litphoria

When you comment on people's feedback you should be able to edit/delete your comments. I'm sure it would reduce unnecessary clutter at least.

I keep making typos and thinkos though so I keep making a lot of comments to try to correct myself. I don't want anyone to start complaining that I "spam" or whatever.

I do that a lot. I've never seen a complaint anywhere from anyone about spamming.

I might go for editing, but I don't think deleting is in the best interest of the discussion. On other sites with deletion, I've seen people just delete entire chunks of their discussion just because they've changed the mind, which removes the potential for anyone else who feels like they do to follow the same trail and come to the same conclusion.

I share that concern, WA. I've also seen people make a genuine and excellent contribution to a discussion, then delete it once something makes them feel self-conscious.

Editing can let someone just replace their whole message with (deleted) though.

Perhaps put a time limit on the editing? Something between 1 and 5 minutes. This would allow for a quick fix to that typo you notice, without allowing people to completely null the points they made after replies have been offered.

That sounds sensible. Based on some experiences with a chat service that has editing, I wouldn't put the limit below 2 minutes here. (And 5 probably ought to be more than enough except for very large posts.)

Another feedback is being closed as a duplicate of this, which has some useful discussion inside it. Wrecked Avent is in agreement over the time limit:

OK then. I'm okay with this with the following provisos:

• No editing after a short period (5-15 minutes)
• Original post is still accessible to be seen,

Displaying revisions or the original would also help.