High reputation user edit which makes incorrect answer to be same as correct one

Question

Is it fine that admin edits the answer in the way that incorrect answer becomes correct answer absolutely equal to mine and my answer becomes useless?

https://unix.stackexchange.com/posts/162223/revisions

Let me summarize the changes made by @Gilles:

The answers before his edit:

------------begin

Use that syntax: ${parameter/pattern/string}

$ echo ${OUTPUT/\'/x}
axb"c`d
$ echo ${OUTPUT/\"/x}
a'bxc`d
$ echo ${OUTPUT/\`/x}
a'b"cxd

------------end

My answer:

------------begin

OUTPUT="${OUTPUT//[\`\"\']/}"

Note that ${VAR//PATTERN/} removes all instances of the pattern. For more information bash parameter expansion

------------end

after Gilles edit first answer became:

-----------begin

Use that syntax: ${parameter//pattern/string} to replace all occurrences of the pattern with the string.

$ echo "${OUTPUT//\'/x}"
axb"c`d
$ echo "${OUTPUT//\"/x}"
a'bxc`d
$ echo "${OUTPUT//\`/x}"
a'b"cxd
$ echo "${OUTPUT//[\'\"\`]/x}"
axbxcxd

---------end

So what was changed?

• Added quotes - like in my answer
• Added correct answer string - like in my answer
• Added comment that // replaces all variables - like in my answer
• Nothing else

After these edits their answer became essentially the same as mine.

Answer 1

The edit in question was done by a fellow user of the site, not an admin. Edits on the site is typical for a variety of reasons:

• spelling
• phrasing
• technical inaccuracies
• syntax in commands/scripts

In this case the edit was to fix a syntax error where the variable $OUTPUT was unquoted which you should typically never do.

The other fix was to do the same, and put quotes around the arguments to echo and to add a 4th example which showed how the piecemeal search/replaces could be done in a single command.

I don't see an issue with this type of edit, this made this answer more useful, and all the pieces were already contained, this particular edit simply put the pieces together in one line.

Edits in general

The answers that people provide on Stack Exchange sites are not solely to provide a solution to the original poster of the question. The site acts as a knowledge-base for future visitors as well, and these types of edits are done typically with that audience in mind.

Presenting a complete solution, such as this one, is more conducive to these future visitors, since they'll get a fully usable solution, rather than having to piece things together themselves.

Answer 2

First of all, there's no such thing as an "admin edit". Anyone can edit a post, once you have 2k reputation, you can do so directly but before that you can still submit an edit which will have to be accepted by 2 users with >=2k reputation.

That said, the objective of the site is to have a collection of useful information, of good answers. It is more like a wiki than a forum. The edit you mention clearly improved the answer so, yes, it is perfectly acceptable. Also, it was a very minor edit, correcting a misunderstanding of the question. Since a global substitution was requested, the edit made the answer fit the question. Your answer is no less useful because of that, it has simply been joined by another correct answer.

So, your answer is no less useful now than it was when you posted it. There is no limited pool of correctness where adding to one answer would remove from yours. The more correct answers we have, the better.