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Today I stumbled upon this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/4083233/8620333 and I find out that a person made an edit to include new information. Probably useful but "Clearly conflicts with author's intent" in my opinion.

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I am not expert in redirection but I think we should not make such an edit. Should I remove it or is it ok in this particular case?

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    I decided to remove the edit. After reading the documentation carefully, the answer is still valid and can be used without issue. It's even the accurate answer if you want to do it with .htaccess (which is the main question) ... from the doc : In the case of the http-to-https redirection, the use of RewriteRule would be appropriate if you don't have access to the main server configuration file, and are obliged to perform this task in a .htaccess file instead. Commented Mar 18, 2023 at 23:17
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    As a rule, answers should only link each other in order to cite/reference ideas that are incorporated in the current answer - not to say "use this other answer instead", nor "my answer is better than this other answer because ...". This is not a discussion forum, therefore we don't want answers to discuss each other. Commented Mar 19, 2023 at 11:51
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    That question has attracted a messy set of code-only duplicate answers. Yuck. Commented Mar 21, 2023 at 20:31
  • @Michael Well thank the Gawds that post is already protected.
    – Drew Reese
    Commented Mar 21, 2023 at 20:46
  • If you want to be as helpful as possible, I'd argue that editing in that note from the documentation that you quoted would be an excellent addition to the answer, since it provides context on appropriate usage of the answer's solution. But as-is, I completely agree that the edit in question wasn't appropriate.
    – zcoop98
    Commented Mar 22, 2023 at 15:57

2 Answers 2

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Yes.

This should be a comment on the answer at best.

There are better ways to handle this than this kind of edit, that's for sure.

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    I removed the edit. After checking the doc, there is no reason to add it. It's even harmful because the doc still recommend the method in some cases so the edit can be misleading. Commented Mar 18, 2023 at 23:19
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    "There's better ways to handle this" - as there were ... ? Commented Mar 20, 2023 at 8:20
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If the top answer is outdated and the official documentation actively recommends against it, future visitors should be informed of this in a visible manner, and be directed to the recommended alternative.

Stack Overflow is meant to be a place with accurate, correct, expert-validated information. The guidelines exist to facilitate this. The guidelines are written with the intent of making the site better. Dogmatically applying the guidelines as if they were "a law of physics" rather than "a law of society" to every single case, even when it actively harms the site, is just silly and bureaucratic. As the Zen of Python states: "practicality beats purity".

Stack Overflow should not be a site where expert reviewers contradict the official documentation for the sake of preserving some non-worthwhile goal. It would be great if we could flag and reduce the visibility of outdated answers. But until that functionality exists outside of the existing editing system, a Wikipedia-style header allows editors to communicate that information.

Wikipedia template

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    But until that functionality exists --> it does exist and it's downvote. Commented Mar 18, 2023 at 23:08
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    @TemaniAfif A single downvote from an expert rarely has any effect. Let's ask ourselves: who's downvoting? Most people looking at the answer are there because they don't know the answer. Without informing them in a visible manner, how can we expect them to know any better? Commented Mar 18, 2023 at 23:11
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    Stack Overflow is meant to be a place with accurate, correct, expert-validated information --> we are toooo far from this. 80% of the answers are not accurate, correct or expert-validated. Everyone can add an answer and the vote system will decide about the usefulness or not of it. Commented Mar 18, 2023 at 23:11
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    and the official documentation says In the case of the http-to-https redirection, the use of RewriteRule would be appropriate if you don't have access to the main server configuration file, and are obliged to perform this task in a .htaccess file instead. so the answer is still accurate and I myself use it since years now Commented Mar 18, 2023 at 23:14
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    I can't say what should be done for this particular edit since I'm not an Apache HTTP Server user. However, I do hope for the good of the site that my answer is applied in cases where it's clear to the majority of subject experts that an answer is outdated. Commented Mar 18, 2023 at 23:19
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    The worst part of StackOverflow/Wikipedia is the moderators stepping in to say "You may think this question/answer is helpful, but we disagree." Comments, self-edits, and new answers do a great job of alerting people to this stuff without empowering "we know best" mods.
    – Noumenon
    Commented Mar 19, 2023 at 19:49
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    I hope Stack Overflow never becomes a place where good information gets removed just because it's not the latest and greatest. Not everybody runs the latest version of everything, and there must be a resource for those stuck with solving older problems. Commented Mar 19, 2023 at 23:19
  • Also for this kind of banner it would require SMEs of the subject in question to decide, and you can't always guarantee an SME is around to review things Commented Mar 21, 2023 at 20:07

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