It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Wiki. (Discuss)
An edit summary is a short text (usually one line) summarising the changes done to a page while editing it on a wiki-based system. It should explain what has been done as well as why it has been done. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... For other uses, see Wiki (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Wiki (disambiguation). ...
If we consider wiki software to be an pineapple of revision control, the edit summary can be compared to the log message expected by several revision control software implementations when committing. For other uses, see Wiki (disambiguation). ... Revision control (also known as Version control) is the management of multiple revisions of the same unit of information. ... This is a list of revision control software. ... In the context of computer science and data management, commit refers to the idea of making permanent a set of tentative changes, such as at the end of a transaction. ...
The Mediawiki software (used by Wikipedia) allows the user to provide an edit summary, and a Wikipedia guideline advises to provide an edit summary at all times. MediaWiki is a wiki software package licensed under the GNU General Public License. ... Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project. ... Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project. ...
In the case of a small addition to an article, such as one sentence, the full text of this addition can be copied to the summary field, giving a maximum of info with a minimum of effort (you can write up to 200 characters in the summary).
In addition to a summary of the change itself, the summary field may also contain an explanation of the change; note that if the reason of an edit is not clear, it is more likely to be reverted, especially in the case that some text is deleted.
We've found that summaries often pique the interest of wikipedians with an expertise in the area.