How about enabling post editing?

[Garylisk]

What if I hit post and then am like "Oh crap, I forgot to say something in there!!!"

I shoudl be able to edit the post to put what I forgot in.

Or maybe I forgot to proofread it, etc...

Or maybe a link I put in the post is screwed up for some reason.

I shouldn't have to make a whole new reply just to fix the link/correct my mistake/add a tought etc...

It's true that that's the reason there's a "preview" button, but I usually don't preview my messages.. I give them the once over with my eyes in the text box and then his "submit" heh.

As for post deletion, I don't see why it's turned off. For example, what if someone is bitching and makes a real ass of themselves. shouldn't they be able to delete the post and apologise.. or just delete the post and not say anything, hoping nobody saw it. This happens more often than you might think

Anyway, point being, own post modification good. own post deletion, probably a good idea.

[Phade]

Hey,

I'm a little weary of allowing editing and deleting. It allows people to think less before posting a message. If the poster knows that they cannot edit or delete their post, they will (or at least should) take more time in considering if the post is correct. If people learn to think about what they are asking and saying, they will become better communicators. For some people, it taks a little "looking stupid" for it to sink in.

Phade.

[AbsoluteDestiny]

I think the only thing I'd ever really use it for the following situations:

• Posted incorrect url or messed up some html tags
• Made a forum miniguide (which I'm hoping to do more of) and wanted to update links/info etc
• Accidentally made the topic too long and it got clipped
• Some other reasons I can't think of

I agree that the editing isn't a good thing in terms of retracting statements, changing your position on a subject or even just rephrasing things but it can be really useful if you have made a glaring error that you didn''t spot and would like to fix it.

[BogoSort]

Just because it's easy to post for online forums doesn't mean that people don't need to put out thought into what they are posting. Too often I have seen people churn out poorly thought out emails and posts to forums. The idea that when you click submit, and the post is permanant is a good thought to grind into people's minds, as it insures that the post is something that the author actually wanted to send, rather than an impassioned flame about some random topic.

Now if someone were working on an online guide of somesort, and had need to change some of the information in it, the mechanism is setup in phpbb to allow phade(and other people with that level of access) to edit and modify threads within a particular forum or thread, and I think they can handle that on a case by case basis.

[rubyeye]

I agree with Phade. I don't think you should allow for editing of posts. Think of it like verbal communication. Spelling mistakes aside, you can't simply erase what you just heard (or read). This is more of a spur-of-the-moment, what's on your mind response to someone's comments or questions.

Kind of like what I'm doing here.