Fair Report / General Post Editing Times

[Bill Edwards]

Dear All

A suggestion was recently made to the Forum Panel that the time available to edit Funfair Reports should be increased from the current five days to cover the period of the fair.

Generally speaking, editing time in message forums is measured in minutes - a short time to cover typos, spelling and layout problems. As we can only set one edit time, and there is a need to be able to edit reports, our edit time has been set much higher than I would like (5 days). However a very small number of members have used the extended edit time to backtrack on their general posts or to destroy threads.

The problem was to find a way of increasing Funfair Report editing time, but leaving (or reducing) the general edit time.

I have found a solution that works and from now on members will be able to edit their own funfair reports for all the time that they are in the Current Funfair Report Forum. As reports aren't moved to the archive until after the fair has finished, this gives members the opportunity to edit their reports for as long as the fair is still on.

However, to be able to edit their own reports, I have to give each member the necessary permissions. This is a manual process. I have added the 87 members who submitted reports this year, so they will now be able to edit. I will watch the incoming reports and add any member who doesn't currently have the necessary permission. If you find that you have a report in the Current Funfair Reports Forum that you cannot edit, I have missed you - please send me a Private Message and I will sort as soon as I am able.

The panel then discussed what the general edit time outside of the reports forum should be. In my own personal opinion the edit time should be 10 minutes - enough to cover typos, spelling and layout mistakes. However a vote by the panel decided that the general edit time should be one hour.

From now on, once you have submitted a post you will have one hour to edit your post. If there is a problem with your post after this time you should click the "Report" button which will bring the post to the attention of the Moderator Team who will make any necessary changes for you. Unless there are exceptional circumstances Moderators will only correct typo, spelling and layout errors, not content.

We will review this change in policy in a month, and if necessary consider changing the available edit time again.

All The best

Bill

[Gary Witcomb]

For the members who post Fair Reports on a regular basis this change is a major one, and one many of you have commented on in the past

So from know on we have control over our own Fair Reports and can continue to add / correct as necessary for the life of the Event

Which has to be a good thing and hopefully it will keep Fair Reports in a readable order, and if members want to Discuss the fair report they can do so by simply posting in the General Forum were it can be discussed

It may also encourage members who have stopped posting Fair Reports, to restart again due to this change in policy lets hope so