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There is a small box under each page in editing view that allows you to leave an (optional) edit reason. While edit reasons are indeed optional, they are often a very good idea, for both adding information and removing it.
* Citing the source of information from another source, either in whole or in part. Unless it is something you researched yourself or in the public domain, any information directly lifted from another source must have the URL cited in the edit reasons for attribution reasons.
* It clarifies why you chose to add the information, and what your rationale is for posting it. Of course, some edits adding information are self-evident (e.g. examples) and therefore don't need an edit reason. Others (especially those making major changes to a page's information via addition, adding recent information or information not widely known) are far less self-evident, and an edit reason is therefore a good idea.
* While edit reasons are not and should not be [[There Is No Such Thing as Notability|citations]], they can be used to verify content as being something legitimately added in good faith rather than vandalism or trolling. This is very important, especially when changing a page to reflect something like a creator's death, or a trope generally seen to be one of [[Sturgeon's Tropes]] or having [[Unfortunate Implications]] in a work, where a vandal edit may very well be a problem.
* It points to exactly what you've changed on the page as a quick reference, especially if it is a major change.
* It says exactly why you've removed the information.
* It helps people to understand why the information was undesired in the first place. As in, if you are going so far as to remove information someone has taken time to share, it's only polite to tell them why. In the cases of things such as [[Natter]] and [[NSFW]] links, some new users may be genuinely unaware that [[Conversation in the Main Page]] or linking to a [[Image Board|Gelbooru]] pool (without labeling it NSFW) is unwelcome and unwanted. Leaving a polite edit reason linking to the page on the policy related to the removed material is a courtesy that may help them to become a productive editor.
* It prevents the information from being re-added, at least without a discussion. A removal without a reason (or with a rude or unrelated one) is an invitation to begin [[Edit War|Edit Warring]], especially for a newbie who doesn't understand how things work around here.
* It shows the removal to be in good faith, rather than a case of page blanking or vandalism or trolling (which are [[All The Tropes:How We Do Bans Around Here|grounds for a tempban]]).
* It documents what has been removed.
* If the cleanup is something where all removals have the same reason, such as cleaning [[Natter]] and the only edits are the natter removals, it's probably not necessary to leave a reason for each.
* On the other hand, if your edit reason is "natter", but you've taken out ''one line'' of natter while you've also taken out a huge chunk of the main description of the work, several tropes that seemed to apply, and cut out non-lewd trope descriptions to leave several tropes with a near [[Zero Context Example]], your one reason edit may be seen as an excuse for nonconstructive editing.
* To leave a reason relating to a previous edit. This will only show up on the page history, not the actual page. These can be used to do things like explain someone else's edit (or your own, if you forgot to leave one on the last edit you made), e.g. if they deleted YMMV tropes off a main work page without moving them or saying they were going to, you could leave an edit reason noting that you had ensured they were all moved.
* Edit reasons like this can also be for stuff relating to Edit Wars. If there's an example that's been removed a couple times in quick succession, an edit reason like "Taking it to the discussion page" will encourage warrers to go there rather than continuing the war. It also tells anybody with the page on their watchlist that more is happening, whilst not continuing the edit war. The example can then be discussed in depth.
* Sometimes, you need a null edit to get indexing to kick in. This can happen if a page is [[Namespace|namespaced]] on an index, but isn't moved there yet, and the index bar doesn't show up at the bottom of that page. A null edit to the index page fixes this. An edit reason like "indexing trouble" is fine, though you don't really need one at all.
''Please be cool when you edit.''
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Being cool when you edit means to keep your edit reasons somewhat concise (if you can't sum up your edit reason in 50 words or less, you should probably link the discussion page instead of using the edit reason box for it, and ''sermonizing'' in edit reasons is incredibly uncool).
It also means being clear in your edit reason - see the point above on removing material. Sometimes a simple "added event xyx" can be cool if you're adding information, for example, or if you're
''Rudeness is not cool''
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* A personal attack on an editor, e.g. "[[Report Siht]] is a [[Basement Dweller|basement dwelling]] [[Otaku]]," or a removal with "Comments such as this are the reason why all people like you suck."
* An attack on the quality of previous editors' contributions, e.g. "Nobody cares" or "Who gives a fuck?"
* Hate speech, e.g. "You're all
* Trying to intentionally bait for an [[Edit War]], e.g. "Put that back I dare you"
* A [[Cluster F-Bomb]] not on [[Cluster F-Bomb]]▼
* "Correcting" information with subjective opinion, e.g. "Actually, [[Final Fantasy VII|Cloud x Tifa is the OTP so I have removed your reference to the Aerith date scene, as it shouldn't have ever existed.]]"▼
* Threats, e.g. "I have removed your information and am contacting my lawyer," or "Say that to my 357 Magnum, asshole"
** All five of the above count as "being a huge jerk on our site", which is against the very first term in our [[All The Tropes:Terms of Service|Terms of Service]]. That's a quick way [[All The Tropes:How We Do Bans Around Here|to get a tempban]] - if you're lucky, a mod might give you a warning first.
* "Defending" a page from editors you don't want there, e.g. "This is my page, don't edit it" or "This page is about ''Uber Manly [[Testosterone Poisoning]] Combat: USMC BAMF,'' we don't want you saying that about Steele and Stone!" This is especially rude because we welcome all constructive editors and any page may be edited by any person as long as it is not locked.▼
▲* A [[Cluster F-Bomb]] not on [[Cluster F-Bomb]], or where not thematically appropriate.
▲* "Correcting" information with subjective opinion, e.g. "Actually, [[Final Fantasy VII|Cloud x Tifa is the OTP so I have removed your reference to the Aerith date scene, as it shouldn't have ever existed.]]"
▲* "Defending" a page from editors you don't want there, e.g. "This is my page, don't edit it" or "This page is about ''Uber Manly [[Testosterone Poisoning]] Combat: USMC BAMF,'' we don't want you saying that about Steele and Stone!" This is especially rude because we welcome all constructive editors and any page may be edited by any person as long as it is not locked. (Also, this sort of behavior counts as "pretending to be a mod", [[All The Tropes:How We Do Bans Around Here|which can get you tempbanned]].)
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