Ok, everybody knows that the principle of the SE sites:
All contributions are licensed under Creative Commons, and this site is collaboratively edited, like Wikipedia. If you see something that needs improvement, click edit!
But! Lately I have been improving more edits that I would like to. So, lets remind the editors (users that suggest edits) what should be edited out in the posts:
- Any formality: be it greetings, signature, farewells, etc. Anything that makes the post looks like a letter should be removed.
- Thanks: Thanks in the StackExchange sites are expressed with upvotes when you have enough privileges, hence saying thanks in the post only generate noise.
- ASAPness: thinks like "please help me", "I need this ASAP", "anyone knows?", etc. should be edited. We are a community that is glad to help, but sometimes becomes grumpy if the OP put pressure in us. If someone knows the answer and comes across your question it will be highly probable that it answers.
- Basic grammar: I've seen edits that only adds spaces in the code blocks, but don't fix anything else, like I's. Formatting things is good, it makes the post looks more presentable, but the grammar, and orthography should improve along with the edit.
- Titles of the questions: each time I have to read "problem in 13.10", or "update error" in a suggested edit I get fuming mad. That doesn't help anyone to know what the question is about, so when proposing the edit, check if the title of the question is an excerpt of what OP is asking in the body. It also helps for the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so people can find the questions that might have already answer easier (NathanOsman asked a duplicate question on SO, which he may have found earlier, if it had a better title).
- Email addresses (thanks to Rizwind for remember it)
Those are the most glaring edits/improvements that I have to do to edits. Also remember that if you are going to edit a post, look for any improvements that can be made! Nothing is too good for SE, things can always be improved. If I still see post that has glaring improvements that I have to improve I will improve them and mark that the suggested edit as not helpful (since it was too minor).
Another thing when suggesting edits is to check the tags. Tags keep the site organized by sections, look for tags that are either relevant or not to the question and change them so the correct people can see them. If a question is about installing a game in wine and only have the installation tag, add the wine tag along with any other relevant tag. Is probable that the installation tag won't be relevant in some cases.
For the reviewers, please guide users more strongly about the edits done in the posts. Also if you see anything that can be improved (as listed above) please do so.
