3

So many questions are poorly written, to the point that it can be impossible to be sure what is meant. I often try really hard to reword the bad English, but I keep worrying about an issue that could occur when I edit and answer the same question.

Since the meaning of the question could be mistaken, there is the chance that I edit my own meaning into the question, and then answer my own version of the OP's question, and then receive reputation for apparently having answered the question correctly, when really I answered my own modified version of it.

Now, that's worst-case-scenario, but when correcting the bad grammar, there will inevitably come a time when I get the meaning wrong. The OP simply using the wrong preposition can imply a completely different meaning, and if he's unaware of the difference, then will he even know to complain?

Another issue is when I do a lot of code whitespace improvement. I notice that I cannot see a diff of my changes. This means that if I bump the wrong key and erase a line of code, or make some other kind of mistake, without noticing, I'll have no way of knowing.

(A common one is when deleting whitespace. All of the following lines need 3 spaces deleted, ok, so del-del-del, down, del-del-del, down, del-del-del whoops! that line happened to have TABs and now I've deleted two characters of code that hopefully I had memorized...)

So, to make this a more generally applicable question, is it then partially up to the OP to confirm that third-person edits that are made to his question are correct, rolling them back if they break the meaning of his question in some way? Or should I be going through my own edits afterwards and looking at my diff to make sure it was all ok? (Which can be pretty complex when there are a lot of changes).

While I'm mentioning all this, another problem is when improving a suggested edit. When I see a suggested edit that only fixes a few problems, and there are obviously lots more to fix, I eagerly reach for the Improve button. But I've been realizing that if I just stop and go hit it, I then haven't actually confirmed the suggested edit unless I force myself to go through the whole thing first. I feel like there should be a confirmation of some kind: "Were the suggested changes acceptable?". Otherwise I could be editing from an incorrect version of the question.

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4

Your question sounds more like a therapy session than an actual question.

If you have any doubts, don't edit the question.

If you did edit the question but are concerned that you've changed it incorrectly then roll back your edit and ask a clarifying question via the comments.

If you go to answer the question you've edited and you're not sure of which interpretation to use, then list the assumptions as you answer them. Or leave separate answers for the different assumptions/interpretations.

Or you could just concentrate on answers until you become more confident about editing....?

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