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When a user goes to ask a question, the default text in the title bar is this: title bar

Should this be changed to reflect the site's intent? In my opinion, this is a place where rules of the English language should be followed, not ignored, especially by the site itself. Could we get proper capitalization of the words what's, English, and be?

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    @JasperLoy I haven't gotten any feedback on this from a member of the SE team. I wonder if any have seen it?
    – user11550
    Commented Dec 8, 2011 at 5:58
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    Huh. I really think this should be implemented, but still no response. Oh well.
    – user11550
    Commented Feb 24, 2012 at 6:10
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    Judging by balpha's rollback of the edit that tagged this as a bug, I'd have to say that at least one member of the SE team has seen this. (I just added the "bug" tag back in, because 1. I'm a naughty little girl, and 2. I don't think it's fair to get rid of bugs by redefining the term instead of fixing the issue. IOW, just because you don't want to fix it doesn't mean it's not a bug.)
    – Marthaª
    Commented Mar 6, 2012 at 23:36
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    @Marthaª Right, I had forgotten that balpha had edited it. Some actual feedback, that is, an answer, would be nice.
    – user11550
    Commented Mar 6, 2012 at 23:38
  • Related: meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/q/624/214.
    – TRiG
    Commented Mar 14, 2012 at 14:33
  • meta.stackexchange.com/questions/129132/…
    – user11550
    Commented Apr 13, 2012 at 3:49
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    @Oded Your tag edit is inappropriate. Fixing spelling mistakes is not a feature-request! It is definitely a bug.
    – tchrist Mod
    Commented Aug 9, 2013 at 19:21
  • @tchrist - I wouldn't call it a bug either. This is a request to fix the spelling. Tagging it this way ensures it stays on the community team radar.
    – Oded Staff
    Commented Aug 9, 2013 at 20:29
  • @Oded Oh ok: whatever works best for you guys. I had had the mistaken notion that bugs were kept on the radar but that feature-requests were not.
    – tchrist Mod
    Commented Aug 9, 2013 at 21:19

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Yes, this should be changed to:

What's your English language and usage question? Be specific.

It's similarly lowercase on other sites, and should be fixed there too, but I agree the bar should be held higher for EL&U.

In fact, this is a rather than a and I have updated the tags.

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    "English language and usage question" seems very awkward to me. Apparently it's supposed to mean "question relating to the English language or to English usage", but I find it hard to read the whole phrase "English language and usage" as an attributive modifier.
    – ruakh
    Commented Mar 4, 2012 at 0:59
  • What if it was written, "English language-or-usage question"? Just a thought...
    – J.R.
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 11:28
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    @J.R. The can is open, the worms are all over the floor...
    – Tim Lymington
    Commented Mar 9, 2012 at 15:59
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    "What's your question on English language and usage?" If the question is part of a StackExchange template, then this sentence construction is probably applicable to the entire StackExchange portfolio.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Commented Mar 10, 2012 at 12:39
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    As written, "English language and usage" is, presumably, a proper noun, and thus should be capitalized completely (English Language and Usage), no?
    – Flimzy
    Commented Mar 14, 2012 at 17:14
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    @Flimzy Only on Meta should that be a proper noun, since on Meta, you do ask English Language and Usage questions. On English Language and Usage itself, you ask questions about English language and usage instead. Note that on StackOverflow, you're asked "what's your programming question? be specific.", so it's clearly not the site name that's fed into the template.
    – Theodore Murdock
    Commented Dec 3, 2012 at 22:36
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In over a year, not a single person has downvoted either this question or the only posted answer (which agrees with OP's position that the text should be "grammaticised").

So I'm posting my answer because I like the current style. If anyone else agrees, they can upvote it.

I started my previous paragraph with the word "So", which was perfectly valid in context. But practically every other day here on ELU we get a question starting with "so" (often not capitalised), where the word doesn't (and can't) relate to anything previously mentioned.

I do think that's taking "relaxed informality" a bit far, so I sometimes edit out the offending word. But the default title text strikes just about the right level with me and/so I'm quite happy with it.

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  • What is the purpose of the second-to-last paragraph in this answer?
    – user11550
    Commented Dec 1, 2012 at 4:06
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    You actually like the lack of capital letters? And the only-just-grammatical-if-that question?
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Commented Dec 1, 2012 at 10:36
  • @Mahnax: Just pointing out that quite a few people posting questions here use what I consider to be an excessively relaxed/chatty style, but I don't see many other people either taking issue with this, or editing such questions into a more appropriate register. And that's for permanent text, whereas the default title is only visible until you overtype it.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 1, 2012 at 15:11
  • @Andrew Leach: Maybe that's putting it a bit strong, but I certainly don't find it anywhere near "irritating". I've only posted this answer because there doesn't seem to be any mechanism on this page for anyone to vote for the status quo. (although thus far it doesn't look as if anyone's interested in being able to do so! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 1, 2012 at 15:16

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