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I'm very new to the forums, so I don't have much experience whether I should edit or post a new question.

A day ago, I asked a question at superuser.com about where programs should be installed for a single user. However, I edited the question about three times, as I thought my question gave me answers that I was not expecting (not that they were bad). Today was the third edit, and someone said that they will flag me if I edit my question again.

To get to the point, I edited my question & title to the point I felt I’ll get the responses I want, but I feel like it will be drowned out later on very fast, and I felt like I needed to start a fresh question because the answers there are less relevant to the question. How should I do this?

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However, I edited the question about three times, as I thought my question gave me answers that I was not expecting (not that they were bad).

You must understand that I spent over 3 hours researching my answer to your question. I had, at that point modified my answer at least five times to address your concerns expressed in your comments.

I was completely over, modifying my answer to match your ever-evolving question, that to this day isn’t exactly clear. I believe I had asked for you clarify what exactly you were looking for in an answer more than once. I ended up flagging the extremely chatty discussions that were happening, so I honestly don’t remember.

I only submitted an answer after, I received two responses that avoided giving specifics and figured I could answer the question about Electron Framework applications (i.e. Visual Studio Code). I wasn’t particularly happy with my answer, to be honest until several revisions later.

To get to the point, I edited my question & title to the point I felt I’ll get the responses I want, but I feel like it will be drowned out later on very fast, and I felt like I needed to start a fresh question because the answers there are less relevant to the question.

Here is the thing you received multiple answers before those edits happened, and your edits made some significant changes to your question.

You can’t just modify the question, after you receive an answer, and think of a slightly different way of asking the question (or want some information about an unrelated topic).

Additionally, you accepted the very first answer you received, and have since accepted a different answer. Accepting an answer is an indication, the community has answered your question, now while additional answers might be submitted the question at that point should not morph into a different question.

Your last edit specifically made some major contextual changes to what you were asking. You went from asking about %LocalAppData% to asking about the Program Files directories also.

Today was the third edit, and someone said that they would flag me if I edit my question again.

I only did this after I felt like I had already added at least five different questions from your comments into my answer. While I have/had every intention to flag your question, if you change/changed the question you were asking (excluding additional details), it wasn’t a threat.

In the end (if I had flagged for moderator attention) all that would happen is you would continue to receive answers to your question. If a moderator thought there was merit to my flag, whatever happened at that point, would be private between you and the moderator team..

That is the entire point of the moderator team, to handle situations like multiple significant changes to a question, but I was giving you the respect I felt you deserve to let you know I was getting frustrated with all the changes to your question.

If I could have handled it differently, I would have asked you to avoid significant changes to your question, but flag the situation privately so it could be handled. If I offended you, or you feel you cannot ask the question you want to ask, then I apologize.

I was trying to protect the work, I had invested 3 hours at that point, into in my answer and was reaching a breaking point.

Your question’s first revision asked the following, Which is correct?, You were trying to determine if %LocalAppData% or the root directory user’s profile, was the correct installation directory for an application. You received several answers that indicate, it entirely depends on the permissions of the user running the application, if those locations should be used for the directory for the executable. If I didn't correctly interpret what you wanted, then you did a poor job of explaining what you wanted, and should have used more percise language.

Your second revision added the question, More specifically, what directory, in Windows, was meant for installers to install their binaries/executables for a specific user?, which is unrelated to which directory is correct or recommended to be used for an application’s executable directory. While this question is more detailed, then what you originally asked, it's also answered by Microsoft's own documentation. I also answered it by indicating that, an application can be installed to any directory, the user running the executable has permissions to.

Your final revision, removed both of those questions, and added two new questions. The first, Where are programs usually installed for a particular user?, was answered by every single one of the answers you already received. However, it’s significantly different, from your original revision. The fact the other answers actually already answered it is by pure luck. Your second (new) question, Is this directory the "Program Files" equivalent, but only for that particular user?, is unrelated to the other questions.

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Its not a forum, its a Q&A site, and that's where a good chunk of the problem is.

People are not going to be happy if they spent time and effort writing an answer, then finding the question changed... more than once.

There's a term "Chameleon Question" - and even a main meta post about exit strategies

So fundamentally - its ok to refine a question. Its not ok to change it to a point where its a different question.

The ideal strategy here is to work out what you need, and add details based on feedback.

Putting the thought in and posting the question that ought to get you the answer you want is the right stratergy

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  • Yes, but I can’t edit it again because the guy is going to flag my question. If I’m going to ask another question that is similar to my previous question (because it’s been edited) how do I do it?
    – potatoguy
    Sep 13, 2019 at 3:00
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    @NicholasLee - Your welcome to improve or change your question in any way you want.
    – Ramhound
    Sep 13, 2019 at 4:33

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