Tex

[JLH]

I don't seem to have an edit button now. I think someone else mentioned the same thing.......

[Gloria]

Whatever are we going to do with you? Did you really think that my memory is so bad that I wouldn't notice that you edited your earlier post to make it match your last response? That's exactly why most discussion board administrators do not allow editing of posts, after a certain amount of time, or after someone has responded, but I thought that we were above that sort of thing, on this board. Members of this board have privileges that they wouldn't have on most other discussion boards, because we consider ourselves to be a family, here. I also removed the ability of the system to post that annoying message that appears on most php boards, announcing when someone has edited a post, and how often they have edited it, because I consider that to be unnecessary clutter, which detracts from the information available in the posts. Unfortunately, that casual policy has a downside, also, which you have just demonstrated, so I have reluctantly removed the option to edit "prior" posts.

This was written on January 18 by Tex. He asked for us to give our opinions about keeping the Edit and/or Delete buttons. This was addressed in this post: http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewt ... c&start=30

I was not feeling well enough to articulate my opinion, so here it is: I think editing should be allowed, but deleting should not. Some sites allow deletion prior to a response being posted, but not after. That makes sense to me, but I don't know how difficult it would be to set up the distinction.

Gloria

[tex]

Joan and Gloria,

Joe also made that suggestion, in a PM, and to save some writing, I've copied my response to him, below:

Originally, the scenario that you suggested was an option, and posts could be edited until someone else responded. After many hundreds of code modifications, though, somewhere along the line, that capability was lost, (or rather preempted by one of the MODs that were installed, and since I was allowing unlimited editing privileges all this time, I have absolutely no idea when/where it happened. Therefore, in order to correct that issue, we would have to start over with a plain vanilla board, with no bells and whistles, and reinstall as many of the MODS as I could locate again, and find time to add.

This board uses phpBB2 code, which was abandoned by the developers, a couple of years ago, when phpBB3 was finally released. IOW, this code is "mature", and no longer supported. phpBB3 is claimed to be better, more secure, etc., but about a year after it was released, someone hacked into the phpBB3 developers site, and managed to create enough havoc to make it obvious that he could do pretty much anything he wanted to do with the site, and he published a bunch of their "secure" files on a blog, in order to prove it. Therefore, I'm not totally convinced that it's as secure as they think it is, and when one upgrades, all modifications are lost, (all the current bells and whistles), and "downgrading" back to phpBB2 is not possible, once an upgrade is made. Obviously, there are MODs available for phpBB3, also, (that can be installed later), but some of my favorites, that are used on this board, are not available, and there's no way of telling if/when they will ever be.

Another problem with phpBB3 is that it is much more complex, (less intuitive), code, and guys like me, who can "get by" as "shade tree code mechanics" with phpBB2, are pretty much out of luck with phpBB3, because while it is a more sophisticated programming language, it is not near as easy to tinker with, by someone who is not a formally-trained programmer. Anyway, for all those reasons, that's why I've never made the upgrade to phpBB3. (I'm gettin' too old to be learning new languages. Laughing )

By the way, I'm not the only reprobate who refused to upgrade to phpBB3 when it was released - there are a bunch of us in this situation, who didn't like the way the old code was abandoned, and who didn't want to give up all their hard work installing bells and whistles, so they/we stuck with phpBB2.

From a practical standpoint, though, if one were going to go back to a plain vanilla board, and start over, it seems more logical to switch to phpBB3, than to start over with obsolete code. Soooooooo, maybe it's time to start thinking about upgrading. shrug I keep thinking that some day, they will get all the bugs out of the new version, and someone will get around to writing most of the MODs that were so popular with the older code version.

Upgrading will change the appearance of the board, of course, but not drastically, except for the loss of all the bells and whistles. Of course, most members probably aren't even aware of even a tenth of the "embellishments" that have been added, anyway. Any thoughts?

I don't remember if I mentioned this in that post, so you may or may not be aware of this, but last year, one of our members went off the deep end, one weekend, and either deleted or edited out all of his posts, (numbering in the hundreds, I believe). He got all bent out of shape because he thought that we weren't bending over backwards hard enough, trying to help him, when in fact, many of us had spent many, many hours trying to help him, and pleading with him, for a couple of years, to change his diet. He ignored all those attempts, of course, and continued to trust the advice of his doctors, and when it finally dawned on him that they weren't going to solve his problems, he got PO'd at us, and destroyed all his posts. You've probably noticed some of those posts, when searching the archives, because they simply contain the word "gone".

After devoting a lot of thought to this, I've decided that preempting individual integrity issues is not worth the inconvenience to everyone else. Soooooooo, when I have more time, later today, I'm going to restore the edit option. I'm usually able to download a backup of the database on a weekly basis, anyway, (unless my internet connection is acting up), so if some malcontent should do serious harm to the database, by means of wholesale editing, I could always restore the previous backup, (though that would probably be a huge chore, since the database is getting to be quite substantial). Of course, we would lose all posts made since that backup, but if that situation arises, I'd have to weigh the options, and choose the lessor of two evils.

Tex

[MaggieRedwings]

Tes,

You are the MAN!!!!!!

What you decide is 110% fine with me.

Love, Maggie

[TooManyHats]

As Maggie said, whatever you decide. I just get all nutty when I can see an error in my typing and have no way to correct it. It's the transcriptionist in me. Progress, not perfection, what can I say?

[tex]

As Maggie said, whatever you decide. I just get all nutty when I can see an error in my typing and have no way to correct it.

I'm the same way, and since so many people with MC seem to be perfectionists, (or at least, they were perfectionists before MC realigned their priorities), an "edit" button seems to be almost as important as a toilet.

I don't believe I missed any, but if anyone should come across any forum here where they're unable to edit their posts, please let me know.

Tex

[Kari]

Tex - how very true

Love,
Kari

[Robbie]

I don't think I've ever used the edit function, but it's nice to know it's there. However, whatever you provide for us will work for me

And thanks, Tex, for all you do!

[harma]

As Maggie said, whatever you decide. I just get all nutty when I can see an error in my typing and have no way to correct it. It's the transcriptionist in me.

exactly!!! Especially since English is not my first language, makes me feel sooo stupid!!

yes the "edit" is working again (this sentence was added with the edit)

[hoosier1]

Tex,

My brain-fogged, dyslexic posts thank you for bringing back edit :)

Rich

[ant]

Dear Tex,

Thanks for all the wonderful tech support as well as every other support you give. I agree with your point about new software not being all it's cracked up to be.

I hate the new versions of PowerPoint that 'do everything for you'. I had much more creative flexibility with the version ten years ago.

Best ant

[tex]

Ant,

Ain't that the truth? So many companies take perfectly good products, (not just software), and continually "improve" them, until they suck. A lot of software eventually becomes so unwieldy, that it turns into "bloatware", and it fills your computer's hard drive with unnecessary "garbage", and slows it down. The sad part is, as you mentioned, just because they become more sophisticated, doesn't mean that they are more versatile, or even more useful. I find myself using more and more freeware these days, because it gets the job done easier, and faster, and without all the "bloat".

Look at this discussion board, as a prime example. We started with a nice, simple board, that was svelte and responsive. I've added so much "junk", over the years, that it's now much slower, and filled with a lot of bells and whistles that few members actually use. I reckon it's a natural process of evolution.

Tex