Poni request

October 29, 2019 4:45 AM

So, I made an FPP. Immediately after I hit Post, I noticed a glaring spelling error. There does not seem to be an edit window for posts that have been posted. I find this unfotunate. Can there be an edit window for them?
posted by Kirth Gerson to Feature Requests at 4:45 AM (10 comments total)

We've not included editing for posts because often comments start appearing immediately, and if they have anything to do with the text that has been changed it can lead to a lot of confusion. Flagging your post with either "display error," if it's obvious, or with added note, if it's not, works right away most of the time, or, of course contacting mods directly. We can make the change, delete early responses based on the error, and, if needed, add an explanation of the edit.
posted by taz (staff) at 4:52 AM on October 29, 2019 [6 favorites]

make the change, delete early responses based on the error, and, if needed, add an explanation of the edit.

I'd break this feature on the apostrophe' alone.
posted by clavdivs at 9:47 AM on October 29, 2019 [2 favorites]

I think the system as exists is better than the alternative. But. this is something that can benefit from better documentation—maybe a note when you get your post confirmation that typographical edits can be made by the moderators at their discretion? I've been around long enough to know that the moderators are decent and can basically fix whatever, but that is definitely not something I think most in the community know.
posted by General Malaise at 4:27 PM on October 29, 2019 [5 favorites]

Was "unfotunate" intended?
posted by pracowity at 2:10 PM on October 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

Yes. It was the glaring spelling error in my FPP. The post had more deficiencies than that, and was deleted.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:57 PM on October 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

maybe a note when you get your post confirmation that typographical edits can be made by the moderators at their discretion?

A better place would be a note that appears to the poster only on the post itself, immediately (or within some timeframe) after being posted. That's when you notice the error but are unable to do anything about it.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 3:10 AM on October 31, 2019

So we do currently have a line that says "Please contact us with any problems" and then a link to the contact form, in the MeFi Mail autogenerated at post time every time someone makes a post. I could see revisiting the text of that mail to add a little additional context: maybe explicitly mentioning edits and/or linking to an appropriate FAQ entry.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:05 AM on October 31, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've made a number of errors in FPPs that I've noticed after I've hit "post," and using the contact form has always resulted in the typo, incorrect link, etc., being edited by the mods within minutes -- a cursory scan of mod emails in response to my requests for edits reveals that they've usually happened within a 2-3 minute window. Pretty good turnaround if you ask me.

I could see revisiting the text of that mail to add a little additional context: maybe explicitly mentioning edits and/or linking to an appropriate FAQ entry.

IMO, the system as it stands works well, but I'd agree it might be worth highlighting that this is totally a thing you can use the contact form for.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:17 PM on October 31, 2019

Updating the current "Your post has been added to MetaFilter. Here are the details" MeFi Mail text that reads:

You can use the link to access your post even if it's deleted.

Please contact us with any problems:

http://www.metafilter.com/contact/

To something like:

You can use the link to access your post even if it's deleted.

If you've noticed an error in your post (typos, incorrect or broken links, etc.), the moderators can make the change for you. Please contact us to let us know:

http://www.metafilter.com/contact/

...might clarify that a bit.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:25 PM on October 31, 2019 [2 favorites]

I like that phrasing, mandolin conspiracy; we've rolled out that change now for automated MeFi Mails about posts on the blue and frimble's getting it up for the other subsites as well.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:06 PM on November 1, 2019 [2 favorites]