On another site where I can edit it is alot better. This site could sure use it. Many mistakes get left up in perpetuity, superfluous posts are made trying to make up for errors posted and the caught later.

I think it would be a very nice option.

Sue...who tries to edit b4 posting, but misses some mistakes.

I can see where this would be a real mess, if a post was answered and then the OP decided to delete the original. Posts would lose context. However, on the learning site of a popular book vendor, you can delete your post IF you do it before anyone posts to it.

Nell

Edit or delete would almost certainly involve programming. If there were an edit/delete in the code it would have been turned on long ago. (Back in '97 or so we talked about this. The people who trade really, really needed to have some way to edit their posts when the trade material was all gone. There was no way at that time without significant programming.)

Now, I said all that to say this, programming is costly and makes for bugs and causes all manner of complaints. Lets just bit our lips and live with the few mistakes we make.

I'm all for an edit button. On almost every site I'm on, there's an edit button to edit the post after it has been publicly posted. Sometimes you say something the wrong way and wish you could take it back. Or sometimes you leave something out and wish you could add it in the paragraph it goes in. With the trade forums, if you list some plants you have for trade in the post, it would be nice to go back when those plants are gone and change the post.

I'm all for an edit button. Pleeeeeeease??

I agree that this would be a great option. Delphi forums have it, and it isn't that disruptive. It's not often that people delete their posts, but people often edited for spelling or grammar mistakes or to add information that was forgotten originally. They also have the option of replying to a particular person in a thread. :)

An edit function would be good, especially if there's a comment included that briefly explains the reason for editing, i.e. edited to correct speling spelling.

I agree that pretty much every forum I visit has the edit/delete option and sure is nice. I'm sure programming has come a long way since 1997???

It would be a great option, but unfortunately, not one that is viable at this time. But, it's definitely on our wish list.

Thanks!

Tamara

Thank you Tamara, we look so much forward to this useful option in the future ;)

Sharon

Edit/delete may be more important than it was a few years ago.

I just noticed for example that the vegetable archive is about 67 pages. That is a long time for mistakes to hang around, perhaps to be found by search tools and propagated to other sites.

I have changed my position. Since we are saving so many pages we do need edit/delete options.

67 pages of archive isn't that many, If you look around some forums have alot longer archives, back to there birth, its kindof a shame that the archives here are exponged on occcasion, lots of information is lost I'm sure.

There is a relatively good discussion of the pros and cons of Edit and Delete going on over at Slate's Fray. Because of some of the language used there I won't provide a link even though the language was used to make a point.

It is a discussion for end users and web managers and does not get into programming or software considerations

Anyone with a genuine interste in edit/delete here might do well to go to Slate and search The Fray for this discussion.

I'm wondering if I clip a post, and it slips off the bottom of page 67, whether or not it will still be viewable to me.

Sue

Chemocurl, can't you just go to page 67, clip a few, and wait a few days to see what happens?

I don't clip but I would be curious. Come back here and let us know what you find out.

I use it all the time on another site. Not having it available is a definite drawback. And I believe Google is now archiving everything, so anything that hasn't been corrected will still be around even after it falls off the GW pages.

The lack of an edit feature is a serious drawback to this site. Sure it would involve some programming but so did adding the advertisements and the "what's new" section and I am sure that clippings feature required a bit of programming effort. I only visit a few online forums these days and Garden Web by far has the most limited feature set. I used to pay for this site before and I would be willing to pay again.

- Brent

Albert,

I clipped the last post on page 67 at the Computer Forum.(see below)
Desktop Proxy

posted by: RitaOtay on 10.07.2005 at 11:50 am in Computer Help Forum
Anyone know what that is?

It came up this morning when I tried to reboot... The message said Desktop Proxy ( or Proxy Desktop ) was still running, did I want to close the program... Naturally I closed it so I could reboot... It no longer shows up on my system.

A little background... I had the computer on for a few days running Screamer, to record old time radio programs off net radio... I do not use a proxy server, I was using my cable connection and run XP Pro.

Rita

NOTES:
last post on page 67...will it disappear when it drops off the page?

Well, that post stayed in my clippings, but when I clicked on the Title to go and see the whole post, I got the WHOOPS message.

That seems a bit of a drawback...I wonder if GW can do anything to keep the whole thread available?

Sue

I went googling for "RitaOtay" AND "11:50" using several different search boxes and got nothing. So apparently when, this one at least, fell off page 67 it is gone.

Delete Original Post option- would delete the entire thread.
Edit Post option- definitely.
Delete post within thread- definitely.

Bumping for the vote.

( Slate.com has been running a "Fix The Fray" tease for a couple of weeks (The Fray is Slate's discussion forums.))

A brilliant suggestion was NOT TO ALLOW DELETE and EDIT SHOULD ONLY ALLOW strike.

This should work well for GardenWeb. A user could post "Cacti for exchange" and when the cactus were all gone the person could edit and it would look like "Cactu" for exchange" .

The exchange boards are the places where edit is most needed but there are others e.g. links that become invalid fast could edited out with strike. Also the preview screen does not allow one to edit out errors of fact when the error is discovered days, or years, later. Strike could be used to fix this.

A Stike option is something that would be ideal too.

I still think a edit/delete option would work within a time limit, a 1/2 hour sounds reasonable to change or correct a post.

Tamara, how's that wish list coming along?

Sharon

If editing were allowed you would/should also require the ability to add the quote from a previous post you were referring to for protection. Otherwise a post could be changed after replies had been posted making those replying posters look foolish perhaps.

Quote:post could be changed after replies had been posted making those replying posters look foolish perhaps.

This is one of the reasons for allowing only a "strike" option (tag).

sounds good to me too.

A strike capability would be helpful for *some* of the applications mentioned by various posters above -- but it would not allow correction of spelling, insertion of an accidentally-omitted word, or addition of new information. On forums with a general-edit capability, posters make good use of it to tidy up their posts (usually within a few-day window).

Deletion of an individual post is wonderful when you realize (i.e., when I realize) that you've just said something really *s*t*u*p*i*d* -- whereas a strike capability merely allows you to EMPHASIZE that you've just said something really s*t*u*p*i*d*!!

I would not be one for allowing posts to be deleted, particularly from trade threads. The intact thread serves as a record of who all has responded and with what they offered.

Otherwise a post could be changed after replies had been posted making those replying posters look foolish perhaps.
I so agree.

On 'the other' site, I have seen a member post some rudeness, and then delete it, leaving someone making a foolish rude (also) reply to it.

Sue

The answer to that, of course, is to not make rude posts in the first place. That's what would be the problem in that instance, not that preceding comments were deleted.

Now that it's been a year since this thread was started, one might hope that some progress has been made on bringing things along toward the desired level of usefulness.

Quote:Now that it's been a year since this thread was started, one might hope that some progress has been made on bringing things along toward the desired level of usefulness.

Having been retired from computer applications industries I am aware that some changes require programming and some just require the flipping of a bit in some file. To add an edit option could be quite complicated and and expensive and forum administration could make this quite clear and that would be the end of it.

But someone somewhere does delete things. Delete is my least favorite feature on forums but if that is the only thing that can be done perhaps we could have an address to send a delete my post like the one where we ask that spamming businesses be deleted.

Can this site please get new software!!! There has got to be a cheap alternative that actually allows edits and what not? The amt of advertising on this site, we deserve something :)

Now I don't feel so dumb for not figuring out how to edit here...

I think it's extremely weird that this option doesn't exist here.

I posted a trade list, and now there's no way to edit when I run out of something. I have to make another post every time I run out of something?! That's gonna' be a long thread...

At least one can modify the trade list on his or her member page.

GW computer techies, you should take a look over at Dave's Garden and other garden forums. I don't see a delete option at DG, but they do have edit which is an extremely wonderful feature for their members!

Sharon

It might be a wonderful feature there, but there are a lot of negative points about it too...Like the New charges to join...and the lack of trading going on there...I could go on but won't.

I don't see anything negative having a edit feature. Before IVillage took over, many of us members used to be contributing members of the GW. I rather subscribe to a service that provides customer satisfaction with no advertising!

Sharon

All for the edit button!
~Angie (who wishes she could edit some of her stupid mistakes!) :)

Hello,
Is it my understanding one will not be able to delete
a post, I just posted earlier and now wish I haden't posted. I feel it didn't come out the way I would have liked. Having a option to delete would have been good.
Now I must think throughly before posting.
Olga

I just tried to post a couple of small pictures and had a real problem. The first post didn't display the pictures and it took some effort to figure out how to do it correctly. Then the pictures displayed HUGE!

I couldn't find a way to delete or edit my original post (which now looks both stupid AND shows information I would rather not display).

On the blog site I use, I can click icons for bold text, italicized text, links, and pictures. When I click the picture icon there (which requires no 3rd party upload), I get button choices for whether the picture is small, medium, or large AND whether it is displayed left, right or center of the screen.

I don't pay for that blog site and there are no ads. So it must not be a difficult upgrade. Would it be THAT hard to make things SO MUCH easier for the users here at Gardenweb? It doesn't seem to have been that hard to do at the blogger site...

yardenman, may I suggest a crutch as it were, use the test forum. (The edit/delete option must be a serious rewrite as they have already said it is not going to happen - which is more feedback than we usually get on the suggestion forum.) The people on the test forum will offer suggestions if asked and mistakes will only survive there for 4-6 days.

Since it's a commercial site maybe GardenWeb should do something about it just to remain competitive. I've never felt I needed to sign up with Dave but it seems you can still see the effects here of the earlier migration. Or maybe a bunch of people have just fallen away for other reasons, the turnover being what it would have been anyway. I do get the impression there is a lot of users scattered thinly around at multiple other sites, so that except for some of the more busy ones here there isn't enough activity to prevent threads from often sitting for days (or longer) without new posts - wherever you look.

Changing browsers, maybe sometimes making a few other changes got rid of the pop-ups.

The other free gardening site I frequent is based at a public institution. It has Edit, Delete and other whistles and bells.