Magic Editor: don't leave comments when editing from Help & Improvement queue

[dippas]

I was reviewing some queues, and I noticed that whenever I edited a post automatically leaves a comment with the changes I made (the description that goes for each edit post). Since I noticed this behavior I deleted the comments, however I might have missed one or two because I've already had a moderator reach me with this:

@dippas Please stop duplicating your revision comments with comments below the questions.

It only happens when editing from review queue.

[makyen]

I'm not aware of MagicEditor doing this. I don't see in the code where MagicEditor could do this (other than SE deciding that all edit comments would be made comments). It's never done it for me (when I've edited using "Improve Edit" and "Reject and Edit"; I've only very rarely used the "Edit" button in a review queue). Are you sure that it's MagicEditor placing these comments? MagicEditor hasn't changed in a year and a half. So, if this hasn't been going on for at least that long, then something else changed to cause those comments to be placed.

Note: Other than "Improve Edit" and "Reject and Edit", editing from review queues should be a very rare thing for you to do. Clicking on the blue "Edit" button ejects the post from the queue after you complete the edit. It should only be done if your edit fixes everything in the post to the point the post is on-topic and requires no additional moderation action from that review queue.

[dippas]

It is adding this when I hit the edit button:

might have something to do with the new code of conduct?

this happens in the "Help and improvement" queue only.

If I do this in the "Late Answers" it only shows the usual "Edit summary" box

[makyen]

So, did this used to happen? Did H&I always have the only place to have an edit comment be a field that also posted a comment on the post? Is this something that changed recently?

The UI looks strange/confusing. As far as I know, this is the only place on SE where there isn't an Edit Summary field. If they are going to do that, there there should be two fields, one for an Edit Summary and one for a comment for the post. They can have a check-box that makes them the same content, and so users can have them be different content, if they want.

[dippas]

To be honest I've just started using magic editor in last few days. I didn't do some reviews in a while so I can't remember if there was a difference between back then and now in the "H&I" queue

[makyen]

I'm wondering in particular because you are getting the comment from mods:

@dippas Please stop duplicating your revision comments with comments below the questions.

It looks like there is currently no way to not duplicate your Edit Summary as a comment on the post when editing from the Help & Improvement queue. The only way not leave a comment is to not leave an Edit Summary. Given that the mod is asking you not to do this, I suspect this is a new change by SE.

[dippas]

Well it might be because the content from edit summary is copied "ipsis verbis" to/from "Explain your edit in a comment" therefore the duplicate is made

[makyen]

As for the mod comment: I'd comment back to the mod and say that's just how it works from the H&I queue. That's how SE designed it. It's not reasonable for the mod to be asking you not to do something which the SE UI forces. I strongly suspect that the mod doesn't know that H&I does this.

[dippas]

@makyen I've been deleting the comment before editing. Should a bug be raised in meta?

[makyen]

I'm not sure I'd call it a bug. It's a misfeature. It's working exactly how they appear to have designed it. It's just the design is ... setting users up for unexpected behavior.

I'd probably post as a feature request. I'd be surprised if there isn't already at least one Meta post on this issue.

[makyen]

So, given that the Edit Summary is where MagicEditor normally puts the list of things that it's done, and it's still good to have that list, what should we do with it in the H&I queue? I'm open to options. Off the top of my head I see:

1. Do nothing with it, just drop it.
2. Continue putting it in that textarea
   1. With no change
   2. Add a note somewhere near the textarea reminding the user that the text area is both the edit summary and a comment to the user.
3. Put the list somewhere else on the page.

[dippas]

Maybe could we detect that we are in "H&I" queue and if so when editing don't add nothing from the list to the comment textbox? (since it is a different box than the edit summary box)

[makyen]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was referring to making changes only for H&I, not to how MagicEditor functions elsewhere.

[dippas]

@makyen OK :) So yes do nothing in the comment box (I guess that means no list in edit summary box as well right?)

[makyen]

As far as I can tell, the entire problem is that in the H&I queue, those two things (Edit Summary and Comment to User) are a single input box which is applied to both places. So, there's only one box. It's not a question of can we do it in one, but not the other.

The only way we could do it in one, but not the other is to let the textarea be used for both the Edit Summary and Comment, then, after the comment is created, we determine the ID for the comment and have MagicEditor auto-delete the comment, but that's functionality that ... kind-of steps out of the box in which MagicEditor is in, and would prevent the user from adding a comment, if they wanted one.

Hmmm... I guess I could look at if creating the comment and edit summary are done in the client, or if it's done in the backend. If it's done in the client with two separate calls to SE endpoints, we might be able to create an additional "Edit Summary" textarea. I'll at least take a look at that possibility, but, again, it depends on how SE implemented things.

[dippas]

I've tested now manually, by adding a comment it adds to edit summary title as well, so yes it looks like to me this should be reviewed by SE

[makyen]

So, having taken a look at it, it appears that it's possible, but non-trivial, for us to have a userscript which creates an additional textarea, so there would be two textarea inputs: a separate one for an Edit Summary and one for a post-comment. However, that would probably be more appropriate in a separate userscript, rather than in MagicEditor.

It does appear that the Edit Summary and comment are created at the same time by adding the properties 'from-helper-queue': 'true' and 'from-review-queue': 'true' to the POST to the /posts/{ID}/edit-submit/UUID endpoint