leileilol wrote:

I should mention I had to impose edit times on my own board for years because there would be some contributors that would suddenly mass blank their posts for inexplicable reasons. All I could do is just humiliate them with a custom title, like "HAHA I BLANKED MY POSTS!!! THATLL SHOW THAT GAME'S SMALL FORUM THEY DONT DESERVE MY EGO HAHAHA". It's definitely a thing that's only been happening in recent years.

I wonder how much of that has to do with them realizing they gave away some personally identifying info, then in a panic deleting it to wipe themselves off the internet.

leileilol wrote:

I should mention I had to impose edit times on my own board for years because there would be some contributors that would suddenly mass blank their posts for inexplicable reasons. All I could do is just humiliate them with a custom title, like "HAHA I BLANKED MY POSTS!!! THATLL SHOW THAT GAME'S SMALL FORUM THEY DONT DESERVE MY EGO HAHAHA". It's definitely a thing that's only been happening in recent years.

If it's ego then it can't be recent nor random. You can probably benefit from figuring out the method to it and using that knowledge for its worth to entice a better distribution of contributions to your forum. Publicly shaming ex-contributors? Easy, but meh.

I could restore their posts by hand since I do database backups nearly every first daily visit, but that'd be too troubling. And if it's about a personal information panic, editing posts out won't help as the database bizarrely stores <currentemailofposter> into the data of each post (which end up being unused).

Deleting your posts is not proof against them having been crawled by Google/Archive.org/the honest businessmen of Cyprus.

leileilol wrote:

I could restore their posts by hand since I do database backups nearly every first daily visit, but that'd be too troubling.

There's a chance that the more you require users to cede exclusive rights wrt their work as a prerequisite for contributing, and the more willing you are to apply those rights against the creator, the less people you'd have contributing.

The option for new users to register has gone as well - is there a reason behind this change? anti-spam or something?

There was / is a jerk on the loose spamming the forum with dumb posts, so the admins have locked it down for now I think.

Pretty inconvenient for the mods I guess but I must say that it's been nice around here since "the incident" - civil posts that are focused on old games and hardware.

We could use a temporary "invitation code" system, with only 1 or 2 codes per user so they can't let in a spam army.

Elia1995 wrote:

We could use a temporary "invitation code" system, with only 1 or 2 codes per user so they can't let in a spam army.

Sane limits on how many posts an user can make per day or within a given time period (e.g. no more than 1 post every x seconds) can also be a good way of limiting trolls and other abusive users.

I would guess it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a function that blocks an user's editing automatically when they start blanking posts or editing many in a row. Or just block the ability for users to blank posts (unless the user is a mod).

So, has it been decided to permanently drop the 'open for edit all the time' feature? Just 'time-restricted edit' to continue(?) till the end of time...

Edit:Anddddd edit works again as on 19.01.18. Thanks heaps.

gandhig wrote:

So, has it been decided to permanently drop the 'open for edit all the time' feature(RIP)? Just 'time-restricted edit' to continue(?) till the end of time...

I would like to know this as well. I have a few in-progress posts/threads that I really need the ability to edit in order to add/fix information.

Not worth my time to ask a mod to make changes every time I need to update a post, especially when I am working on something and editing a post a few times an hour.

Can't the editing be opened up on a per-user basis?

Nothing has been decided yet on if it stays off.

Qbix wrote:

Nothing has been decided yet on if it stays off.

I hope that unlimited EDIT will get back in action, as there are a lot of threads that need over time updates.

Benchmark listings and drivers are two examples.

I can't edit the first post in my projects' threads to reflect changes. May be allowing unlimited editing at least for Release Announcements would be a good idea.

This software is not helping spread information if usability has to be crippled just to stop harassment and selfishness. What can be done to help this? I agree that long threads still living are more helpful when the OP can add on content to the first post. That utility saves others a lot of lurking time when the info is continually organized.

Can't editing be turned back on for specific users? I think this is the best solution for now.

I've pretty much put all my projects on hold that I was working on on here because I can't go back and edit anything.

Or how about setting the time limited editing to only be enabled for users under a certain number of posts and/or on accounts under a certain age.

You could also set a timer for new accounts to only be able to reply or add new posts after waiting a certain amount of time between posts.

That should keep you know who from being able to do any more damage.

I still think an IP block for said jerk is in order as well as reporting them to their ISP.

Make it as hard as possible for said jerk to be able to do anything here while not harming everyone else's ability to contribute.

cyclone3d wrote:

I've pretty much put all my projects on hold that I was working on on here because I can't go back and edit anything.
not harming everyone else's ability to contribute.

Some kind of portal that manages project blogs per user that can also stay integrated with the discussion thread. That way it's partitioned off, but still close to the forums. Updates to the page could be pushed to a bot script that edits first post on behalf of the owner. The current edit rules could stay, and people would have a dedicated project blogging portal. Lurking Vogons then could start from going through a list, reading about folk's projects and then leading to the forum posts. Or lurking the forums and finding a project discussion per a topic and going to the project documentation blog itself.

I have relaxed the restrictions quite a lot. Let's see how it goes.
Please edit in moderation 😀 Lets not go crazy 😉

Qbix wrote:

I have relaxed the restrictions quite a lot. Let's see how it goes.
Please edit in moderation 😀 Lets not go crazy 😉

Qbix wrote:

I have relaxed the restrictions quite a lot. Let's see how it goes.
Please edit in moderation 😀 Lets not go crazy 😉