ArticlesWhen one of my readers asked for the ability to edit comments in WordPress, I took that feature request seriously, and decided to find the solution.
When I discovered that
it
was
a
commonly–requested
feature,
yet
was
still
unimplemented,
I decided not to take it as seriously any more, and gave up instead.
Update: More thought has made me realise that adding the feature to edit your own comments is opening a can-of-worms, and the naive solution I originally considered has “security”-style implications.
For example, a malicious commenter could post an innocent comment. The moderator (where appropriate) would approve it. Maybe other people who comment on it, saying “Yes, I agree!” Then the commenter could edit the comment to something that would no longer pass moderation, or is embarassing to the users who are still listed as agreeing with it.
I am not saying it is impossible to do, but just that it needs a lot more analysis than a quick plug-in.
Casey has expressed some cogent views on the matter of blog comment/content management.
Comment by Alastair on September 14, 2005
I agree with Casey. There certainly is a need to manage this content better, in order to resolve the sometimes conflicting needs of blogger and commenters.
Whenever I post a comment on a blog or an online forum I try to remember to keep a copy of the text and the URL of the comment. I have a personal wiki which is great for storing this stuff. But it’s tedious to enter this information each time, and I don’t always bother.
[Perhaps there is an opportunity for a Firefox extension to automatically store (locally or on the web) the content and location of all form content that you post, meeting some criteria (eg non-secure, greater than 4 words, etc)?]
Also, IIRC it was intended that trackbacks solve (at least partially) this problem. They don’t, of course.