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.
2,731
questions
105
votes
3
answers
2k
views
A friendly reminder: ELL is not EL&U's trash can
We've been getting a lot of migrations to ELL lately. That's actually fine by me – I think a lot of them are okay on ELL, even if they're not suitable for EL&U. The two sites have different ...
user28567
87
votes
3
answers
1k
views
This is not a site for "serious English language enthusiasts," and it never will be
I think it's time that we addressed the conceit that ELU is a site for "linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts." Its framers and many of its devotees intend for it to be ...
- 18.1k
84
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Nobody cares how YOU pronounce it
I'll come right out and admit it: I'm a pretty self-absorbed person, and I sometimes have a hard time remembering that not everything is always about me. To this day I believe deep in the core of my ...
- 18.1k
84
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Is Python a snake or a programming language? If the latter, why is it choking my dog?
We've been getting a rash of questions asking, essentially, what a programmer should name methods or properties. One such was a request for a word that meant both "add" and "remove" because the ...
- 150k
70
votes
1
answer
4k
views
What is the difference between ELU and ELL?
Someone has suggested that a question of mine should be migrated to the ELL site.
Why are there two Q&A sites for the English language?
What can I ask on each site?
Note: ELU refers to English ...
- 173
64
votes
4
answers
759
views
Why I'm absent for a little while
Over the last few months, I have been going through the process of being diagnosed with cancer. The English mod team, SE community moderators, and mods from other sites have been very supportive and ...
Kit Z. FoxMod
- 27.6k
62
votes
6
answers
3k
views
How reliable is Google Ngram?
Ngram seems to be more authoritative than the Periodic Table here on EL&U. As someone with more than a passing interest in the language, I wanted to know how good Ngram is. And on Wikipedia, of ...
- 1,241
62
votes
2
answers
854
views
Basic questions are not so basic
It has come up in other threads that we have a lot of "basic" or "lowest common denominator" questions. However, a few myths about this need to be put to rest.
First, we do have a general reference ...
- 54k
60
votes
7
answers
4k
views
Word for disrespecting eldest half-sister by referring to her husband as girly-girl-manly-boy though he's amused but the rest of the family isn't?
Are these single word requests getting out of hand, or am I just still too new to this site to recognize a long-standing problem and standard ways of dealing with them?
I thought that by using ...
- 55k
58
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Single word requests, crosswords, and the fight against mediocrity
A call to action
This topic has been brought up here numerous times before, most recently by JSBangs:
I'm now of the opinion that single word requests should be either disallowed entirely or subject ...
- 371
58
votes
6
answers
5k
views
Should we allow Google NGrams to be presented as statistical evidence without qualification? Should we define a set of standards for their usage?
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." — Benjamin Disraeli, attr. by Mark Twain
"If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything." — ...
- 150k
56
votes
2
answers
1k
views
CyberBullying on SE
For the past few weeks I have been receiving many comments from the user Rathony. The pattern goes like this: 1) I make a comment on someone's answer, or I post my own answer 2) Within minutes, a ...
- 7,134
54
votes
1
answer
4k
views
List of common abbreviations and acronyms (NOAD, ESL, PIE...)
Abbreviations are always a potential source of confusion. Some people might happen to know what OED stands for, and can figure out what NOAD must mean, but others may not be so lucky. Googling for PIE ...
53
votes
8
answers
2k
views
Referencing the existence of words that may be offensive
I left a comment on this answer in which I made a reference to a word that many people find offensive (although I didn’t use or even mention the word itself). I referenced the word because it was an ...
nohatMod
- 67.9k
53
votes
7
answers
836
views
Bring back the Summer of Love (aka Make new users feel more welcome)
I'm a big fan of SE sites and spend an awful lot of time on StackOverflow. When I saw an English Language site, I pointed a few of my friends and family this way (one of whom is an English professor ...
- 175
53
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Support for Monica Cellio
Monica Cellio, an active and valued member here for years and a moderator on several other sites, was abruptly dismissed last month, without any reason given but apparently because Stack Overflow (the ...
- 34.9k
48
votes
9
answers
1k
views
How to guarantee getting downvotes without explanation
There has been significant interest in this topic, as shown by the number of related questions. Since new users come along regularly (such as myself), I don't think it's useless to review the downvote....
- 55k
48
votes
9
answers
948
views
Google is not General Reference
The description for the "General Reference" close reason states,
This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently
answered by a single link to a standard internet reference ...
- 32.6k
47
votes
7
answers
992
views
Warn people of the rules for [Single-Word-Requests] before posting
As everyone probably knows, very few people actually follow the main rule of single-word-requests:
YOU MUST INCLUDE A SAMPLE SENTENCE
Thus we have many low-quality questions, many of which get ...
LaurelMod
- 63k
45
votes
44
answers
2k
views
"Oh The Horror" Hat Club 2013
41 people join in.
Each person upvotes every answer, other than theirs, to this question.
Once we have 41 answers and votes, I will systematically accept each answer in turn.
41 people get the "Oh ...
45
votes
6
answers
772
views
Is the EL&U community overzealous about closing/down-voting questions?
I'm fairly new to the stackexchange network, but I participate quite a bit on stackoverflow. I've used a few others (like this one) for one or two questions.
And I have to say, EL&U feels ...
- 871
43
votes
9
answers
712
views
Should we have a migration path to ELL?
I know that this has been discussed before but, at the time, it was not possible since ELL was still in beta. Now that it has graduated and has had its first mod elections and everything, it might be ...
- 21.3k
43
votes
8
answers
1k
views
Is it easy to spot an educated non-native speaker on a website like this?
There are native and non-native speakers on this website. I can identify some native speakers (mostly by certain colloquialisms) and some non-native speakers (by small deviations from idiom and the ...
42
votes
2
answers
392
views
Dealing with spam
With our recent spate of spam, a few reminders on how best to deal with it:
First and foremost, please flag as spam. That's the first option when you open up the spam dialog, and that will delete the ...
- 14.4k
37
votes
8
answers
644
views
2014 Community Moderator Election Results
English Language & Usage's 3rd moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the 3 new moderators are:
They'll be joining the existing crew shortly — please thank ...
- 371
36
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 ...
- 54k
36
votes
6
answers
948
views
So, are non-native speakers not welcome any more?
If I may, I would like to share some of my feelings about this website with you.
I used to think of english.stackexchange as a welcoming place for educated people from all around the world who are ...
- 606
36
votes
7
answers
773
views
"This question appears to be off topic because it is better asked on ELL."
A bit of background before I begin: I am a moderator on ELL, and I admit to not being entirely familiar with what is and isn't on-topic here on ELU. I am posting this discussion because I see a trend ...
- 1,255
35
votes
2
answers
465
views
2016 Community Moderator Election Results
English Language & Usage's fourth moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the 2 new moderators are:
They'll be joining the existing crew shortly — please thank ...
- 456
34
votes
6
answers
762
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
34
votes
6
answers
7k
views
EL&U Blog, the reboot
We have a blog. We've had it for a while. You should take a look, there is some great content. I'll wait here while you read it...
Good, no?
This is a call for regular contributors. You don't have to ...
- 28.9k
34
votes
3
answers
1k
views
erm... I lost 2,134 in reputation
Yes, I know. When a user is removed, or they delete their accounts their upvotes and downvotes are removed. But tonight I lost 2,134 rep. That's a lot. Seriously. This is no laughing matter. I just ...
- 88.4k
34
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How accurate is Google Ngram as a language reference source?
This may be a stupid question to ask, and maybe I will be chastised for not doing the research myself, but recently I have been having doubts on the validity of Ngram charts. Let me explain where my ...
- 88.4k
33
votes
7
answers
809
views
Is EL&U becoming ESL?
Maybe it's just me, but I get the feeling we are seeing an increasing number of English language learner questions.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but is it what we really want? Aren't we going ...
- 4,699
33
votes
5
answers
751
views
Has anyone thought about changing the name of this site?
Wouldn't "Advanced English Language & Usage" be more appropriate and cut down the ELL questions?
Just by the name of the site the users who post "ELL" are right. I believe this site poorly named....
- 16.8k
33
votes
4
answers
1k
views
What the f*** just happened?
I just logged on and found that, no doubt for my convenience,
everything on the ELU page was now in a different place.
I'm sure that someone would like to take responsibility for this putative ...
- 105k
32
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Strong community support for a bad answer; why?
I recently joined English Language & Usage because I enjoy the topic of English language and have (so far) had positive experiences at other Stack Exchange websites. I also wanted to comment on ...
- 457
32
votes
4
answers
7k
views
Announcement: AI generated answers are officially banned here
It's really quite unbelievable, but artificial intelligence has recently gotten to the point where, given a question, it can give a stunningly coherent answer almost indistinguishable from a real ...
LaurelMod
- 63k
31
votes
9
answers
786
views
Is http://englishqna.blogspot.com violating EL&U (or YOUR) copyright?
The site http://englishqna.blogspot.com seems to be reposting all our questions and answers. Now, I understand that the data is under a permissive license, but the attribution requirements don't seem ...
- 26.4k
31
votes
9
answers
1k
views
What should we do about users circumventing suspensions?
You may be aware that a certain user on EL&U has been suspended for voting abuse and that this user has repeatedly circumvented his/her suspension and continued to ask questions. In addition, this ...
- 14.4k
31
votes
10
answers
1k
views
Answers in comments
There are quite a large number of Meta.ELU questions about answers in comments, but none which definitively settles community opinion, mainly because they are rather old now, but also because they don'...
Andrew LeachMod
- 98.5k
31
votes
4
answers
560
views
Proposal for selective blacklisting
Enabling selective notifications on ELU
Other busy sites like Stack Overflow have pop-up notifications that trigger
on various titles and tags, but we do not. For example, this is an outright ban when ...
tchristMod
- 133k
31
votes
9
answers
697
views
English Site Design
Hi all, I am Jin. I'm the designer who works on the design and CSS conversion for the Stack Exchange sites as they graduate from the beta phase.
I'm very excited about the design for the English ...
- 1,313
31
votes
1
answer
513
views
New close reason: include the research
After reviewing several Meta posts and related commentary, the moderator team has replaced one of the custom close reasons on the site. The General Reference close reason has been replaced by:
...
Kit Z. FoxMod
- 27.6k
30
votes
6
answers
1k
views
Why are answers being posted in the comments on the question?
For example: Etymology of "to coin a phrase"
I have seen this several times on this site, and it seems to be a departure from how things are done on other sites in the SE network and how ...
- 1,393
30
votes
5
answers
719
views
Why are most new questions being downvoted?
I was scrolling through the list of newest asked questions and noticed that only 3 out of 15 had non-negative votes for the question. Is this just an anomaly or is the quality of the average question ...
- 631
30
votes
4
answers
640
views
Should we encourage posting distinct answers separately? (Particularly for [single-word-requests])
In a comment on this [single-word-request] answer, the question was raised:
I'm … adding all my ideas to one answer. Is that the right way? Rather than generating many answers and letting each one ...
- 28.6k
30
votes
3
answers
528
views
A Temporary Tweak to Work Around Abusive Posting Patterns
There have been some rather unsavory things posted almost mechanically as of late, and we're seeing an increase in spam / trolling on a couple of other sites. As we can't rule out that these things ...
- 621
30
votes
0
answers
392
views
My first experience with trying to get a question reopened after it was put on hold
...was with the question What is the origin of the word "Blackmail"?. It was asked by a user who appeared to be new to EL&U and who framed it as a simple etymological question—one that a ...
- 158k
29
votes
3
answers
795
views
What's with all the serial down-voting on the "boobs" question?
The question What is the difference between “tits” and “boobs”? has a number of answers, and a dedicated group of people appears to have gone through and down-voted every answer multiple times. This ...
- 150k