How do I edit my post?

My apologies, I haven't been posting here for long. Can't see an "Edit" to click on associated with my recent post.

David

Just click on the row of dots in the upper right corner of your post and then click on "Edit"

Thank you. When I do that I just get "Report" and "Share", as if I were clicking the dots in someone else's post. Tried signing out and back in, no change. No real need right now to edit a post but at some point I expect I'll make a error that needs correcting.

David

The most likely problem is that the ability to edit has a time limit. As far as I know, it's really short -- like 10 or 15 minutes. That's enough to correct a typo or clarify a comment after you just posted, but not very forgiving.  I suppose there are legitimate reasons to have such a timeout, but it doesn't allow those of us who re-read our own post the next day and find an error to do anything about it. Some other forums I hang out on have such a mechanism but it's set for 24 hours or something greater than a few minutes.

(Edit: Just checked .... there is an 'Edit' choice in the three dots pulldown minutes after this post.)

And based on fiddling here, it appears the timeout is 15 minutes. And the timeout also does not appear to reset when an edit is done. That is, when I just looked, my previous post showed as "Posted 15 minutes ago (edited)" and at the bottom "Edited 13 minutes ago by dave_thomas8"

If it is an important error, something that could harm someone's outcomes, or a significant error, contact me or another moderator.  Haven't done it recently but I believe moderators still have the capability.

2 hours ago, dave_thomas8 said:

And based on fiddling here, it appears the timeout is 15 minutes. And the timeout also does not appear to reset when an edit is done. That is, when I just looked, my previous post showed as "Posted 15 minutes ago (edited)" and at the bottom "Edited 13 minutes ago by dave_thomas8"

Thank you, this has been very helpful. Fifteen minutes is a bit shorter window for editing than I'm used to but should be enough if I immediately read my post carefully for spelling and punctuation errors and redundancies.

And yes, "Edit" does appear when I click on the dots...

David

50 minutes ago, Sandy Vongries said:

If it is an important error, something that could harm someone's outcomes, or a significant error, contact me or another moderator.  Haven't done it recently but I believe moderators still have the capability.

Thank you. I'm thinking now that for correcting errors or adding information it might be better for me to write a new post rather than counting on people re-reading an older one.

David

For clarity, history and reason; the "edit" facility for forum posts at Photo.net is (relatively) recent.

When Philip Greenspun developed Photo.net, there was not ever an edit function in the forums. 

If one digs into the early posts there appear to be two main strands of reason for this approach. Firstly, once a piece is published it is "published"; any corrections or retractions must follow later in an additional publication. Secondly, the format of a web based forum is such that the flow, context and meaning can be lost or deformed if earlier posts are able to be individually edited by the individual authors.

The first reason could be argued as being esoteric in nature: yet it does have appeal to the purist, perhaps those whose pathway has been through proofreading, typesetting, sub-editing and like professions.

The second reason certainly has practical implications for the ease of forum management: consider an opening post which takes a point of view "A" and then that is discussed and argued within four subsequent posts. If the opening poster has facility to edit the opening post, then at the least context could be lost, at the worst the thread goes down a black hole because the opening post's edits could be made such that the subsequent posts resemble ignorance.

***           

It was after the first big reshuffle of Photo.net and just before the Editor-in-Chief position was removed that an edit function was introduced - I think that was around 2016, and I think that was only 5 minutes: the logic being that 5 minutes would allow the author to correct minor details, errors or omissions before a respondent's post might directly relate to the previously published post.

I think the edit time now is no longer than 15 minutes, and no less than 10 minutes. Though I have never looked closely at the exact time.  Moreover, I reckon that the time will vary between ten and fifteen minutes and that is because of how the system's servers cycle to update. Such detail is beyond the scope of my IT knowledge, but I think "how the system's servers cycle to update" if not the correct terminology, is at least a good descriptive phrase to use. 

***

Regarding the OP's question, as Sandy mentioned, if the publication contains content which is important/imperative to be corrected or removed, then contact a Moderator: if not an obvious reason, you'll probably be asked "why?"

Alternatively, as you mentioned, "I'm thinking now that for correcting errors or adding information it might be better for me to write a new post rather than counting on people re-reading an older one." - I concur, and for all the reasons and also because of history, outlined above.

You will find some posts which have been edited without the author asking - I am not referring to Moderation intervention of spam, or other infraction - I am referring to corrections such as inserting an obvious negative which was omitted (e.g 'not' or similar) - I certainly have made these types of corrections and would send a PM to the author for information or a Moderator can leave a message at the bottom of the edited section indicating the edit and why it was made.

WW             

Very well written. 

It's exactly 15 minutes--that's where it was set.

It does not bode well to have it more, as people WILL retrace their steps and edit their words when a conversation does not go their way.  There are no Pulitzer's for forum posts, so what is there the next day is yesterday's news...  🤔

Anyone with basic moderator permissions can change older posts.  If something is that bad, it likely should have not been posted in the first place.  🤪

1 hour ago, PapaTango said:

It's exactly 15 minutes

Ta.