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This user has made multiple edits recently where he adds Thanks in advance to the end.

I know this is wrong to do because it puts words in the user's mouth and we are not supposed to say "thanks" or make a signature.

The issue is that the edits are substantial, minus the ending, so most of the edits are being approved. If they are not improved to remove the line during review, I will go back and remove it myself.

I know this is a pattern, and it will continue until the user gets the message that it won't be allowed.

I want to take action to make this stop, or know of a good way to inform the user of this.

My first thought is to flag for moderator attention, but as far as I know, you can't flag a user or a suggested edit, and flagging a question sounds like you are flagging the content of the question.

I have added a message in one of my rejects to say "don't do this", but who knows if it will reach him. I could make a @reply on one of his edited post, but from what I can see, he has not engaged in any and that would be adding clutter in the comments.

Some examples:
Accepted edits: one, two, three
Rejected edits: one, two

So, what should we do?
(thanks in advance)

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14
  • 1
    Wouldn't this be a good usecase for the improve button?
    – nikolas
    Sep 24, 2013 at 16:32
  • @nijansen, yes, but I feel this is treating the symptoms rather than the cancer.
    – gunr2171
    Sep 24, 2013 at 16:33
  • I'd strongly disagree. I think it's far more important to improve reviewing behavior than editing behavior - the editors will notice if many of their suggested edits are rejected, or need to be improved.
    – nikolas
    Sep 24, 2013 at 16:34
  • @nijansen, so a possible solution could be audits in suggest edits that are more than just "vandalism". This would slowly educate reviewers to this type of behavior. (although as previously seen, might be hard to setup).
    – gunr2171
    Sep 24, 2013 at 16:37
  • Improve the post and leave a comment for the editor that such phrases are unnecessary. That's it.
    – juergen d
    Sep 24, 2013 at 16:37
  • I find it ironic how you end in 'thanks in advance'
    – Josh Crozier
    Sep 24, 2013 at 17:03
  • 4
    Somebody beat his ass. Thanks in advance.
    – user1228
    Sep 24, 2013 at 17:23
  • @Won't, I'm not sure how I should respond to that. And the end of my post was intentionally ironic.
    – gunr2171
    Sep 24, 2013 at 17:25
  • @gunr2171: Enthusiastically, I would hope!
    – user1228
    Sep 24, 2013 at 17:29
  • 4
    What I usually do - Improve -> untick Suggested edit was helpful (in this case the edit gets rejected, but the changes remain). But I agree that one should be able to do something more to prevent the user from doing it all the time, such as an edit flag.
    – Bernhard Barker
    Sep 24, 2013 at 17:34
  • possible duplicate of Is there a penalty for one's edit suggestion being rejected?
    – gnat
    Sep 24, 2013 at 18:54
  • "audits in suggest edits that are more than just 'vandalism'" <- This, this, a thousand times this. For so many reasons.
    – Esoteric Screen Name
    Sep 24, 2013 at 18:55
  • 1
    @gnat, I don't agree with your possible duplicate because, for the most part, the edits are being accepted.
    – gunr2171
    Sep 24, 2013 at 19:12
  • @gunr2171 oh that part of your question is easy. When you spot bad approver(s), flag the abused post for mod attention, as explained here. Mods will check their history closer (that is, if the approval is indeed harmful) and suspend if necessary, as explained here
    – gnat
    Sep 24, 2013 at 19:21

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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You can @ reply the editor on any of the posts where it was approved. Though you won't get auto complete, the editor will get a red notification of the comment. See my answer to Gaming the edit system with tiny edits? - this has worked for me and continues to work for me, though not with every misguided editor, I will concede.

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  • 1
    While both of these answers are correct in their own way, I will accept this one because I (forgot that I) have done this trick in the past to another one-time edit with good success. This answer is more of a "strong unofficial warning", where Alex's is calling out the big guns. So for now I will use this solution, and if I see it continue, I will use the other method.
    – gunr2171
    Sep 25, 2013 at 13:17
  • I agree, makes sense.
    – Aleš
    Sep 25, 2013 at 18:05
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You should "flag the edit" so that it gets the moderator attention. Since, you cannot directly flag an edit, you should flag the post, select Other and explain the problem in the Text box. Moderators recommended this solution in several cases similar to this one.

The moderator should warn the user about those kinds of edits. If this does not help, the user should be banned for a period of time for creating such edits.

I do not understand why these edits are approved, they should be rejected as Minor Edit.

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  • Could you explain what you mean by flag the edit?
    – gunr2171
    Sep 24, 2013 at 18:54
  • You can't flag an edit. Do you mean the edited post? The question also states that the edits are substantial, i.e., they are not too minor and presumably otherwise appropriate.
    – Esoteric Screen Name
    Sep 24, 2013 at 18:54
  • No, you cannot flag an edit but you can flag the post, select Other and explain in the Text box what is the problem. Moderators recommended me this in several cases similar to this one.
    – Aleš
    Sep 24, 2013 at 20:05
  • I have updated the answer
    – Aleš
    Sep 24, 2013 at 20:07

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