Why do I get the message, "The message you have entered is too short"

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1

I recently tried to edit a post that I had made and changed a couple of words to something quite short.

I got the following message:

The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 2 characters.

I really don’t understand. I tried to lengthen the replacement text to a few words but got the same error message. So, I tried to lengthen it again and by more with the same result. So, I tried again and again and again but always with the same result.

Obviously, I do not understand what is going on. Can anyone please explain this to me?

I don’t know what more to say.

2

That happens to me when I hit “quote” instead of “Edit” and I try to edit (my own) quoted material.

SInce I’m changing text within the quote and not adding new text, it gives me an error that the post is too short.

3

Another advantage of my sign off - I never get that message.

Regards,
Shodan

4

You would, if you made the same mistake I did and I suspect our OP did. The sign-off would be already in the quoted material you were trying to edit.

5

I blame global warming.

6

When you say ‘*another *advantage’… what were the others?

7

Courtesy, being distinctive, indulging my personal whims, things like that.

I think we have thrashed discussion of my sign off pretty much to death, and it is probably not a good topic for ATMB anyway.

Regards,
Shodan

8

Oooooh! That sounds like the reason for the problem.

Yes. I’m doing the same thing.

I thank you very much.

9

Drove me nuts until I figured it out. Glad I could help!

10

Then why’d you bring it up in a completely unrelated thread?

11

Well I saw the humor. YMMV.

12

Its uses are related; IMO discussion of my motivations are not.

Regards,
Shodan

13

I always took it for an ironic flipping of the bird.

14

So we’re allowed to edit text inside a quote box now? When the quote you’re editing is your own?

15

The VBulletin software will let you edit text inside a quote box pretty much any way you want.

The rules of this message board are much more restrictive. Even the message board rules say that you can edit even text in a quote box, for certain purposes; for example, if someone posts a seventeen-paragraph screed, and you only want to address the point raised in paragraph three, it’s perfectly OK to hit the “quote” button and then edit out everything but paragraph three.

(And if the software already didn’t allow you to edit text in a quote box, there wouldn’t really be any need for additional board rules about editing text in a quote box.)

16

What I’m referring to is editing a quote by mistake. I want to edit my post but hit quote instead of edit. Oblivious to the quote tags :smack:, I edit the text (which happens to be quoted) and when I hit submit I get the error.

17

Aha, I get it! I’ve done exactly that too!

Good thing the software catches me, too, lest I mistakenly re-write my own post in a quote box, thereby bringing down the Wrath of the Mods upon my keyboard.

18

I’ve gotten the message when I quote something straight off and want to preview how the quote looks. Apparently there’s a two character minimum “new text” flag in place before the sw will let you do things like Preview or Submit.