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An answer of mine has been locked, clearly because someone felt I had edited it too frequently. Can the answer still be upvoted based on the merits of its content? If yes, ok, that's great. If no, that doesn't seem right and I think the situation ought to be rectified.

Sorry that my working style doesn't fit well within the framework of aviation stack exchange-- I'll try to do better. I'm not just trying to enable more upvotes. In fact as far as I'm concerned once a person upvotes an answer he should not be allowed to upvote the same answer again just because it has been edited. If he still likes the answer after the edit he should keep his upvote and if he doesn't he should downvote to neutralize his upvote.

Anyway thank you for answering the question above.

Also while we're at it, is a lock only temporary (will be removed OR answer will be deleted), or is there such a thing as a permanent lock?

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  • $\begingroup$ If you're referring to a specific post of your own, it helps to link it so it's clear what you want to discuss. $\endgroup$
    – fooot
    Oct 11, 2018 at 21:54
  • $\begingroup$ I guess whether it's worth discussing depends on the answer to the question (second sentence.) Also while we're at it, is a lock only temporary (will be removed OR answer will be deleted), or is there such a thing as a permanent lock? $\endgroup$ Oct 11, 2018 at 21:57
  • $\begingroup$ I don't think that looking at the answer I'm referring to is really going to help anyone better understand the question I'm asking here in aviation meta. My point is really not to dispute the merits of the lock, at least not right now. But since you asked, this is the answer in question. aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/35297/… $\endgroup$ Oct 11, 2018 at 22:09
  • $\begingroup$ Someone could just go try to upvote it and then they would be able to tell us if it worked. That would answer my question. Then vote it back down again if you feel you need to. $\endgroup$ Oct 11, 2018 at 22:13

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To answer the title question, I tried as a test to upvote it, it didn't work.


Note that I'm one of the top (up) voters on the site. But I wouldn't upvote your answer.* I'm not trying to be harsh, at all, I just want to convey a message.

If the short answer is the answer to the question, post that. If the question asks for the complete history, it would actually be closed as too broad.

Internet answers are not books, even scrolling down that answer one gets lost easily, no section breaks, etc.


I also see that many of the edits are very, very minor. While I can sense a aim for perfectionism, my real advice to you is that such thing doesn't exist. You'll have peace of mind once you realize that.

80 edit is just way too many.

And that's coming from a heavy editor, but I never got to 80. And any minor edits I make are usually within a few minutes/hours of submitting a post. Adding information is done if I've received a request for clarification, for example.

I've edited 1,459 posts (the number on my profile) that I'm not the author of, and those are mainly copy-editing, proofreading, or adjusting tags of others' posts. It's usually just the 1 edit. A recent copy-edit I made, I missed correcting 'rolls' to 'roles', and I let it go. Typos are okay. Note that published writers have teams behind them, and it is guaranteed to find errors in the first editions.

Proofreading one's own work is hard. Those who know their way around proofreading, know that one of the tips is printing the material in a different, even wacky, font, to help spot the errors -- I'm looking at you Comic Sans. For the purposes of internet posts, errors are okay.

Anyway, removing that number from my total revisions, and dividing by my total posts, my edit average is 4.33 edits per post, and trust me, I already feel bad about that because of how it bumps the posts.

I hope you come to terms with the above, and that since SE closes too broad questions, too broad answers won't find an audience.


* I'd like to address one of yours comments to this answer here, so it becomes visible to clarify what I meant, you said:

(...) The truth is that the original question is much more complex than initially meets the eye and every bit of the answer is relevant to the question. It simply cannot be answered with a short paragraph or two. Anyone, behavior of author (e.g. frequent editing) does not bear on merits of answer and it doesn't seem right that those who may have a different opinion than you have addressed here should not be able to upvote. Not a big deal but that's how I see it.

I'm not attacking the merits of the answer. You have two sections titled shortest answer and short answer. Those should be the post. The long part that comes after, i.e., "How to better understand the rationale behind the January 10 2018 Memorandum?" can actually be different posts (plural), which then you can add the links to.

Discuss that final paragraph here: Should the locked heavily edited long answer be split?

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  • $\begingroup$ Well, again, I wasn't really trying to open a discussion on the merits of the answer in anyone's opinion. The truth is that the original question is much more complex than initially meets the eye and every bit of the answer is relevant to the question. It simply cannot be answered with a short paragraph or two. Anyone, behavior of author (e.g. frequent editing) does not bear on merits of answer and it doesn't seem right that those who may have a different opinion than you have addressed here should not be able to upvote. Not a big deal but that's how I see it. Thanks for testing w/ upvote. $\endgroup$ Oct 11, 2018 at 22:23
  • $\begingroup$ Hey at least they won't be able to downvote it either. $\endgroup$ Oct 11, 2018 at 22:27
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    $\begingroup$ @quietflyer That's totally fine to have a long post. In those cases it can be helpful to draft up the answer in Word or something until it's ready to post. Formatting like headings can also help to make long posts easier to read. $\endgroup$
    – fooot
    Oct 11, 2018 at 22:27
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    $\begingroup$ @quietflyer - After 80 edits you didn't receive a single downvote, we're not heartless here ;) $\endgroup$
    – user14897
    Oct 11, 2018 at 22:28
  • $\begingroup$ So are locks ever permanent or what? Hey I do have headings, that was one of the edits. Look I'm going under the presumption here that a) the lock is only temporary and b) under no circumstances will the answer be deleted based on something other than the actual merit of the content of the answer, not the history of how it was created. If those are not true then I will want to discuss this some more. $\endgroup$ Oct 11, 2018 at 22:32
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    $\begingroup$ @quietflyer - The banner on the locked post says to come here to sort it out, that's why I brought up the specific post, otherwise it's pointless. My suggestion is wait for a moderator to reply to your comment. Take my answer as a third-party's approval of the post being locked for now. Again, I don't mean to come across as harsh, not one bit. But I think a third-party's input is usually a tie-breaker in those situations. Edit your question above about your intentions with the post if it were to be unlocked after reading my answer. $\endgroup$
    – user14897
    Oct 11, 2018 at 22:41
  • $\begingroup$ @quietflyer - see update above please. $\endgroup$
    – user14897
    Oct 12, 2018 at 0:08
  • $\begingroup$ You mean each heading a totally separate question? Seems to me that that would really take away from the coherence. Do I have any reason to think that the reason the post was locked had anything to do with length? I assumed it had to do with frequent editing. It's odd to have to guess. $\endgroup$ Oct 12, 2018 at 0:09
  • $\begingroup$ @quietflyer - questions. Each sub-heading. But not at once, spread them out over days even. This of course would require deleting the long section, of course you'll save it somewhere, and you decide how best they should be broken down. Take your time with it offline is my personal advice. $\endgroup$
    – user14897
    Oct 12, 2018 at 0:11
  • $\begingroup$ @quietflyer - the edits are a side effect of its length. $\endgroup$
    – user14897
    Oct 12, 2018 at 0:11
  • $\begingroup$ I don't know how all this works really. Is it all up to moderators? Are you a moderator? I'm thinking over your suggestions but not quite sure what to think about them right now. If I just do nothing does it just stay up there, locked, or what? $\endgroup$ Oct 12, 2018 at 0:13
  • $\begingroup$ @quietflyer - Its lock status is beyond me, you've asked a different question regarding that, wait for an answer there. My suggestion here is just an idea you can mull over. Let's wait and see what others have to say on both topics: lock, and split -- I'm not a moderator. $\endgroup$
    – user14897
    Oct 12, 2018 at 0:19
  • $\begingroup$ In all seriousness if I were to say my intention was to break it up into sections and post each section one week apart wouldn't someone tend to think I was just trolling for more possibilities for upvotes? Until I have definite indication that that is what is wanted I am very hesitant to do that. BTW this question isn't even tagged for "moderators" so they probably aren't even seeing this discussion. $\endgroup$ Oct 12, 2018 at 0:21
  • $\begingroup$ @quietflyer - aviation.meta.stackexchange.com/q/3668/14897 $\endgroup$
    – user14897
    Oct 12, 2018 at 0:28

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