Yes, technically you could. BUT...
If I start seeing a rash of posts that say "deleted" or something similar, I'm going to take the "edit" ability away. It's not necessary, since there is a "post preview" function.
I'd actually like to go into the program itself, and modify it so that you can edit for, say, 12 hours after a post is made, and not after that. But I don't have much free time for such things
Why am I against posts being deleted? The same reason I'm against web forum censorship. It goes against reality. It implies that a post you made "never happened" which is false. If you said something stupid, apologize. People will see that you are human, and that you are "big enough" to apologize. Isn't that so much better than "post? what post?" which is basically a lie.
If you write a letter to someone, and regret it (or want to add something later), you have to write them AGAIN. You can't magically change the contents of the letter on their desk. Ditto for in-person or phone conversations. Why should a web forum be any different?
Taking away the edit function would only make people think a bit more before they post. Is that a bad thing?
Anyhow, I experimented with taking it away (for about 10 minutes) but there was an outcry, so I reconsidered. But like I said, I don't want to see my forum become "swiss cheese" with tons of gaping holes. It makes it unreadable, especially for newcomers. Posts with tons of holes tend to make no sense.
My old "role model" the Usenet newgroups didn't have censorship -- but they also didn't allow you to delete/change your posts. So I would be consistent with my principles if I took away the edit function.
In Christ,
Matthew