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Since we have a such small community, and are in need of everyone who finds us, we have to consider the way we treat newcomers.
The most imporant and natural way is to vote, I suppose. Should we keep in mind that the user is a newcomer? Maybe pay a little extra attention to those questions?
Should we avoid editing posts made by newcomers (to any extent)? Even though it is completely irrational, I do believe (although I have no evidence of this) that having your question edited can have a discouraging effect. It is important that people feel welcome. Of course, there are cases when we should edit also the posts of newcomers. But where should the line be drawn? I've tried to make a list of examples, ranging from a very necessary edit to edits of which the gain is less obvious.
- Removing undebatable mistake
- Converting from the x-system
- Formatting
- English spelling
- English grammar
- Puncuation
- Making sentences shorter
- Making sentences "sound better" (is this what is called "stylistic changes"?)
- Remove greetings
Whether or not to be picky about tags is another thing we can discuss. I'm not sure where to place that on my list.
I also think there is a possible alternative to editing: leaving a nice comment asking the user to correct it himself/herself.
What do you all say?
(Earlier I started a thread regarding edits, with several sides to it. But, I think this specific matter can be discussed separeately. Therefore, I removed the topic from the other question and started this one. I believe it made no damage since none of the comments or answers in the last question had anything to do with newcomers.)
Possible duplicate of What should be our standpoints for edits?–None–2016-10-08T12:10:15.923
2I realized we should discuss this separately. I will edit the other question, and remove the part about newcomers. It should be fine since none of the anwers or comments mention newcomers specifically.–None–2016-10-09T16:26:16.460
I feel it is still a duplicate, since newcomers are a sub-set of the users of a site. If there is a different approach for newcomers, an answer to the other question should point that out.–None–2016-10-09T16:32:02.460
1I see what you mean, but I want a more direct response. I feel like the opinion of the other users hasn't been presented to me regardig this yet. I edited the other question now, to make things more clear. Anyone who thinks we should not have a different approach for newcomers is more than welcome to post that as an answer to this question.–None–2016-10-09T21:11:27.790
Do we have any data to backup what said here, for example the number of edits done on questions asked by newcomers? How do you define a user newcomer? Do you consider the reputation a user has on EL, or the network reputation? In this case, what is the reputation limit under which a user falls in the newcomer category?–None–2016-10-13T05:59:04.123