# Conversations: 5-minute editing limit



## Copyright

I just discovered an extremely irritating flaw in Conversations. 

I know there's a five-minute time limit to editing a Conversation, but I figured that if you clicked Edit within five minutes and you were allowed to edit, you would be allowed to post. *Not true.*

If your editing goes over five minutes, when you click Reply your changes are discarded and there is apparently no way to retrieve them.

For a minor correction, that's not a great problem, but if you've added four paragraphs, it's a pain.


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## Ghabi

That may be intentional, as I imagine making big changes to a message can cause misunderstanding.

Say, we're both on-line and you PM me, and I read it instantly. If you then make big changes to the message (after five or ten minutes), I may miss it. And next time you say, "Ghabi, I told you last time blah blah blah!", "What, Copyright, no, you certainly didn't!", "I did!", "Okay, let me check again ... Ah, you're right, I don't know how I missed that ... may need to see a doctor" etc.

So perhaps we're expected to edit a conversation message only in the case of correcting minor typos, thus the time limit?


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## Copyright

We obviously haven't conversed or you'd know I'm not that rude or misleading. If I saw that you had missed what I'd added, I would say, "Sorry, I added four paragraphs while you were typing."

I'm not going to make the 5-Minute Mistake again, but it was rather irritating to learn that you could hit Edit at the 4-minute-58-second mark and it would let you Edit ... and then throw away all your edits and give you a big red error message.


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## wildan1

You have 24 hours to change or edit any message. If you need more than five minutes, just save your edit and re-open the message--you will have another five minutes' editing time. 

After 24 hours from its creation, however, no more changes may be made to a posted message.


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## Copyright

I don't think that's true for Conversations.


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## Paulfromitaly

Copyright said:


> I don't think that's true for Conversations.


No, it's not. You only have 5 minutes to edit a private conversation.
After 5 minutes the EDIT button disappears.


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## Copyright

Just to clarify, I'm not asking for a forum change in how Conversations work.

I posted to alert anyone reading this that just because you can click Edit doesn't mean you can actually edit, because the 5 minutes applies to the time you click Reply. If you don't do that within 5 minutes, you lose whatever changes you've made.

So it might be wise, if you're not sure whether you're within the limit and you've added more than just a comma, to copy your message to your clipboard before you hit Reply.


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## wildan1

Sorry, Copyright--you are correct.

I think we all are still adjusting to the change in terms between our old software and the new.

Old--> New:
_Private Message--> Conversation
Post--> Message
Thread--> Discussion _​


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## Copyright

Considering my new discovery about Conversations, I think you're right – we're all still adjusting. 

It occurs to me that if I need to add quite a bit more and I want it to stay in a single Conversation box, I can just click Edit, delete everything and replace it with "Stay tuned."


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Copyright said:


> Considering my new discovery about Conversations, I think you're right – we're all still adjusting.
> 
> It occurs to me that if I need to add quite a bit more and I want it to stay in a single Conversation box, I can just click Edit, delete everything and replace it with "Stay tuned."



Copy, While this is a possiblity, it sounds tiresome and time-consuming, and I agree with your OP that it's "extremely irritating". What, I wonder, is the rationale behind the five-minute limit for editing 'Converations' (ex-'Private Messages')?


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## velisarius

I don't think we had the privilege of editing our old PMs at all. 

It might be very annoying to receive a PM, read it and log off, only to find (if you ever went back to it) that the other person had edited their message to you. I don't think we are notified if someone edits a message they've just sent to us and when we've already received the first version.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Actually, in such situations, I have simply posted a new message saying "To continue my interrupted message,...", "I got timed out before I could modify my previous message as follows:...", though. I use the former in the not infrequent case where I seem to hit, unintentionally, some key which posts a message before I've finished it.


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## sdgraham

While we're on the subject, I have a question:

Dos XenForo wait until the five-minute editing period elapses before sending a conversation "alert" either via email or popup?

And, while I'm thinking about it, does that apply to forum posts as well?


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## osa_menor

It doesn't wait. Not with the forum posts either.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Copy, I certainly hope you were indulging in hyperbole and not speaking from personal experience when you spoke of a 'four-paragraph addition' that couldn't be made! 

I'm sorry, but I don't see what purpose it serves to freeze a "Conversation" after five minutes; if we realize we haven't expressed what we wanted to say correctly or understandably, do we just have to delete it, as copy sugested in #9 - but can we do even that? - and start over?

I repeat: "What...is the rationale behind the five-minute limit for editing 'Conversations'...?, please, Mike? Thanks, as always (in advance)!


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## sdgraham

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> I repeat: "What...is the rationale behind the five-minute limit for editing 'Conversations'...?, please, Mike? Thanks, as always (in advance)!



... especially since the message (alert) has already been sent as in #14


Thanks


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Copyright said:


> So it might be wise, if you're not sure whether you're within the limit and you've added more than just a comma, to copy your message to your clipboard before you hit Reply.



I think this applies not only to  "Replies", but also to "Conversation" starters (OPs).


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Moderators have deleted, and other members have replied to, posts that I was editing because, apparently, the original version remained on view while I was editing/correcting it. Wouldn't it make more sense to remove from view posts that are being edited, and post the edited version when the poster has finished modifying the first one?


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## sdgraham

I do not believe that http (the common way browsers access sites) supports this sort of thing, i.e. whether it's possible to determine whether a post is being edited or simply whether it has been opened for editing. (The opener could simply close the browser window without doing anything)


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## velisarius

Ain'tt, that has happened to me too, so I try to make sure I read my posts through a couple of times and not to press "send" too hastily. I miss the "preview post" button, which allowed you to see a nice clean version of your post, with links, before sending it off. Ok - we do have one (under "options"), but it involves  a couple more clicks I think.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Maybe Mike will take bringing that button back under consideration...


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## velisarius

Have you tried the new one, ain'tt? It's more or less the same. 

At the bottom of the box that you're writing in, you can see "more options"; it's next to "post reply". After you click on that, click on "preview"and you can see a clean copy of what you've written, with the normal box to continue writing in beneath it. You can send the post from there - you don't have to click back again. It lets you see your post as it will actually appear to the receiver. (You can see whether the links have come out properly, and whether the formatting is how you wanted it.)


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

No,I haven't; I'll check it out. Thanks "veli" much!

P.S., This message just got posted while I was half-way through it...


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Hi, I have another question on this subject (for Mike K., I guess): Why can't we delete PMs that we've had second thoughts about, please? I - who am quite the opposite of an ace in typing - for one might have avoided having to post a few  emojis if we could! TIA.


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## mkellogg

Sorry, I only saw the first few posts and didn't realize that the conversation was continuing.

The reason I set it to 5 minutes for Conversations is that they are different.  People expect it to work like email, meaning that we don't expect changes 12 hours later.  After a number of problems when I didn't realize that the text of a message to me had changed, I thought it best to make it more like email by limiting the edit time to five minutes.

As for the error when you exceed five minutes, I reported it to Xenforo and they declined to fix it.  There isn't much I can do unless we want to get rid of the five-minute restriction.


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## JamesM

It took me a little while to get used to the edit time limit but now I like it.  I treat it more like texting now and just put my (many) corrections in the next post down if I have to.


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## e2efour

Who makes up such bloody stupid rules? I came across this nonsensical 5-minute limit just now. At least I will know how to avoid getting caught out in future, but it is extremely irritating and inconvenient.


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## velisarius

But there was no possibility of editing our PMs before, so why so many complaints now that we do have a few minutes' grace?


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

e2efour said:


> Who makes up such bloody stupid rules? I came across this nonsensical 5-minute limit just now. At least I will know how to avoid getting caught out in future, but it is extremely irritating and inconvenient.



Hi, According to Mike (see his #25), it was the software provider, Xenoforo.


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## mkellogg

e2efour said:


> Who makes up such bloody stupid rules?


I do.  The other option is to allow editing for a long period of time.  People edit their messages after 12 hours thinking that the person will reread the message.  It seemed worse to me.

I think the best answer is to make it like email. No editing at all.  I'll see if I can make it work that way so that people will be less upset.


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## pointvirgule

mkellogg said:


> I think the best answer is to make it like email. No editing at all.  I'll see if I can make it work that way so that people will be less upset.


No, please, Mike, leave it as it is. I appreciate having a few minutes to catch my typos in conversations.

Would there be a way to set the time limit at, say, 15 minutes?


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## mkellogg

pointvirgule said:


> Would there be a way to set the time limit at, say, 15 minutes?


Let's try that.  I just changed it.  Let's see if it continues to cause problems for people.


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## pointvirgule

Thank you Sir, you are the best. 

I suppose there will always be "unsatisfied customers," but I think 15 mins should be enough for most people. Fellow members do need to keep in mind that a conversation really is closer to an exchange of e-mails than a regular forum thread, so they should avoid making extensive modifications to the private messages they send. 



velisarius said:


> But there was no possibility of editing our PMs before, so why so many complaints now that we do have a few minutes' grace?


I cannot agree more.


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## mkellogg

Thanks. I understand the complaints and the frustration.  I, too, am frustrated that there is nothing warning you of the time limit on editing.

One more note for those paying attention: I read all conversation messages in the emails that are sent out to me. I highly doubt I will see your edits.   Expect this to happen to other people, as well.


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## Copyright

mkellogg said:


> Sorry, I only saw the first few posts and didn't realize that the conversation was continuing.


You and me both – aren't notifications sent out for Comments and Suggestions, or did I just miss one ... and then all the messages that came after?


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## Kelly B

I have the same question, Copyright, but I think I'm going to start a new thread for that.... No alerts for C&S threads? | WordReference Forums


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