Arbitrary editing of question

Question

I'd like to complain of the arbitrary editing of questions on this site.

My question was edited and the editor removed 75 % of the question. The information was important for letting the reader know in which direction I'm thinking. It's background information which doesn't annoy anyone or keeps the reader away of understanding the question. The privilege to edit questions implies that the editor respects the author's intentions.

In addition the editor removed two of three flags. The flags were "skyrim" "pc" and "the-elder-scrolls". The flags pc and the-elder-scrolls were removed. But why? Skyrim is part of The Elder Scrolls series so there's no need to remove that flag.
I'm playing the game on PC which is insofar important as the reader might like to know whether I'm able to use console commands or not.
It's a question about what to do with all the money you make.

I was always very content with the collaboration of users on this platform but this arbitrariness is not acceptable. I don't want to cry around because it only happened once. But I think it's not an acceptable behavior.

Answer 1

For what its worth two different people edited the question, it was not the same person who removed all the mid-range content of the question that also removed the tags. I posted to your comment on your question about the tags being removed but a recap real quick is that while you are playing on the PC the question and answer can apply to all versions of Skyrim. Anyone playing on the PS3 or 360 could find the information useful so there is no reason to add a platform specific tag to the question. As for the elder scrolls tag, in general the series wide tags are for questions that pertain to the whole series. While skyrim is part of the elder scrolls your question is specifically for uses for the money within Skyrim (Being told you can gamble for large prizes in Oblivion for example would not be useful).

As to the editing I am torn at this.. I think at the heart of your question is that now you are at the end game, you have a house and most other well known things for spending your money on you are simply looking if there is anything else. To my knowledge the answer is simply no. Now with that in mind the rest of the stuff that was in your question was possible guesses/hopes at different answers. While you are allowed to answer your own question these suggestions are not definitive (If they were I am pretty sure you would have just answered your own question :)). In either case though, while I did find the rest of the material showed you put some more thought into the question than just 'What can I do with this money after I bought X Y and Z'... but at the end of the day that is the meat of the question as far as I see it as well.

To sum up.. I stand by the decisions made by others to remove the tags. It opened the question up to all platforms with no detriment to the original question thus making the question more useful. It also removed answers regarding the entire series thus limiting the scope of answers to also be more useful.

As I said before I can go either way with the edits. I do not see the extra information as detracting as you said it is just extra information. The question is more simple with out it but chances are you are going to end up getting answers that you had already crossed off (You have a nicely outfitted house for example). I would have to say I would side with you that the question was indeed over edited as it opened it up to answers you are not seeking.

However.. As you also mention this is a single instance of an over edit.. They do happen though they do not happen that often as far as I am aware of them (I will admit I am not nearly as active as some people in the community). So while I can understand your desire to have the completeness of this question restored (and I would suggest you put back at least the list of things you have already accomplished with your money) I do not think there is a huge issue with arbitrary editing of questions as a whole on the site.

Remember that just because someone edited your question does not mean you can not roll the edits back or add in the pieces you feel were important. If edit wars happen then mods can step in or you can ping people in chat and get to the bottom of it.

Answer 2

Where to start?

Meta isn't for complaints really. It's for discussion, feature requests and questions about the site. This isn't a question or topic of discussion really, but a very localized case of your own issues coupled with some bit of misunderstanding of site practices and policies - asking about the policies rather than begrudging things that have happened is a better way to approach such a problem. In this case, asking in chat would have been a much quicker way to resolve your confusion about these practices. Regardless, as the editors didn't explicitly tell you what was going on with their changes and, as you seem to be new, this may have led to your confusion. I would always recommend doing some research into policies and practices before complaining, but I'll explain to you the reasoning I see behind those changes, hoping that it helps clear up some of the confusion.

Tags

I'll start here, since this is simpler to explain and less subjective.

Firstly, the "flags" as you call them are called tags (it even says it up a at the top of the site - I just checked) :P. Silliness aside and assuming you knew that, the tag changes were valid and in line with site tagging policy.

As addressed in this meta discussion, the proper usage of platform tags is for questions which are clearly about interactions with the platforms themselves. The tag description for the pc tag says "The PC tag pertains questions about PC-specific problems with a game, and the tuning of a PC configuration to best accomodate gaming." Your question does not relate to the PC in any way but relates solely to the gameplay and strategy as applied to one specific game. The platform provides no relevant information to your question. Admittedly, if console commands were of concern to this case (they aren't), the correct answer might include them and there is nothing in your question which precludes the inclusion of console commands.

Series tags are for questions that relate to the series. The tag description for the-elder-scrolls clearly states "Questions about Bethesda's award-winning "Elder Scrolls" series of games, either for questions that span multiple games, or for lore questions outside the scope of individual games." Another scope in which your question was not as your question was only about the one game and has nothing which extends beyond that one game.

Content

This is more subjective.

The site is meant to be useful to many users in the general public. I'm not sure what "cruft" is as the user who made the edit described the removed content, but much (not all) of the content removed did not contribute significantly to your question as it was and made it harder for those looking at your question to know what was being asked.

Your question is/was about what to do with the currency accumulated in the game. Knowing that you know how to accumulate currency and even how you go about it is not relevant to what you do with it. In fact, that you know how to get it is implied by the simple fact that you are asking what to do with it. If you did not know how to get money, knowing what to do with it would be of little help to you.

Mentions of how you know to spend your money are not out of place, but as they were, you went at length to no end or clear connection to your question. You might consider revising that content back in at the start of your question to briefly mention that bribes and housing are things which you can and have easily afforded. This could mitigate answers that might mention these things, without going on at length.

Discussing your theory of currency's purpose in online versus offline RPGs does not really inform your question in any way. I don't see how this point makes a point as simple as "I'm at the end of the game with loads of cash and no idea what it's for anymore" any clearer.

You already asked if there was anything really expensive. Asking twice is redundant and that's probably why the second asking was removed.