[Python-ideas] Clearer communication

[Chris Angelico]

On Sat, Feb 2, 2019 at 9:52 AM Abe Dillon <abedillon at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [Chris Angelico]
>>
>> And then people wonder whether quoted text really aligns with the
>> original post, whether "sort by post date/time" actually means what it
>> says, and whether people have actually changed their stance while
>> editing a post. No thank you. In accounting, git repositories, and
>> mailing lists, you cannot edit the past - you can only post a
>> follow-up.
>
>
> It's common etiquette to clearly label your edits. That's why you'll see people write "EDIT: I changed X, Y, and Z due to <this comment>".

Requires cooperation and discipline. You have no proof that someone
didn't unintentionally (or even maliciously) change the content of the
post to misrepresent someone.

> Reddit can show how long ago a given post was edited (if it was at all) and commenters can flag posts that were edited in a misleading way. There's also no inherent reason a forum couldn't keep and expose the full history of edits to each post.
>

Sure, it's possible to keep them all. It's not easy to adequately
*show* them unless someone specifically says "show me the history".

> It would be interesting if you could link to a specific edit so when some one says "I don't understand X and you weren't clear about Z" you could edit your post to clarify and link to the edit in a response saying "I edited my post to clarify. Thanks!"
>

I've seen that. It tends to result in posts that say "I've edited my
preceding post", which is just as spammy as a followup but still
disrupts the conversation. Still can't see it as an advantage.

Edits like that are great for something that's meant to be a lasting
document. That's why a PEP can be edited, and it retains its full
history. You can go back and look at everything. But the mailing list
is a discussion forum, not a document showing the final state of a
discussion.

ChrisA