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The author of this answer wrote "despatch" instead of "dispatch" several times, which is (being a non-native English speaker myself) an understandable mistake. It was corrected in an edit by ymb1.

The author then undid this correction (not by rolling back, but by editing every instance of "dispatch" back to "despatch"). I rolled this change back and left the following comment:

Please don't undo the spelling corrections. It is spelled dispatch, not despatch.

Unfortunately, the author repeated the previous editing back to "despatch" without replying to the comment.

What can we do to prevent such intentional harming of answers?

Of course I could roll back again, but this would just start an endless cycle.

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2 Answers 2

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When I made the edit I didn't realize (until now) that despatch is an alternative spelling.

So in this case, let it go.

In other cases, where there would be a wrong spelling, I have no idea! I couldn't find an answer on MSE.

Side note: tags are to be in American English, and the tag is already :)

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  • $\begingroup$ Oops, I had never read that before. I guess I should have read the dictionary page I linked :( $\endgroup$
    – Bianfable
    Commented Dec 1, 2019 at 20:30
  • $\begingroup$ @Bianfable: It's okay, you meant well :) IMO there's no need for the current comment linking here. $\endgroup$
    – user14897
    Commented Dec 1, 2019 at 20:36
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No comment on the right/wrong spelling, but to avoid a continual edit war flag the answer for mod attention with a custom message describing the problem, and if need be, we will lock the answer to stop further edits.

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    $\begingroup$ Note that locking an answer also disables pretty much everything else one can do with the answer, so it's very much an absolute last resort. $\endgroup$
    – Vikki
    Commented Dec 4, 2019 at 22:57
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    $\begingroup$ Exactly. The only suitable answer to an edit war is a mod flag explaining the situation. Whether the mods decide to attempt another rollback (with or without comment) first or immediately lock the question (or whatever other options there are), an edit war means it has escalated beyond the normal user. Moderator time. This is true everywhere on the network. $\endgroup$
    – Mast
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 20:42

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