What is the technical reason that so many social media sites don't allow you to edit your text?

Posted by Edward Tanguay on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Edward Tanguay
Published on 2011-03-04T22:59:48Z Indexed on 2011/03/04 23:32 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 408

Filed under:

user-interface

|

user-experience

A common complaint I hear about Facebook, Twitter, Ning and other social sites is that once a comment or post is made, it can't be edited.

I think this goes against one of the key goals of user experience: giving the user agency, or the ability to control what he does in the software.

Even on Stackexchange sites, you can only edit the comments for a certain amount of time.

Is the inability for so many web apps to not allow users to edit their writing a technical shortcoming or a "feature by design"?

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about user-interface

Design For Asynchronous User Interface

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I have been working on a integration that has posed an interesting user interface conundrum that I would like suggestions for. The user interface is displayed within a third party product. The state of the interface is supplied by calls to a service I have written. There can be small delays between… >>> More
User Interface Annoyances

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I am looking for some of the most annoying user interface features that are common and keep being repeated. The first one that comes to mind is the modal pop up message box that developers like to use to let you know you did something right, but gets frustrating the 1000th time you have to close… >>> More
UI message passing programming paradigm

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I recently (about two months ago) read an article that explained some user interface paradigm that I can't remember the name of and I also can't find the article anymore. The paradigm allows for decoupling the user interface and backend through message passing (via some queueing implementation).… >>> More
How to Implement "Code Bubble" like User Interface?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
The new Code Bubble IDE has been in the news. I wonder if there are useful libraries to implement this kind of interface (for other applications)? I prefer java or python. I understand Code Bubble has been implemented on Eclipse. >>> More
Improving in the MonoDevelop user interface

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
<b>Food For Monkeys:</b> "In the past weeks (actually, months) I've been doing some changes in the MonoDevelop GUI to make it more functional and better looking. Here is the result:" >>> More

Related posts about user-experience

Real User Experience Insight: Oracle’s Approach to User Experience

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
This self-study course is the first in a series about Oracle Real User Experience Insight. Intended for a broad, general audience, this course begins with a discussion on why user experience is important, followed by Oracle’s approach to user experience. Next, several use cases for Real User… >>> More
Workshops, online content show how Oracle infuses simplicity, mobility, extensibility into user experience

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
By Kathy Miedema & Misha Vaughan, Oracle Applications User Experience Oracle has made a huge investment into the user experience of its many different software product families, and recent releases showcase big changes and features that aim to promote end user engagement and efficiency by streamlining… >>> More
User Experience Fundamentals

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Understanding what user experience means in the modern work environment is central to building great-looking usable applications on the desktop or mobile devices. What better place to start a series of blog posts on such Applications User Experience team enablement for customers and partners than… >>> More
Oracle's Fusion User Experience is a Key Ingredient to their Customers Success

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Jeremy Ashley, Vice President of Oracle's Applications User Experience and Luke Kowalski, Corporate UI Architect for Oracle discuss with Cliff how User Experience and User Centered Design are key in Oracle's strategy to deliver quality experiences for its end users, ease of use, flexibility, and finally… >>> More
Oracle's Fusion User Experience Raises the Bar

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Hear Jeremy Ashley, Oracle's Vice President of Applications User Experience, and Patanjali Venkatacharya, Applications User Experience Architect, speak with Cliff about Oracle's innovative user experience methodology and the benefits it provides customers. >>> More