Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
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How to say thank you in StackExchange?
I have asked a lot of questions and got many answers in StackExchange. When I want to express my appreciation, I can only use "Thanks" or "I appreciate that." Can anyone teach me more about how to say ...
9
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What are the consequences of a suspension?
Before asking this question, I read Mark's similar one (About Suspension, posted on Oct 5 '11 and which got a few replies). In his question, Mark mentioned a member who was suspended but seemed to be ...
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rudeness, belligerence, and dishonesty in this forum [closed]
Is it customary to frown upon gratuitous rudeness, dishonesty, and flame-warring within english.stackexchange.com?
In a comment under this question on meta, this boorish and dishonest comment ...
2
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2
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Reopen 'Origin of the phrase "Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane"?'
This is a request to reopen the question 'Origin of the phrase "Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane"?'. There were at least 4 reopen votes previously which appear to have expired (?). This appears to ...
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4
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Why was my question titled "native English inferiority" closed?
This question was "closed as not a real question." Obviously it's a real question, and I would disbelieve anyone's explicit assertion (as opposed to this rude sarcastic boilerplate notice) that it ...
8
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answers
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Suspicious completionist up-votings
I've been the beneficiary (victim?) of a slew of badge-inducing up votes recently, receiving probably five or six Nice Answer and Enlightened badges in just the past week.
The random up votes are not ...
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2
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Why is it valid that one person can close a question as too localized?
First I would like to know why it is possible to close a question as "too localized" at all? Is it not enough that the question does not get an answer? Why is it necessary to close it?
Every closed ...
16
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3
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How do we describe "good" and "bad" English?
Many questions have these words tossed around:
good / bad
valid / invalid
right / wrong
grammatical / ungrammatical
correct / mistake
standard / non-standard
accepted / not accepted
...
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1
answer
144
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Why was this closed as not a real question?
"Sorting on" vs. "Sorting by"
I'm stumped. What did I miss here?
6
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2
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So, what happened on the site that we all suddenly got "Generalist" badges?
Idle question: "Generalist" was one of the badges that nobody had, and now suddenly a whole bunch of us were awarded it. Was there some hidden time-related condition on it that the site met? Or did ...
0
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1
answer
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Is there any point to having multiple CW answers on the same post?
Is there any point to having multiple Community Wiki answers on the same post? For example this & this at Is there an online sample sentence database or search engine? It seems to me that having ...
14
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What distinguishes a good from a bad question (i.c. "Can I use “US-American” to disambiguate “American”? If not, what can I use?")
The question Is ‘USAers’ just an ordinary English word today? has, at the time of writing, a net vote of +4. On the other hand, my question Can I use "US-American" to disambiguate "...
22
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4
answers
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Do we need to write the better questions ourselves?
In the ELL-Post-Apocalypse chatroom, KitFox made a very interesting observation (gently edited here for dramatic impact):
We have gotten diluted with basic questions because basic questions fill our ...
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1
answer
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Posting Questions on ELU that were previously asked elsewhere
I raise this matter here because of comments arising against this question and others. I checked several earlier questions by the OP on that link, and in every case, the exact question had been asked ...
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Generic vs. Specific 'This' & 'That' type Questions
Recently, there's been a tendency to post an entire batch of questions in quick succession.
e.g. '(word) with' vs. '(word) at' (cf. “Employment with” vs. “employment at” and its siblings).
This ...
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1
answer
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Why was this question on an offensive term closed?
I'm not sure why this question was closed, as it seems like a perfectly valid inquiry on whether or not a certain expression is considered sensitive or offensive in the English language. This seems ...
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4
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Downvoting an answer because the question was bad?
I have noticed a pattern in the downvotes that I receive. Often times I receive downvotes on answers that I give to very basic and easy-to-answer questions--even when the answer is correct. The most ...
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Announcing an EL&U Mod Privileges Summit [closed]
A chat room has been created as an open forum for users with any mod privileges such as "vote to close". This chat room is intended for discussion and consensus building about what editorial direction ...
2
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1
answer
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When should a question be up-voted? When should a question be answered?
Should a question be up-voted only when it shows research effort and/or is useful and clear? Is a question useful and clear if it's interesting?
Should a question be answered only when the question ...
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votes
3
answers
213
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Should we ignore the General Reference close reason?
(Major rewrite since the ELL proposal has been reopened)
I propose we start allowing questions we previously deemed General Reference, since they’ve nowhere else to go. We can migrate them if ELL ...
7
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2
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Should the genitive tag be merged with the possessive tag?
Currently, exactly two questions are tagged with the genitive tag, compared with many that are tagged with the possessive tag. Furthermore, genitive has no tag wiki, whereas possessive does.
I ...
19
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4
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Close Reason Comments
We've been seeing a lot of comments lately that are somewhat along the lines of
Off-topic. Voting to close.
or
This is too localized. [remainder of comment...]
Essentially, these comments are ...
2
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0
answers
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Why are there so many down-votes on English SE site? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why are most new questions being downvoted?
This is the first time I asked a question on English SE site and got two down-votes immediately. It turns out I'm not alone. There'...
2
votes
1
answer
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Do we have any guidelines for flagging a comment as offense?
I can find no guideline in the FAQ regarding when to flag someone for a comment that is offensive. I cannot the topic in the meta section.
Consider the case when someone is attacking / insulting, ...
3
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3
answers
276
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Why is the meaning of song lyrics off topic
The Following question was closed as off topic:
What's the difference between “get up” and “stand up”? [closed]
I'm translating Bob Marley's song "Get up, stand up" and, consulting my dictonary, ...
1
vote
2
answers
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Sentence completion question; should it be have been closed?
This question, about the reasoning of an examiner, was closed as off-topic, apparently because people either thought the example sentence poor English (which it certainly is) or disagreed with the ...
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4
answers
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Is the "protected" question tool overused?
For anyone not familar with a "protected" question, here's a pretty useful case for the tool… and a counter-example where it make, umm... less sense.
A protected question prevents answers by ...
3
votes
1
answer
263
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Why does this site use an ampersand for an icon?
Just curious. Why do we have & as a site logo?
Yeah, I know that the site is about two things: both language and usage. But still, there are other SE sites with "and" in their names too and they ...
7
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0
answers
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Search for common words
I have a question that must have been asked here many times. The question is about using "it is" versus "this is".
Attempted to search for it is and this is, with and without quotes, and the search ...
1
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1
answer
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Removal of "phrasing" and "there-is" tags
There are only a few dozen questions with these two tags. In the case of "phrasing", I believe it can be replaced with "phrases" in most cases. Should it be made a synonym?
"There-is" can be replaced ...
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1
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What's the right way to ask a question about a scenario in a TV program?
Imagine I just watched a TV programme (mostly series), and I didn't get the meaning of some dialogue (mostly humour), could I ask it here?
Last time I just put part of a subtitle on the question, and ...
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answer
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Why this question was closed?
Does the word "government" in English mean the courts as well?
I could not find an answer in online dictionaries. Why it is considered general reference?
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Different users' edits are amalgamated
Revision 3 of https://english.stackexchange.com/posts/83629/revisions is attributed to me.
I edited the question to remove the code formatting and present the quote correctly, and did only that. A ...
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1
answer
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Why is this question closed?
I would like to know why this question is closed, anything wrong?
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/83560/pardes-end-why-could-tietjens-say-i-know
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New tag: academic-writing
There are quite a few question on this site (well, one of them being mine) which are basically word-request / word choice questions in an academic publishing scenario.
Examples of such questions:
...
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1
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'Protected Q.' & Close Vote Review
This question
Correct usage of pronoun: “their” vs “its”
is shown as "protected by ЯegDwight ...", suggesting that it has some significance.
Should it list in Review|Close Votes?
I think it ...
12
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1
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Why was the amber/yellow lights question closed as general reference?
My question Amber or yellow lights was closed as general reference. I do not understand why: what general reference?
The one reference that was cited in a comment is the Wikipedia article about the ...
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3
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Is it a good strategy to accept the most upvoted answer?
Perhaps there is duplicate of this question somewhere, can't find it.
Situation: OP feels that some of the answers to a question are equally good (other answers are not as good). In such a case, is ...
3
votes
0
answers
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Should downvotes require comments? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why is it not mandatory to provide comments on a down-vote?
Some questions can be unclear, and most users are nice enough to leave a comment on the question to let OP know ...
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2
answers
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Is it OK to ask for recordings here?
I would like to request a sample of a certain phonetic phenomenon in English. Is it the right place to make such a request? If so, what should the title of my post be? It's hardly a question so should ...
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2
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I don't really understand Area 51 [closed]
META: I don't really understand Area 51. If I want to access 'Stack English' I can find it quite easily. "Area 51 English" INTUITIVE?
What is trying to be achieved here?
Actually, I can see how it ...
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3
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What General Reference answers this question?
The recent question on how to represent in English a language which does not have a word for "I" has been closed as General Reference and deleted. Link (10k only; text below)
I've seen What ...
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1
answer
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What's wrong with this question?
No one leaves a comment on it, just close(2), anything bad about this question ?
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/82836/what-words-should-i-use-in-replacement-of-lazy
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1
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Active view is no longer sorting correctly [closed]
The active view on the main site is no longer sorting correctly.
Nor is the meta:
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1
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172
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Questions incapable of a simple answer
I have just been looking through the unanswered questions. There are a number of questions there that are incapable of a simple answer. There are also questions relating to previous questions, which ...
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4
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What is the best way to deal with a poor question?
I really think Canadian spelling: why? is a very poor question.
This question has been awarded 9 points, so far. Yet, I think that it is a very poor question.
I have not attached any comment to ...
4
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2
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Valid question closed as 'too localised', requesting reasons for being out of scope
My question Indicating 'ephemeral questions' section in an FAQ was closed as too localized. Reading the FAQ, the very first example of valid questions is for 'word choice and usage' which ...
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5
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How would we like to format our keywords?
For a long time, the EL&U community has had a problem. We have been unable to search for stop words (common words that are not searchable), which is "problematic since many of the questions on ...
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Why is the following answer converted into a comment?
Why is the following answer being converted into a comment?
"See the FAQ" someone said to me; but in the FAQ I found nothing!
Can anybody express a possible explanation?
--
Prepositions pose ...
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Questions about prepositions
We have had a lot of "which preposition goes here" questions. These are by their nature very specific and localized, and are also not usually particularly interesting. I think we need some more ...