# Context mismatch - private messages vs topic

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/context-mismatch-private-messages-vs-topic/23215>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Created:** [17. Dezember 2014 um 12:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/context-mismatch-private-messages-vs-topic/23215 "2014-12-17T12:34:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [17. Dezember 2014 um 23:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/context-mismatch-private-messages-vs-topic/23215/3 "2014-12-17T23:16:15Z")

</div>

> [@swader](#):
>
> I then flagged the post to send them a message, explaining how code highlighting is done. Presumably, the user clicked “edit” and then marked the code and clicked the “code” button, which turned the message into a much more readable one, fixing the syntax. Success! Or is it?

Generally what I recommend here is just making the edit. The post in question looks like this:

> Hey guys, I had to restore my website back to yesterdays backup file and when it completed, I got a 500 Internal Server Error with this error code in the log…PHP Warning: Unexpected character in input: '' (ASCII=92) state=1 in /home3/boardtr1/public\_html/index.php on line 21  
> [16-Dec-2014 10:44:31] PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T\_STRING in /home3/boardtr1/public\_html/index.php on line 21…I am on Bluehost and running PHP Version 5.4.24. I looked all over but could not find any solutions. Any help would be great since my site is down -\_-

Thanks!  
Nick

So I would just click or tap the edit pencil and turn it into

> Hey guys, I had to restore my website back to yesterdays backup file and when it completed, I got a 500 Internal Server Error with this error code in the log…

> ```
> PHP Warning: Unexpected character in input: '\' (ASCII=92) state=1 in /home3/boardtr1/public_html/index.php on line 21
> 
> ```

```
[16-Dec-2014 10:44:31] PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home3/boardtr1/public_html/index.php on line 21

```

> …I am on Bluehost and running PHP Version 5.4.24. I looked all over but could not find any solutions. Any help would be great since my site is down -\_-

> Thanks!  
> Nick

I did this by highlighting the relevant section with my mouse and pressing ctrl+k.

This also **generates an automatic edit notification to the user** letting them know that you edited their post. So basically:

1. See a mis-formatted post
2. Edit it to fix it using hotkeys
3. Let the user see the automatic edit notification and think to themselves “hmm, now my post looks better, I should learn how to make that edit!”

My hope is that ↑ would be a bit more efficient than:

1. See a mis-formatted post
2. Send a PM to the user explaining the edit options and formatting issues
3. Wait for them to make the edit
4. They reply to your PM
5. You confirm that the edit is correct
6. You reply to their PM reply

So really, conceptually, this is more about “how do we _efficiently_ teach users proper post formatting”.

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/context-mismatch-private-messages-vs-topic/23215)._