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I just rejected a suggested edit on this question, where someone had proposed adding but making no other changes. Since the question was two and a half years old, I rejected the edit with the 'causes harm' reason and the following detail:

Adding 'homework' tag to this old question will unnecessarily promote it to the front page of the site. Edits to old questions should be substantive.

While almost certainly does belong on the question, the edit seemed too minor to be worth the bump to the front page. Was this the right call?

OOPS: Per Melanie's answer, apparently the question already was on the front page and I missed it. Given this, I would have voted 'accept' in this case. The general question stands, though.

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  • $\begingroup$ You meant substantial, right? $\endgroup$
    – Jan
    Commented Nov 30, 2015 at 11:08
  • $\begingroup$ @Jan, no, I meant substantive. There's been much debate over homework, and my sense has been that it's primarily an 'in-epoch' tag. The tag has meta-meaning, but does not directly describe the 'chemistry-ness' of posts. $\endgroup$
    – hBy2Py
    Commented Nov 30, 2015 at 12:01
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    $\begingroup$ (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ I came here late. $\endgroup$
    – M.A.R.
    Commented Nov 30, 2015 at 14:44

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There once was a too trivial edit rejection reason. That has, however, since been removed, meaning that SE staff considers no edit too trivial (if the other reject reasons are not met).

On the other hand I will agree with you that bad old questions don’t need to be bumped unnecessarily — ‘don’t polish turds’.

Then again, the only way to actually check that is to open the front page in another tab/window, and to look if the question is there, or to open the question and scan for the last edit (that is, however, prone to error if the last modification was either community user bumping or a post being deleted; both don’t show up).

So Melanie, don’t worry, do continue editing posts on the front page regardless of their total age. Brian don’t worry, you did the right thing from your perspective. The other two reviewers (Curt F and ron) also did the right thing imho by accpeting the edit.
Let’s all have some Christmas cookies =3

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    $\begingroup$ In addition to that, I would say, don't worry too much about bumping a question. It does not need to be done, but it certainly does not cause harm. As the community grows, there is way too much flux on the front page any way, so one more question getting up there does not hurt. If the edit is justified, just accept it. $\endgroup$
    – Martin - マーチン Mod
    Commented Dec 2, 2015 at 3:00
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Generally speaking I would agree with you, edits to old posts should definitely be substantive to avoid unnecessary bumping.

However in this case it was already on the front page so the edit didn't really bump it much. Of course this information isn't reflected in the review queue, so don't feel bad about it.

In the end it seems that the edit was accepted, so no harm (in the form of denying +2 reputation) was done :)

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That was me. (Oops.)

The question was on the front page due to a new answer on it. (I usually only do cleanup on front page stuff.) I didn't realize the question was so old and don't mind the reject.

Note: I just went back to the question to see why it was on the front page. You might want to take a look at the new answer. I flagged it, so it's probably in the queue. :S

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  • $\begingroup$ Oops here too! I completely missed that it was already on the front page. OP edited. $\endgroup$
    – hBy2Py
    Commented Nov 30, 2015 at 12:05

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