Question: Recently I received some **very** negative feedback after editing [a question](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/64777/what-would-happen-if-a-bacterium-hijacked-human-gender-determination) (see comments and edit history). To me, parts of the question were unstructured, and needed clarification, but to the asker, they made sense.

I edited what I thought needed clarifying, and the OP told me my edits read terribly, made poor word choices, and were too hard for them to find a way to fix. I was told I did a sloppy job, and they said they were "really offended" by the changes I made.

I asked specifically what I did wrong, and while they did not reply, they have been active on the site since then. Clearly I did *something*, and I would like to avoid doing that something again, but I do not know what that is. For such an astoundingly negative response I expect a genuine reason for the OP to be upset, but it is not clear to me why.

---

Is there a genuine reason to respond to an edit in such an overwhelmingly negative way; did I really do something "offensive" that is clear to others but not to me?

What should I do better if I am at fault so I don't receive such negative feedback in the future?

Answer: 
TL;DR: Unfortunately, you can't. Sorry. Some people will always dislike something.

Each question and answer on here is ultimately someone's baby. They may have just banged it out quickly without much thought or they may have conceived it with love and molded it into the exact perfect shape they desire. Whichever is the case, though, it's still their baby.

Some people will appreciate the help of others in raising their baby, helping to improve the clarity of communication, for example. Others will take it as a deep insult to their Q&A parenting skills if someone so much as tidies up a windswept semi-colon.

If people appreciate your help, then help them. If people don't (and especially if they are rude about it) then don't fret about it, move on and find people who do appreciate it. I assure you that the overwhelming reaction to helpful edits is gratitude.

In this specific case, I think the negative reaction came from the extent of your changes. The actual changes made look good to me and definitely improved the question. However, you just gave someone's baby a new hair cut and they took it personally, no matter that it was an improvement. The changes were too large for that particular OP to be happy with.

Some people don't want to be helped, some people are happy with a bit of help, others are comfortable with more extensive revisions. Unfortunately, it's hard to predict how people will react, so the main recommendation I can make is that your edits should change the question as little as possible while improving it as much as possible. A fine balancing act that's more art than science.
You asked:

> 
> What should I do better if I am at fault so I don't receive such negative feedback in the future?
> 
> 
> 

**Do better. Make fewer mistakes.**

First, only try to improve things where you are sure that you are making them better.

Second, try not to change an author's meaning. If you have trouble discerning the author's meaning, ask about it. Avoid editing based on a guess.

Third, carefully read your proposed edits. Check if you are creating any grammar errors while you "improve" someone else's post. If you break up a run-on sentence, pay attention to which subjects, verbs, and objects correspond to each other in the original sentence. Avoid accidentally creating new sentences that mis-match the subjects, verbs, and objects.

In this example, you added two grammar errors:

* You ended a sentence with "in a manner."
* There was a sentence that ended with "[not] caught early on." You changed the subject of this sentence from "a clerical error" to "data [that] will be published". This change significantly affected the meaning of the sentence.

Try not to put words in other people's mouths.

* In this example, you added the words "I assert".

Only add redundancy when necessary.

* In this example, you changed "had started" to "had initially started".

According to your profile:

> 
> I may be super disagreeable or argumentative but please don't take it personally!
>  I just like to support my answers, even if it sometimes means dragging everyone else's down verbally in the process.
> 
> 
> 

If you are "super disagreeable", expect people to "take it personally". Try not to be "super disagreeable".

Identify your mistakes. Be specific! (At least when talking to yourself.) Learn from your mistakes. Try to avoid making similar mistakes in the future.