Micro Editing, does everything need to be perfect?

Question

How do we decide if we should really go ahead with editing that nagging mistake in someone else's post? Is it OK to edit subtle grammatical mistakes, or typos?

Stack Exchange has this built in rule that the edit needs to be above a certain character count to be allowed. In practice this might mean that someone will edit more than they intended to, to be able to push their minimal edit through that first automated check -- that doesn't mean it will be accepted.

Once you have a certain level of reputation you don't get points for approved edits. Below this threshold you do, but your edits will be vetted by several members with sufficient reputation and we might consider your edit too minimal to constitute a valid edit.

If you think about it, there is a big difference between these two things:

• correcting grammar, typos, punctuation (you become the mechanical Turk version of a spell-checker)
• correcting or adding structure, terminology, images, links, and fixing typos

The combination of items in the second bullet point is what benefits the community most, fixing typos and minor grammatical mistakes is fine, but if the edit doesn't help further elucidate a question it will likely be rejected -- not because it was a bad edit.

What other things should we consider before editing a question?

Answer 1

Editing is a good thing. Stack Exchange themselves say:

We welcome all constructive edits, but please make them substantial. Avoid trivial, tiny one-letter edits unless absolutely necessary.

They also suggest:

How to edit

• fix grammatical or spelling errors
• clarify meaning without changing it
• correct minor mistakes
• add related resources or links
• always respect the original author

Sometimes questions have such bad grammar, because the asker is not a native speaker of English.
In those cases, the questions are really hard to follow. If you can understand it, fix it up. If you don't, it would be best to leave it as it is, as you could change the meaning of a sentence or paragraph.

Answer 2

This already seems to be covered by Why can people edit my posts? How does editing work?

When should I edit posts?

Any time you see a post that needs improvement and are inclined to suggest an edit, you are welcome to do so. The original author of a question or answer may always edit their own post, regardless of reputation level.

Edits are expected to be substantial and to leave the post better than you found it. Common reasons for edits include:

• 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

Answer 3

We don't need small obsessive edits but we do want to maintain a high quality of content here.

We need to remember that this site uses English, which is not the native language of many users and these questions and answers will be archived here for several years for others to find. It is effectively an extension of the official documentation. Maybe even a testing ground for improving the documentation.

The quality of content here will reflect on the blender community as a whole. Poor quality here will give possible new users a bad impression of the whole blender community.

So when you want to edit something, will your edit improve the perception of the blender community? Will it improve the ability of someone to find a relevant answer when searching? Do the official docs also need clarification on this point?