Use this tag to dispute or discuss questions that have been closed.
7
votes
7answers
356 views
What can be done to bring up site quality?
We are now at the point that most questions on ELU get closed. Our 90-day closure rate (10k only) is sitting at around two in every three. Some days it’s worse than that, some days it’s better, but in ...
20
votes
3answers
625 views
I didn't know the yellow ax question had been locked. Did you?
Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture?
Apparently, the question no longer deserves to be open and was locked on January 9, 2018. Is this a surprise for anyone? ...
13
votes
0answers
321 views
By “gosh”, the etymological hydra's immortal head unburied
Revisiting the "Request to reopen “Literal Meaning of 'Gosh'", I observe that a few minutes of dedicated research for that question ("Literal Meaning of 'Gosh'") antedated the earliest OED attestation ...
2
votes
2answers
171 views
Advanced users of English should be more welcome here
I have been speaking English as a first language for 23 years, I use a dictionary to expand my vocabulary every week, I read a lot, every day, and I actively criticize grammar when I hear it. Because ...
5
votes
0answers
315 views
Can we reopen this question please? [Now re-CLOSED]
Edit note 2:
The patient and long-suffering OP has now re-asked aspects of this question in three separate posts. So, there's now probably no harm in leaving this one closed.
This useful question on ...
5
votes
0answers
121 views
Can “More formal word for know-it-all” be reopened?
More formal word for "know-it-all" was closed as duplicate of Know-it-alls--a synonym, which is duplicate of Is there word for this, other than know-it-all?, which is duplicate of One word ...
8
votes
2answers
108 views
Are 'symbols' and their etymology/usage on-topic?
Recently, this question of mine was closed as off-topic:
Where does the @ symbol come from?
As far as I know (and some commenters have agreed) the use of symbols in English if on-topic.
My argument ...
4
votes
2answers
253 views
Why is “Did noted 17th century poet Katherine Philips make a grammatical error?” on hold?
Why is Did noted 17th century poet Katherine Philips make a grammatical error? on hold?
The question is clearly about the history of grammatical development in English, specifically about the ...
1
vote
1answer
66 views
How does the current version of the “cyan” pronunciation question not show research?
How is "cyan" pronounced and where is the stress?
Note that the question covers both the pronunciation of the vowel and the position of the stress. I edited this post to quote dictionaries, ...
1
vote
0answers
199 views
Notes to Reviewers [Trial, version 2.1]
English Language & Usage (ELU) is a community for etymologists, linguists, and English enthusiasts. As a Stack Exchange community, ELU shares Stack Exchange's goal to build libraries of high-...
5
votes
2answers
137 views
When a question is interesting but too 'loose', is it better to edit it even if you need to guess, or to vote to close it?
Consider the following question on the main site representative of the questions of interest here:
Is the verb "cast" in acting, metalworking and programming the same verb?
In essence, I ...
0
votes
1answer
238 views
Notes to Reviewers [Trial Version 2. Deprecated] [duplicate]
Please see version 2.1 of this trial.
On Stack Exchange, closing a question and putting it on hold is an invitation to improve the question. When you do, your question is automatically queued for ...
30
votes
3answers
791 views
Why was there such a negative reaction to this question: “Word for a person from another race?”
Is there a word for "a person from another race"?
This question has three down-votes and was closed because "Questions that can be answered using commonly-available references are off-topic"...
0
votes
1answer
232 views
Shall we make a list of Low-Quality-Questions regularly on Meta?
As Mari-Lou A pinpointed in Extraordinary spike in low-quality questions by 1 rep users, we have been swamped with Low-Quality-questions (LQQs) recently and it has been overwhelmingly difficult to ...
8
votes
0answers
255 views
Discussion on reopening a specific question: “Do tenses in a time clause never back-shift in reported speech?”
The question Do tenses in a time clause never back-shift in reported speech? (which I'll call The Backshift Question or TBQ for convenience) has an answer that could be considered canonical for back-...
2
votes
1answer
56 views
Should this question closed as “not constructive” be re-opened?
Why are “put” and “but” different in their pronunciation? [closed]
I was editing my answer to a very similar question here: Why there is difference in pronunciation of words PUT and CUT? In fact, I ...
6
votes
1answer
268 views
Can a question ask for an objective explanation of a subjective topic?
"When can a celebrity be referred to by their surname only?" has been placed on hold for being primarily opinion-based and thus attracting opinion-based answers rather than facts, references, or ...
15
votes
0answers
255 views
Why is my question about the stress of “uroboros” a duplicate of the one about the stress of “stigmata”?
Sorry to make a post about "why my question was closed," but I'm having a hard time understanding it.
The question about "uroboros" asks about two things: descriptive information about the history ...
14
votes
1answer
210 views
Are questions about the use of italics in English off-topic?
Recently, this question was put on hold: Why is "their" italicized?
I'm wondering, why it is considered out of scope? If it's considered to be too close to "analysis of literature," that ...
1
vote
0answers
87 views
Closure of question that cited Etymonline, OED, & a logic textbook?
Why was this closed, in view of claims to 'please include the research you've done...'?
As stated in my OP, I consulted Etymonline, OED, and a logic textbook.
Update on 2015 May 6: I thank the five ...
7
votes
2answers
181 views
Is it a bad thing to have your question marked as a duplicate?
This morning I had my question closed and, upon browsing through the answers to the proposed duplicate, I did find half of an answer to my question.
This leads me to wonder about some things:
Is it ...
85
votes
4answers
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 ...
1
vote
1answer
49 views
Can we have a vote-to-reopen tag here on meta ELU?
We have a vote-to-close tag, but it would be nice to have a vote-to-reopen tag also, for those of us who believe our questions were wrongfully closed.
9
votes
0answers
277 views
My question was incorrectly marked as a duplicate. Can this be reviewed again?
I believe there is a clear difference between my question and the question marked as a duplicate. I have edited the post to emphasize how it is different, now I'm posting here to see if someone can ...
7
votes
0answers
185 views
Why has this post been put 'on hold'?
My question Why is 'weird' given a sexual connotation nowadays?, has been put on hold as 'off topic', for the reason that 'it is not about the English language'.
Since it queries the current ...
25
votes
8answers
825 views
Is reopening of one's own closed question a misuse of moderator privileges?
Two hours after a recent question was closed by five users (four high-rep), the OP (also a moderator) voted to reopen his own question, which is, of course, an instantaneous and binding vote. This ...
-10
votes
2answers
588 views
Moderators' policy on bullying
I would like to know the moderators' policy on bullying.
It seems easy to bully a user.
For it takes only 5 users who have sufficient reps to close a question.
3
votes
0answers
50 views
Mechanics of Closing a Question [duplicate]
I'm curious how (not why) this question was closed. I see it is closed as a duplicate by one person, FumbleFingers.
I'm only familiar with closes being done by voting to close (with a required vote ...
-3
votes
3answers
445 views
Why do some people have negative opinions against questions on Shakespeare's works?
Here are some questions I asked on Shakespeare's Hamlet.
As you can see, they received some negative comments, downvotes, and close votes.
I wonder why.
Do they dislike Shakepeare's works?
It's okay ...
-1
votes
2answers
174 views
An English language learner better not ask in this site? [duplicate]
An English language learner better not ask in this site?
I asked this question and it had been closed as off-topic(it was reopened).
Some members seem to have an opinion that a learner better not ask ...
5
votes
1answer
176 views
How do you handle a poster who consistently asks the same type of off-topic question?
I know this is likely a duplicate of How should we handle users who generate consistently low-quality and off-topic questions? But, that seems like a discussion of a more egregious offender than the ...
10
votes
5answers
258 views
Bad questions can lead to good answers
Many people at ELU seem to view the relationship between seekers and givers of knowledge as being essentially transactional in nature: the job of the questioner is to state his or her question simply ...
17
votes
1answer
318 views
Who is voting to close all these questions?
I just went though the closure review queue, consisting of a couple dozen questions with close votes. At least 75 percent of these questions were not even remotely closeable according to the ...
2
votes
2answers
121 views
Why is question 146045 opinion-based?
Could somebody please explain to me how is Between '(s)he' & 'he/she' -- which is recommended/ preferable? opinion-based.
The question explicitly contains
Are both "(s)he" and "...
1
vote
1answer
61 views
Should this question (which has been asked and answered elsewhere) be closed?
The EL&U question "Asking questions" has been asked and answered on ELL. It is very basic, so I don't think it belongs here, but it is not general reference.
Should we close it? If so, what is ...
-2
votes
2answers
132 views
Data-driven approach to closure policy
I quite admired the very data-oriented answer to a recent meta question in the ongoing closure war, and now I feel encouraged to ask a data-directed meta question.
Is the probability of a question ...
3
votes
5answers
173 views
How long should a questionable question remain open?
A question asked one hour ago was recently closed, and my answer to it was deleted. Let's assume for the sake of argument that the question was truly inferior as it was asked, and my answer was ...
