How To Enable Silent Editing For Moderators

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1

Hi,

I came across an option to use silent editing for post titles and also body of posts that is only visible to staff.

Currently, when anyone, poster or moderator, makes an edit it can be seen in the revision history.

However, there may be times when staff want to edit something, for example remove personally identifiable information in a post without it showing in the revision history.

Another example, might be spelling or grammar. I am talking about light fixes without drawing attention to it.

Is there such an option and where/how do we enable it?

One of the admins sent me this image:

The image displays a set of configurable options for a post management interface, including controls for edit history visibility, fast edit functionality, and reply suppression in the reply count of posts. (Captioned by AI)
The image displays a set of configurable options for a post management interface, including controls for edit history visibility, fast edit functionality, and reply suppression in the reply count of posts. (Captioned by AI)715×296 34.5 KB

Is this the right place to change it?

We are currently on Discourse 3.3.0

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

2

I don’t think so. IIRC that globally affects all edits. Instead, the staff member can hide the edit in the edit popup.

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3

That’s the problem, we do not see that. Could it be a theme-related issue?

Or a setting to configure the options in the editor?

4

Would we find it here?

  • Admin > Settings > Posting
  • hide_post_revision_controls – should be disabled so staff can use this
  • enable_post_edit_tracking – must be enabled to track and show/hide edit history
5

Just a gentle nudge to update and benefit from all the new features as well as crucial security updates. :slight_smile:

For this, I’d separate those example into two distinct pots and handle them differently.

The short answer is that there isn’t really a ‘silent edit’ function as such. When you edit a post a notification is sent to the person whose post it is even if you hide the revision.

The ‘hide revision’ option Nate is referring to is in the post revision modal (the edit history) and can only be applied after the edit has been made:

The image shows a screen capture of a Slack history page with a timestamp stating '17 mins,' an editable topic titled 'Topic to test post revisions,' and two red buttons labeled 'Revert' and 'Hide revised post.' (Captioned by AI)
The image shows a screen capture of a Slack history page with a timestamp stating '17 mins,' an editable topic titled 'Topic to test post revisions,' and two red buttons labeled 'Revert' and 'Hide revised post.' (Captioned by AI)1179×1103 116 KB

If you hide a revision then non-staff will not be able to see that part of the edit history and the edit count for them will also be reduced by 1 as well.

However, from a UX perspective, the user will receive a notification saying there’s been an edit, but when they click on it to go to the post/edit history it will tell them they don’t have access to see it.

For typos and whatnot I tend to use the edit info box to add some extra detail on why I edited (if it’s not obvious, or if it’s a user that may not be familiar with the community’s approach to edits). It’s a little tucked away but you can find it here:

The image shows a text revision interface for editing a post titled 'Topic to test post revisions' with the name 'Test_Two' and the ability to add an optional tag. (Captioned by AI)
The image shows a text revision interface for editing a post titled 'Topic to test post revisions' with the name 'Test_Two' and the ability to add an optional tag. (Captioned by AI)1179×1797 157 KB

Clicking on the :information_source: brings up an input box where you can type your edit reason, and this will be displayed in the edit history for added context.

The screenshot shows a GitHub issue page where a user named jammydodger created a new topic with the title 'Topic to test post revisions' and tagged 'Corrected typos', with various revision options near the bottom. (Captioned by AI)
The screenshot shows a GitHub issue page where a user named jammydodger created a new topic with the title 'Topic to test post revisions' and tagged 'Corrected typos', with various revision options near the bottom. (Captioned by AI)1179×1100 137 KB

So I would tend to leave those edits visible. Most people don’t mind a typo tweak and would understand why an edit had been made.

For the removal of PII I would actually go one step further than hiding the revision (as well as sending a PM to the user telling them I’d removed sensitive information). There’s a hidden site setting that allows posts and post revisions to be permanently deleted rather than soft-deleted (that is ‘removed completely’ v ‘hidden from non-staff’).

Depending on your hosting, you can enable that feature from the rails console Enable setting to allow admins to permanently delete data (and if hosted then you would need to request it be turned on from your hosting provider).

Permanently deleting posts is an admin-only function, though deleting post revisions can be done by moderators. When you hide a post revision an extra option turns up for ‘delete revisions’. This will completely wipe the edit history for that post.

I am not familiar with these? Where did you find that info?

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