6

I have an answer that was just edited improperly in my opinion, https://superuser.com/review/suggested-edits/268828.

I don't think the edit should have been accepted as it changes too much. It's rather another answer. I've no idea if the proposed edit is correct in terms of code, but it rips my original answer.

Am I correct that the edit is unreasonable? What's the best course of action in that case?

0

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
8

If you do not believe the edit to be helpful or believe it was made wrongly then the best course of action is to simply roll-back the edit.

Under your answer you will see a link that states "Edited X hours ago", clicking that will show you the revision history of your answer. Above your original answer is a block which will include a Rollback link. Clicking that will revert your answer to the version you believe is good.

As this is a Community moderated site we often see edits suggested by users that believe they are making things better. It is possible that the suggested edit might be a better solution and was edited in as it would be too minor an answer to stand on its own. It would simply end up as an answer that said "my alternative is..."

The edit does not look too unreasonable, but it does not look to be in the spirit of your original answer either. I believe it should have been its own answer.

With code related edits if I do not know what the edit is doing or if it changes the output of the code in question, as it would appear to in your case, then I would rather see it rejected and the editor post their own answer.

4
  • 2
    I decided to revert my original post and paste new answer as an update to my post because it might or might not be useful. I can't be bothered to check. I htink though answer owner should be allowed to downvote editors that allowed an unreasonable edit. -1 for The edit does not look too unreasonable, but it does not look to be in the spirit of your original answer either.. That's what I call unreasonable ;)
    – akostadinov
    Commented Aug 13, 2014 at 17:48
  • 1
    @akostadinov What I meant by that was that it wasn't an actively bad edit (introducing garbage or so on) but was trying to improve your answer in a way that I consider misguided. The code looks okay and to me is a useful alternative but it changes the output of your code - it is not a direct replacement as other code which depends on the output of your code will not work. I believe your edit to revert and include the new edit is the best of both worlds in this case.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Aug 13, 2014 at 17:54
  • Understood and agreed with what you say. In my previous comment I meant to downvote reviewers that approved such bad edit. And if they hit say 3 downvotes, they should be banned from reviewing for a week or something.
    – akostadinov
    Commented Aug 13, 2014 at 17:59
  • There is a process of review audits which will automatically ban a user after several bad approvals, but your with your edit while it was not a "good" edit it wasn't a criminally bad edit either. It was a well meaning edit at the least. For the time being I think that trying to change community behaviour via CanadianLukes proposition Official policy for editing code in answers is a good idea. It may be worth stating your opinion there.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Aug 13, 2014 at 18:22
0

Some of the edits I have seen, should instead be competitive answers, with the whole of the community deciding which is the "better" answer.
Not
Complete alterations of a functional answer, code or not.

There are (will be) wrong accepts of edits, and watching all your answers for these to rollback is not always possible, some users are not even here to rollback.

My answer (here) suggests that at times people need to be more careful about what they allow to change completly, not just review audits.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .