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I created a tag wiki for today, which earned me 4 reputation points (2 for the wiki, 2 for the excerpt).

Looking back at my work, I noticed the word "whose" was missing in the sentence "A class member [whose] access specifier is public can be used by all other classes in the program", so I decided to correct this mistake.

Somewhat to my surprise, this netted me another +2 points when this edit was accepted.

I'm happy with that extra rep, but I feel it is not deserved. In fact, it opens a hole in the editing process: you can deliberately leave some errors, then come back and correct them later for bonus points.

You don't get points for editing your own posts; I don't think you should get points for editing the tag wikis you created yourself. I realize there is a difference in that edits to one's own posts are not reviewed, but it does close a loophole that could be exploited for unfair reputation gain.

I suggest that edits of a tag wiki or tag wiki excerpt created by oneself are given points only under two conditions:

  • The edit is substantial
  • There is a time period between the edits - like a few days or weeks, not a 5 minute "grace period".
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  1. You don't own a tag wiki. The community owns it. You are just the creator.

  2. An edit that just changes a letter or two in one mis-spelled word probably shouldn't be approved in the first place (it would qualify as "too minor"). The edit should only be applied (and therefore only result in rep) for a substantive edit.

  3. If a user makes an edit to, or creates, a tag wiki and it is full of errors clearly indicating that it will require a substantive edit right away then it probably shouldn't be approved in the first place. I know I wouldn't approve a tag wiki that was full of lots of glaring errors.

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  • I understand the reasoning behind why single-spelling errors are considered insignificant, but I don't. In any case, six characters is required for a suggested edit, and I guess "whose " qualifies.
    – user102937
    Aug 8, 2012 at 15:44
  • Good points. You're right about point 1, I have edited the question to reflect this.
    – S.L. Barth
    Aug 8, 2012 at 15:45
  • 3
    An edit that fixes spelling or grammatical error, even minor ones, in a tag wiki should be approved. There are two reasons to reject minor edits: to educate editors that they're a waste of reviewers' time, and to avoid threads being bumped too often. Only the first reason applies to tag wikis, and given that tag wikis are (in theory) exposed more than individual questions, the threshold for fixing minor defects is lower.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Aug 8, 2012 at 16:48

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