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> People have been begging for an edit button for a decade. And they haven't implemented it because it's a truly horrible idea. If you messed up your tweet del

> People have been begging for an edit button for a decade. And they haven't implemented it because it's a truly horrible idea. If you messed up your tweet delete it. If it's already got traction, then it shouldn't be changed, especially because the edit feature would mostly be used maliciously to cancel retweeters.

tomcam 5y ago
What if it’s accompanied with a history feature that shows all the tweet edits?
- HWR_14 5y ago
  Yes. Because people won't look through the edit history for the same reason they don't read the fine print or studies that are cited. I'm pretty sure making it easier to misinterpret what tweets say is going to be even worse
  - BeFlatXIII 5y ago
    > I'm pretty sure making it easier to misinterpret what tweets say is going to be even worse Good. Let's stop pretending that meaning is contained in tweets.
    - HWR_14 5y ago
      > Let's stop pretending that meaning is contained in tweets. Let me know how that crusade is going for you.
      - BeFlatXIII 5y ago
        I haven't used Twitter in over five years and ignore people who show me screenshots of tweets. Haven't felt any loss in my life over the decisions.
- Vladimof 5y ago
  It depends how it is implemented
mhdhn 5y ago
OK, I can believe this has non-engineering issues. Still cannot "edit as new" for when you want to edit what you posted in the exact some editor state as when you posted it. What you edit and what gets posted can differ radically. This is well-trodden territory in the email world. Accordingly, Fastmail service has "Edit as New" and Apple's iOS Email App has "Send Again" for email. I'm pretty confident Twitter could manage "edit as new" for Tweets, and it would be useful with or without tweet editing.
ALittleLight 5y ago
Retweet could show the version of the tweet as it was when it was retweeted. If you see a tweet that has a new revision ready you could see a "latest" link. If you see the latest version of a tweet with a version history you could see a "history" link which would show you a revision history.
- majormajor 5y ago
  We've suddenly turned a "simple" feature into something with potentially major architectural changes[0] on how retweeting works too, just in a few minutes here! I wonder what other dragons await the ... lucky ... engineers who will get to size this feature soon. ;) [0] No idea how it works internally, but it would hardly surprise me if the lack of edit functionality caused early design decisions around stuff like this that would be pretty tough to unwind.
  - ALittleLight 5y ago
    Edit has obvious options for misuse. Mitigating misuse might be complicated but that's no reason not to do it. The feature I've just described is not complicated. The feature might have architectural implications but resolving those is literally the job of software development teams (including design, PM, etc). I think it's pathetic to say of a feature that it's too hard because there may be some complications or architecture changes. It's especially pathetic to say of a basic feature like edit which exists on other platforms and is obviously possible. This defeatist attitude is, no doubt, partially to blame for Twitter's inability to improve.
  - yk 5y ago
    Just rewrite twitter as a simple github client. You could tag the version the person retweeted or liked. Since you don't mind the repository being public, you could actually use a free account.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- InCityDreams 5y ago
BeFlatXIII 5y ago
> especially because the edit feature would mostly be used maliciously to cancel retweeters. This could turn out to be a good thing in the long run: force the public to confront the fact that the commentary they are seeing may have, in fact, originally been on something entirely different than the context it is currently presented in.
- awb 5y ago
  > force the public to confront the fact that the commentary they are seeing may have, in fact, originally been on something entirely different than the context it is currently presented in. How is this a good thing? I’d have 0 confidence that a reply was in fact to the tweet I’m currently seeing. Then how can I accurately reply to that initial reply? And what’s to stop someone from selling the ‘edit’ on their viral tweet? If you edit a tweet does your like and RT count get reset so your tweet is no longer trending?
  - BeFlatXIII 5y ago
    > I’d have 0 confidence that a reply was in fact to the tweet I’m currently seeing. As you should already be doing every time you see screenshots.
- fastball 5y ago
  That doesn't make any sense.
fortran77 5y ago
“Retweet if you like ice cream!” then after a bunch of retweets change it to “Retweet if you love pedophilia!” No thanks. I’d never retweet it like anything again. Editing is a terrible idea.
f1refly 5y ago
> especially because the edit feature would mostly be used maliciously to cancel retweeters It's almost like cancelling was always a garbage idea centered around lies ans deception from the start

tomcam 5y ago

What if it’s accompanied with a history feature that shows all the tweet edits?

HWR_14 5y ago
Yes. Because people won't look through the edit history for the same reason they don't read the fine print or studies that are cited. I'm pretty sure making it easier to misinterpret what tweets say is going to be even worse
- BeFlatXIII 5y ago
  > I'm pretty sure making it easier to misinterpret what tweets say is going to be even worse Good. Let's stop pretending that meaning is contained in tweets.
  - HWR_14 5y ago
    > Let's stop pretending that meaning is contained in tweets. Let me know how that crusade is going for you.
    - BeFlatXIII 5y ago
      I haven't used Twitter in over five years and ignore people who show me screenshots of tweets. Haven't felt any loss in my life over the decisions.
Vladimof 5y ago
It depends how it is implemented

mhdhn 5y ago

OK, I can believe this has non-engineering issues. Still cannot "edit as new" for when you want to edit what you posted in the exact some editor state as when you posted it. What you edit and what gets posted can differ radically. This is well-trodden territory in the email world. Accordingly, Fastmail service has "Edit as New" and Apple's iOS Email App has "Send Again" for email. I'm pretty confident Twitter could manage "edit as new" for Tweets, and it would be useful with or without tweet editing.

ALittleLight 5y ago

Retweet could show the version of the tweet as it was when it was retweeted. If you see a tweet that has a new revision ready you could see a "latest" link. If you see the latest version of a tweet with a version history you could see a "history" link which would show you a revision history.

majormajor 5y ago
We've suddenly turned a "simple" feature into something with potentially major architectural changes[0] on how retweeting works too, just in a few minutes here! I wonder what other dragons await the ... lucky ... engineers who will get to size this feature soon. ;) [0] No idea how it works internally, but it would hardly surprise me if the lack of edit functionality caused early design decisions around stuff like this that would be pretty tough to unwind.
- ALittleLight 5y ago
  Edit has obvious options for misuse. Mitigating misuse might be complicated but that's no reason not to do it. The feature I've just described is not complicated. The feature might have architectural implications but resolving those is literally the job of software development teams (including design, PM, etc). I think it's pathetic to say of a feature that it's too hard because there may be some complications or architecture changes. It's especially pathetic to say of a basic feature like edit which exists on other platforms and is obviously possible. This defeatist attitude is, no doubt, partially to blame for Twitter's inability to improve.
- yk 5y ago
  Just rewrite twitter as a simple github client. You could tag the version the person retweeted or liked. Since you don't mind the repository being public, you could actually use a free account.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
InCityDreams 5y ago

BeFlatXIII 5y ago

> especially because the edit feature would mostly be used maliciously to cancel retweeters. This could turn out to be a good thing in the long run: force the public to confront the fact that the commentary they are seeing may have, in fact, originally been on something entirely different than the context it is currently presented in.

awb 5y ago
> force the public to confront the fact that the commentary they are seeing may have, in fact, originally been on something entirely different than the context it is currently presented in. How is this a good thing? I’d have 0 confidence that a reply was in fact to the tweet I’m currently seeing. Then how can I accurately reply to that initial reply? And what’s to stop someone from selling the ‘edit’ on their viral tweet? If you edit a tweet does your like and RT count get reset so your tweet is no longer trending?
- BeFlatXIII 5y ago
  > I’d have 0 confidence that a reply was in fact to the tweet I’m currently seeing. As you should already be doing every time you see screenshots.
fastball 5y ago
That doesn't make any sense.

fortran77 5y ago

“Retweet if you like ice cream!” then after a bunch of retweets change it to “Retweet if you love pedophilia!” No thanks. I’d never retweet it like anything again. Editing is a terrible idea.

f1refly 5y ago

> especially because the edit feature would mostly be used maliciously to cancel retweeters It's almost like cancelling was always a garbage idea centered around lies ans deception from the start