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There has been an edit to an old answer of mine and it was approved by other two users. Now the answer is wrong, obviously.

What should I do?

I'm not happy about this at all. How can it be that some people make my answer wrong without giving me the chance to explain? Also, if I remember correctly, many edits, in particular by other people, make the post not "mine" any more but some community contribution. This is my highest voted answer, and I really don't want that to happen.

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Inappropriate "accepting/approval" of suggested edits is a problem that needs to be addressed. $\endgroup$ – amWhy Jul 13 '20 at 16:23
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    $\begingroup$ As are some suggested edits that some users robo-approve without reviewing. $\endgroup$ – amWhy Jul 13 '20 at 16:27
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    $\begingroup$ I hope the two reviewers who approved the edit attempt read this meta post. $\endgroup$ – amWhy Jul 13 '20 at 20:27
  • $\begingroup$ @amWhy Yeah, part of the problem is that I don't see a way for me to directly contact them, neither the editor nor the robo-approvers. $\endgroup$ – azimut Jul 14 '20 at 8:46
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    $\begingroup$ In general edits should not change the intent / nature of a post. People except author of the post should limit themselves to fixing typos/grammar or latex stuff. If they need to make bigger changes better to first ask (or at least inform) in a comment. Sometimes even for minor edits I make a comment like 'took the liberty to fix this. Hope it is fine'. $\endgroup$ – Paramanand Singh Jul 14 '20 at 11:41
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    $\begingroup$ @azimut It should be possible to ping the editor in the comments of your answer, but I'm not sure about the reviewers. $\endgroup$ – Arnaud D. Jul 14 '20 at 12:47
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You can reject the edit, as the author, or it rollback.

You can leave a comment explaining why you've undid the edit, and if the problem persists (i.e. edits get reapproved), flag the post for moderator attention.

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    $\begingroup$ Rejecting the edit would be great, but how should I do that? It has been approved already. $\endgroup$ – azimut Jul 13 '20 at 15:06
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    $\begingroup$ ok thanks there is indeed the chance to still reject it. Didn't know that! $\endgroup$ – azimut Jul 13 '20 at 15:07
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    $\begingroup$ You, as the author, can still reject the edit. You should see the button on the top right-hand corner of the edit review that you've linked. If it's not there you can also go to the revisions list and roll it back. $\endgroup$ – Asaf Karagila♦ Jul 13 '20 at 15:07
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    $\begingroup$ What does it even mean "your own post"? Is it one associated with your account? In that case even if every user makes an edit, it will still be your post. Does it mean the content that you put out there? In that case you rolled back to the version that you wrote, so there's no "other users intervening" and it's all yours. Does it mean from a legal standpoint? Well, it wasn't your answer the moment you clicked submit (although it must be attributed to you in any future citations). $\endgroup$ – Asaf Karagila♦ Jul 13 '20 at 15:13
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    $\begingroup$ No, that doesn't happen anymore. And even when it did, there would still be a long road before it automatically CWs and takes your ownership. $\endgroup$ – Asaf Karagila♦ Jul 13 '20 at 15:18
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    $\begingroup$ ok, thank you for this explanation. I loosely remember that I had this happening to me once in the past. But good to know that this won't happen anymore. $\endgroup$ – azimut Jul 13 '20 at 15:59
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    $\begingroup$ Here is the feature request which was marked as completed at some point in 2014: Can we disable automatic community wiki conversion for answer edits? It is listed also here: Recent feature changes to Stack Exchange (with the date 2014-04-09). $\endgroup$ – Martin Sleziak Jul 13 '20 at 16:32
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    $\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak many thanks, good to have the "official" version confirmation. $\endgroup$ – azimut Jul 14 '20 at 8:39
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    $\begingroup$ There is one more annoyance: I guess there is no way for me to use @Aurelio (coming from Oxford oO) that the edit changed a correct answer into a wrong one. Reading the rules, I think it should have been possible before I rejected the edit in a comment to my answer, but after rejecting it I cannot contact the person in this way. $\endgroup$ – azimut Jul 14 '20 at 8:43
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    $\begingroup$ @azimut: Users are in under no obligation to reply to pings. Just to clarify this. $\endgroup$ – Asaf Karagila♦ Jul 14 '20 at 9:39
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    $\begingroup$ @azimut: Also, I meant that you try and ping him below your answer that they edited. Not randomly in the ether of StackExchange. $\endgroup$ – Asaf Karagila♦ Jul 14 '20 at 9:40
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    $\begingroup$ @azimut: I'm pretty sure that you can @-ping the editor in a comment on the answer they edited, as long as their username appears in the edit history (which it does, since you only reverted the edit after it had already been approved). Their username won't be automatically suggested, since they haven't previously commented on the answer (which IMO counts as a bug), but the ping should still go through. Of course, you can't really tell unless they respond to your comment, which they're under no obligation to do. But I've used such editor pings successfully in the past myself. $\endgroup$ – Ilmari Karonen Jul 14 '20 at 9:53
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    $\begingroup$ @azimut: Yes, what I had repeatedly asked you to do was to use @Aurelio under your answer. I'm not sure what went wrong in the communication process. You just kept insisting that this is not going to work (without trying). $\endgroup$ – Asaf Karagila♦ Jul 14 '20 at 12:32
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    $\begingroup$ @azimut: So instead of increasing your knowledge (and mine) on how the site works, you've decided to cut to the chase? :-) $\endgroup$ – Asaf Karagila♦ Jul 14 '20 at 13:42
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    $\begingroup$ Yeah, I didn't want to write another comment there, then wait if anything will happen (as you said, there is no obligation to do so), and after waiting a lot to comment at the safe place (still not knowing if the user has in fact seen the notifications before and decided not to react). $\endgroup$ – azimut Jul 14 '20 at 15:45
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Many thanks to @azimut for notifying me of this discussion, and apologies for the inconvenience. I wrongly assumed that the proof contained a simple typo, and I suggested an edit believing that this suggestion would be made to the owner of the answer. I understand now that a better practice is to ask for clarifications in a comment, in such a way as to get the attention of the post owner.

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    $\begingroup$ It appears to me that @azimut tried to ping me, which unfortunately did not work. They left a comment below an unrelated answer of mine, which indeed managed to get me a notification. $\endgroup$ – Aurelio Jul 14 '20 at 12:11
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    $\begingroup$ Everyone does mistakes. It's always a delight seeing someone apologize for their mistake. Props to you! $\endgroup$ – Omar S Jul 14 '20 at 12:28
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    $\begingroup$ @Aurelio I agree with Omar, so many thanks for coming here and your kind words. I was a bit annoyed that I suddenly found my answer modified into a wrong one, without the chance to react beforehand. But I agree that the complex stackexchange system is hard to look through in the beginning, how should you know to whom exactly you submitted your change. I guess I overreacted a bit, so I would like to say sorry in case that this felt a bit harsh to you. $\endgroup$ – azimut Jul 14 '20 at 13:28
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    $\begingroup$ @azimut, many thanks for your understanding, and apologies again. I am aware, reading above, of the further concern you had about your answer being turned into Community Wiki, with the consequent loss of ownership, and I am glad this issue could be resolved with a simple rollback. I sympathise with your reaction, so no hard feelings. $\endgroup$ – Aurelio Jul 14 '20 at 13:45
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    $\begingroup$ much wholesome very wow $\endgroup$ – Don Thousand Jul 14 '20 at 19:33

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