What is the best way to help improve Bicycles SE?

Question

There are a few moderation privileges available to regular users, but I am wondering which ones make the biggest impact to improve the overall quality of Bicycles SE.

For example, I see that many tags do not have a description. Is it worth putting the time to suggest edits to them or they are left blank because it is not that important?

Are suggesting relevant edits to older questions and answers useful or it would be considered noise to reviewers?

I think getting answers to this question from Moderators or high reputation users may be useful as they are the ones who helped shape this community the most and who do most reviews. Of course, answers from anyone is welcome.

Answer 1

If something's not right, feel free to fix it if you have time and can make a good improvement.

Adding answers where there isn't a good one, or adding an updated answer to an old question can help too.

Tags could definitely do with a description to help clarify the intention. Some of our tags show that it may not be a good question, like product-rec or shopping And tag descriptions can help guide new questions, so they're useful to have.

If you want guidance, pick a badge and work toward it over time, or post a new well-documented question about something we've not seen before. A single in-depth on-point answer is better than a bunch of short/shallow answers but that takes time to do well. Quality over Quantity without excess Verbosity.

Answer 2

Any update that adds information, improves readability and/or the organization/layout of an answer, question, tag is helpful. In a diverse community we all have varied skills, not just in experience and expertise with bicycles, but also in "communication and wordsmithing" as well.

Just like a mountain is climbed one pedal stroke at a time, every little edit to the site, regardless of where, that improves the content makes Bicycle Exchange that much better.

I concur with the idea of adding good descriptions to the tags. It is as good a place to put some effort in as any.

Answer 3

Actually, almost all of the privileges that are available to mods are available to non-mods, provided that you've received enough rep to access those privileges. The only exception (I think, I'd have to double check) is access to PII such as a user's IP address, email address, etc. Mods sign some paperwork stating how that stuff can and can't be used.

I'll second Criggie's suggestion that you pick a badge and work toward it. I hadn't thought of that, but I like it.

Ted's point about varied skills resonates too. You could play to your strengths, looking for places where you personally have a skillset that is especially applicable.

Another approach is to focus on the most recent privilege that you've been granted as you gain more reputation. For example, your highest privilege (1000 reputation) at the time of this writing is that you can see vote counts. Pay attention to vote counts. Get a feel for what the community votes up, what they vote down, and what posts get both up and down votes. When you hit 2000 reputation, you'll be able to edit posts. Focus on improving posts through edits. Once you hit 3000 reputation, start paying attention to when you think something should be closed or reopened. And so on.

In the end, anything you do to improve the site will be appreciated. And since everything you do is subject to consensus through votes and/or peer review, you won't do much harm if you make a mistake or two along the way.