What to do when you answered a question and after the question is edit? [duplicate]

Question

What to do when you answered a question and after some time the question is edit adding more information or changing the question so your answered now has nothing to do with the new question?

Recently, me and some other users answered a question, and some minutes later the asker edited his question adding more specific information about what his problem really was. Then the answers that have already been written got downvoted because they werent answering specific what the question now is about.

What is the best choice here? Deleting the answer? From my point of view it is a bit unfair that some answers get downvoted because of an edit in the question. Of course anyone who reads the question and the answers given is not going to think that the answers are wrong or not useful because the question was edit after the answer was made. Maybe there should be any mechanism to prevent these cases.

What do you think, and what would you do if something like this happens to you?

Answer 1

What to do when you answered a question and after some time the question is edit adding more information or changing the question so your answered now has nothing to do with the new question?

I feel like either of two courses could be taken:

• You could notify the questioner that this is not kosher, that they should rollback the edits so that the answers given are relevant to the answer in question. They should then make a new post with the relevant details added - if you can answer that, too, feel free to do so.

• You could alter your answer as necessary to accommodate the new details, or just delete it and let other people figure it out if it's beyond you.

Personally, I'm the kind that would feel the former is a bit of a hassle if my answer was the only one, but that's me. Generally I've seen the former stance preferred in cases like these, particularly when multiple answers are posted.