Feature request, again

[unixronin]

I think it's time for me to repeat, again, my feature request for an ability to edit comments.

Why?  Because right now, if you post a comment, then notice you made an error in your comment (a bad link, a typo, a bad HTML tag, an error in attribution, whatever), the only way you can fix it is to delete the comment and repost it.  Not only can this be awkward and time-consuming, but it really screws things up if someone has responded to your comment before you notice the error (or after you notice the error, but before you get it deleted and reposted).

Why not?  The most common argument I hear against this idea is, "Well, then people could go into their comments in an argument and change what they said."  In response to which, I make two observations:

• They can do that now, by deleting and reposting; if they can do it by editing, at least it won't screw up the whole thread.

• Users can already edit their posts after the event, to "change what they said".  Anyone care to explain to me why they think letting users do the same in their comments is somehow different?

Honestly, I really don't see a defensible downside to this, and it'd let people fix accidental errors in comments which they can't easily fix now.  So how about it?

Comments

[tww1fa]

Many online forums have a solution to this - if a post is edited, there is an automatically generated "[EDITED MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM]" line added that is not editable by the user doing the edit. This makes it possible to tell if a post has been edited or not.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

That'd be good, especially if there was a capability to add a note, so it came out as, say:

[EDITED MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM] Fixed broken link (thanks, SOMEUSER)

Of course, there'll be people who'll lie about what they said and what they changed. But hey, people are going to catch them out, and pretty soon the word will get around, "Don't get in an argument with THATUSER, he lies like a rug and retroactively edits his comments to make himself look good and to make you look bad."

[otherbill.livejournal.com]

If the general premise is to fix typoes, HTML formatting and so on, I kind of like the idea that you can edit your comment all you want, until somebody responds to it (at which point preservation of the comment is important to maintain context).

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think that'd be a rather bad idea, because it means that by the act of pointing out an error to someone (a broken link, say), you take away their ability to fix it. I've had comments to my comments within minutes of posting, before I've even gotten the comment reloaded. This would make the feature virtually useless.

Another way around the problem, but one which would take significantly more resources, is to save deltas and have a link appear on edited comments, "View the revision history of this comment." But I think at this point it's entering into the territory of excessive handholding, the arena of -- frankly -- playing tattling Big Brother on wankers.

Sure, comment editing has the capability to be abused. Almost anything does. But I think the community will adapt and learn to more or less self-correct the problem. There will be problem users who will abuse the feature, yes, and people will learn who they are, shun them, and block the problem users from commenting in their own journals.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Encouraging evolution in action? :)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Exactly. :)