I found an answer under a question that has a code which completely doesn't work for me, but I was able to edit it on the way that it works.   However, I afraid of changing it, since I'm not sure that my code does the same as that I saw in the answer.  What to do? On demand, I may post the related answer with my code.
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Possible Duplicate:    I see a lot of edits in queue where some well-meaning user attempts to fix OP's code. They range from minor syntax corrections, to near total rewrites. When is it appropriate to accept or reject these edits? Here are my thoughts: On questions:  Never edit OP's code no matter how wrong it is, unless it is strictly to increase readability, and doesn't change how the code actually works. The very question itself might be solved by pointing out the error that you are fixing, no matter how small, so don't remove or correct it in the original post.  On answers:  Only edit code for obvious typos or mistakes by the author, do not attempt to &quot;improve&quot; the author's code. Even if the author is suggesting something stupid or dangerous, like forgetting to escape data for a database INSERT, it's better to leave a comment and let the author correct it. Downvote if applicable.  Editing the non-code parts of a post for grammar and the like are usually not going to change what the author intended to say very much, but code is taken literally, even a very minor edit will make a huge difference. Am I close to the mark, or way off? Is there anything else to take into consideration? What are the exceptions, if any? I'm seeing a ton of these in the suggested edit queue. When is it appropriate to edit someone else's code, and how should we deal with these suggestions from other users? In addition (maybe a separate question), what can I do to help educate users who suggest unwelcome edits in general? Is there any way to leave them a comment so they can understand why the edit was rejected, so they don't continue to suggest more edits of a similar nature?* * An @ comment will notify the editor, this is clearly documented here:  * * However, it's not clear if @ replies ping the author of a rejected edit...
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I asked a question and added a 50 point bounty (my first bounty question) but none of the answers actually provided anything solid and only tried to point me in the right direction with links I had already found myself.  I ended up solving the problem on my own and posted my code as an answer and accepted it.  I don't feel like either of the other answers showed significant knowledge or research and doubt they would be helpful for anyone in the future.  Since I can't award myself the points should I pick one of the other answers or just let them go into the void?  The question:
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I just edited  that contained some code that was overall neat and correct, but wouldn't compile. I made it compile clean and (in my opinion) more readable.  The edit got rejected as too minor, because during my edit the OP made the code compile-clean in the grace period and thus in the diff that shows up to the reviewers, only the parts making the code more readable showed up. Such an edit is a too minor one, without question.  In my opinion there are two possibilities to solve this kind of "conflict":   When user A has edited a post and user B (>2k rep, or original author) has edited that post in the meantime user A gets a message that the post has changed and is asked to revise that edit based on the changes made in the meantime. The easier one: Don't allow edit suggestions in the grace period.   I don't care about the missing reputation I would have gotten if the suggestion had been approved. I just don't like my suggestions being reviewed on a false basis - because the diff that is displayed to the approvers does not display the correct edit.  Doing a quick search here on meta I found some questions maybe related to this problem - none of them however addresses the problem of the review based on incorrect diffs:
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I have answered . My answer had links to valuable information in context of the problem, but the conclusion was useless (striked through in my answer). Another user gave correct solution to the problem in question, in the comment to the answer.  I decided to quote his comment, so my answer would be more likely upvoted. (I could say also: to make my answer complete and more informational; but to be honest, in the end it is because of the reputation :) )  Although I quoted it, because of the reputation issue, I'm not sure how ethical it is. On the other hand, reputation is just a mechanism for getting quality answers to clearly stated practical questions, in short for the site to have the qualitiy and valuable practical information.   So, my questions are:   is this action ethical? is this action acceptable? does this action indeed add to the quality of solution of the problem in question (e.g for some unknown (probably, but not neccessary, non SO user) surfer who stumbles upon it searching for the solution)?
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I found some questions that are not very well-worded, and I want to clarify them. So, I went, and edited one of the questions.  As I have poor short-term memory, after editing, I wondered what I have edited.  I cannot find any easy way to see the original version, or a diff.  Of course, I could just click "Back" button to see the question, but I risk losing my edit (in case I just happen to navigate away and lost the "Next" button.) It is inconvenient too. I wish I could make a comparison to ensure the original meaning remains unchanged.  Did I miss anything? I looked around and found , but I cannot just submit the (suggested) edit, which defeats the point that I want to review my edit before submitting/suggesting.  It shows the original question when editing answers, but not editing questions themselves.    In short, may the edit question page shows the original, or a link to it? (I don't find it, I do not have edit privilege if that matters.)  This is what I have, can anyone point out how to access the original question?
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Edit: This question isn't a duplicate of . The quote in the highest voted answer on that question is "Bottom line: if you want to get up-votes, WRITE A GREAT ANSWER." that works well in that question. But in this question the situation is that the potentially great answer could just be copied and made to look as if the author of the answer was the one who did the copying. This is not the same situation.  This isn't a huge issue, but it's something I've witnessed more than once now.  Take this question for example:   When I posted  about using jQuery's on change event listener there was one other answer which only said something along the lines of, "you can use AJAX for this", nothing more - not helpful at all, especially as AJAX wouldn't be used for this anyway.  After posting my answer I commented on the other answer saying that AJAX wouldn't be used and a few minutes later  was changed to also use the on change event.  The problem here is that as this edit was done so shortly after the answer was submitted, the original content doesn't appear in that answer's .  Anyone looking at the two answers would think hey, this guy [edited answer] posted the correct solution first so this answer should be accepted.  How would this be dealt with? What's in place to stop people making a really quick invalid answer then editing it as soon as somebody else has posted up a working solution to replicate that?
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I just failed . This post looked good; very concise. However given that the question had 5 other answers, I thought the odds of this post being just a repeat of information in another answer was quite high.   I opened up the question, and the very first answer was the same as this one, word for word, and highly upvoted. Aha! I thought to myself, someone plagiarising for cheap rep. And I went to flag.  But as it turns out, the duplicate answers were one and the same, anonymised for the review.  I tried to have a think of ways to prevent this occurring, but I have to admit I'm drawing a bit of a blank. Does anyone else know of a way?   n.b.: I'm aware that a small amount of false positives as a price for catching more robo-reviewers is pretty reasonable, so if this isn't easily fixable I guess that's fine.
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I just opened a URL to a question on programmers.SE and got the message:     But the question was locked, so I couldn't do what it asked me to do.  I consider this to be a very minor edge case bug and it's likely not worth investing developer time into it. But since this  I guess it's worth reporting even if it's just for making you aware of it.
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I read a question, thought it was interesting, voted it up. It needed some editing, so I started fixing all the grammar mistakes, added punctuation, improved sentence structure; I realized that the quality of this question was very low - it felt like the OP didn't put any effort into it at all - no evidence of research was provided, and a very unclear question was asked.   I changed my mind about the upvote, but I couldn't change my vote until the post was edited. In a couple of minutes my edit was accepted, and I was able to change it to a downvote.  Is it normal? It just seems weird that your own edit can let you change your vote on a question.
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I just posted an answer. (Revision history .)  I edited it a few seconds later (within my 5 minute grace period), and it comes up as a new revision!? Why?    ^^You can see 'answered 1 min ago', and then 'edited 1 min ago' - how is that possible?  Additionally, !?    I don't think this is a dupe of . See my comments on AI.E's answer. If you're a mod, it will really help.
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I  to the question "" which was specific to the question asked.  Another user engaged positively with my answer, as there was a small conversation thread.  That person then  and made what I would say are minor modifications (the comments I left in my original code that pertained to the specific case are still in the places where he made edits to be more specific).  The answer does acknowledge that it is a general case of my specific code.  Ignoring the fact that I'm involved in it, what should one do when seeing this situation?  The only thing I can think of, and I'm not sure that it's necessarily the right solution, is to flag the answer for moderator attention.  Other possible actions, which I believe are wrong, are:   Editing the answer; that would change its intent Voting the answer down; it's a technically correct answer   One could leave a comment, but that can lead to confrontation and escalation (depending on the parties involved) which would be counterproductive.  The only thing I've done, which is not really related, is edit the answer to hyperlink the already existing attribution (but I do this as a regular edit for any answer which explicitly references another).  What's the best approach here, if any?
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Here's the situation- someone asks a question, accepts an answer, and then un-accepts the answer, and edits the question, making that answer and other existing answers incorrect...  I've tried to research the issue on Meta and found a few cases of this happening, the general consensus seems to be that its not appreciated and the OP should have asked a new question, but there doesn't seem to be any real mechanism or suggestion as to what to do about it.   Should these cases be flagged for an edit roll back?  Related Questions-      Note- I'd rather not reference the specific case as it would likely draw a lot of negative attention to the asker, and I think keeping it broad would help in other cases.
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My question concerns . I asked the question, and at the time selected the correct answer. However, time passes and libraries get updated, and now a different answer is actually correct.   I should probably select this new answer as the correct answer, but I feel bad for the person that will lose 15 reputation points even though is answer was the a good answer at that given point in time.  Any suggestions?
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The following Q&amp;A is based on an answer I wanted to give for , but since a radical edit of the question, my answer does no longer fit, so I'm going to post it as a new question, in the hope it might be useful for someone else.   How to uncover \footfullcite step by step?
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I was confused when I saw this Question with [Solved] in its title where I couldn't find a solution: .  Then I found out that the "[Solved]" part was put there by someone else through editing like these:       I was feeling that this was not how it's supposed to be done and searched meta to find, that it is indeed discouraged to do so:        But on the other hand, the user who did the edits has a whole lot of reputation so I might me missing something here. So what's the correct thing to do? Should those edits be reverted?
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I have a question about editing practices:  Does it look good to edit a question you have just answered?  For example: say I had just answered a question, then saw that the question had some minor formatting issues. Should I edit it? Does it turn up voters off when they see that I am answering a question I changed, possibly to better suit my answer?
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When I post an answer to a brand new question I usually find that someone else has submitted that same answer just moments before. (, usually ;-) )  What I've started to do lately is (I think) the right thing.   If I notice that another answer predates mine, and that I add no value over it, I immediately delete my own answer, and upvote the other guy.  I recommend that you too do the same. Otherwise the message will be diluted.  Similarly, if after posting your "answer" you realise that you are in fact wrong (and you've just misread the question) -- you can actually delete your answer.  Is this reasonable?  (The reason why I'm writing this down is because it feels completely counter-intuitive to delete your own stuff. But it really saves everyone time and effort)