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This suggested edit was declined by the user who created the tag wiki excerpt, who doesn't yet have the reputation to be a trusted user. (The site is still in beta, and the reputation necessary to be a trusted user is 4000.)

screenshot

Should the user who first proposed a tag wiki, or a tag wiki excerpt be the one who can unilaterally decide about a proposed edit for a tag wiki?
The user who first proposed it isn't necessarily the one who knows if the tag's purpose can be better described with different words, nor does that user necessarily know if the tag has been lately used differently from how it was first used. Since a tag wiki is different from other posts, there should be an exception to the rule "the author of a post can unilaterally decide about any edits."

The paradox is then that the creator of a tag wiki still needs two users to approve their suggested edit. That's what happened in this case.

screenshot

The funny fact is that in the revisions for the tag wiki, or tag excerpt (as in the screenshot), the tag wiki/excerpt is said to be created from the Community user.

screenshot

This bug is still definitely present.

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  • 2
    Nice catch! You're right. The reason for this (I believe) is that a tag wiki is kinda dealt with like a normal CW post. The author seems to have control he shouldn't have over it.
    – Madara's Ghost
    Commented Feb 24, 2013 at 20:40
  • 2
    This being Meta, I'm still assuming that an upvote for this question does NOT mean "Yes, that first user should decide".
    – Arjan
    Commented Feb 24, 2013 at 20:42
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    I'd call that a bug. They should just make Community the owner of all tag wikis and their excerpts.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Feb 24, 2013 at 20:43
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    @Arjan Since it is a support question, I would think an up-vote means "good catch!" :)
    – avpaderno
    Commented Feb 24, 2013 at 20:45
  • As an aside: are you sure your suggestion came through correctly? Your revision comment says "added example questions", but the review doesn't show that? (It is shown here though.)
    – Arjan
    Commented Feb 24, 2013 at 20:48
  • @Arjan I edited the excerpt, and the tag wiki at the same time. There isn't a way to provide a separate description for each of the edits.
    – avpaderno
    Commented Feb 24, 2013 at 20:49
  • @MadaraUchiha Surely, changing the author of a tag wiki from the Community user to the user who first suggests the edit for a tag wiki influenced things.
    – avpaderno
    Commented Feb 24, 2013 at 20:52
  • @animuson That is how it worked before; then things have been changed.
    – avpaderno
    Commented Feb 24, 2013 at 20:53
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    @kiamlaluno Maybe this could be turned into a feature request to change this behavior?
    – user200500
    Commented Feb 24, 2013 at 22:19
  • @Asad I am not sure if this should be considered a bug. If the user who created the tag wiki is allowed to reject/approve suggested edits alone, then the same user should not need to suggest edits for the same tag wiki.
    – avpaderno
    Commented Feb 24, 2013 at 22:27
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    @kiamlaluno It's clearly a bug. Just because one particular user created the first revision of the tag wiki shouldn't give them any special privileges on it. It's a strange bug since in the revision history, Community always creates the first, empty revision.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 20:05

1 Answer 1

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From some snooping around, this bug only happens if the first editor of the tag wiki submitted a binding edit to make the wiki (or excerpt), not a suggested edit.

As suggested edits are based on diffs, and you can't by definition have a diff if there is no prior revision, when a user without enough privileges submits a tag wiki or excerpt proposal, the Community user will step in and create a blank wiki or excerpt so that there is a diff. This seems like an ad-hoc fix to allow for suggested edits to nonexistent tag wikis. (This does have other consequences, such as the tag being exempt from automatic 6-month removal for being used on only a single question even if the edit is rejected, but those are irrelevant here.)

Since binding edits do not require diffs (otherwise post creation wouldn't be allowed), this doesn't happen for binding edits: the first user to submit the wiki or excerpt proposal will be the owner of the first revision.

Note that the bug can also apply to the wiki/excerpt if a binding editor submits the first excerpt/wiki (the opposite of the former): since wiki and excerpt edits have to be submitted simultaneously, if a binding editor fills in one field but not the other, a blank other one will be created by them once they submit. They will then "own" that other thing for the purpose of suggested edits. (This doesn't apply for suggested edits, but only because the system silently ignores errors like "this post is too short" or "this post is blank" on submission, if the other passes through as valid. This seems like another ad-hoc fix, because the Community user still creates the blank other one in this case.)

(Thankfully, this bug doesn't apply on suggested edit overrides, as there is an explicit rule in the system that only moderators can override tag wiki or excerpt edits.)

The easiest way to fix this is to create a blank wiki or excerpt by the Community user even on binding edits, not only suggested ones.

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