7

The text of this question is written with broken English and very little grammar.

I understand it is completely acceptable for me to go in and edit specific grammar issues, but what are the rules around overhauling the question text completely to something like:

This is a part of my js:

    window.location.reload();
    $("#status").html('Try');

I expected the page to reload and then write "try" into the div "#status". But the reverse happens: The div "#status" is written into for a short period, then it disappears and then the page is reloaded where "#status" is empty again.

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  • 1
    Why is your copy of the text posted as a code sample with (ugh) horizontal scrollbars? I'm not sure which is worse. :-) – Aaron Bertrand Aug 13 '12 at 21:31
  • That's not too bad -- looks like level 4 on the ol' grammatization beam should do the trick. Don't forget to run it over the title, too, though. – jscs Aug 13 '12 at 21:37
  • Thanks @AaronBertrand and Zuly, I never knew there was a difference between quotes and code. Learning things! – jamie-wilson Aug 13 '12 at 22:43
12

Questions with terrible grammar are hard to read, hard to answer, and reflect poorly on the site. By fixing the grammar you're helping the asker to get more/better answers. Go forth and grammarize.

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  • Agreed, I think this is one of the primary reasons we can edit each other's posts in the first place. That said, we do have to be careful that we don't misinterpret meaning and radically change the intent of the question. Which in a lot of cases probably isn't too hard to do. – Aaron Bertrand Aug 13 '12 at 21:33
  • We also better notify the OP to learn from this so he won't depend on others to fix his questions. – Shadow Keeps Social Distance Aug 13 '12 at 21:35
  • @ShaWizDowArd what's the best way to go about that? By adding a comment to his question? Or is there a more specific way? – jamie-wilson Aug 13 '12 at 22:57
  • @jamie-wilson OPs are notified automatically of edits on their posts, but a polite comment can also be very helpful. If he's a new user, you could add a link to the revision history of the post in your comment, most new users have no idea it's there... – yannis Aug 13 '12 at 23:42
  • @Jamie what Yannis said, I would go for a comment explaining what and why I edited - the notification doesn't really say that. – Shadow Keeps Social Distance Aug 14 '12 at 6:34
6

My rule of thumb:

small problems = small edits; big problems = big edits

If a post is more or less well-written other than two typos, I'll just fix the typos. If a post has no capital letters anywhere, misplaced punctuation throughout and numerous instances of l33tspk and unnecessary formatting, I give myself the license to make wholesale changes as long as the technical meaning of the question is preserved.

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