Allow editing/converting a forum topic BEFORE publishing

If we can edit topics after approving them, we should be able to edit them before approving them.

Here is an extreme example - what if the topic said:

eg. "This is the stupidest f***ing piece of sh** software! What it really needs to do is (a) [great idea...], (b) [another great idea...], and (c) [best idea ever...]"

Other than the first sentence, this is a valuable forum post. I want to publish those great ideas and let my other customer's vote on them, but I am forced to publish this raw to the whole world, including notifications to followers, with no option for removing the offensive language beforehand.

That just doesn't make any sense.

I totally support this need.  At the moment, a Forum Moderator can only approve or disapprove a Topic.  There is no way for a Moderator to edit the Topic to make any needed adjustments.  

One Use Case where I would like a Moderator to be able to edit a Topic would be under an Ideas forum.  A customer could submit to us a product suggestion that is poorly worded or that could benefit from some additional information or perhaps a storyboard.  If a Moderator cannot edit the Topic to add the needed clarity, we then need to reach out to the customer and go back and forth with them until they get it right.  That will aggravate the customer and creates unnecessary additional work for the Moderator.

If a Moderator was allowed to edit the Topic during moderation, then the Moderator should be able to save a draft of the changes and then have the ability to notify the original submitter that an edit was made that the submitter can accept or reject.

I know that the workaround is for the Moderator to assume the identity of the submitter and make the changes that way, but that isn't a good way to deal with this.

This is an important piece of functionality that is missing from the forums. Our help desk supports multiple companies and some of those have asked us to not make their names public. This is not always upheld by their end-users, so if we have a forum topic or comment that references a company name, we edit that to say something more generic, like "at our company". But, we can't edit the topic or comment until AFTER it has already been posted in the forums. And, anyone who is following that category will get a notification with the original wording.

As a forum moderator, we need the ability to edit a topic or comment BEFORE it is published on the forums.