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There was a recent (end of August 2021) change in the way Stack Exchange handles such edits. When editing a closed question, now there is a checkbox to say whether the edit is substantial - and only significant edit pushes a question into the reopen review queue. So this mostly resolves the problem mentioned here - the editor only has to keep in mind not to check this checkbox if the edit doesn't bring the question to the form which would already be suitable for the reviewers. More details can be found in the announcement on Meta Stack Exchange: Review queue workflows - Final release.

This question was rendered obsolete by these changes.

One of the reasons why a question can be put on hold is that it does not fulfill standards of the site. The OP is expected to improve the question.

Review queue is here to help re-opening questions that deserve reopening. IIRC a question gets into review queue if someone votes to re-open. Another way how it gets there is if there is an edit to the question. As far as I know this only can happen once.

For this reason it would be better if the post gets into re-open review queue only after the edit by the OP in which he tried to address the issues which caused the question to be put on-hold.

When I retag a question or make a minor spelling or grammar correction, this improves the question. But if the question enters the review queue after such minor edit, the users will probably vote to leave closed. And if the OP later improves the question, it will not enter the review queue. Which means that while I was trying to help the OP by editing their question, I have lowered the chance of the question being re-opened.

To summarize:

  • Is my understanding of the way questions enter the review queue correct? (Can minor edit send the question to the review queue? Can a question enter the review queue only once?)
  • Should we (for the reasons described above) avoid minor edits of questions by other users after the question has been put on hold?
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  • $\begingroup$ A somewhat shaky authoritative answer meta.stackoverflow.com/a/256572 $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Sep 16, 2014 at 11:31
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    $\begingroup$ A side consideration indicated by the link in my previous comment is that edits only bump on-hold questions into the queue within the first five days of closure. This means that if it is the fifth day already and the OP has done nothing, you might as well go ahead with your edits. $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Sep 16, 2014 at 11:35
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    $\begingroup$ This Q&A were rendered obsolete by recent changes to the underlying SE software. It as it is now possible to mark an edit as minor, there is less reason to discourage users from editing closed questions in order to make minor changes. $\endgroup$
    – Xander Henderson Mod
    Sep 7, 2021 at 19:47

1 Answer 1

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I quote from Shog9 (emphasis mine):

Currently, this means that a closed question will automatically be added to the reopen queue when it is...

  • ...Edited (body edits only) within 70 days of closure by the author. Or,
  • ...Edited (body edits only) within 70 days of closure by a 3rd-party, provided the editor has not also flagged the question or voted to close it. Or,
  • ...Sufficiently popular, where popularity is calculated based on question score, top answer score, or views per month.

A question will only be enqueued once per closure via editing. It will be enqueued once per reopen vote as long as there are no outstanding reopen votes that've already triggered a review.

So yes, I believe your concern is legitimate, at least within the first five days after the question was put on-hold, and when you are not one of the users who voted to close.

Perhaps this should also be made better known to the poster! Quite frequently I've seen inessential edits bump questions into the review queue, well before they are ready to be reconsidered.

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  • $\begingroup$ So what is the best way to act when act with a situation that the OP was confronted with? is editing and (again) flaging the right way? $\endgroup$
    – Willemien
    Sep 19, 2014 at 21:21
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    $\begingroup$ @Willemien With 3K rep, one can vote for reopening, which will put the question under review again. There is no such thing as flag for reopening. One could flag for moderator attention, but moderators tend to avoid closing/reopening on their own. And their workload is large enough already. So, if you don't have 3K and see a [closed] question that you think should be reopened, the way to go is to post a request for reopen votes. $\endgroup$
    – user147263
    Sep 21, 2014 at 2:21
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    $\begingroup$ This was replaced by the "significant edit" checkbox - as announced on Meta Stack Exchange: Review queue workflows - Final release. (I have edited the question to mention this - I do not know whether you wish to add something about this to your answer, too.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Sep 4, 2021 at 7:09
  • $\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak: would you? It has been 7 years and I haven't been keeping up with the changes. $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Sep 6, 2021 at 15:31
  • $\begingroup$ @WillieWong Maybe it's enough that it is not mentioned at the beginning of the questions? In any case, we can continue this discussion in chat so that we do not leave too many comments here. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Sep 6, 2021 at 15:33
  • $\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak: that's fine too. A more drastic alternative is to get a mod to lock this with your edit highlighted as the lock message, since this Q+A is essentially deprecated. $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Sep 6, 2021 at 15:37

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