2

Day before yesterday I asked a question

what is the opposite word of "die-hard fan". I have also mentioned that I could not find the answer by googling or in the dictionary. I could not even read the comments but the next day I came all I see is my question deleted.

Some one said its too subjective. But seriously I don't even know what does it mean. I need your help to understand whether the question I have asked is not a question I should ask here or I have not asked the way I was suppose to.

4
  • For reference, here's the chat transcript with you from yesterday about this question. I thought it was resolved.
    – Hugo
    Jun 1, 2012 at 12:06
  • Here's the deleted question: english.stackexchange.com/questions/69428/…
    – Hugo
    Jun 1, 2012 at 12:23
  • 2
    Yes, I got the answer in the chat, but its still a question for me why it is deleted
    – Inglish
    Jun 1, 2012 at 12:24
  • 1
    It was closed as not a real question by RegDwight ΒВBẞ8♦ yesterday: It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it. It was deleted by FumbleFingers, Robusto, Daniel δ yesterday.
    – Hugo
    Jun 1, 2012 at 12:29

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
10

The original question was worded as follows:

I was just wondering if there is any word we can use as opposite of "die-hard fan".

I started using my own words randomly like "kill-hard hater" "kill-brutal hater" and I may discover few more in this pattern if I don't find the answer :P

I remember being very confused when I first read this question; the notion of "kill-hard hater" sounded like nonsense to me. But then someone offered the answer fairweather fan, to which you replied:

-1. per the wiki link "fair-weather fan:Fans who only follow their team when they are winning." this is wrong answer

Okay, I'm going to pause there, and offer you two hints:

1) Don't end a question with ":P". That's an emoticon signifying sticking your tongue out at someone; it is not a respectful gesture. Wikipedia lists one possible interpretation as "blowing a raspberry". I don't think that's a very good way to end your question, particularly when it might be a little confusing to begin with. (I doubt you meant to show any disrespect, but it probably didn't help your cause.)

2) Don't downvote someone who answers your question, and call them "wrong". If someone has misinterpreted your question, put your energy into clarifying your original question instead.

(I'm only stating a theory here, but those two things combined may have made it difficult for some in the community to regard your question as a serious one.)

[end of pause]

Later in the dialogue, Kevin wrote: I think Inglish is looking for a term for someone who really hates a team as in "I'm a die-hard fan of the Red Sox which, of course means I'm a [XXX] of the Yankees"1

Maybe that is what you were looking for? If so, that would explain why you dismissed fairweather fan, which, as others later pointed out, is a perfectly suitable antonym for die-hard fan:

Fairweather fan: Fans who only follow their team when they are winning.
Die-hard fan: Someone who possesses extreme, absolute or complete loyalty even if facing defeat or hopelessness.

I think that Kevin's intepretation of your original question would be well-received by the community, if it was posed in that way: supported by an example (rather then steeped in silliness), so that it was more clear and less confusing.

1If this example makes no sense to you, try substituting "Manchester United" and "Liverpool".

2
  • What Kevin interpreted is right. I thought I gave example of justin biber and rock band fans in the edit, didn't I (posted the edit)?. BTW: I accept and take your 1st hint. Regarding 2nd one, I agree, down voting hurts and people get offended most of the time, I can understand it. But it hurts lot more and its more than getting offended to get the post deleted within 4 1/2 hours without even giving an opportunity to correct the OP.
    – Inglish
    Jun 2, 2012 at 8:08
  • 1
    @Inglish: I agree that you should have had more time to fix the question. That said, you can always post a more carefully-crafted new one in lieu of fixing the old one. As for downvotes, I can relate to the sting of a downvote. More than once I've put a lot of effort into an answer only to have it downvoted with no explanation. Sometimes that's not easy to swallow. But I've learned to accept that's just part of being active in the community. More often than not, good questions & answers are rewarded with upvotes (maybe not unanimously, but that's the way the scales eventually tilt).
    – J.R.
    Jun 2, 2012 at 9:23
3

I agree that this was perhaps a trigger-happy deletion. Usually, it takes much longer for closed questions to be deleted, precisely because we want to give the OP a chance to improve the question.

I can only speculate in this case, but I think perhaps the deleters thought this was a joke question, and thus acted quickly under the broken windows theory. (Which goes something like, an abandoned field that already has a bag of trash is more likely to attract illegal dumping than a field that's clean. Translated to ELU, if people see low-quality questions on the site, they're more likely to ask low-quality questions.)

2

For a complex term like 'die-hard fan', there are many possible interpretations of 'opposite'.

You may have one interpretation in mind but you never edited your question to show which one.

8
  • 2
    it was not even a 1/2 day until i returned and that got deleted
    – Inglish
    Jun 1, 2012 at 13:49
  • 3
    being closed and then deleted is not fun (whatever anyone else says it does feel like punishment). The question needed to be extended given the comments, and there was a day when it was closed and it took another day before it was deleted. So even though that was a short time (but not 1/2 day) I think you had time to correct it. You should ask to have it undeleted so that you can ask the question better...or you can repost with lots of extra explanation and that might get a better response (no guarantees, I have no idea how people will react)
    – Mitch
    Jun 1, 2012 at 14:05
  • 1
    The question was asked at 2012-05-30 13:08:02Z, closed at 2012-05-30 13:49:47Z, deleted at 2012-05-30 17:26:31Z. That's about 4.5 hours from ask to delete.
    – Hugo
    Jun 1, 2012 at 20:54
  • 4
    @Hugo: ah thanks...I must have see the wrong things ...I saw 'closed two days ago' and 'deleted yesterday'. Yes, that 4 1/2 hours is pretty extreme. Whoever voted to delete should at least wait for some kind of response by the OP.
    – Mitch
    Jun 1, 2012 at 21:19
  • @Mitch I get "page not found" error message and the post is inaccessible. I have sent email to look into it, but they said they dont look into this site. I still dont know if it is possible to undelete it and I dont know way to do it.
    – Inglish
    Jun 2, 2012 at 8:04
  • @inglish You need a certain level of reputation to be able to see deleted posts. It already has two votes to undelete and needs one more to be visible. It then needs further votes to reopen it.
    – Hugo
    Jun 2, 2012 at 9:24
  • 1
    @Inglish: As Hugo said, it needs another vote for undeletion; even then, it would need four more votes to reopen; even then, it already has six downvotes, so it probably wouldn't get much visibility. Given all that's been discussed, if I were in your shoes, I'd follow Mitch's advice above, and just start from scratch. (I actually like the question itself, now that I understand it, but, with so much confused commentary on the old one, why campaign to get it reopened, when you can ask a new and improved one instead?)
    – J.R.
    Jun 2, 2012 at 9:33
  • I gave the final undelete vote so it's back again. But I suggest creating a new better worded question.
    – Mitch
    Jun 2, 2012 at 14:49

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .