The message that you entered is too short to be helpful. Please add more information before posting. It must be at least 4 words long. When did it become necessary to use 4 words in an reply?
Very often, the only words that are necessary to convey the meaning of my posts are:
Try this:
followed by an Excel Formula.
Brevity is a great praise of eloquence.
- Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
mmcconaghy, Yeah, I agree its a balancing act. However, we're trying to balance letting through a completely useless post vs. some minor inconvenience very occasionally. As you say, four words (3 spaces, actually) is pretty small. The restrictions for posting a new thread are much more severe. I realize that they can sometimes be a minor pain, but I think the increase in quality has paid for that many times ove.
Justin
It's been like that on here for years, so it can't have been giving you that much hassle. Just add a word or two to get around it. As far as I know it is to prevent useless crackpot remarks.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Perhaps I'm more loquacious then I realized,
but until today, I had never encountered this message.
Hey - that's a good word. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
mmcconaghy, Yeah, I agree its a balancing act. However, we're trying to balance letting through a completely useless post vs. some minor inconvenience very occasionally. As you say, four words (3 spaces, actually) is pretty small. The restrictions for posting a new thread are much more severe. I realize that they can sometimes be a minor pain, but I think the increase in quality has paid for that many times ove.
Justin
Sometimes only a link is required to answer a question, but now we have to preface it with "look at this" or something similar. A minor inconvenience, but an inconvenience none the less.
If it really bugs you, your edits don't have the same post length restrictions.
Re #6
Very astute - hadn't noticed that.Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
"If it really bugs you, your edits don't have the same post length restrictions" Sometimes a link is all that's required, especially if it's a topic that's been covered ad nauseum. Including words just to get a response to post & then editing them out afterwards would bug me even more.
Be creative. I swear, you're never happy.
HahaCan you see this?
My post above was NOT edited. How did I do it?
The same way I made #9, only I used 'style="display:none"' and you used 'color="white"'.
It's not a big deal & if the OP hadn't started this thread, I would have just dealt with it without comment. I know there are ways around it such as adding spaces, but it still involves keystrokes. And if you have to use keystrokes anyways, you may as well preface the link with a some sort of statement. Like I said, it's a minor inconvenience, but it's still an inconvenience.
riider, I agree, but I think the benefits outweigh the costs. You don't want random people (or OPs) replying to threads with one word replies.
Justin
There are times when a one word response is all that's necessary. For example: Q: Can I use a PCI video card in a PCI-express slot?
A: No.Does "No you can not" make the answer any better?
As already said it's a balancing act. Sure there are odd times that a one word response is sufficient but mostly a few brief words of qualification are either necessary or helpful. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Re # 12: Yeah it was nothing fancy--just one possible solution to a new puzzle from Justin. I used to use random html tags to get around the minimum word limit but I guess those don't count as words anymore.
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