Questions tagged [editing]
Editing is a core, fundamental Stack Exchange value -- we allow editing by registered and unregistered users (if peer reviewed).
377
questions
18
votes
0answers
356 views
Should I fix trivial typos in my old posts? [duplicate]
I thought this definitely would have been asked before, but I searched and couldn't find it.
I was looking at one of my questions I asked a while ago and I realised a very minor typo in it. Actually, ...
16
votes
0answers
379 views
Standards of editing [duplicate]
A question posted to math.s.e. said
$$
X ~ \operatorname{Poi}(\lambda)
$$
and that was coded as X ~ \operatorname{Poi}(\lambda).
It is obvious that the poster ...
24
votes
1answer
1k views
Are the words "hey guys" blacklisted and automatically stripped from edits?
Today I chose to edit a post that I found in the "First questions" queue. It began with the words "Hey guys", and I chose to leave them since they expressed the OP's personality ...
4
votes
1answer
468 views
A post has a mistake and the author made a correction below it, not editing it. Should the incorrect one be edited out?
The author of this post made a mistake in their formula. Then they only added a correction below it, while not removing the mistaken one. Is there any reason to do so? Should I clean it up?
When I ...
15
votes
1answer
680 views
Adding MathJax to the title of posts being edited - bad habit?
Recently, I've found out that questions with $ \TeX $ markup in their title are excluded from the Hot Network Questions. This made me think about my editing habits.
One of my favorite topics is ...
32
votes
0answers
406 views
Feature suggestion: marking an edit as minor to avoid messing with the question flow
I won't be surprised if it has already been discussed, but anyway.
I relatively often make minor edits to my own answers: typically a typo in math or in English, or a slight modification of the logic ...
6
votes
0answers
299 views
What is the etiquette of tag creation and editing?
In this years Tag management thread, I've suggested the creation of the tags hochschild-cohomology and a-infinity-algebras. Let's say for the sake of argument that this suggestion is well received and ...
36
votes
3answers
1k views
Removing potentially unpleasant 'flavor text' from questions when it has no mathematical importance
Regarding this question, I edited out the references of rape and it was almost instantly reverted by someone who left a sarcastic comment about my edit that they later deleted.
Consider the two ...
22
votes
4answers
1k views
Should blanket changes in terminology across posts be reverted?
Edit It seems another user posted essentially the same question here while I was writing this one. I'll close this question as a duplicate if/when it becomes possible.
I got a notice earlier this ...
8
votes
0answers
203 views
User changing terminology [duplicate]
I have spotted that a user is editing old posts and changing every occurrence of "the Hawaiian earring" with "the infinite earring". As far as i know this is not standard ...
-1
votes
1answer
203 views
Why do edits have to be at least 6 characters?
I am wondering why edits are required to be at least 6 characters.
As an example, someone answered the question How to calculate the integral of a Legendre polynomial excellently but for a typo, which ...
0
votes
0answers
97 views
Should I edit the question before starting a bounty, or start a new question?
I have a question I would like to start a bounty on. But I would like to edit the question to add the possibility for a stronger result. The question I want to start a bounty on is this question:
For ...
-8
votes
1answer
171 views
Proposed new solution to having unwanted noise and unfairly exposed questions again after editing on this site as to not decrease the site quality.
It has been noticed that when editing my own posts, that I sometimes get annoyed with a small wrong detail in a post that I then do a 5 character or less edit. Here is proof of this causing trouble ...
0
votes
1answer
170 views
Accidentally editing without knowing a question was closed in the review queue made a question unable to be reopened. New feature to prevent this.
I have seen this large issue with this website which can endanger the new user:
It was accidentally done that one edited the question of another user whose question was already closed, but then had ...
8
votes
0answers
132 views
Approved edit that makes question *less* readable
I recently encountered the following edit of a question: https://math.stackexchange.com/revisions/4126525/2
I hope everyone here agrees that the edit is not appropriate. A minor thing is that editing &...
25
votes
0answers
660 views
If I recognize the source of someone's question, should I edit to add it?
(c.f. How to ask a good question's Include source / motivation for your question and the preceeding discussion in Is it a good idea to include source from where a question is taken?)
Occasionally, I ...
2
votes
1answer
70 views
Answer preview in MSE not appearing
Whenever I am going to write an answer or edit someone's post, I am not able to see its preview under the answer writing section in MSE. Why is this happening?
-3
votes
1answer
85 views
Editing a post for activity [duplicate]
Is it acceptable to edit a post (adding a random comma, adding more spaces, etc.) just for the sake of activity?
It could be used to draw more attention to the post since it comes to the top of the ...
16
votes
2answers
602 views
What is the motivation for pointless edits? [duplicate]
I am trying to understand why a certain user keeps making pointless edits that add nothing to a question. The one that sparked this post is the fourth edit to this question, which simply inserts a ...
6
votes
2answers
727 views
Can you copy paste MathJax? [duplicate]
I am a big procrastinator when it comes to learning MathJax. I happened to remember that only before asking a question. Is there perhaps a shortcut to simply copy an equation from one part of the site ...
4
votes
0answers
57 views
The grace period for editing the posts.
So far I was sure that during approximately 5 minutes after posting an answer/question the author can edit it without the changes being documented in the edit history. However in this answer the ...
2
votes
0answers
81 views
Notification about math jax for new users
I saw a problem which is common for new users who are using math jax. although they can write formula for example it is not hard to guess to show $x^2$ you should write ...
0
votes
1answer
167 views
Bringing the new feature to MSE in order to make writing formulas easier
There is a site for searching formulas on stack exchange called SearchOnMath. On the site you can see an option called "Add Formula" click on that, then you can choose any symbol you want ...
14
votes
2answers
538 views
Partially-unresolved questions with substantial progress: should I post a very long question, or a question + answer?
Most of my questions on math.SE come up in the course of personal investigations into some topic, and usually get asked after a fair bit of reflection and attempted work on the problem. Unlike ...
22
votes
2answers
586 views
How to make or suggest good edits
What should I do when editing a post, or suggesting an edit?
Math SE is a collaborative platform where almost anyone can contribute. One way in which you can improve the site is by editing posts (...
3
votes
1answer
76 views
Edit Recent Posts to Display HTML-Tables with Markdown
Users have been using $\rm\LaTeX$'s array environment for displaying tables. For instance, in the MathJax Tutorial's "Table" section,
...
0
votes
0answers
69 views
Corresponding highlight when editing MathJax
When editing a complex formula, it is easy to get lost in a sea of MathJax code. The suggested feature is, when editing posts with MathJax:
(1) When a portion of a MathJax code is selected in the edit ...
10
votes
0answers
1k views
Is this considered "farming"?
I have noticed several times the same person editing low quality questions. The most recent example is this one. However, this edit simple replaced "fourier-fourier" (which is an obvious ...
9
votes
2answers
472 views
Should I edit the question, or delete it and repost the question?
I am speaking on reference to this question :- In $\Delta ABC,$ side $AC$ and the perpendicular bisector of $BC$ meet at $D$, where $BD$ bisects $\angle ABC$.
The Problem is that others had discussed ...
14
votes
0answers
366 views
Are Tag-only edits too minor (the use of the Number-Theory tag)?
As a relatively new participant (long time user) of Math.SE I must confess that my knowledge of what is considered "appropriately non-minor" as an edit is certainly lacking. This question ...
1
vote
0answers
73 views
Edit highlighting seems incorrect
I believe the color highlighting here should be showing that the third formula
$$\implies (\alpha-\beta ) z+\beta (\bar z +z) + \gamma - \alpha \bar z = 0$$
was changed to
$$\implies (\alpha-\beta ) z+...
13
votes
1answer
517 views
Is my workaround for the minimum character limit okay?
I tried to edit this answer, simply by adding 2 pairs of parentheses which fell short of the 6 character minimum limit.
So I cancelled the edit and suggested the change via a comment, then the OP did ...
-2
votes
1answer
217 views
Is the rollback attempt in this thread appropriate?
This is an issue with this specific question. Please look at the revision history here. I merely improved an attempt by the asker (which was written as a comment), making it clearer. I did not ...
25
votes
1answer
878 views
Vandalizing question posted by others
Today I found a rather weird case where a question had been vandalized by another user to a completely different question.
I did a search here and saw a lot of posts on vandalizing questions posted by ...
1
vote
1answer
110 views
Should we retroactively tag all relevant questions that are missing a relevant tag, or not?
For example, I've just now realized that,
When searching questions that contain the word "palindrome" but do not contain the appropriate tag [palindrome], ...
20
votes
1answer
865 views
Deleting 'thanks for help' from posts
What's the stance on edits where the only real change is deleting, "Thanks for the help in advance," or similar? I think it'd be best if the OP didn't write them in the first place but I ...
34
votes
0answers
1k views
Guidelines for context edits and rewrites
Suppose you come across a question that has been closed for lack of context, has high quality answers, and on its way to being deleted. Can you save the post by editing it to include more context?
...
1
vote
1answer
92 views
How to remove the pink edit box?
When editing answers and questions on Math Stack Exchange, I always see a pink box in which it is written 'How to Edit'. Now the problem with this box is that it hides the "Save edits" ...
1
vote
1answer
69 views
Why is there no edit option below the question?
This is not the first time but many times I've encountered this problem. There is no 'edit' option below the question as it usually is. Here's the screenshot:
What might be the reason for this?
7
votes
0answers
129 views
Edit in progress warning
I often feel it is a waste of time when you are editing a question and shortly before you finish you see that the question already got edited, and your edit does not improve the corrections which were ...
20
votes
3answers
554 views
Improving other's questions via adding solution attempts in the question [duplicate]
This is a bit of a puzzler for me and I'd like to try to work out what our community norms and guidelines are around this topic.
Suppose user A posts a question which is a bit light on context. User B ...
7
votes
1answer
197 views
Editing the title/body of a question hours after asking?
I asked a question which received some comments immediately. Only after the comments came in did I realize that I should ask my question differently. I edited the question then.
I now realize that the ...
26
votes
2answers
889 views
Someone edited my answer. Now it is wrong.
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 ...
-6
votes
2answers
112 views
Should users that by now, should already have +2k but due to some reason have less than 2k, be suggesting edits?
I was observing that some users, by now, should already have 2k points or more, but due to say bounties here and there, have less than 2k.
3
votes
0answers
125 views
"Improve this question" button on deleted posts goes to a page which says "This post is deleted and cannot be edited."
I went into my "recently deleted answers" tab and found this question (which is now deleted, so you cannot see it if you have <10k rep) which I answered. I can't normally see deleted ...
19
votes
1answer
1k views
Curiosity question - Why does "Hi!" get removed at the beginning of posts?
Out of habit I write "Hi!" at the beginning of my questions and I noticed it got automatically removed, and then when I edited to add it back in, it got automatically removed again.
I'm just ...
13
votes
1answer
580 views
Why was my retag rejected?
A couple of days ago I was looking for algebraic geometry questions to answer and this question appeared in my feed. It has nothing to do with algebraic geometry, so I wanted to remove that tag in ...
0
votes
1answer
90 views
Quick restoration of recent faulty edit
I request Quanto's post to be restored.
Expressing $1 + \sin(x) - \cos(2x) $ as a product
I had edited by error sandbox mode and pasted my own answer, an embarrassing situation.
Raised a flag 10 ...
2
votes
1answer
125 views
Why can't I edit my own deleted (hidden) question?
There was an issue in my last question on Math.Stackexchange. I wanted to first formulate the general idea of my question, and then work on the question a little bit. It would be ideal if I could do ...
1
vote
0answers
62 views
Clarifying a factually incorrect case but editor opts for formatting change instead?
I am trying to edit this answer, which makes a claim about eigenvectors that is not true for all matrices. My edit was rejected. Instead, the editor followed up with a baffling formatting edit that ...
