Status Quo

Currently there are two options to set the edit time for custom user roles (Control Panel -> General Settings -> Custom User Roles):

• 60 minutes
  
  
  
• Unlimited time (users can always edit their posts)
  
  
  

60 minutes is also the default value for the primary role "Registered Users". There are no further options to customize the edit time. All settings are global for all inSided customers.

Issue

In our community we witness an increasing number of users who delete their own questions after they got an answer.





Example:

• User A (Question): Why was my contract automatically renewed?
  
  
  
• User B (answers within an hour): Because you didn't cancel it.
  
  
  
• User A -> proceeds to edit own question (because it's within 60 minutes), deletes the question and writes something like "Nevermind".
  
  
  

This content now doesn't have any value for other users with potentially the same question anymore. And as our community gets more and more vibrant, meaning it's getting more common for questions to be answered within minutes, more users delete own questions after they have been resolved. Additionally, it is frustrating for users who answer questions to see their answer devalued, because the context is now missing.

Idea

I want to propose two improvements:

1.) Disable edit after reply (high priority)

It will not be possible anymore to edit a question or discussion post after the first reply got posted - no matter if 60 minutes are up or not. This way users can still edit their own posts if they need to correct typos or information after they submitted them, but they cannot remove any context anymore after the conversation has started.

2.) Customizable edit time per community (mid priority)

It will be possible for every inSided community to change the default edit time. This default edit time will (like before) used as:

• default edit time for primary role "Registered Users"
  
  
  
• one of two options for custom user roles
  
  
  

As every community has a different level of activity and engagement, it will be possible to reflect that by decreasing or increasing the edit time.

Benefits

With these two improvements every community

• keeps control over the content
  
  
  
• keeps the content valuable for other users
  
  
  
• makes sure power users aren't demotivated