3

When editing a post, are there any rules you should follow?

For example:

  • a note to what comment or answer you replied
  • keywords you should use, so everyone can see that this wasn't part of the original post
Improve this question
2
  • Interestingly, I fail to find a FAQ for this …
    – Wrzlprmft
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 9:42
  • 1
    related: Editing Philosophy
    – gnat
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 11:08

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

I see the body as being that part of the question which is read and re-read by potential answerers, and future visitors, after attracting their attention to do so using the title that summarizes it.

Consequently, it should flow, and any subheadings like Update: and Edit:, and acknowledgements of commenters, will inevitably interrupt that so I think even the latter should be minimized.

I think you should think of each edit you make as constituting the next draft, so read and re-read it to make sure that it flows at least as well as it's predecessor, before and after hitting the Save button.

Remember that the vast majority of readers, over the many years that your content should stand, will only be aware of your last draft and will not care how you got to it.

Improve this answer
5

No written rules, it's quite flexible, so here are my own personal $0.02

  • No need to leave a note to which answer or comment you replied to by editing. Just add the details and reply to the user asking for this via comments.

  • Personally I'm using "Edit:" many times to draw attention to the newly added details, but got to understand many people consider this just noise. These days I'm quite neutral on this, but anyhow do not add more than that as an edit note. E.g. "edited to clarify some details etc etc" isn't acceptable, leave the explanation in the edit summary visible in the revisions list. Extensive discussion about this can be found here: What's wrong with putting "EDIT: ..." in the body of a post?

Improve this answer
4
  • 2
    Maybe you should say something like less is more. Just adding new stuff to the end of the post is annoying as you need to incorperate the new added stuff in your head to the info provided earlier. Make it a natural read/flow.
    – rene Mod
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 9:59
  • where's the revisions list?
    – user3144065
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 9:59
  • @user3144065 the "edited" is a link to revisions list, see on this very question you asked. :)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 10:01
  • @rene true, but still, "edited: " followed by the edit helps me to organize things better.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Dec 10, 2014 at 10:02

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .