It would be SO good if we had the facility to edit posts after they’ve been posted, or to withdraw them, correct them and then repost.

Even after seven and a half years and over 5300 posts on OLO, I STILL suffer from the same excruciating problem –

I proof-read and spell-and-grammar check every post, then proof-read again, and then put up in the preview box and proof-read again…. and then post only after I’m happy that it is error-free. Then read again after posting and …. AAAARRGH …… there is a glaring typo straight away!

This has happened literally hundreds of times! Probably well over a thousand times!

I hate taking the time to write posts and get them right, only to have them corrupted by one little error, often just one letter… which makes all the difference to my OLO experience!

OLO is wonderful. I put many hours into it every week. It is a cut above other online forums.

Yes you see typos all over the place online, in all places that you can put up comments. OLO is no worse than any others.

But nonetheless, it would be SOOO good to be able to have one more tool at one’s disposal in one’s effort to submit good quality posts. A post-posting correction capability or a withdrawal capability within a short time period or before a subsequent post is put up would do the trick very nicely.

Yes, I agree.

One option, i think it is on Roar, is to have a 5-10 minute period to make a correction. This probably best option to stop people writing anything with less thought to controlling anger.

I agree as well.

I am guilty of making the odd mistake and want to be able to correct it.

One problem is that if someone replies to a mistaken post and the original is later changed the 2nd commenter would need to change theirs,it could get out of hand quickly.

If implemented it would need to have an indicator to say it had been changed.

Ludwig how did you do it?
Read over my shoulder as I type.
Its me, to a tee.
First bloke this is a privatively owned forum.
And its funding is not assured, if we kick in we just may see changes.
While I remain the number one suspect for your description I do not think it matters much.
I have given spell checks nervous break downs, my current yanky one has got me nearly that way.
I and other I am sure know very little about fixing things in the PC depends I think on age.
I think until recently we could hide our fault behind a now absent poster who was the master of miss print.

Switch to V Bulletin, it's the most user and mod friendly bbs system.
From a moderation point of view I can understand why you'd limit post sizes and their number but in general forums police themselves.

I agree with Ludwig. And I think we should able to post images. Sometimes a picture says a thousands words which is great when you're limited to 350.

Cheers,

Tony

Ha ha, Ludwig...I know just what you mean.

I'm an expert at letting bloomers slip through.

Exhibit 1:

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=5773&page=0#161523

(That's the second "pubic" (public) blunder I've made in as many weeks)

: )

Shock, horror... "(That's the second "pubic" (public) blunder I've made in as many weeks)" - in what sort of discourse did you think you were engaging?

Though no expert, I too have slipped in bloomers.

:)

I like the idea of a post post re-edit opportunity but I admit enjoying the errors created by those using voice recognition software... homophones can be fun.

What I'd wish for most is the chance to 'disable' selected users from appearing on my screen. Not ones with which I disagree... just boring, non-contributing, uber-repetitive ones.

And you know who you are!

Hee hee, WmTrevor,

Modern technology does deliver some beauties.

When my son-in-law was working fly-in-fly-out, he messaged my daughter to tell her the airline had lost his luggage. I think he must have left a "g" out of luggage, because his spell-correct informed her that "they'd lost his Mugabe".

I don't know about you, but we thought that there was something mildly hilarious about being informed that someone has lost his Mugabe (I bet Zimbabwe wishes it would happen to them) - or maybe we're desperate for things to laugh at around here.

My daughter told me the other day that spell correct changed "neatest" to "nudist" (in a work report)....thankfully she spotted it.

Makes for hours of fun.

"The world will little note nor long remember what we say here..." is in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. It doesn't apply to the Gettysburg Address, but I think it applies to our postings to olo. I have made many typos although I look over my posts. The 350 word limit is great as it requires one to fit a post within 350 words. It would be an extra burden on the olo staff to deal with changing posts. We are not going to eliminate typos, but we don't have to worry about them. If one doesn't say precisely what one wants to say just accept it. Olo postings are more like conversation than essays, and we cannot edit our conversations. How many of us even remember a particular post of ours? Even if we do how many of us even remember somebody else's post?

Yes Luddy, do it all the time, & there is no reason we can't have it. All my classic car forums, & many modern car forums have the facility. Meanwhile surely with such a brilliant bunch as we have here, someone could come up with a simple solution.

I have a few solutions I use in general life.

If I want something washed, I actually stick it in the washing basket.

If I want a suit dry cleaned, I hang it on the door knob of the door leading to my car.

My problem is some how I see what I meant to write/type, not what I actually did.

When I was sailing around the place, sat nav systems were worth the value of half a dozen yachts. It was all sextant, time, almanac tables, transposing & arithmetic. Being slightly dyslexic I can transpose 152 as 125 with monotonous regularity. When checking back, I am even more likely to repeat any previously made mistake.

As getting it wrong would probably result in hitting something hard, I had to find a solution. By using a different assumed position, it meant you were working with different tables, so could not repeat the same mistake.

Having done the same calculations twice but for different assumed positions, the position lines should be the same. If not you are wrong in at least one.

That I am still here proves the method had merit, or my bones would be on one of those little bits of coral that gave the Coral Sea it's name.

Typos happen to all of us because they're so seasy
to make and Engrish is a difficult language. However
wouldn't online (and print) be boaring without these
mistakes? Here's an example:

In Amercia, at the University of Texas in Austin,
the 2012 Commencement program brochures had the
misprint of the Lyndon Johnson School of Pubic Affairs.
Letters of apology were printed to be included in the
programs for the "eggregious" typo that was made.

<< My problem is some how I see what I meant to write/type, not what I actually did. >>

Likewise Hazza! That’s my main brain malfunction! I just read straight over errors. My proof-reading efforts just don’t pick up the porkies a lot of the time!

And the spell and grammar checker is only useful up to a point.

But the really bizarre bit is that when I read a post after posting, any errors just stand out like dog’s balls!

Ah, it’s no big deal. But it is interesting to see how many posters share my frustration.

Don’t worry about it Luddy the ones that come after us are even less literate. But an edit would option would be practical for reasons other than semantics punctuation and spelling.

From: The Australian Justine Ferrari, National education correspondent December 12, 2012 12:00AM.

>>AUSTRALIAN primary school students have scored the lowest of any English-speaking nation in an international test of reading, shocking education experts who have questioned the standard of teacher training and quality of teaching in the classroom. <<

I hate those spelling-checkers that change what you've typed - as if mind-reading or assuming you are an ignoramus. I'd much sooner live with my 'typos' or rely on the 'underline' hint of a booboo.
'Lucked' into an 'enhancement' on a mobile phone once, which was rushing ahead with suggestions of what I wanted to write; what a nightmare, an obnoxious and intrusive little beast, and I got rid of it with all haste.

Though I'm no laureate I detect many errors on OLO, in spelling and grammar (though sometimes on re-reading I have simply mis-read the flow of a comment), but in the end we get the drift, and that's what's important.

David f, I disagree that we do not take longer-term note of the viewpoints posted here, or take only a fleeting interest in these; at least for myself this forum is as much a learning experience as it is an opinion-sharing one. We may not recall all the detail, but I for one certainly do my best to retain the drift.

Mind you, it is a bit of a pain having to do all the research necessary to validate or refute a position (as necessitated by the postings of some of our learned brethren), in order to review one's long-held 'opinion'. Life used to be far easier, if less well-informed. Ignorance is bliss?
However, it has become very clear that there is 'more to heaven and earth' - in other words, there's far more to learn than I could ever hope to even contemplate, let alone absorb.

Good one Lexi, Engrish is tuff (and Merican spelling is a pane twoo). Watt a laaf!

Dear Saltpetre,

Thanks for getting it.
And for your contribution.
Loved it.

My husband read that original post over my shoulder and
"went with the drift" - not noticing anything wrong.
I guess most of us tend to do that. I do as well.

< Ah, it’s no big deal >, I said.

I take it back!

It IS a big deal!

It is an EXCRUCIATING deal!

No matter what I do I can’t stop it from happening!

Just had the classic example – I read my post several times before posting. Yep, all good. Then posted, and literally within three seconds of reading it again…. JEEEEEEZZZ!...... there’s a glaring typo!!

Uhh, where’s the nearest brick wall. I urgently to need bash my head on it…. for about an hour!! !!

http://tinyurl.com/cdmq6wg

Dear Ludwig,

You wrote: "Uhh, where’s the nearest brick wall. I urgently to need bash my head on it…. for about an hour!! !!"

That reminds of the teacher telling her first grade class that anyone who had to go to the toilet should raise one or two fingers.

Teacher" "Johnny, you look puzzled."

Johnny: "How will that stop it?"

Heee hehehee ( :>)