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Sometimes when I am going through the reopen queue I come across questions that have been edited by another user who is not the author of the question. These edits are mostly or entirely cosmetic in nature (fixing grammar, typos, formatting, etc.), but because the question has been edited after closure it ends up in the review queue. Unless the question was closed because of the cosmetic issues that were fixed, the only option is essentially to vote to keep the question closed.

The problem is, at least to my understanding, is if the question is edited by the OP while the reopen votes are being cast, this does not undo previous votes. So if the question was improved later on to be good enough for reopening, it might not be reopened because of the previous votes.

This is probably an edge case, but the question still stands. If a question is already closed, should other users make purely cosmetic edits that do not do much, if anything, to aid in the question being reopened?

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    $\begingroup$ Note from this mother-meta post that there may be an SE-side change upcoming to the behavior "Any edit, regardless of its substance, currently sends a closed question for review in the Reopen votes queue." That meta post is already older than the mythical "six to eight weeks," so take the prediction with an appropriate-sized grain of salt. $\endgroup$
    – rob Mod
    Aug 12, 2021 at 15:06
  • $\begingroup$ @rob Thanks for the link $\endgroup$
    – BioPhysicist
    Aug 12, 2021 at 15:11

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With the remodeling of the review queues, users now have the option to explicitly mark their edits to closed questions as significant enough to warrant reopen reviews.

So, as long as the editors refrain from marking their cosmetic edits as significant, there is no longer any reason to refrain from such edits.

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    $\begingroup$ Can you ping an editor of a question if they didn't leave any prior comments on the question? $\endgroup$
    – BioPhysicist
    Aug 12, 2021 at 15:42
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    $\begingroup$ @BioPhysicist Yes, see meta.stackexchange.com/a/43020/263383 $\endgroup$
    – ACuriousMind Mod
    Aug 12, 2021 at 15:46
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    $\begingroup$ Well, you learn something new everyday! Thanks $\endgroup$
    – BioPhysicist
    Aug 12, 2021 at 15:48
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    $\begingroup$ @BioPhysicist Note that editor names do not auto-complete, you have to ping them manually. From ACM's link: "Editors and other users from the post's history will never appear there, even if they are able to be notified by typing manually". $\endgroup$
    – PM 2Ring
    Aug 12, 2021 at 16:12
  • $\begingroup$ @PM2Ring I think that is why I thought the pinging wouldn't work. Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – BioPhysicist
    Aug 12, 2021 at 16:13
  • $\begingroup$ Should we consider updating this answer and the question in view of the new "significant edit" feature? $\endgroup$
    – Urb
    Aug 27, 2021 at 10:27
  • $\begingroup$ @Urb Good point, I've updated the answer. (Generally one shouldn't completely change an accepted answer but in this case I think it's justified, let me know if you disagree) $\endgroup$
    – ACuriousMind Mod
    Aug 27, 2021 at 11:16

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