Questions tagged [edits]
For questions about the process of editing, how edits work, and other general inquiries about the edit system.
3,238
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Should 'Hi', 'thanks', taglines, and salutations be removed from posts?
I edit a lot of posts every day. I often run across posts with 'Hi' and 'Thanks' on the top and the bottom of the post respectively. I also run across things like:
--User
Should these items be ...
886
votes
21
answers
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Allow an edit to notify downvoters: "I think I've fixed the issue now - please check"
To me, a downvote usually indicates a problem with an answer. When I downvote it's to mark the answer as having a problem, not the person. If the answer is fixed, I want to remove that downvote - but ...
860
votes
21
answers
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Can we have the ability to retract a close vote before it closes?
Sometimes you vote to close something and the OP then changes it to fix the issue or issues. You can't take a close vote back though. It would be nice if you could.
With the new Duplicate close ...
422
votes
5
answers
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What is a 'rollback'?
What is a 'rollback' on Stack Exchange sites? I have seen this mentioned but I do not understand the term.
Please note: this question has been locked as it was used as a sandbox for performing ...
358
votes
6
answers
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Reject an already-approved suggested edit when rolling it back
The content of this post has been sanitized in response to anonymous feedback that the formatting was making it completely unreadable by assistive technology (AT). I strongly value making content ...
303
votes
38
answers
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How do we encourage edits to obsolete/out of date answers?
As the network ages and we have answers that are 7+ years old, we run into situations where changes in technology, etc. result in a once great answer becoming out-of-date, obsolete, or somewhat ...
219
votes
3
answers
9k
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What is the etiquette for modifying posts?
I'm getting pretty close to the reputation where I can start to edit others' posts, and I'm wondering what the etiquette for when (and when not) to do so.
I figure that I should edit in the following ...
209
votes
13
answers
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What is so bad about "Nancy"?
This question on MSO got a terrible edit war. The OP told a story with somebody called Nancy. For some reason, I don't know which, there was very some vital need to hide/obfuscate/censor the name or ...
175
votes
10
answers
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Make first draft of a new answer part of the permanent revision history
I find the grace period can lend itself to some unscrupulous behavior on popular tags. I've often seen an earlier, minimalist answer be updated within the first 5 minutes, and incorporate something ...
171
votes
7
answers
4k
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Are we discouraged from fixing typos and misspellings on Stack Exchange sites?
I just attempted to fix a typo on a question on cooking.stackexchange.com and saw this
Oops! Your edit couldn't be submitted because:
Your edit summary must be at least 10 characters
This ...
163
votes
14
answers
6k
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Why are there no line numbers in the code listings?
Would it make discussing code easier if you could simply refer to a particular line or range, or am I wrong?
155
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3
answers
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Should spam posts be edited?
I noticed that the posts of the recent spam surge on Ask Ubuntu were all edited by community members into something like
EDITED - REMOVED SPAM ANSWER
or similar.
While I understand why the users ...
145
votes
8
answers
2k
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Can we disable automatic community wiki conversion for answer edits?
Currently, if a user edits their answer more than a certain number of times, that answer is automatically converted by the system to community wiki status. This trips up many well-meaning and active ...
124
votes
0
answers
850
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Can we get rid of the disclosure triangles that don't disclose anything on the edit screen? [closed]
I can't count the number of times I've tried to click one of these triangles:
Could we change them to something more... non-clickable? Like these little things: ● ● ● ●?
121
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3
answers
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Allow non-bumping minor edits, but review them on /review
Every edit, no matter how minor, bumps a question to the frontpage of an SE site. This behaviour is important to allow the community to review edits, but it also creates significant problems when a ...
118
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8
answers
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Could we have the ability to mark a change as minor in questions or answers?
It would be nice to allow users to mark a change in an answer (or question) as minor (e.g. for a simple spelling or grammar correction). A change marked as minor wouldn't push the question on top of ...
115
votes
5
answers
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How can I cancel an edit I made on another user's question or answer?
Edits made by users who do not have edit privileges are placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.
E.g., I edited someone else's answer. but changed my mind. If I'd edited my own question/answer, ...
114
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1
answer
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Detect edits to add [SOLVED] or [RESOLVED] to the title and direct the user to add an answer
Users often ask questions that they answer for themselves. Good for them. And good for us.
Symptom
The correct procedure seems to be:
Write new answer to own question
Wait two days
Accept own ...
109
votes
5
answers
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views
The editing race - the slackers always win
I'm having a pretty big problem with the way the editing system is working lately. I think it was a recent change, but there no longer appears to be a warning message when another user has edited the ...
108
votes
7
answers
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Let me reward a good edit on my question/answer
Often an edit to one of my questions or answers will make it a lot better. The edit can constitute more to the site than someone posting another answer or comment.
Some users make quite a lot of good ...
102
votes
1
answer
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How does editing work?
It is possible for users to edit an existing post.
How do edits work?
Who may edit a question or answer?
How can you tell what has been changed between edits?
For more information, see "Why can ...
101
votes
18
answers
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Is it acceptable to edit broken English?
I've seen (and written) plenty of posts which have been edited by others to correct typos, broken URLs and so on. I think everyone can agree this is a good thing.
How about editing for poor/broken ...
101
votes
8
answers
841
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Notify us when the question has been edited after posting an answer
Consider this situation. I post a legitimate and correct answer to a question and receive a few upvotes. Then the OP realizes that's not what they wanted to ask, and significantly rewrites the ...
96
votes
11
answers
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Is losing privileges after placing bounty OK?
My rep went over 2,000 today which meant I could edit other people's posts. Great! Then I added a bounty to a previous question, which brought me back down to 1,984...and I can no longer edit other ...
94
votes
5
answers
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Kill the Retag option, use just Edit
For users with 500 < Reputation < 2000, there are two options: "retag" and "edit". It's great that the retag button is there, but it clutters up the question view. There is ...
91
votes
5
answers
991
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Notify us when one of our posts is edited
Your summary page shows "N Edits to your posts" for the selected time period but you really have to be looking for it.
Could we add edits to the notification feed? You could put the reason for the ...
90
votes
6
answers
616
views
Display the original question beneath the answer edit form
Often when I edit one of my answers, it's because I want to better address the original question. The only problem is that I can't see the original question while I'm editing my answer!
I'd love to ...
89
votes
12
answers
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SO is too eager to turn my edited answers into Community Wiki [closed]
I like to edit my answers. To clarify, illuminate, add examples, add links, point to new information as it crops up, etc.
It's highly irritating that my effort to improve my answer turns it into a ...
89
votes
0
answers
417
views
Bump a deleted answer when it's undeleted, not when it's edited
When a deleted answer is edited, that bumps the thread to the front page and to the active questions list. When a deleted answer is undeleted, that does not bump the thread.
That edits on a deleted ...
87
votes
2
answers
850
views
Awarding a bounty to an editor
Bounties are always awarded to the original author of an answer. Occasionally, it would be nice to be able to award a bounty to someone who contributed an important part of the puzzle.
An example I ...
86
votes
3
answers
658
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Give a badge to users who improve closed questions
We should give a badge to editors who improve closed questions so much that they get reopened.
David Fullerton suggested this badge as part of this answer, which explains the motivation. I just ...
85
votes
6
answers
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Reconcile the 5 edits limit with a large set of updates of one's old answers
Context:
Gitolite V3 just got released (an authorization layer in Perl to manage read/write access on Git repositories).
As a result, all the old V2 documentation links I used this past two years in ...
83
votes
7
answers
2k
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Why are trivial edits discouraged?
Looking at Edit questions and answers privilege, I find this to be a surprising requirement:
Try to make the post substantively better when you edit, not just change a single character. Tiny, trivial ...
83
votes
1
answer
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Our edit queue is full, try again in a few minutes [duplicate]
How many post edits can I do in a day? I think I have submitted less than 10 post edits today, but I am getting the following message:
Our edit queue is full, try again in a few minutes
What does ...
83
votes
2
answers
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views
Comments that fail to post start the "You can only comment every 5 seconds" timer
First: This is not about whether rate-limiting is good or bad. This is not a misunderstanding of what the "Only 1 comment allowed per 5 seconds; timer reset." message means. This is not ...
79
votes
1
answer
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When is "EDIT"/"UPDATE" appropriate in a post?
I often see questions edited into this form:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet blah blah blah paragraph paragraph original question.
UPDATE: The Lorem disappeared and left this message: "new ...
78
votes
1
answer
728
views
Allow manual override for edits
I'm often incredibly annoyed by this message*:
Oops! Your edit could not be submitted because:
This post has already been edited. Your edit must be more substantiative to override the current ...
77
votes
4
answers
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Answers don't like hair (i.e., "hair" at the beginning of an answer is automatically deleted)
As you can see I made an edit but it won't stick and gets deleted right away; another user with 20k rep also tried to make the same edit with no luck.
This is the answer where it happened. Also I ...
75
votes
2
answers
809
views
Can "Thanks for your edit!" banner be linkified with the Suggested Edit Link?
When a user without editing privileges suggests an edit to the post, a banner gets displayed until it is reviewed. Can the banner also provide a link to the Suggested edit?
For example, I made an edit ...
75
votes
3
answers
889
views
Notify question OP (and those who marked it a favourite) if an answer has been modified
Seriously, I had not noticed e.g. Jeff's edit here had he not also retagged my question.
74
votes
5
answers
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Is there a way to edit a question without bumping it to the front page?
Given that the Stack Overflow trilogy is to be a resource for googlers, I usually try to go back over my questions/answers and improve them in whatever way that I can. However, I feel this may be ...
73
votes
7
answers
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views
Is there a way to disable the hotkeys?
I navigate with Ctrl+n,p,f,b (readline/Emacs keys), so that I don't have to move my hands too much and get RSI again. Is there a way to disable Ctrl+b being hotkey for bold?
Note that this is not just ...
73
votes
2
answers
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Retire Werewolf Hunter
It's that dreadful time of year again, hats.
Not that I dislike hats so much, but all the pointless post bumps from winter-bash-2014 are something I don't want to see on the question list. The ...
72
votes
18
answers
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Should users edit other users' posts to correct grammar and spelling problems? [duplicate]
Question says it all: Should users edit other users' posts to correct grammar and spelling problems?
I've seen arguments both ways, and lean toward yes...but...
72
votes
2
answers
4k
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Link to view the edit history of a question
Is there a link on a question's page to see the edit history of that question? What is the "normal" way to get this information?
70
votes
3
answers
514
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Lock a post for editing, or at least display a warning
I've had many occasions where it takes longer than 30 seconds to edit a post into shape; there's a decent question there but I'm spending a lot of time fixing horrible formatting and spelling and ...
70
votes
1
answer
431
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Let me add or change edit summary during edit window (grace period)
It often occurs to me to add an edit summary to a question-edit immediately after submitting the edit, especially if the changes aren't obvious (formatting etc.). So I:
Click "edit" again.
Fill in ...
69
votes
2
answers
648
views
Provide indicator that another user is editing a post
Sometimes (eg. this question) more than one user will simultaneously attempt to edit a post, particularly to fix poor formatting by the OP. It looks like in that case, I finished 30 seconds sooner ...
68
votes
3
answers
2k
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What should I keep out of my posts and titles?
I've recently been editing out things such as "hope this helps" and "good luck" from posts and was wondering if that crosses the imaginary line that seems to not exist in the scattered mess of ...
68
votes
3
answers
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Where can I see how many posts have I edited?
I've found here many queries to check edit counts, and I get different results for each one. Which one is the most accurate and up-to-date query? Or is there any way to see the edit count in stats?