Help talk:Edit summary

Still not possible to edit edit summaries?

Been a Wikipedia editor for almost two weeks now, and after reading this page, I learned that even to this day, it's still not possible to edit edit summaries. Why is this? Wouldn't it make sense for anyone to correct their own edit summaries if they believed they did a typo error or used the wrong brackets for linking words to special pages? For example, in this edit I made to the Earthworm article, where my edit summary says "Adjusted edit protection template; protected due to vandalism", I intended to use square brackets ([]) in order to link the word "vandalism" to the Wikipedia:Vandalism page, but I used brace brackets ({}) instead, so the link doesn't exist. How am I suppose to correct this? BriDash9000 (talk) 11:10, 21 May 2025 (UTC)

See Help:Edit summary#Edit summary properties and features ("Can't be changed after saving" bullet point) and Help:Edit summary#Fixing - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 15:58, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

Butwhatdoiknow Yeah... not really helpful. BriDash9000 (talk) 16:15, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

BriDash9000 You asked "Why is this?" and "How am I suppose to correct this?" Did I misunderstood your questions? If so, that may be my fault, or it may be yours. In either case, please consider being more civil to folks who are trying to help you with a problem. - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 21:36, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

@BriDash9000: This isn't going to happen, see for instance Help talk:Edit summary#Corrections above, and other threads in the archives. IIRC, on another page, WhatamIdoing (talk · contribs) recently replied to somebody else who made pretty much the same request. Basically: edit summaries are entries in an action log. If you allow a log entry to be edited, you need another log recording that edit. Ad infinitum. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:48, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

I've added a note at the top of this talk page. Maybe it will reduce the number of times people need to ask. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:26, 22 June 2025 (UTC)

Thats a good idea, I support it. Horse Eye's Back (talk) 02:20, 7 July 2025 (UTC)

It may not be about to happen, but there really should be a way to correct significant errors in edit summaries. I've been an editor since 2009, and saved thousands of edits, but it's still easy for your fingers to slip and hit "return" when you're reaching for quotation marks, closing brackets, or "shift". I just saved an edit with a summary ending in the middle of the sentence intended to explain what I'd done, without getting to two of the three things I changed in the space of two short paragraphs. Since there's just nothing to be done about a useless edit summary, I found an excuse to make an additional edit in the same area, and summarized the rest there. Not ideal, but at least it explains what I was doing.

Perhaps the solution would be to make it harder to save edits: simply hitting "return" or "enter" must lead to countless accidents like this every single day. If you leave the summary blank, you're prompted to add one, I believe—maybe there should always be some sort of prompt to make sure edit summaries aren't saved by accident. Perhaps even an edit summary preview that would help people avoid leaving bad links or formatting in edit summaries. Or maybe a check box that would indicate the summary is finished—you'd probably have to be able to check it with a keystroke anyway, but at least it would require an additional step, making it harder to save everything before it's finished. P Aculeius (talk) 01:41, 3 March 2026 (UTC)

@P Aculeius: I have the script User:Anomie/nosubmitsummary.js in my common.js page, which disables the "return" or "enter" key in the edit summary box. You can preview your edit summary by clicking either "Show preview" or "Show changes". -- John of Reading (talk) 07:55, 3 March 2026 (UTC)

No means to add an edit summary in Skin Vector legacy 2010

I find there is no means to add an edit summary in the current desktop editor with Skin Vector legacy 2010. (Latest Ubuntu snap Firefox)

The edit dialog reports:

"Reminder: You have not provided an edit summary. Edit summaries help other users understand the intention of your edits. Please enter one before you click Publish changes again, or your edit will be saved without one."

But provides no help in how to do this.

It appears I have to switch to skin vector-2022.

Could this annoyance be fixed?

It used to be possible, but no longer, so maybe the edit summary mechanism disappeared in a regression. -~~ 84user (talk) 10:20, 13 October 2025 (UTC)

Policy on repeated breaches of H:FIES

Hi! I was wondering if there is a policy about how to deal with users who repeatedly breach the “all edits should be explained” policy. I haven't been able to find one but I admit I'm unfamiliar with the innards of wikipedia (templates, conventions, policies) and find it difficult to navigate the WP: namespace for information on them, so maybe I simply didn't know where to look.

Extra context: I recently had a technical edit reverted with a mere “invalid” summary, which I found very much unhelpful (invalid how? wrt content? if so I fail to understand why. wrt proper (conventional) use of the template? if so it would call for an edit rather than an undo and I believe it could be automated). Upon reading the user's talk page, I found that there had already been multiple requests from other editors for them to provide relevant summaries when editing pages and in particular when reverting edits. One editor provided a link to the aforementioned user's xtool statistics, according to which only 62% of their edits provide a summary, and that includes minimal, unhelpful summaries like the one I described. I find this all the more concerning as they have no less than 96,053 edits under their belt for an average of 34.6 edits/day. In contrast, they only seem to answer messages on their talk page about once a month and all requests for them to adhere to H:FIES have been left unanswered for about a year. I find such a lack of communication concerning and wonder if users with such behavior may be more trouble than anything.

P.S.: I'm expecting & hoping that this page is on some admins or otherwise experienced editors who may answer me. If someone would take the time to check the revision history pertaining to my technical edit and tell me what they believe I did wrong (or not), that would also be appreciated, considering it doesn't look like I can count on the user's cooperation to explain their undo. Arandomfolk (talk) 01:56, 29 November 2025 (UTC)

Regarding your P.S.: I am not an admin or a particularly "otherwise" experienced editor. I wonder whether the text in the first box at Category:Redirects to sections might hold the answer? - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 03:38, 29 November 2025 (UTC)

Edit summaries not in English

User:Capitalkyoto has been making edits, some contentious, with extensive edit summaries in a foreign language (Japanese). This seems very unhelpful, but I cannot see anything in the guidelines explicitly saying that edit summaries should be in English. Should such be added? Imaginatorium (talk) 05:27, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for pointing that out. I will try to write in English from next time. Capitalkyoto (talk) 05:50, 11 January 2026 (UTC)

Weird problem I noticed

I just used an edit summary that included the Russian word "Самолёт", but I noticed the word is rendered as "Самолёm" in the revision history and diff page of the article. I confirmed it's not just my browser by opening the pages in Chrome. Is this a known issue? - ZLEA ^TǀC 14:42, 12 March 2026 (UTC)

Not an issue - edit summaries are shown in italics, in the Cyrillic script some letters look very different in italics (see Russian alphabet#Letters) including т looking like m. SlimyGecko7 (talk) 09:14, 14 March 2026 (UTC)