I'm relatively new to MSE and I'd like to learn how to improve myself as a user.
I saw this answer which was good, useful, and clear but it had some wrong figures. Who wrote the answer got some numbers confused, nevertheless the core point was right and well explained. In fact, as I'm writing, that is the accepted answer (even though it's technically wrong).
As soon as I noticed it, I went on and edited those (minor, in my opinion) mistakes, but my suggestion was rejected with the following explanations (which I don't fully understand):
- This edit deviates from the original intent of the post. Even edits that must make drastic changes should strive to preserve the goals of the post's owner.
- This edit was intended to address the author of the post and makes no sense as an edit. It should have been written as a comment or an answer.
So here are my questions:
- In what way do my edit deviate from the original intent of the post?
- Was editing instead of posting another answer (even if essentially identical) the wrong choice?
- If this happens again, what should I do? Edit, post another answer, comment on the original answer and let the owner deal with it, or something else?
PS: MathJax does not render well on suggestion history page, so here's an image for comparison (original answer on the left, edited one on the right)