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How Post Editing Abilities On Google+ Can Go Wrong [SOCIAL EXPERIMENT]

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UPDATE:

  • Rob Jackson – 0
  • Timestamps – 1

Just as any young single stud would be doing on a Friday night of a holiday weekend, I was browsing through Google+… when an Incoming stream post caught my eye:

Immediately I thought about Facebook, all the double posting problems, and how if you make a mistake you’ve got to delete your post and start over. How nice that you can simply edit your posts! Unless someone with devious plans, like myself, comes along:

There is definitely an inherent problem with being able to edit your threads and posts, which the above video illustrates. Most online forums and community-style message boards allow you a certain time period of post-editing ability, after which your post is pretty much locked into place. Twitter allows you to delete (not edit) tweets, but of course the ones you wish you could take back probably get captured in print screen glory or google cache before you can snap your fingers.

That being said, those who were “tricked” in my 5 minute social experiment struck back, editing their own posts.

But it begs the question… what are the default edit settings on Google+ and how could it effect you? Sure you can always edit/delete your comments but what if you don’t catch something in time or the original poster edits theirs far, far down the road? Would love to hear what you think about post editing capabilities.

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Have a great weekend Apple Lovers slash Steve Jobs fantasizers!

Rob Jackson
I'm an Android and Tech lover, but first and foremost I consider myself a creative thinker and entrepreneurial spirit with a passion for ideas of all sizes. I'm a sports lover who cheers for the Orange (College), Ravens (NFL), (Orioles), and Yankees (long story). I live in Baltimore and wear it on my sleeve, with an Under Armour logo. I also love traveling... where do you want to go?

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43 Comments

  1. Reply if you want to sign over the rights of Phandroid.com to me.

    1. There isn’t even such a thing as you. You’re scared to death, scared to look, you’re shook.

      1. +1 for knowing that song.

        1. LOL pummeled by my own editing trick. How ironic.

  2. Triksy little jerk lol.

  3. Perhaps you missed the time date stamps. This “exploit” has been played with on other engines, including Wave and Buzz. Playback or visual cues could compensate. I could say more, but lack invite.

    1. Good point. I did miss them. Oh well, it was fun for the 25 seconds it lasted.

    2. Playback definitely helped. Once it was submitted it was saved to the record.

  4. I think a time limit is fine. Better yet, how about allow editing until someone comments on it.

    1. Or just have a “this post has been edited since it was first created. Click here to see a history of its contents over time” link.

      1. That is a minor problem, because sometimes you have legitimate reason for editing something out and you don’t want people to see it. I like reddit’s system, where you have a couple minutes to edit it and after that it adds an asterisk so you know it’s been edited. I’m not a big fan of time limits on forums and such, but on sites like reddit or a social network I think they need something to prevent this from being widespread.

  5. I’d go with the you can add more stuff but not delete
    It’s gonna be like double posting, but kinda looks better and more organized

    This can still be abused using the time limit thingie too

    Ps: you can edit comments too if you haven’t noticed

  6. hilarious!

  7. I feel left out reading all these posts about Google+ and not getting my invite, yet. I wanna join the party! Someone, anyone…please, send me an invite. daigoronyana @ gmail dot com

  8. I like the idea of adding amendments. That way I can make some corrections if it’s not too disastrous of an original post. And people will know I’ve made a change.

  9. Forum software had this figured out years ago – just include a “last edited” timestamp and a user-generated “reason for editing” field and you’re good to go.

  10. Jesus, you having my name scared the living daylight out of me.

    ~Another Rob Jackson

    1. Did you think it was you there or something? You reminded me of some news I read recently, about a woman going to her own funeral and having a heart attack (and dying). You might want to take it easy there!

  11. Would someone be able to send me an invite for google+? [email protected] thanks a lot!

  12. rob, you have a sexy voice.

  13. would love to try this bad boy out, invite please [email protected]

  14. I’m starting to feel like that guy in high school that didn’t get the invite to the party…

    If anyone wants to send me a invite I’ll bring the beer?

    [email protected]

  15. I know this is OT, but how do i prevent my Google+ uploaded photos from appearing in the Gallery of my Nexus S?

    1. I don’t have an Nexus S (or Google+, still trying to get invited…), but my OG Droid automatically syncs my picasa web albums. If you go into Settings>Accounts & Sync Settings> click on the account that your Google+ is linked to, and then uncheck whatever you think your uploaded photos are tied to (since I don’t have Google+, I don’t know if it will have its own sync settings, or if you’ll just have to uncheck Picasa Web Albums, since I believe Google+ uploads photos to picasa web). That should keep them out of your gallery apps.

      1. Hi there,

        I dun mind my phone syncing with web albums, just not the phone syncing all posted photos on G+.

        When I take a picture using my phone, the picture stays in the ‘camera’ folder of the gallery. When the photo is automagically uploaded to picasa/G+, the same photo appears in ‘uploaded photos’ folder in my gallery. When I post that photo on G+, the same photo appears the third time in the gallery in a folder dated with the date I shared that photo.

        This not only means I will have 3 copies of the same photo, but also alot of folders in my gallery, each with maybe one or two photos, and with folders named as dates in which i shared those particular photos… :(

        Having said all these, would you like me to send you an invite? or you already had one and just couldnt register?

        1. Hi Sarah,

          I replied earlier via my phone, but it hasn’t shown up…so I apologize if this gets double-posted.

          That sounds really frustrating! I’ve read that you should be able to change the auto-upload settings from within G+ (prob. the phone app?) to not auto-upload pics taken from your phone. This won’t solve all your problems, but at least maybe limit the photos that get triple-represented to only those pics on your phone that you post.

          Having said that, if you’re able to send me an invite, I’d really appreciate it. I put in my request with Google days ago, but who knows when they’ll get around to actually delivering me one. Thanks! ttnicky@gmail

          1. Thanks for the reply. I have sent you the invite. Hope you can get in.

            I really like the auto upload feature whereby my pictures in my phone gets uploaded into the private album of G+.

            Just not the phone syncing all the shared photos from G+ (which uses Picasa and are likely uploaded from my phone in the first place) thereby creating triplicates.

            Anyhow, I had written feedback to Google. Lets see how it goes.

            Overall I really like the clean look and the circles concept. I am sure G+ can integrate more google services in the future.

            It is just hard to get folks to transit from FB to G+ now that they are so entrenched in FB. And maybe its FB users are not interested to transit because G+ doesnt have the legendary poke feature? lol

            Used to remember the good old FB days when it first started up and trying to compete with Friendster and MySpace…

          2. can i has invite? [email protected]

  16. Limit editing to correct misspelling only?

  17. really cool and really want to try google + out…..anyone? [email protected]

  18. Oh this will be fixed. Google has a thing for short time frames.

  19. how did you get the ‘share too public’ for your post?

  20. I so want to mess with this! Anyone have a spare invite? malbatron (at) gmail.com

  21. This issue is decades old. The deservedly highly-regarded, pioneering, pre-Internet discussion service, TheWELL, opted for no editing to encourage thoughtful posting. It worked to a degree for many years. But today people care for convenient use and lighter communication. Nobody today wants to reread their posts three times for typos and count to fifty to avoid over-emotional hasty responses.

    But if editing is allowed at all (with or without a time limit), there has to be a way to see the previous versions with their time stamps. If you don’t like that, you’ll have to delete. It’s only fair to respondents.

  22. please send me an invite im so anxious to try this pleaseeeee…[email protected]

  23. GOOGLE+ please add me [email protected]

  24. could someone help me out. i’ve been trying to get an invite for a while now and im feeling left out? could someone please send me an invite (selikem @gmail.com) using this exploit http://www.googleplustricks.net/?p=14 . Cheers

    1. I got an invite, signed up, have access to the +1 button, can login to the mobile site on my dolphin web browser, but can’t seem to figure out how to login on my pc, just says that the servers are full on a main ad-page.

  25. Even though I find Google+ interesting
    Ph(android) reports news about Android.
    Google+=/=Android

    1. there is a g+ app, it should be integrated into contacts sync part of android. Do you use facebook app or sync in your phone?

  26. can someone PLEASE send me an invite for G+. would really love to try it out. [email protected] would be preferred. but, if only Google accounts work then [email protected] would be fine.

  27. I say just put an astrick that says “post has been edited # times” with a timestamp of the most recent edit, and notify the commenters that the original post was updated… no biggy!

  28. I think the best thing is: You can edit as long as nobody has commented after you + time limit.

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