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Some of my answers from several years ago make me cringe. They are badly formatted (except when some Good Samaritan edited them), and sometimes not very thoughtful. At least one is strange: why did I include a reference to keeping oranges fresh in my answer about what to do if confronted with Hyenas?

I hesitate to edit these answers because (a) it could become obsessive-compulsive, and, more importantly (b) it would bump the edited questions to the top of the queue, ahead of worthy new questions.

Advice?

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    Build a time machine, then go back in time and knock some sense into yourself :)
    – Charlie Brumbaugh
    Jun 27, 2018 at 19:06
  • @Charlie Brumbaugh If I built a time machine, I would tell myself only one thing: "Buy Berkshire Hathaway."
    – ab2
    Jun 27, 2018 at 19:22
  • I know what that's like, both with questions and answers. It's hard to know how to proceed. (I especially find them on my first SE site, where I'm surprised I haven't been chastised, or had other people edit them.) I agree with what Charlie and @Rory already said. I doubt you wrote enough answers that you consider awful to make a huge dent in the front page! Editing your old answers brings good questions to the front, and lets a new audience see them, which actually helps the site!
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Jun 28, 2018 at 23:23
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    Remember too that what you think was horrible might have been fine and you're being hard on yourself. Also, if you feel strange about bringing your own answer forward, which is what happens to me, you could always ping a regular in chat and ask them to make the edit. Just tell us what you'd like it to say!
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Jun 28, 2018 at 23:27

2 Answers 2

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There is a part of growing where you realize that your old writings where not as good as they could be, in programming you know that a project has truly become yours when you read code, go "WHAT MORON WROTE THIS?" and then realize it was you.

Realizing this is a good thing because it means,

  • You are getting better at writing.
  • You care enough to fix the mistakes.

Fixing old posts is always a good time so long as not too many posts are done at once.

If they are bad enough to bother you, I would suggest editing them so they don't bug you anymore.

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    Definitely agree with this. And as long as you aren't editing loads, the odd old post bump is not a problem at all.
    – Rory Alsop Mod
    Jun 28, 2018 at 6:57
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I have not been on outdoors.SE as long as some of you, so I missed a lot of the old stuff. I think I started reading posts here about a year or two ago. Point of view from one of the somewhat newer members...

I am usually a lurker around here. I read a lot, trying to gain more insight, here about others' problems so I can avoid them, or otherwise benefit from them.

I occasionally dig into the archives and read as much as I can, but there is likely still a lot to be seen. When people bring old posts into the foreground, sometimes it causes us newer folk to see some good posts that we would have missed.

In fact, if I recall correctly, at least one of my accepted answers was to an older question which I saw when it got bumped into the recent activity list. I was interested in the question, as it was something I had just recently been studying. I read it, thought I could provide some good information, and was surprised the next day when the question OP changed its accepted answer to my new one.

That would not have happened if the old question had not been brought to my attention.

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    Hi Aaron! I totally agree. In fact, I mentioned that in a comment to ab2. Old questions that come forward can be really helpful, and get more votes, and encourage people to add new answers to old questions, which can be great, like yours! I too go rooting through old posts to learn, and vote. If there are any useful edits I can make, I often do just to get them in front of a new audience, or give our "old-timers" a fresh look! I'm glad you expressed this to the OP here.
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Jul 6, 2018 at 3:45

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