# Watching / Tracking / Notifications for post edits for Moderators
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [March 3, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529 "2016-03-03T19:12:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DeanMarkTaylor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DeanMarkTaylor)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/1 "2016-03-03T19:12:00Z")
There doesn’t appear to be a way to get notified for post edits…
(both traditional post edits and Wiki post edits).
For post traditional post edits and Wiki post edits.
### As a user
For users this topic seems to be tracking this:
> [@Not receiving notifications for edited Wiki posts unless you are the author](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-notifications-for-edited-wiki-posts-unless-you-are-the-author/24340):
>
> This is something strange. I have made one topic a wiki post and kept it open. Then inside another browser I login with a different user id. I edited the wiki post and then I checked the forum on my admin ID. I did not received any notification whatsoever that could tel me that someone actually contributed to the post and edited it? Am I missing something here or some setting is required. Why are we not receiving notifications for wiki post edits? Is the original author of wiki post the sole pu…
### As an admin / moderator…
Whilst moderation / approval prior to posts initially being displayed is not required, knowing something has changed so it can be reviewed is important.
**It’s important to be able to know when every content change occurs for moderation purposes.**
Some organisations require a “content review” for every piece of content on their site, even if occurs sometime later.
* * *
Is there any way of handling this currently?
Or list of posts recently “edited” outside of the initial ninja edit period…
… and perhaps receiving notifications for these?
---
### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/2 "2016-03-03T22:41:29Z")
The only way I know of to “catch” post edits is on Latest from the “.. updated topics, click to show”
i.e. if there is no new or unread indicator, it’s an edit.
At SitePoint, we decided to compromise between having the convenience of member’s being able to edit their posts and the inconvenience of Moderators keeping track of post edits.
IMHO it is unrealistic to expect Moderators to “ride” Latest on the chance that a previously seen OK post has been edited into a Not OK post.
And I guess it is also unrealistic to expect Moderators to read every post. Though if for only for certain Categories, it could be a more acceptable approach.
---
### Author:  [@DeanMarkTaylor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DeanMarkTaylor)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2016, 10:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/3 "2016-03-03T22:43:36Z")
> [@Mittineague](#):
>
> The only way I know of to “catch” post edits is on Latest from the “.. updated topics, click to show” i.e. if there is no new or unread indicator, it’s an edit.
This only works for edits to the last post in a thread.
Any edits to posts above the last one I believe are un-trackable currently unless you are the author of the post that has been edited.
---
### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/4 "2016-03-03T23:35:09Z")
> [@DeanMarkTaylor](#):
>
> This only works for edits to the last post in a thread.
Yes, and with our shortened post edit time limit this is usually good enough.
Community Flagging helps some.
But I think the fact that the post edit time limit is shorter than a typical visit cycle helps the most.
That is, if a Not OK edit happened, the chance of one of the many Moderators reading the post for their first time is almost certain.
We did try a post edit time limit more in line of what it was in vBulletin, but many wanted to be able to add “oh, I forgots”, fix typos, rephrase more clearly etc. so it was lengthened a bit.
Personally, I have no problem with a later “oh I forgot” post, and I make so many typos myself I hardly give them second thought when others make them. But folks are different after all.
In any case, I strongly feel the default setting is way too generous. i.e.
Admin → Settings [Posting]
> post edit time limit 86400
> The author can edit or delete their post for (n) minutes after posting. Set to 0 for forever.
That’s 60 days 
If not already, maybe edited posts could be passed through Akismet?
Maybe the post\_revisions table could be used for a Moderator page?
Such a page would likely be mostly typo fixes, bu it would be easier than relying on Moderators to read / reread posts looking for the “# edit pencil”
---
### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2016, 5:35am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/5 "2016-03-04T05:35:45Z")
> [@DeanMarkTaylor](#):
>
> This only works for edits to the last post in a thread.
One workaround for wiki posts is to do the following:
1. Make the OP a wiki post
2. Link to another topic within the OP as the official ‘discussion’ topic for this post
3. Close the topic
4. Delete the “Moderator closed this topic” post.
Now the OP is the last post, and edits will make it bump to the top of the topic list.
Also, people entering the topic will always enter at the first post.
Discussion can happen in the separate topic if necessary.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2016, 6:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/6 "2016-03-04T06:30:45Z")
> [@DeanMarkTaylor](#):
>
> It’s important to be able to know when every content change occurs for moderation purposes.
We have a plugin for this which we built for @Bill_S at Western Digital:
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse-moderator-attention](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-moderator-attention)
Its designed for sites that need 1 moderator to read every single post or edit to a post.
---
### Author:  [@Bill\_S](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Bill_S)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/7 "2016-03-04T17:53:34Z")
And it’s working great for my team. I have had issues in the past with users coming back later and editing posts to add unsavory content. The moderation flags help us catch those things many times before others even see them. I’m sure that it’s what you’re looking for.
---
### Author:  [@DeanMarkTaylor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DeanMarkTaylor)
#### Post date: [March 6, 2016, 1:44am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/8 "2016-03-06T01:44:29Z")
In the same vain - “moderating all content” - is there anything for profile content edits?
---
### Author:  [@anon61128213](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon61128213)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/9 "2018-02-21T16:23:02Z")
Lately we often get posts that look fishy, but don’t contain spam (yet). Us moderators are just waiting for the edit to include the spam-link. Bookmarks help, but it can be tedious work.
And spammers are not dumb. They are waiting for someone to reply and then edit their first post so it won’t bump the topic.
Maybe an adaption of the function to change ownership of a post could be the solution here. If a moderator could make themselves co-owner of a post (without OP noticing) then they’d get edit-notifications.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2018, 8:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/10 "2018-02-21T20:09:59Z")
Why not set your allowed edit interval to something much smaller like 7 days? That seems like a far simpler solution.
---
### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2018, 8:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/11 "2018-02-21T20:34:14Z")
I haven’t noticed many late edit link additions on the forum where I’m a moderator.
What we have noticed at times is changing post content after it has received replies that make a mess of the discussion and aggravates participants. eg.
“I need help with ABC”
“Try doing XYZ”
but after the edit, the topic reads as
“I need help with DEF”
“Try doing XYZ”
making the reply incorrect.
\* it should be noted that this type of behavior has been limited to a handful of members and not a wide spread problem. moderator messages helped somewhat.
We have our edit time window low, hours _not_ days.
I think some type of “if replies disable edits to previous posts” might work. But the problem of allowing cosmetic edits (eg. to → too) while preventing substance edits can’t be solved by simple code.
---
### Author:  [@anon61128213](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon61128213)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2018, 8:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/12 "2018-02-21T20:39:57Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Why not set your allowed edit interval to something much smaller like 7 days?
TBH I don’t know what it’s set to, but I believe this is true for our forum too:
> [@Mittineague](#):
>
> hours not days.
For now I’m using user topic timers, to check up on shady posts and I guess that’s a good enough solution. If I don’t catch a spam link right away, but a few hours later what harm can it really do?
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2018, 11:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/13 "2018-02-21T23:49:42Z")
Do you _really_ have users coming back more than 1 day later to edit spam into their posts? That seems.. unlikely. I’d need to see data on that.
In the meantime, we are adding a feature that prevents TL0 users from enjoying edit grace periods, as in every edit to their posts are tracked. This is because we have seen bamwar spammers abuse this, multiple times, across multiple sites.
---
### Author:  [@anon61128213](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon61128213)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2018, 6:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/14 "2018-02-27T18:16:11Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Do you really have users coming back more than 1 day later to edit spam into their posts? That seems… unlikely. I’d need to see data on that.
Well it doesn’t happen often and it would be hard to find old deleted post where it did, but coincidentially it just happened again. A post from 4 days ago got edited to add a spam link:
Actually it was more than 4 days between writing and editing the post as it spent about 1 day in the approval queue. It was a bit shady from the beginning, so we didn’t know if we should approve it, but then we decided to “see how it plays out” since we didn’t have enough evidence to kick them right away.
Anyway I guess your suggestion of abandoning the grace period for TL0 users is probably a great solution.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2018, 10:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/15 "2018-03-14T22:39:13Z")
> [@anon61128213](#):
>
> Anyway I guess your suggestion of abandoning the grace period for TL0 users is probably a great solution.
Per @sam the solution that was implemented is mandatory tracking of all revisions in the grace period greater than `{x}` characters. There are two site settings for this, one for low trust users and one for high trust. Check your site settings.
---
### Author:  [@md-misko](https://meta.discourse.org/u/md-misko)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2020, 3:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/16 "2020-02-01T15:24:43Z")
> [@Bill\_S](#):
>
> I have had issues in the past with users coming back later and editing posts to add unsavory content. The moderation **flags** help us catch those things many times before others even see them.
Do I understand correctly, this plugin should raise a moderation flag every time a user edits their post outside a ninja edit window (at least for tl0 and tl1 users)?
If so, did this change with the introduction of the new review queue? I’m on latest, and if a tl0 user creates a post and later completely changes the content (well above the 100 characters) there is no flag and there is also no asterix in front of the topic title.
I haven’t used this plugin before, so I have no idea if my expectations are valid.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2020, 1:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/17 "2020-02-03T01:13:14Z")
At most it would add an asterisk, from a quick review of the code, it is not re-asterisking stuff if users necro edit it.
I think you would need a different pattern or some plugin changes to account for necro edits in the plugin.
---
### Author:  [@md-misko](https://meta.discourse.org/u/md-misko)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2020, 7:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/18 "2020-02-03T07:25:01Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> I think you would need a different pattern or some plugin changes to account for necro edits in the plugin.
Is this something that others would find useful too? A flag for at least tl0 (and maybe tl1) necro edits would alert moderators to possible spam editing.
I have no idea how difficult this would be from a technical standpoint?
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2020, 9:35am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/19 "2020-02-03T09:35:20Z")
A flag for every necro edit on tl0/1 would be super noisy, unlikely many communities would use such a customisation
Usually communities dealing with this pain would simply disable necro editing for tl1 (already disabled for tl0 afaik)
Technically a plugin that flags on every necro is very simple to build
---
### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2020, 10:56am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529/20 "2020-02-03T10:56:56Z")
Not to get off topic, but to suggest.
I tried this plugin on my localhost quite a long time ago. It didn’t work exactly how I was hoping it would (Notification for _every_ edit regardless of position in a topic). I looked to see what might be involved in banging it into shape but abandoned the effort.
I’m now thinking a more realistic approach might be to have a special conditional read state / sort bump for Moderators. It would mean needing to scan topic lists to look for indicators, but it wouldn’t be as noisy. And without a sort bump the looking could take a while depending on how far back the edits went.
[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watching-tracking-notifications-for-post-edits-for-moderators/40529.md?page=2)