Hey moddies, Do you think it'd be possible to change a few of the guidelines with post editing to allow us to edit the first post in threads we create? Thanks.
Well I agree in having the guidelines for other posts in threads to keep it to 15 mins, but for the first post in a thread I reckon you should be able to edit it whenever. For example, when Tyler and I got married it was a little annoying having to constantly ask the mods to add more info to our first post as it became available and having to wait for them to be able to add it.
In regards to Editing Posts, have the mods ever considered adding the whole "Why can't I edit a post?" to the FAQ? It does seem to get asked a lot... As per George's idea... I dunno, it just seems that members will try to source that as reasons why the editing rule shouldn't exist at all.
I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of EC's editing restrictions are, but my first guess would be that it was originally set up during EC's installation to avoid people breaking any rules and then editing it away without staff being able to notice it. I'm not entirely sure if Moderators have this, but EC's vBulletin upgrade introduced me to an edit feature that allows me to see every edit that has happened to a post, which would remove the concern that members may abuse the edit feature without us being able to check. I imagine that the setting was automatically transferred onto this version by the old version, and was not something manually set up again during the upgrade (although I can only speculate that). I personally wouldn't object to the edit time limit being increased to 12 or 24 hours. I don't think it should be left on permanently, but the 15 minutes limit is a tad short considering it was introduced under a concern that is no longer an issue. However, it's not something I can do myself so an administrator would have to agree and implement it. Edit: To answer the first question, I'm not entirely sure the settings can be customised so that the opening post can always be edited whereas the replies are time limited. I imagine that it would be an all or nothing setting.
Moderaters can see every edit. The posting time limit is in place (I believe) to stop people from changing their post after someone has already responded to it, creating a incongruity in the posts. Like, if someone said something really really offensive, got attacked and edited it out of his original post, you end up with what sound like messed-up responses. But, when mods edit it out, they can also edit the comments of the other users that refer to the original problem, ensuring the thread runs smoothly.