AskMeFi amendments

September 26, 2011 1:02 PM

Feature Request: AskMeFi "amendments," long after a thread has been closed. Maybe 3% of the questions I've answered, life goes on, I learn, and I wish I could add something to the boneheaded advice that was supplied by an earlier me, so future searchers see it.

Details:
*You could only "amend" your own comments. The amendment would appear right under your original comment, indented, with the later date obvious.
*You could only amend after the thread has been closed.
*Maybe the original asker would get an email update.

Additional reasons:
Again, I learn new, relevant things, and I wish I could go back in time to update my answer, not just for the OP but for any future searchers. This is mostly for health related stuff re my answers, but I can imagine all sorts of situations where personally invested people might want to make a little update. I think it might add a lot of value to the site.

posted by zeek321 to Feature Requests at 1:02 PM (39 comments total)

What if you've become possessed by a sinister Lovecraftian evil over time and seek not to amend your original but to distort it, leaving no option for anyone to dispute you in thread?
posted by philip-random at 1:06 PM on September 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

This is a great idea that will no doubt never be approved, and I'm guessing that will be in part because the mods have had on (hopefully) rare occasions needed to clean up after a drunken mefite went on a site-wide comment spampage.
posted by zarq at 1:18 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

This could become something like George Lucas "tinkering" with his finished pieces of art. *shudder.*
posted by Melismata at 1:29 PM on September 26, 2011 [6 favorites]

Oh, I can see additional site infrastructure to support this. Just as you get a followup MeMail asking you to mark a best answer when you ask a question, I can see a followup e-mail a year down the road asking "zeek321, on 26 Sept 2011 you answered question 'ABC' with 'XYZ.' Do you still stand by that advice? Click here to let it stand, or click here to amend."
posted by adamrice at 1:31 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Melismata: "This could become something like George Lucas "tinkering" with his finished pieces of art. *shudder.*"

HAN SHOT FIRST
posted by zarq at 1:31 PM on September 26, 2011

> HAN SHOT FIRST

TOO SOON.
posted by bjrn at 1:37 PM on September 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

This seems like it would be a lot of work for the 1 in a 1000 people that would ever actually go back and amend something.
posted by COD at 1:37 PM on September 26, 2011

That time when I said to go ahead and eat it - yeah, uh, don't.
posted by XMLicious at 1:38 PM on September 26, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think when you're older, you'll look back at this post and realize it was a dumb idea.
posted by The Deej at 1:42 PM on September 26, 2011 [4 favorites]

That time when I said to go ahead and eat it - yeah, uh, don't.

It was not delicious. So sour. Luke warm at best.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:44 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

ONLY HAN SHOT.
posted by Babblesort at 1:55 PM on September 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

a drunken mefite went on a site-wide comment spampage

I thought we agreed to never speak of that again.
posted by desjardins at 1:57 PM on September 26, 2011

Part of wisdom, grasshopper, is learning to embrace your past stupidity. If your past stupidity still troubles you, grasshopper, you have not yet achieved wisdom. The past cannot, and should not be changed. The future is still eminently malleable. Turn your attention in that direction.
posted by Decani at 1:58 PM on September 26, 2011 [10 favorites]

Now I want a grasshopper.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:58 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I've always wished I could go back and tell that user, what was his name... Bob_ama (I liked the Bob part)..."go ahead run for it, being the first African-American President will be a piece of cake!"

I'm glad he didn't do it, after watching Obama's struggle.... I would edit that one for the sake of future potential African-American Presidential candidates.

Wonder whatever happened to Bob?
.
.
.
.

wait just a minute.... well, damn!
posted by HuronBob at 2:00 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

desjardins: " I thought we agreed to never speak of that again."

I din't sign nuthin'.
posted by zarq at 2:03 PM on September 26, 2011

ya know, I paid so much attention to the last part of that comment, I completely screwed up the first part where it should have been un-tell, instead of tell... but y'all figured it out anyway, if you cared, which you probably didn't..
posted by HuronBob at 2:03 PM on September 26, 2011

"drunken mefite" doesn't exactly narrow the field down... just sayin'.....
posted by HuronBob at 2:04 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Frank" was a really stupid name for your cat, and I'm sorry I suggested it.
posted by The Deej at 2:07 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

As much as I know the request from this is coming from every good place, allowing after the fact comment editing, especially to closed threads isn't something that will work within the way this site is set up to run.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:16 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

How about a self-flagging button that amends comments with something like, "YIKES. SORRY ABOUT THAT."

I know I'd get a lot of mileage out of such a feature.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:25 PM on September 26, 2011

HuronBob: ""drunken mefite" doesn't exactly narrow the field down... just sayin'....."

Wong Fei Hung: The Metafilter Years
posted by zarq at 2:34 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Now I want a grasshopper.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:58 PM on September 26

That's just not cricket.
posted by Decani at 2:55 PM on September 26, 2011

Yeah, I could maybe see this happening if we had some sort of queue to approve late past-closing answers by hand as mods (while adding another inbox to our work pile), but honestly, I think it's too much of a difficult change to make that I can barely imagine how we'd do the UI and can't fathom how we'd do this in the database easily, so I'm gonna have to say no and we'll stick to the six-month window.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:49 PM on September 26, 2011

Aren't AskMe Q's open for a year?
posted by zarq at 3:51 PM on September 26, 2011

I thought we tuned them down to 6 months, but it might be back at a year.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:53 PM on September 26, 2011

Still a year, yeah.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:00 PM on September 26, 2011

If only I could learn anything within a year...

Also, I always think my latest knowledge is genius, only to find out later that I'm still pretty clueless and dumb.
posted by The Deej at 4:05 PM on September 26, 2011

See what happens when a place gets so big? The boss doesn't even remember what's going on on the shop floor.

This happens to me at work frequently
posted by dg at 4:05 PM on September 26, 2011 [4 favorites]

MetaFilter: Please note the "best before" date at the end of this comment, and consider 3% of comments read after this time as boneheaded advice supplied by an earlier me.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 4:20 PM on September 26, 2011

Yeah, I don't really like this idea, though it comes from a good place. The only thing I could see is if the original asker could re-open an answered thread in order to post a follow up. I try to keep my asked threads open as long as possible in case I need to add something for posterity (as I did for my sofa bed askme thread) but some of them I had closed and then I wished I had left them open to append a followup with better info in hindsight for future researchers. (Although perhaps it is possible to reopen closed Ask threads and I'm just getting mixed up?).
posted by 1000monkeys at 4:24 PM on September 26, 2011

Amendments should be offered under "New business" and require a second to be discussed on the floor. Then they may be voted on and added to the thread, with majority approval.
posted by klangklangston at 6:44 PM on September 26, 2011

The Best Answer, Favorite and Flag buttons do not go away after the thread is closed.

So you can change your mind about which answer is the best one, years afterward.
posted by ardgedee at 6:59 PM on September 26, 2011

See, I'm always really impressed with what I write on the internet when I write it, and can be horrifically embarrassed when I read it after several years. (18 year old me blogging... eek!)

But it is part of time moving on, people change. Besides, you'd amend your comment and be embarrassed by the *amendment* in a few years time.

Perfection can not be retrospectively applied. Sorry.
posted by titanium_geek at 7:16 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think this would not be advisable, too open to abuse.

Also, Now I want a grasshopper.

I would settle for a beer right now.
posted by arcticseal at 11:11 PM on September 26, 2011

Maybe we can just put all those amendments in this thread. I would use this in a few places. One comment in particular comes to mind. I think this one comes off as racist and wish I'd found a more cautious way to phrase it. I'd just begun to notice how race played into people's neighborhood preference, and I was feeling alienated from the people who seemed to eschew what I felt were perfectly good neighborhoods for no reason that I could see except for how many non-white people were around. Maybe I'm wrong. I was trying to recommend neighborhoods, and I knew my own preferences were irrelevant (e.g., I really dislike some of the more upscale neighborhoods where many of my friends stay, so they're "nice" by some standard but not mine). So I wanted to say, "okay, here's what a bunch of white UC Berkeley grad students think," but also note that this was just one lens that might not be the OP's.

Come to think of it, the few other places I'd use this tool are also places where I think I might've talked about something delicate in a way that could justifiably create offense. This is the other one that comes quickly to mind. I hate when people use PMS to blow women off, so why support that? In that instance, when I read that statement, I heard it read in the tone of voice of the most badass waitresses from the restaurant where I worked. It rang so true to my restaurant ear that I supported it before really thinking through how it sounds out of that context and in a place like Metafilter. I should've added that context. Hail Mary full of grace...
posted by salvia at 11:29 PM on September 26, 2011

I'm not saying someone should be able to *change* an old comment, just tack something on after it.

Part of wisdom, grasshopper, is learning to embrace your past stupidity.

I'm cool with my past stupidity, but I'd like to avoid subjecting other people to it.
posted by zeek321 at 10:42 AM on September 27, 2011

1000monkeys, are you talking about adding the resolved tag? That doesn't close a question, as far as I know.
posted by soelo at 1:57 PM on September 27, 2011

So, basically an esprit d'escalier option for adding all those brilliant epiphanies that came to us only after it was too late for them to be of any practical use? Hmmm.

It's a good concept, though I think it would be the dickens to code. I mean, I can definitely see how it would be useful.

Why, just this morning I thought of this AskMe thread on the greatest recent technological innovations, the best little tweaks to make our modern lives easier, and had a Eureka moment: One-handed dental floss!

Why, oh why, did I not think to include one-handed dental floss to that thread? It's so obvious, and now I will never have the opportunity.

You hipster kids of today just take that shit for granted now, but that's only because you have never known the trauma of trying to force that old, inferior, twisted-around-your-fingers, two-handed dental floss (not even mint-flavored) through that tiny opening between your teeth (which don't line up quite right even now, though your parents forced you to get braces AND have your impacted wisdom teeth pulled out during those formative teen years just when all the boys were starting to notice you) and, pulling too hard, slitting your gums like a paper cut while simultaneously punching yourself in the lip, so that the next day at the dentist's office (because, let's be honest, the only time you bother to actually floss your teeth is right before you have a dentist appointment), you are sporting a sore, fat lip and bleeding gums. And as you sit in that dental chair, those awkward adolescent years twenty-plus years behind you, you nonetheless feel the need to explain to the bemused dentist how your minor injuries are in fact badges of honor, incurred while righteously flossing your teeth, like the responsible adult you are. To which the odious dentist cheerfully responds, "Hey, so have you ever considered getting braces to take care of that little problem?"

Obviously, now, looking back, you can clearly see that the strange 'disappearance' of said dentist and all the PTSD that followed from the whole ugly incident can be unerringly traced back to that damned two-handed dental floss, which you kids these days don't even appreciate is a modern marvel of technology.

But did any of that even occur to me at the moment when that recent innovations thread was posted? No, it did not.

Where was I?

Oh, yeah, the amendment thing!

As I say, definitely great in concept. But what you really want to do is get that Time Machine up and running. Then you can just go back to the past and amend your contributions retroactively.

And while you're gallivanting through the temporal ether, look up my parents, will you please, and explain to them that the whole braces thing?

Bad move.

Tell them to use that money to get me a better car for graduation instead, because that used Subaru they are looking at has a bad transmission.

Thanks.
posted by misha at 3:42 PM on September 27, 2011