What are the polite limits of editing others' posts for formatting?

Question

Related: How should I approach editing?

RPG.se seems to lend itself to longer answers than some other sites. Because of this, formatting becomes even more important.

Before I commit to reading a wall of text, I like to know there is something worthwhile in it (and I read a lot of answers on this site). Typically, I try to skim each answer for main ideas before reading. This becomes significantly easier if there is any bold or italics.

Occasionally, I see an answer that has a lot of interesting information, but is difficult to scan. Some especially long questions are difficult to digest, even on a read-through.

On occasion, I edit posts in order to bold key points. I have even added a paragraph break or two. However, I am wary of offending someone (especially because I only edit answers that I think have excellent content!).

What are the limits of politeness? Are these formatting edits disrespectful of the author's intent?

Examples:

• https://rpg.stackexchange.com/posts/9619/revisions
• https://rpg.stackexchange.com/posts/9658/revisions

Answer 1

In general you are encouraged to edit for formatting, as long as it is significant. If you're going to bold one word or add a period it's probably not worth the edit. Also, please do not edit large swaths of questions/answers at a time, as this floods the front page with whatever you're reading and hides current questions.

In short please made substantive improvements, but don't get carried away.