Problem
Currently, Discourse only allows comparing a post revision against the immediately previous revision.
This becomes a significant limitation when working with MathJax / LaTeX content.
Small symbolic corrections (e.g. changing a coefficient or sign) often cause entire math blocks to re-render, making the diff view show large red/green sections even when only a single character changed.
If an intermediate edit is imperfect, all subsequent diffs become effectively unreadable — even if the final version is mathematically correct.
In practice, this means:
- one early mistake permanently destroys meaningful edit history
- authors cannot later review what actually changed
- moderators and collaborators cannot verify small corrections
- math-heavy educational workflows are disproportionately affected
Proposed improvement
Allow users to compare any two revisions, not just adjacent ones.
For example:
- Compare revision 3 ↔ revision 6
- Compare original post ↔ latest version
- Compare two arbitrary historical revisions
This would mirror functionality commonly found in version control systems and would greatly improve transparency for technical, academic, and educational communities.
Why this helps
- Restores usefulness of edit history after iterative fixes
- Makes LaTeX-based discussions auditable
- Supports collaborative problem-solving and teaching
- Avoids the “one bad edit ruins all diffs” problem
Related areas
This would be particularly beneficial for communities using:
- MathJax / KaTeX
- long-form technical explanations
- step-by-step derivations
- wiki-style collaborative posts