So you guys have granted me enough rep to edit. :D
But before I dig into people's questions/answers, what conventions/rules/guidelines should be followed when editing?
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Obviously we can come up with our own policies, but this has been discussed on the main meta quite a bit, so that's probably a good place to start; What is the etiquette for modifying posts? is particularly helpful. There's also a blog entry on it
answered Oct 7 '10 at 3:52
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Up to this point I have only considered doing the following, all of which I feel are within the etiquette of this site:
- Tags
- Poor Formatting (ie, properly formatting code)
- Edits to commands that are either obviously wrong or corrected in the comments. (for example,
find -type -ftofind -type f) - Adding/fixing links (especially since new users have a limit on the links they can post).
I think the following could be appropriate, but would like to see what others think:
- Fixing the grammar of posts written by users who are not very fluent in English. I don't mean fixing every grammar/spelling mistake (I have certainly made many), but simply making questions readable if they are good questions simply written by someone who doesn't speak English well.
- Putting Warnings on code that could be especially harmful.
- Adding a small amount of information to an otherwise excellent post. Often someone has 90% of the answer and I only see the need to point one small thing out. I often post this as a comment, but sometimes it would be nice to have it as part of the answer.
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1I think clarifying titles as another worthwhile editing task. In terms of what not to do, I would basically avoid changing the content of the question or answers unless they are community wikis. – Steven D Oct 6 '10 at 22:57
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I'm fine with all of those things; I'll rewrite an entire question if it's poorly written, as long as I think I'm keeping the author's intent the same. I'm much more hesitant to change content, as I'm always afraid of introducing a mistake inadvertently, but as long as you're quite certain your change is accurate it's probably fine – Michael Mrozek♦ Oct 7 '10 at 3:57
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@Stefan I've only clarified maybe once... because someone was like "what blah"? and the person had 'tagged' the post but not otherwise mentioned what in any of it. I mostly try not to change that kind of stuff unless it's glaringly obvious, or causing a problem – xenoterracide Nov 6 '10 at 6:33
