I’d like to be able to edit posts after longer than 24 hours. The inability to seems problematic on a forum.
I think it might be related to trust levels, but this seems like pretty core functionality to a forum where you may be editing the top level post to include more information after the fact.
This is trust-level related. The limit increases to 30 days after you reach TL 2, so this is a temporary situation for everybody. I would like to keep the difference (so no edits for TL 0, some limitations for TL 1, less limitations for TL 2+) because editing is something that can add a lot of mess in a forum and I’d rather like for the users to get some experience before they start doing “dangerous” things.
Also, for anybody interested in how trust levels work, you can find the official documentation below:
I wouldn’t consider it “dangerous” to edit a post.
For example, with my thread on the IPP Generator the intent is to add additional generator files as they’re released at the bottom of the OP so they’re localized for future users to find.
As the trust levels are set up now I currently cannot add any additional generators to the OP or fix any issues that occurred (see the troubleshooting discussion happening) and once I hit trust level 2 (in days? Weeks?) I can only keep it updated for 30 days.
This seems problematic and counter to what a forum is good for. I thought the whole point of creating a forum was to have this type of long-form discussion, preventing edits is counter to that goal.
Edits change the history of the conversation, which might create confusion (especially for long-running discussions). In case of this type of posts, where you might want to keep adding resources, the solutions seems to be a Wiki post, in fact, I was considering the idea of making your post a Wiki anyway, since it seems the right format for that discussion.
So, if you are ok with this, I will update your post to Wiki.
I’m okay with it and it would fix this issue for that one post but I’m still against the idea of locking edits.
Take this example -
Someone creates an OSR game and creates a thread around it. In the thread they link to a document in the OP. They are TL2. Discussion happens around the game in the thread and users point out a few typos and typographical errors.
About a month and a half later the poster releases v2 of the game with edits and fixes based on received feedback and wants to update the OP with the latest version but is unable.
Are you arguing that what you would prefer is that because the edits took into account what other users posted in the thread the original poster should post a reply in their thread with the v2 saying “Hey everyone, I updated the document - here is version 2” rather than doing that and updating the original post?
That seems like terrible design to me.
Updates to top level posts is critical functionality on a forum to ensure that users can find updated, localized information. Piecemealing it throughout an entire thread of 100+ posts makes it nearly impossible for all but the most attentive users to gather it all.
Up until this morning I would have agreed with you. Then I started parsing this thread in order to search for feedback similar to what I wanted to leave on the right version (they don’t edit the threads there, Jason is just changing the files in the linked Dropbox) and now my opinion is: split the threads (as I’m about to do with this thread, because it’s growing interesting and big enough to be worth a space of its own).
We don’t have an hard and fast rule or even official guidelines, but this is how I’m using Discourse (here and everywhere else there isn’t a guideline stating different things):
And, again, if after doing any of this you feel like you made a mistake, just ask us and we will clean up for you 
In the end it’s your forum so you can do what you wish, but I strongly disagree.
There was a time I was active on the Droid X forums and posted a guide on how to reset your phone.
If someone accidentally downloaded the wrong version of a file or followed an incorrect guide their $500 phone could end up bricking (becoming worthless).
The stakes aren’t as high here, but the sentiment remains. All users should have easy and immediate access to the most updated information at the top level.
While I agree with this statement, I also think that Discourse has many post types and actions that can be a better tool for the job than just editing the top post in a way which might confuse the readers (that’s why I suggest starting a new thread - and maybe ask an admin to lock/archive the outdated one - if you release a new version of whatever resource you are discussing, this way new readers won’t have to read each message and ask themselves “is this referring to my version or another one?”).
Well, there’s a reason why we are having this discussion in public: everything in the forum’s inner working which is not a technical limit is up to discussion. If you or any other poster (and I really hope this thread will attract more users than just the two of us) manage to persuade me and/or @Kingroy23 about your policies, the policies will change. So, thank you for your contribution and, please, keep doing it!
Hey,
Me and @thekernelinyellow have been discussing this recently again after some more feedback, and have decided to change the editing policy. Posts can be edited at any time now (so no more day limit after which a post gets locked).