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We all reject edits that change the meaning of posts but I came across this one and it adds meaning to the post that was never given by the OP.

Here is the original post

enter image description here

and here is the edited version

enter image description here

As you can see, nowhere did the OP mention katoolin or kali or anything to indicate that was what they wanted.

I was going to roll it back but I don't want to end up in an edit war with the people who changed it.

To me, this is unclear and should just be closed, to infer meaning on the post is not what edits should be for, it should be 100% on the OP to get there point across and people should not just be adding meaning to unclear posts, whether they may be right or not.

Would I be right to roll this back or have I missed something, somewhere that makes this kind of edit alight?

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  • Are you confident that the edit was not performed by the original poster?
    – 1234567
    Commented Jan 2, 2017 at 16:31
  • @Austin Yes, see the revision history askubuntu.com/posts/867071/revisions I should of linked it in the question.
    – Mark Kirby
    Commented Jan 2, 2017 at 16:32

1 Answer 1

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That seems like a great edit to me. It clarified what the OP was after. Both "bully" and "mdk3" are, apparently, Kali tools so the edit just improved the question. I wasn't aware of them, but searching for "bully Linux" or "mdk5 Linux" immediately brings you to the Kali tools. I really don't see what you find objectionable here.

If a question is unclear but someone can tell what the underlying issue is, then editing to make it clear is absolutely the right thing to do. So this:

To me, this is unclear and should just be closed, to infer meaning on the post is not what edits should be for, it should be 100% on the OP to get there point across and people should not just be adding meaning to unclear posts, whether they may be right or not.

Is absolutely not true. This isn't some sort of popularity contest. We don't care who fixed a question, we just want a collection of high quality posts. If the OP posts a horrible question but someone fixes it so it is now a good one, everybody wins. That is precisely why we allow edits in the first place. If it were "100% on the OP to get their point across", this would be a forum and not an SE site where editing is allowed and encouraged!

Of course we should be adding meaning to unclear posts, or at least, we should if we are right. That is essential to the site and is probably the best kind of edit of all. Fixing minor things like format and grammar is all very well but, at the end of the day, the best edit is the one that makes the question or answer clearer.

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  • Sure, good job of showing why you think it is OK. To me, it looked to change the meaning but I can be wrong (hence the question). If others disagree, I am happy to back off on it.
    – Mark Kirby
    Commented Jan 2, 2017 at 17:00
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    @MarkKirby it could be wrong (although I very much doubt it since both tools are related, and both are indeed Kali tools; it's not like the editor had to make any wild guess, it is pretty obvious that's what the OP was after), but it is far more likely to be correct. If it was wrong, the OP can roll it back. In the meantime, and assuming it was correct, we get a better question. As a general rule, editing questions to make them clearer is very good and to be encouraged. So yes, people most certainly should be adding meaning to unclear posts.
    – terdon Mod
    Commented Jan 2, 2017 at 17:03

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