One quirk of Lemmy is that edits and deletions may not propagate properly to every server, meaning you’re never guaranteed anything past the initial posting.
So how do you handle when you say something you’d like to amend, correct, or delete?
Do you:
- Edit your corrections directly into the original?
- Delete it?
- Add an Edit:?
- Put the original comment behind a spoiler tag or strike through?
Or something else?
If it’s within a few minutes after the original post, ninja edit. Beyond that, “EDIT:”. or “ETA” if I’m feeling froggy.
I’m a human being, so occasionally I’ll misunderstand what I’m replying to, or realize after the fact that I’ve pissed someone off or been unfair. I’m not above just hitting delete in some of those instances.
I like what they do on Tildes. You’re allowed a time limit (1 minute or something like that) to edit without it displaying your post as “edited.” Good for re-reads and quick fixes😆
On reddit when you would do that, the comment would appear in the persons inbox, but they could not reply or report it because it no longer existed, so that would be the absolute worst thing you could do in that case.
I don´t know what the possibility tree is on Lemmy for deleted comments, though; I’ve gotten replies to comments that I deleted almost immediately. For that reason, I’m leaning more to editing comments than deleting them, leaving the original insult/display of stupidity intact usually.
I can only assume, with federation, that a deletion takes time to propagate out everywhere. If my comment ends up in someone’s inbox, yeah, the damage is done there. Deletion is somewhat of a last resort, so I’ve really only done it a handful of times.
What does ETA mean in this context? I only know it as Estimated Time of Arrival.
“Edited to add”