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Editing Thread Titles
(Originally brought up at https://meta.codidact.com/comments/thread/3359#comment-11064)
Can we allow thread starters to edit the title of a comment? This could be useful in cases like, for example, https://codegolf.codidact.com/comments/thread/3417#comment-11178, where I originally was asking about the input format, but then edited to ask about both input and output formats, but could not change the title to reflect that.
The one concern mentioned in the thread was
On the other hand, the title is more of a "shared resource" and we don't yet have a visible audit trail.
The following duplicates have been raised, indicating the level of demand for this feature:
- Can't edit comment title
- Allow a user to edit a threaded comment's title after the threaded comment has been created
- Ability to edit title of comment thread
2 answers
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I started to write up a platform issue for this, but realized I have questions we need community feedback on first:
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Who should be able to edit the title, beyond those with the Curate ability who already can? Only the creator, or any participant in the thread? (We do not have a "suggest edit" mechanism for thread titles and I don't think that would be a priority.)
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Should there be any limits to when you can edit, like "only in the first hour" or "only if there are no other comments"? (Assume that we would record late edits visibly, so you could tell that the title changed after the first four comments.)
Based on feedback to this answer and other conversations, I propose the following:
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Allow anybody with the Curate ability to edit the title at any time (this is true today).
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Allow the creator of the thread to edit the title at any time until there is a comment from somebody else.
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Add simple public auditing: when the title of a thread is changed, add an entry to the thread recording this. Something like: a comment posted by the System user that says "Thread title changed from X to Y by so-and-so".
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After #2 is implemented,[1] allow the creator of the thread or anybody with the Edit ability to edit the title.
Does this strike the right balance of utility, transparency, and abuse-mitigation?
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This seems like something we could roll out in stages if that's easier: allow the first item right away because it doesn't affect anybody else, then work on the logging that would allow broader edits. If it's easier to just jump straight to the logging + edits, that's fine too. ↩︎
3 comment threads