codidact
Allow thread titles to be edited (with public record)
https://meta.codidact.com/posts/282459 Also https://meta.codidact.com/posts/290349
When this came up again in a duplicate (https://meta.codidact.com/posts/284483), I suggested:
I think it's reasonable for the person who created the thread to be able to edit the title so long as the only comments are from that user. As soon as there's a comment from someone else, though, there's the chance that changing the thread title can affect context for those comments (or even can be changed destructively), and -- unlike with posts -- readers can't audit these edits.
At this writing that suggestion is +6/-0. People make typos in thread titles, or don't realize that the default title is an initial substring. We should let them edit so long as they're only affecting their own comments.
We should log the edit, just in case thread titles are used for abusive purposes and we need to be able to review.
Update: allow anybody involved in the thread to rename it, and add an auto-comment to the thread recording the change: something like "title changed from (old) to (new) by (user)". This comment is owned by System, not the person making the change, so only mods can delete it.
Curators have the "tools" menu, which other users don't have. This means either giving them the "tools" menu (with just the one option) or adding an 'edit title" link somewhere.
Why restrict it to when there are no further comments? If you're logging it anyway, it shouldn't pose an issue.
We're logging it, but users can't see that it was edited (like they can with posts). Consider this scenario: somebody creates a thread with a troll title like "so-and-so is an idiot", so-and-so responds objecting to the personal attack, author edits the title to something mildly critical like "what about this contradictory source?", bystanders see what looks like so-and-so over-reacting to a fair criticism. That's not fair to so-and-so.
Moderators can edit thread titles, so if a thread has diverged from its original title and people want to update it, that's possible. But it requires a mod assist. (Actually, I think it's curators; don't remember. We're still building up our curators, so right now it's mods on our network.)
Oh, I thought you meant a public log (like post histories). If it isn't public, then yes, it would be best that it is restricted to when there aren't any responses.
Sorry for the confusion. Yes, I meant logged in the DB. Exposing it in the UI means figuring out how to expose it in the UI for what we expect to be a rare case. "Just add it to the UI" isn't always the correct choice; we have to consider how much stuff we're putting in front of users, too. I'm not saying no -- just that at least as a starting point I'm assuming not.
Public logging: add a comment to the thread of the form "title changed from (old) to (new) by (user)". This comment is owned by System, not the person making the change, so only mods can delete it.