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Possible Duplicate:
What can we do to stop bad edits getting accepted?
If it is in italic, it must be pretty

Edits like this one: Com Add-In not showing up in Com Add-Ins window in Excel 2003 (revisions)

The edit adds nothing to the question, but just adds formatting tags around what appear to be completely arbitrary places.

Should we be encouraging this type of edit? While I understand that some formatting helps (line breaks, paragraph breaks, indenting code) the reason of Good question!!Just made it little flashy!!Thanks!! adds nothing.

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  • Just roll it back. I did that for you.
    – user102937
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 15:58
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    There have been lots of terrible edits of that sort. We're really not sure why people inline code random words
    – Zelda
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 15:59
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    ok.. but this user has gained 24 rep today from just doing these flashy edits.... someone is approving them :)
    – SeanC
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 15:59
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    New suspension reason: inline code applied to random words
    – Zelda
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 16:00
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    @BenBrocka Make that a feature request pretty please? ;)
    – Bart
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 16:02
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    stackoverflow.com/questions/11848905/…
    – user102937
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 16:03
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    I'm more disappointed in the folks who approved nine bad edits (and those who cast approval votes on the twelve rejected edits). We will always have bad editors, and we're supposed to have a system to protect the site from them.
    – Michael Petrotta
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 16:31
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    @Bart: "You can explicitly notify one (1) other commenter, editor, or ♦ moderator who closed a question" -- meta.stackexchange.com/q/43019
    – user102937
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 16:36
  • @RobertHarvey Thanks. Removed my comment because I just found that exact link. I was unaware of that.
    – Bart
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 16:37
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    Related: Reject an already-approved suggested edit when rolling it back and What can we do to stop bad edits getting accepted?
    – Arjan
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 17:12
  • I definitely agree that it adds nothing to the question.
    – JimmyPena
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 17:16
  • oh shoot! I rejected many of this guy's edits, I was furiously clicking "Approve" on the previous one and approved this by mistake. I wish there was a way to change the reviews' verdict. @Arjan, thanks for notifying me.
    – Adi
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 18:30
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    Related: Is there an actual "accept ALL the suggested edits" problem?
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 19:50
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    There was a user yesterday gunning for the Archaeologist badge, and proceeded to edit over 100 questions more than 2 years old by adding <!-- language: lang-js --> to all of the already-formatted code tags. They had enough reputation so that none of the edits needed approval.
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 20:43
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    I see exactly one suggestion that was actually helpful: stackoverflow.com/suggested-edits/343558 Nearly all of them have the description "Good question!!Just made it little flashy!!Thanks!!" Only seven of them were rejected. Urgh.
    – jscs
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 20:46

2 Answers 2

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That is a terrible edit, and it should have been rejected. Code markup is for - believe it or not - code, not for random highlighting of text fragments.

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  • and what if the user has enough reputation to edit without approval, but deems their minor edits necessary anyways? Just keep rolling them back?
    – LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 20:51
  • Rollback, @msg them, if they persist, take it to the mods, they have more authority educating users on correct editing than you or I.
    – Daniel Fischer
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 20:56
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In borderline cases, reject as invalid. In the severe cases where they just spray code formatting randomly, reject as vandalism. Repeat until their will is broken.

Remember that people who have too many suggestions rejected are banned from suggesting further edits for a week--Hope is not lost! (Although ideally, suggestion bans would get longer each time to get one.)

Now we just need to figure out what to do about people who approve bad edits.

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  • +1: I wish I could mark 2 answers as correct
    – SeanC
    Commented Aug 7, 2012 at 21:44

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