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When I review questions, I sometimes wonder if I should hit "edit" or if some other reviewer is already making the editing change I intended. While I understand edits are lined up against each other, while editing we get a notification if a new edit is being applied, and while answering we get a notification if a new answer is submitted.

Would it be too discouraging to have a block appear to notify the reader that another user is currently attempting to edit or answer the question he is currently viewing?

This is not a notification that it HAS been edited or answered, just that one of the two processes (or both) is being attempted.

The flag to notify a viewer about a particular in-process edit or answer should cease if it is taking over a certain length of time (time based on some average metric on time taken for edits/answers), or is inactive (abandoned?) for a certain (shorter) length of time.

Or is this suggestion too discouraging or too focused on minutiae?

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I think it would be discouraging.

Some may be afraid their answer isn't as good as the other one being written, or their edit isn't as useful. Basically, the quiet ones of us would shy away.

We should encourage people to contribute - the more edits and answers, the better.

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    "We should encourage people to contribute - the more edits and answers, the better." Then I would say remove the update that an answer has been written or an edit has been made when one is in the midst of writing an answer or performing an edit, because I know that discourages me from completing.
    – JoshDM
    Commented Mar 5, 2013 at 3:19
  • In my opinion that's a little different - for me, this is a prompt to re-open the question in another tab. It's easy to tell if my answer is going to add or just duplicate because I can see exactly what was written.
    – Tass
    Commented Mar 5, 2013 at 3:32

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