Proactive Moderator Edit Gripe

[BackdoorArts]

I mentioned this in one of my threads last night, but since I have heard nothing in response I thought I'd just air this out here. I appreciate what you moderators do, but when I come back to a post and see that a moderator has edited it, I would really appreciate it if they could leave a note stating why they felt the need to change my post. Something like...

(Edited for format)

(Edited to remove unauthorized copyrighted material)

(Edited for the heck of it)

To come back to a post that was carefully worded and constructed only to find that it was changed for some unknown reason 30 minutes later is beyond annoying. They're my words, my thoughts, my construction, and to change them without making it absolutely clear to the author, as well as to anyone who may be reading, as to what was edited, is at a minimum a disservice to all of us, and at most an abuse of power - though I'm not necessarily accusing anyone of that, at least not yet.

I love this place, but I will make myself scarce if I can't trust that the things I post will remain mine. If something needs fixing, fix it, but let me know what was wrong so I don't do it again.

 

[BackdoorArts]

Just so you are aware, I know you can click on the "last edited by" statement and compare versions, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what the heck changed between the versions, no matter what radio buttons I press. And still, if someone is poking their head in my post, then they should be required to explicitly state a reason and not make the world go fishing.

I'm not specifically smacking Jack here, but my gripe stems from post #11 in this thread. http://nikonites.com/wide-angle/18523-i-finally-landed-fish.html#post227273

 

[singlerosa_RIP]

So when you see something like:

Last edited by fotojack; Yesterday at 11:07 AM.

....you know that your post has been messed with?

I agree with your sentiments. Your posts do have a lot of thought put into them and are very informative. I could see if a moderator wanted to edit some of my moronic ramblings, but to arbitrarily edit posts for no reason....

 

[BackdoorArts]

The thing is, I know they have a reason to do it. This software can often be hinky format-wise, particularly when you go back and edit your original post - it removes line-feeds extra spaces, makes things look like crap. I've seen cases where a moderator has gone in and separated a bunch of photos that were stacked all next to each other to make them more easily viewable, so there's a lot of real work that gets done. I want to be clear and say that I don't believe any of these edits are in any way arbitrary - they're just mysterious, and that's the part I'd like clarified.

 

[BackdoorArts]

Looking at the edit function now, there is an optional spot to add a reason. Perhaps that should be required on a moderator edit (or any edit of a post not made by the OP)?

 

[fotojack]

Jake, believe me, I understand your frustration, because I'm frustrated about it, too! On some of your posts, you're including a picture, or a few of them, right? Well, I can't see them unless I click on the Edit button. Then the picture(s) show up just fine. And when I click on the Save button, it says in the saved post "Edited by fotojack". I wish I knew why it does that, because I'm not editing anything! I'm just looking at the pictures you post! To be fair, perhaps I should have stated that in the reason for editing box....but like I said, I'm not editing anything.
Note: after further investigation, it seems that I can only see pictures posted in here that are not from a third party site, such as Flickr and the other ones. I suspect it has something to do with vBulletin.
Sorry about all this, Jake. I wish I could fix this myself, but that's in jdeg's realm.

 

[BackdoorArts]

Jack,

Thanks for the explanation, and please don't take it personally. It's a general gripe and it just happens to be this post that triggered something since I got PM'd by another member.

I link from Flickr often, and have no issue seeing other people's posts that include links from elsewhere, so I don't know if it's a Vbulletin issue or perhaps a firewall issue on your computer? I know that when I view from my work laptop I can't see anything linked from anywhere else on this forum or elsewhere, so I don't know if your issue can be resolved by anything jdeg can set in the admin panel. I used to be "jdeg" on a Vbulletin guitar forum for years and I don't know if that's something that can be changed.

 

[carguy]

Jack - Very strange you cannot see an image unless you are in 'edit' mode. That does not sound right at all. Maybe it's an issue on your end and not the VB code?

 

[jdeg]

Jake, believe me, I understand your frustration, because I'm frustrated about it, too! On some of your posts, you're including a picture, or a few of them, right? Well, I can't see them unless I click on the Edit button. Then the picture(s) show up just fine. And when I click on the Save button, it says in the saved post "Edited by fotojack". I wish I knew why it does that, because I'm not editing anything! I'm just looking at the pictures you post! To be fair, perhaps I should have stated that in the reason for editing box....but like I said, I'm not editing anything.
Note: after further investigation, it seems that I can only see pictures posted in here that are not from a third party site, such as Flickr and the other ones. I suspect it has something to do with vBulletin.
Sorry about all this, Jake. I wish I could fix this myself, but that's in jdeg's realm.

Any time a mod clicks on edit, then clicks save, it'll say it's edited despite anything actually being changed. If you click cancel it shouldn't do that. Jake, that's why you didn't see a difference, because nothing was actually edited.

Are you getting a broken image when people link to an outside image? This may have something to do with the code that resizes the images, but it's hard to troubleshoot with people using so many different systems.

 

[BackdoorArts]

I'm wondering if Jack's issue is a browser or firewall setting that filters linked images while allowing direct access to them? Virus/Malware protection levels can often cause things like this when they block content that's not sourced directly from the site accessed. Many will at least provide the option for a click-able link rather than just suppressing it totally.

If nothing else it explains why Jack spends so much time editing.

 

[carguy]

...
If nothing else it explains why jack spends so much time editing.

lol

 

[Don Kuykendall_RIP]

Sometimes we all edit or typos. I swap letters all the time and type teh instead of the. WE have a few members that like to point these mistakes out which I think is a little mean spirited. I know yesterday I corrected the mistake and removed the "Mean" post. We don't need that kind of responses here. Also in the Feedback or critique sections I will take a small default sized photo and re-size it to large so everyone can see it better. I tend to do this on the really good photos more though. In the future I will try to remember to add a reason.

 

[fotojack]

If you post a photo directly from your hard drive, it shows up and I can see it. If it's from Flickr or some other site, I can't see it, unless I click on Edit Post. As for malware or viruses...I can assure you that I'm particularly anal about that stuff! My computer is totally free of any malware or viruses, as I keep up daily with scanning. I use the latest version of Firefox browser ( ver. 26.0), so if there's a setting in there that prevents me from seeing posted photos...I don't know what it could be. This phenomena only happens in Nikonites...nowhere else. I still suspect it has something to do with the version of vBulletin that Nikonites uses.

Anyway...sorry, Jake, for any confusion this has caused you. I'm not too happy about it either.

 

[Marcel]

If you post a photo directly from your hard drive, it shows up and I can see it. If it's from Flickr or some other site, I can't see it, unless I click on Edit Post.

Jack, out of curiosity, does it happens even when you click on the picture or thumbnail?
​

 

[fotojack]

Jack, out of curiosity, does it happens even when you click on the picture or thumbnail?
​

That's just it, Marcel. I get NO picture or thumbnail! Nothing...until I click on the Edit Post button. Those that post photos directly from their hard drives, I have no problem with. They show up.

 

[Marcel]

That's just it, Marcel. I get NO picture or thumbnail! Nothing...until I click on the Edit Post button. Those that post photos directly from their hard drives, I have no problem with. They show up.

That is really weird Jack. Maybe you could try with Chrome...??? Or pester John to find the cause... It sure must be a pain for you.

 

[fotojack]

That is really weird Jack. Maybe you could try with Chrome...??? Or pester John to find the cause... It sure must be a pain for you.

Yeah, it is weird! I don't like the Chrome interface, so I don't use it at all. And to pester John, well....it's not really anything he's doing. I really believe it has something to do with this version of vBulletin that the site uses. Hopefully there will be a fix soon.

 

[jdeg]

Yeah, it is weird! I don't like the Chrome interface, so I don't use it at all. And to pester John, well....it's not really anything he's doing. I really believe it has something to do with this version of vBulletin that the site uses. Hopefully there will be a fix soon.

Jack do you get a broken image or just nothing at all?

What do you have under "Image Resizer - Width/Height" on this page: http://nikonites.com/profile.php?do=editoptions (it should be blank)

 

[fotojack]

Jack do you get a broken image or just nothing at all?

What do you have under "Image Resizer - Width/Height" on this page: http://nikonites.com/profile.php?do=editoptions (it should be blank)

John, I get nothing at all! I just took 3 shots of what I'm seeing (refer to "Tripod Collar for the 70-200 f/4" post. I'll upload them in here so you can see what I'm seeing.



These are in the correct order which I took the shots of my screen.

 

[fotojack]

What do you have under "Image Resizer - Width/Height" on this page: http://nikonites.com/profile.php?do=editoptions (it should be blank)

Both those fields are empty. Both fields have a 0 in them.