There have been a few occasions where I think of something to add to a PM, or in review of what I sent I catch an error I would have liked to have corrected. How about an Edit feature for PMs that have not yet been read by its recipients? Once the message is read by anyone it was sent to, the feature locks out (people are unlikely to read the same PM twice, after all, and it curbs any possible abuse).

Or you could just send an additional PM with anything new or changed from your first PM. You can just save a copy of the original PM, edit that and send that as an edited message. You'd still be doing the same amount of work and the recipient will still get the same amount of information, just that one version is edited.

That's what I have to do already. The problem is that it fills up both people's PM limit faster and causes the 10-history bug to enter the scene sooner.

Plus, sometimes the edit you want to make is just so your message reads easier, and thus doesn't really warrant a full reprint.

Or what about we just use the super awesome all mighty preview function?

I see Corbo talking to Farty! How much do you PM? It's not that huge of a problem, and I bet adding an edit feature for PMs is a lot more trouble than it's worth.

eventually i want to include an unsend function if the pm hasn't been read yet (amongst other things)

Dear Corbo:
If the Preview button were really the be-all end-all, we wouldn't need an Edit function for forum posts, would we?


Dear IsolatedPurity:
Cool, an unsend feature would suffice for editing (though it'd be a little clumsy on that front).

No, but the preview buttons is there for you to check if you made an stupid mistake and so.
IMO you should always re-read whatever you write in the textbox, after you do it you may or may not use the preview function, for PMs I always like using it. And if after that you still have mistakes to fix you fix them because you just previewed and send the PM or you can preview again to check for mistakes for the fourth time.
If after all that process you still have mistaked and you send a PM you just.... "quadruple" fail.
I'm saying this because I actually have pretty good looking list of things that I have found that are a must and need to be done instead of a PM edit function that would only suck in coding time from our beloved admins rather than be really THAT useful.

Another stupid and useless suggestion to add to the already long list of more important things that have yet to be done. Thanks.

Dear Corbo:
I believe it's up to the coder, such as IsolatedPurity, to determine the order of priority. Attempting to shoot down an idea just because you fear it'll detract time from the features that you want is not a strong reason.

It is the coder's choice, I couldn't agree more with you. And I don't fear it will detract time from the coder, I'm pretty damm sure it will.

And it's not features I want unlike your petition here which is something you want. They are actual issues and problems that they deserve to be fixed and not because I want it that way.
As much as I'd love to point them out here to make you shut up (yes I have evil thought what a surprise, eh?) I'm better with just telling IP personally. It involves many problems on why people are hating the DLDB (specially modders), a wiki revision and so...
Mike (yoshi) would know how useful I'm at doing revisions, I did one for the the maplantis DB and it turned out pretty useful.
People use more and need more real actual features rather than edit PM system.

;o

And yeah, Corbo, I think we all know you are right about the more pressing issues. At the very least, I do

Dear IsolatedPurity:
Good to see you posting again. =o)

---

Dear Devilesk:
Should I apologize then for making a suggestion? With an attitude like that, stagnation is assured.

---

Dear Corbo:
Right, because the coder is incapable of making his own decisions? Please explain how that sentence is supposed to make sense.



You had never defined what these things were nor linked to such a list, yet your sentence made it pretty clear who it was focused around.

As for this being something I want, it's merely a suggestion. I'll certainly defend the idea, but I can survive without it. I'm not mucking through other people's suggestions, saying my list is more important than their suggestion and as such should be dropped.

Your list may very well have many pertinent features and fixes, but that isn't the point. The entire argument is senseless. Do you have no faith in IsolatedPurity's intelligence and coding knowledge that you feel you need to protect him by bum rushing suggested chrome features?

Any developer worth his salt has a fair idea of what takes priority and can gauge the amount of work each item will require. Essential and quick features and fixes will generally be at the top.

If my idea was easy enough to implement, such as applying the existing post-editing architecture onto the PM system, it might see the light of day. If not, I’d imagine at best it’d be filed at the bottom of more crucial changes. As far as I can tell, only IsolatedPurity is qualified to make that call, as he coded the PM system and would know better than anyone how feasible any features would be for his system.

Here’s my point: You are creating a false dilemma. "We can have either all these imperative alterations, or your PM editing." This 'logic' ignores one crucial fact: No timeframe was placed on implementing this idea. Instead of arguing the merits of the idea itself, you dismiss it on the notion of this false dilemma.



Which only indicates to me that you do not understand what the issue is. *points above*

As a developer myself, I don’t care how big my list of changes gets, I’m always interested in hearing new ideas. I may not use any of them, but that’s not what is important. Ideas stimulate the mind, propelling you to think in new ways. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. No, what is truly stupid (to use Devilesk's favored word) is beating down a suggestion.



That is a one-dimensional perspective on what editing can be, and is, used for. Editing is not just for correcting technical mistakes like spelling, grammar, or punctuation.

Sometimes when you re-read something you wrote an hour later, with fresh eyes, you catch things that your brain had just naturally overlooked at the time. Sometimes you realize you weren’t quite clear in the way you phrased something, or need to expand on a concept to get the idea across.

Sometimes you write with incomplete information, and when revealed you realize your mistake. Sometimes you might write while in an emotional state, and upon calming down wish you could take back what was said. If the message hadn’t been read yet, it’d still be possible.

Sometimes you think of something more or new to add, and want to present yourself in a cohesive manner. Yes, you could just write another message, but there are technical limits on the amount of PMs a person is allowed to have.

Personally, I’ve been doing a lot of brainstorming with DoA on FireGraft and modding, and a lot of ideas fly around.

Most reasons you can think of to edit your forum posts can be applied to editing your PMs. No, it’s not a desperately needed feature, but it is one that can be handy every now and again, one that you may not realize how useful it is until you actually have it and can take it for granted.



There is never a time where I don’t proof. Surely the technical quality of my posts indicate that much to you. Now, if you’re speaking to a general audience, we both know that isn’t going to happen with everyone, and even so no one is perfect. No matter how many times I proof, I can still find faults and tweak my writing. In the end, though, these are just forum posts, and at best are of draft quality. We aren’t here to write publishable novels (for the most part, I can’t speak for everyone, but you get the idea).

Again, to reiterate, PM editing is not just for correcting typos. *points above*



As for the Preview button, as useful as it is for quickly double-checking your BB code and formatting, I’ve encountered too many instances where I lose my entire post. I’m to a point where unless the post is long enough to justify opening Word and working from there, I just want to get my post recorded in the database and edit it after the fact.

1. If the browser doesn’t think you’re in the text field, despite a blinking entry line, backspace acts as the Back button. Boom, instant loss from an attempted correction.

2. If you hit Ctrl-Z instead of Ctrl-X, A, C, V, etc, it’ll Undo some or all of your typing with no Redo command to fall back on.

3. Internet goes down as you submit. (Ctrl+A and C to back it up on the clipboard – oops, hit Ctrl-Z! Dammit!)

4. Plenty of others, from crashing to power failure. Word is usually your friend, but often times you don’t intend on writing a long enough post to warrant loading it up. In the end, post then edit is a quick way to work in safety.



Now see what you’ve gone and done? I’ve been intentionally keeping myself brief in this thread (which makes that comment stick out as an oddity – seems you’ve retained a bit of resentment from prior threads), but when it became clear my simplified points weren’t being fully understood, I had to break out the monolithic paragraphs of exposition.

You have only yourself to blame for this now. =oP

What do you mean? If there is undo there is obviously redo.

It's not too difficult to click into your text field, hit ctrl-A, then ctrl-C, I almost always do this before making a long post.

Dear Hercanic:
The main problem with this idea is; If the member you are sending a message to is online, and that member reads it seconds after you have send it, the option for editing the message is gone, and you have to send a new message anyway. Also, if you are editing the message when the recipient begins the read the message, there will be an error message saying that the recipient has already read the message so you would have to send a brand new message anyway.

I have not seen a site with the option to edit personal messages before reading them, before. Neither have I seen e-mails allowing you to do so. I'm guessing that that is the reason as to why they don't have it; There is a unknown time for editing the message between you sending the message and the recipient reading the message. Although this idea is a little original, I don't really see it being too convenient.

Now to let you know of the current features that are very helpful for this type of situation.

1) There is a "Save Draft" option when you are writing a message. So you can save the message, go do something else, and come back to it. Which is exactly what I did with this post. I wrote it in my notepad, went to work. Then came back for lunch, finished it, and posted it.

2) There is also a "Delete Sent Messages" feature so you can delete your sent PM's. So that it doesn't: "fill up both people's PM limit faster and causes the 10-history bug to enter the scene sooner." It just fills up the recipients, but the recipient may delete the messages in their inbox too! So I wouldn't worry too much about taking up too much space.


Save Draft on the left of the Preview button.

This topic would have fit much better as a post in: http://www.staredit.net/topic/2177/

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 2 2008, 5:38 pm by Matt Burch.

Matt Bunch:
old aol let you unsend emails.
And I have seen some forum systems that let you edit unread pm's.





edit: oh a possibility for editing is to edit it whether it was read or not, mark the message as new, and include something that says the pm was edited
possibly.

A suggestion must be heard before it gets beaten down and beating it down does not stop it from propelling one to think in new ways. Only erasing it completely would do that.

And what you see as "beating down" is considered by others to be valid criticism. Some people want to judge suggestions first before putting them on a list and there's nothing wrong with that.

We are seriously listening to someone thats afraid of hitting undo (and can't find the redo button)...?

I think that this idea is pointless. There is a preview button for a reason. If you have some typos, I seriously doubt that one couldn't guess what the word meant, unless you really spelled it wrong. There is no need to unsend a PM. If you say something to someone and you want to take it back after you said it, oh well. You should have thought of that in the first place. "Look before you jump."

Its extra stuff that really has no point.