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Do we need to fill in the edit summary when editing pages?

Personally, I'm unsure what's this used for. I know it may play a hand when doing rollbacks, but in most cases, aren't most edits self-explanatory?

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    Rollbacks are the one case where I wish you could add an edit summary – Raven Dreamer Mar 12 '13 at 18:07
  • @Raven There's actually a means to have an edit summary with a rollback. It just requires you to elect to edit an older revision rather than simply just "rollback" on it. – Grace Note♦ Mar 12 '13 at 18:29
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Is it required? Not if you're a 2k user, suggested edits do require one though.

Is it helpful? I think it is. It's a lot more relevant when you have a pretty significant change, whether or not it is obvious to see. Having that up-front message that tells exactly why you did the edit you did not only helps people understand why you did something, but also preps them for actually looking at the edit.

If one wants to be a helpful citizen and help save people time when evaluating changes, appendings, and other forms of revisions, then including an edit summary with every edit action is a pretty good thing to do in that direction.

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    I actually wish it were required. I often forget to write a summary, but I always think it's a useful addition. – Invader Skoodge Mar 12 '13 at 19:08
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    @Strix I'm okay with it not being required because sometimes it can get in the way of some folk's processes, and for some of those people, I'm comfortable enough with their fixes (especially those grammar/spelling beasts that tear through so much) that having a written summary would just slow them down for no solid benefit. That said, I've apparently become a poster-model for writing these out. – Grace Note♦ Mar 12 '13 at 19:11
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    @GraceNote - I wish there was a button to insert "Formatting & Grammar fixes" in the edit summary, because that's pretty much the gist of most edits I make – Robotnik♦ Mar 13 '13 at 0:42
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I think the summary is helpful to explain why you edited something. But I generally leave it empty if it is obvious that I'm just cleaning up the post, or fixing grammar and typos.

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