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Unable to edit posts with pending edits

I came across a question tagged as Java when it should have been tagged as Javascript (a common mistake). When I went to edit the tags, I found that there was an edit suggestion enqueued containing the tag fix. So I cast an approve vote instead. It then took another 7-8 minutes for someone to cast the second required vote. So I have two questions:

  • If I have enough rep to unilaterally edit a post myself, why don't I have the power to unilaterally accept an edit suggestion?
  • Why when there is an edit suggestion enqueued do I lose the ability to make edits myself, until it is dealt with?

Both of these things work together to cause, in maybe 10% of cases, the edit process to become less effective. If the suggestion wouldn't have been made in this case, the tags would have been fixed by me 8 minutes before they were because somebody suggested it through the new system. This seems to be particularly noticable at slow times with few 10k+ posters online, where approval would come from people stumbling across the question and happening to notice the edit suggestion.

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    Looks like the second part has been "addressed" (unpopularly) with meta.stackexchange.com/questions/78065/…
    – Mark Peters
    Commented Feb 13, 2011 at 8:12
  • @Mark Jeff's answer explains the first part too
    – Michael Mrozek
    Commented Feb 13, 2011 at 8:32
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    Fair enough, then I'll just have to say the system's broken by design. An edit system introduced to get new people editing should not hinder my ability to edit as a 10k+ user. It makes absolutely no sense. There was very little discussion over that question/answer though; I'll retag this as discussion.
    – Mark Peters
    Commented Feb 13, 2011 at 8:34
  • @mark there are several million things that need editing on Stack Overflow at any given time. If you are temporarily blocked, might I humbly suggest you move on to one of those?
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Feb 14, 2011 at 5:10
  • In addition to the "official duplicate," see Jeff's answer to Abridged too far?
    – Pops
    Commented Feb 14, 2011 at 7:09
  • Further discussion was here: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/78799/…
    – Jonathon
    Commented Feb 14, 2011 at 15:59

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I had a similar question here a few weeks ago (that was voted positively but silently deleted?) bringing up the fact that I can't edit a question while pending edits take place.

If the goal of suggested edits is to allow:

  • increased participation by newer or lower-rep users (giving them a warm fuzzy feeling for helping out)
  • allow even better editing than already occurs (and editing by people who have the ability is very good in my opinion)

...then I would agree that it's currently a broken implementation.

I can't fix a post's formatting because an edit is pending even though normally I could take literally 10 or 20 seconds and be done with it. As it stands, the suggested-edits feature discourages me from taking the time to make an edit.

To fix it, either of the following would work:

  • users who have the privileges to make edits should be allowed to one-click approve or reject a change. This could be integrated with the edit versioning to not lose the suggested edit in case someone else wants to incorporate the suggested changes into the post.

or, my original suggestion in my deleted question:

  • allow users who have edit privileges to edit the suggested edit (in addition to allowing one-click approve/reject).
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  • there are several million things that need editing on Stack Overflow at any given time. If you are temporarily blocked, might I humbly suggest you move on to one of those?
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Feb 14, 2011 at 5:21
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    @Jeff: You're fundamentally missing how most of us edit. We don't go searching for things to edit, we edit as we are involved in a question. This isn't Wikipedia. When I get involved in a question, it could be for 10-20 minutes. I'm not here to be a janitor, but I will try to make things better if I'm invested in them. If I'm blocked by an edit suggestion, I'll probably just not do the useful edit I had in mind.
    – Mark Peters
    Commented Feb 14, 2011 at 14:49

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