How does editing work? Why can't I edit my own post?

Only registered users may edit their own posts submitted to this site. However, a post cannot be edited after a grace period of 3 hours to prevent bad edit and various abuses of the system.

Edits are expected to be substantial and to leave your post better.

The grace period allows you to improve the clarity and focus of your post and get your post right by removing something that should not be posted, adding something you've forgotten to mention, or fixing formatting, grammar and spelling mistakes.

After the grace period, a post can only be edited by a moderator or an administrator.

The one exception is locked questions, which may not be edited by anyone, including the original author, until they are unlocked.

When editing others posts, a moderator or an administrator should...

• always respect the original author
• fix grammatical or spelling errors
• clarify the meaning without changing it
• remove sensitive info
• fix formatting
• correct minor mistakes

This site is collaboratively edited. If something needs improvement, we'll edit and make it so! Editing is important for keeping questions and answers clear, relevant and up-to-date.

Once your post has been edited, there will be a note of it, with the time since the last edit for the post.