[Forum] Public edit history

[swagfag]

mods probably already have this, but i wish one could inspect a post's edit history, at the very least for registered users

• pros: posts cant be deleted/overwritten
• cons: posts cant be deleted. if u post sensitive info, it stays there

to counter that allow the poster to delete their own threads within, say 1h, provided no one has commented yet
yeah, the sensitive info bit is a bummer, but one should know better than to have posted it in the first place; ask a mod to delete it

[gregster]

I think you should at least describe what you expect from this. If someone changes their posts after someone has answered, it will already be displayed (well, mods can do it without this indicator, even in their own posts - which is not ideal). What they changed, is it really so important in the majority of cases? Which are relevant use case examples from the forum? Where did we really lose valuable information? Usually, people won't empty their posts, if they are reminded that this is against the idea of this forum.

The sensitive info issue should not be dismissed so easily, especially in today's world. We often have several hours without mod acitivity (like when anonymous posts get cleared when they are already on page 2 of the thread listing). On the other hand, useful emptied posts have been restored by admins, although that might not be always possible... I don't know.
On Wikipedia, where you have a version history, it is still possible for the admins to delete sensitive data and even whole versions, but again there you usually have a lot of admins around the clock available which are used to this kind of work. That's why I am rather skeptical, while not really seeing the need for it.

[swagfag]

https://autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic ... 76&t=56917

[gregster]

Yeah, that's what I meant. A beginner, rather hurting himself (of course it can be annoying for a helper, like you - I see the point).
But does the number of cases justify the potential effort of maintaining the (wiki?) software for managing versions?! I have no idea how that would play with our current phpBB board or if this would be already possible now. But let's hear what Tank, joe and others have to say about the potential workload. If they want to do it, I am not totally opposed (not that it would matter )

[Nextron]

On the other hand, useful emptied posts have been restored by admins, although that might not be always possible...

I've previously been able to restore some posts that have been deleted (and lock the post to prevent re-deletion), but that was just because I happened to have the page still open with the original content. The forum doesn't allow me to see revision history.

Looks like there is already a mod for this: https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=2470456
So implementing it will probably be not that complicated, but on the other hand, I guess that each applied mod makes updating the forum itself more difficult? So it needs to be weighed against the frequency of members deleting their content, which is not that much?

[nnnik]

Sadly we do not have such a feature.
It might be necessary for us due to people joining and then turning into spam a few days later.

[jeeswg]

- One disadvantage is that if you edit a big post 100 times, that post would have to be stored 100 times.
- Another disadvantage is that instead of being able to remove things yourself (e.g. accidentally including an email address), you have to ask mods/admins to assist you, and worse still, that can take time.
- It's better for people to be in control of their data, and it's better for people to be self-reliant, and not dependent on others.
- The only advantage would be to recover deleted OPs, however, I've always been aware that people can delete their OPs, and so write my posts to be stand-alone.
- If feasible, you could have a system where old versions of edited posts are stored in a recycle bin for a week.

- Great points gregster. Cheers.

- One thing that is very bad is when the OP deletes their post, and it looks as though the second poster started the post. If possible, if the OP is deleted, the post should be kept (with a meaningful title, and no text, or text that doesn't identify the poster) but with username 'Anon'.

[Nextron]

It looks like the mod I mentioned has those concern covered:
Everybody can still edit its own post to remove 'sensitive' stuff (visible to staff if needed).
Revisions are automatically pruned after a customizable time, so no clogging.
Removed opening post content can be reported so a mod can recover the post, lock it and warn the user,