How do I deal with edits that fix very poor style

Question

I asked myself this when looking at the following question. I would like to focus on the writing style, not the fact that this is a "shopping recomendation" question and hence not appropriate:

I WANT ALTERNATE COMPONENT FOR THE LM2663

As can be seen, the original version was/is poorly written; All caps, starts with "I WANT", no structure through spacing/paragraphs.

Let us for a second assume that it is not in violation of the rules, and is a sensible question - it is just written (very) poorly.

A kind soul wants to fix this, rewriting the question without caps, and adding some spacing to make it readable. I was unsure if I should accept this edit, or more general, edits of this kind. If the question is re-written by someone else, people might start putting effort into writing good responses. Thus, the original poster gets answers to their question, but did not put any effort into the question in the first place, perhaps not realizing how vital this is.

How should I/we deal with this? Are there any guidelines?

Answer 1

You were right to consider the larger issues than just this one post.

No, I would not want a third party to fix such a mess. The OP's gross disrespect for internet customs, the rules, and the volunteers here is relevant information. By fixing something this obviously sloppy, you are depriving others of knowing the OP was thumbing his nose at them.

As you say, it is also bad to reward posters like that with the desired result. Why should they do any better next time if they got what they wanted this way? Even worse, it show others that it works too.

Anything this blatant should be closed and downvoted to oblivion, which is what happened eventually anyway, despite the cover-up edit. I didn't see this question originally, but just voted to delete it.

The system has a bad question detector, and bans a user from asking more questions after too many bad ones. The exact algorithm isn't disclosed, but this mechanism is less useful if others fix messes for a user that posts bad questions since fewer downvotes will accumulate.

Aside

I notice that both you and someone commenting on the original question were offended by a question starting with "I want". Personally, I don't see a problem with that. Asking here is almost by definition because you want something you don't have. That question was rude and a disaster for plenty of reasons, but that wasn't one of them.

Most questions come down to I want xxx, tried yyy, got zzz. Why is that? or How do I fix it?. There is nothing wrong with being direct, as long you are also clear and provide the relevant information.

Answer 2

I'm pretty new around here, so forgive me if I'm speaking out of place. I have acted as a moderator on other forums (totally different topics) and I had to teach myself to look and see where someone was posting from in these kinds of situations. Not the off topic questions, but what seem to be sloppily worded questions. Forums that operate internationally may attract people that do not speak English as a native language and they may have a hard time getting their question across clearly. That does not necessarily indicate a lack of effort or intelligence.