Edit a 3 year old answer or create a new answer?

Question

It is well known that questions using mysql_* on Stack Overflow have been getting the canned

Please, don't use mysql_* functions in new code. They are no longer maintained and are officially deprecated. See the red box? Learn about prepared statements instead, and use PDO or MySQLi - this article will help you decide which. If you choose PDO, here is a good tutorial.

treatment.

So when I came across this question with almost 60 thousand views and all of the answers referenced the old (soon to be removed) mysql_* extension for php I thought that a new answer should be put there to show what one should do currently as opposed to editing the answer that was currently accepted and layed untouched for 3 years.

I stupidly asked chat to upvote my answer and downvote the current accepted answer (which is what was done for other answers that have come deprecated and in need of being replaced).

Instead of people helping me out, I was berated and told that I should not have done that etc.

I even got a comment on my answer asking why I did not edit the original accepted answer.

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I did not feel that editing a really old answer was acceptable, especially changing it that much!

If I was wrong on my approach i will gladly delete my answer and edit the accepted one, I am just asking for what should have been the correct thing for me to do (when it came to that question, not to chat) and what should be done in the future if a user finds an outdated accepted answer.

Answer 1

I think that was the appropriate way to 'fix' the question. Adding an answer is fine, it's way too much of an edit difference from the original accepted answer.

It probably would have been better to just post the link to the answer in chat, and not ask for the upvote. That's the way I usually handle answers or questions I feel need a little promotion.

Answer 2

The original creator of the accepted answer is active on SO so suggesting him (in a comment) to update his answer is the way to go.

Answer 3

Posting a new answer is fine, that's why we allow for multiple answers.

Bringing the answer in question (pun intended) to the community (or sub-community, for that matter) is fine. That's part of the reason we have chat in the first place.

Promoting your own posts for the sake of reputation, is not fine. And that's the feeling we got from your messages, even if you didn't originally intend it.

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All in all, I see nothing wrong with presenting a hard-worked, well-written, well-explained answer to the community for review and upvoting. I personally don't think that the specific answer you've linked to meets any of these criteria. You could (and should!) have solved it by simply pinging the OP, or even, God forbid, as a 40k user, edit the accepted question yourself. If you genuinely want to help, make the important information most visible.

Answer 4

It completely invalid to edit like this what you need do is ask to OP to edit. As in your this answer and there is comment for that