Why Can People Edit My Posts? How Does Editing Work?

All contributions are licensed under Creative Commons, and this site is collaboratively edited, like Wikipedia. If you see something that needs improvement, edit it!

Editing is important for keeping posts clear, relevant, and up-to-date. If you are not comfortable with the idea of your contributions being collaboratively edited by other trusted users, this may not be the site for you.

When should I edit posts?

Any time you see a post that needs improvement and are inclined to suggest an edit, you are welcome to do so.

Some common reasons to edit a post are:

• To fix grammatical or spelling mistakes
• To clarify the meaning of the post (without changing that meaning)
• To include additional information only found in comments, so that all of the information relevant to the post is contained in one place
• To correct minor mistakes or add updates as the post ages
• To add related resources or hyperlinks

Tiny, trivial edits are discouraged; try to make the post significantly better when you edit, correcting all problems that you observe.

What happens when I edit a post?

The post will be updated to show the latest editor, as well as the original author. All edits are saved and tracked in a public revision history with attribution to each editor.

A post's revision history can be viewed by clicking the date and time at the bottom of the edited post (e.g., "edited 3 days ago").

Editing a question or answer also bumps the question to the top of the homepage.