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I'm mainly post to the Stack Overflow meta. As a result, I don't have enough rep to actually post a comment in this meta and I am not a new user.

There was a post I added a significant improvement to, a semi-automated powershell script for performing the same tasks under Windows 7.

This is regarding this thread.

The edit included a link to the public pastebin, formatting showing a powershell script, and a standard disclaimer regarding running powershell scripts you don't understand it.

The script itself was heavily commented to avoid any confusion or appearance of obfuscation.

I was told it would be peer reviewed, and wouldn't post until that had completed but I would still see the edit while logged in. The edit has, since then, disappeared completely. This was several days ago, I noticed this morning the question had been updated but my additions are completely missing.

As far as I can tell, there is no way of contacting the answer poster privately regarding the edit to discover what went wrong (no private messaging), and the meta restriction prevents me from making a comment in the thread (even though I have more than enough rating to post on StackOverflow.

The manual procedure described in the thread is a lengthy process. I estimate a little bit over 40 minutes of work for a sysadmin, maybe as much as 1h 20m for a superuser. The same task when run as a semi-automated script would take no longer than 10-20 minutes mostly unattended (a significant time savings).

What is the best way to go about resolving this, and getting the changes posted to save everyone time and headache?

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  • I'm sorry I haven't seen David's response that you refer to. I've gone over the original thread three times looking for it, nor do I see it in this thread. I can add another answer to it, I thought it would be more appropriate to keep the main answer with an automated solution at the bottom as the tasks taken are mostly the same, hence the pastebin link and disclaimer. NM turned out to be a cache issue. I see it now.
    – user708866
    Mar 20, 2017 at 21:36
  • My fault. I left a comment and then deleted it as I decided to turn it into a complete answer (as this question will probably get migrated to meta.su where it really belongs.)
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Mar 20, 2017 at 21:46
  • You don't get notification of rejected edits, but you can find them on your activity page
    – Mokubai Mod
    Mar 21, 2017 at 6:11

1 Answer 1

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What is the best way to go about resolving this?

Your edit was rejected because:

This edit was intended to address the author of the post and makes no sense as an edit. It should have been written as a comment or an answer

Instead of a major edit of another answer, adding your own solution (your script), you should post your own answer.

When to reject?

  • If it changes main code.
  • If it adds additional code. (Though it depends sometimes.)
  • If it adds another solution. (Emphasis mine)
  • If edit summary fails to explain diffs I observe.

Source Should edits trying to improve the content of an answer be approved?


Link Only Answers

In addition, any code required for your answer should be part of your answer.

Adding just a link to your code (for example, a pastebin link) is discouraged, because:

the answer can become invalid if the linked page(s) change or the link is later unavailable.

If you add a link-only answer, then you answer will probably be closed, and you will be asked to:

Please quote the essential parts of the answer from the reference link(s)

See Your answer is in another castle: when is an answer not an answer? for more explanation.

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  • Thank you David for clarifying this, i'll post it as a separate answer. The script follows every step you provide to the letter with comments for deviations where specific patches are not applicable to a windows 7 workstation. Its not original, simply a coding of the manual steps you provided hence I personally didn't consider it a major edit but I guess that is subjective. I'll add it as a separate answer. Additionally comments aren't able to be made until you reach a 5 rating limit within a specific meta. Edit: My point being, cross-meta posting permissions seem to be a problem.
    – user708866
    Mar 20, 2017 at 21:42
  • @Lorek The bonus of providing your own answer is rep if it gets upvoted :)
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Mar 20, 2017 at 21:47
  • I rarely travel to this meta so rep isn't too important to me, I happened to be addressing an issue on my system and thought I'd automate it for myself (in the future) and others since it took a significant amount of time. Also I didn't receive notification of the rejection, it simply disappeared.
    – user708866
    Mar 20, 2017 at 21:49
  • @Lorek once you get enough rep in your "home" SE you will start each new SE with 100 base points. I don't know how this works for sites you joined before you had the sufficient points at home, but it is handy being able to more fully interact in new sites based on a good reputation back home. Mar 21, 2017 at 16:12
  • @music2myear When I hit the magic number to get the "Association Bonus" on one site, my currently joined sites immediately got +100 as well. So it should apply to both newly joined sites as well as already joined sites.
    – Brian J
    Apr 3, 2017 at 14:30
  • It's been a while since I went over that number myself. I rather assumed it behaved this way, but I simply didn't know for certain. Thanks for confirming. Apr 3, 2017 at 17:41

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