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I asked a question, then received an awesome answer. There was only one thing wrong with it. The author used "seems" where it's grammatically correct to use "seem".

First, I thought about writing a comment and even wrote one, but then I realized that such comments add unnecessary noise and promptly deleted it.

It's a much better idea to just edit the answer, I thought. Isn't it? Not so fast. SE requires me to change at least 6 (IIRC) characters and suggests me to find a way to "improve the answer further". But there is no way I can suggest anything else that would improve the awesome answer I have received.

This limitation is pretty much unnecessary and annoying, especially when it can be easily circumvented by adding an HTML comment like this one:

<!-- SE won't allow me to make an edit unless it satisfies some arbitrary rules; had to add this comment -->

which is what I did.

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    Please don't work around the rules - they're are there for a reason. I know it's frustrating to not have some privileges yet, but ask good questions, write good answers, suggest substantive edits, and you will get there quickly.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 0:01
  • Related: ell.meta.stackexchange.com/q/3002 and ell.meta.stackexchange.com/q/3457
    – ColleenV
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 0:07
  • @ColleenV I'm sorry to hear that. I expect to never earn those privileges. This account is meant to be short-lived. I don't have and don't intend to have a permanent account on SE. Basically, I express concerns of anonymous users of your platform. We don't care about karma and don't follow those rules we believe to be unfounded. The limit on edits is one of them. Again, I'm sorry that it's not going to change.
    – VodkaBearBalalaika
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 0:28
  • @ColleenV You don't hear these concerns more often because users whose registration patterns are similar to mine don't speak for themselves, they don't expect to be heard, which is kind of what's happening right now to me.
    – VodkaBearBalalaika
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 0:32
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    If you don't want to be part of this community, that's up to you. You're still expected to follow the rules when you participate here. Changing this limit is not something that anyone here can do.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 0:35
  • If a one-character typo or grammatical error is bothering you that much, and you don't have the reputation to fix it, you can always flag the answer, and let the mod team handle the fix.
    – J.R. Mod
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 1:02
  • @J.R. Thanks. You made me laugh. I'm going to use your advice the next time I need to do a minor edit on SE. It's better to bother mods, not the awesome person who replies to my questions and actually contributes some value. After all, they are here "for a reason", just like the limits.
    – VodkaBearBalalaika
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 1:13
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    Whatever. Just keep it constructive. Your desire to improve answers is admirable. Your cynicism, maybe not so much.
    – J.R. Mod
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 1:15
  • Seconding J.R., or you can simply comment on the answer ("comment everywhere" is just there at 50 rep) telling them to fix it. Even also possible to ping someone in chat, which comes with 20 rep . . .
    – M.A.R.
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 6:49
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    This is a network restriction, not a community rule, and would require a software change to update. See How to overcome “Edits must be at least 6 characters”? and Change this behavior to allow for spelling corrections and the like for past discussions.
    – choster
    Commented Mar 31, 2017 at 2:53
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    The 6 character limit is a network-wide policy that we can't change on a per-site basis. This belongs on StackExchange Meta which already has a discussion about it Remove trivial edit restriction so I've closed the question here.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Apr 5, 2017 at 2:45

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Welcome to Stack Exchange and ELL! Unfortunately, doing this sort of thing (if you make it a habit) is likely to get you edit banned - meaning you won't be able to submit edit suggestions at all. Please, don't add commented out junk just to get around edit limits.

As Grace Note says:

Remember, when you suggest an edit, it requires multiple other people to look at it and approve it. The character limit is to prevent people from wasting time by looking at exceptionally minor edits. So, don't limit yourself to just a tiny edit: try to see if you can improve the post to a possible state of perfection. If you hit all errors on a post, then no one else will even need to edit it.

The limits are there for a reason. If you can not find enough to fix (which should be your actual goal), then you have a couple of options depending on your reputation level.

  • Do nothing if you have under 20 reputation.

  • If you have 20 or more reputation (network wide), you can post about it in chat.

  • if you have sufficient reputation to comment (50 reputation), then do so, pointing out the minor error that needs to be adjusted and let the OP or another, higher-reputation user make the edits.

Please be aware that upon attaining 2000 reputation on this site, you will get the permission to edit directly, rather than by submitting edit suggestions. At this point, there will be no minimum character requirement.

For more information about this limitation, please see the related Meta Stack Exchange question.

Why are trivial edits discouraged?
Remove trivial edit restriction (specifically this answer)
How to overcome "Edits must be at least 6 characters"?

Regardless, the request you're making is not something that could even be done on a single-site basis, it would be done network wide and the CMs are specifically against it. They have a firm belief in the editing requirements as they are and don't have any plans to change it in the future.

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