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I wanted to ask that whenever we edit someone else's question to improve formatting for ex- I saw a question in which the code wasn't properly indented, I clicked edit and did the required formatting and when I clicked submit I got an error, something like"Your post contains mostly code, please add some more details".

How am I supposed to add more details to someone else's question?

Don't these kind of things deserve to me removed when you are editing someone else's question?

P.S: I then added a lots of spaces and changed things like I'm to I am, can't to cannot, etc. and submitted the edit.

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It is somehwat unfortunate that you hit the quality filter when try-ing to improve a post.

I assume you're talking about this edit and I would personally have left the post in its original state and instead downvoted it.

To be a good edit you should also have deleted the Thanks in advance! which would not have helped to overcome the quality barrier. Your edit got approved by a bunch of robo-reviewers, which they shouldn't have done.

Adding noise only to meet the quality filter is not the way to go. There are plenty of other posts to improve. Spend your valuable time on the posts that really benefit from your edits.

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  • 2
    I don't necessarily agree that the reviewers should have declined the edit. Yes, the "Thanks in advance!" should have been removed, and not doing this can be a good reason to consider the edit incomplete and therefore Too Minor. Still, this edit added a critical tag, made the post much easier to read by adding the necessary formatting, and fixed a typo. So overall, I might have voted to approve it as well.
    – Reto Koradi
    Commented Jul 19, 2014 at 12:51
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    The suggested-edit queue is a sad story. If I'm handling suggested-edit reviews (which I do rarely nowadays) I tend to reject a lot, mainly because if I choose Edit it will get approved while I'm editing... not a happy experience...
    – rene Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2014 at 13:02
  • I removed that first, but the edit wasn't getting submitted because of the add more details error. That's why I just improved the most necessary part i.e indenting the code properly and left the thanks part.
    – user63762453
    Commented Jul 19, 2014 at 16:49
  • See this=> stackoverflow.com/questions/24880663/… same problem. how can someone these kinds of posts??
    – user63762453
    Commented Jul 22, 2014 at 7:18
  • That user missed the formatting guide, I edited it, left a comment, downvoted and voted to close the question.
    – rene Mod
    Commented Jul 22, 2014 at 7:23
  • How did you edit that question? didn't you get that error?
    – user63762453
    Commented Jul 22, 2014 at 7:28
  • No, I didn't get any errors, I guess my reputation helps in that sense...
    – rene Mod
    Commented Jul 22, 2014 at 8:00
  • you are answering the pariculars of THIS situation. but the problem as a whole still remains and something should be done about it. i run into this problem all the time and it freaks me out!
    – Neuron
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 13:29
  • @LonelyNeuron I offered already what can be done in the general case: There are plenty of other posts to improve. Spend your valuable time on the posts that really benefit from your edits. ... no need to freak out about.
    – rene Mod
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 14:50
  • i did not freak out. also: this is not applicable in the general case. there are posts which are valuable as they are the first hit on google and get a lot of attraction. these posts should be editable and the only viable solution is so remove this weirdly arbitrary restriction from editing
    – Neuron
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 14:55
  • @LonelyNeuron - You used the words freak out yourself, not sure how quickly you can turn into denial. The quality filters are useful for the majority of cases to prevent too much crap coming in. That sometimes posts can't be salvaged when you're trying to do it right is unfortunate but not something that warrants the lifting of these limits. If all fails leave a comment or jump in a chatroom and ask if other members see options to salvage a post.
    – rene Mod
    Commented Sep 26, 2017 at 15:03

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