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I've been continuously improving my answer on Freelance charging based on tasks completed Now after my 11th revision, without any other contributers adding to my answer, my answer has been converted to a community wiki answer.

Why is this done if there's only 1 editor to the answer?

I think its unfair to not receive credit for the work I put into that answer. (if it get any votes in the first place)

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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This is by design:

How does a post become a Community Wiki post?

There are several ways a question or answer can enter community wiki mode, and most of >these ways will occur automatically based on the rules of the system.

Posts enter community wiki mode when one of the following happens:

  • The body of the post has been edited† by at least five (5) >different users.

  • The post has been edited† ten (10) times by the original owner.

  • The answer's author checks the community wiki checkbox when composing the answer. Note that this checkbox isn't available to new users. The checkbox also is not available if the question is already a Community Wiki.

  • Since October 2010, there is no community wiki checkbox when asking a question.

  • The answer is edited by its original author, who when doing so opts to check the community wiki.

  • An answer posted to a Community Wiki question will also be Community Wiki. Note that when a question is made CW after answers have already been posted, all existing answers are automatically converted to CW too. Older questions did not do this, so it is possible to have a CW question with non-CW answers.

  • The question generates more than 30 answers (15 on Super User and Programmers, 60 on Code Golf). In this case, the question and all answers will enter community mode, as will any future answers.

  • A moderator has reason to believe that the question serves better in community wiki mode - if you believe your question should be converted to a Community Wiki, you may flag it for moderator attention.

† As far as what constitutes an "edit" for community wiki, only edits to the actual body of the post will count towards automatic community wiki. Edits to the title and tags, as well as rollbacks, do not contribute to automatic wikification. ([source][2])

* note that the rules outlined above are based on observations; the actual behavior of SO is subject to change without notice, and may well have done so since this was last updated... What are "Community Wiki" posts?

Source What are "Community Wiki" posts?

As to why it's there - here's my take:

I see it as a way to encourage you to make a few, substantial edits to the post to improve it and then leave it alone rather than continually tweaking the post with a few characters at a time.

It's also there to discourage you making trivial edits just to bump the question back onto the homepage in order to try to get more votes.

If you think your edits are useful and you're only editing to improve the post without thought for the reputation you might earn from repeated exposure of the question then flag the post for moderator attention using the "other" option and we'll consider the request to "unwiki" the post.

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  • I don't understand why the 10 edit rule is there in the first place. It's very unmotivating to see that if you work harder, you get less.
    – Onno
    Dec 12, 2013 at 16:27
  • @Onno - see my update.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Dec 12, 2013 at 16:32
  • thnx for the update :) I wasn't editing it for the sole sake of bumping it, I was really going for improvement. However I have to admit that with only 805 rep, I can use every bit that I can get to unlock features. So I was a bit disappointed to see that happen.
    – Onno
    Dec 12, 2013 at 16:33
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    @Onno - wiki removed.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Dec 12, 2013 at 16:45
  • Thank you. I'll try to change my style of editing a bit. To be honest, I'm really used to be able to improve my answers for a long time. It's how I operate on forums as well.
    – Onno
    Dec 12, 2013 at 16:47
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    @Onno Getting rep for improving your answer is not a bad thing (it's actually a very good thing). However, the system can't distinguish between edits that actually improve the post and edits that have the sole intention of bumping it, thus the hard auto-cw limit.
    – yannis
    Dec 13, 2013 at 7:49
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    (cont...) To avoid hitting the limit, you could edit your posts off site and only post your updates when you've proof read them and are certain that you won't need a subsequent minor edit (e.g. for spelling). There are various online Markdown editors that you could use for that (a couple you'll find in this comment), and you could even use Github's gists (that support a flavour of Markdown very similar to SE's).
    – yannis
    Dec 13, 2013 at 7:50
  • @YannisRizos Thank you for the suggestion. I'll have a look at it :)
    – Onno
    Dec 13, 2013 at 14:06

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