When reviewing edits, what is considered a minor change?

Question

I'd like to know what edits should be rejected as too minor, and which ones should be accepted? I'm thinking about things like:

• Changing just the misleading title
• Editing formatting of menu options from backticks to emphasis
• Adding formatting to file paths to improve readability
• Fixing some problems in a low-quality post that will probably be removed
• Removing "I'm new here" or "Thank you"

Should I accept single edits like that? What about when some user is flooding edit queue with formatting changes like the ones I've mentioned above?

Answer 1

Changing just the misleading title

If nothing else looks wrong and the change in title helps then it is probably not too minor. But if there are other things that look wrong at a quick glance reject as too minor. If you see only 1 or 2 things that could be fixed click improve instead.

Editing formatting of menu options from backticks to emphasis

Back ticks are not for emphasis. They are meant to be used for inline code. If all they are doing is adding emphasis. I would reject as too minor. And too many code blocks can make the readability worse.

Adding formatting to file paths to improve readability

Do you actually think it improves readability I would say it might be ok. However if you are unsure skip.

Fixing some problems in a low-quality post that will probably be removed

When looking at suggested edits don't think about them as if they are going to be removed in the future. Think about them more as does this edit make the post better now. If the edit fixes most of the problems in the post accept it. If it fixes some either reject as too minor or improve it yourself if you think you can. Or just skip it if you do not think you can accurately judge the question.

Removing "I'm new here" or "Thank you"

Most of the time there is something else wrong in these posts too so editing out just these statements would probably be too minor. But you should improve them and mark the original edit either helpful or unhelpful depending on how much of the original post they edited.

What about when some user is flooding edit queue with formatting changes like the ones I've mentioned above?

If they are flooding the suggestion queue leave them a custom rejection message. They may or may not read these but its the best you can do (other than flagging a moderator). Also if too many of there edits get rejected they will be banned from making suggested edits for 7 days.

Overall think about this when you are approving or rejecting as too minor. Should this post be bumped to the front page because of the edits this person made? If the edits are insubstantial you should be rejecting it.

Answer 2

Remember, the point of editing includes any/all of the following:

• Improving the readability of the post
  I include spelling or grammar with this part here. We are mainly native English speakers, so that is the language we expect questions written in. Proper grammar and spelling help to also bring "professionals" to the site, since they would feel they're also dealing with "professionals". This is also where I add the <kbd> tags around buttons to be pressed
• Fixing major formatting errors (i.e. inline images not properly working)
  I have seen errors in people's formatting, such as not finishing a tag off, or using the backticks (`) for things that make no sense. Also, posting screenshots when the user does not have the reputation.
• Change tags to help categorize the question
  This is quite minor, but there are some tags that would make no sense being tagged on the question. I rarely change just the tags, as it does not usually help the question by itself
• Remove noise, increase signal
  Remove signatures, "hope this helps"-type messages, etc. Get the important information out, front and center

I try to correct 2 or 3 of these items with each edit that I Improve, and I generally approve edits that follow the same guidelines.