3

I've used the site for a relatively small time.

I just edited an answer, and it was rejected on grounds of being too trivial. I am just wondering if this triviality bar "moves" as the cost of an edit goes down (i.e., there is no longer need of a reviewer)

Also, if I might, was it really trivial ?

the question was: How to play games using Wine?

I added the content of the third answer into the second one (i.e. added what now is my answer as a part of the answer about the appdb)

4 Answers 4

2

Sometimes when a reviewer rejects an edit as too trivial, what they mean is that the benefit it would provide is too trivial to really know that it definitively improves the post.

Sometimes an edit is quite small, but is easily improved, because it clearly make the post better. For example, if I see an edit that adds missing spaces after a few periods that end sentences but not paragraphs (Like this.Periods, but no spaces.Pretty hard to read.), I'll approve that edit.

On the other hand, if I see an edit that totally rewords a big long post, and it doesn't seem like that wording is better than the original, I may reject it as too trivial. (I will more likely use a custom reason, to explain precisely why I am rejecting the edit. It depends if I think the canned rejection reason will make sense.)

In this case, a highly incomplete list of games serves to show that there really are games, some of them new, and many of them quite popular and graphics-intensive, that run well in Ubuntu with Wine. I consider that to be quite valuable, but if I'd been reviewing your suggested edit, I would probably have reject it as well, since it doesn't clearly improve the post it was editing. I'm not always the most efficient user of words myself, but sometimes brevity itself is to be valued in a post.

Still, I'm glad you posted that list in a separate answer. If I'd been reviewing your edit, I would probably have rejected it with a custom reason suggesting to post it in a new answer.

So to answer your question ("[W]as it really trivial?"): It depends what you mean by trivial. In this case, it's unlikely the reviewer intended to say that the work you'd put in it, or the volume taken up by the new text, was small. Instead, they probably didn't have a high enough degree of belief that the edit would improve the post, to feel comfortable approving it, especially since if it were approved, it would have taken up most of the post (visually, and by number of words).

Even rejected edits are saved in the system (they're in your suggested edits history), so even if you lose the text yourself, you can retrieve it and use it to create new posts or for other purposes.

1
  • Thank you. I think I have a better estimate of what is an acceptable edit now. This particular edit, I now agree, might be better placed in a different answer.
    – josinalvo
    Jul 27, 2012 at 4:06
3

Since the Wine appdb has (is) already a list of application and their current support status I do not see how adding a small list of games in to that answer really enhances it.

I did not reject your edit but would say probably would have done so on the same bases.

2
  • It was my intuition that, when a person comes to read that question, the person would probably not follow the appdb link (that is, if he or she is just looking for the general 'is it possible to play on linux' question)<br> If it was not a good edit, do you consider it to be a good third answer ? (or not, for the same reason ?)
    – josinalvo
    Jul 26, 2012 at 21:08
  • How to play games in Linux is a bad question, still it can never be answered with a list of games as you did. That is just my opinion. Jul 26, 2012 at 21:19
2

To answer your secondary question:

I am just wondering if this triviality bar "moves" as the cost of an edit goes down (i.e., there is no longer need of a reviewer)

Once you get edit privileges, there are no reviews besides the automated system stuff (minimum number of characters, etc.). At 2000+ we trust you will use your power wisely :)

0

We do appreciate your effort in creating a list of games that will run with Wine, even though I agree with Bruno that the site format here might not be the right place for this.

Approving an edit that is more than editing typos or grammar issues is not so easy. We do take our time for that to be careful with both approving or rejecting an edit. We have to see whether an edit really adds value to the existing answer, whether it makes the answer considerably better, and most importantly whether it is correct what comes with an edit.

Think of how the person who wrote the answer in the first place might feel when we added content that may not be correct, that they themselves may disagree with, or that may even lead to a downvote (e.g. here simply because some people do not like such lists). Mind that the name of that person still is attached to that question. In your case it might have been o.k as the upvote on your own answer shows. But who would know that in advance?

Therefore, and because it was not really asked what games can be played but rather if something special was needed in addition, I decided to reject you edit. My bad that I did not choose a free text to explain but rather ticked the preformed option "too trivial", sorry for any confusion this might have caused.

2
  • While I agree that an edit on a question or answer that is well beyond the intended scope of the post being edited, or goes against the intent of the author, should virtually always not be made (and rejected, if proposed), I don't think the mere possibility that an original author wouldn't like an edit or that it would result in downvotes is reason enough not to make (or to reject) an edit. The original author can always roll back the edit, if they do not like it. And an edit made by someone other than the original author is not represented as that original author's work. Jul 27, 2012 at 3:00
  • no problem. Thanks for the answer
    – josinalvo
    Jul 27, 2012 at 4:03

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .