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I've noticed that occasionally I will suddenly start seeing bursts of old, unanswered questions from the same 2 - 3 day span on the SO tags I follow. Many of the questions are more than 6 months old. Most of them reappear because they have been edited by the same user. What is the reason for this? Do admins occasionally go back and reactivate old unanswered questions to see if they will be answered? And if they do, why are they always from a specific 2 - 3 day period?

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  • 6
    " because they have been edited by the same user"... So are you asking why rep farmers edit batches of old similar questions at a time? Aug 25, 2017 at 5:16
  • Can regular users edit quesitons? I assumed only admins could, but I am pretty new to the site.
    – diopside
    Aug 25, 2017 at 5:17
  • 7
    You may want to read help stackoverflow.com/help/stackexchange ... (summary "yes") Aug 25, 2017 at 5:22
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    I see, it is still curious that they would choose such a specific date range. It was so sudden and so specific that it made me wonder if it was automated w/ bots.
    – diopside
    Aug 25, 2017 at 5:25
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    @AlexeiLevenkov: Don't you mean stackoverflow.com/help/editing? Aug 25, 2017 at 5:37
  • 4
    I found that page eventually, but he made me work for it. Ugh. ;p I thought this site was for getting people to do things for you
    – diopside
    Aug 25, 2017 at 5:42
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    Could you raise a moderator flag on one of those posts, explaining your observations please? I'd like to investigate if there is possible gaming going on (badge hunting for example).
    – Martijn Pieters Mod
    Aug 25, 2017 at 6:24
  • If a person continuously editing posts only bump it into home page, do raise a custom mod flag as said by @MartijnPieters. It is gaming the system and appropriate action should be taken against that person.
    – Sagar V
    Aug 25, 2017 at 6:29
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    Ah, that's a user cleaning up a tag. I don't think they meant to pick a specific date range, I think they are just slogging through all the posts on the tag and finding where they are used incorrectly, and is doing so in date order.
    – Martijn Pieters Mod
    Aug 25, 2017 at 6:47
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    Wow hats off to that... I can't say I envy the work but its good someone does it!
    – diopside
    Aug 25, 2017 at 7:07
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    @diopside "I thought this site was for getting people to do things for you" You (hopefully, probably) didn't mean it quite so bluntly, but that's almost exactly what this site is not for! It's main purpose is to allow users to help others to do things themselves, and to be a repository of such help.
    – TripeHound
    Aug 25, 2017 at 8:21
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    That was sarcasm... should have added the /s tag :-P
    – diopside
    Aug 25, 2017 at 8:22
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    Although it is apparently a common sentiment judging from some of the questions I see every day! Hah. Some of it I chalk up to language barriers, and people not knowing how to word things 'politely' so it sounds like they are making demands. But many people are definitely making demands...
    – diopside
    Aug 25, 2017 at 8:23
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    @MartinBonner: it's fine if the edits are constructive. If, however, someone is removing a space here and adding a space there, just to get a badge... We encourage quality actions, if you are obviously just churning the edits for the badge then that's not okay.
    – Martijn Pieters Mod
    Aug 25, 2017 at 14:03
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    @TylerH: nope, not you.
    – Martijn Pieters Mod
    Aug 27, 2017 at 21:09

1 Answer 1

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Badges.

The Archaeologist Badge is awarded to people who edit posts > 6 months old. For instance, the Silver badge is awarded once you have edited 100 posts over 6 months old.

If I was trying to get this badge, I would probably do a search for posts 6 months old, and start working backwards finding posts that need editing. Given the number of posts arriving each day, it is reasonable that I would get bored before I have gone further back than say 6months+1-2 days.

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    No, tag-cleaning. See Martijn Pieters's comment above.
    – TripeHound
    Aug 25, 2017 at 8:16
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    They are not mutually exclusive though - and the question is a general "why does this happen", rather than a specific instance, so this is a valid answer to the general case
    – mjs
    Aug 25, 2017 at 8:17
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    In this specific case, no, this is not a case of badge hunting. The edits don't qualify towards the badge, and they started with posts that were quite recent at the time, but working their way backwards.
    – Martijn Pieters Mod
    Aug 25, 2017 at 14:04
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    @mjs If they are just cleaning up the tags that does not count Aug 25, 2017 at 16:41

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