Would it be possible for moderators, when they edit a post, to add the reason for their edits? I often don't remember the exact wording of my post and would like to know why it's been edited so as not to make another gaffe that would be edited out of another post.

Thank you.

Often the reason is very minor, lizbeth. If it wasn't, then the moderator would comment on it. Don't take it personally.

I take it as a matter of courtesy, Myr. If it's to correct a typo or a misspelling, there's no reason not to say so. If, on the other hand, a moderator changes either the title or the intent of the posting, shouldn't the poster know why?

There are no hard, fast rules on the subject of explaining why some editing has been done. I certainly agree that when actual content has been changed, a quick note to that effect from a moderator is helpful. I try to do that, and encourage other Town Meeting Mods to do the same.

On the other hand, a simple correction of a typographical error or a misspelled word isn't worth making a big deal out of it for just that reason; why make a bigger deal out of it?

Personally, if I feel the need to correct typographical, or even grammatical errors, I won't even leave a tag saying that I have made the changes.

If I do have to make changes to the content, then I will and do leave a tag saying why I felt to make the change. If I feel the intent needs altering, I am more likely to simply remove it altogether.

I've recently edited a couple of posts, but for spelling and grammar only. For that, I feel it unnecessary to explain, and as Ray says, to make a bigger deal out of it. It's nothing personal. There's little that I take personally, and although I appreciate being challenging and challenged, I try not to be offensively so.

Changing the content as opposed to the form, is another matter altogether. For that, I would owe an explanation. So far, I've not had to do that.

I go along with typos and misspellings, but not necessarily with grammar and punctuation. Grammar and punctuation can be, and is, used to convey what the poster is trying to say; it, therefore, becomes unique to the writer and doesn't necessarily follow general, grammatical 'rules.' Just look at e e cummings.

No, what I was responding to was the following:


The poster went on to say,


Or, at least, tell us why you changed what you changed.

Liz, I think any poster can retitle a post.... Like this topic, I can change it to another title... Watch?

It isn't that you can't, CG, it's if you should without explantion to the poster. Remember, I was, for a short time, a moderator. I didn't want to be because of questions such as this.

PMs are available for discussion, if you want to keep it private. Otherwise, moderators could be seen as the Lords of the FoolMoon universe.

I don't mean to make a mountain out of what's usually a molehill.

Liz:

That was a post of mine.

A moderator took an off-topic post of mine and moved it to a different forum to start a new thread with it, and in that process gave it a new title, which was a fine idea. My request was that in re-titling, better care should be given to the content of the post when titling the new thread. I had no objection to my post being moved by my moderators; in fact whoever did it was quite correct in doing so since that whole sub-discussion was off-topic in the thread where it was posted. I just wanted the new title to accurately reflect what I said.

Now what the heck are you talking about here? It sounds like you're creating some kind of typhoon out of nothing. Mods are under directions to clean up spelling and grammar in opening posts that would appear on our portal page, because that's the page that most visitors see first when they find Fool Moon, and we want them to find us as we portray ourselves -- "Intelligent". So when people post garbled crap, we try to make them look a little better.

Did you want to make more of a fuss over nothing or can we all go about our business now?