Many of you have noticed that it is possible to edit or even delete your posts after writing them.

Recently I've had to warn quite a few users about abuse of this facility, so rather than leaving it up to "common sense" or "good etiquette" (I prefer a hands-off approach wherever possible) I'm afraid I have to spell this issue out as a policy.

Once you have posted something on a public forum it has been "said". Much like a conversation in public, once something has been said, it cannot be magically taken back. Other people heard you say it and they may have responded directly to it, or started another conversation based on what you may have said.

On a public web forum the same rule applies. In general you should NEVER delete or edit a post unless you have a good reason to do so.

Good reasons include:

• Removing "unacceptable content" when asked to do so by a moderator (e.g. material which is sexual in nature, racist remarks, something which encourages hatred against a particular religious group, or anything which an average person would consider offensive).
• Correcting a small factual error, providing that the error itself has not become part of the discussion. For example, you wrote an incorrect telephone number in a post. If your point has already become part of the discussion then post a follow up message with a correction.
• Removing copyright material, for example if you cut and pasted a large section of another website or article without permission from that site.
• Correcting a spelling or punctuation error.
• Maintaining a link that may have changed.
• You may have accidentally posted the same message twice.
• You put your post on an inappropriate thread.

Bad reasons include:

• You changed your mind about what you said. In this case post an apology to the same thread and explain that you overreacted, didn't consider your arguments properly, etc.
• People disagreed with what you said. Once people have responded to your post you effectively make fools of them by changing or deleting your original comments.
• You are angry or upset by something or someone else and remove your post out of spite.

The only exception to the "bad reasons" named above is when you wish to make a change or deletion within a couple of minutes of posting, and providing that somebody else hasn't started responding. If somebody else has started to respond, then a moderator will undelete your post so as not to invalidate a response from someone else.

Giving a reason: If you make an edit or delete a post the system will ask you for a reason - don't leave it blank. In the case of an edit it tells other users what you changed (for example did you just change a phone number), and in the case of deletion it tells the moderators why you deleted your post.

Please take some time to consider these guidelines. I'd like to think that I can trust users to do the right thing, rather than revoking the ability to edit or delete posts.

Just to add: if someone with moderator rights does edit one of your posts (say to split from a thread into a new thread or to edit content that is deemed not acceptible), the moderator will give a reason which will be displayed underneath the original message.

Example:
http://www.englishforum.ch/help-tips...ce-billag.html (you see I comment "change title after splitting from other thread")

I cannot find where to edit posts...

edit: now it's there... strange, i wanted to correct a typo some minutes ago but there is no edit icon for older posts.

You only get the Edit privilege after a number of posts.

ah,OK, thank you

strange I still have the edit option in this thread but not in any other.. how many posts do I need for that? I just cant stop having typos

You should have it now.... Can you check the forum support area to see if there is an info there that could help you.

i found: "edits happen after 1 week, minimum 5 posts and positive reputation"

I deleted one but three of my posts went M.I.A.

I promise I've searched for an answer to this question ... and for quite a few nanoseconds too.

Okay, fine then don't answer the question ... kindly just post the link to where I can find the answer.

I understand that you require a certain number of posts (five?) before you have edit rights. It's just that my counter seems to be stuck on 2

***
Ha! Murphy's law - it jumped to 3 and now I can edit

If you are posting in off-topic then those don't count towards your total.

Thank you Lou - my enlightenment quota for the day has just doubled!

If we did loose the Edit button then I will need a spell check button please.
Many a time have I noticed mistakes after reading my own post.

DC

At the risk of sounding pedantic... do you mean in the Off-Topic forums (thanks Mark for bringing these to my attention), or do you have a message parser that automatically detects off topic content in messages and discounts these from the total.

PS if the latter suggest you run to Google or Bill and sell out for brazilians of dollars

I would hope to make at least gazillions from my most excellent message parser, failing that you will get no credit for posting in the Off-Topic section of the forums (or is that fora since you insist on being pedantic ).

Oh this is a very interesting topic for somebody who's been in this forum for one day! There are credits?!! Interesting..
Is there a time limit on events you can post too? I actually posted one last night but don't see it today any more - is it because I am a newbie?
Sorry for asking so many questions - you must be getting them all the time as a veteran right? Mine are not urgent...
And thanks a lot for answering..

Balerina,

There are guidelines regarding the posting of commercial events, which you can read about here:

http://www.englishforum.ch/commercia...rtisments.html

I deleted your "event" as it spanned every single day for eight weeks. I did read that your course was an eight week event, but probably you only meant one night per week. Regarding your course, it would be more appropriate for you to post it as a commercial service (in market place) rather than a calendar event. For people who sign up, they'll already know the dates. For everybody else, it's not interesting to see a weekly reminder of a course night.

I hope this clarifies matters

Hi Diem
Yes, it does, thank you.
I've noticed myself that I put in a wrong occurance (daily instead of weekly) but didn't know how to edit it.
Best regards

Interesting. A moderator just edited the subject line of one of my posts. I replied that I didn't want my name over text that I hadn't written, and requested that it be deleted. I received the response that forum rules allowed moderators to modify posts, and that if I tried to rectify the situation myself, I would be open to an 'immediate ban from the EF' (I had not even proposed doing anything myself, I had simply asked the moderator to do it). No response to my comment that I thought an edited text should be marked 'edited by moderator'.

Hardly consistent with the statement above - could someone please clarify?

Hi Peebix,

all thread titles are subject to moderation.

The aim of this moderation, however, is not to change the meaning of the title, but rather to make it a clearer description of the subject matter of the thread. Titles are also cleaned up to fix spelling and grammatical errors.

Currently the system does not allow for an "edit history" to be viewed. That is, if a moderator edits a title, there is no way for other readers to view what the original title was nor who made the edit. A "title edit history" feature is in the works and will be implemented in the next few weeks.

The content of posts themselves are very rarely, if ever, modifed by moderators. Only reasons would be to remove cases of extreme abuse, like the posting of pornography or hate speech. But in those cases usually the whole post would be removed, not just edited.

As for banning, you're definitely not going to be banned for a minor infraction such as removing a post. Yes, self-deletion of posts is against the forum rules, and you might receive a warning if you do that, but a ban would be excessive. Sorry if you were told otherwise by another moderator, I think that was a misunderstanding.

Things are a little unclear regarding moderation policy at the moment, what with the recent transfer of the site. But we'll sort all that out in the coming few weeks. We need a fresh page that clearly lays out what the rules and guidelines are. The rules won't be all that different from previously, but they need to be specified again clearly in an up-to-date way.