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Recently I had a lot of edits rejected. I know that when you have a certain number rejected in a period of time you get an automatic edit ban.

I have looked at my edit history here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/users/310476/d-manokhin?tab=activity&sort=suggestions

When I try and edit a question I get this:

Suggested Edits: You are temporarily banned from suggesting edits - please review your edit history.

Now I know how edit blocks work as I have had 2 on Stack Overflow. I know the first one is 1 day then it goes to a week. But I have not been banned on Ask Different before, and I can't suggest edits from Friday. This is my first time so I should have been unblocked on Saturday, yet I am still blocked. Why is this?

2 Answers 2

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As you've mentioned in the question, the automated suggested edit bans are just that: automatic. I don't know the specific details of why the system chooses a specific amount of time, but this was indeed a 7 day ban.

It's probably an appropriate time to mention that as this is basically your third suggested edits ban, 7 days is to allow the reviewers to focus on edits that are more likely to be approved. Take this break from edits to work on answering and before you choose to edit, reflect upon your edits. If you have any further questions about an edit in particular, chat or here on meta are great places to ask.

Thanks for bringing up this question in meta - it's the perfect place to discuss / work through this process.

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  • My ban on Stack Overflow was just lifted yesterday and no edits have been rejected apart from 1 where it conflicted with a subsequent edit by community: stackoverflow.com/users/10367815/d-manokhin?tab=activity
    – user310476
    Nov 19, 2018 at 21:04
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    @DManokhin I've edited out the SO to AD link - I'm quite certain our review queue is 100% different than there. After all, people could have edit permissions here and not there and vice versa. I did spot check three of the rejections for edits and I agree with that vote - the edits I saw were very minor - tag only or very plain formatting changes. Once the temporary hold lifts - try to look for post in need of a substantial edit so that you don't have to be slowed down next time.
    – bmike Mod
    Nov 19, 2018 at 21:54
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It looks like you've been tripped up again with a ban. If the system doesn't tell you the length of the ban - I would encourage you to ask here and we'll get an official answer why ban length isn't shown to the person being on temporary hold.

Going to the source of the hold - here are a few edits I agree should have been rejected and not proposed in the first place:

It seems your rejections are mostly for these reasons:

  • correcting simple typos on long detailed posts that the meaning is super clear - you're just dotting I / crossing T or changing the capitalization of iPhone / Iphone / iphone and not making a substantial improvement in the usefulness or organization or clarity of the post.
  • tag issues
    • making new tags and first tag summary
    • adding new tags to questions where the value of the tag istelf is questionable

For the first - you might just have to stop making minor edits if you keep getting reviewers who have high trust to reject them.

For the second - we can 100% help. Rather than editing a tag wiki - ask on meta to build consensus. Partner with a higher rep user that can make these changes and proof read your inputs.


I think the theory of tagging is something this meta doesn't get several people involved and in the case about lockscreen. I would argue we should burn that tag. I personally feel we don't benefit from making tags to catalog every single feature and every possible noun. There are some issues that should be worked out if we're adding new tags.

Why wouldn't we use the OS to categorize all lock screen questions. Wouldn't the lock on tvOS have different experts than iOS than watchOS than macOS? Basically - this tag - if it's created needs some consensus on what purpose it will serve.

There is a very clear rejection reason for tags to encourage this sort of collaboration:

Tag excerpts amounting to, "[tag] is for questions about [tag]" are pointless and usually rejected. Excerpts should describe why and when a tag would be used.

Do both of these main points make sense to you?


Also - when you make an edit up to 4 people need to look at the posts and then if the edit succeeds - you're bumping a bad question back to the top of the queue so people are doing a good job rejecting the edits that are being rejected. Also, please don't take this as piling on, but since you've been in this hold a few times I wanted to spend some time to really dig into this for you and others that might think that making a bunch of quick edits isn't harmful if they get rejected by the reviewers.

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    Awesome answer! This will be super useful for others as well, especially since quite a few fall into the trap of trivial edits. I also like that you've mentioned the fact that once an edit is successful it automatically promotes the question to the top of the queue, and this is something users need to be aware of - both in terms of how useful the question is, and also in terms of how many questions they edit in a short period - too many edits means that new questions can be drowned out in the queue and this isn't good for anyone.
    – Monomeeth Mod
    Dec 23, 2018 at 21:57
  • Very good point @Monomeeth - One of these edits in a 24 hour period might be far less of a thing to "reject" but when it's 20 edits all in a queue and they all are marginal at best, I'm inclined to hit the pause button for a while.
    – bmike Mod
    Dec 23, 2018 at 22:23
  • I see your points. I saw someone said once that “you will get very little accepts for edit suggestions on ask different” I have to say I agree. With the tag wikis are you saying that limited information is better than no information? Some may not know what low power mode is and in fact I did provide a sentence on its use. So what should be done when a post has some issues but it will get rejected? Just leave it then for people with more than 2k? A little edit is better than no edit.
    – user310476
    Dec 24, 2018 at 9:39
  • @DaniilManokhin - You've had 2 on S.O and now 2 here; I'm having difficulty seeing how this is an A.D issue, but perhaps you could shed some light on it. It's not as isolated as you think - SE Meta Posts on Rejected Edits. And finally, No!. A little edit is not better than no edit. A superfluous edit to an existing question (especially older ones) moves the question back to the top of the active queue regardless how minor the edit. Blitzing these edits in succession drowns out new questions.
    – Allan
    Dec 24, 2018 at 14:01

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