When and how should I edit questions and answers?

Question

From the first day on I can edit other peoples questions and answers.

What is a good edit? Why and when should I do it?

Answer 1

Edit questions that are on topic here and not duplicates.
Edit answers that are answers.
Flag the rest or vote it down.

Fix all problems in one edit. If you edit the title, make sure the post body and the tags are fine too.

Don't be shy. At least 10 of our top reputation users are not native English speakers. Your help is always welcome.

Title

Start with the title. 90% of our visitors come from search engines. They see the title first. Let them know we have a question here that fits their need.

The title should be the question in a very compressed form. It should be a complete sentence without any error. A trailing question mark is almost always required.

The title should not just repeat the tags.

Remove the words help, problem, question and WordPress.

• How do I write a good title?
• Would the Stack Exchange network be better if titles contained complete, grammatical questions?

Post content

• Fix the spelling.
• Remove noise: Hello, Thanks, multiple exclamation marks, SHOUTING, anything which isn't a necessary part of the question.
• Fix formatting: Overly long code which produces scrollbars, missing paragraphs (line breaks).
• New users cannot insert images, they use a link usually. Insert that image if it helps to understand the post.
• Make sure the question stands out and is understandable.
• Some questions are so vague, we cannot tell if they are on topic. Narrow those questions down until they are on topic.

See also: Should I remove this from a post or title?

Tags

The first tag will be set before the title. Again: Think about search engines. Make sure the first tag is the most significant.

Remove noisy tags. Avoid tags that are too similar. Those are merge candidates.

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Review your edit: Is it complete? If the reviewer has to improve it you don't get the reward and your name will not show up.

Edit message

Describe what you did. Make sure it is as good as your edit.

I have seen this message far too often:

Fixed grammer

Uhm … no.

Make sure your edit is not too minor. We will reject very small edits.

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When you're done: Don't forget to vote! If the post was worth your time – vote for it.

Reputation

You earn +2 reputation for each accepted edit – until you hit 1000 wall. But, please, don't stop editing then. :)

Users with 500 reputation can retag questions without review, 2000 is the limit for editing questions and answers without review.

Answer 2

I've been invited to share an alternative answer here, which seems appropriate considering some of the items in the existing answer provided by @fuxia contrast with popular SE consensus.

Specifically, most high reputation users on Stack Exchange welcome and encourage so-called "minor" edits as long as they improve the clarity/comprehension of the question:

Edits should be accepted if they are correct or helpful, and rejected if they are incorrect or spam. The length of the edit is irrelevant. Who cares if the edit is tiny or major as long as it's improving the quality of the site's content? The reviewer's time has already been used in checking the edit, so nothing is lost in accepting it.

The How to Edit box next to the edit window encourages exactly these kinds of changes, so it would be pretty hypocritical and counterproductive to reject them...

There is also the SE help article on editing, which clarifies when edits are appropriate:

• To fix grammar and spelling mistakes
• To clarify the meaning of the post (without changing that meaning)
• To include additional information only found in comments, so all of the information relevant to the post is contained in one place
• To correct minor mistakes or add updates as the post ages
• To add related resources or hyperlinks

I think part of what @fuxia hits upon is that, SE being an evolving platform with various communities and channels of input, certain guidelines are not set in stone (and are all over the place!).

But the major issue I think WPSE moderators should reconsider is the constant rejection of minor edits, which are clearly encouraged in the core SE documentation. Sometimes a "minor" edit can make a major difference in clarity, grammar (e.g. brand capitalization), or SEO... not to mention, it makes new users feel more welcome to get involved and grow their reputation.

Ultimately, it seems like a good idea to prioritize the 2/3 reviewers process, and avoid making unilateral editing decisions whenever possible. Otherwise the WPSE community (or others) simply become a sort of "fiefdom" where 1 dominate moderator makes all the decisions.

Lastly, it seems counter-intuitive to reject edits because of a so-called "noisy tag"... if a tag exists (and is popular) then users will keep using it. If tags are cleaned up or merged at a later date, then so be it, but a single moderator's opinion about what defines a "noisy" tag is subjective, and doesn't seem like enough justification to reject otherwise helpful edits.