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I've tried several times today to update this now completely out of date (and somewhat inappropriate) question:

Does each season of Game of Thrones roughly equal a book?

The question is asking whether the "current" first season of Game of Thrones will end at the end of the first book, and how will that continue in the future?

The accepted answer suggests that each season will equal one book -- something we now know for fact is not the case.

And yet every attempt I've made to update the question so that it's relevant for today has been rejected by the community. Clearly re-asking the question would only flag a duplicate, so what can be done for questions like this?

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I can see why your proposed edits were rejected. They were pretty drastic changes to the question, without significant improvements to the existing revision. The original:

At this point, the first season is not over so I do not know if this question can be answered already or not, but is the Game of Thrones television series planned out so each season roughly equals one book?

I am considering reading the first book after the TV show has finished depicting the events in the first book because I would rather not be spoiled when watching the TV show.

Your first suggested edit:

I was wondering, how does each season of Game of Thrones relate to each of the books? Is it one book per season? And do we know how it is planned to continue going forward?

(At this point I feel the series is going to overtake the books?)

Rejected twice for 'This edit changes too much in the original post; the original meaning or intent of the post would be lost.' Your second suggested edit:

Does the Game of Thrones TV show have each season roughly equal one book?

Was also rejected for the same reason.

Source: review 1 and review 2.

Essentially the issue here is that you're changing a great deal of the content of the question, without really improving it. The question does boil down to 'does each season map directly to one book?' But you're removing the important context that this question was asked before those later seasons existed. You're also removing the asker's reason for asking the question. In so doing, you're removing things that don't need to be removed, and you're not improving the quality of the question.

In addition to this, the question as asked, and the top-voted and accepted answer are not out of date. The answer says that the first 2 seasons will be, but the 3rd probably won't (and sure enough, did not) contain all of the 3rd book due to that book's length. This was posted in 2011, and is still current today. Your meta question here has a good question about questions/answer that end up changing over time, but this isn't a particularly good example of this.

For a good example of how we've handled it, I recommend looking at some of the Legend of Korra and Avatar: The Last Airbender questions about people bending multiple elements. Recent episodes provided new insight to these questions, and we got new answers and edits to existing answers to address the new information.

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  • I'm utterly confused by this. My edits distill the question to its best form for a Q&A site, while keeping the original question. At present, not only is the original question out of date, but it a) It's too specific to the person asking it ("I am considering reading the first book after the TV show has finished...") and b) Asking about future events which cannot be definitively answered. Changing the focus to the overall series is completely in keeping with the intention of the original question, but also changing it so that it's a better format for Q&A.
    – Django Reinhardt
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 17:31
  • @DjangoReinhardt Whoops, I meant to include a conclusion before the separator. Added that.
    – user1027
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 17:37
  • Questions on SE sites are not supposed to be captured in time. They're supposed to be updated and maintained. In this instance nothing is gained by keeping the question in the time in which it was asked, and actually the quality of the question (and answer) are reduced. Also, the reason the asker asked their question is irrelevant as it only pertains to them, not to future visitors. Therefore, removing both of these things improves the question.
    – Django Reinhardt
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 17:47
  • @DjangoReinhardt The community seems to disagree with you there. Questions that include context for why the asker is asking seem to do better.
    – user1027
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 17:56
  • One last try...
    – Django Reinhardt
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 18:07
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    @DjangoReinhardt "My edits distill the question to its best form for a Q&A site". The "best form" is subjective. You can't objectively state as fact that your edits put it in the best form. The question isn't too specific to the OP, because it is very easy to imagine other people saying "should I read the book first, or watch the whole first season first?" Regarding your point b): it is perfectly fine to ask what is planned. If the show deviates from the plan, it should be reflected in updated answers, not a rewritten question.
    – Beofett
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 18:07
  • @Beofett If someone asked "Does a Game of Thrones TV season equal one book of the series?" it would be immediately closed as a duplicate.
    – Django Reinhardt
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 18:08
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    @DjangoReinhardt Um... yes. Because that's exactly what the question you are trying to edit is asking. My point wasn't "lots of people are going to post new questions asking that". Rather, it was "other people may find that question useful in its current form", as a counter to your claim that it is "too specific to the OP".
    – Beofett
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 18:11
  • I understand what you're saying, and apparently context is valued, so I stand corrected on that. The point I'm making is that asking "Does a Game of Thrones TV season equal one book of the series?" will have answers that address the OP's question AND many, many others. Making the question timeless and less specific, and therefore more applicable to more people -- while still answering the original question.
    – Django Reinhardt
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 18:16
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    @DjangoReinhardt I don't see how the original version of the question isn't asking exactly that. The key part of the original question, once you eliminate context (and it sounds like we're all now on the same page that context is valuable), is "is the Game of Thrones television series planned out so each season roughly equals one book?". This wording is valid both for current seasons, and any that may be released later.
    – Beofett
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 18:37
  • Well it's all moot, because my edits have finally been accepted by the community. Instead of talking about the theoretical ending of a single season, it's now re-worded to be applicable to all past, present and future seasons.
    – Django Reinhardt
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 19:21

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