Genealogy Chat

I was informed by a member that it's not good to keep editing threads .
I've seen that someone put an asterix to show what they'd edited . Is that the accepted way to do it ?
If not how are we supposed to correct information that turns out to be wrong on our older threads ? and why does it make a thread harder to follow ?

I like to stick to the rules and conventions and don't want to make life harder for all the people who are so generous with their time and helpful information .

There isn't really any hard and fast rule.

Some people as you've mentioned use the ** then add a sentence at the end of that post.
Others might use the word EDIT next to eg the name when you typed it incorrectly such as

Alison (EDIT - Alisoun)
Alison **

** should read Alisoun.
........................

Ructions can ensue if you are on a 'chat' thread and go back to an earlier post and change the meaning without adding at that point the word Edit
:-)

Thanks for that explanation Detective .The editing and comment about it was on a Find Ancestor thread .

Hi Alisoun, if someone has read the information that a person has posted and then goes straight off and starts looking for information based on that post, then it is a bit frustrating to find that the info has been changed and no mention made (often happens).

You start to doubt your sanity when you look back and think "I'm sure that's not what it said originally".

What DET suggests is a good way of making simple corrections. If the amendment affects what people are looking up then it's also a good idea to put a new post saying that you've amended a previous posting and state why (otherwise if someone's already read the previous posting then they probably wouldn't be aware as wouldn't expect to have to re-read posts).

e.g.

"Have amended my post of 20:15 as the father's name was Albert, not Alfred"

Also, if you come to a thread a bit late, you can read a post (which has been altered since the original) and wonder what the heck do the following posts mean as they do not reflect what went before.

Thanks Stuart and Marie-c for your clear explanations.
searchers can delete there comments but I'm scared to delate a comment i accidently made twice on my own thread in case i delete the whole thing.I've accidently deleted whole conversations on my message board before now when i only meant to delete 1 message

If you try to delete the 1st post in one of your own threads it will delete the whole thread.

If you delete a post in the middle it should only delete that post.

(I think this is right anyway - not something I do often)

If I find that some info I have posted like a census or GRO ref that turns out needs correcting , I will go back to my original posting and type at the bottom of it

Edit : ( the correction)

Will do the same if a subsequent marriage or death for the persons concerned is found.

To me that keeps it in sequence and easier to follow by the enquirer.

Alisoun - don't be put off editing anything. I'm the worst for bad spelling and changing what I wrote to make it clearer. Then even adding bits to explain further.

It is just a matter of curtesy to add an Edit comment to explain what you have done.
Some members follow every word.

:-D :-D :-D

thanks for that cheerful note nanasue ;my spellimg and grammar go to pot when I'm tired ;
still dare not delete that double entry in case thread disappears

Alisoun

Most of us pay no attention to bad spelling or grammar

We all know that many people have problems of various kinds.


and we all also make mistakes in spelling or grammar. :-D

None of us can afford to castigate others for simple mistakes.


What IS important though is that names of people are spelled as correctly as you can ................... there is nothing more frustrating than spending a lot of time searching for a name that cannot be found, and then the poster comes back and says "Oh, sorry ........... I didn't check the spelling".

Now again, we all also know that spellings change over the years, and that the spelling first found may not be the one(s) also, or more often, used.

I also personally think that spelling is important on a technical thread, eg, when someone is offering advice on how to make something work, or solve computer problems


I always recommend re-reading your post at least once before hitting Submit to ensure that important things are spelled correctly, and dates are as correct as they can be.

I re-read and then double check at least twice more before I submit most of my own posts .............. that may be over-the-top, but I learnt when I was involved in publishing that that was what I needed to do.

It means that I double-check not only the spelling, but also that the meaning is what I intended it to be.


I fail quite regularly, in spite of doing that much checking! :-D

That's when adding EDIT to a post that I have changed comes in useful :-D


The format I usually use is to add at the bottom of the post ...............

EDIT, 10:20 pm May 15, for (reason ...... eg, spelling error; grammar; meaning; to clarify; etc etc)




sylvia




PS ............... I've just re-read this message at least 6 times while typing it, and made changes each time :-)

Alisoun, I promise you that if you go to your double posting timed 14:04 and click delete above one of them only one of them will disappear and not the whole thread, honest!

Go on, try it :-)

I have to confess that I don't always annotate when I've made minor amendments that doesn't affect the gist of a post, for example if I notice that I've put "their" instead of "they're" or if I've posted a record and the formatting is a bit skew whiff then I may tidy it.

I guess most people wouldn't notice I've done it.

sorry Marie celeste didn't see this til now but i have been deleting my double postings . Thanks .