What is the best approach for editing a question that is flagged "needs more explanation"? If substantial additional information is required, it may become an entirely new answer. Is it better to overwrite the original answer, or provide a new one?
1 Answer
For me personally, I would try to keep as much of the original answer as possible, seeing as how "more explanation" had been requested, not "check[ing] for inaccuracy". That way, their level of contribution doesn't look unsubstantial.
If it really is a substantial contribution that would give you the majority of the credit/attribution, that would still ultimately help more people than not, no? Then I would say post a new answer if you feel like you want to leave the original answerer the majority of the credit, or if you want the original answerer to fix the flag on their own.
But, if they have not been active for a long time (say, months or years), they may not ever do the edit themselves. It doesn't necessarily mean they will never see what you did if you edit the answer, but it's a sign that someone should address the flag in some way.
Or, if you feel like you might accidentally hurt the other person's feelings or "steal" their answer, you could just @mention them and tell them in addition to your edit. Even if they don't see it for a long time, if they ever do see it, they still have an explanation as to why the edit happened.
Or perhaps, if you have encountered a similar situation before where the person was simply hostile to you for "stealing the credit", or editing one symbol in the answer (yes, this second one has happened to me), or what have you, then writing a new answer is generally more respectful, from what I can gather.
