Editing our own posts (in Off-topic)

Why can't we do it, most forums let posters edit their own thread and replies, so why is that not done here, sure the admins/sub admins could go ahead and edit someones post but why not allow us to edit our own replies so that we do not have to make several posts as an edit to our original post.

Because contradicting your own post right after someone else confirms your PR post, or right after making a bid on that shiny Morgul rusty dagger is a bad thing. What if every one keeps changing the numbers they've picked in a Contest?

Ok thats a good point.

So make, PR and contest forums locked and allow the others to be edited?

changing bids/offers on FS/WTB posts isn't good either.

Well if this were re-introduced, maybe you could have a timestamp (if that's what you'd call it) to identify that someone did change their post and when they did do so. Possible give people access to the original submission

What about a thing the says. Edited at 3:34 p.m. by NexiumCrash and admins can see previous message?

Posts shouldn't be changed for many reasons:

1) Contests-you could change the prize or something to that effect
2) Forging Services-you could change the rates
3) FS/WTB-I think this is obvious
4) General-I know The People's Bank of Carnage Charter is here. Interest rates could change without anyone the wiser.
5) Off-topic-views could change/be edited making responses seem non-sensical
6) Public-Record-refer to #3

This would simply make it harder to look through posts, make the admins job harder, and virtually eliminate any evidence of communications or transactions.

These are just simple examples of why this idea isn't beneficial.

how about allowing edit within 5 minutes after a post?

or, you could just take advantage of the confirmation page to proofread.

Maybe put a count down timer on that page? ;)

Which is nice in theory but doesn't always work that well in practice.

I think people should have the opportunity to add timestamped corrections to the bottom of their posts.

If nothing else, I wish that at least the threadstarter of FS/WTB and Contest posts could append information to the bottom of the first post. To update items remaining, clarification of rules, etc.

See, here's an example. Bartjan posted before me so I'd like to append "that comment was to Jon" to the end of my other post.

:-)

5) Off-topic-views could change/be edited making responses seem non-sensical

< sarcasm> It would indeed be horrible if the off-topic posts seemed nonsensical! </sarcasm>

But isn't this already the case, at least half the time?

You can already edit your own post and in such a way that anybody, not just admins, can see your correction. It's called submitting a reply......

Correction: it's called contributing a response... =)

It's clear to me that top-to-bottom flow is the easiest to follow. I can easily see editing or even appending to earlier posts ruining this.

The cost/benefit ratio is just too high.

<sarcasm> I agree Maelstrom, why limit ourselves to only half the time. Let's edit every post whenever we want. Why stop there? Let's edit anyone's post whenever we want to. </sarcasm>

Thank you for making my point :)