I often comment as I read a lot. And sometimes I write these long, excited comments where my two fingers race with my mind to keep pace and as is to be expected fail to do so.

 End result - full stop missing (e.g. Alex's blog: ... What David Ehrenstein says is right - that is the marriages were arranged in ancient times in India and babies were born and raised in a number of ways)

David said nothing about Indian marriages, I did not think or attempt to imply he had.

I meant to write this:

What David Ehrenstein says is right. That is,  marriages were arranged. (to secure wealth).  In ancient times in India esply.  And babies were born and raised in a number of ways...

A  missing fullstop and missing commas can make such huge difference in the  sense  of a sentence...it is often exasperating when you have to repost another comment to correct the first one and send another after the second to correct that one....

There is a cancel option besides post. There is another Delete option within Manage Posts Menu. 

Now Deleting your comment from here does not make that errant comment disappear from the blog! It merely disappears from your own List of comments.

Cancel and Delete are both the same basically - and I think too drastica measure.

Life would be easier if we could leave some space for learning to happen? If there was some way we could go back and REDO/EDIT our mistakes and get on with life instead of trying to bury it with a Del/ or forget it with Cancel,  life would be so  much pleasanter. People could sleep easily at night.

Learning - textbook definition would tell you it is change in behaviour.

So it makes sense to allow for an EDIT function in the comment box too. I dont care that there isn't a reply function. I do care that there isn't an EDIT function.

Life is hard as it is - why make it harder on a personal blog, yaar?

Our comments reflect who we are, what we believe in, what our values are. So they are important isn't it? We all care about how it comes across, how it gets posted and we want to make sure it is exactly worded the way we want it to be, that it is exactly close to what I wish to say.

Also, it would be unfair to expect people would write in Word and then post a comment after they have carefully edited it on the wordprocesor. Who has that kind of time? 

Also, lack of punctuation, complicated syntax, spelling error etc obfuscate the meaning of what we say.  So we are  wasting our reader's tme when we write comments in a way that is hard to understand.

 To respect Reader's/ Users' time, to value what Readers/Users value, out of respect for what might be good for them, save people from getting into embarrassing situations bec of errors that are unintentional, it might be a good idea to introduce the EDIT function for comments.

Considering the fact that it is after all a social thing, the act of blogging, and it is COMMENTS  that add spice and life to a post and add value to the site too -  it seems a  good "add-value" measure  to provide for an EDIT option in addition to Cancel, Post functions.

Knock, knock - is anyone listening? Is anyone with me,  on this? Have you faced the same situation as I have and bit your toungue in exasperation?

 =========

Out of 20 comments on this post, 15 votes are for : EDIT/ EDIT within a Time Limit / DELAY / PREVIEW function.

3 votes  suggest  EDIT prior to posting (EPToP) - write it down somewhere before you post. Are not against EDITING as such.

1 vote probably says a straight NO.  Her  apprehensions are similar to BBE and Singpretty's. And am sure we all agree this fear is justified.

Some people might be shy and may not be comfortable with or be deterred by the  laboriousness of the  process.

It can however be done:  in very serious cases, for instance,  where one is participating in a school debate, and you know your views are recorded and votes are counted.

Most of the FACILITIES we are developing in the contemporary world are designed to make life easier, free time, take into account human frailties.

Am thinking  of a simple case like washing machines. These days it dries clothes too.  One can easily argue, why do you need drying? You can easily take it out and hang it out in the sun. 

However,  this would work well for people who live in sunshine zones of the earth, with people who have the time and hands to hang it out, then collect it after it dries, or run and get it if it starts to rain.

It may not be easy for a person with full time career, or where there never is enough sunshine, or space is a problem etc etc.

The same way, that "write somewhere",  "edit prior to posting"  might be easy for some, but may not begood for all.

EDIT -  even  with conditions  attached with the function,  might, however, be a welcome option for a lot of people. 

The fear of manipulation:

In this context I would like to cite the example of the Supermarket idea that India borrowed from the West. ( Or  we could even consider  'credit'  given by banks).  It works on the 'trust' factor.

Initially, we Indians had thought,  if we did the supermarket thing,  people left to themsleves would mishandle, steal or wreck  goods on the shelves.

That.  Did.  NOT.  Happen.

Another example is how nobody dirties, spits on walls, or public buildings in the West, or pees in the street, or streetside, throw garbage here and there - even though no one is watching.

Some do, if they are feeling rebellious or trying to voice a grudge or protest or are angry.

Most don't.

It surprises us in the East, especially impresses a lot of Indians, who come back and talk about this aspect of life there.

Also, come to think of it,  the  world wide web - the Internet in fact, runs on 'trust' that people would use it decently, not use it to perpetrate violence or for dishonest endeavours.

Sometimes, people do these things.

After all, we are all prone to the  evil instincts once in a while.

On the whole, generally though, the idea of trust does work.  And it is the West that has taught it, demonstrated it to the world.

we do not want nice stuff. we want better management of the nice stuff we already have here, despite all that was looted over thousands of years.
NOT blow it all up - not DELETE or CANCEL but an EDIT option, Jim, don't you think that might be better?

Rolling

May 18, 2009 11:16 AM