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I made a query to List Non-Closed Community Wiki Posts and I checked 2 random ones:

They seem to have been turned CW because they where repeatedly improved by the original author. By the original author exclusively. That seems unfair to me, as they won't get any additional rep from those otherwise good post, just for improving them.

Should mods remove the Community Wiki status to those posts?

Is there other posts in the list that should have their Community Wiki status removed?

2 Answers 2

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The rules for auto-cw are:

Posts enter community wiki mode when one of the following happens:

  1. The body of the post has been edited by at least five (5) different users.

  2. The post has been edited ten (10) times by the original owner.

  3. [..]

  4. [..]

  5. [..]

  6. The question generates more than 30 answers (15 on Super User, 60 on Code Golf). In this case, the question and all answers will enter community mode, as will any future answers.

(removed conditions that explicitly make post CW, emphasis mine)

Remark ragarding condition 1: If more than 4 users actively contribute to a post it should be community wiki, as it is the result of many users collaborating. If most of these edits however are minor grammar/spelling edits, it should not. This must obviously decided depending on the situation.

The question is about condition 2; If users invest a lot of work into improving their own answer, toggling CW on the tenth edit (without warning!) serves to do exactly one thing: Discourage users from investing effort in improving their posts (specifically, their answers) as any further votes on the question do not count towards their rep. I don't think this makes a tremendous amount of sense, as improvements are welcome and people shouldn't be conditioned to avoid them.

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  • 5
    I can fully confirm that. I track my #s of edits and start skimping on improvements when I get to 8 even if I see clear ways to improve the answer. Nov 29, 2012 at 2:54
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I have a hard time justifying altering these when the original posters aren't involved. I would expect the original poster to flag their posts if they want the CW status removed. In general, I don't want to spend time policing functionality that's working normally that affected individuals aren't complaining about.

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  • then, for those who want to check
    – DavRob60
    Nov 28, 2012 at 17:55
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    @Keen - it's quite possible that original posters are 100% uninformed that they even have an option to un-CW their work. I was on SO for years and today is the first time I heard that mods are either able, OR willing to do that on SE. I would suggest pinging them, either using comments or that nifty mod-messaging tool you guys have. Nov 29, 2012 at 2:56

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