he likely know that preventing edits can make a release-styled thread less effective, if nobody tells him that?

 

That is a pretty common feature on all forum software

A white list for certain sub forums would be a good help

 

Going to be devil's advocate here
Is asking for permission to edit a thread and whitelist as time goes too difficult? I don't see it as a problem even if I'm affected as well. Cant edit? Just ask. Problem solved.

 

It's not, for at least me. But the staff must be equally willing to help.

 

Staff is always willing to help as long as you ask us in the first place and nicely.

What happen is a bit of a knee jerk reaction but one that is needed. Unless you want all old content to be gone because someone decided they no longer like the site anymore. Yet pointing out where this leads to potential problems for the well being of the site is worth pointing out so we can consider all options, as long as it's done in a constructive manor. Just my two cents.

 

We dont delete sales threads because we want to see old prices and what was sold. It creates a log of who had what and what things may have sold for (or at least what they were offered for).

It's not like there is a finite amount of space. If you do things sensibly, a thread gets used, and then it sinks to the bottom. No big deal.

 

If this change breaks the concept of updating the first post in a thread to always have it reflect the latest developments, it's seriously stupid. If it doesn't, then meh, don't care - usually there isn't much reason to edit a response anyways, apart from typos and double posts, both of which you usually notice within a very short time.

 

Seems like things are getting back to normal at least now you can edit your sales topic again.

 

I always believe that in the end the user has a right to edit or delete their own submitted content.

 

Limits have been removed for now, but will likely return.

If they do, it will either be not included on the Marketplace, or you will have to start a new thread. Or there might be another option.

As for release threads, the best solution is to format the first post as if you won't be able to edit it in future. We are under no illusion that anyone will want to use the forums as THE source for info on their project, so they should have their own project website. Good practice is always to link to your downloads page, rather than link directly to the file. You are probably better off mentioning updates in a reply, rather than the original post... although you can link to the reply at the end of the post, sure. Until the lock kicks in, of course! You could always link to a reply before the limit, then link from that reply. Bit messy, I know.

Keep it relatively simple in a forum post - we don't need everything in there. Say what the project is, say what it does, then link to your page where you can get in-depth about tech details or instructions for use. That doesn't need to be on a forum.... although I'm not going to argue that it's good to have a back-up information resource!

@sp193's post is a decent example. Relatively short, formatted quite nicely. Links to a website, which is formatted even better and easier to read than a forum post. Nice! In your case, worst case scenario is you just have to put updates as a reply, which you'll want to do anyway to bump the thread.

 

Many people snip their prices on sales threads once sold. This isn't a solution to that :v

I'd recommend to solve that problem by making edit history viewable