tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Minor and/or repeated edits)

DL comments on "Minor and/or repeated edits" (12685)

DL — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:11:32 -0800

I actually decided not to make the edit yet for an unrelated reason; namely I'm trying to figure out how to actually draw the picture I have in mind. But thanks Ben, Kevin, Qiaochu; this seems like a very reasonable community standard.

Kevin Buzzard comments on "Minor and/or repeated edits" (12680)

Kevin Buzzard — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:52:21 -0800

@Ben: even better, yes.

@DL: I agree with Ben: just make the edit. If your edit causes someone else to add something of some worth then you'll be pleased it was bumped. If no-one else has anything to add then it will quickly disappear and no harm done. The annoying thing is when a "dull" question gets bumped daily for several days by e.g. the OP or people adding answers that have already been said; your prudent approach of waiting before editing will probably avoid this.

Ben Webster comments on "Minor and/or repeated edits" (12671)

Ben Webster — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 17:38:01 -0800

Kevin-

I'll just note, more plausibly, someone else could do this to one of your old questions, once they get editing privileges (pretty early if the question is community wiki).

Kevin Buzzard comments on "Minor and/or repeated edits" (12668)

Kevin Buzzard — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:00:28 -0800

For what it's worth, I'm guessing the logic is this: if I can edit a question without bumping it. then I can ask a valid question, let people answer, leave it for a while, and then add an expletive or a derogatory comment about someone, not bump it, and then leave it there giggling whilst no-one else notices for ages. But if everything I do bumps it then someone will notice pretty darn quick that I've done something stupid, and something will be done about it (question will be flagged for moderator attention).

I can see the logic!

DL comments on "Minor and/or repeated edits" (12657)

DL — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:31:25 -0800

Fair enough, will do. Just figured I'd check.

Ben Webster comments on "Minor and/or repeated edits" (12656)

Ben Webster — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:28:00 -0800

You protestest too much. Just make the edit. It would be annoying if you did this with 20 of your answers, but for one, don't worry so much.

Qiaochu Yuan comments on "Minor and/or repeated edits" (12654)

Qiaochu Yuan — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:46:48 -0800

Nope. I think small edits for additional explanations are perfectly fine, but if the post is old perhaps an edit for grammar or spelling is not worth the trouble of bumping.

DL comments on "Minor and/or repeated edits" (12653)

DL — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:44:45 -0800

Every once in a while I have the urge to make a small edit to an old answer of mine, but the nature of the edit does not seem to me to justify bumping the question to the front page. Is there some way to make minor edits to an answer without bumping it? If not, is there some community standard about when such edits are appropriate? (I wasn't able to find one, looking through old meta comments.)

In this case, I'm thinking of adding a small discussion about wild vs. tame ramification to this answer (http://mathoverflow.net/questions/51905/how-to-picture-mathbbc-p/51912#51912), which seems to me not to warrant bumping the question, but I've had this urge a few times in the past.