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Questions on eggcorns attract downvotes and close requests.

In this example the question did indeed lack research effort and it was not immediately identified as an eggcorn question.

"Sick and tied" and "sick and tired"

Yes I voted to close too, but subsequently voted to reopen after PLL's comments.

In this question I clearly asked "Is it an eggcorn?" but immediately received a downvote and a close vote:

Is "heinz sight" an eggcorn of "hindsight"?

Anyone who does a few seconds of preliminary research can see it isn't a one-off mistake and bears further investigation.

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  • Sick and tired has been reopened!
    – z7sg Ѫ
    Nov 22, 2011 at 17:44

2 Answers 2

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Eggcorn questions are too localized if and only if they are too localized. :)

In other words, the things that can make an eggcorn question too localized are exactly the same things as can make any other question too localized: the answer is not likely to be useful to anyone else, the question is of interest only to the asker, etc.

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  • 2
    @JasperLoy: I did? Really? Wow. Didn't know that. ]:)
    – Marthaª
    Nov 23, 2011 at 1:47
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There is nothing special about eggcorn questions that make them more closeable. I personally think that questions involving already start with a lot of interest about the phenomenon.

But to follow Martha's question, a question can be closeable for many reasons, if it is too local or badly formed. It's not anything special about eggcorns, rather other independent things about the questions.

For both questions, the behavior doesn't seem out of the ordinary. The 'sick and tied' does look like a silly typo and not an eggcorn, but research showed (possibly) otherwise, so reopening seemed like the right thing to do.

For 'heinz sight', the 'Listen up eggcorn fans' might be construed as inappropriate (like using salutations or thanks in a question), and separately it just might not fit the exact definition of eggcorn (the mistaken parts seem to need to make sense in context and 'heinz' doesn't at all (I think it's OK, look at the 'egg' in 'eggcorn')).

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  • Well if someone doesn't think it's an eggcorn they can answer no and explain themselves. I don't see that as a reason to close. This is the point I'm making really. As to the other question I agree entirely as I thought it was a typo at first myself.
    – z7sg Ѫ
    Nov 23, 2011 at 3:16
  • @z7sgѪ: but your point is taken but it also follow Martha's and my) general direction: there's nothing connected to eggcorns essentially that has to do with voting/closing/commenting/explaining. Yes, the general expectation for the close voter and the downvoter is to comment their reasons (but this is more likely not to happen than to happen).
    – Mitch
    Nov 23, 2011 at 3:27

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