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Just now I went through all of the questions I'd answered in abstract algebra and tagged the ones related to group theory with the group-theory tag. Honestly I did this so I could get the bronze badge for group-theory. I figured there was no harm since the tagging was correct, and I was under the impression that with my new inline tag editing privilege they would not be bumped into the active questions.

However, I then went to the active questions and saw all of the questions I retagged. I'm aware that this annoys some people. Should I not have done this?

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    $\begingroup$ They really need to add a flag like Wikipedia's "minor edit," that makes it so that an edit doesn't bump a question. $\endgroup$
    – user7530
    Commented Jan 26, 2015 at 21:54
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    $\begingroup$ @user7530: They really shouldn't. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Jan 26, 2015 at 22:11
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    $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila Why not? Is it really desirable that retagging, grammar cleanup, conversion of formulas to TeX, etc. bumps a question to the front page? $\endgroup$
    – user7530
    Commented Jan 26, 2015 at 22:13
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    $\begingroup$ @user7530: And it's really open for exploitation when someone's account is hacked; when someone is disgruntled and wants to slow-damage the site; when someone is drunk and behind the keyboard; when someone is just a troll that managed to accumulate sufficient reputation... And with exception of the first case (which I'm sure happened before), all the other cases did in fact happen. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Jan 26, 2015 at 22:15
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    $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila By that argument, comments should all bump questions, since somebody might go on a comment-spamming spree if they have sufficient reputation; and downvotes should bump questions, so that a serial-downvoter doesn't go unnoticed...... $\endgroup$
    – user7530
    Commented Jan 27, 2015 at 2:01
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    $\begingroup$ @user7530: Comments are by definition second-class citizens of this website; downvotes are noticed by their receivers, and serial votes get reversed automatically anyway. So your counter argument doesn't quite hold up. You might remember a case from a year+ ago when a very established user castes two downvotes a day on a lot of high rep. users, eventually this was brought to meta. The user ended up deleting their account, though most votes remained. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Jan 27, 2015 at 2:12
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    $\begingroup$ Well, I find it very suspect to handicap the very common use case of people using the site as intended, out of fear of the rare case of (easily-reversed) abuse. But it seems this is not the popular view. $\endgroup$
    – user7530
    Commented Jan 27, 2015 at 4:24
  • $\begingroup$ @user7530 Discussion on Über-meta explaining why that is status-declined. (I'm not saying it's good or bad; I just thought you'd like to know that it's been discussed before.) $\endgroup$
    – apnorton
    Commented Jan 27, 2015 at 6:24
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    $\begingroup$ Related: How much bumping is too much? Personally, I think that correct tagging of question is useful. So retagging old posts (or doing other improvements to old post) is find; but it is better not to do too many at the same time. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Jan 27, 2015 at 7:48
  • $\begingroup$ Another older post which seems related: Retagging causes bumping $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Jan 27, 2015 at 7:55

2 Answers 2

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If too many questions (say 20) have to be edited, you can split the editing in separated period of time so that the main site is not disturbed. Other than that I see no problem.

ADD Just looking at main it seems you didn't really over do it.

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Since it seems you only did five at once, this is alright; had you done fifty it would have been annoying.

Generally, edits, also minor ones, are fine. One should only not do too many in a short time-interval.

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