6
votes
To what extent can a question be modified to make it easier to find?
Edit away. As long as you don't change the meaning of the post it should be fine. In fact we've had a few people make meta posts requesting more people help to edit the question titles.
- 23k
6
votes
Should I edit question with accepted answer closed as 'off-topic' for lack of effort (i.e what have you tried)?
I don't think you should edit it in effort, leave that up to the asker. Your edit undeniably improves the question, but it doesn't solve the root of the problem.
The point of that close reason is to ...
- 19.9k
6
votes
Accepted
Edit Wars: The Return of the Sith
That question is a resource gathering question and shouldn't really have been posted; it isn't a good fit for the site. That said the OP should've known better and the situation was handled ...
- 18.3k
6
votes
When editing a question, is it good to change 'How can I..' in a title to 'How to..'?
I 100% disagree --- in fact you 100% disagree.
See: Should titles be phrased as questions?
"How to design a picture." is not a question.
"How can I design a picture?" or "How do I design a picture?"...
- 23k
5
votes
Should titles be phrased as questions?
I don't think the title being a question itself is necessary. That's because the only point of the title is to give a clear reference as to what the question is about. If that is done, I believe it's ...
- 13.2k
5
votes
When editing a question, is it good to change 'How can I..' in a title to 'How to..'?
Here's the thing.....
You can't control what users, especially new users, use for phrasing. Sure in a perfect world all titles would be accurate, clear, and well defined. But that's just never going ...
- 204k
5
votes
Accepted
To what extent can a question be modified to make it easier to find?
In addition to not changing the meaning of the post as Ryan said, we should also keep in mind a couple of things:
People don't like other people changing their posts very much. Make sure that any ...
- 13.2k
5
votes
Accepted
Should I edit a post when it’s poorly typographically styled and formatted?
I almost rejected your suggested edit on this answer.
Your summary said:
corrected typography: em-dash, apostrophe and ellipses
You actually changed the hyphens for spaced en-dashes, not em-...
- 40.2k
4
votes
Accepted
Should I edit question with accepted answer closed as 'off-topic' for lack of effort (i.e what have you tried)?
The issue you will always face with vague questions will be does your edit in fact help the OP or does it cause another issue. Every time someone says "oh it needs X edit I know what they mean" I ask,...
- 18.3k
4
votes
Accepted
Should edit points be reverted when the question is closed / deleted?
I would personally prefer the edit points to not be subtracted. As you mention, there is effort put in each edit, and it's not likely for someone to build rep only on edits - new users need their ...
- 26.2k
3
votes
Should titles be phrased as questions?
I feel the same way in regards to this is a question and answer site so the titles should be in a question format because it would be proper. I even find myself at times going back and making edits. ...
- 18.3k
3
votes
Accepted
New Duplicate Feature
If you know of a Q&A that could qualify as a duplicate and the question has already been closed or the question is of age feel free to either flag for moderator attention:
or bring it up in the ...
- 18.3k
2
votes
Accepted
Should questions ask for softwarerec whose answers are about tutorial be edited to reflect the new tone?
Leave the question as it is.
You asked for a software recommendation and you received a recommendation of Word. The fact that you initially thought Word wasn't suitable is almost besides the point. ...
- 40.2k
2
votes
Should edit points be reverted when the question is closed / deleted?
I think if you're worried about the "count" of edits instead of knowing you are on the positive side of improving the site I don't know what to say to you. From what I can say now all you care about ...
- 18.3k
2
votes
When editing a question, is it good to change 'How can I..' in a title to 'How to..'?
You may (not )have a point, but this is just not viable. Telling users to use the correct to save a whole 3 characters isn't going to be easy. It would require adding a notification, having the user ...
- 823
1
vote
Should titles be phrased as questions?
I agree with Zach's answer, in that not every title needs to be a question (all titles CAN be formulated as questions, but in some cases that is not necessary), and mostly in that the main problem is ...
- 26.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible