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A fairly old answer was recently edited to completely refute the answer's original content. I had originally rejected this edit myself, but I see that it has made it through after all.

Should this have been allowed?

One of the reasons to disapprove an edit is, (paraphrasing) because the original content is changed so much that it is basically gone completely. That's what has happened in this answer: the editor disagreed with the answer, and decided to edit it, making it reflect their own opinion instead. The right thing to do would have been to downvote the answer, and/or to add a comment explaining why it is incorrect. Editing an answer when you think it is incorrect, is something that goes against the standards of Stackexchange.

Am I the only one who feels this way? Please bear with me -- I am only trying to understand and apply SE's rules & guidelines myself.

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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I've rolled it back. This was the absolute epitome of a bad edit. Different information should be in a different answer; wrong answers should be downvoted, not removed or covered up.

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Personally, I don't think we should edit for content at all. This site revolves around the idea of users posting questions and answers and having other users vote on whether the post is useful(correct) or not. Editing content changes a users post and in my option, there should be a roll-back on that post because it has pretty much been completely changed.

If a question or answer doesn’t make sense, the voting should reflect that. If a question or answer is wrong, the voting should reflect that. If a question or answer is insightful, the voting should reflect that.

Any user can post a new answer to a question if they feel it has not been answered as long as it is open. Editing an old answer to give a different answer the question should not be allowed

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  • This answer completely reflects my sentiment. Thanks!
    – Lee White
    Commented Jun 30, 2014 at 14:24
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    A complete change like that should never be accepted. If you disagree that strongly with an answer, get your own -- don't vandalize somebody else's. "Content" edits that don't change but rather augment -- for example, adding a source or a link -- are different and should be allowed.
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented Jul 10, 2014 at 2:16
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Even though the original answer contains bad information, it cannot be changed to the opposite by anyone (who's Community?).That edit was well out of order, and should have been disallowed immediately, even though it did contain a sensible point. That's not the point.

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