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I noticed an edited question the other day where "Regards" (or "Regards,") was removed, but which referred to "12 characters". Now I noticed this on my own question:

Screenshot of an edit with only 5 characters added, but an edit summary saying 75 were added

The "added 75 characters in body" comes from my previous edit, which was probably quite close in time.

I can see other questions for huge lengths, and something similar-ish from 2010.

If I added 4 characters, why does it tell me 75? Why not 4, or, if any merging with my previous edit comes into it, why not 79?

That is a deliberate free-hand fish, not a very bad circle made to look like a fish to save face... Oh, did I type that out loud?

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  • What's the question or problem? Are you wondering why this occurs / if it's a bug?
    – doppelgreener
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 0:36
  • 2
    Question is, if I add 4 characters, why does it tell me 75? Which 75 is from my previous edit. Why not 4, or, if "merged" comes into it, why not 79? Not causing me grief, I just don't like passing-up things in case it is symptom of something more problematic. OK, what problem could there be...
    – Bill Woodger
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 0:39

1 Answer 1

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The reason for the inconsistency has to do with the edit grace period.

Your earlier edit (Revision 2) was submitted at 8:08:40. If you do not provide an edit comment, one is automatically provided for you (i.e. "added 75 characters in body") - this is a good reason why you should try to make a good comment, even for your own posts.

Your 2nd edit was initiated during the grace period so it copied the edit comment from the earlier revision, but you submitted it just after the grace period ended (08:13:41 - 1 second out of the grace period). As a result, it was submitted as a brand new revision, but since you did not change the original edit comment, it was still the edit comment when you submitted revision 3.

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  • Thanks. So, generally, if going in to the edit during the grace period from the previous edit, and coming out afterwards, this would be the case. Which could explain why more of these type of questions deal with much longer edits. So it is a duplicate? Perhaps the question itself (for small edits) is sufficiently different :-)
    – Bill Woodger
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 6:32
  • @BillWoodger The "added 75 characters...." comment is nothing more than a system generated comment when you don't add one and not designed to be "correct". If you had submitted it during the grace period, it still would have been wrong as it would have still been 75 and not 79. The comment does not change when submitting edits. You would have to had physically changed it. The moral is you should try to provide real comments to edit and not rely on the system generated comment.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 8:40
  • Thanks. Got it. On my own posts I don't think to comment on why. So I will in future. I again didn't receive a notification for your comment. That's three in the last week. Just thinking aloud.
    – Bill Woodger
    Commented Sep 5, 2013 at 10:01

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