Questions tagged [feature-request]

You have an idea for a new feature, or for a change to the existing functionality.

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33 votes
1 answer
309 views

Can a placeholder text be added to the question body box?

I posted this suggestion to another post, but thought it would be worth its own separate feature request. Is it already possible to add a placeholder text to the question body box, or would the SE ...
curiousdannii's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
158 views

Extend the list of SE sites presented when a question is being closed as off-topic

Actually, the only listed site is meta.english.stackexchange.com. Is it possible to add other SE sites as well? Would not, for example, Writers and English Language Learners suit in that list?
apaderno's user avatar
  • 58.8k
20 votes
2 answers
447 views

A simple proposal towards improving question quality

Encouraging Better Questions I would like to encourage the asking of better, more substantial questions. Every day we receive many brief, low-quality questions that are unlikely to elicit anything ...
tchrist's user avatar
  • 133k
5 votes
3 answers
267 views

Proposal: Add a "too basic"/"uninteresting" off-topic option

Also see: Proposal: Require a whitelisted URL to close as General Reference It is clear that many close-voters use the "commonly available references" option as a catchall for questions that they ...
phenry's user avatar
  • 18.2k
48 votes
7 answers
1k 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 ...
Laurel's user avatar
  • 64.3k
20 votes
3 answers
222 views

Hyperlinks could be improved for colourblind individuals

I quite like the design of the English StackExchange site - I actually think it's one of the best of all of them. I only have one rather serious complaint with it though, and that's the colour of ...
PatrickJ's user avatar
  • 101
16 votes
2 answers
285 views

50 question per month limit?

Shog9's answer to the SE meta question 50 question per month limit? appears to confirm that there is such a limit, but this ELU user appears to have asked more than 50 questions in the past week. Did ...
FumbleFingers's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
417 views

Proposal for narrowing the scope of the "reference" close vote

I strongly disagree that "questions that can be answered using commonly available references" should be considered "off-topic" at all, but I can at least understand why someone would want to close ...
phenry's user avatar
  • 18.2k
10 votes
2 answers
280 views

What about downvoting comments?

Comments are widely used (and misused IMO) for different reasons. At times they are real answers or elaborations of answers, at others they are used just to express personal impressions on questions ...
user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
234 views

Stack sites should support primary and secondary language when defining user profile

I am not a native english speaker. If you see User profile settings defined by StackExchange, it does not contain primary and secondary languages. It just contains location but a non-native english ...
Arthur Ronald's user avatar
1 vote
4 answers
473 views

Renaming ELU to EnglishOverflow

May I suggest the following name changes: I think English Language Learners (ELL) should change its name to English Language & Usage (ELU) and ELU should become EnglishOverflow, just like ...
user 726941's user avatar
35 votes
2 answers
523 views

As a site about EL&U, should we maintain correct grammar, punctuation, etc. throughout the site?

When a user goes to ask a question, the default text in the title bar is this: Should this be changed to reflect the site's intent? In my opinion, this is a place where rules of the English language ...
user avatar
27 votes
2 answers
309 views

Proposal to fix the uselessness of the new off-topic close options

Bait-and-switch Close “Options” With the new close options recently implemented, when you click close on ELU, that takes you to a first-level menu of five different close options. From that first-...
tchrist's user avatar
  • 133k
16 votes
3 answers
680 views

When a question is closed, tell them the procedure for reopening it

UPDATE: Version 2.1 of the trial is now live. The intention is for the last voter who closes a question to link to the trial in lieu of the link appearing in the notice of closure. Here's a template ...
Lawrence's user avatar
  • 38.3k
15 votes
2 answers
181 views

Need a way to search for stop words

Since this site is about English usage, the standard search engine for the site which filters out "stop words" is going to be problematic since many of the questions on the site will be about stop ...
nohat's user avatar
  • 68.2k
14 votes
10 answers
1k views

Should we fix backticks?

I would still like to look into doing this, because it is tedious in the extreme to edit every single instance of misused backticks into italics, and because almost no one ever fixes these. Therefore ...
tchrist's user avatar
  • 133k
6 votes
1 answer
302 views

What to reference when answering a question? [duplicate]

I've seen a few questions dotted around, which require references to dictionaries or such-like (etymonline, wiktionary, OE dictionary, the Chicago Manual of Style), to make clear why a word or ...
AncientSwordRage's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
292 views

Censorship of offensive questions

This recent question raised debate over the censorship of questions containing offensive language (or their titles, at least). I always understood the offensive-language tag to serve that purpose. I ...
The English Chicken's user avatar
-5 votes
3 answers
222 views

Show native language with the answer

I would like to get community opinion on the possibility of "self-assigned badges"1 that would serve to distinguish for example native vs. non-native English speakers American vs. British vs. other ...
Unreason's user avatar
  • 12.4k
-9 votes
1 answer
149 views

Why was one of my comments deleted on this question? (also, request to add a feature to the site to be notified of post and comment deletions) [duplicate]

Should we refer to a female "senator" as a "senatrix"? I remember making a comment on why actor/actress and waiter/waitress are used but not author/authoress, but the comment is ...
user avatar
23 votes
5 answers
193 views

Allow Questions to be Closed as Off-Topic and Migrated to ELL

I would like to make a pitch that we add a "this question belongs on ELL" to the Off-Topic sub-menu, and begin closing questions as Off-Topic, rather than General Reference, when they don't belong ...
Lynn's user avatar
  • 17.7k
18 votes
3 answers
211 views

Can't search for a question about "that" and "which"

I knew this question was there: When is it appropriate to use ‘that’ as opposed to ‘which’?, but I tried searching for it and couldn't find it. Many usage questions concern function words in English, ...
nohat's user avatar
  • 68.2k
16 votes
4 answers
1k views

Proposal to add small-capitals formatting directive

I propose that a new formatting directive be added to access the font’s small capitals. For example, <smcaps>some text</smcaps> would work, but I encourage discussion on any syntactic ...
tchrist's user avatar
  • 133k
10 votes
7 answers
242 views

Poll: additional question types that should or shouldn't be added to help/on-topic

Today, I saw that Help Center/on-topic has this text: Proofreading ("Is this right?", "Are there any mistakes?"), unless a specific source of concern is clearly specified. See below for hints on ...
Dan Bron's user avatar
  • 28.6k
9 votes
4 answers
229 views

New theme: Banner, sidebars, footer

The new theming does not seem to be to anyone's taste, but we can't go back to the way the site used to look. Some features like fonts and page layout are now set across all sites, and we just have to ...
1006a's user avatar
  • 22.7k
5 votes
6 answers
372 views

Are low quality questions and answers here to stay?

For a number of reasons the number of new users who post low quality questions or answers does not appear to be flagging by any measure. This issue had often generated stress among users who rightly ...
user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

Exception to 30 character minimum for answers

Is there any way to create an exception for the minimum answer length for questions tagged "single-word request?" It seems wasteful and inconvenient and seems feasible from a coding perspective.
Yitzchak's user avatar
  • 1,316
-1 votes
5 answers
319 views

Should askers who never ‘accept’ answers be penalized in some way?

I've noticed that there are some users on EL&U who ask many questions, but rarely (or never) accept any of the answers given. It appears that I am not the only one who regards such behaviour as a ...
Erik Kowal's user avatar
  • 26.7k
-8 votes
2 answers
309 views

Will you please insist on explanations for down-voting? [duplicate]

Despite "helpful" contributions from various Members, this Question doesn't at all have a previous Answer. Without explanation, a down-vote can be very like a slap round the back of the head…...
Robbie Goodwin's user avatar
31 votes
4 answers
567 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 ...
tchrist's user avatar
  • 133k
16 votes
2 answers
200 views

Could ELU place an announcement for beginners linking to ELL?

Because the domain name of english.stackexchange.com uses an ambiguous word in its first element, I think you should prominently place some sort of “announcement” that anyone coming to ELU can always ...
mockie's user avatar
  • 109
13 votes
4 answers
368 views

Warning to a user who posts the "same (exact) answer" and answer "without any reference/research"

I have seen several times a user, mostly a newbie, post an exact same answer, i.e. in this question, What would be next after minor, major, …?. The chances are either Ugh didn't read the previous ...
user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
158 views

Could the meta site be more clearly labeled?

I'm a new user. I was looking at the main site, and trying to learn more about how things work, so I clicked the FAQ link; then I clicked something else, I'm not sure what, and found a bunch of ...
Jed Hartman's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
256 views

Follow up to FF's question on 50 posts limit

"So if you want to enable this limit, make a meta post about this and gather some community support and discuss it. If there seems to be a consensus that it should be enabled, one of the moderators ...
anongoodnurse's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
301 views

How curious are you? — or — Tallied ELU “Asking-Day Badges”–Proposal Results

How we fare in the new badge proposal In the MSE posting Asking days badges, there is a proposal to create a new trio of badges for asking “good” questions on distinct days. Its basic metric for ...
tchrist's user avatar
  • 133k
12 votes
2 answers
175 views

What about a “it’s just a typo” off-topic close option?

On StackOverflow proper, one of the possibilities offered for an off-topic close reason is that it’s a simple typographical error. Although the no-repro part doesn’t apply to ELU, we do have quite a ...
tchrist's user avatar
  • 133k
11 votes
1 answer
315 views

Declutter EL&U's "Newest" Page

Unclutter EL&U before quality drowns It is my conviction that the site's health would benefit greatly by removing those very questions that plague the first two or three pages. As soon as an ...
Mari-Lou A's user avatar
  • 89.9k
11 votes
5 answers
242 views

Make blockquotes inside blockquotes better distinguishable

Given the nature of this site, it happens that one wants to quote something that contains a blockquote itself, e.g., as an example sentence. For example: A run-on sentence is something like this: I ...
Wrzlprmft's user avatar
  • 4,346
11 votes
2 answers
127 views

Feature request: unflag

Can we have the option to unflag a post? If an issue is resolved before a moderator gets around to handling the flag, it we be nice if we could get rid of the flag and save someone the time of looking ...
yoozer8's user avatar
  • 8,740
11 votes
2 answers
227 views

Hoop-jumping for new users: multiple choice quiz!

Josh61's idea caused me to have my own idea for how we (try to) stop new users posting low quality questions: compulsory multiple choice quiz! It's very easy for anyone to ignore the guidance on the ...
AndyT's user avatar
  • 14.7k
9 votes
1 answer
117 views

Add ELL to list of sites for off topic questions

Reviewing this question: What are the functions of each part of the principal parts? Trying to flag it to be moved to ELL. Only, ELL does not show in the list of sites. Can ELL please be added?
teylyn's user avatar
  • 3,205
9 votes
2 answers
170 views

Providing links to ELL

Can a descriptive link to the ELL proposal be added to one or more of the following? The FAQ The General Reference description A block in the sidebar or, if not, then as a sticky link in the "...
coleopterist's user avatar
  • 30.9k
8 votes
2 answers
156 views

Finding "duplicates" for hardy perennials

I'm sure others must have hit this problem after being on EL&U for a while. With some questions which crop up repeatedly, it can be quite difficult to find an earlier related or exact duplicate, ...
FumbleFingers's user avatar
5 votes
5 answers
370 views

Reputation score for bad questions

We often have high-rep users providing answers to questions when they should, in fact, be voting to close those questions, because the questions are duplicates, or because the questions are too poorly ...
Mr. Shiny and New 安宇's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
232 views

Proposal: Require a whitelisted URL to close as General Reference

Also see: Proposal: Add a “too basic”/“uninteresting” off-topic option It is clear that many close-voters use the "commonly available references" option as a catchall for questions that they just don'...
phenry's user avatar
  • 18.2k
3 votes
1 answer
70 views

Can we add a "follow question" option?

I don't like when one day I am contemplating answering a question, but then I reach my question limit or I want time to think about it, and forget to favourite the question. Then I go back the next ...
Louie Bnouie's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
120 views

Basic problem with comment deletion

(Yes, I know this will be instantly marked "dupe", but if I ask my question on one of the "dupes" it will almost certainly be ignored.) I understand why the person who deleted a comment is not ...
Hot Licks's user avatar
  • 27.4k
2 votes
0 answers
53 views

Duplicate Comments & Un-flagging Comments

I've three related questions: If I believe a comment is essentially a duplicate of an earlier one, what is the proper etiquette, if any? I assume it's better to up vote a comment I agree with, rather ...
Martin F's user avatar
  • 664
2 votes
1 answer
220 views

Inline quotes formatting

At ELU, blockquotes are used quite frequently: I'm a fancy blockquote. I'm used to elaborate and give examples, as well as quote other people and posts. However the nearest thing we have to an ...
Chris's user avatar
  • 371
2 votes
5 answers
263 views

Should we automatically convert straight ' and " quotes into nicer “...” and ‘...’ quotes?

Well, I guess the (long) title says most of it. When people write "an inline quote", it would be nicer if it were “an inline quote” (see the oriented “” quotes instead of ""). Many content management ...
F'x's user avatar
  • 38.6k