Edit history of a post

[tsbockman via Digitalmars-d]

On Thursday, 24 March 2016 at 19:59:24 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 3/24/2016 9:34 AM, Bruno Medeiros wrote:
>> Alternatively, some software allows seeing the edit history of 
>> a post, so there
>> is always that as a fallback if someone where to edit 
>> inappropriately.
>
> Having public display of the edit history defeats the purpose 
> of being able to edit it.

In my opinion, the right purpose of post editing is to improve 
clarity, or - more rarely - as a way of apologizing for something 
that should never have been said. (Anyone interacting with me on 
GitHub should be aware that I frequently edit my posts there, 
especially within the first hour or so.)

In both cases, making the edit history public is appropriate 
because it protects those who responded to the original bad 
message from being made to look foolish/unreasonable, while still 
allowing people to correct their mistakes.

"Deleting" posts should normally be accomplished simply by 
editing the message to replace the body with "[message 
retracted]" or something along those lines.