14 votes

Feature request: Title editing

Now I know editing titles is a slippery slope, but hear me out.

One of the most annoying things from Reddit is that you make a typo in the title and it's there forever. It would be nice if on Tildes you could edit a certain amount of a title - say 1-2 characters. Then you could fix most typos without opening the doors to people trolling by completely changing titles.

I'm not sure if this is possible, but it would be a nice thing to consider down the road.

12 comments

  1. [12]
    arghdos
    (edited )
    Link
    We've mentioned this is passing before, e.g., letting moderators / trusted users edit titles in their groups, but I think allowing users to edit their title for a 5-10 minutes after submission is...

    We've mentioned this is passing before, e.g., letting moderators / trusted users edit titles in their groups, but I think allowing users to edit their title for a 5-10 minutes after submission is probably a good idea as well

    edit: p.s., I'm working on incorporating this post into a static page on https://docs.tildes.net/ so we have a centralized place that collects all these various discussions!

    16 votes
    1. [2]
      LetsTalkAboutDnD
      Link Parent
      I'm glad to hear it's been talked about already.

      I'm glad to hear it's been talked about already.

      6 votes
      1. Amarok
        Link Parent
        Title and Link and Tag editing is definitely in the cards - for trusted users in very good standing, within the groups where they have that good standing. Title editing is important for typos but...

        Title and Link and Tag editing is definitely in the cards - for trusted users in very good standing, within the groups where they have that good standing. Title editing is important for typos but also for misleading headlines, and it'll also have some visual indicator it's been edited and by whom, I expect. Link editing is for stopping freebooters who like to steal content, so we can change the link back to the original source, again with those visual indicators. Tag editing is just so the more OCD among us can maintain some level of sanity. ;)

        6 votes
    2. [2]
      Amarok
      Link Parent
      Thanks for taking the time to collect all of our brain droppings. It'll help immensely. ;)

      Thanks for taking the time to collect all of our brain droppings. It'll help immensely. ;)

      3 votes
    3. toly
      Link Parent
      Time based edits and an obvious display of the original title (red text below actual title for example) are a great compromise of authenticity and usability

      Time based edits and an obvious display of the original title (red text below actual title for example) are a great compromise of authenticity and usability

      3 votes
    4. [6]
      Blaises
      Link Parent
      Apart from implementing a time-based window for title edits, a Levenshtein distance algorithm could be used to make sure that the edits made aren't too major. The weight would have to be played...

      Apart from implementing a time-based window for title edits, a Levenshtein distance algorithm could be used to make sure that the edits made aren't too major. The weight would have to be played with to be sure that simple edits could be made while preventing the bait-and-switch title edits.

      2 votes
      1. [5]
        arghdos
        Link Parent
        That's a great idea -- the distance could also play into the trust-level required to actually make the title edit, so like if you're just a regular user and noticed a typo in the title you can...

        That's a great idea -- the distance could also play into the trust-level required to actually make the title edit, so like if you're just a regular user and noticed a typo in the title you can submit an title edit, but substantially changing the title requires more trust

        1 vote
        1. [4]
          Axord
          Link Parent
          I could see this as causing a bit of editor frustration with seeing a typo to correct and not being sure if they can actually fix it or not.

          I could see this as causing a bit of editor frustration with seeing a typo to correct and not being sure if they can actually fix it or not.

          3 votes
          1. [3]
            arghdos
            Link Parent
            I kind of imagined it as the user always being able to submit a fix -- it just depends on their trust level whether it's automatically accepted or not (otherwise it sits as an open changelog...

            I kind of imagined it as the user always being able to submit a fix -- it just depends on their trust level whether it's automatically accepted or not (otherwise it sits as an open changelog request for a mod to look at)

            2 votes
            1. [2]
              Axord
              Link Parent
              That's certainly more reasonable. Though there's still that ambiguity. The experience of title edits sometimes happening right away and sometimes not sounds squishy. Hopefully there's some UI...

              That's certainly more reasonable. Though there's still that ambiguity. The experience of title edits sometimes happening right away and sometimes not sounds squishy. Hopefully there's some UI feedback to distinguish from site error. Also mod queues filling up with repeats of edit attempts sounds not great.

              2 votes
              1. arghdos
                Link Parent
                Both of those are great points!

                Both of those are great points!

                1 vote