Slashdot Mirror
Facebook No Longer Clearly Labels Edited Posts (mashable.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Mashable: Have you ever made a cringeworthy mistake in a Facebook post? Don't lie, the answer is yes. If you have a sense of shame, Facebook at least allows you to go back and correct your gaffe by editing the post, a feature that certain other social media networks still haven't added. But evidence of your slip-up lived on with the tiny "Edited" label on the bottom of the post, signaling to your followers that you cared just enough to correct yourself on the internet. Sad. Apparently, however, that's no longer the case. It seems that Facebook has removed the on-post edited label, making it much more difficult to know when someone actually took the time to fix their mistake. In order to actually know whether or not your eyes were playing tricks on you when a friend's rant no longer has 15 spelling errors the second time you see it, you'll need to do some digging. Here's how the new editing looks, courtesy of my colleague Raymond Wong and his doubts about how cool the upcoming Nintendo Switch actually is. I noticed that he added a comment about the Switch, so I checked out the post information, via the drop-down menu. To see what happened, I have to view the edit history. When I look at his edit history, I can see all the changes that were made. In most cases, this type of editing isn't a big deal, but the move to hide post edit labels takes away one of the few features that provided any transparency for our online behavior.
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"Have you ever made a cringeworthy mistake in a Facebook post?"
No, because I don't have a fucking Facebook page.
And holy crap, did lil ol' me manage to get a 1st post?
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
We've always been at war with Eastasia.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Does anyone know if FarceBook's API would make it possible to write a browser plugin to restore the ability to easily identify prolific redactors?
I've thought about this issue over years as I use both /. and Reddit.
There are pros and cons of not having an edit button:
= Pros of Edit =
* I don't have to worry about spelling or grammar mistakes -- since I can fix them later
* I can expand to include additional thoughts post submit (I use this feature all the time on Reddit.)
= Cons of Edit =
* I can be lazy and just type stuff up not worrying about grammar and flow knowing that I can fix it "later"
* Posts can be redacted after the initial submit making it hard to know what the original version said. It is nice knowing a post hasn't been "tampered with"
* You usually can't see a history of edits to see what was changed and why. This is one area StackOverflow does well.
For every argument for having an edit button, I think a case could be made against it.
However I think there is an argument that swings it to the "edit side". The thing about having an edit button is that you don't have to use it. It solves "most" of the issues.
C'est la vie
--
Region Locking is Price Fixing
People should be free to change their mind, correct themselves, regret what they have done, ..
It's stupid the old content is shown at all. If I wanted it left I could had kept it.
The whole "non-permanent" status of posts has been a long-term source of amusement for me. Even when it showed posts as "edited", deleted posts would just disappear.
So an ex of mine had a post about her big drooly bulldog. I can't remember my exact post, but I essentially posted something about my dog. Her husband - who rather dislikes me - pops up and posts something to the effect of
"well, you're probably just as stupid and ugly as that dog"
So I delete my post, and suddenly all that's left is her original post, and him replying "you're as ugly and stupid as that dog"
Good times :-)
But I don't use Facebook anyways.
Facebook is #fakenews
I wonder if this was in part due to the smarter leftists (please, no jokes about the idea of "smart" leftists...) realizing that times are changing, and they don't want to be associated with their current views, which are quickly becoming ridiculed and seen as antiquated relics of naive times.
After about a decade of leaning to the left, we're starting to see societies around the world lean to the right. We're seeing this in America. We're seeing this in the UK. We're seeing this in Australia and New Zealand. We're even seeing this in Europe, which has leaned more to the left longer than most other societies today.
People are sick of the so-called "social justice" movement and its hypocrisy. They're sick of rampant political correctness and being attacked for pointing out uncomfortable truths. They're sick of "affirmative action" that only puts unqualified people in positions where qualifications are key. They're sick of watching armed criminal thugs attack police officers, and then the police officers being demonized when they're left with no choice but to defend themselves using force. They're sick of the economic problems caused by illegal immigration in America, or worse, the crime and terrorist attacks seen recently in Europe caused by foreigners who entered Europe illegally.
The smarter leftists know they'll need to gradually change the views they're expressing in public if they don't want to become mocked outcasts. Being able to edit what they've written, especially with no or limited evidence of such editing, will make changing their past stances much easier to do.
Staunchly leftist comments could gradually start to become more centrist, if not right-leaning, and their edited posting history could make it look like they've been consistent all along. They'll know that they're living a lie, but it won't be as apparent to others. Although their public comments will appear to be in line with the rest of society, on the inside these people will know that their beliefs are shunned by society at large, and they'll feel miserable about it.
https://www.facebook.com/Steph...
This is a post by Stephen Crab - who was at the time the person in charge of UK disability allowances, complaining about an incident of vandalism at his office.
The edited post is " A decision was taken by MPs to change the benefit awarded to a specific group of people who receive Employment Support Allowance. These people are in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) and they do have a disability or illness but are considered able to work with support in the future."
The original post is "A decision was taken by MPs to change the benefit awarded to a specific group of people who receive Employment Support Allowance. These people are in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) and they do have a disability or illness but are able to work. "
The original version is a completely wrong statement. This post lead to people looking at other tweets and social media, which revealed that MPs making a critical vote about removing disability payments likely believed that the group in question was found able to work, when this is not so.
An example (somewhat contrived) of the people who benefit is being removed from in this case might be someone who can slowly wheel themselves 200m several times a day in a wheelchair, understands only short sentences, can talk to people only a couple of hours a day, is blind but can read braille, can just about understand how to use a washing machine, who shouts out randomly. They have not been found 'able to work'.
They have failed to pass the most stringent criteria in order to have no requirements as to things they must do to be "work ready" placed on them, and there is no requirement for them ever to be able to realistically work in the future.
Which we need because ...
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
This means Facebook can edit other people's stuff and no one would ever know.
Find the tiny print, recognize the text and add a bright magenta banner that says "Advertisement".
davecb@spamcop.net
Have you ever stopped reading a cringeworthy Slashdot summary after the first two sentences? Don't lie, the answer is yes.
Facebook at least allows you ......? Why do we just accept this stuff.
The whole editing history thing is stupid. I never use the editing function unless it's to fix simple typos. Anything other than that I delete and repost.
There is nothing to be gained by being able to see someone's editing history other than to use it against them.
least once something wong with post?