I was just looking at this question: How much freedom should a programmer have in choosing a language and framework?
As I was reading the question, the very last line seemed sort of out-of-place and weirdly phrased for where it was, but I didn't think much of it. Then I was reading the comments and one read:
Please do not put monikers like "EDIT" in your posts. We already know the post was edited; a complete edit history of your question can be found here: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/posts/214639/revisions.
Apparently the last line of the question had originally been prefixed with "EDIT:", which was later removed. And in my opinion the line would have made more sense contextually as an explicit called-out edit.
But this example aside (it's honestly not the best example, just used it for the comment), I generally don't buy the argument that "EDIT:" should never be included in the post body. While I agree that sometimes "EDIT" can just be noise, this is not always the case.
An explicitly called out "EDIT:" has an editorial meaning. It's a stand-in for "ADDENDUM:" or "UPDATE:", and can help logically separate parts of the post by chronology or topicality. It adds value by making the structure of the post clearer. When used properly, it is not simply noise.
Secondly, it's a little misleading to say we "already know the post was edited". I, in fact, don't usually check to see if a post was edited when I'm reading it, and even if I do notice the "edited..." line, all that tells me is that it was edited, not how so. Knowing that it was edited it not the same as knowing how -- and I almost never look at the revision history. There's not usually a good reason to. Many edits don't even alter the post content in any substantial ways (just formatting/spelling/grammar fixes), and for those that do the edit is not usually relevant to the me, the reader.
Furthermore, I've seen "EDIT:" in many posts before seeing this, and I've even included it in some of my posts (a very small subset of my edits -- only those where it made sense to call it out explicitly), and this is the first time I've seen its usage admonished.
Is this a standard admonishment? Do you disagree with my reasoning above about why I think "EDIT:" isn't necessarily noise?