Sam Harris

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That’s a strange attitude I think. I don’t see how it leads to a lack of “accounting”. Editing is an important part of writing.  It’s hard to know that you have written what you intended until you see in “in print”. It’s always easy enough to simply retract something that you have changed your mind about or are ashamed of. I don’t see where it does one much good to edit out something that we didn’t intend to say, at least not after you clicked the Submit button once.

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Joel Armstrong - 24 January 2008 06:59 AM

I wrote accountability, not accounting.  If people couldn’t edit after they posted, they generally would be more careful with what they wrote.

I see, you are concerned that someone will deny having written something and go back and edit so as to erase the evidence? I guess I just don’t see these conversations so much as debates where I would care to cheat in this way. It seems kind of pointless. If someone points out to me where a position I have taken is wrong in some way that I agree with, I’d like to think that I am more inclined to acknowledge that and modify my thinking rather then go back and change my prior position and pretend it had always been so. Certainly the only one I would be playing games with is myself, eh?

[quote author=“Joel Armstrong”]So you don’t see something “in print” until after you have posted it?  Isn’t that what the preview feature is for?

Yes of course, I don’t always use the preview as well as I might. Most of my edits are trying to get the formatting right, to make sure that the right quotes get attributed to the right people and appears right. Usually, I will stupidly see my errors immediately after hitting the post button.  I will try to get the corrections made before anyone gets a chance to respond to their email and see my error before I change it.

[quote author=“Joel Armstrong”]Editing is an important part of writing, but to me it seems strange to have conversations between people which can later be edited by one or both parties.  It is sort of the equivalent of asking to have a letter back so you can change it, even though a response, or several responses, might have already been given to it?

Again, it’s hard to imagine the benefit in using it that way. If I am concerned with making a point clearly or most eloquently, or maybe more cleverly, etc. I might edit the prose to suit. I enjoy writing, though I am not that good at it. If I am involved the in the point I am making, I enjoy crafting the prose to better make that point.

[quote author=“Joel Armstrong”]I won’t pursue this issue any further, I’m guess I’m ok with the edit feature.  It’s not a big deal, and I don’t think the edit feature is used too often anyways.

Right, I don’t think that it’s a big deal either.  I do find your concern over accountability curious though, mostly just because it really hadn’t occurred to me to see it that way.

Joel Armstrong - 24 January 2008 06:59 AM

I wrote accountability, not accounting.  If people couldn’t edit after they posted, they generally would be more careful with what they wrote.

That’s the same basic argument that people often use for preventative law. It doesn’t work that way though. You’re talking about impulsive actions that people re-think later, not calculated behaviors. Consequences don’t tend to have a normal deterrent effect on people acting impulsively (and people don’t commit crimes thinking they’ll get caught).


[quote author=“Joel Armstrong”]So you don’t see something “in print” until after you have posted it?  Isn’t that what the preview feature is for?

It is, but you can re-read something several times that you’re currently writing, and you’ll still be in the exact same frame of mind, and you can easily miss ambiguities and even missing concepts or terms simply because you haven’t gotten out of the same frame of mind in which you made the error(s). I often edit my posts, mostly for clarity (on occasion to make them comprehensible).


[quote author=“Joel Armstrong”]Editing is an important part of writing, but to me it seems strange to have conversations between people which can later be edited by one or both parties.

That’s suggests to me that you should quote what you’re replying to if it might be an issue later, certainly not that editing posts should be denied to everyone.

Byron

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