I was confused when I asked. Do I ask again or completely revise the question?

When I asked this question, which ended up being quite long, I was confused about a lot of things, and a user gave very helpful comments, but I never understood clearly what it was that I didn't understand. (The commenter was, I believe, an author of the article I was asking about, so the problem was not that I didn't get help from a knowledgeable source on the topic. He didn't understand what my misunderstanding was, either, in the end, which is not his fault.)

At this point, I think that there is exactly one thing that confuses me. I had stated this when I originally asked the question, but it was only in the last two sentences of a long, meandering question. (I was doing the best that I could with my misunderstandings at the time--that's why the question ended up being long and meandering.)

Do I (a) delete most of the existing question, leaving only the context and asking about what turns out to be my real misunderstanding (with some clarificatory editing), (b) ask a new question that uses only the context and the real misunderstanding, leaving the old question alone, or (c) do nothing (except perhaps clarify the last two sentences)? (Either way, I can try to get the original responder or someone else to reply again, now that I understand more clearly what is confusing me.)

This may be a FAQ, but if so it's one of those difficult-to-search-for questions.

• Since there hasn't been an answer to your question yet, I think editing it for clarification is very much kosher. – J. M. is a poor mathematician Nov 9 '17 at 15:07
• @J.M.isnotamathematician, OK, I will do that. It will be a pretty radical rewrite, analogous to a gut rehab in home improvement. :-) – Mars Nov 11 '17 at 19:35