39
votes
Is it worth editing old posts to add links for references?
Yes, this is totally worthwhile! Please do this. The value of a linked reference is far higher than the value of an unlinked reference; the latter I fear often simply go unconsulted.
I go further ...
- 194k
35
votes
Accepted
Are edits performed by external, non-SE robots allowed?
Just to give some background on this project: it's indeed something I'm doing on my own, independent of Stack Exchange. There are more independent 'volunteer' projects around the Stack Exchange ...
- 2,611
33
votes
Nudge: the new Stacks editor has significant implications for this site
New Answer:
Upon reflection, Emilio is 100% correct: We need to sound the alarm bells. Here's a link again to Emilio's well-thought-out answer on the main meta site explaining this, which is probably ...
Tim CampionMod
- 49.2k
29
votes
Accepted
What to do with links to arXiv front end?
If it's been down for a few weeks it's too early (as you say) but a good idea to mention it now.
Your query points to about 600 answers, this is a lot, so the hope, if it's once judged time to make a ...
- 51.2k
20
votes
Discreet editing
I see your point and it makes sense. However, it is a fundamental aspect of community moderation that edits should be anything but discreet. It also makes sense for editors to be clearly visible as ...
- 42.5k
18
votes
Accepted
Altering the question in a way that makes an answer obsolete
As Gerald Edgar said, the most common reason for this situation is that the answer reveals to the OP that they posed the question in a form that did not properly capture what they intended to ask. I ...
- 48.6k
17
votes
Editing etiquette
Most of the time, the edits that I see on MO are respectfully and tactfully performed and small in scope, and gratefully received by the post's author as improvements. Occasionally though I see flare-...
Todd TrimbleMod
- 50.5k
17
votes
Accepted
Any policies around Dead links?
I guess I usually act as follows:
a) If I know how to fix the link (typically, link points to an identifiable paper), I either edit accordingly, or add the link as a comment (I might even provide 2 ...
- 51.2k
15
votes
How to discourage excessive self-edits?
In the Internet world (and also in the real world) non native English speakers have huge disadvantage. Gaining some attention to one's MO questions and answers due to the need to edit them more is a ...
- 23.5k
15
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to temporarily comment out part of a post?
You can hide the part in HTML comments:
BEFORE <!-- this is something I want to hide --> AFTER
produces:
BEFORE AFTER
Spoilers would be another option, ...
- 2,611
14
votes
Accepted
On: Graph Theory is the s(c/l)um of Topology (?)
Maybe the solution is to change the title to something like "Derogatory Quote About Graph Theory" and restore the original word scum to the body (but not the title) of the question. Quid is certainly ...
- 20.7k
14
votes
Restriction on Number of edits
I probably should write a few lines about this, since the question was obviously a reaction to my edits. (But it will be certainly nice if some more experienced users share their view.)
I consider ...
- 4,390
14
votes
Proper protocol for edit wars
As a longtime Wikipedia contributor who has been around a lot of truly crazy edit wars, my advice is: never revert more than once even if the other person's edit is terrible. Instead leave a comment ...
- 1,107
14
votes
How acceptable is prosemirror-math as an editor style for this site?
Personally, I find it less usable than the status quo, but better than the new editor proposed by SE. So if it is inevitable that we will have to settle for an inferior alternative in future, this is ...
- 17.7k
13
votes
Accepted
May I borrow the question/answer editing/preview gadgets?
Sure, the editor and preview components are open source. It's released under the MIT license which is one of the most permissive copyleft licenses in existence.
You'd need to make your own ...
- 101
13
votes
edits with links to material under restricted access
There is a good reason for linking to a paywalled link. It is usually the official journal link. It is likely to contain the accurate citation information, it is likely to stay on the web for longer (...
- 35.3k
13
votes
Is it possible to temporarily comment out part of a post?
Since other answers mention HTML comments, let me clarify that using them is only a commonly employed custom on SE sites, which just abuses the fact that it works by accident.
In reality, the ...
- 39k
13
votes
Can (and should) Project Euclid links be replaced in bulk?
Let us collect here various formats of the links to Project Euclid which no longer work. (Some of those following links also appeared in variants with https instead ...
12
votes
Nudge: the new Stacks editor has significant implications for this site
Here is one option put forward by the SE developers: switching from MathJax to prosemirror-math. For a quick look at how it works, I'll just pull this from their readme:
Examples
Unlike other editors,...
- 2,278
10
votes
How to discourage excessive self-edits?
I am not familiar with software management of MO, so I do not know whether the following suggestion is applicable or no?But I guess that it is easy to be applied.
Suggestion 1: Consideration of ...
- 215
10
votes
Tell what's been modified
Thanks to jeq's suggestion, there is an answer on stackapps for that exact purpose! That doesn't mean it shouldn't be a standard feature, but it does mean that you can have this feature right now.
...
- 42.5k
10
votes
Is it a bad practise to add details (limited) to some one's answer?
I think so. The detail is all there, even if spread into the comments; it's what they are for. If further expansion is needed, why not just ask the person who wrote the answer to expand it? But, as ...
- 31k
9
votes
edits with links to material under restricted access
On my opinion, links with restricted access are legitimate and desirable when there is no free link to a particular book/paper.
After all, this is a site for professional mathematicians, and majority ...
- 77.4k
8
votes
Accepted
Interpretation of Time-limit for Editing Comments
You always have the option of entering a new edited comment and deleting the old one, which has almost the same effect as what you're hoping to do. (That's what I used to do back when it was not ...
- 71.4k
8
votes
Is it a bad practise to add details (limited) to some one's answer?
My personal opinion is that there are two options, depending on the situation:
You could post a separate answer, clearly explaining that this is a more detailed elaboration of the other answer - both ...
- 4,390
8
votes
Updated: Is it time to replace links to the UCDavis arXiv frontend?
As of 29 March 2022, I claim all the links in questions and answers to front.math.ucdavis.edu that predate April 2007, when the arXiv moved to the new, uniform ...
- 31k
7
votes
Autosave of drafted questions or answers
According to waffles's answer on Meta Stack Exchange, drafts (of questions and answers; not edits) should be automatically saved about once every 45 seconds, so part of this feature request is already ...
- 676
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible