Questions tagged [editing]
For discussions/ support about editing questions and answers. Common guidelines, best practices, and frequent mistakes may be discussed with this tag. Disagreements between editors are also within the scope.
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I had a question that did not have all of the information needed to fully answer. Is it better to rewrite the question, or start a new question?
There was this question "How do I determine temperature and pressure rise whenever mols of gases are added in a isolated room?" that I attempted to answer - but in the end I found myself in ...
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Edit history doesn't show edited portion - bug?
I was trying to see what edit was made in this particular answer but the edit history doesn't show the edited portion. I thought maybe some extra spaces was wiped out but couldn't figure where was the ...
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What additional steps do I need to take to change a title of a question back to the original title?
I wrote a question and a day later noticed the title had been edited by another user.
The original title: When writing the net ionic equation, if one of the products ionizes, what is the most ...
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Gender-neutral language
The current (2019-10-10) version of the network-wide Code of Conduct emphasizes the use of gender-neutral language. This is not expected to be a significant change for Chemistry Stack Exchange since ...
user7951
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A clarification regarding the rejection of my recent edit
I apologize beforehand if this seems inappropriate, especially coming from a new user.
Please view this link before I proceed: molecular orbital theory explaining molecular orbitals
[P.S. : I've kept ...
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What should be done if one "edit a closed question" and write a "completely new question" such that it gets reopened?
Assume X is an OP. He writes a question A which gets closed. Now, X has a history of writing poor quality questions. So, he cannot post more questions. He then decides to edit his closed question(A). ...
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Formatting Sandbox III: please test stuff here
Sandbox II has become as clogged as Sandbox I was (and is), especially for users with 10,000 reputation or above. So, here is a new new post...
Before you delete a post here, please reduce it to one ...
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Number of characters in edits
Sometimes in edits, you can give the clarification for your changes as " added xx characters to body."
Where is the character count visible on screen? I can not find it from the mobile website.
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How appropriate it is to improve typography of quoted text from the third-party source?
Often there is a quoted question (e.g. a block quote with >) from the textbook with certain typographic flaws which I would edit without any doubts, among which ...
andseliskMod
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When a low quality question turns into a fascinating tutoring dialog
A new contributor asked a question, Mechanism of ring formation of an epoxide under acidic aqueous conditions. It has "homework" written all over it. The original title ("did not understand the ...
KarstenMod
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Buzzwords Season 9 - Number of Moles (reboot)
For seasons 1-9 see:
I question the use of "question" in question titles
(search here)
Help make help questions have more helpful titles
(search here)
Houston, we have a "Problem&...
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MathJax mhchem editor
Is there a tool (application, online service) that helps writing the ugly formatting MathJax + mhchem code? I mean things like just typing Ctrl-B to get the selected text to bold is something else ...
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Your edit gets rejected, then the reviewer who rejected the edit does essentially your edit...?
I have done some edits to questions, here and on other stack exchanges, and some have been rejected. That is perfectly alright. What is annoying to me though is when my edit is rejected and then the ...
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Heavy question editing
I think the practice of heavy question editing, especially after answer(s) have been provided, especially if the edit contains new facts that the questioning person (or user(s) that have already ...
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May I convert one of my ill-received, deleted questions to a completely new one in order to try to work towards lifting my question ban?
I recently have asked a question that received no answers but has gotten a down vote. Since this is my first time to ask after 6 months question ban, my options are limited.
With the down vote and ...
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Are questions being excessively edited?
Someone asks a perfectly reasonably question about aluminum hydroxide, then someone comes along and deletes the word "hydroxide" from the title to make the question sound stupid:
Can ...
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Converting decimal comma to an English dot
We know that $25.00$ in English is actually written as $25{,}00$ in French (and many other languages actually). Weird, but true!
Now, non-anglo users frequent our site and often write in such ...
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Adding your Ideas as Edits to a Question
I came across a question recently in the Chemistry SE. I thought about it a bit and came up with some diagrams, or some other explanation or clarification that could help potential answerers ...
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Non-English posts: Should edits that offer a translation be entertained?
This was a suggested edit to this post (link to revision in Spanish):
From what I can make out (largely thanks to Google Translate), the proposed translation is pretty much correct (and makes minor ...
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Shouldn't the OP be notified if his/her question is put on hold or closed or edited?
I recently asked a question which was put on hold. I was not notified of it being put on hold. I was always notified if my question had any answer or comment. If I had received the notification, I had ...
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Simultaneous post editing
Recently I noticed that some posts are not editable:
Another edit is awaiting approval for this post. Further edits cannot be submitted until the pending edit is reviewed.
I thought there is a git-...
andseliskMod
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Don't I have the authority to reject any suggested edit?
I have come across a situation that when I edit someone's post, it is kept on hold for 'peer review' and after the approval of the author it reflects on the site. But when someone suggests edit to my ...
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Are you confused by confusing question titles including the word "Confusion"?
You have guessed it: Buzzwords!
Long story short - as you can look up the tradition of these posts below - please add Confusion and its derivatives to the list of words that need to be fought as they ...
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Trying to understand reasons of this rejected edit
I just saw a question with title
Is there such a thing as an acid without a hydrogen?
And I suggested an edit to remove a before hydrogen to make it
Is there such a thing as an acid without ...
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What are some basic guidelines for good edits on Chem.SE?
I came across a post on the main site just now that I think could use some changes. I found the editing help page in the Help Center, but its write-up is pretty cursory and high-level.
What makes ...
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What can I do to clean up old comments?
Comments are ephemeral by nature, and a lot of them get deleted everyday on different sites. (See this)
I stumble upon old questions sometimes, which contain some comments, naturally. I know I can ...
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How to handle this Li Zhi guy?
Most who have spent a considerable amount of time on Chem.SE this past year knows Li Zhi.
visits on a biweekly or monthly basis: Li Zhi, et al, et al, et al, et al, et al, et al ...
quality of the ...
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absurd edit war
The question and its edit war
So this edit war happened. Here's a quick recap:
A poster asked a very clear question, two different ways.
A user edited the question to eliminate the second phrasing.
...
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20 most viewed questions that need answers (Updated 29 Jun 2022)
Some of these questions do have answers, but these answers have negative votes. Only questions with upvotes will be removed from the list. In addition, this list has new questions sprinkled throughout!...
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Question & answer edits to improve searchability
I've been improving questions mainly to improve the site's placement in search engines OR to improve the likelihood that a question would be clicked (more traffic.)
I've been doing:
Cleanup for ...
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When editing posts that are consistently or overwhelmingly written in one flavour of English, please do not change the flavour
I was rather unhappy with an edit to a post of mine (which I immediately rolled back as soon as I saw it). While one may debate about whether mannonic acid or mannuronic acid is formed in an oxidation ...
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Is it a bad idea to have an edit only be the addition of the homework tag?
Often when cruising the latest questions or working through the review queue, I'll make an edit that only adds homework.
I see two problems, the first very minor, the second potentially insidious.
...
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I have a doubt about "doubt" in doubt titles
From the depth of the stack exchange network I bring to you the newest season (7) of our community effort against buzzwords in question titles. The word of the season this time is doubt.
In Indian ...
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Editing questions whose OP is not responding
What should be done to correct a question if OP is not responding.
In this question
Comparing acidities of substituted and aromatic carboxylic acids
The OP (I think by mistake) wrote
Electron ...
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Need help with an edit
In this question I proposed an edit, then found I had made a typo (wanted sustituted, got dybstituted). Can't correct because I am stuck in peer review, and if I have to re-edit I am back in peer ...
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Time limit editing comments
Why is there a five-minute time limit editing comments? I found typos I wanted to correct in a comment I had posted, but it was too late, and I was forced to delete and repost.
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Allow small edits
For the upcoming MathJax/mhchem update, I'd like to make sure that old chemistry.SE posts do not break. I downloaded 12,000 unique usages of \ce and I have been ...
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Borderline self-promotional edit
Today I received an edit suggestion on this answer of mine.
The answer contains the following:
Probably the ultimate non-toxic solution [for a high density brine] would be a cesium polytungstate ...
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Formatting Sandbox II: please *don't* test stuff here [duplicate]
This thread has been retired due to the large number of posts. The newest sandbox can be found here:
Formatting Sandbox III: please test stuff here
Spoiler warning: Be aware that this page ...
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LaTeX in titles [duplicate]
Recently I edited a question adding LaTeX formatting for chemical formulas. I edited the both the text and the title, and this edit were accepted by peer-review. After some time, I noticed that ...
user23061
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Hidden points of editing you probably didn't know
Making a good edit is hard. On Chem.SE, we (would/should/could) care about the finest points of formatting. There are basic points of editing many editors know about: Put some fancy MathJax/ $\mathrm\...
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Should I have accepted a trivial add-homework-tag edit on this old question?
I just rejected a suggested edit on this question, where someone had proposed adding homework but making no other changes. Since the question was two and a half years old, I rejected the edit with ...
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Editing/presentation of chemical structures (to chemdraw or not to chemdraw)
Preface: feel free to close this/point me in the direction of the answer if it has already been discussed here. A quick search of Meta didn't bring anything up (searched ChemDraw and organic ...
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I am asking about chemistry, you know, that's why I put it in the title
Previously on 'Never mind the Buzzwords':
I question the use of "question" in question titles (search here)
Help make help questions have more helpful titles (search here)
Houston, we have ...
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Why do editors not leave a comment or answer?
I have been a user for 6 months now and I have seen this many times. So I decided to ask this in meta as I found no better place to ask it.
Why don't the users who edit the questions just leave a ...
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American vs British spelling: Is there a standard? Should there be?
The only mention of this that turned up in a quick search was a passing mention three years ago. I've just encountered a pending edit on this question where the editor tidied up the question with ...
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Is HTML banished?
Sorry if the question was already discussed, but it’s IMHO unlikely, given (mhchem) tag without a wiki.
I’m new here, as a post writer. Today I saw my post edited by a high-rep user. The main intent ...
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Why is adding alternative text for images discouraged?
I suggested an edit which added alt text for the image of that question.
It was rejected by 2 users giving the following as the reason:
This edit does not make the post even a little bit ...
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Editing - What about misspellings?
Everyone's typing posts in here, or touching the screen of some techy-touchy device. (Exceptions not included; the point is, no one's writing) So, we can get typos.
Imagine a situation where a good ...
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Can we edit out unnecessary "statements of weakness" or buzzwords inside the questions' bodies?
I was ,partially, surprised that there isn't usually a talk about this in SE communities. Nevertheless, science-based sites and learner-and-teacher forums (sorry for the lack of a better term) like ...
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