Why is there a five-minute time limit editing comments? I found typos I wanted to correct in a comment I had posted, but it was too late, and I was forced to delete and repost.
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
5
The real problem is that, second class citizens that they are, comments do not have a history.
SE lets you edit pretty much everything else at any time because there's edit accountability: At any given moment, we know who changed what, when, and why. This isn't the case with comments — this is why comments can no longer be edited after the standard grace period.
Why is the time limit for editing comments only 5 minutes?
TL;DR; it would open room for much abuse, which is much harder than posts to moderate.
As a solution, you can entirely delete and paste your comment in another one, if it doesn't make any other comments look stupid and mysterious.
-
$\begingroup$ I still don't get you @Oscar. What was the problem with reposting the comment? $\endgroup$– M.A.R.Jun 24, 2016 at 23:19
-
$\begingroup$ I tried that @TIPS. But it ended up breaking a link I wanted to reference, and I had to post a second comment with the restored link. $\endgroup$ Jun 24, 2016 at 23:21
-
$\begingroup$ I copied the comment onto a clipboard, then deleted, then pasted the copy as a fresh comment I could correct. But the copy was not perfect, I found out after the fact that the link had lost the http header. That's how it broke. Can not the 5 minute limit be lifted for the comment'sowner? $\endgroup$ Jun 24, 2016 at 23:25
-
$\begingroup$ Comments won't lose http with copy-paste. However, the drag-and-drop in some browsers drops those. I'm pretty sure that was the case here. $\endgroup$– M.A.R.Jun 24, 2016 at 23:26
-
1$\begingroup$ @Oscar if you want it removed for the comment's owner, feel free to make a feature request on Meta Stack Exchange. However, if you use the "search", you'd see that this is a well-discussed matter and the feature-request won't garner much support. There are more interesting feature-requests about comments, that, due to their temporary and without-log nature haven't been implemented. Sometimes, things aren't just perfect and we have to live with what we have. $\endgroup$– M.A.R.Jun 24, 2016 at 23:55