28
votes
A beautiful answer to a question that changed
If you have a good answer to a question that's no longer there, it would be a great pity to leave things as they are, rather than have the benefit of your effort available to be easily found.
This is ...
- 261k
26
votes
Accepted
My questions don't get an answer - is it a general trend, or am I doing something wrong?
The proportion of unanswered questions is indeed slowly growing because (among other things):
the number of people answering questions is growing more slowly than the number of people asking ...
- 261k
21
votes
Editing questions: dos and don'ts
This is a series of side-notes to @Glen_b's excellent answer.
Editing is a public service. Even some small edits can just clean up a post and make it easier for everyone to read, which is a positive ...
- 49.1k
17
votes
Table formatting: best practices regarding code sample format
While the MathJax/LaTeX table formatting is nice, it's a lot of work. I would not ask anyone to do it as a matter of routine. The added value is small, despite the prettier appearance.
If we spend ...
- 261k
16
votes
Editing questions: dos and don'ts
[Just to make clear, though my answers should always be read this way: this is personal opinion]
You don't need to have any intention of answering a question to edit it.
the difficulties facing ...
- 261k
16
votes
Preventing minor stylistic edits on old, duplicated posts (or not pushing those posts at the top of the feed)
These proposals are quite different.
Reduce the incentive to edit. To a reputation gain of 1? To 0? Already the incentive is very small and matches the idea that such edits are small (but positive) ...
- 49.1k
15
votes
Accepted
Correcting authors' typos in excerpt from papers
My thoughts first on what one does if one is writing a question:
If you're quoting a paper, you should quote it verbatim and then explain why the original is wrong (including quoting the correct ...
- 261k
15
votes
Table formatting: best practices regarding code sample format
I would like to express an active preference for the "code format" tables over Latex ones in most circumstances, particularly if the table has been aligned properly.
The ease of copying tables of ...
- 20.9k
14
votes
Accepted
When is traffic slow on CrossValidated?
Based on number of posts:
Time of day: Looks like 3:00-7:00 (all times are UTC) is half as busy as 14:00-18:00
day of week: Saturday is the least busy day, followed by Sunday
combined: 6:00-7:00 ...
- 261k
14
votes
Accepted
A user insists on making a detrimental edit to one of my posts. What do I do?
The preferred solution is to flag the moderators, who have additional tools for limiting edits and, if necessary, limiting the abilities of individual users to interact on this site.
Mods can also ...
whuberMod
- 290k
14
votes
My questions don't get an answer - is it a general trend, or am I doing something wrong?
I now have some experience with CV and other SE venues. I think CV is more challenging than others because questions are more technical and scientific, and also because subspecialization is the rule ...
- 2,274
14
votes
Why is "kjetil b halvorsen" bumping up old and closed questions?
kjetil b halvorsen is not bumping up old posts. They are improving questions, which in turn bump the questions because that is how Stack Exchange works. kjetil b halvorsen has edited 3,291 posts ...
13
votes
Is it acceptable to edit other people's answers to include new information?
I'd say No in broad terms, but as usual much depends on the details.
Positively, substantial new information could help a thread considerably, but that should typically be added through comments or ...
- 49.1k
12
votes
Should trivial (bordering on (if not outright) ideological) edits to post be acceptable?
The code in the question was this:
...
- 27.8k
11
votes
Accepted
Am I abusing edit history by using it to hide code for a plot?
My answer is simply: Please just show the code.
To downplay the code, there are obvious possible signals, such as: The code is given at the end of the answer for those interested. Here is the code ...
- 49.1k
11
votes
Accepted
Should images have alt text as a matter of course, and should alt text be added to existing images?
Given that we have at least a few vision-impaired readers who have mentioned this fact on our site (and no doubt many more who don't post or don't mention it), I think we should attempt to add at ...
- 261k
11
votes
How do people find old posts to review, edit, or close them?
I routinely review every active question.
Old questions become active whenever they're touched by somebody. The "Community" bot often touches old questions that might have some value (because they ...
whuberMod
- 290k
11
votes
What are some "best practices" for editing to improve a post?
Improve external references and add hyperlinks
CV.SE questions and answers should be self-contained, but often they will refer to external material such as academic papers, course notes, blog posts, ...
- 97k
10
votes
Editing posts protocol: "Please help", and trivial edits
Based on the discussion in chat and here my understanding is:
Pleas for help should be removed as part of a larger edit, just like "Thanks", and ...
10
votes
Fixing typos and minimum change length
In general you should not fix a single letter typo; one exception would be if it's an important word in the title (since people search for those!). The fact that the system tries to prevent you from ...
- 261k
10
votes
A beautiful answer to a question that changed
I want to agree with Glen_b here, but more emphatically. Once a question has been asked and has received an answer, it is not appropriate for the OP to change the question. That wastes the time of ...
- 97k
10
votes
Accepted
Is it appropriate to heavily rewrite a poorly written question?
Please don't guess what the original poster (OP) intended. When the meaning is clear but poorly worded, then rewriting should be fine. The danger lies in making implicit assumptions (of which you ...
whuberMod
- 290k
10
votes
Accepted
Is there any way to detect / prevent user repeatedly performing minor edits to bring the post into top pages?
(To make sure this gets an answer)
As whuber mentions, there's an automatic mechanism to detect large numbers of edits and flag the moderators (the community bot is a source of a variety of flags of ...
- 261k
9
votes
Is it acceptable to edit other people's answers to include new information?
I agree with @NickCox that as a general policy answer edits should only be "minor" (copy editing), i.e. improve grammar, fix spelling and LaTeX mistakes, format the quotes and code blocks, insert full ...
- 95k
9
votes
Accepted
New users editing questions
There are minimum reputation levels to earn the privilege to edit: 100 to edit CW posts, and 2k to edit non-CW posts (and 20k to edit tag wikis). There is no minimum to suggest edits, however.
The ...
9
votes
Accepted
Editing abbreviation in the title
Although I also prefer shorter titles, I am less worried about their length than @amoeba. At any rate, I agree that you should go ahead and edit the title. The title and the tags are often what ...
9
votes
Accepted
When re-tagging old threads, how many should one do at once?
Do not re-tag more than 5 old threads at a time.
- 95k
9
votes
Should I add the self-study tag to a question that is copy-pasted from a book?
As for me, the whole idea about self-study is that people are working on some exercise and are looking for some hints since they are stuck. Copying-and-pasting a textbook exercise produces off-topic ...
TimMod
- 115k
8
votes
User edits question after it was answered - how to react?
I've done different things in different circumstances.
Sometimes I edit my answer to follow the question. This strategy is good if the updated question/answer is a better pair of posts (more likely ...
- 261k
8
votes
Should an OP's edit of their own question be accepted before their accounts are merged?
I agree with @amoeba: it's important that authors have the ability to update or improve their question as quickly as possible. Otherwise it may be closed as unclear, or answers that do get posted will ...
- 20.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible