So have a checkbox that lets you flag an edit as minor, so spelling corrections/etc that won't bump the post, and only allow for an edit to bump the post if it's the last message in the thread.
Either that, or do away with the no-double-posting guideline; either way it's not really fair that someone trying to be polite and not double-post might never have their edits noticed
Hmm, I dunno. Having people double post any time they think of something they want to add would get... obnoxious. I like the check box idea better.
But yeah... I edit my posts not infrequently, if I'm still the last person to have posted... I wouldn't want it to be "called out" every single time I make a change. Especially if I'm just correcting a typo or my grammar.
How about allowing an Edit reason and only bump when this has been filled in? (I think we have one for mod edits, not sure about regular ones. I'll check after writing this. Edit: Nope, we don't)
Of course, we'd have to discourage people bumping by putting 'typo edit' as the reason, but even then the bump would be very soon after the initial post.
People adding additional info or reformatting their wall of text will take longer to edit their post and at the same time their bump will have a better reason.
An alternative could be an automatic timestamp on edits that includes whether the topic got bumped or not. This way we can easily spot necro'ed threads.
This is kinda long, but it's to explain why I asked for the feature.
When I'm asking for dev advice/help, a lot of times the more answers I get, the more questions I think of, and unfortunately they just don't come to me all at once. So if I reply to the ever-helpful people in the forums (y'all are AWESOME!) to say thank you, because it would be horribly impolite not to, and then a while later I run into another question on the same topic, then I'm stuck with this problem:
If I post my question in the same thread, it's double-posting, but starting a new thread on the same topic would be even more egregious, so I'm stuck with no way to get my new question noticed other than hoping someone out there will come back into the thread despite it not being flagged, and once there, will actually notice the edit.
I well-maintained forums, and it's obvious Laura and the others spend inordinate amounts of time on CC. But when I'm in the middle of a coding frenzy and stuck needing an answer I can't figure out, the frustration is just too overwhelming to be left without a way to get help!
I suppose I could get therapy instead...but asking for the feature seemed a lot cheaper/easier. And I don't really WANT to be cured of my coding obsession!
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Optimist: the glass is half full.
Pessimist: the glass is half empty.
Engineer: the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
A quick solution to that would be deleting your last post and making a new one. Don't do this on threads that are already really old though! And also don't do it to bump threads just because noone answered yet. If noone answers then noone really knows.
Another thing to try would be formulating your new question in a more general topic about the particular issue. This way it could be more helpful to others too!
I agree that forums can a bit frustrating when you want answers now, but they're still supposed to be a slow form of communication.
Funny how quickly we've gotten used to having instant answers at our fingertips...I remember when the only way to get information you couldn't find yourself was to call the library and ask them to look it up for you. And when you ordered stuff it took 6-8 weeks to arrive. Gotta say, I like instant a lot better.
It hadn't occurred to me to delete and repost. If that's acceptable practice here, I can totally do that! I'll have to give CC Chat a try, too.
Thanks for all the great suggestions!
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Optimist: the glass is half full.
Pessimist: the glass is half empty.
Engineer: the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
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