Why was my last edit rejected?

Question

So yesterday I thought lets be helpful and edit this post so it's easier to read, while i'm in the edit, I might as well embed the OPs image so it's all in the post.

I just at looked at my suggested edits and it's been rejected based on not being easier to read?? Did anyone bother to read the post before the edit I made? or was it just a bad day in the office for a couple of people?

Did either of the two that rejected the edit try and make the post even easier to read?

I cant even find the post now, maybe it's been deleted?

Whats the point in the community even trying to help if mods can just reject and not even try to better the edit?

If the post hasn't been deleted i'd like to see any edits that have made the original post better.

EDIT : Found the edited question here Replacement Crank Arm?

Post in question below

Answer 1

Ok, so a little background on how edit approvals work...

It's typically not mods that do that. There's a review queue that users with 2000+ reputation have access to. Edits show up in the review and users vote on whether or not to accept or reject those edits. A mod could unilaterally approve or review or reject an edit, bypassing the review process, but that's not what happened here. This was a perfectly normal community review.

Looking at the history, I can see that two users rejected your edit and one approved.

I've looked at your edit and I can sort of see why someone would think those changes weren't an improvement. The text edits that you made are primarily rewording and contain some punctuation and grammar errors. Personally, I probably would have approved it, but I see both sides.

The image is a definite improvement, but it's not super obvious in the queue that the image was added. That's not your fault, it's just the way it is.

As DavidW points out in his comment, the post probably should have been closed anyway. (I've done that.) It's fairly likely that people looked at it and didn't want to take the time to improve your edit it because unclear what the OP was asking and possibly off topic anyway.

Answer 2

I shouldn't speculate too much on the reasons of others, though I can think of several considerations they might, or might not have made before letting the hammer fall one way not the other. What is notable though is that the members who rejected the edit also voted to close the question as unclear. So perhaps despite your edit they were still not sure what the question even was, therefore how meaningful the edit was, so held back on the editing process before/anticipating further input from the OP. Meanwhile, along came Criggie who felt he had a little more of a handle on the question so could see the value in both editing and answering the question as it was, with an edit much like your own.

Hopefully you won't be put off by the rejection, I empathise and remember it can be frustrating when you are acting sincerely. You made a positive contribution with the edit, its a bit of bad luck timing wise that it was not approved. On the bright side it won't be long before you have enough reputation to make edits without needing approval and this will be water under the bridge.

Keep on suggesting edits like you have done, if they're genuine then the majority will be approved and it will help boost your rep by a little bit each time.

Answer 3

I suspect that the question was edited by me, while your edit was in the review queue?

So your edit got stomped on, it was not rejected intentionally.

As it stands, that is not a well-constructed post, and lacks a defined question, so its likely to get closed as "unclear" I generally refrain from voting on things unless they're already at 4/5, or unless they're blatant spam/etc because my mod vote takes the say away from the community.

So why did I bother editing it at all? Its that time of year when the seasons change, and we get a flux of new users. Some "get it" straight away, some never understand how SE works. And there are always some in the middle who can be great contributors with a little guidance.

Sometimes these new users are not native English speakers, which adds an extra barrier for them to phrase their thoughts. So IMO its worth spending a bit of effort to help get the question out.

This one... probably won't get there and I'd lay odds it will be closed.

In summary - sorry about the reject, was not intentional.