Idea Convo Limitations

[LimeyPanda]

So the Conversation features on STC are perfectly adequate for pretty much everything I'd ever want except for one thing. Why do you only have the ability to edit a message for about five minutes? If I go back and reread something an hour or so later, or make a typo which it takes a partner a small-but-longer-than five minutes to fix, why am I stuck looking at my inadequacy!?

 

[Otomos the Crazy]

In stuff like this, I should probably consider writing a rough draft somewhere first, but it would be nice to edit my PM posts

 

[Tiko]

The primary reason for this is because unlike forum posts, staff can't view conversation edits. This can cause two problems.

One is that most official staff exchanges with users are through PMs. It's important that we have accurate records of exchanges that aren't edited or modified at a later date.

The other is that a user could lambast another user via conversations, then edit out their conversations so that staff can't see what was written if a conversation gets reported to us. Or a user can falsely claim someone did that to try and get them in trouble.

Forums this isn't an issue since we can view all past edits to posts.

 

[LimeyPanda]

That is unfortunate. Are there any intents in perhaps a future update to address that issue, or is it a problem you think we'll be stuck with Ad infinitum?

 

[Tiko]

I can't say for sure what xenforo may or may not release in future updates, but as of this current time we know of no modifications to the conversation system planned anytime soon. They just released a new version of xenforo recently which we're currently using. There's nothing strictly wrong with it, we just made the personal choice to limit conversation edits. That xenforo allows us to read older post edits is something many platforms don't allow, so that's an added perk that allows us to leave forum posts editable for longer than we would have normally. It just doesn't extend to conversations.

 

[LimeyPanda]

Alright, thanks for clearing that up boss.

 

[Dashmiel]

As Tiko said, as it stands and for the very near future, not likely to change. However, it is not impossible for us to add the ability for staff to be able to view the edit history on reported conversation messages or conversations in which staff are included, naturally allowing us to grant for longer user ability to edit their conversation messages without it affecting the previously stated concerns.

However, this ability would be dependent on a host of other improvements to the site's search handling, which while being something I want to get eventually, cost a bit of money and aren't what I'd consider a glamorous cause for a donation campaign, so I've mostly keep it on the back-burner for when I can personally afford it.

So, TL;DR : Eventually edit time limit could be re-addressed to allow for what your idea requests, but it's a side-effect of other future improvements that are planned but no due date; Soon™.