Why do people clarify the reason they edited their own Reddit posts?

https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/2rfe78/why_do_people_clarify_the_reason_they_edited/

created by copagman on 05/01/2015 at 19:10 UTC*

975 upvotes, 25 top-level comments (showing 25)

I see countless Reddit posts that end with things like, "Edit: punctuation" or "Edit: typo"

I understand when people addend a post with "Edit: it seems I was wrong" or suchlike, but why do we need to know when somebody retroactively adds a comma to their Reddit post? Is there something I'm missing?

Edit: It appears there is already a thread about this here

Comments

Comment by [deleted] at 05/01/2015 at 22:53 UTC*

613 upvotes, 5 direct replies

[removed]

Comment by abagofdicks at 05/01/2015 at 19:49 UTC*

711 upvotes, 17 direct replies

It started out as a way to clarify that you didn't change your entire comment to make the next guy sound like a jerk. For example, if you were to post "I love Emma Watson" and someone replied "There is no hotter person alive". Then, once the post gained a lot of attention, you were to go back and change your post to "Kirstie Alley is looking good these days". That responder would look silly. Also people were changing their words up in arguments after being called out.

People then started downvoting mindlessly and unfairly against people that had an edit asterisk next to their comment. Even if they just changed one word or letter. So now everyone does it all the time.

Comment by fatalcharm at 06/01/2015 at 02:09 UTC

22 upvotes, 1 direct replies

When someone has edited their comment, a little asterix appears next to their name to show that the comment was edited. Now, when most people edit their comments, it's usually for spelling for something minor and it really isn't necessary to state the reason but they do anyway because the asterix will show that they edited their comment.

Some idiots on reddit will make an outrageous comment, then other people will respond to their comment and then the original poster will go and edit their original comment so it makes the people responding look like they are on a totally different subject. I have had this happen to me before, and I have also seen it happen to other people.

There have been a few times when someone responding to a comment has mentioned points that I didn't see in the original comment that they were responding to, and I have asked the responder "Hey, I didn't see anything that you mentioned in the original comment, so why bring it up?" and the responder has said "Well, originally they did say those things, but went back and edited their comment, so now my comment makes no sense"

So basically, people who edit their comment like to clarify what the edit was for. It's a way to show that your not trolling, I guess.

Comment by Lazerkatz at 06/01/2015 at 15:27 UTC

16 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Edit: well this exploded

Edit: great, my highest upvoted comment is about edits... Thanks reddit xD

Edit: GOLD?! thank you kind sir

Edit: RIP my inbox

Edit: well I've got to go to bed, it's been fun reddit

Edit: I'm back! I couldn't sleep!

Edit: you're all too kind

Edit: MORE GOLD! I can't believe you guys

Comment by athanathios at 05/01/2015 at 21:15 UTC

14 upvotes, 1 direct replies

I always assumed they were, so that if a person went back to re-read it they would not day "hey this wasn't here", so being overly fastidious

Comment by [deleted] at 05/01/2015 at 21:09 UTC

38 upvotes, 2 direct replies

[deleted]

Comment by anonagent at 05/01/2015 at 21:02 UTC*

58 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Because reddit is paranoid and thinks the edits are evil or something if they don't.

of course, you can edit your post and completely rewrite it, then slap a "edit: typo" on the bottom just the same.

Comment by limit_veillance at 05/01/2015 at 19:32 UTC

11 upvotes, 2 direct replies

This same question was asked about 10 hours before you. Link[1].

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/2rdy77/why_does_everyone_say_edit_when_they_make_an_edit/

Comment by loctopode at 05/01/2015 at 23:59 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I don't just do this on reddit, I try and show my edits on any forum or similar. I can't speak for everyone, but usually when I do it, I'm just trying to show everyone the reason I edited something. I know most of the time, it's not that big an issue, but I think it's somewhat courteous.

I'm not out to deceive anyone or start an argument, so if I've misspelt a word or something I'll mention it, so people don't think I've entirely rearranged my comment or added/removed content to make someone else look foolish.

Or if I'm posting information and someone else has posted something that proves my comment wrong, I may add a thing like "edit: my comment is wrong, but this (user) has said the right thing". It just shows I'm not trying to "steal" their comment, and it makes the correct thing more visible, especially if it's further down the child comments and hidden behind a "continue this thread->" thingy.

Comment by nermid at 06/01/2015 at 07:05 UTC

4 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Imagine you and I are having an argument. I say something like, "Vaccines cause autism and anybody who believes otherwise is an idiot." You reply with something like, "What? That's a lie. There's no reason to believe that, and you need to learn the facts before you speak."

I then edit my comment to read "Hitler killed 10 million people. The Holocaust was awful and fuck anybody who says otherwise."

Now, Jeff comes along and doesn't look closely to see that there's an asterisk next to my comment, and just reads our conversation. You look like a crazy Holocaust denier and possible Hitler apologist, while I look great.

This was actually something SRS used to do a lot, and it's what you might call a "colossal dick move." People even created tools (like Uneddit and UneditReddit) to walk back edits just to stop that kind of shit. Because this possibility exists, people often explain why they edited comments so as not to seem like a trolling piece of shit. It also used to be the case that people would reply to edited comments that didn't explain their edits with a lot of vitriol, because obviously the person was a deceptive piece of shit, skewing the conversation (which was not always, or even *usually* the case). So, people learned to tell others why they edited.

Comment by Promotheos at 06/01/2015 at 02:00 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Just for the sake of transparency and to avoid the appearance of impropriety in editing

Comment by [deleted] at 06/01/2015 at 03:08 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I do it for clarity, so people know what I changed.

Comment by badgerX3mushroom at 06/01/2015 at 04:14 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

some subreddits have a rule that you have to say why you edited the post

Comment by msiekkinen at 06/01/2015 at 16:03 UTC

2 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Now if only I could understand the "Edit: Wow front page!" and "Edit: Wow I didn't expect this to blow up!"

Comment by doctorgeek0 at 06/01/2015 at 17:21 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Good lad there lad. Way to be a lad. The best lad around, lad.

Comment by Nesano at 06/01/2015 at 12:54 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

People really need to stop doing this, it's pointless and annoying.

Comment by [deleted] at 06/01/2015 at 02:26 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

If I do it's to show that I've re read my post and altered it, if anyone that has read it once sees it again they'll probably skip to that line first, I know I do anyway. It's just like blocks of text where I search for tl;dr section to save time, just an internet custom I guess instead of pretending you were never wrong and didn't completely change everything.

Comment by lookbehindyou7 at 06/01/2015 at 20:45 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

It's also not just us a thing on reddit I have posted on to hockey message boards in the past and one or both of them had a little box where you could fill in your reason for editing.

Comment by LoverOfPricklyPear at 30/06/2015 at 15:23 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Also, when you edit a comment, that comment gets resent to the inbox of the user who wrote the comment/post you are replying to. It is nice to let that person know off the bat what is different with the second comment instead of making them inspect it and pick it out themselves.

Comment by LaboratoryOne at 06/01/2015 at 13:28 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

TBH, I think most people do it because most people do it. That's at least why I do...

Comment by ScrewYouMorbidPanda2 at 07/01/2015 at 12:25 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I dunno. I think maybe it's to keep people from thinking they're crazy. 'Oh crap that wasn't there. What's this?Edit: punctuation.Oh okay nevermind.

Comment by [deleted] at 06/01/2015 at 00:09 UTC

0 upvotes, 0 direct replies

Follow the Upvotes

Comment by [deleted] at 06/01/2015 at 17:16 UTC

0 upvotes, 0 direct replies

It's just people being scared of being called out on something they might have changed in the post after it got downvoted.