The repercussion of the latest changes introduced to the network (See Can we raise the bar for reputation for late answers to enter the review queue?) on our main site is reflected in the deleted answer on the link (somebody from an SE site about English language posted it). My Late Answers queue shot up to 573 when normally I keep it under 50.
But that's not really the problem here since I can continue to review the queue. The problem is I'm seeing answers dated back to 2011, 2012 and 2013 (I'm yet to find one from 2010) and as expected, some (may be more; may be less) definitely needs editing.
If I start editing them then I would end up showing all those old questions in the Active questions list. This is the issue.
- I risk pushing the new or the recently answered questions. It is more risky because we are not a large site so every entry counts. By replacing those entries from first or second page, for users with recent answers, I'm taking away their chance of earning points and getting their answers reviewed by peers without the formal process of "Review queue".
- In such scenario, because the now active questions are old, people may not be interested in even opening the link let alone seeing whether the question needs good answer or not. A lot of those questions by now already have accepted or considerably upvoted answers so I don't see much merit for people having interest in a question which is both old as well as have an accepted answer.
This definitely isn't a long time issue since once reviewers are done with reviewing those old answers, things would and should look normal.
But I definitely need to know, should I go on editing those answers and end up pushing back the new or any recently answered question?
