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Standback
Standback
6:49 AM
Continuing from comments over on writers.stackexchange.com/questions/3715:
@Zasz: So, generally speaking, what you're describing works best in the comments.
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,
and that's exactly what a comment does.
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.
And a lot of your recaps in the question body seemed to me to be of that type.
In any event, both comments and edits are great ways to do what you want,
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.
Maybe what you're trying to do is something like that - explain what you've already gained, and what you're still missing, so future answers will be able to focus on that and not retread what you've already learned.
If you could rephrase the edits to be in that direction, I think that'd be awesome :)
(Oh, and thanks for the bounty! :D Glad you liked the answer.)
 
 
15 hours later…
Steven Drennon
Steven Drennon
10:30 PM
32 points short! Dang, it sure is hard to get 200 rep points in a single day! We need to do something to get more people here who are active. If anybody has any suggestions I'm willing to help. I've been trying to pull people over from the other forums I visit, but they just aren't interested. :(
Oops! Make that 17 short! I just had an answer accepted. I think I'd rather miss by 170 than just 17! Oh well!
 

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