Should Twitter Have an Edit Button?

Likely since Twitter's inception, some users have been asking for an edit button. Most people with a role in releasing software understand that user feedback is a critical part of the development process. This post serves as a list of questions that a Business Analyst or Product Manager may pose when a feature seems straightforward to external parties, but might be troublesome to implement.

• Would you indicate that a tweet had been edited?

  • If yes, how?
  • Is there a grace period, like reddit, where tweets that are edited within a certain time period aren't flagged as edited?
  • If yes, how much time do people have to make edits to tweets?

• Would you show the revision history of tweets?

  • If yes, how many times can someone edit a tweet?
  • How many versions are kept in the version history?
  • Are other users allowed to like/retweet previous versions of a tweet?

• Regarding likes and retweets: assume User A retweets User B, and User B edits the tweet.

  • Does it stay in its original version, or does the retweet get updated with the edits?
  • Could users have a setting that instantly un-retweets any tweet they retweeted that was edited?
  • What happens to likes, replies, and quote-tweets?

• Should the media attached to a tweet (pictures, videos, gifs) be editable?

• If a tweet is reported, then edited, does the reported version of the tweet get reported to Twitter HQ?

  • Can the user reporting the tweet still see the original tweet that was reported?
  • If a tweet is reported, could it be edited to remove the content that breaks Twitter’s Terms of Service?
  • If revision history is enabled, would the reported tweet show in the history, or only the versions that are not in violation of the Terms of Service?

Personally, I find utility in the permanence of Twitter, and I can only hope that this will continue.

Comments

[David]

They should be editable for ~30 seconds after publishing to fix typos but that is all. It becomes too problematic for retweets and likes in the original poster can completely change the content of the tweet.

[aminamos]

I like this too, any interval short enough to preserve the original context of the tweet is fine to me.

[Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard]

there used to be a saying that you should focus on the needs of the user and everything will follow.

Apparently time have changed and now we are supposed to recognize that if we are not smart enough to fully grasp how a proposed feature should be fully implemented, then better say nothing.

I'm not sure I like this evolution.

Could you explain why the permanence of Twitter is a good thing per se?

For me the simple fact that people ask so loudly for an edit button is a pretty clear sign that they don't want their failed attempts at communicating permanent.

I made stupid mistakes while writing the first draft of the comment, I'm glad that there is an edit button

[aminamos]

I prefer permanence because as long as a tweet is viewed within the original distribution method (the desktop site, mobile app), we can take tweets at face value. I also enjoy being able to link to tweets, and attach them to threads as new information develops. If I like to someone else's tweet and they edit it, that breaks the context of my hyperlink to the tweet.

I agree that people ask for this, and maybe Twitter will see it as a worthy pursuit one day. I would continue to use the platform and adjust to whatever they create. But for now, I am a "lazy" individual when it comes to interpreting information in tweets.

[Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard]

@aminamos I prefer permanence because [...] we can take tweets at face value

For me, if the author of the tweet wants - but cannot - edit it, it's probably because there is something wrong that happened in the communication between the author and its readers.

You know, there is a lot that could happen before you hit "Send Tweet". Between what the author meant, what he wanted to write, what he wrote, what his fingers typed, what he was forced to remove because of the arbitrary length limit, the context he was writing this, the context that its readers read it, what the readers read, how they interpret it, there are like 10 reasons to not take the tweet's content at face value.

As far as I'm concerned, you want to preserve Twitter's divine right to make those communication errors permanent.

Why?