Frustration of the 10-min ed

I'll make it.

Consider it made.

Darls is becoming wearisome.

Make a contribution, Darls.

KFL

Kansan as a Foreign Language

Now that you mention it (PMs), I wouldn't mind the ability to delete some of them. At one time, I gave someone the ability to read mine by giving them my password. At this point, there a couple that would make me quite uncomfortable if they were seen.

Don't the older PMs eventually drop off?

I'll have to check, but I don't think so. There used to be a limit on stored messages, and when it was reached, the oldest were deleted by the software. I'm pretty sure that under the current system (about 5 years old), the stay around forever.

You could change your password.

Oh, I did. For temporary use, it was 112233. Now, I changed it back to 223344 to maintain privacy. Point is, I would now be uncomfortable giving anyone unlimited access.

I have 2 pages of older PMs that date back as far as 9 yrs ago . My first PM was from Lightwizard (may he RIP).

I wuz robbed. I lost all mine prior to some particularly major change in the software. I think the loss dated from that period when noone had PMs to regaining the function.

This is a good point, that most people can tweak a post within ten minutes or live with the consequences, or should take the time, if they need more, using the preview button before submitting. I'm not sure if it's ten or fifteen minutes, and I think I have edited re grammar after someone else has posted but I'm not sure; will have to pay more attention.

I know a couple of friends here who monitor their posts with great concern that it well represents them - while as most here know, I'm about the direct opposite. I do edit to clarify, but give up in a flubber if I miss the deadline.

Dalehileman, this is by my count your third post on all this. Please do not add more threads on it. If you want to talk with the administration, click on contact us at the bottom of the page.

We have several writers here, erstwhile or otherwise.

May I suggest that if a post is so meaningful to you that you don't want any errors or afterthoughts that you keep an ongoing page on works or word about your thoughts, and then present them when you are satisfied.

Surely 10 minutes is ample time to reread & edit a post?
I really don't see what the problem is.
You just need to do it right away, rather than hope or expect to do so days or weeks later.
Get into the habit of doing that & you'll have less to worry about later.

Most edits would be for spelling/grammatical corrections, I'd imagine.
Or in the odd instance, you might you mightn't be too happy with the tone of your post.
You can change that, too, in 10 minutes.
Or even delete the post & try again.

I'd be really unhappy with an "endless editing" option.
I favour the notion that once you've said something (no matter how controversial, or whatever) that your statement stands.
How else could a debate or a discussion have any real integrity if anyone could go back & change what they actually said, at any time?
Best not to post until you've got whatever it is you want to say right.

As to finding another site with open-ended editing options ....
I guess such sites exist. But you'll just have to find them for yourself.

FWIW, I have already suggested this to Dale the other day. That is the easiest effective solution to the issue he is having. Many veterans of A2K have been using this method effectively for the posts that require more forethought or just on general principles. Something tells me, though, based on the pattern of the last few days that this non-complaining is going to keep on happening.

This site, like many others, requires a suitable time for familiarization and patience. Many experienced writers often use a text editor to edit their work (even for blogs or fora) and is a pretty common place behavior. IMHO, this is a reasonable work-around for extended editing that by-passes the edit timeframe issue.

So noted. ; )

dalehileman, I was curious about your complaint so I took a quick look at your posts here.

Just about every one of them has been fairly brief.
It would take no time at all for you to edit any of them.
Seriously, would that be so hard, or so frustrating?

I suspect he's referring mostly to the lengthy posts in this topic of his:

http://able2know.org/topic/185652-1

They are having quite a discussion there about math and infinity.

2 hours composing a post?! Are you retired (one hopes you're not doing this on the job)?

Good Lord man, you need to get more of a life or something.

Post your stuff and if you want to edit it after the 10 minute deadline, go back and make corrections - simple.

By the way, Dale, I did some experimenting to try and recreate the scrolling problem you've been mentioning in several of your posts. Here's what I found out.

When you are in the post composition box, it requires a minimum of 7 lines of text in that box before the software creates a scroll bar on the right side of the box. (The scroll bar was just created as I started typing this line in the box.)

Interestingly, in my experiment, it first took 14 lines for the scroll bar to be created, but that was because I had originally entered 25 lines and then started deleting them until the scroll bar disappeared. That was on the 14th line. However, if you have a fresh post composition window and start typing, it only takes 7 lines for the scroll bar to generate.

Don't know why there is a difference, but now you know what's going on and how to create the scroll bar you seek.

So the solution is to edit before posting, then.

Which is very easily done.
Checking out the post via "preview".
You can take two hours, or even longer to perfect your post, if you so choose.

A much preferable & fairer approach to other posters, who, having responded to a particular post, may discover a while later that the post they responded to is suddenly saying something quite different!

Did you ever find out what happens if someone replies while you are working up an edit? Never happened to me, but sometimes I do feel rushed.