Edit - Meta Stack Exchange

You are not logged in. Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.

We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because community members review edits, please try to make the post substantially better than how you found it, for example, by fixing grammar or adding additional resources and hyperlinks.

Rev

1

I have often wondered if more obvious filtering on the front page to allow a greater proportion of whats on there to be content the user is directly interested in would help the perception of the quantity of junk, thus increasing willingness to engage with specific marginal posts to help turn them into useful content.
– user1937198
Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 11:18
2

There is also the issue that those who are willing to spend the time to help with those who are struggling with basic concepts are generally not the same as those who can answer complicated or unusual issues. Focusing on the first time users has a risk of damaging the workflow for the complicated cases, whilst focusing on the complicated cases results in situations that are opaque to those that are simple. This conflict that can't be resolved by the community alone.
– user1937198
Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 11:22
@user1937198 I've added two more impressions on unpopular opinions, and feelings. I can't imagine how overwhelmed you've been with all the feedback, but I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with... by far the hardest problem to tackle here, that I can think of! Kudos.
– Dagelf
Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 11:48
1

Yep, and really it goes back to what stackoverflow was designed for, the production of quality answers. I suspect that expansion of comment functionality could really help here, perhaps classifying comments into clarifying/improvement comments which an OP/editor could mark as resolved, deleting them. Also some form of explicit pre-answer comments where someone isn't sure they have an answer, so they don't put an answer, but put some ideas/concepts/references that could be used by someone wanting to edit into an answer, again deleting the comment in.
– user1937198
Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 12:17
1

Combine that with improvements to the help system, (a lot of which is currently documented in random meta posts), perhaps with a crowd sourced wiki, and you could have some significant improvements.
– user1937198
Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 12:18
I've been dreaming of such a comment system for years. Badges and emoticons became popular, but they're still pretty meaningless IMHO. kialo.com is just about the only real experiment I've yet come across. I'm keen to help build and trial better commenting, but I'm not going to do it all by myself :-D
– Dagelf
Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 12:22
2

And badges and emoticons go the wrong way, they add to the noise, whereas I'm looking for ways that comments could be more easily removed when they outlive there usefulness, so that we can encorage them more without increasing noise.
– user1937198
Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 12:37

Add a comment |

Correct minor typos or mistakes
Clarify meaning without changing it
Add related resources or links
Always respect the author’s intent
Don’t use edits to reply to the author

create code fences with backticks ` or tildes ~
```
like so
```
add language identifier to highlight code
```python
def function(foo):
print(foo)
```
put returns between paragraphs
for linebreak add 2 spaces at end
_italic_ or **bold**
indent code by 4 spaces
backtick escapes `like _so_`
quote by placing > at start of line
to make links (use https whenever possible)
<https://example.com>
[example](https://example.com)
<a href="https://example.com">example</a>

formatting help »
answering help »