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This question has about 6 versions of edit which I found disappointing. Finally the OP decided to add something to get rid of all that names next to his/her.

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  • 1
    What is the problem? What is disappointing?
    – Tim
    Jan 30, 2012 at 16:31
  • 1
    I'm just happy that so many users are engaged in making the site even better!
    – Tim
    Jan 30, 2012 at 16:32
  • @TimN: The problem is, many of them seems unnecessary. Only that you're happy is not enough, other people should be happy as well.
    – user508
    Jan 30, 2012 at 16:37
  • Edits are not unnecessary if they improve the question.
    – Tim
    Jan 30, 2012 at 16:38
  • 1
    I concur with Tim. Imho this fully embodies the spirit embraced by the Stackexchange sites.
    – musiKk
    Jan 30, 2012 at 19:51

3 Answers 3

5

As long as the edits don't change the original intent of the question, you can't limit them in form or number. This is the main thing to remember.

If the edits change the meaning, the OP can rollback, while still consider to keep some corrections that might still be useful (grammar or better expressions).

I can't say more because, being my German level at the beginner phase, I can't tell if they really changed the meaning. For that, I'll trust the German speakers. :) But the theory above applies to any language/subject on the StackExchange sites.

3

We do need edits a lot. Edits are for making questions and answers better. This is especially true when questions or answers are not written by native speakers.

Unfortunately we don't have many edits and few editors only:

All time editors

Therefore I believe we do not have a problem with over-editing.

Still I feel uncomfortable when a post needs a lot of editing. This is even more so when many different people are involved. Think of it. There is only one reason why that happens

The first edit was incomplete

To keep the number of edits low we may try to

  • remove every single tiny little typo even if we only wanted to change the title.
  • ask ourselves if we could improve the title even if we only wanted to fix a single typo.
  • see if the tags are alright.
  • go through the text layout and the formatting.

Only after we checked all this let us finally press on Save Edits

Still there are many instances where this will not work. We should then not restrain from editing just because we know we are insufficient. There are other people with better ideas that will do all that later.

2

I think I can add some thoughts, while I was one of them who revised it.

I think the first two edits by you and me are absolutely acceptable. The first version was in need of improvement, because this was no German. Your amendment was quite OK, but still not perfect.

Then - as we discussed in comments - there was still a mistake. My amendment was reverted, so you did it for me.

Up to this point every thing OK. I am sure, you agree.

Now, the body was German, but still - let's say - not correct. Moreover the title was still grammatically wrong and hard to understand. I amended again! I rephrased title and body, but I paid attention on keeping the meaning. And it wasn't revised, so someone agrees.

But my headline was quite not perfect. I am prone to phrase sentences, which are hard to understand. user unknown made an excellent improvement.

So, my conclusion: Everything is OK.

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