On editing one’s own comments
Frequently, when a comment-poster here on EricDSnider.com realizes he has made an error, he will come back and post a new comment correcting it, while also lamenting the fact that we have no “edit” feature on the site. If he could edit his previous comment, he wouldn’t have to post the follow-up correcting it!
Sometimes these lamentations are expressed in such a way as to imply that there are many, many sites that allow user comments which also enable users to come back and edit their comments, and that EricDSnider.com is merely behind the times.
We would love to implement this feature here. If you know of a site where this is done, please point us in that direction so we can copy their system.
I personally do not know of any such sites. Every site I know of that lets you edit your own comments is also a site that requires you to register in order to post comments in the first place.
We don’t want that system. We like the current system, where anyone can post, on a whim, without having to register a user name and password first. And under that system, I am not aware of any way of letting the posters edit their comments after the fact. If you’ve seen a site that does it, lemme know.
(Of course, it is also possible that when posters express frustration over our lack of a self-edit feature, they are fully aware that such a thing is not common and that their desires fall under the category of Wishful Thinking, similar to “I wish this site rewarded me with cash every time I visited!” or “I wish this site caused my computer to give off a lemony fresh scent!” In that case, I wholeheartedly agree that it would be awesome.)
August 30th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
A nefarious person could do some magnificent trolling with the ability to edit comments. If you ever figure it out, you’ll need a time limit on the edits, after which the post becomes frozen. I’ve seen that before, and it works very well. (The time limit can be set based on the expected time to a post’s response. Sites that only trickle comments can set it rather high.)
If you want to do this, what you need more than anything is some kind of unique, shared secret between your site and the poster. It can even be supplied by the poster at the time of posting and be different for every post, so the email address you require upon posting might be sufficient. (You may even consider a user-supplied passphrase. A brower’s autocomplete feature would keep it from becoming cumbersome.) If you’ve got one of those, there’s no reason it couldn’t be done - from a security standpoint.
August 30th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
“One of those” meaning “unique, shared secret between your site and the poster” of course. Stupid lack of edit functionality…
August 30th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
There’s a few WordPress plugins out there that allow the author to edit their comment. All of the ones I’ve seen use IP-matching to determine who the original author is and then allow you a certain amount of time (usually 15 minutes) to make the corrections.
This one appears to be rather popular too: AJAX Edit Comments
August 30th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I believe it should be possible to allow users to register (which could then allow them to edit their own comments) without restricting commenting to registered users. Or people could just review their comments a little better before hitting “Submit Comment.”
August 30th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I think the reason that the other sites make you log in is so that they can control which posts you can edit - otherwise, anyone could edit a post. Can you do something where you would have to verify the e-mail address first before you could edit? You don’t show e-mail addresses, so the only person that would know the address would be the original poster.
August 30th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Despite the lack of an edit feature, I like the commenting system how it is. I think registering on the site would discourage random posts, and those are some of the funniest. I mean, I don’t think Amanda Bynes fans would understand how to register, and then how would we find out that they luv amanda cuz she is the best actres and eric is stuppid becuz he doesnt undersand that she is an inspriation and if he treid to be in a movie it would SUCK!!!!
My vote is to keep the non-registering system.
August 30th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Just proofread your comments… editing posts is for dyslexics.
August 31st, 2007 at 5:30 am
Cash is an option?
August 31st, 2007 at 5:38 am
Andrew, I’m dyslexic. Does that mean I will be able to edit and stop proofreading? Sadly, most of my mistakes (at least in posting) are typos and poor spelling.
DYSLEXICX OF THE WORLD UNTIE!
August 31st, 2007 at 7:05 am
I think that using an IP address or cookie would be the only way of doing it. The cookie method may be a bit more secure but it would only work if the user had cookies enabled.
August 31st, 2007 at 8:39 am
I also agree that cookies would be the best way of doing anything. Of course, getting cookies for visiting Eric’s site is probably up there with the lemony fresh scent.
But I think I will make a policy of eating more cookies in general.
August 31st, 2007 at 9:53 am
Are we serious? Lack of editing is a problem for people? We’re talking about random bits of stuff written about random bits of stuff. How could it matter to a person that they misspellleedd a word…
August 31st, 2007 at 10:05 am
[comment edited for clarity]
August 31st, 2007 at 10:27 am
I was kidding about dyslexics. I just don’t see a pressing need for such a feature.
As for you, Eric, stop worrying about the wants of a few and get back to writing jokes.
August 31st, 2007 at 11:46 am
I perfer it without editing. I hate it on sites where you can edit posts where a comment starts a discussion, then someone goes back and removes/edits it and it all becomes incomphriensible. I don’t even care that I probably spelled that wrong.
August 31st, 2007 at 11:46 am
And if spelling is your main concern, Get Firefox! It has spellcheck built right in (humorously, it is currently telling me that “spellcheck” is not a word).
August 31st, 2007 at 1:36 pm
You can always add it to the dictionary.
I think I’ll wet my pants when Firefox adds in a thesaurus feature. There’s probably an extension for it already.
August 31st, 2007 at 2:15 pm
I never knew that was Firefox spell checking words for me. I thought that was some ericdsnider feature. That shows you how much I know about the internet. I know enough to use Firefox, though, so that’s got to count for something.
September 1st, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I wish this site awarded me with cash every time I visited.