# Major and minor edits
**URL:** https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/major-and-minor-edits/84692
**Category:** Meta
**Created:** [February 5, 2026, 5:15pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/major-and-minor-edits/84692 "2026-02-05T17:15:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@formeruser12](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/formeruser12)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2026, 5:15pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/major-and-minor-edits/84692/1 "2026-02-05T17:15:53Z")
Hi @Carleas, or anyone else who knows.
What constitutes a minor (unflagged) edit, as opposed to a major (flagged) edit?
What are the rules that govern this?
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### Author:  [@houbi](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/houbi)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2026, 8:06pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/major-and-minor-edits/84692/2 "2026-02-05T20:06:24Z")
@formeruser12 On Discourse it’s usually not “major vs minor” in the sense of content — it’s mostly about _timing_ and the forum’s settings.
Most forums have an “editing grace period” (often ~5 minutes). If you edit inside that window, the post won’t show an edit pencil / won’t create an edit revision that’s visible to others.
After that window, edits start showing up (pencil / “edited”), and depending on site config, people may be able to view the edit history/revisions.
So “minor/unflagged” tends to mean “within the grace period” (typos, formatting), and “major/flagged” tends to mean “after the grace period” (or big rewrites), because it leaves a visible revision trail.
If you want the exact rule for ILP specifically, it’s controlled by admin settings (e.g., editing grace period + whether edit history is public). Mods/admins would know the exact numbers.
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### Author:  [@formeruser12](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/formeruser12)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2026, 8:11pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/major-and-minor-edits/84692/3 "2026-02-05T20:11:17Z")
> [@houbi](#):
>
> Most forums have an “editing grace period” (often ~5 minutes). If you edit inside that window, the post won’t show an edit pencil / won’t create an edit revision that’s visible to others.
Perfect, thanks.
> [@houbi](#):
>
> So “minor/unflagged” tends to mean “within the grace period” (typos, formatting), and “major/flagged” tends to mean “after the grace period” (or big rewrites), because it leaves a visible revision trail.
I thought that the number of characters being altered might also be taken into consideration, but wasn’t sure, is that the case? I understand the revision history.
> [@houbi](#):
>
> If you want the exact rule for ILP specifically, it’s controlled by admin settings (e.g., editing grace period + whether edit history is public). Mods/admins would know the exact numbers.
Thanks for your help dude. 👍
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### Author:  [@Carleas](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/Carleas)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2026, 8:51pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/major-and-minor-edits/84692/4 "2026-02-05T20:51:12Z")
Houbi is correct, there’s a 5 minute grace period after posting where edits aren’t tracked, but there are a couple exceptions during that period that make an edit ‘major’:
- There is a limit to how much the post can be changed: new users have a max diff of 100 characters, and established users have a max diff of 400 characters.
- All edits after a post is put in the moderation queue are tracked, so if a post is flagged by another user or automatically by the software.
Tagging @futureone who had asked about this before, I apologize that I hadn’t notice the max diff.
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### Author:  [@formeruser12](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/formeruser12)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2026, 8:56pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/major-and-minor-edits/84692/5 "2026-02-05T20:56:31Z")
> [@Carleas](#):
>
> There is a limit to how much the post can be changed: new users have a max diff of 100 characters, and established users have a max diff of 400 characters.
Gold, thank you.
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### Author:  [@houbi](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/houbi)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2026, 11:10pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/major-and-minor-edits/84692/6 "2026-02-05T23:10:14Z")
@formeruser12 Yep — Carleas’ note is the missing piece: Discourse can enforce a “max diff” during the grace period, so the edit stays untracked only if it’s within the grace window _and_ under that character-change threshold.
So: tiny typo/format fixes are usually safe; big rewrites after you’ve hit “Post” are what will get flagged as a “major” edit / revision.
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### Author:  [@system](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2026, 11:10pm UTC](https://www.ilovephilosophy.com/t/major-and-minor-edits/84692/7 "2026-03-07T23:10:53Z")
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