28
votes
I have just discovered that I can edit other users' posts! Is there anything I should know before I start some serious editing?
Make posts better, but don't impose your personal style
Usually we try to leave style up to the author of the post, and edit mainly for spelling/grammar, clarity, and readability (e.g. break up walls ...
- 109k
27
votes
I have just discovered that I can edit other users' posts! Is there anything I should know before I start some serious editing?
Avoid edits to "on hold" questions that will never be reopened
Editing a post that is "on hold" pushes it into a review queue for reopening.
If you make cosmetic edits to a post that is "on hold" ...
- 109k
24
votes
I have just discovered that I can edit other users' posts! Is there anything I should know before I start some serious editing?
Edits bump posts
Keep in mind that edits bump posts back to the front page. It's not a big deal to bump recent posts, and also not a big deal to bump old posts if it's only a few.
But if you ever ...
- 109k
21
votes
I have just discovered that I can edit other users' posts! Is there anything I should know before I start some serious editing?
Add Missing Body Questions
Sometimes, an asker will put a question in a title, but never actually put the question in the body, treating the two as though they were a single piece of prose.
For ...
- 190k
17
votes
I have just discovered that I can edit other users' posts! Is there anything I should know before I start some serious editing?
Leave the problems you're not certain how to fix alone.
If a post has multiple things wrong with it, some may be easier to fix than others. Fix only the problems that you are certain that you have a ...
- 190k
17
votes
Removal of answer content by moderator --- edit detracts from the answer
Obviously I agree with Massimo's answer, but let me add my own reasoning.
Your answer included a 1500 word (!!) monograph describing your views on the distinction between racism and concern about ...
cag51Mod
- 71.1k
16
votes
Did this question have a thank-you note added by somebody other than the person who asked it?
The OP mistakenly posted that additional text as an answer. Moderators can directly convert such non-answers to a comment or an edit to the question. The edit is automatically attributed to the ...
- 55.6k
15
votes
I have just discovered that I can edit other users' posts! Is there anything I should know before I start some serious editing?
Don't engage in edit wars
If your edit is rolled back (either by the original author of the post or another user), don't get in an edit war.
If the edit is minor, let it go.
If the edit is ...
- 109k
15
votes
I have just discovered that I can edit other users' posts! Is there anything I should know before I start some serious editing?
Fix all the problems in the post
Try to fix everything that is wrong with the question all at once. For example, if you are editing a question to fix a grammar error, also check if maybe some tags ...
- 109k
14
votes
I have just discovered that I can edit other users' posts! Is there anything I should know before I start some serious editing?
Be aware of culturally different spellings and word usages
It is well known that there are different, but correct, spellings for certain words. Examples are color and colour, behaviour and behavior, ...
- 17.9k
13
votes
Accepted
Did this question have a thank-you note added by somebody other than the person who asked it?
The edit matches, word for word, what the OP of the question posted as an answer. A moderator (Massimo Ortolano) deleted that "answer" (presumably since it does nothing to answer the ...
- 27.9k
12
votes
Was the edit removing religious aspects OK?
It's true that that edit may be a seen as too invasive and deviating from the original intent of the post (to use the words of an edit reject reason), especially without a specific explanation for the ...
- 55.6k
10
votes
How far should we go when editing somebody else’s question to prevent closure?
Proposed Guideline
I think two good lines to draw are:
Answers to the edited question must still be potentially useful for the asker.
The context of the question should not be distorted, i.e., no ...
WrzlprmftMod
- 63.6k
10
votes
Accepted
Is there a way to easily propose tag deletion except by making a meta post?
Thank you for removing the tag!
There is a daily script that automatically removes the unused tags, so no need to take any further action.
- 55.6k
9
votes
Handling of off-topic content in an answer
In occasions like this it can be really easy to get distracted from the question and end up discussing the setup and that's often problematic for a variety of reasons - in fact, it happened in some of ...
- 176
9
votes
I have just discovered that I can edit other users' posts! Is there anything I should know before I start some serious editing?
Suggested edits by editors with <2k rep
If you have less than 2k rep, all of your edits have to be reviewed by multiple reviewers. Also, further edits to the post are blocked until your edit has ...
- 109k
8
votes
What to do with posters editing errors back into their question
Note that it may not be intentional - weird things can happen if the OP has a post open for editing, someone else edits the post, and then the OP submits their edit.
Anyways, what to do? As suggested ...
- 109k
7
votes
Accepted
Is the word "Bizarre" too loaded with negative meaning?
I don't think the word "bizarre" is too loaded with negative meaning, but to me it is more negative than "unusual". If the word bizarre was in the body of the question and I was editing it for another ...
- 105k
7
votes
Removal of answer content by moderator --- edit detracts from the answer
First, let me remark that controversial cases like this one are always first discussed internally by the moderators' team, sometimes with further advice from the Stack Exchange Community Managers, and ...
- 55.6k
6
votes
Handling of off-topic content in an answer
This is a tricky case; thanks for bringing it to meta. The existing answers seem to support option 3, so I'll make a case for options 1/2.
While questioning the premise of the question is often the ...
cag51Mod
- 71.1k
6
votes
Why did a “related post” link get edited into my answer?
If you ask me, it clearly isn’t; the suggested edit should have been rejected.
Even if the link were related to your answer, you should decide whether this link really reflects your intentions. I ...
WrzlprmftMod
- 63.6k
6
votes
Links to Beall's List are broken and need to be fixed
The url posted by @eykanal
https://beallslist.weebly.com/
includes the original Beall's list, and at the bottom of the page new additions. It is a reasonable replacement.
(Among the names of these ...
- 4,627
5
votes
I have just discovered that I can edit other users' posts! Is there anything I should know before I start some serious editing?
Leave a comment about your significant (particularly uncertain) edits
If you made a significant edit, particularly if you're not sure if you've preserved the author's meaning, leave a comment for the ...
- 32.7k
5
votes
Accepted
Hit approve instead of reject on a suggested edit
Is there anything I can/should do about it like an undo or something like this?
No, there isn’t (probably it would be needed only very rarely). All you can do is wait for the edit to finally fail or ...
WrzlprmftMod
- 63.6k
5
votes
Request on rephrasing
I did most of the major editing on that answer. I was by no means trying to minimize how bad the described behavior was. My edit was a pretty coarse hack to remove what I felt was sexist content. At ...
- 105k
4
votes
Is the word "Bizarre" too loaded with negative meaning?
When I retitled the question and introduced the word "bizarre", I was deliberately reusing OP's language from the body text. To me it seemed like OP was asking whether this was "bizarre" rather than "...
cag51Mod
- 71.1k
3
votes
Accepted
How to avoid edit war?
In general, an edit removing a piece of advice is an edit that is conflicting with the intents of the author and thus not permissible. Therefore you have every right to insist on this paragraph. Of ...
WrzlprmftMod
- 63.6k
3
votes
Accepted
How to suggest edits for locked posts?
Rejected migrations are locked automatically on the target site.
However, they are not locked on the source site, so you can comment on the post on the source site. (Which would be more useful than ...
- 109k
3
votes
Was this answer edited too heavily?
You can't do much in China. China is a dictatorship, and it appears to
have a national policy of hacking businesses to steal their code and
data. No reason to expect them to respect your rights to ...
- 544
1
vote
Handling of off-topic content in an answer
The best way to address this answer, and similar ones, is to vote.
If you think an answer is not helpful, downvote. If you think it is helpful, upvote.
Remember that "helpful" needs to be ...
- 99.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible