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This question already has an answer here:

This has been discussed before (e.g. Only adding whitespace to a question leads to rejection of edit) but the explanations point to something other than the edit.

Every time I try to just add four whitespace characters to convert a code block to actual code, it is rejected with the following error:

Is this desired behavior or is there something about my account that prohibits me from making those changes?

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marked as duplicate by Shadow The Curly Braced Wizard, Ry- Jun 18 '13 at 13:30

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    There is absolutely nothing else to improve in such posts? – Oded Jun 18 '13 at 12:51
  • Oftentimes there's no way to evaluate whether the code is a good example of the issue at hand (sometimes OP made a small typo) without being able to read it, hence the edit to make SO render it as code – SheetJS Jun 18 '13 at 12:52
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    The preview gives you that chance - no need to submit in order to determine that. – Oded Jun 18 '13 at 12:55
  • You can't simultaneously see the edit preview and submit a response though. Although I could just take a screenshot or open in two tabs ... – SheetJS Jun 18 '13 at 12:56
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    I'd argue that the two should be separate activities. Improving a post is one thing, answering a question is another. – Oded Jun 18 '13 at 13:01
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    @Oded "There is absolutely nothing else to improve in such posts?" is that so inconceivable? – Richard Tingle Jun 18 '13 at 13:02
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    @Oded: Yes. So why isn’t it allowed to improve posts? – Ry- Jun 18 '13 at 13:05
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    @RichardTingle Yes, it is. Punctuation, grammar, clarification; no question that has code issues can otherwise be absolutely perfect. Someone who pays that much attention to what they write will undoubtedly care enough to know (or to learn) how to indent code. – George Stocker Jun 18 '13 at 13:07
  • @GeorgeStocker I could just write "screw flanders" at the end -- that would satisfy the rule :) – SheetJS Jun 18 '13 at 13:09
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    @GeorgeStocker what if there's simply not enough text for the asker to break (ignoring the fact that fixing the formatting in these will trigger the quality filter) ? – John Dvorak Jun 18 '13 at 13:09
  • Is it being automatically rejected (character limit?) or review rejected? – A.M. Jun 18 '13 at 13:10
  • @A.M. automatically rejected. Someone else pointed out that just saying "rejected" meant that a reviewer rejected, so I changed the title to "cannot be submitted" – SheetJS Jun 18 '13 at 13:10
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    @GeorgeStocker English language graduate (perfect writing) but first time poster on SO (So doesnt know how to format code) – Richard Tingle Jun 18 '13 at 13:14
  • @JanDvorak By "asker to break" I'm assuming you mean that the question asker didn't write enough? If so; then isn't that a pretty big issue itself? In that case, close the question as unanswerable, or edit it to fill in the blanks; we can do this all day. I'm speaking from experience in editing thousands of posts. It's always possible to improve a post other than just code. Always. – George Stocker Jun 18 '13 at 13:17
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    @GeorgeStocker I agree with your heuristics and with the closure, but I also agree with the feature request made here. – John Dvorak Jun 18 '13 at 13:19