Quick question

[flawd]

I am in the middle of an argument with a friend of mine and I am quite sure that I am correct. This is in an IRC chat room and he typed this in: "I could post about it on a security forum, of course, when it was completed." After some questioning, I find out he means, he has not finished it, but he could post it, if he had finished it.

Am I wrong? Please tell me the correct grammar of that.

Thank you,
-Chris

[Erin]

when it was completed makes it sound like the action was finished. For example, it would be correct to say, I told them about it when it was completed. The key here is that both told and completed are in the past tense.

If your friend wants to refer to something that may happen in the future, it would be better to say I could/can/will/might post about it when it is complete.

Hacker at work here? Hope it's not a vB exploit.

[flawd]

Thank you so much for clearing that up for me, that is what I was trying to tell him.

[Merrill]

That's called a dangling participle. We don't know if "it" refers to the post or the security forum.

And yes, it should be when it is completed, not was.

better to say "Once it is complete, I could post in on the security forum."

[pami]

Is this correct, " I could post about it on a security forum, of course, when it would be completed"

[gautam]

On IRC - correct grammatical english is not a criteria. Being a IRC regular I got the point he was making.

"I could post........." meaning he is yet to post.
"when it was finished" incorrect but it does mean its not finished yet.

Well in IRC everything works