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Lately I've seen a few suggested edits that appear to be the original author of the question attempting to modify the question, but they aren't logged into the original account.

For example, the question is usually asked by a low (new) reputation user that has a custom user name (something other than userXXXXXXX). The edit is suggested by a different user, and in many cases the username is the same. In other cases, it's a brand new user (userXXXXXXX, 1 reputation), but the edit does appear to be in line with the original question.

None of the rejection options in the suggested edit review really apply. Generally I just skip these, or if I feel like it could be another user trying to make a comment I'll vote to reject the edit as an attempt to reply.

Are these generally rejected, or do other reviewers feel that approving these is OK?

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  • As the answers below already state, I always leave a comment with a link to the merging accounts help page if I suspect it's the same person, but this is sort of independent of the review process. I'll approve them if I think it's the same person or appropriate (I recall one case dealing with a two person team), reject them if it's obviously someone else and significantly alters the question (I've seen plenty of cases of people trying to help, particularly non-English speaker posts, that go too far), and skip if I just really can't tell.
    – Chris W
    Nov 21, 2015 at 18:38
  • @ChrisW I too find myself using Skip far more than I used to, now that we have a larger body of people with high reps and oftentimes more relevant knowledge of the question or answer edit that is being reviewed.
    – PolyGeo Mod
    Nov 22, 2015 at 7:45

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Lately I've seen a few suggested edits that appear to be the original author of the question attempting to modify the question, but they aren't logged into the original account.

In this case, I'd approve the suggestion and would leave a comment to the OP asking to not use different accounts (also suggesting the accounts to be merged). I just got one of these to review. If the user continue acting like this (and ignoring the comments) I'd lean toward rejecting the suggestion and flag such behavior for moderator attention. Because having multiple accounts within one SE site is not ok (the user can game the system).

In other cases, it's a brand new user (userXXXXXXX, 1 reputation), but the edit does appear to be in line with the original question.

Reject the suggestion. There is a custom reason for this: conflict with author's intent (it is a radical change).

...or if I feel like it could be another user trying to make a comment I'll vote to reject the edit as an attempt to reply.

This is correct.

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  • But how can you be sure it is indeed the same user suggesting the edit? Given the example you included I chose to reject the suggested edit because there was no way to be 100% sure it was suggested by the same person. Should I ignore such "security concerns" (within the limits of common sense)?
    – Kersten
    Nov 21, 2015 at 16:27
  • I can't be sure (100%). In that case the supposed OP responded to a comment and the edit provided data that was clearly in the context of the question. The edit was approved in the end, but your concern is correct. Everyone has its own judgment; and you were not incoherent rejecting the suggestion. I usually reject more than approve radical suggestions. But in the example I provided I thought there was a good chance of being the same person and I did not want to loose the chance of improving the question. The continuation to this comment would be my answer. @Kersten
    – Andre Silva
    Nov 21, 2015 at 17:08
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    @Kersten I think Andre's suggestion is the pragmatic approach. If you were to "get it wrong", then the owner always has the option of performing a rollback. I think such rollbacks can also be done by anyone with 2,000 rep points but, if not, then moderators certainly can.
    – PolyGeo Mod
    Nov 22, 2015 at 7:41
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    @PolyGeo I totally forgot about the owners rights to perform rollbacks. With that reasoning it should not be a big deal if an edit by someone else than the OP was wrognly approved. Thanks for the tip - I will adjust my voting strategies accordingly.
    – Kersten
    Nov 22, 2015 at 11:18
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I agree with @AndreSilva's advice but would add that I give my highest priority, via commenting within the review queue or regular commenting, to letting the poster know that they need to merge their accounts ASAP, using the instructions provided in the Help (search for "merging"):

I accidentally created two accounts; how do I merge them?

If you have two accounts that you would like to join together, please sign into either account, visit the contact form and select ‘I need to merge user profiles’. After you contact us, the Stack Exchange Team will reach out to verify that you own both accounts. If we can confirm your ownership, we will initiate a merge.

If you can't remember how to log in, go here and enter the email address you used to create the account you are trying to sign into.

Continuing to use more than one account means a number of very useful functions become unavailable and creates unnecessary and somewhat messy work for those reviewing, as you have discovered.

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  • That is what I did/meant (look my comments on that post I gave as example in my answer), but it is good to emphasize (+1).
    – Andre Silva
    Nov 21, 2015 at 11:32

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