On the relatively rare occasions that this happens, it's usually fairly obvious to the reader that it has happened.

If the changes to the parent are drastic enough and mess up reply context badly, the original content of the node can be and sometimes is restored by the janitors.

IMHO, the best thing to do is to probably to update your reply to the effect that the OP of the parent has changed their node, and if the changes are really drastic, consider for restoration of original content.

Update: As wfsp just pointed out to me, these actions are dependent on noticing that changes have been made. FWIW I think the key point is that we as PM users shouldn't change nodes drastically without making it clear that changes have been made - perhaps with an "Update" marker like this one. That doesn't stop new users doing it, but gradually people get to know the conventions.

(for my part, I consider this another reason to be light handed with the downvotes).

--------------------------------------------------------------

"If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating another human being as a thing."
John Brunner, "The Shockwave Rider".


In reply to Re: Marking replies to updated nodes by g0n
in thread Marking replies to updated nodes by sfink

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.