<p><strong>I feel an obligation to answer, because the mentioned post was edited by me.</strong></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Whether you agree or not (which is totally OK) it might be interesting for you to learn about my motivations and my opinion about the matter.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>First I share the opinion of Patrick Coulombe and others that approved edits of old posts should not appear on top. That is somehow confusing to users.
But I don't think one should stop editing old posts for this reason.</p>

<p>Quite obviously there are people considering these changes minor: otherwise we wouldn't have this thread. And I think this is OK. I also don't agree with every edit. I personally think every improvement counts, especially also on old posts. New users read these posts and will hopefully shape their first new posts after these. Every improved post is a net win for people reading these posts and for teaching new users.</p>

<p>Cross Validated also has some kind of inbuilt limitation for minor edits.
(I think you have to change at least x amount of chars to be considered.) </p>

<p>As mentioned, I  like parsing through all posts (searching for certain terms) and edit stylistic elements that I feel that could be improved.</p>

<p>One thing I am looking for is whatever reminds me more of a letter than a Q&amp;A platform. </p>

<p>Something that looks like (exaggerated example):</p>

<pre><code>Dear CrossValidated Community, 

my kindest greetings[...]

Best regards,
Caesar
</code></pre>

<p>In my opinion people are looking for questions and answers and don't like to parse letters. Still, I usually don't delete a small <code>thanks</code> or something minor, because I still think it is nice to be able to show gratitude (just not being half of the question text). </p>

<p>I  also like to delete all forms of self-shaming, which I consider harmful and not in line with the values of the code of conduct ('<code>Be respectful</code>' , '<code>mutual respect</code>').</p>

<p>Something like (exaggerated example):</p>

<pre><code>Sorry for asking this utterly stupid question,
I am a complete idiot for asking this..
</code></pre>

<p>This will make beginner users reading the question feel bad. Nobody should even talk in this derogatory manner. Everybody was a beginner once and will be a beginner for certain topics. I don't want to go too much off-topic here, but mental health also means being kind to yourself.</p>

<p><strong>Overall:</strong></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>I always had the feeling quite a few people agree with these
  edits: there were not too many edit rejections.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>But I definitely also try to consider the feedback from this thread**</p>

<p><strong>About the motivation</strong>  It is hard to know yourself what your exact motivation is. It is even harder to speculate about the exact motivation of others.</p>

<p>Economically most reasonable would probably be (for us all) to spend the time required for editing or answering earning some real-life money ;)</p>

<p>My motivations are probably quite similar to most users I guess:
some  weird mixture of falling for the gamification approach, earning alleged virtual social respect and altruistic motives of making the world (or well at least Cross Validated) a better place and just being a helpful person.</p>

<p>Like probably most people I would be lying if I say: 'I never looked at my badges or reputation'. In the end, gamification is an essential and popular part of the platform. Otherwise  we wouldn't be discussing whether edits should give reputation 2 and just appreciate that some minor change to the positive occurred.</p>

<p>Maybe also nice to know: there is a limit on how much reputation one can earn with edits. I guess it is 2k. So it might be nice to motivate people to do edits but  on the other hand there is some kind of limit to keep a balance in the reputation system. </p>
