i have found a plugin that i can install which allows people to edit their own comments for a fixed period of time after they make it. sounds good? the problem is this: it works by ip address, not by login cookie. for those of you who might make comments from a university lab or on some other shared network this means a possibility that someone else who logs on to the network after you log off and gets assigned the same ip could potentially edit your comment within that time window. does this make sense? and if so, does it matter to you lot? it is a somewhat unlikely scenario i suspect, and we could make it more unlikely by setting the window to something as short as 15 minutes. this might be a good idea anyway, since it would be enough time to catch typos but would probably prevent the temptation to substantially alter a comment after the fact (and mess up the flow of the conversation).
let me know if you want me to install. i’ll wait to hear from those who complain about this the most: mauer, john, jeff and mike and then delete this topic so as to not give our external readership of 3 any ideas.
15 min is better than none at all.
Sure, and if anything absolutely must be edited after the 15 minutes, we can ask Arnab to it, right?
I like the 15 minute rule.
Arnab, “to it, right?” should be “to do it, right”?
don’t make me hurt you.
okay, it should be working. test it out and let me know if you have any trouble.
edit test
–7.11 pm edit worked
–7.17 pm edit worked
at 7.26 the edit link went away–so it apparently works
okay, here’s the thing: you get a 20 minute window, but it is a window that counts from the time you made the original post to the time at which you click the button to submit the edit. in other words, if you were to click the “edit this” link at minute 19 and then take more than a minute to make your edit, you won’t be able to submit it. but you won’t actually be able to see the link to click it at minute 19. because in order to prevent frustrating scenarios such as this the “edit this” link will not be available past the 15 minute mark.
it is less confusing than it sounds. basically, give your comment a once-over once you’ve made it and make changes quickly. don’t go off to take a crap, or to smoke a cigarette, or both while doing it.