An edit summary in a wiki is a remark made about an edit and not within it. Usually it's about one sentence long. Edit summaries appear in page history and should inform new or returning users of roughly what debates and refinements apply to that page.

Many regular editors do not make edit summaries. This can be acceptable if the purpose of the edit is both obvious and non-controversial. However, edit summary tag?s Mediawiki defines a minor edit status for this purpose. New users and anonymous trolls should always make clear edit summaries.

[+] edit summary tag

Edit summary guidelines

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This is part of the set of guidelines that govern openPolitics.ca itself.

Edit summary must be used when:

1. Removing substantial amounts of content and not refactoring it.
2. Substantially or completely reverting the work of a previous editor.
3. Characterizing, directly or indirectly, the content or correction in a standard or certain operatoinal way, e.g. as a "tyop", "spam" or "vandalism?" or "disputed?" or with some other questionable status
4. There is a troll crossing? notice on the page.
5. A lock page? directive has been applied and the editor is using powers not granted all users.