Editing sheets which have 'Message board' posts.

[Roger Horton]

When there is doubt about details on a sheet a user can add a message to the 'user comments' box and, provided that the box 'request feedback about this sheet' is (remains) ticked, a message appears on the Message Board under 'Herbarium sheet discussion'.

Am I right in thinking that, if another user at a later date re-edits the sheet and changes the content of the 'user comments' box, no new message appears on the Message Board, and that the content of the original message in the sheet documentation is lost? The original documenter will remain oblivious of the changes and will not see any reply to their message.

Should the user doing the re-editing go to the Message Board and 'postreply'?
For "recent" messages I would think they should. For "old" messages I am not
so sure ("recent" and "old" to be defined!) Any ideas please?

[Tom Humphrey]

You're right that subsequent comments directly on the sheet won't post follow-ups to the message board or notify the user - but comments get added-to rather than overwritten.

This is definitely suboptimal and probably something I should look to fix - have a dual comment/message system is strange.

In terms of digging up old posts to add comments, I have mixed feelings - it can be good to resurrect old sheets when some interesting new information comes to light, but I'd avoid it for more trivial edits.

(in some ways, to prompt continued volunteer involvement it might be a good thing if dormant users occasionally receive notifications that a sheet they worked on has been looked at again - I've yet to receive any complaints about such emails - and people can easily opt-out if excess messages became a problem)