Is replacing the entire question with a different one appropriate?
There have been at least two cases recently of the contents of a question post on the site being completely replaced to ask a seemingly entirely different question.
It's certainly possible that there are other examples, but these two are currently right near the top of the Q&A category's questions list, and thus seem reasonable to use as examples.
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How would you vaticinate to subtract from both sides of $w_k = pw_{k + 1} + qw_{k - 1}$? used to be What did I bungle in calculating $P(D|+)$ with the Odds form of Bayes's Theorem?
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If Alice must've have classes on at least 2 days, why do you need the intersection of 3 $A_i^C$'s? used to be Please de-mystify André Nicolas's story proof of $\sum_{k=0}^{n} \frac{\binom{2n-k}{n}}{2^{2n-k}}=1$?
Now, neither question seems to have had any answers, but still...
Are such edits considered appropriate on Mathematics Codidact? And especially if they are not, then how should they be dealt with?
2 answers
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I think for the whole network, no such thing is supposed to be allowed.
You make a question, then edit it if you think something in place looks wrong, or you made a typo. Just let it be that way, the same question.
Then, in some scenario, either the post got deleted then undeleted, or maybe closed and you want it reopened. What do you do? Figure out the problem and if the whole thing doesn't fit well for the site, just give up and move one from it. However, some would simply make an entirely new question, and with or without interactions, it's a complete wreck.
I experienced this myself when I completely changed the question Somewhere Else, then was told not to do it again. It's better to let the question be and create a new one for a different question.
With that conclusion, what do we do with those who does such things?
We let them know that it's wrong to do such edits and that they should make a new question instead. Since Codidact doesn't have a day-long or more limit to posting questions after closing, they're free to make one.
No, this is not appropriate. If someone no longer wishes to keep their unanswered question on the site, they can delete it. If someone wishes to ask a new question, they can do so as a new question.
The only reasons I can see for not behaving straightforwardly are (i) some idea that it's more ecological to reuse question IDs; (ii) some attempt to circumvent restrictions on how many questions you delete or create. I have serious reservations about (i), and in particular I suspect that the extra hassle caused by the confusion would use more electricity and disk space than doing things the simple way; and if (ii) is the case then it should prompt people to take more care when posing questions, not to try to circumvent restrictions.
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