Questions tagged [on-topic-off-topic]
This tag is used for questions about whether something fits within the defined scope of this Stack Exchange site.
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What good reference works on English are available?
Questions that can be answered using commonly-available references are off-topic.
What good reference works on English are available, and what kinds of questions are they good at answering?
General ...
NVZMod
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Is posting a word game accepted?
Can I post word games (as community wiki) on this site? It will improve vocabulary. I would like an answer from a moderator.
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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 ...
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When are list-questions on topic?
Perhaps this is a bit too broad a question, but we'll see. Here goes.
Right now, the consensus seems to be that list-question SWRs are opinion-based or too broad (and thus off-topic). List-question ...
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What is the reason that this question is considered as 'off-topic'?
I posted the below question, and there were a couple of helpful answers.
Is 'dead on arrival' a slang?
As of now, this question has been closed as an 'off-topic' question.
https://english....
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Not all list questions are off-topic
I believe there is a misconception that all list questions are bad or off-topic. However, they are not all bad or off-topic. It is possible to ask good list questions. In fact, there are good and ...
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Since frequency of the use of words or other linguistic phenomena are the measuring stick of defining what is and what isn’t part of a language
…hence indisputably, this question is on topic.
I would like to know any reasons, if any, based on which that would not be deemed the case on this SE site, and the reason why.
I am substantially ...
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Would a question about a specific English language tool be on topic?
Can language tools (typically, but not exclusively, software tools) be asked about on English SE?
I have a question about how I can work out where a term is used. It's along the lines of:
A common ...
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Are non-verbal answers (and questions soliciting them) acceptable?
Recently, there has been an answer to a question asking for 'A word, gesture or expression for a confident “shrug” ' which invites and was presented with a captioned photograph illustrating this. The ...
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Are questions about explaining what the text mean on-topic?
Would the below question be on-topic? One may argue that it's better suited in Philosophy SE, but I guess that it's more about my English comprehension, therefore it's fine to ask it here.
This isn't ...
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What makes a question about historical usage of a word off-topic?
The question about the historical usage of men to refer to human beings generally was closed as off-topic. It seems to fall under usage and perhaps even etymology, two of the listed acceptable topics....
Andrew LeachMod
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Why was this question about a single word's pronunciation ("whinge") closed as off-topic?
I noticed that How is "whinge" pronounced? was closed as being off-topic.
I once noticed somebody spelled "whine" as "whinge" and thought it was an egregious and ...
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Why are questions about the usage of synonyms off-topic?
Example question: How is “account” be different with “theory”, “model” or “approach”?
This question is closed for being off-topic. One close-voter says:
I’m can voting to close this question. A ...
Andrew LeachMod
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Naming vs. Single word requests
It seems that naming is off-topic and single words requests are on-topic on this site.
How do I identify whether I'm asking a naming question or I have a single word request?
LaurelMod
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Would "Is 'maiden name' now considered sexist" be off-topic? Can I ask if née replaces it in the same question?
In a comment I wrote
because of the inherent implications of "maiden", these days née is often used instead though it still caries a gender reference, e.g. Sunita Lyn Williams (née Pandya; ...
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How to avoid an "opinion based" question regarding listening comprehension?
As a non-native English speaker I pronounce "bomb", "climb", "thumb" etc... with a clear B at the end. I know I shouldn't, but it's automatic.
So, I was interested in ...
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Can we please close this offensive question?
The author of this post has suggested that autism and mutism are defects.
“Extremism” sounds like an ideology, by analogy with Marxism for example; or possibly it’s more akin to a behavioural state ...
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I'm sometimes unsure about whether to answer a simple grammatical question or to suggest that it is more appropriate for ELL. What are the criteria?
[Before asking this question here on Meta, I did search for duplicates. There are similar questions, but I found no exact duplicates. If they do exist, please direct me to them, and I will delete this ...
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Can I ask for the "identification" of a word depending on a meaning? [duplicate]
Basically, I'm thinking about the behaviour of someone I know, and something tells me there's a word to qualify that behaviour. However, I don't seem to remember any word that would suit.
Can I ask ...
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Is philosophy of language on-topic?
Philosophical semantics also.
They are both related with philosophy and the language.
I see that philosophy tag is used only 2 times but they are not related with philosophy of language actually.
...
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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 ...
CommunityBot
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How can I improve my contributions
I'm not looking for general recommendations, but specific criticism due to the recent deletion of a comment.
In a Question about the Etymology of *Cervix Why was my comment about the neck and uterus ...
Andrew LeachMod
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Why was a question about two English words closed and returned to another site, without comment?
This question, terminology - As adjectives, not in math: 'different' vs 'differential' - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange, has been marked as closed.
But no explanation, other than "This ...
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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 ...
CommunityBot
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Is there anything we can do to get fewer off-topic questions?
Having read Josh61’s considerations about “Thanks for not laughing at my question”, I stopped to ponder. There are days, and I think you all agree, when only 10 to 20% of the questions we get deserve ...
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Are questions about film subtitles (translated into English) on topic here?
I read that some lyrics questions are on topic and some are not. Is it the same for subtitles? This could come up if someone watches a movie in a language other than English, and has a question ...
Andrew LeachMod
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Is it correct that a post is deemed 'well received' if it has comments?
I'm very much trying to understand how this site operates as it feels very inconsistent. In another post (link below) it was stated that a post is somewhat deemed 'well received' if it has comments. ...
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Migration of question
I recently had a question of mine migrated from the English Site to the Linguistics site (link below).
The question relates to the field of Computational Linguistics which is an amalgamation of ...
Andrew LeachMod
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Is letter-writing still on topic?
Is the letter-writing tag still something we want to do?
This answer says that letter-writing is more on-topic than the email tag, but that was 2 years ago, and Interpersonal Skills started as public ...
NVZMod
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Is a rescue edit possible for this question?
Two users said they had a rescue edit in mind for this question
Ghost, I sheet you not. I'm so ready for Halloween
but they didn't follow through with attempting to rescue the question (which is ...
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What makes this question off-topic for ELU?
I was surprised that this question was migrated to ELL:
Is there a word where ‘w’ can not be replaced?
It seemed to generate some interesting answers, and other than maybe a lack of research (...
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What is the point of migrating all resource requests to Meta?
There are a couple of resource requests that were recently migrated to ELU Meta (e.g Is there an online speech comparison programme, What are some good and authoritative reference/data source for ...
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Will this question be on topic here?
A line OA of length r starts from its initial position OX and traces an angle AOB=alpha in the anticlockwise direction.It then traces back in the clockwise direction an angle BOC=3 theta (where ...
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If every answer is improper, doesn't that suggest standards are wrong or moderator is wrong?
I refer to this question (now on hold) and the moderator's repeated observation that the answers, and question, are opinion-based. Isn't the issue that synonyms (like translation questions) are going ...
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Do questions about emoticons belong on ELU?
A question was published recently in which the OP asked about the proper style for usage of emoji, which as it turned out I guess he meant emoticons since he was talking about using punctuation marks.
...
LaurelMod
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Jaded user meets new contributor…
The jaded user is myself. The new contributor is (was) Replica Foxtrot who posted this question
What does the phrase 'Putting the Spring' mean?
I am reading the book about the Simpsons and I ...
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About controversial questions
I'd like to propose a way to deal with controversial questions.
Current state of events.
Every once in a while a question pops up that by itself is flawed when set against site rules, but at the ...
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Why was my question on neologisms put on hold?
I asked one simple question and my question was put on hold. Nobody answered it and the moderator says that it will generate opinion. I doubt that. On the contrary, I have received 4 upvotes, so ...
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Would a question asking for English terms used to designate some aspects of the Spanish language be on topic here?
In a question in Spanish Language someone is asking what are the English terms used to designate the Spanish verb tenses. Some people (myself included) have closed the question as off-topic, because ...
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Closing on-topic questions as duplicates of questions closed as off-topic
Regarding this question, I believe duping it to a question that was closed as off-topic is a bit disingenuous. I believe there was general consensus the question itself was on-topic. Is this really ...
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Please don't migrate "help me draw a syntax tree" questions
Recently, this question was migrated from EL&U to Linguistics.SE:
https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/27845/syntactic-trees
However, this type of question is expressly disallowed by ...
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Posting questions from "How English Works" and proposing answers
I am studying English and one of my old friends recommended that I study "How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction" by Curzan and Adam
This book is an amazing book but the questions are not ...
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Continued recommendations that things be moved to ELL
I've seen a number of questions (including one of mine) receive comments along the lines of "this would be a more appropriate question for the English Language Learners (ELL) site". While I understand ...
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Why is my alliteration question off topic and put on hold?
I have a question about my English Language & Usage Stack Exchange post: Is alliteration adjacent words and/or close together words starting with the same letter? If words between are permitted ...
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What sort of resource request questions do we accept on meta?
We often migrate resource request questions to meta, and there's no denying that some resources are very useful to the users of this community.
Here's my attempt at broadly categorising these ...
NVZMod
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Please consider reopening my question
My question is closed as off-topic.
First, my question is not so elementary. It is not about the usual use of past perfect as in
When I came up with the idea of climbing all the statues taller than ...
CommunityBot
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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 ...
CommunityBot
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Are word requests allowed?
Is it okay to use this site to ask for words that fit a given definition? Dictionaries are great for looking up definitions if you know the word you're looking up, but not the other way around. I'm ...
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Declaring a question about English usage "off-topic" in a forum named "English Language & Usage"
I was surprised to discover that @tchrist and others had declared this question about language usage off-topic. The "off-topic" flag description says:
This question does not appear to be about ...
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What widely-accepted standards should be used to judge whether a single-word-request is too broad?
This question is an off-shoot of this Meta question focused on the deletion, and consequently on the closure, of a particular single-word-request question.
Deleted Upvoted and Popular Question: Why?
...
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