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I am writing this post to request your help in reviewing the suggested edits that are waiting in the review queue. There are currently 21 pending edits, which is quite a lot for our site.

screenshot of review queue showing 21 pending suggested edits

As you may know, there is a network-wide limit on how many suggested edits a user can have at any given time. According to this Meta SE post, “Rate limit suggested edits”, the limit is:

at-most 5 pending suggested edits per editor on graduated sites

This means that users like me, who have less than 2K rep, can only suggest up to 5 pending edits, and beyond that, we can't suggest edits anymore. This also prevents us from doing the “edit” action in the review queues. My oldest pending edit was made on 2023-06-13, which is more than 6 months ago.

Whenever I try to suggest a new edit, I get this error message: “You have too many pending edits. Further edits cannot be submitted until prior edits have been approved”.

screenshot of error message

This is frustrating, since I can't improve posts by editing them in the review queues. I am sure there are other users who feel the same way. That is why I am asking the moderators and the users with 2K rep or more to please review the suggested edits and clear the backlog. This will allow us to resume editing and improve the posts in the site.

I appreciate all reviewers' efforts in clearing the review queue. Thanks.

I concur with Laurel’s proposal:

As for long-term solutions, the only easy, immediate one I see is to reduce the reputation required for unilaterally editing (and doing edit reviews) to 1k (from 2k). Two of the users from the list of suggested edits above are above that threshold and therefore could reduce the size of the queue instead of increasing it.

This is a brilliant idea. It would not only speed up the review process for suggested edits but also reduce the moderators’ workload and free up their time for other duties. It will benefit the entire Web Apps SE community.

The relevant proposal at meta has received many upvotes from the community, indicating a strong interest in this change. I kindly request the moderators to add the tag to that meta question, so that it can be reviewed by the community managers and possibly implemented in Web Apps SE.

Regarding the tag added to this question by a moderator:

This seems to imply that the long wait time for reviewing suggested edits is intentional and acceptable. However, my oldest pending edit was made on 2023-06-13, which is more than 6 months ago. This is an unreasonable and discouraging delay for contributors who want to improve the quality of the site. Surely, such a long delay is neither nor desirable for reviewing a suggested edit.

Related meta posts:

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  • I don't understand why I don't see the backlog. I see 2 pending edits. I wondered if I am looking in the wrong place.
    – Blindspots Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 4:40
  • @Blindspots I am looking at the review queue page: webapps.stackexchange.com/review — currently it says that there are 21 pending suggested edits for review.
    – galacticninja
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 5:38
  • @Blindspots It says you (and therefore the entirety of Webapps SE) did 2 suggested edit reviews today, but there are 21 pending. If you've reached the end of the queue, you've evidently skipped some or (considering the age of some) maybe reviewed them as a regular user. You should be able to find links to galacticninja's edits here and you can check your own review history here (including skipped reviews).
    – Laurel
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 13:01
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    By the way, according to the "recent reviewers", the only way edits are being reviewed is by Blindspots or the original poster. To reiterate what I said in chat, lowering the rep privilege levels to beta would allow users with 1k rep to review edits, which would allow a number of other active users to share some of the work (and not add to the queue with their own suggestions at the very least).
    – Laurel
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 13:11
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    This limitation makes no sense. Then some SE employees wonder why the numbers of SE users and visitors are decreasing... That's the kind of small annoyances that add up and push people away in the long term.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 18:42
  • The system seems a bit flawed. I should be able to see a simple list of any pending edits. I'll take a look by user as suggested by Laurel.
    – Blindspots Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 19:33
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    @Rubén I am puzzled by the [status-bydesign] tag on this question. It seems to imply that the long wait time for reviewing suggested edits is intentional and acceptable. However, my oldest pending edit dates back to 2023-06-13, which is over half a year ago. This is an unreasonable and discouraging delay for contributors who want to improve the quality of the site. Is there a reason why this issue is marked as [status-bydesign]? If not, can it be changed to reflect the importance of resolving it?
    – galacticninja
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 1:55

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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The number shown on /review is not an accurate count of how many items are in the queue. In some cases (unfortunately with moderators, through no fault of their own) I would describe it instead as terrible, horrible, no good, very bad. I used SEDE and (after removing some outdated items), I got this list of 25 outstanding review tasks, the oldest of which is from May 2, 2023 (230 days):

If you have 2k reputation, please check these out (and remove if you cast the final vote). There are suggestions here that should be easy to approve even if you're not an expert in the specific webapp or English grammar. (SEDE, being updated on Sundays, is mostly up-to-date today, but less and less so during the rest of the week.)

For the last couple weeks, I've been avoiding suggesting certain edits because I was afraid I would be blocked from editing from having too many pending. I've been suffering through all sorts of typos. Lo and behold, that block I was afraid of happened maybe last week. None of this was fun. Unlike an edit ban (lasting only 7 days), this type of block can last forever because suggested edits don't age away.

In the last month (maybe longer, as I didn't check), we've had 6 suggested edit reviewers: Blindspots and 5 users under 2k (who could only review an edit since it was on their post). While I appreciate Blindspots single-handedly taking this on, this isn't enough people.

As for long-term solutions, the only easy, immediate one I see is to reduce the reputation required for unilaterally editing (and doing edit reviews) to 1k (from 2k). Two of the users from the list of suggested edits above are above that threshold and therefore could reduce the size of the queue instead of increasing it.

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    "f you have 2k reputation, please check these out (and remove if you cast the final vote)." No thanks, we should instead reduce rep thresholds. (+1 for the great answer though)
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 20:04
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    I agree that lowering the reputation threshold for editing and reviewing edits to 1k (from 2k) is a simple and effective long-term solution. This would not only speed up the process of approving suggested edits, but also free up the moderators’ time for other important tasks.
    – galacticninja
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 0:56
  • I really appreciate the link you included to the Martin's query super useful. As it stands I can't affect the remaining edits as I already reviewed them prior to becoming a mod.
    – Blindspots Mod
    Commented Jan 31 at 4:45
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    @Blindspots That sucks (especially since some of them were created by one of the users who I might otherwise ask to review them), but I think that I could still compel someone else into reviewing them.
    – Laurel
    Commented Jan 31 at 5:35
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At this time there are only 3 posts on the Suggested edits review queue shown to me.

Suggested edits Monday, December 18th 2023 11:05 a.m. UTC -6,.

This is the normal behavior of the Review Queques. Users having the privilege to approve Suggested Edits have the option to Accept, Reject or Skip.

You should wait until the required vote threshold is reached from votes to Approve or Reject your edit suggestions from users with the Approve Suggested Edits privilege. They could be regular users or moderators (Community Managers and Community Moderators) aka "diamond" users.

The difference between regular users and "diamond" users is that diamond users votes are binding. This is explained in the Help Center.

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    There are a whole lot more than just 3 in there—I have 3 pending edits just by myself. And, to be flippant about it, I'm not going to wait 230 days for my edits to be approved or rejected—that's how long the oldest pending edit on this site has been waiting. It's like asking someone to wait til August 4, 2024 for an edit they suggested today to be handled.
    – Laurel
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 18:47
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    In any case, it sounds like your plan is to keep the status quo, where edits wait for over half a year to be approved, and it's trivial to be blocked from editing just by wanting to help improve the site (with 5 pending edits). Would you be able to take action and add [status-review] or [featured] to the request to lower rep levels? Or do you have another suggestion for how to improve this?
    – Laurel
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 19:34
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    It's not my intent to sound bossy and aggressive, so for that I apologize. However, I want to be sure I understand your answer; credit and criticism is owed where it is due. Additionally, as a moderator you have to be the one to add moderator-only tags and in general be the liaison between the community and staff. If there was something I could do myself to move this forward other than bothering moderators, I would (which is why I asked for your suggestions).
    – Laurel
    Commented Dec 18, 2023 at 22:37
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    I see 18 pending edits in the review queue at the moment: i.sstatic.net/90sVX.jpg. However, you seem to have only 3 in your view. Is it possible that you have skipped some of them? If so, I would suggest you to check the list of your skipped suggested edit reviews and reconsider them. As for the advice to “wait until the required vote threshold is reached”, I have already mentioned that my oldest suggested edit dates back to more than six months ago. How much longer should I wait? Surely, such a long delay is neither by design nor desirable for reviewing a suggested edit.
    – galacticninja
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 0:50
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    @Rubén-VolunteerModerator- Let's continue the discussion in the Web Apps SE chat room.
    – galacticninja
    Commented Dec 19, 2023 at 3:51

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