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On SO when my rep was below 2,000, I would use the retag link. Retag is great because it's like a quick edit.

But now that I am over 2,000 I have full edit, not no retag link. So questions I come across don't need any edits, just the tags corrected. But now, to correct a tag, I need to change more than 6 characters.

Why cannot I have my retag link over 2,000?

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  • That's a very good point. Simple functionality replaced. – Rudie Apr 20 '11 at 14:22
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    I've been able to retag stuff using the edit button just fine...without making any other changes to the question. – eldarerathis Apr 20 '11 at 15:07
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    If you have over 2000 rep and had an edit with less than 6 character changes rejected, it's a bug. And even before 2000 rep, the rule is that you can change either 0 or ≥6 characters in the question body; you can always suggest or make a pure retag edit. – Gilles Apr 20 '11 at 23:09
  • @Shog9: Doesn't seem like a duplicate to me. That other question doesn't explain why the retag link disappears at 2000 rep, it only gives a user-side workaround. If I do think the default UI should be changed, should I post another feature-request question? – Gilles Apr 20 '11 at 23:52
  • @Gilles: fair enough. – Shog9♦ Apr 21 '11 at 0:31
  • An official reasoning in Why is inline tag editing not available with retag privileges? – Arjan May 3 '12 at 5:51
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When you hit 10K you get access to the super-secret "edit tags" link. Maybe that threshold should be dropped to 2000.

enter image description here

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  • +1: the super-secret "edit tags", that's funny. – Black Frog Apr 20 '11 at 14:26
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    To keep the super-secret link still secret, this answer will be destroyed in 20 seconds. (20, 19, 18, 17, 16…) – kiamlaluno Apr 20 '11 at 16:19
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    @kiamlaluno: I'm suing you, my display just cracked. – Mehrdad Apr 21 '11 at 0:31
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But now, to correct a tag, I need to change more than 6 characters.

I'm kind of baffled as to how this post can have 9 upvotes, but this is entirely untrue. The 6 character limit only applies to suggested edits -- now that you've hit 2k you can make unapproved edits, which have no character restriction. You can't get to the retag screen anymore, but there's no reason to; you have access to the full edit screen, and can choose to only use the tag section if you like. The retag page was a limitation, not a feature -- you didn't have the ability to edit the rest of the post yet (at least without approval)

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3

I seem to recall this is by design, to teach you to make edits. Then you have to use the heavyweight edit UI even when you genuinely only want to change tags.

When you get to 10000 rep, you get the retag link back (hidden, but in a conveniently placed location).

Since this state of things was decided, two things happened:

  • There are more and more SE sites, so more and more people already know how things work, thank you very much, already have the copy editor badge on another site, and don't want to go through UI hassles again.
  • Now anyone can suggest an edit from day 1, so all 2000 rep changes is that the edits are unsupervised. Editing is no longer a new feature you get at 2000 rep, so it no longer makes any sense to “teach” it.¹

Fortunately, this is a client-side UI annoyance, so it can be fixed with a browser script.

¹ Approving edits is a new feature, but one you won't discover unless you pay very close attention or until you reach 10k.

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