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flo's avatar

Which page in Fluther has the info about how much time to edit the OP and the answer?

Asked by flo (13313points) October 27th, 2016

I looked in Important Rules, and Guidelines, already.

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

13 Answers

SavoirFaire's avatar

I don’t think it’s mentioned anywhere in the Help section. But if you were wondering, the edit window is 10 minutes.

SQUEEKY2's avatar

I get that @SavoirFaire but shouldn’t there be a time limit for the mods as well?
I have had mods pull a question simply because they didn’t like the way it was worded,(nothing about spelling or punctuation) just the way it was worded hours and hours after it was posted.
I can understand the quest for perfect spelling and punctuation BUT the way it is worded?
Come on that is just a little to anal in my book especially hours and hours after it was posted.

longgone's avatar

@SQUEEKY2

We pull questions for wording only when they are not clear. If the mod who handled that particular question didn’t provide an explanation, please feel free to ask us via PM or the contact button.

I agree with you on the general idea. If we had 24/7 coverage, it would make a lot of sense to keep moderation within a very short time frame. However, for that to work, we would need someone monitoring incoming content at all times. It’s hard to find people willing to do that, especially considering that they would not be getting paid. I love Fluther, but I also like my offline life.

johnpowell's avatar

@SQUEEKY2 :: that is totally reasonable if you want to send the mods piles of meth so they can babysit all night.

flo's avatar

So, it’s 10 minutes for the OP and for the answer? Okay.

But when it comes to moderation what would be nice is if we were given correct the offending part in an answer.

SavoirFaire's avatar

@SQUEEKY2 So you’ve decided to derail this perfectly legitimate question and make it all about you? Whatever you say, Mr. Trump.

As has already been mentioned, Fluther does not have 24/7 coverage. In addition, the moderators are not omniscient. So we’re not going to get to everything right away. And as @longgone said, spelling and punctuation aren’t the elements of language. Bad grammar can affect clarity just as much as a missing letter or a misplaced semicolon. Ben and Andrew specifically encourage us to be sticklers about these things. It’s what keeps this place from becoming Yahoo! Answers.


@flo “But when it comes to moderation what would be nice is if we were given correct the offending part in an answer.”

Sorry, I’m not sure I understand. Are you saying you’d like us to include a corrected version when we send the question back for editing? If so, we can keep this in mind for you in the future.

canidmajor's avatar

J. F. C. Asked and answered. 10 minutes.
Please, not another “the mods are picking on me” thread.

@SavoirFaire and @longgone, just for the record, I think you guys do a good job. I don’t always agree with you, but I appreciate that you take the time to bother.
Thank you.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Think @SQUEEKY2 is having a bad Friday!

longgone's avatar

@canidmajor Thank you for being so agreeable. Modding is not an exact science, so we really need the community to trust in that we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got. We appreciate that this can be very difficult, and we’re grateful for the effort.

Right now, for example, the moderation part of the site is still suffering from the server migration. Modding takes more time than usual because we get kicked off the site frequently, which leads to our having to repeat actions and double-check to be sure things went as intended.

@flo I’m not completely sure what you mean either, but my guess is you’re referring to answers rather than questions? If so, does that mean you’d like the option of editing comments rather than our removing them entirely?

flo's avatar

@SavoirFaire and @longgone Yes I meant the answers. But now that I think of it I don’t know if it’s a good idea, so, better to leave it the way it is I guess.

DarknessWithin's avatar

@SavoirFaire
I was close! I don’t keep time when I constantly edit a post from submission to the end of the window (I’m anal about my wording so sue me) but my guess was 15 minutes.

Apologies for the following, although I find it rude that this perfectly legitimate question was turned into a discussion of the mods’ ethics and believe that, for the most part, this community seems to be exceptionally tended to considering it’s active, intelligent and mature environment, I’m noticing a point being made on that subject that I find valid.

Because I spend a lot of time and thought on my posts I feel disrespected if they’re removed without at the very least consulting me though preferably giving me the chance to correct the issue if possible. Which has happened to me in various communities.

I don’t see why that is not a fair request and support it if it is needed here.

SavoirFaire's avatar

@canidmajor Thanks! For the record, I don’t always agree with us either. That’s just part of working on a team. But I like the community enough to take the bad with the good.

@DarknessWithin No worries. The subject has been broached, so I’m not going to object to you following up on it. I completely understand how you feel about your answers being removed. Unfortunately, there’s basically no way to edit them once the 10 minute window has passed. In the case of a question, there’s no problem. We can just send it back with our editing suggestions and wait for it to be fixed. But with answers, we have to make a decision to either leave or remove the whole thing.

I know this is different than on other sites. When Ben and Andrew designed Fluther, they built it from the ground up instead of using preexisting forum software. And in doing so, they made different design decisions that they believed were more appropriate for the Q&A format. One of those changes was not allowing moderators to edit users’ questions and answers directly (which is common on web forums). Instead, we can send questions back for editing or remove whole answers. (Incidentally, this is one of the main reasons why we are more lenient on answers than we are on questions.)

I’m grateful that you spend a lot of time and thought on your posts. It’s users taking the time to provide thoughtful content that makes this site what it is! But unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done about an answer once the edit window has passed. I promise you it has nothing to do with disrespect (though I realize that doesn’t necessarily help in the moment when an answer you liked goes missing). One thing I would suggest is that you could ask a moderator for a copy of your response. Removing the post from view doesn’t delete the content entirely, so we could always send you the text and some suggestions on what could be changed if you wanted to repost it. Would that help?

DarknessWithin's avatar

@SavoirFaire
I did forget to consider that the edit window is inconsistent with a request to be allowed to fix content but indeed:

“Removing the post from view doesn’t delete the content entirely, so we could always send you the text and some suggestions on what could be changed if you wanted to repost it. Would that help?”

This would be adequate.

I haven’t actually had the experience here yet but have in various other places on the internet, so I feel it’s only a matter of time.

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