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I noticed there are many edit suggestions which fix a handful of issues with the post, e.g. some typos & capitalisations, spelling & grammar issues, line breaks etc., but leaves out many more.

Many of these suggestions don't include embedding images from imgur URLs*, usage of code-blocks to fix ugly wall of codes etc.

What should we do with these kinds of suggested edits?

A suggestion like this does technically improve the post, so probably it should be approved (and should certainly be improved upon), but I'm afraid by doing so we will never let the editor know the issues with their suggestion (I think most of the times they won't come back and check further edits to the post once their edit is approved) so that they could come up with better edit suggestions in future.


*When OP has low reps (< 10 ?) and they try to add a screenshot to their post, it gets added as an imgur link instead of an embedded image. I meant those kind of images, not some random pics from imgur.

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  • No acceptance of any of the answers? :-)
    – Fabby
    Jun 25, 2018 at 15:45
  • 3
    @Fabby I'm torn between multiple answers (including yours of course ;-)). So I thought I would refrain from accepting one and let the community sort it out by voting. :-)
    – pomsky
    Jun 25, 2018 at 15:52
  • 3
    I only accept answers on discussion questions on meta if there is very strong support for one opinion, or when it's about a one-off event like a tag change, there's enough support for a decision to be made on an action. I'm especially reluctant to accept when it's a long-term issue under discussion because meta creates policy and I don't want to use excessive power to influence policy/unilaterally define policy
    – Zanna Mod
    Jun 26, 2018 at 6:49
  • I however have no problems acting like The Great Dictator... ;-) @Zanna
    – Fabby
    Jun 26, 2018 at 11:23

6 Answers 6

19

I just click Improve edit, edit it to be what I want it to be and then leave the following canned comment:

@WhoeverMadeTheEdit Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! **;-)** Could you please review my [edits]() and also review the [editing help](/editing-help) to improve the readability of your questions/answers/edits in the future... **;-)** 

then I copy-paste the link of the revisions of the Q, A or E in between the ().

That way you kill 3 birds with one stone:

  1. It's now a perfect Edit / Question / Answer. ;-)
  2. You educate the editors / OPs by leading by example on stuff they might not be aware of... :-)
  3. The user still gets his +2 rep (important for beginning users)

P.S. If I meet the same user more than 3 times and have given them three examples already, I just Reject and will give another user a chance to edit same...

5
  • 3
    Good answer. It also encourages users to continue to contribute edits.
    – stumblebee
    Jun 21, 2018 at 22:36
  • 1
    It's worth pointing out that this won't reject the original edit and the user will still get +2 Rep (if < 2000) Jun 26, 2018 at 7:03
  • @RobertRiedl Updated
    – Fabby
    Jun 26, 2018 at 11:20
  • The typo of "of" as "off" makes me so tempted to fix that with the edit message, "have a halfhearted edit of a single minor typo". (Except I can't actually edit, haha)
    – Nic
    Jun 26, 2018 at 22:38
  • @NicHartley facepalm Corrected. ;-)
    – Fabby
    Jun 27, 2018 at 9:44
15

I try to assess how much thought/work the suggestor has put into the edit.

  • if there is real improvement but some things have been left out I either approve or improve/approve
  • if I encounter a suggestion that only corrects the low hanging fruit (like s/ubuntu/Ubuntu/,...) and overlooks several other things I often reject/improve with an appropriate editing message. (upon rejection the suggestor gets a hint to look at the actual edit and might see my comment too)
  • I observed that sometimes people with somewhat poor suggestions make several of them in a row. This leads to a third option for me:
    • I approve a borderline suggestion
    • If I (during the same review session) encounter another one by the same user with similar poor quality then I am more likely to reject/improve.
10

If you're saying the edit actually improves the post, I don't believe it's fair to reject it. Someone may not know how formatting works in the editor, but is very good at English and only improves a post's English, or vice-versa.

Also, I don't believe there's a rule that states we should only use Imgur URLs for images. Some images may be copyrighted, while others may be larger than 2 MB. In both cases, they wouldn't be allowed to be hosted on Imgur

I would choose "Improve" (approve and edit further) if I know that I can improve the post myself.

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  • 1
    Just to clarify the "imgur URL" part, when a user with low reps (< 10 ?) tries to add a screenshot to their post, it gets added as an imgur link instead of an embedded image. I meant those kind of images, not some random pics from imgur.
    – pomsky
    Jun 20, 2018 at 15:10
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    This. If the edit suggestion does more good than harm, but leaves more work to do, I improve and do the work, feeling grateful the post was brought to attention by the suggester. Editing is collaborative.
    – Zanna Mod
    Jun 21, 2018 at 13:51
  • @Zanna I found this old post which raises some issues with this, especially when the review queue is clogged with such edits (see the comments below the question and answers).
    – pomsky
    Jun 22, 2018 at 12:10
  • @pomsky OK, that's a good point... I think it's a problem when people are making trivial edits to posts that need no improvement (I reject those) but when they make half-hearted edits to posts that need further improvement reviewers can make the further improvements. The suggested edits review queue mostly moves pretty fast here, so I don't think we are hitting this problem yet, but I haven't been reviewing much this month, so maybe I'm just not seeing it. The edits you describe in this question sound useful, not trivial.
    – Zanna Mod
    Jun 22, 2018 at 12:48
6

I don't think incomplete edits should be rejected, since they're still useful and the next editor has less work to do... So it's good teamwork regardless.

I do think, however, that the first editor could get a notification when someone further edits that post, so they can acknowledge the fact that their edits were lacking in certain areas.

3

New users(like me) have enough motivation to read and correct mistakes, but they don't have enough experience and confidence to make fundamental changes to a post. Personally, I try to correct mistakes without changing the structure of the sentence. But these new users become experienced users and they will suggest better edits. You can also send a message to the editor and tell him what should he do.

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  • 1
    This was a bad edit (decreased readability), please review my later edit. Do not use block-quotes for a wall of codes, instead use code-blocks. See this for details: meta.askubuntu.com/questions/15446/…
    – pomsky
    Jun 24, 2018 at 13:56
  • @pomsky Thanks, it was very useful.
    – user833907
    Jun 24, 2018 at 15:30
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No one said ONE edit or ONE reviewer has to clear up all mistakes/issues in a post.

As long as they don't change the meaning of the post (i.e. remove the typo that the question is about) or introduce new issues, approve them.

And as you are well aware, new user do these smaller edits to collect rep. This is actually encouraged, to some extent, I believe. As long as it improves the post and they really find a couple of mistakes ( typos & capitalisations, spelling & grammar issues, line breaks etc ) and not just one or two, it's fine.

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