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Okay, so I have the approve tag wiki edits privilege, which gives me access to the suggested edits queue. I can approve and reject tag wiki edits by myself, but when I decide to edit a tag wiki, it still has to go through the queue, where it's judged by someone else.

I realize editing tag wikis without approval is a 20k privilege, but is there a reason for this? Seems kind of odd that I'm trusted with deciding the fate of tag wikis, regardless of my score in that tag, unless I wrote them myself.

I mean, if I really wanted to push a tag wiki edit past the approval process, I could theoretically just do so. According to the privilege page, anyone can suggest them, so all I'd have to do is:

  1. Create sockpuppet
  2. Suggest tag wiki edit
  3. Approve it on main account
  4. Victory

(Also note that I'm specifically not talking about Stack Overflow, because you need 2 approvals there.)

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  • 4
    you forgot step 5 ... get yourself banned for that kind of practice
    – waffles
    Oct 3, 2011 at 22:48
  • @waffles well, that's sort of implied when one of the steps involves a sockpuppet :)
    – a cat
    Oct 4, 2011 at 6:44

2 Answers 2

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Seems kind of odd that I'm trusted with deciding the fate of tag wikis, regardless of my score in that tag, unless I wrote them myself.

Odd as it may be, this is by design. It means we know 2 people looked at the tag wiki before it entered the system. Sure ... one could cheat. Similarly there is plenty of other cheating people can do with sock puppets. In general we add a level of protection in our system for any patterns of abuse. If we notice the same IP address both suggested a wiki edit and approved it we could do all sorts of stuff.

Our assumption is that at 5k you are not malicious and are happy to participate in the system in the way we designed it.

At 20k you can edit tag wikis to your hearts content without needing a 3rd party to approve.

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  • That 2 sets of eyes thing makes sense. And the cheating's all theory, naturally. I have a feeling I wouldn't want to find out what "all sorts of stuff" means.
    – a cat
    Oct 4, 2011 at 6:54
  • 2
    Just to clarify, I did not intend to threaten you in any way, asking this question on meta is the last thing anyone who is "cheating the system" would do. Just wanted to clarify our thinking when it came to this. Also keep in mind, 5k now is a pretty cool reputation point to hit, you get access to the suggested edit queue which is big.
    – waffles
    Oct 4, 2011 at 7:09
  • Since this is both "odd" and "by design", it might be nice to clarify this in the description of the privileges themselves. To a newly-appointed wiki-edit-approver, this system appears to be buggy. Digging around in Meta, I see I'm not the only one who wasted several minutes trying to figure out why my new privilege was broken.
    – Tyler
    Dec 5, 2016 at 22:20
1

The privilege is approving tag wiki edits; if you were able to approve your own suggested edits, then you would be able to edit (even though it would be a two-step method) any tag wiki, which is a privilege only 20k users have.

Also notice that if you are not a 10k user, approving a tag wiki edit requires two different users (at least on Stack Overflow), which means you are not trusted enough to approve the suggested edit. Even on SE sites where only a user can approve a suggested edit on tag wiki, two users are still required to edit a tag wiki (except when the tag wiki is edited from who can edit the tag wiki): who proposes the edit, and who approves the edit. Still, you are not trusted enough to edit a tag wiki, which is what would happen if 5k users could approve their own suggested edits.

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  • Right, I'm aware of all that. But as I pointed out, I totally could approve my own suggestions. The current setup is like... well, imagine users could review suggested edits at 1k, and at 2k, they'd get the full editing privileges. Clearly, the system trusts me to know what belongs in a tag wiki -- why do I need someone else's approval?
    – a cat
    Oct 3, 2011 at 13:55
  • 2
    As a side note, these requirements are completely absurd for SE 2.0 sites. Oct 3, 2011 at 15:06
  • 2
    I think you're sort of missing the point. To address your edits: I can accept tag wiki edits while knowing jack about the subject. And that part about requiring two different users just isn't true.
    – a cat
    Oct 3, 2011 at 15:28
  • @lunboks I have voted to approve tag wiki edits on Stack Overflow, and the edit has never been approved with just my vote. It could be it doesn't always require two votes, but it doesn't always work with just a vote too.
    – apaderno
    Oct 3, 2011 at 15:44
  • @kiamlaluno Stack Overflow has special rules. No other SE site requires a consensus for suggested edits. That's why I said I am specifically not talking about Stack Overflow.
    – a cat
    Oct 3, 2011 at 15:52
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    than 100 upvote thing and 20 answer stuff is all legacy that is no longer looked at
    – waffles
    Oct 3, 2011 at 22:52

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