Editing a wiki post currently happens quite silently. Attentive users will notice the change in edit counts and it is possible to track who made which edit, but wiki editors don’t show up as contributors to a topic (because contributions are defined as replies.)
Under certain circumstances this leads to a situation where a wiki topic is bumped due to an edit (because there are no replies), but in topic listings the only user avatar that is shown is the that of the creator of the topic, so it looks like this author has just edited the topic.
Obviously, this is an edge case but I wanted to mention it as a less evident downside of the current way wikis work. There are also obvious advantages of not making a big fuss about wiki edits, so I’m not saying there is a big problem here, but how about this: in the wiki editor, add a tick box next to where it says “(add edit reason)”:
`[x] this is a minor edit (no reply will be created) `
If it is ticked (= default?), everything works exactly as it does now. But if it is unchecked, saving the edit will create an automatic reply similar to those we see when topics are split or closed etc:
`@username edited the wiki `
This would not only make (major) contributors to a wiki visible as contributors to a topic, but also make it historically more transparent in the discussion when the OP changed (which means that above that edit-reply, people were referring to a different version of the OP than below).
Related topics:
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/wiki-editor-badge/21437?u=tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/t/wiki-editor-badge/21437)
> [@List of wiki editors](https://meta.discourse.org/t/list-of-wiki-editors/26364):
>
> I was thinking at this today, while looking through the edits made by the community - it would nice to see the list of all people who edited a wiki post. This way you attribute some recognition to them and you can also create responsibility (if people see their name next to a wiki post they may be more careful about what they write in there). I will also try to create a mock-up about how I see this implemented, but I’m curios to see if there are other people who find this useful?
> [@Not receiving notifications for edited Wiki posts unless you are the author](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-notifications-for-edited-wiki-posts-unless-you-are-the-author/24340):
>
> This is something strange. I have made one topic a wiki post and kept it open. Then inside another browser I login with a different user id. I edited the wiki post and then I checked the forum on my admin ID. I did not received any notification whatsoever that could tel me that someone actually contributed to the post and edited it? Am I missing something here or some setting is required. Why are we not receiving notifications for wiki post edits? Is the original author of wiki post the sole pu…
---
> [@tophee](#):
>
> saving the edit will create an automatic reply similar to those we see when topics are split or closed etc:
Some more relevant discussion on this (I never actually got around to working on the feature):
> [@Not receiving notifications for edited Wiki posts unless you are the author](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-receiving-notifications-for-edited-wiki-posts-unless-you-are-the-author/24340/12):
>
> I think this is probably the best thread to continue this discussion, apologies if not. @sam, in [this thread](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-setting-new-topics-are-wiki-by-default/16618/10), you mentioned this idea: I like this idea, and think it could work well in my community (we’re considering moving our wiki from mediawiki into discourse). Is it something that would be considered as a PR to core, or should I be thinking about a plugin? Alternatively, is there now a better solution for allowing people to “watch/track” a wiki post for changes?
---
> [@david](#):
>
> Some more relevant discussion on this
Oh, wow, I missed that post (because it was buried in another topic, see below). I guess @sam basically said the same thing more than two years ago:
> [@Category setting: new topics are wiki by default](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-setting-new-topics-are-wiki-by-default/16618/10):
>
> - **Every** edit to the OP wiki, makes the system add a system message like so:
>
> [
> Pasted image1272x138 4.82 KB
> ](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/a/b/abc8120e8227bba99a9bab4e1c509146b2d409fb.png)
>
> (also link directly to the revision)
Not sure how or why this idea got lost, but
> [@Category setting: new topics are wiki by default](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-setting-new-topics-are-wiki-by-default/16618/13):
>
> I think this deserves its own feature discussion topic not being buried in some other topic…
so, here it is! 🎉