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I am not a native English speaker. I have never been to an English-speaking country. My English is very far from the ideal. Often I make errors, and see them only later. Often I can't find a good phrase construction while writing and change it later. I am rereading my posts many times for it. Of course, once or twice somebody comes and repairs my language, too. For me, and I think many other non-English speakers, or English perfectionists, that ceiling of 10 edits is impossible.

A good writer can change his or her text many times. Why should such posts go to wiki? Why should these posts give no points into reputation?

Please, could you make a check field "language editing" on the edit page (unchecked by default)? If checked, it wouldn't be count into these 10 changes for wiki.

Tim Stone's idea, to remove this automatic rule at all, is even more likeable for me. I only wanted to propose the minimal changes.

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closed as not constructive by Robert Harvey Feb 16 '12 at 21:39


The way things are right now gives you a great incentive to improve your English, which is, after all, the language of StackOverflow/StackExchange. I say this as a non native English speaker myself. –  Oded Feb 16 '12 at 20:11
I disagree with the checkbox idea, but I'm curious whether this condition has any utility. My guess is that it was assumed originally that if a post had been edited many times, it was beneficial to lower the barrier for other people to step in and assist...but in light of suggested edits being available now, that seems unnecessary. So, rather than a checkbox, perhaps for the case of the OP the multiple edits -> community wiki functionality should just be removed. –  Tim Stone Feb 16 '12 at 20:13
I find that 10 edits on a post is more then generous. Definitely in light of the fact that language corrections by a native speakers would normally be done in a single edit. Additional edits would normally be to add content to the post (suggesting it was not complete in the first place), so deserve becoming community wiki. –  Oded Feb 16 '12 at 20:17
How do you prevent people from abusing the checkbox? –  Robert Harvey Feb 16 '12 at 20:20
Every edit bumps the question to the front page. That is hurtful if a single post is edited too many times. Related: SO is too eager to turn my edited answers into Community Wiki –  Dennis Feb 16 '12 at 20:31
The edit history on this question says there was one edit. It didn't include any language changes; instead, you made a statement about someone's comment here (which probably should have been a comment itself, not an edit to your question) I don't see the problem. Couldn't you just be more careful about your initial post? –  Robert Harvey Feb 16 '12 at 20:35
Many of these edits had nothing to do with language. I think OP is overreacting to being upset he didn't get enough rep for his post. –  JNK Feb 16 '12 at 20:43
Instead of requesting a new system feature, why don't you just flag your answer and request removal of Community Wiki? Moderators have that power, you know. –  Robert Harvey Feb 16 '12 at 20:46
@Gangnus Maybe because your edits, as answers have stated, aren't really language related and are not isolated to non-native English speakers. Too many edits is too many edits, regardless of language ability –  simchona Feb 16 '12 at 20:54
I have made edits to my own answers and questions, and I do so very carefully so that I don't trigger the CW automatically. If I were writing in another language, which I do occasionally, I would take care so that I was doing the greatest amount of good with each edit. –  simchona Feb 16 '12 at 20:59
@Gangnus NONE OF THOSE EDITS WERE LANGUAGE RELATED AT ALL. They are all adding code/adding code tags/adding headers/changing numbers. You are citing a problem that does not exist –  JNK Feb 16 '12 at 21:00
I'm a compulsive re-reader and a rotten typist so I often find things to change. And change them I do, for a while. Eventually I stop so that I won't run into the wiki thing which means I stop bumping the post to the front of the active queue...which means Mission Accomplished! –  dmckee Feb 16 '12 at 21:11
@Gangnus You have yet to give ANY examples of edits that are due to language and led to a wikification. –  JNK Feb 16 '12 at 21:41
Why is this back to the language issue when you said to @RobertHarvey that it wasn't: "This answer was not an example of English editing. But it showed me how it could happen with another one, that have been edited because of language." You have no real example of this being an English issue –  simchona Feb 16 '12 at 21:42
@simchona - exactly. It's a made up garbage issue that's not actually an issue. It's theoretically possible for me to run so fast that I break the sound barrier. That doesn't mean that my city needs to make a law forbidding running past the speed of sound until it happens. –  JNK Feb 16 '12 at 21:44
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2 Answers

Thanks for making it clear from the outset that this is what all of the fuss is about.

I removed the Community Wiki status from your answer. I trust that suffices.

[made this answer CW for the irony]

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+1 for combined irony and sarcasm. –  simchona Feb 16 '12 at 20:52
I see what you did there. –  jadarnel27 Feb 16 '12 at 20:53
You should make this Q community wiki retroactively too. –  JNK Feb 16 '12 at 20:55
This answer was not an example of English editing. But it showed me how it could happen with another one, that have been edited because of language. The system fails here, I wanted to help to repair it. That's all. But you don't want it to be repaired. can you say why? –  Gangnus Feb 16 '12 at 21:09
Its not broken. –  JNK Feb 16 '12 at 21:10
Why does the system fail? Aren't you abusing the system by bumping your post so often? –  simchona Feb 16 '12 at 21:21
What bumping are you talking about? All answers of the same upvote-downvote are placed randomly. –  Gangnus Feb 16 '12 at 21:42
Every time you edit an answer, the entire question gets bumped up in the active queue. –  simchona Feb 16 '12 at 21:42
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I think you are overreacting to your specific situation.

I'm assuming you are referring to this series of edits.

Most of these were not language related at all.

1 - Original post
2 - Added clarification and edited the code
3 - Changed some spacing, deleted opening paragraph, added another code block
4 - changed to be similar to post 2
5 - Added a lot more text
6 - Added a "thanks" to authors of other answers
7 - Changed some numbers, minor edits to body.
8 - Changed 0.000001 to 0.001
9 - Added some more text for clarification
10 - Prettied it up by adding headers and such.
11 - Added code tags for a few lines
12 - Added a PPS section for some reason

... etc ...

How does english as a second language affect ANY of those dozen edits?

The only edit that I can see on that particular post is the last one, revision 15, where Emir Akaydin changed too to either for you. You were deep into wiki territory at that point.

I think the real issue is you are edit-happy, which is great! It's wonderful you keep improving you post. But it really is not a shortcoming in the system that isolates non-english speakers.

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+1, nice detective work. –  jadarnel27 Feb 16 '12 at 20:54
Have I ever said that this post was edited for English problems? It merely showed me what situation can be because of problems with English. You have nothing to "detect" - I haven't asked for myself. –  Gangnus Feb 16 '12 at 21:06
@Gangnus You mentioned in comments @Oded. For one post during 2 days I got 24 upvotes and not a point of the rep. Thank you. For me it is a punishment. --- Different people have different customs how to work with text. Don't try to make all people of the word into 6 milliard copies of yourself. That seems to indicate you were talking about this post in particular. Seeing as how it is very recent, I have to assume you are upset about this post. If it's a larger problem please list some posts. –  JNK Feb 16 '12 at 21:08
"6 - Added a "thanks" to authors of other answers" Arrrgggghhhhh! –  dmckee Feb 16 '12 at 21:12
@dmckee pretty much. But the system is broken, man! –  JNK Feb 16 '12 at 21:13
My post is example for the fact, that transfer to wiki is a punishment, nothing else. Oded said that tranfer to wiki is not a punishment. Never had I said that that post was many times edited because of the language. –  Gangnus Feb 16 '12 at 21:19
@Gangnus please give us some examples of posts that WERE edited 10+ times due to language. –  JNK Feb 16 '12 at 21:20
@dmckee Some people try to be polite. If you don't understand it, no help. –  Gangnus Feb 16 '12 at 21:21
@JNK. I needn't. Some editions due to language are enough. I asked you for some fairness. But you really love every your privilege, don't you? Even so miniscule. Don't you see how funny you are? –  Gangnus Feb 16 '12 at 21:25
@Gangnus On SE, "thanks" is considered unnecessary noise and spam. –  simchona Feb 16 '12 at 21:25
@Gangnus: This has been thrashed out at length. Those kinds of polite phrases in questions and answers only makes sense for a short time ad to a few people. For the vast majority of people who will view that post they are just noise. You are writing not only for now, but for all the future viewers of your post. –  dmckee Feb 16 '12 at 21:25
@dmckee Have you ever read paper books? Have you noticed such parts at the start, with thanks? Try your logic against this fact. These other authirs allowed me not to write about some things. Unpoliteness is not logical, it is merely evil. And disgustful. –  Gangnus Feb 16 '12 at 21:38
@Gangnus As he said, this has been discussed at great length elsewhere. Thanks have no place on the SE nework in the body of posts. You are mistakeful and wrongful. –  JNK Feb 16 '12 at 21:39
@Gangnus StackExchange is not a paper book. Written "thanks" are considered spam; instead upvotes show appreciation. –  simchona Feb 16 '12 at 21:39
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