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I see that the 50.000 question target is very near. There are fewer than 40 questions left. Are we planning any festivities for this tremendous target?

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The horrible cynic in me is doing a jig right now entertaining the prospect of making a fuss over a question such as

  • Can I start a sentence with the word "..."?
  • what's a synonym for "play" (no other explanation)?
  • Is "us" right in this sentence: "They and us went to lunch?"
  • Is this sentence correct? (proofread, please)
  • Why don't Americans pronounce the 'r' in (alright/around/contract/horrible)?
  • Whats a single word for falling off a ladder because one of the rungs was loose?
  • Do I use "is" or "are" here?
  • what's the difference between "to die of" and "to die from"?

No, I don't think we should do so, not only because the question might get placed on hold (Hooray! Our 50,000th question - unfortunately on hold - was posted today!!!) or down voted (Hooray! Our 50,000th question - unfortunately now at -3 - was posted today!!!) or closed (Hooray! Our 50,000th question - unfortunately a dupe - was posted today!!!) , but can you imagine the quality of the flood of questions we will get when we hit 49,998?

I propose instead that we upvote good questions, downvote really bad ones, close those which deserve to be closed, edit those we can improve, answer those we can, etc. etc. In other words, go about the business of making this a useful site.

When we have 50,000 great questions here, that will be a real reason to celebrate.

(Feel free to call me any names that apply: cynic, curmudgeon, pessimist, defeatist, killjoy, etc. Though in general I am not so much of one, I won't argue here.)

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    In light of your all-too-well-founded concerns regarding the quality of question #50,000 specifically, I would suggest that any celebration should be focused on the act of passing of the milestone, not on the question that put us past the milestone. (On the other hand, I have absolutely no suggestions regarding what form such celebratory efforts would take.)
    – Hellion
    Mar 26, 2015 at 18:48
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    OMG, that's funny!
    – user98990
    Mar 26, 2015 at 21:46
  • Are those questions actual (the cynic in me)?
    – user98990
    Mar 26, 2015 at 21:50
  • @LittleEva - Haha! No! I've just been here this long... :D
    – anongoodnurse
    Mar 26, 2015 at 21:50
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    I wouldn't call you a cynic, curmudgeon, pessimist, or killjoy. I'd call you a realist. (Although, turns out, #50000 wasn't too bad a question after all.)
    – J.R.
    Mar 27, 2015 at 9:54
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    Wait, Americans don't pronounce the 'r' in those words? checks passport You're messing with me, right?
    – Mitch
    Mar 27, 2015 at 17:43
  • @Mitch - 'ight, yes, I am. ') But we have had similah questions wheah I puzzle over why someone thinks an obvious consonant (not the typical slu-ing or glottal consonants) sound is not pahnounced by Amahicans.
    – anongoodnurse
    Mar 27, 2015 at 17:58
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    @medica: Are you talking about non-rhotic varieties of American English (where r-final is dropped), like Boston or some Southern accents? Because none of the words you gave follow that pattern at all (all those 'r's are syllable initial). Links to those questions you're thinking of?
    – Mitch
    Mar 27, 2015 at 18:55
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    You are entirely right in this answer. A slightly different issue is that if a number of questions are deleted (46 at this moment), there will be a second Question Number 50000. The number presented is entirely arbitrary.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Mar 27, 2015 at 20:00
  • @Mitch - that was my attempt to be clever. No, the words I have seen questions about were not good, Lawler-worthy questions, they were WT- questions where several Americans commented that they pronounce that consonant. Kindof like this but not a peeve or trolling.
    – anongoodnurse
    Mar 27, 2015 at 20:14
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I propose that we delete lots of terrible off-topic/unresearched questions. There's no reason why every day can't be a celebration of the 50 thousandth question!

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    I like that attitude!
    – bjb568
    Apr 3, 2015 at 3:02
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I propose celebrating this mathematically arbitrary milestone by requiring John Lawler (who states in his profile "I enjoy answering questions") to supply the two answers that would officially bring his total to precisely 1,000.

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    BTW, why is there no badge for having answered 1.000 questions ??
    – user66974
    Mar 27, 2015 at 8:38
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    @Josh61 - Nifty idea, but I see a potential problem: people posting bad answers just to get a gold badge. How about a badge for a thousand answers with positive scores, or something similar?
    – anongoodnurse
    Mar 28, 2015 at 0:26
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    Barry England (Where are you?) has given 2554 answers with a positive score. Six (?) more users pass the 1000 mark with Robusto coming close to 2000, and a few others over 1000. I think this would be a very good idea to acknowledge these valuable users. But then, maybe rep does that?
    – anongoodnurse
    Mar 28, 2015 at 21:32

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