Why we cannot edit thread subject anymore?

[radish]

Why we cannot edit thread subject anymore? Can bring back this feature?

 

[nachtsid.er]

It’s a temp stop I believe

 

[Dragon]

Why we cannot edit thread subject anymore? Can bring back this feature?

This restriction applies to EDMW only. Please contact your friendly Moderators or post a request here for assistance if you need to change the title of your discussion thread in EDMW.

The ruleset change is a top down decision to prevent abuse, so we will be adopting this setting for now until further notice. Thank you for your understanding.

 

[radish]

since my query thread has been closed i'm forced to start another one until my query is fully answered. i feel query threads shouldnt just be closed just like that, feedback channel is a 2 way communication.

1. just bec some users abuse all users have to pay the penalty?

2. why cant lock the thread title after x amount of time?

3. wat was the abuse on thread subject? perhaps moderation here should consider user education for the few problem users instead of punishing all users for it?

4. do mods like users keep asking for help to change thread subjects? is this a gd use of mod time?

 

[Intrinion]

Hello. This has been made at upper management level. Representing the volunteer moderator team to answer to your query.

1. On the previous forum vbulletin forum software, moderators have always been attending to thread title changes.

2. This may not be possible at software level. Will feedback for the dev team to look into it.

3. Example:

<insert sensational / fake or misleading title that does not represent actual news body>
<Mod changes to title of news article>
<User reverts changes>

4. We are ok to change thread titles. The number of thread title change requests had also been relatively low. To save our time, we would suggest forumers to instead not abuse our report system just because they don’t get what they want.

 

[Dr.Vijay]

Hi Radish,

If you recall, the old forum for two decades didn't allow the change of thread titles either.

So we're back to that standard.

We've explained the reasons in the previous thread, so there's no point pondering on this matter, is there?

Misuse and mischief and are series matters.

That is also the reason we've closed the thread - there's no further discussion required.

 

[Intrinion]

Noting that there are a lot of misleading / fake news nowadays, this is a measure that is taken to curb the propagation of misinformation .

Forumers have gotten into trouble with their thread titles. Sometimes we catch them early and change them before we receive official requests.

 

[radish]

Fundamentally we all should agree forum exist to serve users and forum experience for most of the users shouldnt be sacrificed just bec of a minor few problematic users.

We should always improve and move forward rather than regress. if last time didnt have this feature and we deemed it deserving to have and we have progressed we shouldnt regress.

Problematic users require user education, if they are solely bent on mischief there are a lot more ways to play not only thread subjects.

Misleading threads arent always only limited by thread subjects, i'm sure u all seen enough to understd wat i mean.

If there is a misleading thread forumers will feedback then mods can take action, is this a better model? After all this is the purpose of the existing report button.

 

[IndianChief]

The old forum allowed changes to be made to thread title as long within the first 5 or 10 mins I think. Maybe can consider that? Nothing to do with mischief. It's just to correct typos or grammatical errors which may happen cause of auto correct on phone etc which you don't realise until thread is posted

 

[Intrinion]

The old forum allowed changes to be made to thread title as long within the first 5 or 10 mins I think. Maybe can consider that? Nothing to do with mischief. It's just to correct typos or grammatical errors which may happen cause of auto correct on phone etc which you don't realise until thread is posted

I agree with you. Please refer to point 2.
It may not be possible for now as the option is binary based (allow: yes or no). We are aware and considered the likelihood of thread typos. We will definitely look into it if it’s technically an option.

 

[radish]

Yes for some of us who have butter fingers this subject editing is a very useful feature.

To allow thread subject editing is to allow users to make correction. it is not a bad feature.

Like all features it can also be abused, but i will suggest think of the benefit for majority dont punish everyone just for the few problematic minority.

Again as mentioned there is existing process for users to report errant threads.

 

[Intrinion]

Yes for some of us who have butter fingers this subject editing is a very useful feature.

To allow thread subject editing is to allow users to make correction. it is not a bad feature.

Like all features it can also be abused, but i will suggest think of the benefit for majority dont punish everyone just for the few problematic minority.

Again as mentioned there is existing process for users to report errant threads.

I agree with you. We are working with the dev team to have a timed option for thread title changes. As mentioned, this is currently technically not feasible due to software limitations.

 

[Kumar22]

Not always possible to lock/delete errant threads unless you have a Mod on duty 24/7.
Or even if a Mod fails to see the implications of a thread like 1 I reported yesterday which would almost certainly entail a POFMA notice. But the Mod chose to reject my initial request seeking for my input in the thread topic.
I had to ask Dragon to delete it which he then obliged but the thread already had a score of replies and thousands of views.

 

[Intrinion]

Fundamentally we all should agree forum exist to serve users and forum experience for most of the users shouldnt be sacrificed just bec of a minor few problematic users.

We should always improve and move forward rather than regress. if last time didnt have this feature and we deemed it deserving to have and we have progressed we shouldnt regress.

Problematic users require user education, if they are solely bent on mischief there are a lot more ways to play not only thread subjects.

Misleading threads arent always only limited by thread subjects, i'm sure u all seen enough to understd wat i mean.

If there is a misleading thread forumers will feedback then mods can take action, is this a better model? After all this is the purpose of the existing report button.

A few spoilt apples spoil the bunch. Unfortunately, we cannot stop users from going full retard and some do. So what now?

We are appreciative of forumers who have reported their concerns to us via the report system.

Moreover, we didn’t limit the option of users deleting threads / posts and editing post contents.

So the impact of this implementation is really negligible to most forum users except for those who constantly change thread titles.

Please see an example of a malicious headline

 

[radish]

Well i hope hwz mod board take a review on this on this request.

To manage this place constructively or police this place by brute force, the power is in your hands, and rem the easy way out is not necessary always the best way for the users.

 

[Intrinion]

To summarize @radish

It may not be possible for now as the option is binary based (allow: yes or no).

We are aware and considered the likelihood of thread typos. We will definitely look into seeing if it’s an option to have a time optioned for thread titles to be amended for errata / typo reasons.

example:
New thread posted
- Allow thread title to be freely amended.
- Time limit: 30 mins

 

[Intrinion]

We hope to seek common ground with you all on this. On Reddit, I believe, it is not possible to change thread titles as well. The reasons have been extensively discussed there.

A simple analogy

 

[Kumar22]

Well i hope hwz mod board take a review on this on this request.

To manage this place constructively or police this place by brute force, the power is in your hands, and rem the easy way out is not necessary always the best way for the users.

The point is this also:

Say you manage a forum, social media website or whatever of this nature.

Then out of the blue, certain laws are changed, I mean laws of the land. Further to this, you actually have governmental agencies pouring through your records and highlighting things they deem inappropriate.

What would you do? Ignore things and let go on business as usual?

The Law even before the changes was pretty clear, you're solely responsible for content posted on your platform.
Say some idiot comes for what he deems is fun, makes terrible remarks on a certain faith and says burn their holy books, and this becomes not just a nationwide but worldwide issue, do you think the platform will be let off with a mere warning?
Things have changed, they did use the term top down, in Singapore we all know what top down means. When they demand something you either comply or face the consequences.
So while I disagree with the 'brute force' as you put it being employed, for the time being, this is an approach I think the platform has no choice but to take until it meets the requirements demanded of it by the top.
They also have to show they've taken heed of the 'advice or even warnings' given.

Such brute force action can be then shown to the powers be, hey look, we're also trying our best to meet the requirements you've set.

 

[Yueming]

is it possible to leave digital trail of edits made to a thread/post?

So that intentional mischievous edits can be spotted and user be infracted too?

same for post deletion.
(So users who post nasty comments but intentionally delete them to avoid getting infraction will be punished still)

something that works like MS cloud where every user action is documented with time stamp as well.

 

[Kumar22]

is it possible to leave digital trail of edits made to a thread/post?

So that intentional mischievous edits can be spotted and user be infracted too?

same for post deletion.
(So users who post nasty comments but intentionally delete them to avoid getting infraction will be punished still)

something that works like MS cloud where every user action is documented with time stamp as well.

Should be possible. But damage already done.
The idea I think is what steps are taken to prevent them.