The Flat Earth Society

The Flat Earth Society => Suggestions & Concerns => Topic started by: Rama Set on March 17, 2021, 07:00:48 PM

Title: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 17, 2021, 07:00:48 PM
I have noticed that Tom consistently edits his posts without making any changes.  This causes notifications to show there are unread posts when there aren't.  Is this against the rules?  It seems like abuse of this function should be.  I find it annoying to have to reread his posts to make see if I need to edit a response only to discover that nothing has changed.

If abuse of post editing is against the rules, let me know so I can decide if I want to bother reporting it.  If it isn't then I will just deal with it.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: AATW on March 17, 2021, 07:14:05 PM
He did it 4 times this morning before eventually settling on

Quote
Trump already said that he agrees with either view. But Trump developed it under his administration, so you can smile and thank Trump when you lefties are getting your Trump vaccines.

Every other version was basically a variation on this. In one version he said something about “Brits”. Then he went with “Brit lefties” before settling on “lefties”.
I think this is the only version where he called it the “Trump vaccine”.

I guess he’s just trying to make the post as big a troll as possible although maybe thinking about it before responding and editing before you hit post would be better.

In brief, I agree that this is annoying and not just that it means there’s a moving target for you to reply to.

Probably not against any rules but it is a bugbear of mine too.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Tom Bishop on March 17, 2021, 07:31:06 PM
I needed to be inclusive to Rama Set and Roundy since not all the lefties live in Britain. I thought you guys loved it when people change things for you to become more inclusive?

Sounds like Rama Set is pretty triggered if he needs to ask if making corrections to posts is against the rules of the forum.  ::)
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 17, 2021, 07:34:23 PM
I needed to be inclusive to Rama Set and Roundy since not all the lefties live in Britain. I thought you guys loved it when people change things for you to become more inclusive?

Sounds like Rama Set is pretty triggered if he needs to ask if making corrections to posts is against the rules of the forum.  ::)

I have no problem with posts that change.  It is when you edit posts without making any changes at all.  Like the topic says.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: AATW on March 17, 2021, 08:15:29 PM
I needed to be inclusive to Rama Set and Roundy since not all the lefties live in Britain. I thought you guys loved it when people change things for you to become more inclusive?
I’d like it a bit more if you were able to get your trolling right first time.

It’s not the worst thing but sometimes I’m thinking of replying to you and you keep changing it so I’m sitting there thinking “has he finished yet?”.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: jack44556677 on March 17, 2021, 08:53:05 PM
This is interesting.

Are you saying / is it true that simply editing your post makes a thread appear on the unread / replied to listing?

If so, I think that should be disabled if possible. Only new posts should count towards such things.

Many times I will reread a thread and see an error (spelling / grammer) or, like in Tom's example, somewhere the diction or phrasing could use some adjustment.

Had I known/recognized this was bumping the threads to the "new" lists, I might not have made the minor changes at all.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: stack on March 17, 2021, 09:34:25 PM
Here's what I run into all the time:

- I'm writing a response to a Tom post, hit Preview
- I get the red message saying someone else has posted
- I open a new tab, navigate all the way over to the newest response in the thread to see if someone else posted something I should be aware of
- Then I see it's just Tom has edited his post so I look to see what the edit is
- 50% of the time, no change has been made

I don't get it. Why edit and re-save a post that you haven't changed?
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: xasop on March 17, 2021, 09:52:11 PM
If so, I think that should be disabled if possible. Only new posts should count towards such things.

The thing is that if someone edits a post to add substantial content, then this behaviour is desirable — otherwise someone may not notice they've added stuff and just never read it.

But we could certainly look at tweaking this. Certainly, if no changes are made at all, it shouldn't mark the thread unread. Perhaps small changes (say, with fewer than 10 added/removed characters, or some other arbitrary threshold) should also be exempted.

What do people think?
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: AATW on March 17, 2021, 10:12:27 PM
I tend to read my posts back and if I see a typo I'll go back and edit it.
And sometimes I'll add an afterthought.
But I tend to do this fairly quickly.
My slight irritation with y'man is that he spends half an hour editing the same post over and over, adding a word here, removing one there.
Is it really so hard to gather your thoughts and say the right thing first time? I never know when he's finished and I can reply.

Not the worst thing, but it's kinda annoying. I don't think you really need to do anything about it.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Clyde Frog on March 17, 2021, 10:14:06 PM
One reason this happens on the other site that I've noticed is someone will delete their original post and repost something either identical, or nearly identical, so as to avoid the "edit" stamp at the bottom of the post. I wasn't aware SMF also flagged threads unread if a post was edited, though - I was under the impression that it was because of the delete-then-post-again kind of behavior. In fact, I'm certain I've come across threads where posts have been edited and I didn't get flagged as unread. Maybe it's different when it is the most recent post that has been edited though?
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 17, 2021, 10:39:30 PM
If so, I think that should be disabled if possible. Only new posts should count towards such things.

The thing is that if someone edits a post to add substantial content, then this behaviour is desirable — otherwise someone may not notice they've added stuff and just never read it.

But we could certainly look at tweaking this. Certainly, if no changes are made at all, it shouldn't mark the thread unread. Perhaps small changes (say, with fewer than 10 added/removed characters, or some other arbitrary threshold) should also be exempted.

What do people think?

That sounds fine to me.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Iceman on March 17, 2021, 11:27:45 PM
If so, I think that should be disabled if possible. Only new posts should count towards such things.

The thing is that if someone edits a post to add substantial content, then this behaviour is desirable — otherwise someone may not notice they've added stuff and just never read it.

But we could certainly look at tweaking this. Certainly, if no changes are made at all, it shouldn't mark the thread unread. Perhaps small changes (say, with fewer than 10 added/removed characters, or some other arbitrary threshold) should also be exempted.

What do people think?

This seems to be the right idea... where that threshold should be set is the problem. 10 or 20 characters seems like a decent start.... that would keep the thread from being flagged after I go in and fox the words my phone autocorrects in my posts...
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Pete Svarrior on March 17, 2021, 11:36:12 PM
Personally, I agree that Tom should stop deleting and remaking posts instead of simply editing them like a good Catholic - which I believe is the cause of current discontent, as Clyde Frog described. It's not currently against the rules, but given how often it happens (and how much of an impact it has on both the forum db and the users' experience), I'd be in favour of making it a rule in the future, probably something along the lines of "abusing forum functionality".

He's quite clearly doing it because he doesn't want his posts to contain the "edited" tag. My suggestion is that he should get over himself.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 17, 2021, 11:37:20 PM
Personally, I agree that Tom should stop deleting and remaking posts instead of simply editing them like a good Catholic. It's not currently against the rules, but given how often it happens (and how much of an impact it has on both the forum db and the users' experience), I'd be in favour of making it arule.

Whichever rule covers unnecessary thread bumping/necro info could just be expanded to cover gratuitous editing maybe?
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: xasop on March 17, 2021, 11:48:52 PM
In fact, I'm certain I've come across threads where posts have been edited and I didn't get flagged as unread.

I was pretty sure of the opposite, but maybe I am confusing it with the delete-and-repost switcheroo.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: JSS on March 18, 2021, 01:31:00 PM
In fact, I'm certain I've come across threads where posts have been edited and I didn't get flagged as unread.

I was pretty sure of the opposite, but maybe I am confusing it with the delete-and-repost switcheroo.

This confused me as well, until Pete explained that if you edit a post within a short time of the initial submission it won't show it's been edited or send a new notification.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: AATW on March 18, 2021, 02:37:20 PM
Personally, I agree that Tom should stop deleting and remaking posts instead of simply editing them like a good Catholic - which I believe is the cause of current discontent, as Clyde Frog described.
Oh is that what he's doing?
That isn't my grumble, although I can see how that messes up your stats which would be annoying for you.
I just think it's bad netiquette to spend half an hour changing your post over and over, tweaking a word here and there until you think it's the perfect "zinger".
I'm not sure if it's worthy of making a rule about tbh
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Pete Svarrior on March 18, 2021, 02:55:32 PM
Meh, tweaking a word here and there is not a huge problem IMO, perhaps even adding some paragraphs is OK, so long as the core message doesn't dramatically change. Or, at the very least, I think it's a separate problem from what's being discussed here.

I believe SMF's stats respond accurately to posts being deleted, so it shouldn't inflate them. There might be a slight DB size implication since deleted posts go into Quarantine, but that's also not likely to cause a major issue. The only thing I see as potentially frustrating is - yeah, if you make a new post, it's a new post. It'll show as such to everyone. If the edit function is triggering notifications (it really shouldn't, and I don't think it is), fixing it would still do nothing about Tom's not-quite-editing behaviour.

So, my proposed 2 step plan would be:
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 18, 2021, 03:26:54 PM
You definitely get a notification when someone changes a post while you are responding.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Pete Svarrior on March 18, 2021, 06:22:39 PM
You definitely get a notification when someone changes a post while you are responding.
That should be impossible. How did you determine that it's someone changing a post rather than deleting and recreating? We're gonna need to find a way to reproduce this before we can fix it.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 18, 2021, 07:50:33 PM
You definitely get a notification when someone changes a post while you are responding.
That should be impossible. How did you determine that it's someone changing a post rather than deleting and recreating? We're gonna need to find a way to reproduce this before we can fix it.

When I say notification I mean the red text that says a post has been changed while I was writing mine. Not sure if that is confusing.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Clyde Frog on March 18, 2021, 08:43:24 PM
I'm reasonably sure that those warnings are only shown in the event of new posts, not edited posts. It's entirely possible the staff here have modified the code enough where I'm mistaken, but from SMF's language packs, the warning messages are as follows, and every single one of them references a new post rather than an edited post:
Code: [Select]
$txt['error_new_reply'] = 'Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.';
$txt['error_new_replies'] = 'Warning - while you were typing %1$d new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post.';
$txt['error_new_reply_reading'] = 'Warning - while you were reading a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.';
$txt['error_new_replies_reading'] = 'Warning - while you were reading %1$d new replies have been posted. You may wish to review your post.';
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: stack on March 18, 2021, 10:07:43 PM
The way I've seen it is kinda how I described it previously.

If you're typing a response and hit Post or Preview and a brand new post has been added in the interim, you get:
'Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.'

If you're typing a response and hit Post or Preview and someone has edited their post in the interim, you get:
'Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.'

Same thing, no distinction between the two scenarios.


Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Clyde Frog on March 19, 2021, 12:22:26 AM
The way I've seen it is kinda how I described it previously.

If you're typing a response and hit Post or Preview and a brand new post has been added in the interim, you get:
'Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.'

If you're typing a response and hit Post or Preview and someone has edited their post in the interim, you get:
'Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.'

Same thing, no distinction between the two scenarios.

I guess that's the question - how can you tell the post was edited, versus whether it was deleted and an "edited" version was just posted as a new post? I'm trying to wrap my head around this because I've got an SMF instance of my own that, if this is a bug to track down, I want to go track it down. But I also don't want to embark on a wild goose chase.

Edit to clarify, and even more explicitly state: this is an actual question that I have, I'm not presupposing an answer. I'd love to actually catch this happening at a site where I can witness the issue real time, and then also be able to check to see if a post was just deleted and then basically copy-pasta'd into a "new" post, or if an actual bona fide edit is really causing this to happen.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 19, 2021, 01:28:49 AM
The way I've seen it is kinda how I described it previously.

If you're typing a response and hit Post or Preview and a brand new post has been added in the interim, you get:
'Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.'

If you're typing a response and hit Post or Preview and someone has edited their post in the interim, you get:
'Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.'

Same thing, no distinction between the two scenarios.

I guess that's the question - how can you tell the post was edited, versus whether it was deleted and an "edited" version was just posted as a new post? I'm trying to wrap my head around this because I've got an SMF instance of my own that, if this is a bug to track down, I want to go track it down. But I also don't want to embark on a wild goose chase.

Edit to clarify, and even more explicitly state: this is an actual question that I have, I'm not presupposing an answer. I'd love to actually catch this happening at a site where I can witness the issue real time, and then also be able to check to see if a post was just deleted and then basically copy-pasta'd into a "new" post, or if an actual bona fide edit is really causing this to happen.

After a post is edited it says so at the bottom of the post.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Clyde Frog on March 19, 2021, 02:04:44 AM
The way I've seen it is kinda how I described it previously.

If you're typing a response and hit Post or Preview and a brand new post has been added in the interim, you get:
'Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.'

If you're typing a response and hit Post or Preview and someone has edited their post in the interim, you get:
'Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.'

Same thing, no distinction between the two scenarios.

I guess that's the question - how can you tell the post was edited, versus whether it was deleted and an "edited" version was just posted as a new post? I'm trying to wrap my head around this because I've got an SMF instance of my own that, if this is a bug to track down, I want to go track it down. But I also don't want to embark on a wild goose chase.

Edit to clarify, and even more explicitly state: this is an actual question that I have, I'm not presupposing an answer. I'd love to actually catch this happening at a site where I can witness the issue real time, and then also be able to check to see if a post was just deleted and then basically copy-pasta'd into a "new" post, or if an actual bona fide edit is really causing this to happen.

After a post is edited it says so at the bottom of the post.
Sometimes. But that's tangential.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: stack on March 19, 2021, 04:43:53 AM
The way I've seen it is kinda how I described it previously.

If you're typing a response and hit Post or Preview and a brand new post has been added in the interim, you get:
'Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.'

If you're typing a response and hit Post or Preview and someone has edited their post in the interim, you get:
'Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.'

Same thing, no distinction between the two scenarios.

I guess that's the question - how can you tell the post was edited, versus whether it was deleted and an "edited" version was just posted as a new post? I'm trying to wrap my head around this because I've got an SMF instance of my own that, if this is a bug to track down, I want to go track it down. But I also don't want to embark on a wild goose chase.

Edit to clarify, and even more explicitly state: this is an actual question that I have, I'm not presupposing an answer. I'd love to actually catch this happening at a site where I can witness the issue real time, and then also be able to check to see if a post was just deleted and then basically copy-pasta'd into a "new" post, or if an actual bona fide edit is really causing this to happen.

After a post is edited it says so at the bottom of the post.
Sometimes. But that's tangential.

If you want we can test it out on your site. Just set up a time and you and I can DM back and forth, you tell me when you post and I can run through the different scenarios with you in real time with you editing, reposting, etc.

There might be a difference between here and the other site and if so, I may have confused the functionality differences between the two. It would be interesting to find out. Even though it's just really an annoyance I do think, in the minimum interest in terms of user flow and at a maximum of cutting down on sort of egregious over-editing that can dramatically alter the trajectory of another response, I think it's worth examining. And perhaps adjusting some things accordingly.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Pete Svarrior on March 19, 2021, 09:12:45 AM
Thank you to everyone chimed in. This gives us a fair bit of information to work with. I still suspect that this doesn't happen on edits, and that it's just a few people gaming the forum functionality to avoid the "edited" footer. Rama's description matches Tom's behaviour - he edits posts, deletes and reposts, edits, deletes and reposts, etc. If you catch him in the middle of that cycle, everything adds up.

Nonetheless, we now know what is claimed and we can see if we can reproduce it. If we can't, we can still ban the behaviour described above (both because it's shitty and because it'll help us rule that option out).

I'm very sorry I haven't done anything about the 2 feature requests currently active in S&C. Today is the last day of term at work, so after a quick recovery period this weekend, I should have a bit more time to do some investigatin'
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Dr David Thork on March 19, 2021, 09:46:38 AM
If we can't, we can still ban the behaviour described above (both because it's shitty and because it'll help us rule that option out).

No you can't. If Tom wants to edit his posts after the fact ... he can. I sometimes do the same. Maybe I think of something 5 mins later and want to add it. You can quote Tom at any point and if you quote and respond to an earlier version of the post ... welp that's tough on Tom for not getting his shit together up front. But Tom should not be on the end of a ban for having the temerity to improve his own posts.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Tumeni on March 19, 2021, 10:12:35 AM
If we can't, we can still ban the behaviour described above (both because it's shitty and because it'll help us rule that option out).

No you can't. If Tom wants to edit his posts after the fact ... he can. I sometimes do the same. Maybe I think of something 5 mins later and want to add it.

... at which point, it's easy to make it clear to even the casual reader that it's an edit. Such as, below the original text;

EDIT - (the addition or correction you want to make)
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Dr David Thork on March 19, 2021, 11:17:17 AM
If we can't, we can still ban the behaviour described above (both because it's shitty and because it'll help us rule that option out).

No you can't. If Tom wants to edit his posts after the fact ... he can. I sometimes do the same. Maybe I think of something 5 mins later and want to add it.

... at which point, it's easy to make it clear to even the casual reader that it's an edit. Such as, below the original text;

EDIT - (the addition or correction you want to make)

No one is being paid to make posts. We are under no duty to add a version history to them. Read it and then respond or ignore it. Choice is yours.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 19, 2021, 11:23:03 AM
If we can't, we can still ban the behaviour described above (both because it's shitty and because it'll help us rule that option out).

No you can't. If Tom wants to edit his posts after the fact ... he can. I sometimes do the same. Maybe I think of something 5 mins later and want to add it.

... at which point, it's easy to make it clear to even the casual reader that it's an edit. Such as, below the original text;

EDIT - (the addition or correction you want to make)

No one is being paid to make posts. We are under no duty to add a version history to them. Read it and then respond or ignore it. Choice is yours.

When poster make multiple edits, sometimes with literally no change, it becomes behavior that the poster should take responsibility for. Open up a text doc and type it all up there first then ctrl+c->ctrl+v. It’s basic etiquette along the lines of a few other rules you don’t care about. Don’t pretend this is controversial.

EDIT: My point was not to go after the occasional ninja edit, but serial behavior.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Action80 on March 19, 2021, 12:07:39 PM
You definitely get a notification when someone changes a post while you are responding.
That should be impossible. How did you determine that it's someone changing a post rather than deleting and recreating? We're gonna need to find a way to reproduce this before we can fix it.

When I say notification I mean the red text that says a post has been changed while I was writing mine. Not sure if that is confusing.
I don't think you get a message stating a post has been changed while you are writing yours.

I believe you get a red message stating a new message has been posted.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 19, 2021, 12:17:04 PM
You definitely get a notification when someone changes a post while you are responding.
That should be impossible. How did you determine that it's someone changing a post rather than deleting and recreating? We're gonna need to find a way to reproduce this before we can fix it.

When I say notification I mean the red text that says a post has been changed while I was writing mine. Not sure if that is confusing.
I don't think you get a message stating a post has been changed while you are writing yours.

I believe you get a red message stating a new message has been posted.

Yeah, what I thought was editing was likely just deleting and reposting then.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Dr David Thork on March 19, 2021, 12:27:26 PM
It’s basic etiquette along the lines of a few other rules you don’t care about.
The difference between our two literary abilities is a chasm. I don't need to learn any lessons about how to post from you. I'm Thork. You are nobody.


EDIT: My point was not to go after the occasional ninja edit, but serial behavior.
And my point is that it is Tom's prerogative to use this forum in a manner in which he gets the most enjoyment. Not to post in the way you instruct him to. Tom's edit/re-edit is what makes Tom ... Tom. He's been doing it for over ten years to my knowledge. He'll be doing it long after you have stopped posting here. It forms part of his style. His posts are an evolution ... not a mind dump. He considers his posts and adds and changes them to get his message across the way he would like. You must also remember he is a flat earther. He needs to choose his words carefully or a dozen RE zealots will pounce on him and tear his post apart because he misspoke. A little edit corrects that.

You are making a problem from nothing. Leave Tom alone. If you can't get along, you play your ball games on the other side of the playground.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 19, 2021, 12:32:25 PM
Hey drama queen, I never told Tom to do anything. I expressed a concern and even said in my OP that if I was being too sensitive I could learn to live with it. Turns out people that matter agreed with me.

Maybe they will agree it’s locky-locky time?

Let’s find out!
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Dr David Thork on March 19, 2021, 12:42:20 PM
if I was being too sensitive I could learn to live with it.
Learn to live with it. You are being too sensitive.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 19, 2021, 12:52:30 PM
if I was being too sensitive I could learn to live with it.
Learn to live with it. You are being too sensitive.

No more sensitive than you and your issue with DMs.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: stack on March 19, 2021, 07:56:23 PM
if I was being too sensitive I could learn to live with it.
Learn to live with it. You are being too sensitive.

Maybe just like you should learn to live with getting DM's from noobs and just delete them instead asking the system to do something about it for you?
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Dr David Thork on March 20, 2021, 08:32:25 AM
if I was being too sensitive I could learn to live with it.
Learn to live with it. You are being too sensitive.

Maybe just like you should learn to live with getting DM's from noobs and just delete them instead asking the system to do something about it for you?

My suggestion improves the user experience for existing users.

This awful suggestion is just yet another 'Let's get Tom' thread.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 20, 2021, 09:55:32 AM
You say that, yet here is Pete and Parsifal looking in to it. Maybe it’s you that has the problem here?
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Dr David Thork on March 20, 2021, 04:19:44 PM
You say that, yet here is Pete and Parsifal looking in to it. Maybe it’s you that has the problem here?

If they end up plotting "How can we punish Tom for this?" then that's a poor reflection on them. Not how wonderful your suggestion is. I've no idea how yet another Tom bashing thread has been allowed to slip through the net, but its clear it is yet again targeted at one individual. Stop it.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: garygreen on March 20, 2021, 04:45:14 PM
tom is the only one who does this tho
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 20, 2021, 05:01:35 PM
You say that, yet here is Pete and Parsifal looking in to it. Maybe it’s you that has the problem here?

If they end up plotting "How can we punish Tom for this?" then that's a poor reflection on them. Not how wonderful your suggestion is. I've no idea how yet another Tom bashing thread has been allowed to slip through the net, but its clear it is yet again targeted at one individual. Stop it.

Is this another moment where you dream of punching me in the face?
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: AATW on March 20, 2021, 06:22:53 PM
You say that, yet here is Pete and Parsifal looking in to it. Maybe it’s you that has the problem here?

If they end up plotting "How can we punish Tom for this?" then that's a poor reflection on them. Not how wonderful your suggestion is. I've no idea how yet another Tom bashing thread has been allowed to slip through the net, but its clear it is yet again targeted at one individual. Stop it.
If one child is spoiling the playground for everyone then the solution is to deal with the one child, not tell all the other children that they have to put up with their poor behaviour
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Dr David Thork on March 21, 2021, 01:31:30 PM
If one child is spoiling the playground for everyone then the solution is to deal with the one child, not tell all the other children that they have to put up with their poor behaviour
And what do you do if all the other children are ganging up to bully this one child?
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Rama Set on March 21, 2021, 02:03:39 PM
If one child is spoiling the playground for everyone then the solution is to deal with the one child, not tell all the other children that they have to put up with their poor behaviour
And what do you do if all the other children are ganging up to bully this one child?

You find out what is going on. Once you realize no one is being bullied you chastise the boy who cried wolf. That’s you.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: stack on March 21, 2021, 06:36:51 PM
Here's a variant on the issue I've come across before, but it just happened to pop up yesterday so I was able to capture it:

- A member who shall not be named nor singled out made a post in a thread (In the uppers).
- I hit "Quote" to respond.
- I got distracted and didn't actually type anything for like 10 minutes
- I typed my response, hit "Preview" and got this message:

(https://i.imgur.com/IjdGWyI.png)

So then, in another tab, I navigated all the way over to the thread to see if the post I was responding to had been deleted. It was still there, nothing had changed that I could tell, and there was no edit timestamp.

So I guess the poster, in that 10 minute interim where I hadn't responded yet, deleted their post and then re-posted it exactly as it was before? Why would someone do that?
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Dr David Thork on March 21, 2021, 06:41:33 PM
Here's a variant on the issue I've come across before, but it just happened to pop up yesterday so I was able to capture it:

- A member who shall not be named nor singled out made a post in a thread (In the uppers).
- I hit "Quote" to respond.
- I got distracted and didn't actually type anything for like 10 minutes
- I typed my response, hit "Preview" and got this message:

(https://i.imgur.com/IjdGWyI.png)

So then, in another tab, I navigated all the way over to the thread to see if the post I was responding to had been deleted. It was still there, nothing had changed that I could tell, and there was no edit timestamp.

So I guess the poster, in that 10 minute interim where I hadn't responded yet, deleted their post and then re-posted it exactly as it was before? Why would someone do that?

And you say we are the conspiracy theorists on this site? This is some tall tale. Also, leave Tom alone.  >:(
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Clyde Frog on March 21, 2021, 06:51:34 PM
Here's a variant on the issue I've come across before, but it just happened to pop up yesterday so I was able to capture it:

- A member who shall not be named nor singled out made a post in a thread (In the uppers).
- I hit "Quote" to respond.
- I got distracted and didn't actually type anything for like 10 minutes
- I typed my response, hit "Preview" and got this message:

(https://i.imgur.com/IjdGWyI.png)

So then, in another tab, I navigated all the way over to the thread to see if the post I was responding to had been deleted. It was still there, nothing had changed that I could tell, and there was no edit timestamp.

So I guess the poster, in that 10 minute interim where I hadn't responded yet, deleted their post and then re-posted it exactly as it was before? Why would someone do that?
If you notice that again, look at the message number in the quote you had originally and compare it to the message number in the new quote. Example: Your quote above has "link=topic=17876.msg234767#msg234767" referenced when I clicked to quote it, so the message number is 234767. You can delete that, and then repost exactly the same thing, and you can do that before anyone else has a chance to respond, but the message number will change.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: stack on March 21, 2021, 07:26:21 PM
Here's a variant on the issue I've come across before, but it just happened to pop up yesterday so I was able to capture it:

- A member who shall not be named nor singled out made a post in a thread (In the uppers).
- I hit "Quote" to respond.
- I got distracted and didn't actually type anything for like 10 minutes
- I typed my response, hit "Preview" and got this message:

(https://i.imgur.com/IjdGWyI.png)

So then, in another tab, I navigated all the way over to the thread to see if the post I was responding to had been deleted. It was still there, nothing had changed that I could tell, and there was no edit timestamp.

So I guess the poster, in that 10 minute interim where I hadn't responded yet, deleted their post and then re-posted it exactly as it was before? Why would someone do that?

And you say we are the conspiracy theorists on this site? This is some tall tale. Also, leave Tom alone.  >:(

Did I mention anyone by name?
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: stack on March 21, 2021, 07:32:19 PM
Here's a variant on the issue I've come across before, but it just happened to pop up yesterday so I was able to capture it:

- A member who shall not be named nor singled out made a post in a thread (In the uppers).
- I hit "Quote" to respond.
- I got distracted and didn't actually type anything for like 10 minutes
- I typed my response, hit "Preview" and got this message:

(https://i.imgur.com/IjdGWyI.png)

So then, in another tab, I navigated all the way over to the thread to see if the post I was responding to had been deleted. It was still there, nothing had changed that I could tell, and there was no edit timestamp.

So I guess the poster, in that 10 minute interim where I hadn't responded yet, deleted their post and then re-posted it exactly as it was before? Why would someone do that?
If you notice that again, look at the message number in the quote you had originally and compare it to the message number in the new quote. Example: Your quote above has "link=topic=17876.msg234767#msg234767" referenced when I clicked to quote it, so the message number is 234767. You can delete that, and then repost exactly the same thing, and you can do that before anyone else has a chance to respond, but the message number will change.

I bet you're right. I didn't take notice of the message #'s though I suspect it did change. I still don't get why someone would delete a post then repost the exact same thing within a 10 minute span. As in what would be the benefit? Could be just as simple as, "I'm going to delete this post. (Delete it.) Awww, you know what, I'm just going to post it..." Idk.

To the Toddler: No conspiracy involved. Just a variant on what we've been discussing.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: AATW on March 21, 2021, 09:11:31 PM
From my experience, I don’t think people delete and and re-add the exact same post. But I do know one poster who tweaks a word here and there multiple times which causes the issue you’re seeing and in a generally netiquette sense is poor form.
It’s like having a conversation with someone, they say something, you start to reply and as you’re doing so they keep interrupting you. Makes it impossible to know when they’ve finished so you can actually reply.
Title: Re: Consistently editing posts without changing anything
Post by: Pete Svarrior on March 22, 2021, 11:24:45 AM
No you can't. If Tom wants to edit his posts after the fact ... he can.
Nobody said about preventing people from editing posts. ???

You are arguing a subject you haven't even attempted to understand, and turned a valuable suggestion into pages of irrelevant rambling about your experience of being bullied in school. Don't do that.

From my experience, I don’t think people delete and and re-add the exact same post.
They do. We can see it when they do it. There really is no mystery here.

They post, then edit, then delete, then repost the post with edits. Rinse and repeat, sometimes dozens of times.

But I do know one poster who tweaks a word here and there multiple times which causes the issue you’re seeing and in a generally netiquette sense is poor form.
You already said this (https://forum.tfes.org/index.php?topic=17876.msg234486#msg234486). There's no need to repeat yourself in this thread, making your point a second time won't alter the outcome.

There are two separate issues here:
We are discussing the second bullet point. If you want a discussion on the first one, please start a thread and make your case - don't hijack another thread.