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Why was a constructive edit denied?

I recently made an edit in the iPhone 5s Front Panel Assembly Replacement guide bringing more attention to the utmost care that must be taken when opening the device with a single suction cup. There is a cable in there which is extremely fragile, and the original opening instructions are vaguely described, meaning there is an extremely high chance of damaging the cable when following the guide.

Many people in the comments section have reported breaking the cable following the procedure, and the issue is compounded by the fact that even if the damaged part was replaced, Touch ID functionality would never be restored.

Logic says that the right thing to do would be to amend the instructions to warn future users, but the edit I provided was rejected with no reason provided.

Article history: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/history/183...

Edit: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/diff/step/1...

I'd really appreciate if anyone could shed some light on this.

Thanks!

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Hi there! First, thanks so much for chipping in and working to improve the guide. We see quite a lot of edits to iPhone guides and while we try to evaluate each one carefully, we could definitely do a better job explaining why certain edits are accepted or denied. In this case I was the one who denied the edit, so let me try to shed some light on the process, and maybe together we can come up with a good middle ground.

First, there were several components to the edit. The part that immediately caught my eye was the deletion of the caution bullet at the end of the step:

Block Image

Although the rest of the edit was well-written, I didn't see that particular warning re-incorporated anywhere in the revised step. When the original author's instructions get deleted, we're usually inclined to deny the edit unless the instruction is creatively re-incorporated somehow in a way that improves the guide (by making it more concise, more clear, or both).

Other parts of the edit were a bit trickier to evaluate, but I think we can probably include what you wanted in maybe a slightly different form. We definitely don't want vague instructions, ever! Can you elaborate on which part you feel is unclear? I didn't write these particular instructions, but after reviewing the step and the accompanying image, it doesn't seem vague to me—so maybe you could look at it with a fresh eye and tell us what we missed exactly. Certainly some folks have damaged their Touch ID cables, and we currently have warnings to that effect right at the top of this step, and in both of the following steps.

Keep in mind that this guide is being translated into half a dozen languages, and word choice is really critical. As Mark Twain once said, the difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug! So for example if you state that the suction cup is only used "to create minimal tension on the panel," rather than cracking the panel open slightly as described later in the step, we have a potential point of confusion to iron out before we finalize the edit.

Let me know your thoughts—and, sorry again for rolling back the edit without explanation! We really are grateful for any feedback.

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idmadj will be eternally grateful.