6:49 AM
In other words, you want to (A) engage with the answer, and give it the attention it deserves, and (B) give your own take on the answer,
But if you feel that the answer can be improved by adding in a certain point, or by emphasizing something, or clarifying something - edit that sucker right in. Also, if you disagree because you think something is incorrect, then editing a correction is another way that improves the overall answer.
But posting the answers inside the question doesn't work as well. It kind of breaks the Q&A format; it turns the question into a summary of the whole page, and makes it feel like you're summarizing a discussion. (It's actually not even that, because it's your take on the answers, rather than the answers themselves.)
What would be very appropriate, and this does happen with some frequency, is that an answer causes the OP to fundamentally change his question.
For example, he gets an answer that's partial, but really good for that part - so he edits the question to make clear that what's left to be done is address the other parts.
Or he sees the answers aren't focused enough, so he rewrites the question for focus. Or the answers bring up a problem he didn't realize he had, so he edits the question to take that new issue into consideration.
All those are changes to the question, so editing the question, even extensively, is fine - it leaves us with a better question, or a more focused one.
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The Overlook Hotel
General discussion for writing.stackexchange.com. Writing exer...