h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just putting the subject title back while I am waiting.

Spoilsport!

I think people are getting too hung up on the title Social Network and then saying "no no no h2g2 is so much more than that" well it is, but it is also a social network too. And for a lot of people, that really is all it is.

If you think the moderation is tough here, on Facebook it's brutal. I got banned after someone hacked my account and sent out millions of messages from my a/c. Emailed queries got nowhere and even my IP was logged so I couldn't rejoin.

Like Mr D, I think an "edit" function is well past due and don't find much persuasive in the arguments I've read against it, seems like a lot of worrying frankly but the chief concern appears to some errant trouble-maker saying something deliberately rude or offensive or personal and then getting rid of it, and playing innocent.

Okay fine, I can see that. I think the obvious solution to that is to keep a sever record of the original posts and subsequent edits for a period longer than the limited period permitted for editing ( say 2 days to cover weekends), which in case of disputes the eds can pull up and see what was originally written.

Meanwhile everyone else who wants to play by the rules can tweak and modify what they write after they've originally posted it, but only for the limited window.

That to me makes sense. And that's my argument for why we should have an edit function.

Yeah, but h2g2 really *is* so much more than social networking. It's (as has been mentioned) a community, I don't see much sense of community on Farcebook.

And I thought of this on the bus home from w*rk: if your argument hinges on the notion that someone might abuse it, you might as well argue against there being an internet at all.

I'm not so sure that there aren't communities on fb - I'm a member of a couple of study groups and they work extremely well as communities.

I'd be a vote against an edit function, unless there was a very small window to use it (perhaps until the message had been replied to)

Facebook certainly *does* have communities. You can join whichever ones you like and ignore those you don't. You can make up your own rules as you go along, eg negotiating how you behave with different groups of people. I've not given it a go yet, but doubtless Google+ will be much the same. Much like Real Life in many ways.

Other Communities seem to want to run themselves as though they were Poundbury.

I do not want to see an edit function on hootoo.

But, if there is to be one, I think any edited post should have the line 'This post has been edited by the author' in a protected footer. This would stop trolls being all innocent-like when challenged; they'd have to explain what they edited out.

I must be joining all the wrong groups then... all I get are messages from said groups and each response is separate from all the others (trolling and responding-to-trolling aside), there's no conversation or people making friends (that I know of). Not what I'd call a community.

It's a fair point. There's less opportunity to rub up against random people. Not *no* opportunity - but less. The obvious advantage is greater ability to avoid some community members. How many of you would Friend me on Facebook? (Go on...be honest! )

What I'm really poking my stick at is the idea of Community as a bunch of people with Common Values sharing in a Common Endeavour (and a Noble one at that).

Its just these guys, you know?

Also, Google+ is totally better than Farcebook. At the moment. Once it's fully live and everyone can join it'll be exactly the same.

Maybe we have different ideas of "community". I mean somewhere you can hang out and have lovely conversation with lovely people and otherwise do things that enrich your life. I don't get that from Facebook, it's a tool I use to keep in touch with people in between the times I am hanging out with them and otherwise doing things with them that enrich my life.

You mean a 'Club'?

Nothing wrong with that. But why refer to 'Club Rules' as 'Community Standards'?

I gotta club. 's gotta nail in.

I shall consider myself bludgeoned. In the nicest possible way.

Err.I moderate a site that has some 20,000+ members.

We are pretty strict being a family forum.

However everyone can delete or edit their posts within 30 minutes of posting which does give folk a chance to 'reconsider'. Something I really long for at times here

WE don't allow spam,rude links(YouTube or not),swearing and abuse of other members.Eventually even the clever trolls trip up.

We have an infraction system with stepped level warnings for misbehaviour and breaking of the T&Cs.Eventually after enough infraction points are obtained then the member is permanently banned.The latter hasn't happened while I've been moderating incidentally.

We do allow them to report a post(not hide it though-that gives too much power)Something that perhaps kea could have done with in her annoyance with Ed.Though posts will be deleted if it's deemed necessary.

One way to get in trouble is to publicly challenge a moderating decision(but then we do have private messaging and they can then plea bargain against punishment).

Having seen the other side of moderating a forum site I can say that if it's done right the members barely notice any moderating.

As my FP entry indicates, Groups can occur on FB, and our group meet monthly, and also interact photographically if an 'event' arises.

As to an edit button? Could be useful as it would save P.P.R. and we've all suffered that, at some point.

Personally, as I use it so rarely, I'd say it's not important and if introduced, only able to work on the Poster's last post. If another post follows, it stays.

Otherwise:

'Oy, you deleted your comment, now I look like I'm making stuff up!!'

on

MMF

I concur with the general concensus, maybe a 5-minute edit window, but not if another post has already landed. One can always clarify what they meant to say in subsequent posts ...

I think 5 minutes is a bit short, but definitely agree with the edit function being disabled once a new post has been made (actually, I think I already suggested that, but it was ignored).

A forum I'm a member (well, lurker) has a similar thing, limited time to edit and no editing at all once a new post has been made. The very nature of the forum is openness and honesty so it seems to work... I've only used it myself to correct crimes against grammar.

I was thinking of commenting but thought Nah, it'll be edited before I get there.