20

I looked at the edit queue and saw the following set of edits all from the same user changing "alot" to "a lot", with no other value-add to the post:

This is obviously a pedantic edit, one that doesn't add much value; what should we do with these edits? It's a correct edit, but the rule of thumb has been that pedantry should sit aside unless there's enough change to be made so that some other value is realized while that type of edit is being made...

Improve this question
9
  • 14
    This might have something to do with it.
    – fretje
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 12:27
  • 3
    Irritating indeed - maybe it's worth adding a feature that block edits of users whose suggested edits were rejected X times in a row? It will reduce those things drastically.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 12:52
  • Suggestion: Allow N (3?) rejected edits a day like this: When suggesting an edit, decrement the counter. When an edit is accepted, increment the counter. Do nothing for rejected edits. This rate-limits edit suggestions and thwarts poor editors.
    – moinudin
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 13:05
  • I know its annoying.. since I myself suggest edits with my rep. However What I do is keep away from trivial edits since 2K'ers will get to them, but think about the other, more gross, spelling mistakes. Not only does it look annoying but imagine how easy/difficult it would be to search a question title hlp wth the fb logn
    – gideon
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 13:12
  • Maybe you can notify <2K'ers they should not suggest trivial edits...
    – gideon
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 13:14
  • 1
    @ShadowWizard: Yet another rule, just because of some random abuse. Is this problem common enough to justify this proposed change?
    – tshepang
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 13:41
  • 1
    @Tsh it's not random, big part of the suggested edits I see are minor. I don't see a lot so can't say its reflects the real situation though. I tend to either reject them or Improve them, making a "real" edit instead. I'm sure there's some query that can help us though?
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 13:54
  • 1
    This is really the same question as I asked a few days ago: Should tiny edits be accepted or rejected in review?
    – ire_and_curses
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 16:50
  • See also: Typo edits in the title: to approve, or not to approve?. (Short answer: approve, because they aid in searchability.
    – user2428118
    Commented Oct 9, 2012 at 14:03

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
25

Personally, I would have rejected thelot of these edits. I hope our 10k users start doing this as well for cases that are clearly not going far enough.

Perhaps if there was only one, I would be fine with it. But there is a clear pattern here that is disrespectful to the 10k users time.

I see you did reject, that is good. If enough people rejected the edits, the user would have been banned from suggested edits for a week.

There is a cost to approving edits, attention is not free.

Improve this answer
11
  • 7
    Unfortunately there are soft touches who think any edit is a good edit
    – random
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 12:38
  • 3
    @random I think we need more edit wars.
    – alex
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 13:46
  • We need to suspend Rich "Obnoxious mini edits" B's account, and give him 5 <1k accounts instead. That'll produce some entertainment
    – Pekka
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 14:01
  • 2
    How are these edits even possible? Doesn't the six-character minimum apply to question titles?
    – mmyers
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 15:36
  • I think this should be made much more explicit, as a guideline on the review page itself.
    – ire_and_curses
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 16:52
  • @alex: No! You're wrong! We need more comment wars!
    – sbi
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 20:19
  • @sbi: No, edit wars!
    – mmyers
    Commented Mar 17, 2011 at 22:07
  • 1
    @sbi: War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin'!
    – alex
    Commented Mar 18, 2011 at 6:03
  • 1
    @mmyers we are a bit more lax with title edits, cause a typo in a title is really annoying
    – waffles
    Commented Mar 18, 2011 at 6:10
  • @mmyers: No, comment wars!
    – sbi
    Commented Mar 18, 2011 at 7:50
  • @waffles, what about meta.stackexchange.com/questions/83441/…? Did the limit get triggered because he also changed a character in the body?
    – mmyers
    Commented Mar 18, 2011 at 13:13
9

If this was a normal edit, I would not be as bothered by it since, it truly is a correction (even though it is ultra-small). However, since this is a suggested edit and the user is doing it over and over, in my opinion it does warrant a "could you please cut that out" type of note to the user.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .