5 ms·

Unlike GitHub, tweets should not be editable forever. I think 5 minutes is reasonable. Even HN has an edit time limit. I hope they also limit how much you can t

Unlike GitHub, tweets should not be editable forever. I think 5 minutes is reasonable. Even HN has an edit time limit. I hope they also limit how much you can tweets (even though, in reality, adding 4 characters (“not ”) is destructive enough.

eatonphil 4y ago
Do you think HTML pages should be uneditable after a period of time? Regardless of your opinion there (since I can see the merits), the rest of the web isn't exactly founded on immutability.
- nkozyra 4y ago
  I see the argument, though. Edits in a conversation break context and flow.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    HN has edits, in conversation and flow, and it does break sometimes, but in general it's a good. Discussion forums have had edits forever; reddit famously lets you go and delete all your existing posts at anytime by replacing them with "edited by autodeleter9000".
- mushyhammer 4y ago
  But Twitter doesn’t want to be just another webpage. Tweets and its dates are used in court and by historians. That’s basically why Twitter has been hesitant to allow edits. I kinda wish they let people add some text instead of allowing editing, like: Wouldnt it be nice? Added: * wouldn’t I know deletions are still allowed, but they don’t lead to different content.
  - eatonphil 4y ago
    I'm sure that web pages and their dates are used in court and by historians.
    - awb 4y ago
      The web has archive.org for that. Or, ‘download webpage’ from a browser.
      - unholiness 4y ago
        Archive.org works on twitter too?
        zimpenfish 4y ago
        > Archive.org works on twitter too? Maybe if you're a famous celebrity etc. but it's scraped mine 5 times since 2007 (and the "expand conversation" links don't work) and I promise you that it has been fairly active ever since I signed up.
  - BeFlatXIII 4y ago
    Is it Twitter's responsibility to be an accurate archive for courts and historians?
    - mushyhammer 4y ago
      It’s not the responsibility, but if you read their post it’s obviously their concern.
ncallaway 4y ago
I think the other option would be to have a longer window, but then have edits of “popular” tweets require a manual review and approval. Links and uploaded media should not be editable.
- melony 4y ago
  Then you need to hire humans and it costs money. An edit history is much cheaper.

eatonphil 4y ago

Do you think HTML pages should be uneditable after a period of time? Regardless of your opinion there (since I can see the merits), the rest of the web isn't exactly founded on immutability.

nkozyra 4y ago
I see the argument, though. Edits in a conversation break context and flow.
- bombcar 4y ago
  HN has edits, in conversation and flow, and it does break sometimes, but in general it's a good. Discussion forums have had edits forever; reddit famously lets you go and delete all your existing posts at anytime by replacing them with "edited by autodeleter9000".
mushyhammer 4y ago
But Twitter doesn’t want to be just another webpage. Tweets and its dates are used in court and by historians. That’s basically why Twitter has been hesitant to allow edits. I kinda wish they let people add some text instead of allowing editing, like: Wouldnt it be nice? Added: * wouldn’t I know deletions are still allowed, but they don’t lead to different content.
- eatonphil 4y ago
  I'm sure that web pages and their dates are used in court and by historians.
  - awb 4y ago
    The web has archive.org for that. Or, ‘download webpage’ from a browser.
    - unholiness 4y ago
      Archive.org works on twitter too?
      - zimpenfish 4y ago
        > Archive.org works on twitter too? Maybe if you're a famous celebrity etc. but it's scraped mine 5 times since 2007 (and the "expand conversation" links don't work) and I promise you that it has been fairly active ever since I signed up.
- BeFlatXIII 4y ago
  Is it Twitter's responsibility to be an accurate archive for courts and historians?
  - mushyhammer 4y ago
    It’s not the responsibility, but if you read their post it’s obviously their concern.

ncallaway 4y ago

I think the other option would be to have a longer window, but then have edits of “popular” tweets require a manual review and approval. Links and uploaded media should not be editable.

melony 4y ago
Then you need to hire humans and it costs money. An edit history is much cheaper.