I'm pretty new to Ubuntu, and to these forums and one thing that I have found to be a bit disturbing is that other people (including myself which is more oddness) can edit other peoples questions. Is this true? Why? Isn't that a super terrible idea? Not to mention, how is it that I have to have 50 rep to comment on a question but apparently I need 0 rep to edit someone else's question. Doesn't that also seem terribly backwards?
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7This is clearly spelled out in the FAQ's, in the section called 'Other people can edit my posts!?' Have a look at all the FAQs, they are well-written and for your benefit.– Tom BrossmanCommented Jan 3, 2013 at 10:16
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3Why do you think it's a bad idea? What drawbacks can you think of?– FlimmCommented Jan 3, 2013 at 11:19
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Haven't been on the meta for a while. I can think of some pretty obvious drawbacks: what protection do I have that an editor won't "edit" the fundamental basis of my question and thereby invalidate my entire purpose for asking it? I guess more broadly, to be cliche, who shall watch the watchers? As someone pointed out below edits can, and do, lead to positive results but wouldn't the opposite be far more common and likely?– ArammilCommented Jan 15, 2013 at 7:21
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Also, I can see editing answers for accuracy and validity, but neither is necessary for a question.– ArammilCommented Jan 15, 2013 at 7:25
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2 Answers
You need a minimum of 1 reputation to suggest an edit. When an edit is suggested, what happens is this:
- it goes into a review queue where it takes 2 trusted community members to agree that it is a good edit. A trusted community member is someone who has managed to earn more than 2,000 reputation (this is not to be confused with the "trusted user" status you can earn at 20,000).
Also, your content here is under a Creative Commons license, so you don't really have a choice. Everyone needs to be able to edit your questions and answers to fulfill the letter of the license. For more information, take a look at the FAQ.
https://askubuntu.com/faq#editing
Lastly, edits are designed to be used for the purposes of updating, fixing invalid information, improving formatting for readability - and that is what it is used for.
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1I do not think StackExchange is obliged to provide wiki functionality just because the content is licensed under CC-BY-SA. CC-BY-SA means people can copy and modify the content keeping the same license, but it doesn't mean anyone is obliged to allow users to modify content hosted on their servers.– FlimmCommented Jan 3, 2013 at 11:16
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3@Flimm I meant the original poster by "you" - the writer doesn't have a choice, their content is (by the license that they submitted it under) editable.– jrg ModCommented Jan 3, 2013 at 11:50
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1I've never seen the behavior of investing one rep to suggest an edit. Is this new? Or long-gone? Commented Jan 3, 2013 at 12:23
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3@ObsessiveSSOℲ Suggesting an edit doesn't use up any reputation. Just as 15 rep is required to upvote but upvoting doesn't cost any rep, we say 1 reputation is required to suggest edits. Since all users (even unregistered users, whose edit suggestions are submitted anonymously) have at least 1 reputation, this is just a way of saying that anyone who can use the site can suggest edits. Commented Jan 3, 2013 at 20:11
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Some people Downvote for silly reasons, it may be an offhand comment in the question (funny but otherwise not essential to the question) or something else...
By editing we can make it easier to read and less likely to offend, clear up mistakes or parts that people would confuse, like in @jrg's answer http://meta.askubuntu.com/posts/5681/revisions , many times a simple edit can turn around a question, and impact it positively.
