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I'm wondering, should I change the sense of a question just to fit my answer? I remember once that Jokerdino told me not to, hence I didn't, but is this an accepted practice?

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I wouldn't say we never do it. There are certainly examples amongst our more canonical questions that have been sanitised to make them either broader or just more generic so other people aren't scared off by irrelevant information.

The important thing to remember is to not scrub out too much of the original post too quickly. Time plays a factor here so you need to make sure the original poster has got their answer before you white-wash it.

And needless to say, if you're changing it to ask a fundamentally different question, you should probably move your question elsewhere, even if that means asking a new, similar question.

The lines on this will be blurry from time to time so if in doubt, ask for another opinion.

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  • Take an example of this comment on that question. Should I change the title and accept that answer? Answers provided by you and Radu would still be fine, but the one provided by cshubhamrao would look a little out of place if I edit it.
    – Aditya
    May 14, 2014 at 18:47
  • +10 for the last line. It really varies from situation to situation.
    – Seth
    May 14, 2014 at 19:18
  • I think I didn't in this question. BTW, I'm not afraid of removing irrelevant information, is plain noise and it just distracts.
    – Braiam
    May 14, 2014 at 20:07

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