Editing Help:Minor edit (section)

{{Short description|An edit that makes a superficial difference}}
<noinclude>{{pp-semi-indef}}{{pp-move-indef}}
{{redirect-distinguish|WP:MINOR|Wikipedia:Minors and persons judged incompetent|Wikipedia:Child protection|Wikipedia:Minority opinions}}{{Redirect|Wikipedia:ME}}
</noinclude>
{{Information page|WP:MINOR|WP:ME}}
{{nutshell|Checking the minor edit box is only for superficial changes that are unlikely to be disputed, such as typographical corrections. Any edit that alters the meaning of an article, even slightly, is not minor.}}
{{Wikipedia glossary}}
[[File:Minor edit selection box in visual editor.png|thumb|300px|The "minor edit" selection box in the [[WP:VE|Visual editor]] "Save" form]]

A check to the '''minor edit''' box signifies that only superficial differences exist between the current and previous versions. Examples include [[Typographical error|typographical corrections]], corrections of minor formatting errors, and reversion of obvious [[Wikipedia:Vandalism|vandalism]]. A ''minor edit'' requires no review and could never be the subject of a dispute. An edit of this kind is marked in its page's [[Help:Page history|revision history]] with a lowercase, bolded "m" character ('''m''').

By contrast, all concerned editors should review a major edit for its acceptability. Any change affecting an article's '' meaning '' is not minor, even if it concerns a single word.

Because editors may choose to ignore minor edits when reviewing [[Help:Recent changes|recent changes]], the distinction between major and minor edits is significant. Logged-in users can set their [[Help:Preferences|preferences]] not to display minor edits. If there is any chance that another editor might dispute a change, the edit should not be marked as minor. (If an editor considers a change to be minor yet conceivably controversial, one option is to include the word "minor" in the [[help:edit summary|edit summary]] without ticking the "minor edit" box.)

Users who are not [[Help:Logging in|logged in]] to {{SITENAME}} or are in mobile mode are not permitted to mark changes as minor because of the potential for vandalism.{{efn|Minor edits were disabled for logged-out users in [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2003-January/001970.html January 2003] after [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2002-December/001737.html a discussion about bot edits and RecentChanges].}} The ability to mark changes as minor is [[Wikipedia:Why create an account|among the many reasons to create and use an account]] on Wikipedia to edit.

A good rule of thumb is that only edits consisting {{strong|solely}} of spelling corrections, formatting changes, or rearrangement of text without modification of the content may be flagged as minor edits.

It's acceptable to never mark a single edit as "minor". If other editors complain about your use of the "minor" edit flag, then it's likely a good idea to stop using it.