When you edit and your edits are accepted, you get (to my knowledge) 2 reputation. That's not a whole lot. Now, obviously, the most reputation comes from bounties, answers, and questions, but shouldn't the bonus for an approved edit be higher? This would encourage people to edit more often, improving the quality of the posts on the site.
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4FWIW editing can be abused the most readily out of all the ways of getting reputation, so there's the most limitations on it– AncientSwordRage ModNov 16, 2021 at 3:16
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4This would need to be a network-wide change and would have to be discussed on Meta.SE. I could migrate this for you but it will probably be downvoted (most "feature request" type questions tend to get downvoted on Meta.SE unless they are very well thought out).– Null ModNov 16, 2021 at 3:31
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Hmm... I wonder if a higher amount of edit suggestions encouraged by a higher reputation reward would be a good thing. I would have to admit that my past self from 3 years ago would have tried to take advantage of the higher reward and most likely would have been edit banned or something.– ClockworkNov 16, 2021 at 9:26
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1Notice that once you get enough rep for "edit privileges ", you no longer get that +2 XP for editing a post. All you get is the warm fuzzy feeling that the post is better now.– SpencerDec 12, 2021 at 10:58
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1 Answer
I'll start off by echoing what Null has said in that this would be a network wide change and so whilst it's perfectly fine to suggest it here, suggesting it over on main meta would get more eyes on it so would be preferable there.
That said I'll say that this change shouldn't be made.
Having to suggest edits is a temporary "lock" on someone's account. You only need to suggest edits when you have <2k rep, at 2k you earn the edit questions and answers where you can submit edits instantly without the need for approval. You also then gain the ability to review other users' suggested edits in the review queue. Most importantly though you no longer earn reputation from edits.
From this main meta post you'll also learn that you can only earn a maximum of 1000 rep from suggested edits as well.
The other way to gain reputation is by suggesting edits to existing posts as a new registered user. Each edit will be peer reviewed, and if it is accepted, you will earn +2 reputation. You can only earn a maximum of +1000 total reputation through suggested edits, however.
Essentially this restriction is in place to avoid users from gaining too many privileges through suggested edits only. The system wants users to use the site (questions and answers) to be able to learn more about how it works. Theoretically with no restrictions you could suggest edits only and know nothing of how the site works but have max privileges which means you could vote to close/reopen questions and vote to delete posts. That doesn't sound great to me. (Of course users who use the site don't necessarily understand it but that's another argument and they are more likely to in my experience).
I should also reiterate what AncientSwordRage has said in the comments in that it's a system that's more open for abuse to earn rep. Sock puppets and the like are easier to track down than someone abusing suggested edits to earn rep, especially if doing so in tandem with other users. There needs to be some restrictions on these just to narrow the avenue for abuse.
Lastly, I'll say that moderation of any kind on the site, be it comments asking for clarification, edits, reviews, etc. should be done to help improve the site not for any other reason*. Giving a rep reward initially is there to push users to help improve the site and so they can learn the basics that this is a community driven endeavour. After that it's down to the particular users whether they want to continue help the site out or not through those moderation actions.
* SE already has problem with robo reviewers who review just to get badges, imagine if there was a rep reward for reviews too?
answered Nov 16, 2021 at 8:56
