Linked Questions
37
votes
11
answers
4k
views
Against single word requests
We've discussed single-word-requests before:
Are single word requests always welcomed questions?
Are word requests allowed?
The consensus of earlier discussions was that these questions are on the ...
- 54.2k
24
votes
11
answers
1k
views
Can anything be done about mean-spirited requests for terminology?
tl;dr: Mean people suck, and we should not help them.
EDIT: I don’t actually believe anything mechanical can be done here, and I certainly don’t expect a “closed due to meanness” reason. That’s just ...
tchristMod
- 134k
34
votes
6
answers
763
views
What kind of questions ARE we looking for here?
I've been lurking on ELU for around six months now, and in my time here, I've seen many, many questions being closed due to being off-topic. More than any other SE site. I've browsed the meta for ...
- 863
17
votes
7
answers
739
views
2014 Moderator Election Q&A - Questionnaire
In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected from an earlier thread have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as ...
- 841
14
votes
3
answers
1k
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Memes of English Language & Usage
Inspired by The Many Memes of Meta on meta.stackexchange.
Catchphrases and concepts that spread from person to person are known as memes, which, courtesy the Internet, can now explode across the ...
- 62.6k
14
votes
4
answers
515
views
What is the best way to answer a question which has no answer?
What is the preferred way to answer a question which asks “Provide me with X”, when it is overwhelmingly likely that X does not exist?
Assumptions
Assume the question is interesting on its own ...
- 28.7k
12
votes
4
answers
426
views
Why the lack of voting on questions at ELU?
As a relative newcomer to ELU, I'm often struck by the lack of voting on questions here, and especially upvoting. It might be case that you receive many poor questions, but compared to for instance ...
- 227
10
votes
3
answers
508
views
“What’s wrong with single word requests?”
In the proposal to merge ELU and ELL, the asker in passing mentioned:
On the other hand, many native speakers actually ask questions such as single word requests which should not be the focus of ELU ...
tchristMod
- 134k
14
votes
3
answers
5k
views
What's the English word for my father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate?
With sad regularity, it seems someone comes to the site looking for "the word" for some very specific relationship. Recently, it was What is the English word for husband of the daughter of my brother?....
- 22.7k
10
votes
3
answers
320
views
How do you explain why a word phrase is unlikely to exist?
I've had a few occasions where it was apparent to me why a word a speaker was looking for was unlikely to exist, as in this answer. I've had it happen a couple times that while many answers with ...
user36720
-2
votes
4
answers
353
views
Should we discourage the use of argot such as AmE, BrE, ELU, ...?
[With Addendum]
Should we discourage the use of argot such as
AmE and BrE—even ELU—[added:]
in answers to nonspecialists' questions at ELU?
Most visitors who find answers here come from ...
- 946
5
votes
2
answers
206
views
Rewriting the Question Box Sidebar
Recently, a user brought up the issue of questions that could seemingly be answered by looking in a dictionary and the responses given to those questions.
Andrew Leach posted an answer that had a ...
- 7,152
1
vote
3
answers
213
views
How the [expletive deleted] is this question "primarily opinion based"?
The mind boggles.
Meryl Streep is a ______? (as a big compliment)
Primarily opinion based? Really? If you're having such a bad day that you feel compelled to close a significantly above-average ...
- 32.9k
5
votes
2
answers
149
views
Can anything be done for well-wishing requests for terminology?
I've really been harping on things like this recently, and I think I need to go somewhere else to cool down for a bit.
So I'm deleting my account for now but intending to continue visiting in the ...
user39720
0
votes
1
answer
138
views
"Closing changes: [on hold], unclear, too broad, opinion-based, off-topic reasons, bye-bye to Too Localized"
It seems there are relevant changes coming soon to how posts are closed: Closing changes: on hold, unclear, too broad, opinion-based, off-topic reasons, bye-bye to Too Localized (MetaStackOverFlow).
...
user19148