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Why does an edit button not make sense for a service like Twitter? How would it be abused? Deleting and reposting hurts and would eliminate engagement statisti
by siruva07 6y ago
Why does an edit button not make sense for a service like Twitter? How would it be abused?
Deleting and reposting hurts and would eliminate engagement statistics.
From a product experience, edited tweets, similar to Slack, could show an "(edited)" that when clicked on let's a user see the version history. That way, it can't be abused, but does allow for minor typos (e.g. https://twitter.com/sir/status/1353737949729468416 https://twitter.com/sir/status/1353737949729468416)
- thomasahle 6y ago> Deleting and reposting hurts and would eliminate engagement statistics. Maybe there should be a maximum number of characters edited. If I have liked/retweeted a tweet, and its author then completely rewrites it,I would want my "engagement" eliminated.
- RL_Quine 6y agoAm considering taking Tesla private at $9420. Funding secured. Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured. Am considering taking Tesla private at $42. Funding secured.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mnx 6y agono way to prevent just adding a 'not' while still allowing sensible editing.
- conradfr 6y agoAlso why not make editing available for n minutes? Perfect for typos.
- thomasahle 6y agoThat's probably an even better approach, though famous people may have a lot of engagements during that time. Maybe just make editing work like deletion/repost: Remove all likes a retweets. Then after n minutes it becomes an unattractive thing to do.
- user-the-name 6y agoBecause if you immediately notice it, delete and repost works just as well.
- user-the-name 6y agoBecause you can completely change the content of a post after it gets traction.
- siruva07 6y agoA time or engagement based restriction would prevent this, i.e. having 3-5 minutes to edit the tweet, at which point the edit button is locked. Revision history would still show. "Undo Send" a la Gmail, but for tweets.
- user-the-name 6y agoBut if the tweet has only been live for a few minutes, you might as well delete and repost.
- ajanuary 6y ago"Revision history would still show" Except in a distributed system like Twitter (including client and server) there is no single timeline, and amateur digital forensics will erroneously say "aha, but you retweeted it before it was edited"
- Spivak 6y agoAs long as RTs and likes are tied to a specific version of the Tweet then it's no real problem.
- kristiandupont 6y agoPerhaps, but you are talking about creating rather complex machinery in order to support a tiny feature. If the only argument in favor is engagement statistics (would those take edits into consideration as well?), I certainly see why Twitter doesn't care too much.
- notafraudster 6y agoWhile I agree with the general replies to the parent comment, it seems like the magnitude of this problem is relatively small given the staffing Twitter has who could solve it. Even the general problem of "Can we tell if an edit changes the connotation of a sentence?" seems like it is solveable at Twitter's scale.
- willj 6y agoI think the lack of an edit button is helpful on a couple fronts: - it makes authors think more before posting; if there are typos, or it isn’t exactly what they want to say, and it gains traction, they can’t fix it, so they work to make it right the first time - Most people ignore edit histories [citation needed; based on my own experience and knowledge of others’]. As a result, if the post is edited, the conversation can get fragmented and confusing for later readers That said, I’d love it if there were a way to see deleted tweets, at least of politicians
- nefitty 6y agoThe deleted tweet view is obviously not a part of Twitter yet, but here’s a service from ProPublica for this specific use case: https://www.politwoops.com/countries https://www.politwoops.com/countries
- bachmeier 6y agoBecause rather than retweeting "I hate the KKK" you just retweeted "I support the KKK".
- Spivak 6y agoI mean it's not an insurmountable problem though. As long as likes and RTs are tied to a specific version of a Tweet and you can see the edits and associated likes it's fine.
- kristiandupont 6y agoEven setting aside the UX issues in this, I think this is underestimating the complexity. I don't know anything about Twitters infrastructure but obviously we are not talking about a single postgres instance here. Effectively turning every tweet into a linked list with connected retweets, likes etc. is a significant data model change for a system of this scale.
- reidjs 6y agoFor now let's just add a "*" to the original post to give all the retweeters deniability. I'd bet 99% of edits are for grammar/spelling/readability.
- user-the-name 6y agoThat just makes it even more confusing. So you edit your tweet, but all the people who retweeted are still showing the wrong version and you can't do anything about it. It kind of makes the situation worse than it is now.
- davidivadavid 6y agoIt's not the "wrong" version. It's the original version, as per when they quoted it. There's really no other way it could work. When you quote someone, you repeat what they said, not what they might repeat some time in the future. When you quote a book, you write down what's written in the book. Not what the author writes in the next edition. You may in time edit/remove/amend your tweet to comment on further changes.
- ballenf 6y agoEditing tweets to me is not just a feature, it's a fundamental shift to the nature of the platform. Even bigger than doubling tweet size did. Twitter is defined by tweets not being polished Facebook or LinkedIn posts. Except for people who don't use it that way, but they feel artificial to me. I'd rather all of Twitter not drift that direction. And personally, I love that I can't worry about fixing typos. If they're bad enough I delete. If not, move on, stay humble and pay more attention next time.