Event-sourced editing with full revision history
Every edit to any content in LOGOS — wiki posts, discussion posts,
problems, ideas, questions — is an immutable event. The full history
of every piece of content is visible, diffable, and revertable by
any user.
Why It's Needed
Talkyard tracks revision numbers internally but exposes no history
UI of any kind. Once a post is edited, the previous content is gone
from the user's perspective. This applies to all content types —
not just wikis. The refinement of a requirement, the evolution of a
design decision, the correction of a limitation description — none
of it is traceable after the fact.
This was experienced directly: a requirement topic was refined from
a simpler model to a richer one during discussion. The reasoning
behind that refinement exists only in the AI conversation where it
happened — not in the topic itself. With edit history, the evolution
would be part of the record.
The Requirement
Every save of any post or topic is an immutable timestamped event
with author, timestamp, and full content snapshot. Nothing is
overwritten. Current state is always a projection from the edit
history. Any user can:
- View the full edit history of any post
- Compare any two revisions
- See who changed what and when
- Revert to any previous state
This applies uniformly across all content types — wiki, discussion,
problem, idea, question, and any custom type.
Time Travel
Because current state is always a projection from events, a user
can navigate to any point in the history of a topic and see exactly
what it looked like at that moment. Not just a diff — the full
reconstructed state at that point in time.
This is the same capability GIT provides for code: step through
each commit, see the full state at each point, understand not just
what changed but the sequence of changes that produced the current
state. Applied to knowledge and requirements, it means the evolution
of understanding is fully traceable — not just the destination but
the journey.
This capability is a natural consequence of the storage model, not
a bolted-on feature. See: LOGOS Requirements — Event-sourced storage
as the foundation.
Acceptance
A user edits a post. Another user opens the history view and sees
both the original and the edited version, with a diff, timestamp,
and author. A third revision is made. All three are visible and
individually selectable. Selecting any revision shows the full
reconstructed content at that point — not just the diff. Revert to
revision 1 restores that content as a new revision event — the
revert itself is part of the history.
Sources
- LOGOS → Talkyard Limitations → Wiki edit history is not accessible (note: limitation title understates scope — affects all content types)