Any possibility of adding the option to edit our edit change explanations?

Question

Once in a while, I forget to explain my edits.  Other times, I find I've made a typo, or that annoying bug that prevents mid-sentence changes manifests itself and I don't see that in time.  I would love it if I could just go back and explain myself better, just as I can edit almost anything else on WT--comments, G2G posts, etc.

And by the way, I wish everyone would explain their edits.  It is not only helpful to others, but useful for ourselves when we go back to profiles we've worked on and want to figure out what we've done.

Comments

I like the idea too, but hey, Jamie, Gaile, other G2G participants, where are you?  Once those comments are in the change log, is there a way to edit just those, without giving someone the capability to edit the substance of the actual change?  That could possibly be a show-stopper.

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Dennis, I hadn't thought of that, and with my limited programming knowledge, have no idea whether that would be a problem.  Thanks for your comment!

Answer 1

Yep; I'll upvote that. I do try to add an intelligible description to every profile edit I make--I think I'm successful maybe 90% of the time. Coming across a profile with 20 edits in a single day, none of them with a description, is pretty inconvenient. But, for me, realizing I've entered and saved "Added 1940 U.S. Census citatoin" is exquisitely frustrating.

Comments

In addition to actual typos by (usually) "fat finger syndrome" my keyboard occasionally adds spaces, or fails to add them, and I don't see those until after I hit save.  The best I can do, seemingly, is delete those from my form-history and only use the corrected version from a newer edit.  (I would be lost without that history, because I can only imagine the number of different errors I would see if I typed out "Updated biography, expanded sources, and added categories" every. single. time. I made that type of edit.)  

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What do you mean?

Answer 2

There are no plans to allow editing of the change explanations.

As to wishing everyone would explain their edits -- we are going to start requiring a change explanation on a full save when we add the autosave/draft feature.

Comments

What is the autosave/draft feature?

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A common complaint is that people sometimes lose their work -- either their internet goes out, their computer shuts down, or there is some edit conflict with another user.

So we are working on something that will autosave a draft of what you are working on. What you write in the draft won't show up in the change history until you do a full save. We will also allow people to save a draft manually, or discard a draft if they decide they don't want to make changes. And, it will lock others out of editing a profile while someone is actively working on the profile. Once someone is finished working on a draft and wants to do a complete save, a person will have to enter a change explanation.

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Thank you.

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Jamie, suppose someone saves a draft either automatically or manually, but doesn't do a full save. Will that lock others out from editing the profile indefinitely?

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The plan right now is that the profile will unlock 30 minutes after the last draft save. The draft will still exist after that, but we still need to work out some of the details about what will happen if there is an unsaved draft and someone else makes a change to the profile. This feature is still very much in the alpha stage, as we have been working on something else exciting that should be released this week :)

Answer 3

It would be nice if we had the option to edit our explanations. Even if it was for a short period of time after the post. (maybe 5 minutes)

Comments

Five minutes would be enough for me.  I usually notice my mistakes immediately, or even before I see them, the instant I've hit that "Save" button!