Moderator edits of user posts

Question

Granted, I'm new to the RPG section, but I'm a long-time member of Stack Exchange. Don't want to cause a fuss, just want to understand the ground rules.

I'm a little surprised that my opening post was edited by a mod. I've seen posts moved or held for a request to edit, but never a direct edit of my words. (and, frankly, it's a judgement call, not an error or falsehood.) That is unusual in my experience here.

What does "+1 forward" mean?

('long-winded' was altered to 'short-hand')

My use of terms may not be the preferred terminology, but is that cause for altering it without my knowledge or permission? That's literally putting words in my mouth.

Granted, in retrospect, I might have changed it myself - if my attention were drawn to it, but do I now have to periodically revisit all my posts to see if someone has changed what I said to something not what I said?

(Also, not sure if I need to post this question here publicly, or if there is a place for asking about edits in the 'edits' section.)

Answer 1

Edits happen frequently at RPG.SE without the necessity of asking permission or notifying the author. These edits should happen if clarity can be improved. In fact, the edit you're citing wasn't by a moderator (moderators have a diamond next to their username to identify them), just a regular concerned user. All users with edit permissions can engage in this communal improvement.

In this particular example, it's fairly clear what you meant, but "a long-winded way of saying" is (ironically) a wordier, less effective, more idiomatic, and possibly disparaging way of saying "a shorthand for saying." Your question will now be easier to read by non-native English speakers, more succinct, and free of possibly negative connotations that you probably didn't intend.

In the event that such an edit really does wreck your intent, you can rollback the edit or edit again, leaving an appropriate revision message to explain why you did so so that it doesn't happen again. However, don't expect your posts to be treated as if they are inviolable. Edits for improvement will happen on occasion, even in ways that you don't consider to be improvements. If it's that important to you then, yes, you'll have to revisit every post you make in perpetuity to see if they've been edited, in which case you won't enjoy RPG.SE's culture.

In this particular example, it looks like you prefer the word "obscure" retroactively. So, by all means, go edit that in. It's really, really unlikely somebody's going to get into an edit war with you on your own post, since that violates the intent of RPG.SE's conventions for communally improving content.

Basically, this is the system at RPG.SE working as intended: the edit called to your attention the fact that your wording could use improvement. Whether you stick with the improvement another user left or go with your own improvement, either way the post will have been improved.

Answer 2

If a post you created receives an edit (of at least ten characters text or two characters code) from another user, this edit will be notified to your inbox, just as if a user has commented or replied to you in chat.

There is no need to go back through all your posts and check for this. If it was edited, you get notified.

Examples to follow