As many of you know, my computer, internet access situation is less than ideal, but better than 9 months ago at least. I have to write and put up a post fairly quickly, then I often edit the post at least, sometimes 10 times within the alotted 30 minutes.
If someone adds a post within my editing time, then it shows up with the message at the bottom, edited
n times at the bottom. {For the sake of example, I added another post then edited this post twice}. If someone has not added a post and I edit, then it doesn't show up that I have edited. I think that regular posters have at least an inkling that my posts are in flux for a few minutes after I post and hesitate to reply quickly.
The case is different with PM's, where the fact that I edit is always visible (even if it is done immediately), but editing is not possible after the other party has read the message. PM's are less than 20% of my contribution to discussion on the board, and are a different kettle of fish.
Kirk is right about the Lysias posts now that it has started, it is moving at a faster than the "safe" pace that would allow error ellimination. Creatvity + expression + subjective interpretation + human frailty will inevitably lead to errors in form, content or expression. There are some quotes that have the reference quoted in the "index" page, but not in the to-and-fro of the discussion, which ae not worth reposting, but lower the overall quality of the exercise.
The Erotocritus post on the other hand was a leading (and it seems final) post, which I had the liberty to spend 3 or 4 weeks preparing, so it is at a high standard of error correction. I didn't expect no responses, but I had prepared for that eventuality, by making the post as comprehensive and self-contained as possible.
Ideally, I would hope that all posts could be indexed, with something like [index="Third person imperative"]ὑποτασσέσθω[/index], which users could add points of interest to an index, Ideally, a third field where the reference to a specific verse would be good to be able to add too. For verses [verse="ὑπηρέται ... τοῦ λόγου"]Luke 1:2[/verse] where the things that the poster identifies as central to the discussion would accompany the verse number in an index, viz, not just "Luke 1:2", but "Luke 1:2 ὑπηρέται ... τοῦ λόγου" would make the site 10x more useful, both now and in the future. I would not expect that the ὑπηρέται ... τοῦ λόγου would show up in the post, but at the top of the thread in the index, and in a board-wide index.
This comment is 80% directed at the various moderators who have selflessly agreed to make minor, but significant corrections to my posts which are possibly misleading and definitely not what I intended to say. Everybody who reads my posts will of course recognise the apparent nonchalance with which I handle the Greek, freely changing the emphasis, slightly rephrasing so as to change the meaning, and substituting different words to completely alter the sense of the text, all as a way to discuss what
was actually said. That is one side of the coin, the other side of the coin is that there are a small measure of people for whom Greek will be the greatest detriment to faith and understanding, and to 80% it is where I think that what I have said could be a stumbling block that I ask for help in correcting errors, the other 20% is for the forum in general and my own posts (vainity) to be of a more lasting and beneficial quality.
I
personally think it is a good that I do not have
post hoc editing privilages from the point of view that
when I am thinking about things deeply, I have less than adequate ability to express myself, and really poor group, interpersonal and social skills. I don't know why that is, but it has always been like that. As people will have noticed, that after admonition from an older moderator by PM, I have been making efforts to reduce my thought into various recognisable universes of discourse, rather than express them directly.
When I wrote that post, I meant it in the sense of, "We all share a partial understanding, but let's work together so that we can all benefit from the understandings that we have, and correct the misunderstanding that we may have", in effect "I look forward to seeing your insights into the Greek", but it didn't really come out that way.
I mean look at that post! Would you let someone who wrote
that drive your recently restored Mustang Fastback? Of course not!! You'd be afraid he'd drive through the Central Park in reverse, rather than something predictable. Language to some extent does control thought, or at least shape its tendencies.
Being in a multi-lingual situation does affect my English detrimentally. Once one does let go of the bottom, and try to use any language, there is an immediately alarming effect on one's mother tongue. Thinking in Greek and then changing to English, there is sometimes a flow on effect of some aspects of the laguage that one was just thinking in. It is acrobatic, to say the least, to switch from saying 有发票巴!(in dialect) to a taxi driver, then hear "Welf tiddent Stevie end-tis fetch" from a couple of Irish friends, then listen to the pommies going on about Aussies being ill-bred convict stock - all in their own regional dialects, then hearing the illiterate Brazilian say, "Hey Stevie, I and wetting you cunning, I so tired. I and westerday have so many work, today his very tired, I and wonly sleeping two / tree or's. You waiting, I come back. Just see two guys. You sit and here waiting me later we talk. No problem." And then try to understand a passage in Greek, and post something creative / original about Greek in
standard English, while I'm still thinking about the passage in Greek. Well nigh impossible! How can my English be water-tight!?!? There will inevitably be a lot of errors that creep in. Το μυαλό μου βράζει σαν καζάνι!!
It does take a while form me to get into an English way of thinking, when I need to use the standard language. And I thank people for their efforts to bear with my poor English in my posts. The standard of my English when I was living with my uncle in Benalla, or with my father's classmate in Sydney was much more relaxed and easier to write.