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Catalina and iOS 13 brought in a lot of new users and they try to be polite and helpful and write answers like:

I was having the same problem, my MacBook Pro, model xxxx, macOS xxxx was not doing this. I was having the exact problem as you but I am explaining it in a way that I think was unique to me. I am also posting some other symptoms of the same problem. What I did to solve it was change this setting, toggle that switch and reboot.

Hope it helps.

What are the editing suggestions for such answers? Should there be a threshold, like approximately gauging what part of the answer solves the problem and exceeding it warrants an edit?

I am aware of the thanks rule which should be done along with other improvements that build up to something. However I am split over the usefulness of the details, and the clutter they create.

Often I have left answers with a line break between details and solution while removing the hope. Is there a better way?

Sample answers:

Mac stuck in restart cycle after failed macOS Catalina update

Cannot turn Bluetooth off

Ipad Gmail links no longer open

Boot Camp Low Audio Level Through 3.5mm Audio Jack

How do I force a "Waiting" file to upload to iCloud?

MBP Touch bar control strip gone

This, however, feels like a good solution:

Time Machine Backup Failed

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  • Please add some links to specific cases. Commented Oct 14, 2019 at 4:12
  • As a general rule (not posted as an answer because I prefer to see the examples first): Answers should be answers, anything else might lead to discussions etc and should probably be carefully edited out. Commented Oct 14, 2019 at 4:14
  • Bad that I don't know how to use SEDE yet, or I would have put regex for " I have/had same issue/problem hope it/this helps". But I was able to find some using search. I couldn't find those with Mac models, but I have seen some for sure. Commented Oct 14, 2019 at 5:53

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Reset to default
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From looking at the links you've provided most of them are the usual set of rather low-quality answers in terms of problem analysis and reproducibility of the solution (basically they tried this and that and finally it worked again). Also most of the users posting the answer haven't revisited the site since, which means we probably should focus on improving the post if possible (and not so much on educating the user).

Basically the usual rules regarding low-quality answers apply:

  • edit for clarity
  • remove fluff (like things tried which didn't solve the problem)
  • look out for hidden "thank you" type answers which only say that the solution provided by another answer worked. Usually these should be deleted.
  • look out for spam answers (which usually are easy to identify because they are low on content and primarily link to a page selling a tool/application)

PS: I don't see a relation to Catalina or iOS 10.13 though, we get these kind of answers all the time.

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  • Ah, I think the number of NAA flags after the new release made me biased to think of Catalina, etc. I saw the edits you made and one deletion, too, which gives nice insight about how to edit (or flag). Also, I know that the answers I linked to, were not very illustrative of the exaggerated sample I wrote in the question but will keep an eye out. Commented Oct 14, 2019 at 19:37

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