Getting some consensus about follow-up: How to

Question

The question has been asked several times on this site:

Follow Ups / Results

Providing Long-Term Updates?

Should we encourage follow up?

Can we provide follow-up to our questions? Yes, we can is the unanimous answer but what does not seem unanimous is the method of the update.

It is split between two methods: answering your question or editing your question.

Can we have some final consensus over this? I would very much like to provide updates to some of the questions I've asked and received help for but would like to do it in the appropriate way.

Should we edit the question or should we answer the question?

Answer 1

I think that this can be best handled by editing the question itself. However, we should provide formatting guidance as to how to do that. I think if the OP did something like:

---

UPDATE:
I tried @magerber's solution, and this happened. I tried @magerber2's solution and this is what happened. The most effective solution was @magerber3's solution, where this happened.

I think adding something to the bottom of the original question, with a full width line, and a heading like a bolded "UPDATE" would make it clear that this was not part of the original question that others were answering.

If the OP came up with their own solution, I think including that information in the form of an update is still useful--then later readers can see what worked for the OP and also the answers that others suggested.

BTW--I don't think the Update should actually be formatted as a block quote--I just wanted to make it clear what the content of the update might include. I think it should look more like what I did with this answer when I went back and added additional information.