Was there an increase in the edit window's window?

December 22, 2017 1:03 PM

Went to make my second edit in an ask answer (i suck at typing apparently) and noticed the "Time Remaining to Edit: " was 5 mins and some seconds. Missed grabbing a screenshot unfortunately. I thought the edit window was 5 mins... did I mis-remember, has it changed, or just a random bug?

Not a big deal either way, just more curious than anything. Thanks all!

posted by cgg to MetaFilter-Related at 1:03 PM (15 comments total)

has it changed, or just a random bug?

The latter! Or at least a random issue; we didn't deliberately change it, and you're not the first to notice this recently. Hasn't been a top priority issue to investigate because it's not putting anybody out really, but it's something we'll get eyeballs on at some point here.

My pet theory is a bit of clock desync somewhere in the chain, one server thinks it's a slightly different time than another in a way that isn't otherwise causing problems. But that's just spitballing; frimble will presumably be able to actually answer the question at some point when they get a chance to dig in.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:05 PM on December 22, 2017

*jedi handwave*
The edit window is functioning normally.
This is not the bug you're looking for.
*jedi handwave*
posted by zarq at 1:59 PM on December 22, 2017

Random edit question: Do mods get a notification every time a comment is edited? The only reason I ask is that I edit a ton of my comments (I am an idiot) literal seconds after posting, and hope I am not being annoying.

(Edit time: 6:24)
posted by Literaryhero at 3:04 PM on December 22, 2017

Oh god no. We can see that a comment has been edited when we look at it, and various details associated with that, but we don't have a push notification or anything on it. We get enough of those from everything else.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 3:09 PM on December 22, 2017

Random edit question: Do mods get a notification every time a comment is edited? The only reason I ask is that I edit a ton of my comments (I am an idiot) literal seconds after posting, and hope I am not being annoying.

ye gods, can you imagine?
posted by zarq at 3:11 PM on December 22, 2017

Alexia made a typo again... And again... And again...

Of course, even with the edit time increased by a minuteish (for me anyway) I still end up with a typo in everything I post.

I like the extra minute and had coded it as a gift.
posted by AlexiaSky at 3:39 PM on December 22, 2017

Do mods get a notification every time a comment is edited?

They should get one every time someone types "Not to abuse the edit window..."

Not to go on all fours: that is the law
Not to abuse the edit window: that is the law
posted by thelonius at 4:48 PM on December 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

Testing for edit bonus time
Edit: Whoot! 6:19
posted by Mitheral at 7:36 PM on December 22, 2017

This behavior existed when the edit feature was first implemented.

EDIT: but I get *way* more extra time now.

EDIT^2: To be more specific, it was like 6:26.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:37 PM on December 22, 2017

I think I found it through a related bug: The database server was about 2 minutes off, because the time server with which it was syncing no longer existed.

Having now set it to use the current time, that will fix a handful of other things and probably this as well.
posted by frimble (staff) at 9:37 PM on December 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

zarq: " hope I am not being annoying.

ye gods, can you imagine?"

Yeah, I can imagine being annoying. Actually, I pretty much always imagine I am being annoying.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:05 PM on December 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

the time server with which it was syncing no longer existed

Can you tell us what this was, and when it might have gone offline? I'm interested as someone who has never thought of syching with a time server.

(And the edit window looks to be 5 minutes now)
posted by filthy light thief at 10:52 PM on December 22, 2017

The time server with which the database server was syncing its clock was nist-time-server.eoni.com ... I don't know when it went offline, but have changed it to use time.nist.gov, which requires more than one server going offline to stop working, as it's a generic address for a set of time servers around the US.
posted by frimble (staff) at 11:09 PM on December 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Every time a MeFi edits, an angel gets its wings?

“Merry Christmas, Booby House!”
posted by notyou at 7:42 AM on December 23, 2017

The time server with which the database server was syncing its clock was nist-time-server.eoni.com ... I don't know when it went offline, but have changed it to use time.nist.gov, which requires more than one server going offline to stop working, as it's a generic address for a set of time servers around the US.

I uh... have a pony request....
posted by zarq at 5:39 AM on December 24, 2017