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I've got a thing about images being inserted properly in posts, instead of just links, so if I see a question where the image is from stack.imgur and is a link, I'll suggest an edit and inline the image.

However recently, I've had several low rep users accept my edit to their post, then immediately change it back to a link.

See here and here for a couple of examples.

Now this leaves me with two questions:

  • Should I redo my edit and re-inline the images?
  • And what would be the reason for this? Are low rep users stopped from adding inline images? I had a quick look through the rep page, and couldn't see anything.

I did find this Edit links in novice users' questions into embedded images? which says that they can't inline them - but does it also prevent them from accepting my edit correctly?

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  • 21
    I find it very annoying. However, I guess it is because the OP is still editing the question and it generates some kind of race condition in which your edit gets approved but subsequently changed by the edition from the author. This being said, I would just leave the post as is after your change was undone; if the OP wants to get the image in place, he is able to rollback to your edition.
    – fedorqui
    Commented Jun 9, 2016 at 11:30
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    Yeah, I can't imagine people doing this on purpose, either.
    – Pekka
    Commented Jun 9, 2016 at 11:32
  • @fedorqui I'm not totally sure it's that because take the second example, the edit the OP did after me was change the image to a link, and the link had the exact alt text I had put for the image! But fair enough, that's a good point.
    – CalvT
    Commented Jun 9, 2016 at 11:32
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    You really shouldn't be editing those images in (especially not as suggested edits that need to be reviewed). They're screenshots of text - helpful would be editing the text into the post so it's searchable and eliminating the image.
    – nobody
    Commented Jun 9, 2016 at 11:37
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    Collisions happen. If it were me, I'd have made more changes than you suggested. So I did Not sure if I'd have picked 'Improve' or 'Reject and Edit' since I didn't see it in the queue.
    – theB
    Commented Jun 9, 2016 at 11:44
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    Both of your examples the OP has a subsequent edit with exactly the same edit description so the edits have been merged. I wonder if the system interprets it as a low rep user trying to inline an image and undoes it.
    – Martin Smith
    Commented Jun 9, 2016 at 12:16
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    helpful would be editing the text into the post so it's searchable and eliminating the image This or flagging/down voting since error messages are supposed to be in the question itself.
    – BSMP
    Commented Jun 9, 2016 at 12:53
  • In both of your edits, the OP clicked "Improve" on your suggestion and edited themselves. So either the system wouldn't let them submit the edit with your inline change, or the OP for whatever reason refused to have their image inlined. If the former, that sounds like a bug, but I don't know for sure. (Surely someone else editing to make images visible shouldn't keep the OP from editing their question.) If the second... Well, the only thing you could do is re-edit and leave a comment to explain why you inlined the image. (Disregarding the quality of the images as it's been brought up.)
    – Kendra
    Commented Jun 9, 2016 at 14:15
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    Actually, looking at the first one again it looks like the image was changed back to a link because the user rephrased their question a little, or at least rearranged it. When they did that, they likely lost the ability to inline the image again. The second one looks like the user just not wanting the image inlined.
    – Kendra
    Commented Jun 9, 2016 at 14:21
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    @Kendra Also in the first one the user updated the image (different link in later revisions), and they can't inline.
    – approxiblue
    Commented Jun 9, 2016 at 16:11
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    I believe that low-rep users (under 10 rep) cannot submit edits to posts where the image is inline, even if that image was edited to be inline by someone else, so maybe that's why ?
    – Jonas Czech
    Commented Jun 10, 2016 at 14:58
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    @AndrewMedico It's not the editor's job to substantively change a post. They definitely should be inlining these images from stack.imgur because that is only improving the readability of the post.
    – TylerH
    Commented Jun 10, 2016 at 17:56

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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When a user with really low rep adds images, they appear as links, not embedded. (Apparently the reputation threshold is, or was, just 10 points.) It seems that when a low-rep OP edits a question, the edit resets the images to non-visible, as if the OP themselves had added the link.

The OP probably sees the embedded image disappear, but can't do anything about it and might not even understand why it happens. If it were me I would wait for the dust to settle (i.e. for the OP's edits to cease), then re-edit the image into the question. It's not an edit war, you're doing them a favor (and in your case they already accepted the edit once).

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  • How come the association bonus doesn't mean that you have enough rep anyway?
    – Martin Smith
    Commented Jun 10, 2016 at 17:52
  • @MartinSmith What does the association bonus have to do with this answer?
    – TylerH
    Commented Jun 10, 2016 at 17:57
  • @TylerH - You need minimum 10 rep to post images but the association bonus means that alexis must be on +101
    – Martin Smith
    Commented Jun 10, 2016 at 17:58
  • @MartinSmith You don't have to associate accounts on different sites in the network; they can remain separate. Also alexis could have been talking about situations in the past. At any rate, alexis' rep is not relevant to the answer nor the OP's situation above, where sub-10 rep users are concerned.
    – TylerH
    Commented Jun 10, 2016 at 17:59
  • @TylerH - It's of relevance whether or not an answer that contains only assertions and no supporting links is credible or not.
    – Martin Smith
    Commented Jun 10, 2016 at 18:02
  • @MartinSmith No it's really not of any relevance. The OP's question is "what do I do when low rep (meaning less than 10 rep here) users remove my image inlining?" and alexis is answering with an explanation for why it's happening and why it's not a big deal worth worrying about. Because [in the past], when alexis had accounts with less than 10 rep, images could not be inlined like that. Alexis is simply stating that the users OP has encountered are editing questions and therefore their restrictions on inlining images is being enforced by the system. There's no association bonus at play.
    – TylerH
    Commented Jun 10, 2016 at 18:04
  • There, edited to make the association bonus irrelevant. I somehow have the impression that the threshold may be higher on some network sites (or may have been higher at some point), but that doesn't matter for the question here.
    – alexis
    Commented Jun 10, 2016 at 18:27

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