Jack Dorsey Says Twitter Needs An Edit Function (buzzfeed.com) 75
Twitter is considering an edit function for tweets. In a seemingly impromptu chat on his platform Thursday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey gave hope to those who have long advocated for the feature, telling one user that "a form of edit is def needed" and another that an edit function is something the company is "thinking a lot about." From a report: The demand for an edit button has become something of a meme on Twitter. After seemingly every new Twitter product announcement, many of the platform's users respond with some form of "Yes, but still no edit button?" Meanwhile the feature has become standard in competing platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
Hmm... familiar (Score:5, Funny)
What other platform do we know of that needs an odit feature? Let me think... let me think...
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What other platform do we know of that needs an odit feature? Let me think... let me think...
Twitter supports Unicode, what are they complaining about?
Ya, but you should see their "beta" interface.
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I gave up wishing for an edit feature here before Twitter was even founded.
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I gave up wishing for an edit feature here before Twitter was even founded.
It's called "Preview" and if you don't use that opportunity to review and edit, then that's on you. Perhaps it would be easier for Twitter to support previewing than post-submit editing and make it an optional feature controlled by a profile setting.
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The preview feature here didn't start until way after Twitter was even founded so my timeline is still correct. :/
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Fuck you. You post it, you own it.
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ha hah ahaha glorious
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As for an "edit" button for twits. That's about as stupid as a "recall" button for email m
Re:Hmm... familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
To be honest, I just couldn't resist the obvious tie-in joke. I'm actually fine without an edit button here on Slashdot. While I occasionally wish I could take back a dumb mistake I missed while proofreading, adding an edit feature also introduces a significant problem of replying to mutable content. Then to fix that, you have to add other hacks, like flags to show the post was edited, a history to show what was edited, notifying posters who replied in case the content changed, and so on. Ultimately, it's probably a lot more trouble than its worth.
Editing is even more problematic for a push service, as you mentioned, whether it's recalling e-mails or editing tweets.
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So would be changing the Slashdot background to pink. But that would be even more trouble than it's worth.
Technical implementation complexity being low does not mean doing it would be overall positive. That's what the GP was pointing out. The net result would be harder to read discussions on Slashdot, due to complex parallel edit history of comment threads that would result from such a simple change.
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Certainly not this site, as it completely ruins commenting if comments can be made to look bad by editing the shoot-from-the-hip post they commented on.
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Certainly not this site, as it completely ruins commenting if comments can be made to look bad by editing the shoot-from-the-hip post they commented on.
You could reasonably have an edit feature here if it were locked out from the moment another user hits reply. If that user's comment form times out without saving and without anyone else replying, then you could unlock edit again. I still don't think it's a good idea (there is preview, if you care whether your comments are correctly edited them, edit during preview) but it could be done.
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Just grant the user a 5 minute grace within which to edit - I've plenty of occasions I'd spy my error right as I hit save. An immediate edit would fix that, without allowing trolling posts to switch out content.
Twitter would need to extend that to retweets though, and probably a few other conditions (I don't use twitter, so no clue)
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If you want a 5 minute grace period, just delay the Submit button by 5 minutes.
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Editable till replied to seems reasonable to me.
If someone replies while you're editing then it sucks to be you.
There needs to be a time limit, and "Edited" flag. (Score:5, Insightful)
There needs to be a time limit for editing tweets. Five minutes is good. This keeps someone from going back and changing what they said long after they said it.
There also needs to be a flag that tells people that the tweet was edited. This prevents modifying a tweet after people have already agreed with it, etc.
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Another option is to show the final, edited tweet as the default, but then show what the original(s) was/were by clicking on a history button. That way everyone can present their intended content as the default (e.g. fixing typos or punctuation), but it won't let someone completely alter their content and meaning with the intent to deceive.
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Basefuck users won't click a ''history'' button. They'll think it's about nights in amour and romance unmpires and the pogrom farters and all that shit.
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Romance umpires? You're both making less sense than usual and far more entertainer than usual, so ... carry on, I guess.
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who cares about them?
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So just like Facebook does it?
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Highlight replies, retweets and likes that occur before any edit, so its obvious to observers without any interaction required that the reply, retweet or like was for a version other than the "All Jews must die!" a tweet was later edited to.
If an edit is substantial or (and here is one for all you machine learning junkies out there) changes the context of the tweet ("I like kittens" becomes "the Jews deserved the holocaust"), then perhaps also notify anyone who has interacted with that tweet by means of r
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Or just lock it once anyone replies, forwards, refucks it or whatever.
If you make a typhoo odds are you'll spot it within 30 seconds.
Oh, bugger!
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Don't allow likes, etc during edit window (Score:2)
There needs to be a time limit for editing tweets. Five minutes is good. This keeps someone from going back and changing what they said long after they said it. There also needs to be a flag that tells people that the tweet was edited. This prevents modifying a tweet after people have already agreed with it, etc.
Don't allow likes, replies, forwarding, etc during the edit window.
Or cancel/delete any likes, replies, forwarding, etc when an edit occurs, basically deter editing. If the original content changes the feedback should be removed. Yes, this can be abused but it seems less troublesome than letting feedback persist after an edit. Maybe notify the replier and if they care they could check the edited original and restore their feedback if they still care too. This would let them call out someone who completel
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You then get replies pointing to nothing. Fucking retarded idea.
With no edit button... (Score:5, Insightful)
With no edit button, you have to *think* before you post, and own up to your mistakes. It isn't surprising that people are clamoring for edit.
NO EDIT BUTTON! (Score:1)
If I have second thoughts about something I tweeted I delete it.
If I feel the need to edit, I do the following: click on the tweet, Copy it, delete it, and then paste into a new message, making edits I feel necessary.
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Exactly! If people can't be bothered to proof-read a mere 140 characters before clicking the Tweet button, then they don't deserve an edit facility. Get it right the first time, or delete it and repost. Sadly, though, reading what one has typed before clicking a button is a rare thing these days. Too many people seem not to have figured out that they are judged by the quality of what they write. Bad writing allows me to infer that you're an uneducated dimwit. At least it's a good way of identifying rubbish
Something is broken... (Score:2)
Would be fun! (Score:3)
If the retweets would update, it could prove quite humorous for a day or two.
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"Retweet if Hitler did nothing wrong!", obviously.
Great idea. (Score:1)
Why not have voting with an edit function, too?
DevOps hates this one weird trick! (Score:3)
And email too! (Score:2)
When is gmail going to get an edit function? Maybe twitter actually needs draft tweets? Seems better than allowing to change the history of a conversation, no?
Seriously, if there's no edit but people are still clamouring for it, maybe a bit of education could go a long way helping them understand the difference between a blog and twitter. Oh, and reviewing up to 140 chars doesn't take that much effort.
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No edit (Score:2)
If anything, most or all social media platforms should prevent editing. People need to learn that there are consequences to saying things in public.
Maybe if people had to live with the embarrassment of saying stupid things, they'd say fewer stupid things.
=Smidge=
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Completely unrealistic (Score:1)
What Twitter needs (Score:3)
...is simply to be disconnected.
That way, all the people tweeting stupid shit can pretend the rest of the universe cared about their idiotic crap, but then we don't actually have to read it, and they are in fact safe from the logical consequences of their inane comments.
Everybody wins.
Twitter doesn't need an edit button! (Score:2)
an edit function (Score:2)
What Twitter needs most is an edit function applied to its top management.