Cannot edit post

[zag]

@JRowley - you could always set up your own tech forum if you think you could do it better

 

I actually needed somewhere to store descriptions all my personal projects(see sig) so I went ahead as suggested and started my own little forum. On a sidenote, what a mess Vbulletin has become since the company was taken over!! Glad I kept my v4 license.

 

Its not competing against edugeek or anything, but its designed to be able to edit the 1st post of any projects people want to make. I also fixed a few other things that bugged me on edugeek such as the image upload thumbnail sizes and enabling links in signatures.

 

Edu-Admin Forums

 

 

I'll make threads for my own projects, and anyone else is welcome to join and add theirs. At least until Edugeek changes its policy on editing, this it might be useful

Edited October 8, 2014 by zag

[localzuk]

There is another option - have a blog, in the blogs section. You can edit your posts there, and projects can be maintained there quite easily too IMO.

[JRowley]

There is another option - have a blog, in the blogs section. You can edit your posts there, and projects can be maintained there quite easily too IMO.

 

This is fine for personal projects, and I would use that if it were the case, but not for general informative posts which belong in a forum.

[ZeroHour]

Let me just repost this:

So what can we do, well I have a few ideas to allow limited legacy thread editing outside the 3 hour window. Possibly initially allowing editing of a 1 or 2 threads per 24/X hour period (unlimited edits for X hours) and seeing how it goes, it just depends on the amount of hacks required.

 

Its on the list to be revisited, we have just had app issues and a few other issues that have been more important lately so I literally have not had time to look at the hacks/code.

[JRowley]

I appreciate that, but you won't need to change anything. The scenario that has been presented as the reasoning for it is implausible from my point of view, just enable editing for registered members on a small forum as a trial for a week. I doubt you would see a single occurrence, spammers spam, they don't post valid content and then edit in links afterwards.

 

Not to mention a distinct lack of evidence for it.

[plexer]

I appreciate that, but you won't need to change anything. The scenario that has been presented as the reasoning for it is implausible from my point of view, just enable editing for registered members on a small forum as a trial for a week. I doubt you would see a single occurrence, spammers spam, they don't post valid content and then edit in links afterwards.

 

Not to mention a distinct lack of evidence for it.

 

Again it's your point of view what ZH has suggested is how he wants to achieve a usable solution then you just have to live with it and be done instead of repeating yourself as just banging on about the same point of view is going to change nothing.

 

Ben

[ZeroHour]

I appreciate that, but you won't need to change anything. The scenario that has been presented as the reasoning for it is implausible from my point of view, just enable editing for registered members on a small forum as a trial for a week. I doubt you would see a single occurrence, spammers spam, they don't post valid content and then edit in links afterwards.

 

Not to mention a distinct lack of evidence for it.

 

vBulletin editing is not that granular, its everyone everywhere editing or everyone limited (bar mods/admins)

You do realise when we delete/remove/edit no one besides mods etc can see the deletions, you never would see evidence if we are doing our job. Also rapid edits (made within 2 minutes) dont get logged normally unless you edit things to check.

The Vista forum as below:

 

 

I cant show the edit history as its cleared automatically for spam but yeah it happens.

Edited October 8, 2014 by ZeroHour

[JRowley]

vBulletin editing is not that granular, its everyone everywhere editing or everyone limited (bar mods/admins)

You do realise when we delete/remove/edit no one besides mods etc can see the deletions, you never would see evidence if we are doing our job.

The Vista forum as below:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]26901[/ATTACH]

 

I cant show the edit history as its cleared automatically for spam but yeah it happens.

 

Has vBulletin changed the way forum permissions work then? You used to be able to configure forum level permissions which allowed you to override usergroup permissions and enable users to edit their own posts, I wasn't aware this was changed if that is the case.

 

Of course I'm aware that only mods can see moderation, it's not relevant to this discussion though.

[ZeroHour]

Has vBulletin changed the way forum permissions work then? You used to be able to configure forum level permissions which allowed you to override usergroup permissions and enable users to edit their own posts, I wasn't aware this was changed if that is the case.

 

Of course I'm aware that only mods can see moderation, it's not relevant to this discussion though.

 

Yeah you can do that (and its on) but the editing time limit is a global setting and is not configured in groups. As I said earlier the problems from an end user perspective are well known, we were not sitting on a default hidden option in vbulletin. There is an addon for 4.0.3 but any changes require testing and as I already said I will be looking at options. EDIT: Found a newer.

 

The reason I mentioned it was because you stated there was no evidence even though you could never see evidence.

Edited October 8, 2014 by ZeroHour

[JRowley]

Yeah you can do that (and its on) but the editing time limit is a global setting and is not configured in groups. As I said earlier the problems from an end user perspective are well known, we were not sitting on a default hidden option in vbulletin. There is an addon for 4.0.3 but any changes require testing and as I already said I will be looking at options.

The reason I mentioned it was because you stated there was no evidence even though you could never see evidence.

 

Hmm, that is a shame, but hey at least I got a legitimate reason for not doing a trial, even if it did take 4 pages! So thank you for that.

 

Also I said there was no evidence that spammers edit old posts to inject links, and nothing in that picture would suggest that is the case, or that anything would change if the time limit was removed, your moderation is already dealing with the issues.

 

For those negative mods and members, yes I will now leave this for the time being. There is nothing wrong with asking for improvements and for actual reasons not to try things, we should all strive to make things better shouldn't we? Isn't that part of the reason we are in the business?

Edited October 8, 2014 by JRowley

[ZeroHour]

Hmm, that is a shame, but hey at least I got a legitimate reason for not doing a trial, even if it did take 4 pages! So thank you for that.

 

Also I said there was no evidence that spammers edit old posts to inject links, and nothing in that picture would suggest that is the case, or that anything would change if the time limit was removed, your moderation is already dealing with the issues.

 

For those negative mods and members, yes I will now leave this for the time being. There is nothing wrong with asking for improvements and for actual reasons not to try things, we should all strive to make things better shouldn't we? Isn't that part of the reason we are in the business?

 

Sorry when you said you knew about vBulletin I figured you knew a bit about the limitations. If there had been a simple option it would have been used.

 

Those threads more highlight the spam problem we have, those are spotted in part because of the title and also because editing cant happen so it has to be *new* content and then appears in "What's New" etc. vBulletin has had a lot of issues with stealth approaches like this and picture albums etc where spambots could fill up sites without being spotted by mods etc until Google down ranks and alerts the site but by that point the damage is done. My point is more we know its annoying but even though you have not been aware of the spam vector, it has happened to us before in the past which is why it was done, spambots change techniques though so I do want to loosen the restrictions but we need to monitor it in case it re-occurs (there is no way to view edit history on mass)

 

The editing history options are a factor for the next step so the feedback is good to try and meet everyones needs.

Edited October 8, 2014 by ZeroHour

[Andrew_C]

Is it REALLY an improvement?

 

Scenario:-

 

Person A asks a (possibly dim) question

 

Persons B-D answers it

 

Person E points out it was a dim question

 

Person A edits question so as not to look too dim; but changes the sense

 

Replies from B-D are now left looking bizarre as they answer a different question

 

I see little benefit to be gained by this change (that isn't going to happen). And yes, I too moderate on a busy forum.

[ZeroHour]

Is it REALLY an improvement?

 

Scenario:-

 

 

 

I see little benefit to be gained by this change (that isn't going to happen). And yes, I too moderate on a busy forum.

 

That is the other side of the coin yep.

[plexer]

Hmm, that is a shame, but hey at least I got a legitimate reason for not doing a trial, even if it did take 4 pages! So thank you for that.

 

Also I said there was no evidence that spammers edit old posts to inject links, and nothing in that picture would suggest that is the case, or that anything would change if the time limit was removed, your moderation is already dealing with the issues.

 

For those negative mods and members, yes I will now leave this for the time being. There is nothing wrong with asking for improvements and for actual reasons not to try things, we should all strive to make things better shouldn't we? Isn't that part of the reason we are in the business?

 

The negativity from the mods was directed at the fact there being a new version of Edugeek coming which ZH was devoting his time to and that was all so whilst you now have an answer that has satisfied your need for closure it doesn't change anything.

 

Ben

[JRowley]

Is it REALLY an improvement?

 

Scenario:-

 

 

 

I see little benefit to be gained by this change (that isn't going to happen). And yes, I too moderate on a busy forum.

 

How often do people point out it was a dumb question? How relevant is the change to someone looking for a solution? This can happen but you have to gauge just how big a deal this really is overall, I mean this can take place now as it stands, but I've not seen it happen.

 

The negativity from the mods was directed at the fact there being a new version of Edugeek coming which ZH was devoting his time to and that was all so whilst you now have an answer that has satisfied your need for closure it doesn't change anything.

 

Ben

 

That's true but you don't have to be negative about people wanting improvements, this is something that is going to be considered, it's hardly a bad thing that I wan't to throw in my thoughts and try and get the ball rolling a bit quicker. You all acted like I was being insulting towards the staff and the site, it was completely unnecessary.

Edited October 8, 2014 by JRowley

[Andrew_C]

You moderate a busy forum and you've not seen dumb questions pilloried! Wow, what a clever bunch (or tolerant) your members must be...

[JRowley]

You moderate a busy forum and you've not seen dumb questions pilloried! Wow, what a clever bunch (or tolerant) your members must be...

 

I mean't I've not seen it happen here, and not seen posts edited within the restriction in response to such posts.

[witch]

I mean't I've not seen it happen here, and not seen posts edited within the restriction in response to such posts.

You've missed it then

Happens all the time

[JRowley]

You've missed it then

Happens all the time

 

Then I would expect nothing would really change!

[sparkeh]

You've missed it then

Happens all the time

^ agreed, you do see it.

 

And let me jump on the "I moderate a busy site too" train and say yeah, the 'editing an old post spam technique' is a legitimate issue.

Edited October 8, 2014 by sparkeh
To make my post less dumb.

[ZeroHour]

I mean't I've not seen it happen here, and not seen posts edited within the restriction in response to such posts.

 

I have seen stealth edits quite a few times, it does occur but its hard to judge how often without pulling edits etc to see if its a minor or major edit, I have just replied to threads before to find tweaks later.

Its not something that bothers me too much as you can see the post has been edited, just not the change. It can have more ramifications if someone say decides on day to delete all 1000's of their posts by editing/hacking there way through all the threads, now thats destructive.

[LosOjos]

For those negative mods and members, yes I will now leave this for the time being. There is nothing wrong with asking for improvements and for actual reasons not to try things, we should all strive to make things better shouldn't we? Isn't that part of the reason we are in the business?

 

Nothing at all wrong with striving and asking for improvement. I suspect what many who responded negatively took offense at was the "dog with a bone" approach, and almost smug "I know best" attitude that came across from your posts.

 

Intentional or not, that's how some of your posts came across to me at least.

 

Personally, I'd have been happy when the founder of the site acknowledged my issue and the developer not only acknowledged but offered a trial pending further developments already in progress; in fact, that's more than I'd have expected to receive in most places!

[plexer]

That's true but you don't have to be negative about people wanting improvements, this is something that is going to be considered, it's hardly a bad thing that I wan't to throw in my thoughts and try and get the ball rolling a bit quicker. You all acted like I was being insulting towards the staff and the site, it was completely unnecessary.

 

To be honest it wasn't that it was the comments regarding oh it's easy it a 10 second that needs to be made etc.... when as ZH has pointed out today it's not that simple.

 

Thanks

 

Ben

[JRowley]

To be honest it wasn't that it was the comments regarding oh it's easy it a 10 second that needs to be made etc.... when as ZH has pointed out today it's not that simple.

 

Thanks

 

Ben

 

Yeah sadly I was under the impression that the edit limited could also be overridden as with the edit permissions, though ultimately to make the change sitewide it would take a very small amount of time.

 

Still, there wasn't any need regardless, if people hadn't have been so against the idea from the start and actually discussed it perhaps I wouldn't have come off as I did.

[ZeroHour]

And relax, this is getting more heated then needs to be. I will move this thread over to the comments section and post updates here when I get a chance to look into it futher.

 

Thank you all for the feedback and thoughts, it all does help and I can factor it in for the future version. I will try and find a vbulletin solution sooner as well, it just might not be today