8

I am receiving "suggested edits" on years-old posted answers.

Is there a new effort or policy to clean up posts?

Or

Is Ask Ubuntu being infiltrated by bots or hackers?

My concern is twofold:

Am I being randomly or intentionally targeted? I ask that because these suggested edits seem to follow recent rude and unnecessary comments, again on old posts. There is also the related question of manipulation by anonymous users which could eventually sway original policies, if bots or hack accounts are being used and gain foothold just for that purpose.

Secondly, posts may become dry and sterile and lack human experience which does not allow a new and inexperienced user to find relatable help inside a question or an answer.

Side note:

I am not against suggested edits that clarify the question or answer. I do not wish to allow unnecessary edits just to fulfill a bots, spammer, or hacker objective.

1
  • 2
    Locked the post for a day. Let's see if that helps..
    – jokerdino Mod
    Commented Sep 17, 2017 at 18:05

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7

I think you are talking about this answer to which an anonymous user has suggested the same destructive edit suggestion six times in the last two days.

Here's the timeline of the post showing the suggested edits.

Reviewers have repeatedly rejected the edit, but I just checked again and it had been approved, so I rolled the edit back. See What should I do if someone makes a bad edit to my post? for how to do this yourself if you need to.

It's not a policy to make edits like this, and it's an isolated case as far as I know. I've been reviewing suggested edits daily for around a year, and I've never seen a sustained attack on a post like this. Judging by the edit reason messages, some of which are very rude, this is the work of a human and they object for some reason to the part of your post that tentatively suggests a failing HDD might have had something to do with the problem in your case.

While editing old posts to improve them is welcome and appreciated here, the edit to your post removes useful information and in my opinion should certainly not be approved.

3
  • Well thank you and all who stepped in, explained what was happening. On one level I agree that my update reads like I may be saying a hardware issue can be the problem, I also specifically state that I am NOT saying it is THE issue/answer. Frankly, there are many examples of problems that seem like software issues when hardware failures intermittently are to blame. I have a long history with technology. And, many people are still seeing this problem even when some of these bugs are closed officially. It is for that reason that I felt the update may relate to some. Anyway thank you. :)
    – xtrchessreal
    Commented Sep 17, 2017 at 19:42
  • 2
    Oh, look a way to discover which reviewers need a timeout from the review easily.
    – Braiam
    Commented Sep 24, 2017 at 15:17
  • @xtrchessreal Yes, it's very clear, the way you wrote it. Ignore the hater.
    – wjandrea
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 1:48

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .