My website lets people go back and edit/fix comments for 5 minutes from the time they are originally posted.
Should I be creating a different database record for the edited version, or is that too neurotic?!
Debbie
Hi Debbie.
No, it wouldn’t be “too neurotic” at all.
In fact, many forums offer such a possibility among their features for the administrators to control the development of publication and edition.
Moreover, diverse CMS include also a “Versions” feature for the administrators and users to review or even recover or review previous versions of edited articles.
I have attached an image to this message with a view of the backend of one of my sites on which you can see a “Versiones” button in the top bar as an example.
It is in Spanish, but you’ll have no problem to understand it and its function.
Best regards.
Well, too late this time 'round, but maybe I can add that in a later version…
Thanks.
If you don’t mind, could you provide some more screenshots so I can see what it looks like with the actual different versions of copy?
(English preferred, but Spanish will do.) 
Thanks,
Debbie
Hi Debbie.
In the case of the example (a CMS), by clicking the “Versiones” (Versions) button, a window popups showing a the different versions of the article, as you see in the image below.
Then you can restore any of them, bringing up the versions list or check the box against a version to restore it (“Restaurar”).
Other CMSs a forum platforms offer the same or very similar features.
Thanks for another screen-shot.
Sorry, but did you say the screen-shots you attached are from a system YOU built, or just some off-the-shelf solution your company bought?
Does WordPress offer such a feature?
Back to my website…
How crucial do you think such a feature really is?
Where I am coming from, I don’t mind people being able to edit a comment to an article within the first 5 minutes, but it is NOT my goal to provide a full-fledged CMS!!
I suppose it could help an Admin to see what someone initially posted (e.g. a naughty comment) and then reconcile that against what they changed things to (e.g. removed the naughty comment before they got busted), but at the same time, I am trying to attract those kinds of users to my website.
The goal is that people will be posting quality comments, and if they don’t I will break their fingers! 
Sincerely,
Debbie
WordPress uses versioning - each time you edit a post it creates a new one and changes the status of the previous version.