I already use edit reasons all the time. However, when namespacing, the time lost for an edit reason is pretty significant. I suggest there to give a few default edit reasons for these cases in addition to the ones you can just type in.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanYeah, like:
Namespacing/Disambiguation
Natter/Word Cruft/Thread Mode
First Person/This Troper
Complaining/Bashing
YMMV Moved to YMMV Tab
Typos
Page Renamed/Cut
Examples Are Not Recent
Examples Are Not Arguable
Deprecated Markup
Disputed Example Moved to Discussion
edited 14th Apr '12 11:07:54 AM by ArcadesSabboth
Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.Last time this came up, a mod (possibly Eddie himself) pointed out that people will just put random crap in the edit reason, like randomly pounding the keyboard or whatever. Then someone pointed out that's a great way to spot trolls, and...I don't remember what the reply to that was.
Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.With the possibility of predefined edit reasons, it shouldn't be too bad to have mandatory edit reasons. As for the trolls thing, while it shouldn't be too hard to enforce that the edit reason text has, for example, "at least two words", I'm not sure it'd be 1.- convenient for the server and 2.- worth it.
Fanfic Recs orwellianretcon'd: cutlocked for committee or for Google?I support them being made mandatory. In addition to all the positives added above, it also means you can cut down on confusion over what someone meant to do, so enhancing the quality of communication over alterations to the wiki. Also, as someone who suffers (at times) from a cognitive processing disorder, it can be very hard to spot what is changed at times if the edit is to modify a large chunk of text. It can leave you scratching your head as to whether it was some sneaky vandalism hidden in a block, or just fixing a typo. Making people leave a real edit reason (my preference would not be a drop down menu, since its too easy for people just to pick the first option regardless —although people doing that could be a candidate for the edit banned thread so they can learn to document properly— of what they've done). I know how easy it is to mean to leave an edit reason over a particularly complicated situation and then forget, thus accidentally make it worse. Certainly I've done that myself more than once, and I know I'd appreciate the help staying on track and helping to increase wiki communication and coordination, I can't see how people would not want the wiki helping to keep them communicating effectively.
If you're going to make this mandatory, then you're going to have to increase the character limit for edit reasons. What about pages that undergo Example Sectionomy, like Nightmare Fuel, for a number of reasons because the pages are just that bad?
Do not obey in advance.What if I correct spelling or grammar or something?
Seems like a ton of hassle to make edit reasons mandatory.
"fixed typo/grammar"
The small amount of hassle that it causes is outweighed by it ensuring we don't have the big screw ups like the one on Ask The Tropers that prompted this thread. Its a small inconvenience for a big payoff. Actually, its a small inconvenience for several payoffs of multiple sizes ranging from small all the way to big. How is typing a half dozen characters a hassle anyway?
edited 14th Apr '12 5:58:45 PM by CrypticMirror
Who is proposing reading a captcha? Certainly not what I'm proposing, which is just tagging your edits so people can see what you did and not get confused or end up in edit wars. We are rolling out tags on YKKTW and making sure clear reasons are given in image pickin and TRS, this is just extending the same principle to the wiki itself. Really, just firing stuff in with no reason given was fine when we were a smaller site with a tightly defined group of tropers, but the wiki is now bigger than that and hosts a much more diverse group of editors and as such there is an increase of confusion and conflicts. This would cut that down, and make it easier to keep editing consistent across the wiki.
edited 14th Apr '12 6:15:31 PM by CrypticMirror
Need to make sure that when you don't give an edit reason, and it prompts you to do so, it's friendly about it so it doesn't scare off new tropers.
That's the only real downside I could see; it might freak people out if they're not familiar with the wiki, and think it means their edits will be evaluated or whatever.
Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.I don't think they should be mandatory but I do support making not leaving an edit reason be a deliberate decision. People who don't want or feel the need to leave a reason should be made aware of what they're doing.
What I would do — easy for me to say, since I don't have to code it — is have a "no Edit Reason" checkbox, and have the system reject attempts to edit unless there's a reason or the box is checked.
It wouldn't do anything about people who are just thinking "fuck you, I don't have to explain myself," but nothing really will, anyway, and I don't think there are a significant number of people like that.
The child is father to the man —OedipusOn some other wikis, there's an option in your profile that you can toggle that asks you for confirmation every time you submit an edit without an edit reason. Like you click "Save" and it's like "Wait a second, you didn't leave a reason. You sure you don't want to leave a reason?"
I think that is a good solution. And I do like having it togglable too, although I guess an "Opt-out" system might be preferable.
I don't like the idea of letting people permanently turn it off; even if it were opt-out I think most people would.
The child is father to the man —OedipusA dropdown list of 'stock' edit reasons could be useful to have... and let's limit it to the good stuff:
- Definition
- Rephrased definition
- Removed Example as a Thesis
- Examples
- Documenting more examples
- Pruning non-examples
- Sorting examples list
- Discussion On The Main Page
- Removed complaining/irrelevant discussion/WMG
.
.
edited 3rd Jun '12 8:55:46 AM by Stratadrake
An Ear Worm is like a Rickroll: It is never going to give you up.For small things, it's probably faster just to type than select from a menu. The commonest things that I can think of, however:
- Small changes
- Italics/bold
- Namespacing
- Typo
- Formatting
- Potholing
- Removing incorrect trope
- Indentation
edited 3rd Jun '12 9:01:33 AM by Telcontar
That was the amazing part. Things just keep going.

It's as simple as the title. I'm of the belief that edit reasons should be made mandatory or highly encouraged. Either make it so edits aren't able to be entered without reasons, or have an "Are you sure?" page come if no edit reason is entered. Is this feasible? I know that some people will just put reasons like "asdf" or "blah", as things like that happen already. But hopefully this would encourage people to explain what they're doing and thus help resolve disputes easier.