# Why is there a character limit for mathematics post edits?

I am seeking to fix a very small (but significant) typo in summation indices for this answer.

In particular, in the last two equations of the post, the summation should start from $i=1$ instead of $i=0$. This means there is a non-trivial and meaningful edit for the post that consists of exactly 2 characters.

When I try to make this edit, I see the following error message:

Why is there any type of minimum edit length for a type of site (a mathematics site) in which even 1-character edits might be hugely significant?

How can I update just the two summation indices in the answer, and no other characters in the answer?

• To motivate you and earn these last 84 points, of course. – Asaf Karagila Feb 20 at 14:52
• @Martin: I think this is more of a bug, since the OP is trying to edit their own post, and for that it should be fine to make small changes. – Asaf Karagila Feb 20 at 14:53
• @ely Are you sure you were logged in when trying to edit the post? The behavior you describe seems to be consistent with suggested edits. – Martin Sleziak Feb 20 at 15:13
• @MartinSleziak Yes, I had to log in to edit the post. It would not let me attempt an edit prior to logging in. – ely Feb 20 at 15:52
• @AsafKaragila That seems inefficient. I wonder if SE could look at global reputation across sites. I rarely make use of e.g. math.stackexchange, but have higher rep at Stack Overflow. Being inhibited from making a positive change for the community (like this edit) due to rep would only make me less likely to log in to math.se or participate on math.se .. the opposite of motivation. – ely Feb 20 at 15:54
• @ely: Why would the system let you do arbitrary edits if you're not logged in? That's a flaw in your reasoning, not the system's. – Asaf Karagila Feb 20 at 15:55
• @AsafKaragila I didn't suggest that it would. I am just answering MartinSleziak's question. I would always expect that a log-in is required. – ely Feb 20 at 15:56
• "Yes, I had to log in to edit the post. It would not let me attempt an edit prior to logging in." That's also strange. Maybe try anew now to edit the post. It should work. – quid Feb 20 at 17:24
• Yes, it did work just now without any character limit messages. AFAICT, no aspects of my logged-in status in the browser tab that has had that question open have changed since the character limit message earlier that prevented me (after being signed in) from submitting the edit. – ely Feb 20 at 17:34