Idea - allow OP's to ADD-TO (not edit) their OP indifinitely

[wanderat]

idea:

How many threads are there where the first post (Original Post (OP)) is a sort of summary/collection of information?
... and as time goes on, the OPer (Original Poster) keeps updating the info in the OP.

However, after some amount of time, they lose the ability to edit the OP... though they still are finding more accurate information that the OP could be adjusted to. But no matter how crucial or death-defying the new info is, they are unable to add it, and instead sit in dispair


Possible Solution- based on ebay's edit/add system for auctions...

-After the current time-limit, posters cannot edit their post -the same as it works now.
-However, for the 1st post (OP), it can be added to after the edit-time-limit. ... the original post would not be editable, but the poster could add underneath the original post, and this ability would have no time-limit.
Similar to how ebay auctions can be edited until 12hrs before the close.. after which they can only be added to.[/I]

Don't know if VBulletin has this feature as an option, but it would be helpful. maybe.

[Aqua Puttana]

Originally Posted by wanderat

idea:

...
Don't know if VBulletin has this feature as an option, but it would be helpful. maybe.

Nice idea. It sounds like a good approach. As you suggest, I think the question of whether VBulletin even supports it is key to if it can be considered. vic

[autostaretx]

I have to admit i prefer the current method. (old fart-ism rears its ugly, er, head)

When new data is added, it appears at the *end* of the thread (where the [ > ] button on the index page takes you).
Therefore someone seeing that there was thread activity is taken there (to the end).
(click the "New Posts" button on the top blue bar to see the view i'm discussing)

If, 2 months down the road, the *original* post was modified, the current index system may (would?) not handle it gracefully.
There would have to be a different way of signalling the reader that the *first* (or perhaps a middle) post had the new content.

Yes, it would be kind'a nice if there was a "summary" system (with only "good" data presented)
At the moment it's manual, via another thread (such as Vic's "Stoopid Things" compendium)

Items such as the [ > ] button on the "new posts" page could be expanded, of course,
such as a [ ^ ] button to mean "see the first", or add a [ < ] next to the thread's subject line to indicate "OP changed"

For "short" (single page) threads, it's not too difficult to scroll up/down to scan for updates... but for multi-page threads the navigation gets tedious.

Added: perhaps something like the "Thanks" system... where the OPer could add a *link* to follow-on updates at the bottom of the original post. So the new data would appear at the end of the thread (of the moment), but an obvious direct link to it would appear in the original post's screen (for a new reader).

--dick