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As time passes by, some questions/answers are forgotten...
Those present people with out-dated information that needs to be updated or cleaned up.

There are also questions/answers with bad formatting or that contain too much irrelevant information.
We could, for example, bring consistency in formatting in CW questions to increase readability...
Maybe even add screenshots where they fit.

We should compile up a list with such questions and answers which anyone could contribute to,
so that people with enough reputation can improve those or mods could clean those up...

 - [Title](Link to question/answer)  
   Reason: Why the question should be improved or cleaned...

When a question or answer progresses, we can just add an extra line:

   Status: Rejected/Unclear Reason/*Done*

Please keep this list in my first answer and discuss this question in the comments.
When needed we could do a more important discussion in a separate answer to this question.

For those editing: Remember to always respect the original author and to leave an edit reason.

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  • What's wrong with flagging for moderator?
    – Hello71
    Commented Aug 20, 2010 at 22:56
  • 1
    These questions/answers don't need immediate attention, they can be improved by the community without the need of extra work or additional attention from the moderators. Ivo Flipse said (SU Chat): They are either outdated or need some better formatting to go from great to freaking awesome, also where the question title or current wording sucks.
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Aug 20, 2010 at 23:57
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    I applaud the idea of improving questions, but when taking the effort of putting it on this list, why not take the effort to improve it right away?
    – Pylsa
    Commented Aug 21, 2010 at 18:34
  • This idea came from Ivo Flipse ( see the SU Chat transcript of August 20 ), as he's on vacation he asked me if I could pose this question instead of him. I added these questions instead of fixing them as an example, not the best examples as I haven't had the time for that yet but something to start with. This question is aimed more towards those that can't improve the question themselves, either because they don't have enough reputation yet (2000+) or they don't see a way to improve it themselves.
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Aug 21, 2010 at 18:54

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
6

I am not entirely sure if this question has much value for a few reasons:

  • 2K users have edit rights, and if they want to they can edit these questions, which is the purpose of having edit ability.
  • The mandate of the SO engine was exactly the above, to always have an up to date and correct answer to a single question, which is why we have mechanism to close as duplicate.
  • The community in due process naturally will update these questions as time goes by, and keeping a list here just adds additional overhead altogether.

As much as it may be a nice idea, this question and it's answers will simply become the same as the questions themselves. I agree with some of the comments, if you have the ability, edit it when you see, and move along.

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  • Not everyone has the time to edit complete questions (especially ones with a lot of answers) and it helps if others pitch in. It's more meant to organize the editing
    – Ivo Flipse
    Commented Aug 23, 2010 at 11:21
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    @Ivo. With all due respect. I still don't agree. The more 2K users are on the site, the more it will happen. SO has gotten away without this for 2 years, I still don't see how it will help SU or SF.
    – BinaryMisfit
    Commented Aug 23, 2010 at 11:40
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Questions that need to be improved or cleaned:

Questions that are done:

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  • For inspiration have a look at the most favorited questions on Super User. It's highly likely they could use some work
    – Ivo Flipse
    Commented Aug 21, 2010 at 20:47
  • Also, I'd propose to add an index to some of the highly popular list questions, so it's easier for people to spot what's in there. And these could be hugely improved with more consistent formatting
    – Ivo Flipse
    Commented Aug 21, 2010 at 20:48

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