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R/E/P => R/E/P Archives => Klaus Heyne's Mic Lab Stickies => Topic started by: Klaus Heyne on January 14, 2007, 02:52:22 PM

Title: Why and When Your Posts Are Edited
Post by: Klaus Heyne on January 14, 2007, 02:52:22 PM
Quote:

Klaus,
Can I ask why you choose to edit my posts? I wrote additional details in that reply that were deleted. I don't have the original, so I'm not even sure what else is modified. This has happened here to me on several occasions.


Quote:

 I have gone to the effort to post my detailed replies, only to find that my carefully chosen comments were apparently not important enough or to meet your standards. Or something. At least that is how it feels to me....Frustrating.



I feel your frustrations!

Why do I mess around and stick my little fingers in your heartfelt writings? Because you contribute to a larger, permanent, body of work here- quite different from a casual e-mail chat.
I edit the majority of posts, and do so on an almost daily basis. On occasion, but not as much as I used to, I delete whole posts, and, rarely, whole threads.

Besides, there is not a single published piece of writing which gets past the pen and knife of an editor:
- from national best sellers to daily newspaper articles, to weekly contributions in the New Yorker or Harper's -many of them written by some of the best writers in the country.

There are many reasons why I edit your contributions to this forum: Points that are not made clearly, repetition, long-windedness, chatting off-subject, super-detailed explanations, and, the biggest ones: bad spelling, grammar and syntax.

I feel responsible that the generally superb content of your contributions is matched by appropriate style, to form a concise unit.  That level of writing is rarely found on any Internet user forum (check around!), and has gotten us lately lots of accolades from the competition, despite the fact that the volume of posts here is comparatively small.

If you ever feel that I cut into the meat of what you were writing, please PM me. I will always consider your criticism, and will make it right for you, if I can.

But, unlike the hands-off policies seen on many blogs or forums, please do not expect that every word you write here will end up on the forum.

P.S.: ...and guess, whose posts are the most edited and deleted of them all?

Best regards,