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I'm not yet used to the convenient retag functionality, so when I went to add a tag to a question via an edit I got this message:

Oops! Your edit couldn't be submitted because:

You have the privilege to retag questions; to suggest an edit please include a change to the title and/or the body as well

This is sort of broken. I mean, the system has determined that:

  1. I want to edit only the tags
  2. I have the right to edit tags

Why doesn't it just go ahead and do a retag for me? Why force the user to discard the change and do it through the "proper" interface? Seems pretty ack-basswards.

I propose that when an edit consisting only of a retag is attempted by a user with retag privileges, the edit is treated like a retag and the question gets successfully retagged.

I am not proposing that the retag attempted through the edit interface be pushed through as a suggested edit. I am proposing that it be pushed through as a retag, since that's what it is. This is only about usability; it is not about the workflow for suggested edits, which I think is fine as-is.

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  • Did you try just pressing the 'retag' link below the question?
    – Pelle Mod
    Commented Jul 30, 2011 at 1:52
  • @Pelle Yes I did. The point is that the user interaction is broken. The system knows exactly what you want to do and that you are allowed to do it, but instead of just doing it it forces you to discard and redo the change through the "retag" feature. Bad design choice.
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Jul 30, 2011 at 3:58
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    I would recommend converting this into a proper feature-request, I think it's a valid concern.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Aug 8, 2011 at 18:27
  • @Grace Do I just add a feature-request tag?
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Aug 8, 2011 at 18:28
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    Swap out the support tag and also rewrite it to go more at the angle of the actual feature suggestion so that it sounds like less of a "Why does this happen this way?".
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Aug 8, 2011 at 18:29
  • @Grace Sure thing, thanks!
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Aug 8, 2011 at 18:30

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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If you have the privileges to retag, but submit your edit as a suggested edit, you are creating work for your fellow users. They then have to vet your suggested edit.

This makes no sense in the case of retag when you have that ability.

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  • 2
    As I said, the error message I get shows up when the system has determined that my edit only consists of a retag. It should just go ahead and do the retag! No edit approval required. Again: I have retag privileges, so when I try to do a retag it should work regardless of whether it's through the retag feature or the edit feature. This is solely about usability.
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Aug 7, 2011 at 17:05

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