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There was a broken link on the selected answer to this question:-

Forking a new version of my application

However, when I made the edit to update the link it would not let me submit unless I changed 6 characters.

Should the 6 characters not include the links?

I would argue that fixing a broken link in a "link only" answer that only really provides any value through said link, is a substantial improvement from almost zero value to some value, and should be allowed

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7
  • Because while counting characters might not be the most accurate metric of substance, it is the easiest to implement.
    – Sam I am says Reinstate Monica
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 22:09
  • @SamIam I don't expect that it would be hard to implement allowing edits to links - these have to be parsed by the markdown parser anyway, so are already distinct entities from the main text
    – rgvcorley
    Commented Aug 22, 2014 at 9:47
  • And saying that it's the easiest implementation isn't an answer to whether or not that implementation is sufficient
    – rgvcorley
    Commented Aug 22, 2014 at 9:48
  • That's something I wanted to know too.
    – user965091
    Commented Aug 22, 2014 at 13:43
  • @rgvcorley well in that case it's a good thing that the question asking Why does the 6 character edit limit apply even if I am fixing a broken link?, and not asking is that implementation sufficient.
    – Sam I am says Reinstate Monica
    Commented Aug 22, 2014 at 14:17
  • @SamIam do you dissagree with "I would argue that fixing a broken link in an answer that only really provides any value through the link that is provided in it, is a substantial improvement from almost zero value to some value"?
    – rgvcorley
    Commented Aug 22, 2014 at 14:54
  • I've updated my question to make it more accurate to what I was really meaning to ask. Maybe you could have something constructive to add to the discussion
    – rgvcorley
    Commented Aug 22, 2014 at 14:57

1 Answer 1

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Edits should be substantive, and this really isn't.

In most cases there is a good chance that there's something else that can be improved about a post which you should try and find to make the edit more important.

In this case that answer is quite low quality as it's basically link-only, and you could have improved it further by including the relevant parts of the link into the post to stop it from being low quality instead of putting junk into the post.

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  • 1
    "putting junk into the post"? So fixing a broken link in an answer that (as you say yourself) is of low quality and the only value it brings is the link, is adding junk to the post?
    – rgvcorley
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 10:22
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    I'd argue that fixing a broken link in an answer that only has value through the link provided is a substantial improvement from almost zero value to some value
    – rgvcorley
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 10:23
  • @rgvcorley No, adding junk to the post is adding junk to the post. And this is junk: (won't let me fix the broken link without adding more than 6 characters).
    – MrLore
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 15:57

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