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We have discussed the problems with the "suggested edits" review queue for a while here.

Some people make extremely minor edits in quick succession.
Often it is people who make the same style of edit to a lot of posts - add or remove one specific tag to a question, only removing "Thank you" from posts, or only removing a specific keyword from the title.
Unfortunately, these extremely minor edits are often approved. The people who make these edit suggestions are then rewarded with +2 rep, and the serial approvers are closer to a badge. And since the edits were approved, the "edit ban" does not kick in.

I suggest that we do not allow people to suggest edits to different posts within 5 minutes.
This should discourage "serial minor edits", while encouraging people to take some time making proper edits.

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    My worry would be the "power goes to head" scenario when the user hits 2k. They not only get the ability to edit freely but are no longer rate-limited either. Nov 7, 2012 at 12:24
  • @Ben Is this an acutal problem? Do users abuse this behaviour in the way you describe?
    – user177964
    Nov 7, 2012 at 12:26
  • see: An alert to serial minor edits. Also note user can be banned from suggesting edits if responsible reviewers reject a couple of their invalid suggestions
    – gnat
    Nov 7, 2012 at 12:42
  • @gnat Regarding the second part, the key word is indeed "responsible". My impression is that there are not enough rejections of extremely minor edits. Nov 7, 2012 at 12:45
  • I think the the way to deal with brainless reviewers is to make reviews flaggable
    – gnat
    Nov 7, 2012 at 12:49
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    @gnat I like that one! But the comment thread points out some of the practical problems. Also, as pointed out elsewhere on that page: who should review the reviewers? Nov 7, 2012 at 13:02

1 Answer 1

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add or remove one specific tag to a question, only removing "Thank you" from posts, or only removing a specific keyword from the title.

I don't think that what you mention are minor edits that should be discouraged. One could argue if they are worth reputation and badges. But what are +2 reputation and a bronze badge? Not much.

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    I don't mind a +2 for a single, very minor edit. The problem I want to address is people doing the same extremely minor edit suggestion many times, gaining "+2 times many". While helping the serial approvers to get their Reviewer and Steward badges. Nov 7, 2012 at 12:22
  • Getting the silver and gold badges is already limited by the maximum of 20 such review task per day.
    – user177964
    Nov 7, 2012 at 12:24
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    While I think the "20 reviews/day" limit is good, my impression is that it has not discouraged the "serial approvers" enough yet. I still see too many sugggested edits being rubber-stamped. YMMV. Nov 7, 2012 at 12:32
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    The 20 reviews/day limit has also made us "serial rejecters" review fewer posts per day. Not sure if that is an overall improvement.
    – Bo Persson
    Nov 7, 2012 at 16:49

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