Editing other people’s thread titles

Hi. I’ve just noticed that someone recently edited my post to correct an error in the title. Although it was grammatically incorrect and the person fixed it, it was still clear what the topic was and I was a bit surprised that it was edited without anyone even mentioning to me. Is this the done thing on this forum? We’re not always going to spell everything correctly but does it matter if people can still understand it? It feels really weird that someone just went in and changed it. Implicit criticism really. I don’t feel like a typo or a grammatical error should be corrected unless it fundamentally changes the meaning.

I’ve had many posts edited, but I don’t mind and in fact prefer as I know I often make typos or other errors.

I personally think editing a title is fair enough and would not see it as criticism, just trying to keep things tidy - that’s how I have felt when it’s been done to me, though generally edits have been to link things or add event times etc, or change formattting I’ve messed up.

When I was a mod, if I edited someone’s post I would normally message the person, but sometimes you can forget / get distracted and / or think it’s not appropriate I guess. Of course it might not have been a mod who edited your post (I’ve had several changed by other members of the site).

I see the edit to the topic title you are complaining about, and don’t think it is a criticism to be honest - most computers have spelling and grammar checkers and fix things automatically, here it’s just been done by another trusted member.

The ability for members to edit titles is intended to help keep things neat and tidy for everyone’s benefit. For example, I sometimes edit titles for clarity, or as a topic evolves e.g. with [Sold] or [Found] and so on. I would encourage other members to do the same where they are allowed, and I also frequently add relevant tags or times and dates to topics, or re-categorise them if needed - again to keep things tidy and organised for all. Tags can also notify members of relevant posts - see Subscribe to posts about your road on SE23.life.

Edits made to posts or their titles create an automatic notification with a little pencil icon and entry in your member menu at the top right of the screen. As @oakr says, normally if a moderator edits actual post content they will also send a message to say why, though generally it’s just for formatting or technical reasons, such as adding an @, indenting a quote, or fixing a broken image upload or hyperlink.

So anyway, apologies if the edit was unexpected or unwelcome, but in answer to your question, I think the answer is ‘yes’ - making minor tidy-ups and clarifications does happen, but you will be notified of the change.

I don’t really care, but whoever edited the title of my football thread is a proper sad case.

So I don’t know if someone is trying to wind me up but someone’s edited this thread title also and removed the words ‘other peoples’ which quite frankly was the point of the post. Whereas I understand the rationale for editing if things are wrong if does feel really weird that people feel the need to edit perfectly understandable titles.

Also if you are going to edit my titles please don’t capitalise unnecessary words (cue someone going in to add in a whole load of capital letters to wind me up even more)

Though I agree and it’s happened to me. I also feel it can leave you feeling offended. It’s the same feeling when some people love to make assume or make accusations just for likes or popularity. Its become sad and petty and takes the spirit out of community or social chatter. So much misunderstanding and cause for negativity. I don’t mind making light hearted fun of myself or apologising when I am wrong. And cringe when I make my bloopers. Happy to admit I ain’t perfect who is. Happy for someone to suggest or kindly point out errors without drama and belittling someone. I am cool with that. Everyone is different and I do enjoy majority of the updates given though. It’s tricky sometimes to get it right all the time. Not taking sides on this and I do appreciate your post. And I also hope a better way arises somehow from this constructive topic. No one should ever feel belittled regardless. Oh dear me HopSE80 go grab a glass of vino love sorry to add my tuppence worth in. Thank you though for sharing this . Have a great evening to you and all enjoy xx

It’s useful when other long-standing members can edit titles for clarity but it’s probably worth thinking about whether it’s worth doing so.

Adding ‘gone’ or ‘no longer available’ to an offered post is worthwhile and saves others looking. Adding dates to ‘outage’ or traffic jam threads is helpful.

Personally I’d rarely bother with grammatical edits unless the meaning was likely to be entirely misconstrued (eats, shoots and leaves style) but others may find it jarring enough to change.

Editing other people’s stuff should be at an absolute minimum, I think. I speak as a professional editor, who wouldn’t ordinarily allow mistakes to be published in a professional setting.

On a forum such as this, I think obvious errors in titles (eg ‘Bride in Hand pub’ rather than ‘’Bird in Hand pub’) and updates (‘Lost dog [found]’) are allowable. Apart from that, leave well alone, I say.

One thing to bear in mind is that if key words are misspelled, then it’s more difficult for someone to search for “that post I saw about residential parking in Woolstone Road” if the post has “Wollstone Road”.

But — and again, I write as an editor — I wouldn’t do a ‘grammar police’ on someone’s post if it wasn’t necessary.

It’s up to the Admins/Mods to comment on whether/how OPs can/should be alerted about edits to their pistachios.

“Pistachios” . “Posts”!!!

Because of google or Apple spellcheck it often comes up with a different word to what I am typing. I am a good speller (well I like to think so!) so I have to keep going back to change things that make no sense!
I agree names of roads for instance do need to be spelt properly just for clarity, but apart from that, we can’t all be grammar & spelling perfect.