Need some help and advice!

Dear moderators, I’m reaching out because I’ve been penalized twice now. To be honest, it comes down to my lack of tech-savviness, which is a pretty common hurdle for those of us in the older generation here in America. I have just one specific issue I wanted to get the community's take on. In my attempt to refine my thoughts, I ended up posting the exact same topic four separate times, as each edit I tried to make was logged here as an entirely new post. That’s why I was flagged. On platforms like Facebook, you can simply go back and edit an existing thread, but here, any attempt to change something creates a duplicate, which apparently violates the rules. Out of those four posts, two were deleted and two were locked. This means I can't use my original threads at all. Now that my penalty has expired, am I allowed to reopen the original topic? I promise I won't repeat this mistake; I won't try to make any more edits so I don't end up duplicating topics and triggering more penalties.

Brenda Davis said:Dear moderators. I’ve been penalized twice now. Honestly, it’s just because I’m not as tech-savvy as the younger crowd—something a lot of us older folks deal with. There is one specific topic I really wanted to get the community's take on. I ended up posting the same thread four different times because I was trying to make edits, but on this site, those edits show up as entirely new posts. That’s why I got flagged. On Facebook, you can just go back and fix an original post, but here, my attempts to edit triggered new threads, which apparently violates the rules. Out of those four posts, two were deleted and two were locked. Since I can't use the old ones, I have a question: Now that my penalty has expired, am I allowed to start the original thread again? I promise I won't make any more edits that might cause duplicate threads or lead to more penalties.

I was actually expecting a response from a moderator. If this were about a violation, I would have already been sanctioned. I suppose I might even get flagged just for making this inquiry.

Just hang tight for a bit! You dropped this thread right in the middle of the night, and honestly, it’s still pretty early. The moderators aren't hovering over the site 24/7, and they don't even check in every single day. They'll get back to you whenever they hop online.

While you're hanging out, you should really check out this thread. It’s got tons of great breakdowns on all those technical settings and some helpful tips on how we all do things around here on the forums. Just a heads up, you can always tweak your own posts using the edit button.

Brenda Davis said:Dear moderators, I’ve been penalized twice now. Honestly, blame it on my lack of tech-savviness—it’s a pretty common struggle for those of us in the older crowd. There’s just one specific topic I wanted to get the community's take on. What happened was, I tried posting the same thread four different times because I kept wanting to make edits, which ended up being logged here as entirely new posts. That’s why I got flagged. On Facebook, you can just go back and tweak an existing post, but here, trying to edit feels like starting over, and apparently, that’s against the rules. Out of those four attempts, two were deleted and two were locked. Since I can't really use the old ones, I wanted to ask: now that my penalty has expired, am I allowed to start the topic again? I promise I won't make the mistake of trying to "edit" anything this time to avoid duplicating threads and getting hit with more penalties.

The threads were actually locked because they violated the subforum rule against starting topics with just a single sentence; you need a decent amount of introductory context. After I gave you the first warning, I explained exactly which rule was being broken.

You're welcome to start a new thread, just follow the community guidelines and write a meaningful introduction. It doesn't have to be a novel, but give us something to work with.