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This question identified a grammatically incorrect phrase in the What does it mean when an answer is "accepted"? help center page. (Note: This particular page appears to be used across the stackexchange network. The problem is endemic.)

From what I can see, there's no edit button that lets one propose a change to a Help Center page. In fact, from what I can see, there's no feedback mechanism, period. My question isn't about that particular page. It's more generic:

Is there a mechanism by which mere mortals can suggest improvements to Help Center pages?

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  • $\begingroup$ Strictly speaking it's not grammatically incorrect though I agree it's misleading, especially for non-English speakers. I would replace may not by might not. $\endgroup$ – John Rennie Jul 3 '16 at 15:22
  • $\begingroup$ @JohnRennie -- I would replace may not change with might not have been changed to change the tense from present to past perfect and to denote a possibility that might or might not have happened. May not change means one is not allowed to do so, ever. Since that isn't the intent, the phrase is incorrect. $\endgroup$ – David Hammen Jul 3 '16 at 15:37
  • $\begingroup$ @JohnRennie -- Strictly speaking, you are correct: The phrase is indeed grammatically correct. However, since may not change conveys the exact opposite of the intended meaning, I'll stick with my usage of "grammatically incorrect". Simply substituting might for may would make the phrase grammatically incorrect. To yield the intended meaning, the tense needs to be recast from future to past, preferably past perfect. $\endgroup$ – David Hammen Jul 3 '16 at 15:51
  • $\begingroup$ So we agree ... at least, I think so :-) $\endgroup$ – John Rennie Jul 3 '16 at 16:15
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Your best bet is probably the "contact us" link in the footer, which sends a message directly to the people at Stack Exchange.

You can also ask a moderator about it in chat, and we can pass on the message for you, but that's less direct.

Or, you could make a post on mother meta, where it will benefit from the attention of the entire SE network - at least, those who care enough to check in on that site. If the post gets enough support, it will (again) come to the attention of the SE team and perhaps they will fix it. This is probably better for contentious changes or those that might need some discussion to figure out the correct course of action.

With a couple small exceptions, mods don't have the ability to edit the help center ourselves. It's standardized across all sites and has to be done at the "top level".

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  • $\begingroup$ So you yourself are a "mere mortal" with regard to the help center pages. I guess I'm be contacting them. $\endgroup$ – David Hammen Jul 3 '16 at 16:02
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    $\begingroup$ I contacted the Stack Overflow Team with a suggested a rewording, and it has been accepted (and applied). Thanks, @DavidZ. $\endgroup$ – David Hammen Jul 5 '16 at 16:11
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    $\begingroup$ Cool, good to know. They're usually pretty responsive on things that are major issues. I don't think you were the first one to complain about this particular problem. $\endgroup$ – David Z♦ Jul 5 '16 at 16:56

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