Some forums have an limited time to edit post and some have only limited time to edit the first post in an thread so do you have any of this? Why do you have edit time? How long is your edit time limit?
Personally, I don't believe in restricting the amount of time allowed for editing (for both the original post and any/all following posts). If a member wants to modify the content in which he/she originally posted, that's fine by me. I do, however, ask that all members leave a reason as to why they made the edit(s).
My limit time is 48 hours - 2 days. I did not want to have a limit, but when you have members that go back and delete all of the content from their post, it creates problems. I had a member that got mad and left the community. On his way out, he edited the threads where he started the topic and only put the 10 character limit. This left a lot of threads with no starter topic.
I don't believe in restricting editing. If a member decides to delete the content within a thread (and has good reason) then that is fair enough. If they are doing it just to be awkward then I'll restrict his/her privileges. This was one of the factors why I decided to have a database (graphics) with myself only contributing to it. I don't need to worry if content is deleted and I prefer to rely on myself for my sites main content. I allow permanent editing of threads on my forum because for myself I continuously add images to existing posts (usually the first post in a thread) over a very long time span so I assume members would like this kind of privilege.
I have the edit time set to unlimited also, because I want my members to be able to remove statements they've thought better of (personally identifying information, harsh remarks, etc.). It does occasionally cause problems like kevin described. There should be a Mass Revert mod
We leave first posts editable forever since we need that on our site. But, all other posts have a limit of 10 minutes to correct spelling errors and such. Our moderator team started out on another site, and we had problems with members writing things and pissing people off, then deleting it so the mods couldn't see it. So, when we started our site, we felt we needed a time limit for editing posts.
I actually modified the code to do it. It was part plugin, part code edit. (I think, I'd actually have to go look, but I can if you want me to.) Yes, we do that now, but I've had this board since 3.0 and they complained like crazy about the editing time limit then, but it's been almost five years now and they are used to it. I'm not gonna change it now.
What do you do if a disgruntled member goes through their post history changing everything to nonsense?
Good question. I guess people that leave it unlimited just trust their members. I'd like to hear others' thoughts on this though.
10 minutes -- the board should not have to suffer because somebody became upset and decided to delete their thread
