No matter what happens I feel a statement needs to be made.
There was, to my knowledge, no written statement made about the editing posts policy being changed. This, to me, is wrong, as many of us had responsibly used this feature for years and suddenly found ourselves deprived of it.
To me, not communicating about a new rule is like the United States repealing one of the amendments to the Constitution without telling citizens. Suppose, for example, the first amendment is repealed. Suddenly it is no longer legal to have free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, etc. Unfortunately, nobody realizes that until it is discovered on our own. (For those of you living in other countries, feel free to substitute an example from your own laws if you are unfamiliar with the US Bill of Rights).
I understand that the moderators are here to help, but I have a few issues with always having to use a "middleman" to edit posts:
1. There may be miscommunication between parties as to what needs deleted or edited.
2. If a post is being edited or deleted for personal reasons (this could happen more in the lounge than anywhere) the moderator may not quite understand the rationale for editing/deleting and/or the poster may be uncomfortable communicating such rationale to the moderator.
3. Time delays are inevitable. Suppose I have a thread in which I list a Mac SE/30, ImageWriter II, and iMac G3 for sale. Several questions are asked before I can write a new post that the SE/30 is sold. This post may be hard to find and may take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours to edit. Meanwhile, a few disappointed would-be buyers would be contacting me via PM asking for a shipping quote on that SE/30. Additionally, if I suddenly find the manual for the ImageWriter II, I would want to add that to the description right away.
4. I have a stickied thread about CRTs in compact Macs. There is also a thread about System 6 software resources in the software section. Both of these threads have been updated by their creators when new discoveries are made or errors are corrected. This should continue, as the point of these threads is to provide quick and easy access to information, not to have users sift through pages of posts to find what they need to.
5. Moderators may feel as though a change is unnecessary if they have a particular bias or opinion towards a particular subject or poster. (I trust that this won't happen on here but I have seen similar things on other forums).
I am very disappointed in the change of policy, especially since the old system had been working fine for the majority of us and because nothing was ever communicated about the policy change.
We, as board members, have had a right taken away from us without any explanation of why this happened. If it was a result of the software upgrade (which I am assuming it was), I believe we should regain the power to edit that we once had since we were never told that we would lose that right. I have read comments regarding "rights" and "privileges" in the now-locked thread on this topic and feel as though the justification for losing our ability to edit and delete posts is invalid, especially because there are far more legitimate uses for the editing feature than illegitimate ones and because nearly every edit I have witnessed on this forum has been done for a valid reason (such as updating old threads to reflect new links, updating sale threads, deleting accidentally-typed sensitive information that search engines may inadvertently pick up, adding new discoveries to early posts to avoid unnecessary scrolling, etc).
I am a current moderator of an online group, have moderated a now-defunct message board, and serve as the president of the Chess Club at my college. I founded the club and was responsible for writing its bylaws, which involved working with student government leaders and learning how to implement policies and procedures at an organizational level. When I reviewed the bylaws with our club members I left the forum open for discussion and did not abruptly make changes without telling anyone. Furthermore, when a change was needed within the club itself (such as the prize for tournament winners) I put forth my proposal to the club after discussing it with the group adviser and vice president. Club members would discuss the proposed change and nothing was implemented until all comments, votes, etc. were heard. I would do the same should a similar situation arise on the online boards, where I work only in the best interest of the majority and not my personal beliefs.
I believe a system such as this needs to happen on this forum so that we can communicate clearly regarding any policy or policy change proposal, listen to the voices of everyone instead of a few folks who happen to be moderators, and work in the best interest of the members of this forum. After all, the forum is about those who use it, not the personal interests of a few folks who wish to ignore the concerns and opinions of the people who make 68KMLA the great resource it has been for many years.