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I've now seen the following phenomenon a couple of times with suggested edits, but I'm not aware of seeing this with normal question edits.

Phenomenon: A suggested edit adds an answer to the question.

Unfortunately they flew by too quickly for me to have links for examples - apologies before someone asks.

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    Ah, like this? stackoverflow.com/edit-suggestions/1832
    – Arjan
    Feb 3, 2011 at 19:47
  • @Arjan I mean adding answer text to the question text i.e. an edit that adds an answer to the question text.
    – chibacity
    Feb 3, 2011 at 19:47
  • @Arjan Your example is someone adding a comment via an answer edit. This is a different issue, but of the same broad species :)
    – chibacity
    Feb 3, 2011 at 19:49
  • Updates like stackoverflow.com/edit-suggestions/1804 seem to be caused by users who fail to login?
    – Arjan
    Feb 3, 2011 at 19:52
  • (I understand these are not your exact case, but indeed might be related.)
    – Arjan
    Feb 3, 2011 at 19:53
  • @Arjan That is yet another variation of the species - crikey.
    – chibacity
    Feb 3, 2011 at 19:53
  • The case of comments inside of edits discussed here and on my answer has been upgraded into its own discussion.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Feb 3, 2011 at 20:05
  • Wow: OP editing question into the answer: stackoverflow.com/edit-suggestions/1748 ROFL :-) (And: approved...)
    – Arjan
    Feb 3, 2011 at 20:56
  • @Arjan I think there are a lot of BS edits being approved. Gotta keep clicking them buttons...
    – chibacity
    Feb 3, 2011 at 21:05

2 Answers 2

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Not an appropriate action - they can add an answer without needing to go through the vetting process in the first place. Reject them if you find them, I'd say.

This is even crazier than when the question author edits to indicate a solution - the latter is at least acceptable due to reluctance in self-answering. But other users don't really have an excuse...

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    On a related note, there have been some reported instances of people using the suggested edits as an alternative to the lack of ability to comment! I've heard reports that "me too" and "thanks" style edits have actually surfaced on some sites. I'm about as baffled as anyone as to how people are finding this to be the route to use, but it's a similar case of edit suggestions not grasping the nature of editing.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Feb 3, 2011 at 19:44
  • @Grace Yes it's a strange thing to do - is there some UX issue that is leading to new users doing this?
    – chibacity
    Feb 3, 2011 at 19:45
  • @Grace Yes, I have seen comment edits too. I am seeing all sorts of BS and them being approved too!
    – chibacity
    Feb 3, 2011 at 19:46
  • @chibacity I do not know any method you can reach the form without clicking a button clearly marked "edit". So I honestly cannot say what it might be that is enticing new users to use it in this fashion.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Feb 3, 2011 at 19:47
  • @Grace @Arjan Has just pointed out a case of "comment smuggling": stackoverflow.com/edit-suggestions/1832.
    – chibacity
    Feb 3, 2011 at 19:52
  • Also, there is a warning, like this. Maybe that needs even more explanation, @chibacity?
    – Arjan
    Feb 3, 2011 at 20:01
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Maybe if edits are only appending text there should be an option to put them in a new answer.

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  • We've also seen original authors who somehow lost their account, add details. Not too nice that they lost control over their own question (and maybe the old situation that simply did not show any edit link at all, would warn them about that situation), but that aside: proposing edits to one's own question is much better than OPs abusing an "answer" to add more details. (So: one certainly could not automate creating answers out of edits, but some optional feature might indeed help.)
    – Arjan
    Feb 4, 2011 at 12:05
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    @Arjan: that's what I'm proposing. If all of the edit is appended at the end, give the moderator a button to convert it to an answer, so that it keeps the attribution to the author. Nothing automated.
    – Sam Hasler
    Feb 4, 2011 at 14:21
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    An option to convert to a comment as well may be helpful in some places - this would help with edits that go beyond what I'd be comfortable allowing in a unilateral edit, but which still have some useful content; if a comment could be added with a link to the rejected edit automatically, it would be a nice compromise.
    – bdonlan
    Feb 4, 2011 at 15:25

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