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by lefrenchy 2165 days ago
I may be alone in this, but I genuinely think editing is bad a feature in the context of the way twitter works. Considering the problems it already has a platform, the last thing it needs is for people to be able to edit tweets after they have reached critical velocity.
6 comments

You're right, and I suppose that's why Twitter doesn't add it. But when you write a thread and then spot a typo right in the middle, it's a disaster. You don't have to deal with clunky Twitter UI but also have to recreate the content (images, text).

Chirr does not update the content but removes the edited part of the thread and republishes it, so it's impossible to abuse.

Another thing I working on is delayed publishing ala Gmail.

Adding a way to add "addenda" to a Tweet could be cool; have a little note under the tweet to say "aw fuck, I typo'd Michael Fassbender's name" but leave the original tweet otherwise pristine
Probably would be best to put a time limit on it - first five minutes you can edit and then you're done. I know I've sent more than my fair share of tweets only to realize I'd misspelled something and have to decide if I want to live with the shame or try and fix it before it's noticed.

Anything longer than that is probably going to get into the historic revisionist problem.

I'm completely with you. Editing tweets would be a disaster.

The only way I could see it working is if you opt in to say a 5 minute grace period where you can edit. But then your tweets won't actually show up on anyone else's feed for 5 minutes.

They should have an Edit feature and ALSO display edit history. So, you will see the most recent version of the tweet but can also see the edit history. Nothing will be hidden this way.
This is it. All we need is the truth, and sometimes edits are the truth.
Nothing will be hidden except the edit history in the screenshot...
Anyone can edit a screenshot.
What I need is not editing but delayed publishing.
Add that and a read-mode, where the tweet you just typed appears word by word, so you read your goddamn rant before you post it ;)