When you write a post you can select ‘notify me via email’.

Sorry i not understand, so you have to edit the post to add some details.

You may click edit under your avatar, and add new text in old message.

BTW, I’d like that if someone else has already replied to your message, an automatic text like “This post was edited N times, last edit at date/time” is automatically appended to your post when you edit it (like many messageboards do). This simply avoids confusion in case someone replies to the “old version” of a post of yours, then you modify it => the discussion makes no sense any more.

The automatic text could appear near the signature, for instance.

General rule is that if you’d like to add something few minutes after posting, then you should edit your post. But if more time passes (for example the next day) then you should make a new post.

maciek wrote:

General rule is that if you’d like to add something few minutes after posting, then you should edit your post. But if more time passes (for example the next day) then you should make a new post.

Agreed. Should go in the FAQ / Etiquette / Guidelines :-)

I prefer auto-joining. Editing is for fixing typos, removing nasty content and other errors. When you think of something five minutes later, it is nice to see something like:

———-
Added after 5 minutes:

By the way, here’s my new comment.

I also prefer auto-join, it is much more intuitiv than editing your previous post.

Auto-join is not so good, in my opinion. Sometimes it takes some time to respond, say you drop a message that you will investigate something and some time later come with your conclusion. If that two posts would join, it would read weird.

Also, what about notifications and their links? If you write a new answer, there a notification should be sent – but what’s the content? The joined text or only the new?

I think, all that causes more headaches than it solves problems.

Should we make a poll?

[Edit to add]: well, let’s first ask Trolls whether this is feasible at all.

Yes there are scenarios when it is not so good solution and of course there are others when it is helpful. Maybe, if we have a poll, we can add an item “prompt for auto-join”, as well.

Volker wrote:

Auto-join is not so good, in my opinion. Sometimes it takes some time to respond, say you drop a message that you will investigate something and some time later come with your conclusion. If that two posts would join, it would read weird.

Also, what about notifications and their links? If you write a new answer, there a notification should be sent – but what’s the content? The joined text or only the new?

I think, all that causes more headaches than it solves problems.

All in all I agree with you. I see no difference between hitting “post reply” instead of “edit” and submitting new content. But I still think that a simple automatic message “This post has been updated on date/time” before the signature would be helpful (see my previous comment).

peppe wrote:

But I still think that a simple automatic message “This post has been updated on date/time” before the signature would be helpful (see my previous comment).

I strongly support this suggestion. That would save some headaches if someone replies to the original, unchanged version.

Volker wrote:

I think, all that causes more headaches than it solves problems.

peppe wrote:

I see no difference between hitting “post reply” instead of “edit” and submitting new content.

QtCentre has a construction with joining posts which is partially discussed here [qtcentre.org] (from wysota’s second post on).

Franzk wrote:

There’s a significant difference in size in the buttons. Also I find it quicker to write a new post than to edit an old one.

I cannot agree more. But my suggestion regarding auto-join is close to what peppe suggested, as it there should be some label which shows that the text is a later addition (anyway this should have work with the edit button as well, just for avoiding misunderstanding).

Franzk wrote:

Volker wrote:

I think, all that causes more headaches than it solves problems.

To whom exactly? The user or the trolls?

Both. See my comments on notifications for an example.

I personally prefer deciding myself if I want a new post or if I want to edit an older post.

Also, as you cannot be sure that in the meantime someone has posted another comment, you will not know if you are creating a new comment or append to an old one once you hit the post button. So, an edit button is needed anyways.

And we coders do have a favor for deterministic behaviour, don’t we? :-)