Russ,

In three years I have never had a frivolous request to edit or delete
a post from a digest or archive.  Two examples of the kind of
request that I get are:

1) Post to an un-moderated list with digest contains a phone number
with transposed digits.  The author sends a corrected post as soon as
he discovers the error. Request is made by the author of the post
to correct the phone number in the digest and archive.

2) Person A intends to send a message to B.  The message includes an
offensive remark about C.  By mistake the message is posted to an
un-moderated list with digest to which A, B, and C subscribe.  A sends
an apology to C and the list, which does not contain the offensive
remark.  The author requests that his post with the offensive
remark be removed from the digest and archive but leave the apology.

In both cases I believe that not complying with the request to edit or
delete the posts would cause harm or annoyance to innocent people
(the person with the posted phone number in #1) or unnecessary
embarrassment (C and A in #2).

When I receive an edit/delete request there is usually time pressure
to get the change made without delaying the digest and the person
making the request is very anxious.  I would like to be able to edit or
delete posts in the digest / archive in a matter of seconds.  If the
consensus is that this is too much power to entrust to most list
owners, then I will probably create an application for my own use.

Jim Walker