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I have never experienced such stigmatization for asking a question, not on math.stackexchange or any platform. Why is it that when I ask a question on english.stackexchange, I am penalized for asking such a dumb or inferior question to what you guys consider as "English?"

Is this platform only for those native speakers who can write articulately?

If you guys have the time to answer my question, I would greatly appreciate it. When you disregard my question and refer me to a dictionary or other sources, I am neither able to understand nor solve my dillema.

Is it really that difficult to answer a "dumb question?" for you high class "English" people?

Please tell me what do you guys classify as "English."

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    I'm sorry you had a poor experience here on the site. As you can see in the Site's tour page, this site aims for "serious English language enthusiasts", which assumes a level of fluency, though many (like myself) aren't native speakers. We have a sister site, English Language Learners, which focuses more on resources for people learning the language. Remember, though, that closing your question isn't an attack on you, just saying that your question isn't a good fit for the site. May 29, 2014 at 5:48
  • From looking at your profile, you have asked two questions. The first is still opened, while the second has been closed, the comment left by the site's mod was helpful (although its tone a bit brusque). Questions can be edited, and consequently users can vote to reopen a question. Try it out, you have nothing to lose.
    – Mari-Lou A
    May 29, 2014 at 6:32
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    On a separate note, I believe having only a serial number as your username makes it more difficult for users to differentiate you from the other seven or ten users who have similar numbers. It can look that the same person is asking low quality questions, when in fact the opposite is true. But this is a pet peeve of mine and my purely subjective point of view, each question should be based on its own merit but... a proper word is easier to associate with a user. (And now I await for the onslaught of users who will fiercely disagree with me).
    – Mari-Lou A
    May 29, 2014 at 6:39
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    I, too, am sorry you have been made to feel stigmatized. I am curious, though, why you would feel that a good dictionary would be unhelpful in solving your dilemma? May 29, 2014 at 7:45
  • I wanted to know what word would suit the situation I was describing, and I was advised to look at the dictionary for? I was hesistant to even write "indulge," I am clueless as to what word am I looking for and hence a dictionary would be of little use.
    – user77093
    May 29, 2014 at 16:01
  • Dictionaries are extremely important in learning English, even to English speakers. To try to circumvent using a dictionary is like doing basic math using with a calculator while not understanding the actual operations. It's true that initially it seems to be a lot of work. But learning how to use a dictionary well is invaluable. It supplies denotations, connotations, synonyms, antonyms, frequency of use by meaning, and examples among other things. It should be your go to resource. May 30, 2014 at 4:14
  • I am not disagreeing with you on the fundamental role the dictionary plays in learning English. Simply put, as I mentioned below, I could not arrive at a solution for my problem with the referall of a "dictionary." I'm unsure if other people of my English level can, but if you were in my shoes, what would be your thoughts?
    – user77093
    May 30, 2014 at 17:33
  • Good question. The last time I tried to learn a new language, I used written resources and trips to learn (not the internet as I might now.) I can't remember a problem I couldn't eventually solve with two or three dictionaries. But, I like dictionaries. I pick up all kinds of extra information that helps build a foundation. I don't think asking is wrong (I did a lot of that); I think to criticize advice from native speakers is throwing away a chance to learn something, that's all. I did a lot of listening. Except when someone tried to rob me. Then I did a lot of yelling. :) May 31, 2014 at 6:48

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First off: no one — absolutely no one at all — stigmatized you, penalized you, or called your question dumb or inferior. You are overreacting, and not by a slim margin.

One of your questions got put on hold, and that is all that's happened thus far. Putting questions on hold is not a feature specific to this site. It even happens on Math.

Secondly, this site is not exclusive to "native speakers who can write articulately". This site is not even exclusive to native speakers, period. If you have a quick look at just the first page in the Users tab, you will see people who are native speakers of Dutch, French, Arabic, Russian, Turkish, Hungarian, and Japanese, to name but a few.

You assume that your question was put on hold by a native speaker who can write articulately because it is not about English. Neither assumption is correct, and it is not clear how you arrived at either.

The question was put on hold for the reason specified: it is not on-topic in its current form. However, rather than leaving it at the boilerplate close reason, I left a comment explaining the closure in more detail.

I am surprised and saddened to learn that you stopped reading my comment as soon as you came across the word dictionary. It went on for a while after that. And you were not even really directed to a dictionary in the first place — I would have left it at the boilerplate close reason in that case. Much rather, I specifically included right then and there the crucial bits of what the dictionary would have told you, precisely such as to spare you the lookup.

So, to reiterate:

  • Your use of the word indulge was ungrammatical, for the reasons outlined in my comment, but it can be easily fixed, in the ways listed in my comment.
  • If you don't know if indulge is even the word you're looking for, then neither do we. Going by what little context you have provided, it might or might not work, so we can't really help you there unless you supply additional information.
  • Synonyms for indulge can be looked up in a thesaurus, a tool specifically designed to look up synonyms. This site is not a thesaurus and is not designed to look up synonyms. If you have checked a thesaurus and it was of no help, please include that information in the question: which words it suggested and why they didn't suit you. Again, this is not something we ask of you, or of inarticulate folk, or of non-native speakers, or of any particular group of people; this is something we ask of everyone. You are invited to play by the same rules everyone else has to play by.
  • If you want to have the whole sentence reworded, then that is too broad, subjective and argumentative, and the SE engine is simply not designed for open-ended questions of that kind. Even so, you can still take your question to our chat, which is always lively and helpful. If you are indeed a user on Math and other SE sites, you will get the reputation needed for chat by associating your accounts with a click of a button.

Lastly, if you can edit the question to address these concerns, it can be reopened. Again, standard procedure. Nobody is stigmatizing you for your dumb question that doesn't suit us high-class people. Take a deep breath. Chill.

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  • I think I mislead you with my aggressive and whiny tone without enough support. I opened the referral link you provided, "List of general references," and was unable of finding the solution I was looking for - this played a role in making me feel dumb. Secondly, thanks for pointing out that my error on the usage of "indulge," but I am still clueless on my original question what word suited the context, whereas you have done a succinct job on pointing out here. To conclude, I was unclear on how to get my question answered. I want to learn English and I didn't know how.
    – user77093
    May 30, 2014 at 17:16

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