Missing Edit & Cancel Options on Posts

[KJ6EAD]

I've lost the option to edit or cancel an edit on my posts. I tried logging out and back in to no avail.

Is anyone else experiencing similar difficulty?

The edit option is available for this post so the problem seems to be specific to certain posts. The problem posts behave as if I don't have ownership of them; they show options that would apply to posts of others.

I just went back through several days of my content and this is the only post I can edit.

 

[Bluejets]

Is it a "time since originally posted" issue?
Just that I have noticed similar on other forums, never really tried it here.

 

[(*steve*)]

PM me with a description of what you want to edit and I'll do it for you.

 

[davenn]

I've lost the option to edit or cancel an edit on my posts. I tried logging out and back in to no avail.

Is anyone else experiencing similar difficulty?

The edit option is available for this post so the problem seems to be specific to certain posts. The problem posts behave as if I don't have ownership of them; they show options that would apply to posts of others.

I just went back through several days of my content and this is the only post I can edit.

there is a time limit on editing to stop people from severely altering their posts ... it's always been that way
cant remember if @Ian has it set for 1, 12 or 24 hrs

most forums do that, as without that control, people were doing edits that destroyed the meaning of /flow of, the thread etc

 

[KJ6EAD]

Is it a "time since originally posted" issue?
Just that I have noticed similar on other forums, never really tried it here.

No. I usually realize that I have an error or omission quite soon after posting.

 

[KJ6EAD]

there is a time limit on editing to stop people from severely altering their posts ... it's always been that way
cant remember if @Ian has it set for 1, 12 or 24 hrs

most forums do that, as without that control, people were doing edits that destroyed the meaning of /flow of, the thread etc

Well, if it's set at 1 minute, that could be the issue. I've never run into this before. I just noticed that it is a time issue but it's set very short. My original post in this thread is now uneditable.

 

[(*steve*)]

@Ian would be the one to know if anything has changed.

As moderators, we don't get timed out of editing and wouldn't notice if there's been a change. In this sense we can only rely on what other members are saying.

I'm pretty sure the timeout was significantly longer than just 1 minute.

 

[KJ6EAD]

I am perfectionistic in my posts. I routinely correct and add content to my posts for at least ten minutes after initially posting and on other forums I participate in I will sometimes correct typos on posts that are years old.

 

[Ian]

Sorry about this @KJ6EAD. The time limit for editing posts is 2 hours from the post creation, which is probably why it isn't appearing for you in this instance (if it's happening below this time limit, please let me know!). Unfortunately, we've had to put that limit in place to allow a balance between people being able to correct mistakes (usually spotted quickly), but also to prevent abuse of the feature once the post is no longer active.

For example, we get spammers editing posts hours/days/weeks/months after it has been made to include links/inappropriate content. On very rare occasions we've even had problems with old member accounts springing back to life and attempt to edit their old posts en-masse with spammy links (it's definitely a script doing this, so I presume the credentials were weak or reused from a compromised source).

You'd be surprised to see how many attempts at spamming we get, as very little gets through to the forum.

I know this limits some members occasionally, when they have genuine reasons to edit a post - but if you ever spot anything that you'd like changed, I'm very happy to do it manually if you (or anyone else with the same problem) sends me a PM. It's very rare that I've had people wanting to edit things after 2 hours, but the limit does prevent a lot of otherwise undetected spam.

 

[KJ6EAD]

That all makes sense. I'm very surprised that I hadn't discovered this earlier. I don't have this limit on other forums. I wonder how they manage the associated problems you've described.

 

[Ian]

Thanks, I know it's a pain, but it does limit the amount of damage spammers can do. On the rare time something needs editing at a later date, I'm more than happy to do it manually (via PM) for whoever needs it .

I wonder how they manage the associated problems you've described.

It could be that they're unaware (or have some other mechanism to cater for it), as old posts that are edited don't get bumped up to the top. I only realised how often it was happening once I looked at the forum logs to troubleshoot something. As an example of how much anti-spam stuff happens in the background, today alone we stopped 36 bots from registering and two spammers have been banned from the forum (including a handful of their posts and profile messages).

 

[Alec_t]

today alone we stopped 36 bots from registering

Would a Captcha thingy keep them out?

 

[Ian]

Would a Captcha thingy keep them out?

That's one of the mechanisms we use to keep them at bay .