The discussion revolves around the editing grace period for posts containing ‘watched words’ that trigger automatic flags. Carleas initially notes that edits during a grace period usually don’t appear in revision history, but this doesn’t apply when a post is flagged due to a watched word. Moin clarifies that edits on flagged posts always create a revision, helping moderators understand why a post was flagged—especially when the system is responsible. Carleas agrees with the reasoning. sam moves the topic to the ‘Feature’ category and tags it for staff experience. Moin adds that logging edits on flagged posts makes it easier to understand the system’s actions, especially when the flag is not due to simple word usage but more complex reasons.
Normally there’s a grace period for post edits during which changes aren’t tracked in the post’s revision history.
But when on posts containing a ‘watched word’ that causes their post to be flagged for review, the grace period is closed and all edits are tracked.
I’m not totally sure this is a bug, but it’s unexpected to me, and a user noticed and brought it to my attention.
Thanks!
Edits on flagged posts always create a revision. This helps moderators to understand why a user (or in your case, the system) flagged the post. If the reason why the post was flagged is removed in the edit and you couldn’t check the original version, how could you judge if the user flagging the post was right?
That makes sense, thanks for the explanation. I still think of users flagging posts and the system flagging posts as distinct functions, but it makes sense that they are handled the same way.
Cool, I am moving this to feature, and tagged it as staff-experience so the team can consider.
I still think it’s easier to understand why the system flagged the post when the edit is logged. Otherwise, it’s more difficult if the watched word was removed, especially if you don’t use simple words but complex regex.