Why are users unable to edit their own ideas

I have had a query from a client asking why they cannot edit their own ideas

I noticed that there was a request for this in the customer connection portal, but the author still cannot edit their own ideas, is there a reason for this ? 

Looking at the idea create/edit widget it has code to check if the user is the author and there are no votes OR has edit permission so this widget would support the ability to edit, there is a slight caveat here in that when created a vote is added by the author so that needs to be retracted. I also am not sure I agree with the self vote mechanism, but that is another issue.

Looking at the idea view/details widget which shows the edit link, the logic is different to that in the idea create/edit widget as it doesn't refer to the author at all so the edit button is not shown unless you have the idea edit permission which then lets you edit all ideas

I am planning to change the idea details widget locally to allow author editing (with no votes), as after a quick test it appeared to work as expected, but wanted to ask to make sure there won't be unforeseen issues, if not then can I request that the logic in the idea widgets is please standardised

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  • Hi Karl,

    Glad you found my idea Slight smile

    For the vast majority of ideas being submitted, the author will want to upvote their own idea.  It is a very rare exception where they would not.  Plus, asking members to upvote their own ideas is a clunky user experience.  It has been a huge benefit to my community having the default idea vote functionality in place. 

    As for members being able to edit their own ideas, I am very hesitant to open up that type of functionality.  When members vote / comment on ideas, they are doing so based on what is currently in the idea.  If an edit button is enabled for members, there is a chance that an idea could be substantially altered without the existing voters / commenters being made aware.  I would rather members contact a moderator / admin to edit the idea or, even better, comment with their additional changes on the idea so enhance the discussion.

  • Hi Sarah 

    Yes this would only be exposed to the author if there are zero votes, as I totally agree that once an idea has votes its unethical to change the context of the idea

    So the author will have to retract the default vote to edit, this is more about the inconsistency of logic between the view and create/widgets 

    As it stands now, if an author removed their vote and manually went to the edit page of the idea they can edit it