Questions tagged [support]
You need help with the use of one or more of the site's features.
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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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What resources do I need to consult before asking a question?
Many Stack Exchange sites require that users do some research before asking a question. Does English Language & Usage have such a policy? If yes, what resources should users consult before asking ...
LaurelMod
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How was an OED page made available free of charge?
I have access to OED through the public library system of the UK and I am aware that others without subscriptions cannot verify my citations.
There is a comment on the second answer to this question ...
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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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Why is there no name on this comment except for "delete"?
The first comment under this answer is seemingly by someone with the name "delete". And yet, no tooltip/message appears when you mouse over this name. Screenshot:
For convenience, here is ...
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May I speculate in comments?
The question What does "make the Iacke go" mean? has received four answers, all of which propose theories as to what the phrase means. Under it are also some comments that, to me, raise an ...
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Are we being encouraged to answer very old questions, or are they just being made more visually pleasing?
Some time ago, perhaps still, new answers to old questions were put under review (in a review queue), as if to imply: 'This question has been addressed, at length; what could possibly be the value-add ...
LaurelMod
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What is the [reason-why] tag used for?
A recent question used the reason-why tag for what was really an etymology question, so I retagged it appropriately. (Or at least I think it was appropriate.) Now I'm wondering what the tag is even ...
CommunityBot
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What's up with the [usage] tag?
The tag usage redirects to word-usage, as the two are synonymized.
But I can still find the tag on certain questions.
When I search for the word-usage tag, many of the earlier results still display ...
tchristMod
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Why is my question about the etymology of "foundation" off-topic?
This question of mine got closed as off-topic, in spite of receiving way more upvotes than downvotes and also receiving a detailed answer. Why did it get closed?
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Is Merriam Webster dictionary an outdated and unreliable dictionary?
An experienced user posted this comment under an answer that cited M-W dictionary.
Btw, MW is the worst, most out-of-date dictionary on the planet!, but GKP regularly sings its virtues in public, and ...
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Looking for an online tool which provides a frequency of usage of any search phrase/sentence provided using large corpus of online text
I am looking for an online service which provides the frequency of a search phrase across all the literature in English that there is. Hopefully billions of lines of text. For example, if the phrase ...
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What resources/reference can I use when converting sentences from American English to British English?
Which reference document can I consult for converting American sentences into British English? Is there a gold standard resource?
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Seeking cursive writing samples along with a typed version
I want to find some samples of English cursive writing along with their typed versions. Where can I find this?
This is for practice purposes: I want to attempt to read the cursive version and look at ...
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Kludge to trick SE to allow edits smaller than six characters by injecting invisible characters
It's impossible to fix small (but not insignificant) typos on SE without making other edits adding up to six characters. For example, think should be thick in a quoted line of a poem that makes no ...
LaurelMod
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Why don't I get good hits when searching "Poor man's" with quotes?
If I wanted to search about the phrase "Poor man's X",
The question When did the expression "Poor man's <noun>" originate? appears when I search for
Poor man's
But if I use ...
LaurelMod
- 65.2k
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What should be done with the questions that ask about the reason behind adjective order?
There are a bunch of questions that ask about adjective order, and most of them are closed as dupes of the original What is the rule for adjective order? asked 12+ years ago.
There are three questions ...
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Are crazy icons here to stay?
Am I the only on ELU whose icons are all shifted, some to the point that it is difficult to tell which is which?
The issue has been raised on META where they mention a temporary problem when new SE ...
LaurelMod
- 65.2k
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What is the Journalism tag used for?
What is the journalism tag for?
I have a piece of journalism I want to write, and want advice, but I don't know where to do it.
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Can we migrate 'Is there any online tool to read (pronounce) IPA and APA written words?' and its like to Meta?
This question (Is there any online tool to read (pronounce) IPA and APA written words?) has 105k views and 83 upvotes. But it's been closed because it's asking for a resource. Most resource requests ...
NVZMod
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How is this question opinion-based?
How is this question opinion-based? ("May I have a mango!" is it an Imperative, Optative or Interrogative sentence?)
There is nothing that seems inherently subjective about it, nor does it ...
tchristMod
- 134k
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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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Need English Grammar Refresher Book, College Level, not ESL text
I am looking for a U.S. college-level English grammar text, one with answers to end-of-chapter exercises. I was born in the U.S. and have only spoken and written in English. I had a good English ...
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Why was this question closed as 'opinion based'?
This question was closed as being "opinion based," and I am interested in knowing why. The main part of the question is as follows:
I am trying to find a word that can be used in formal ...
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How do those "Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information" things work?
I often see comments under answers like:
Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others ...
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Where to ask for advice specific to the writing of scientific papers?
Where to ask a question about grammar or word usage specific to scientific papers ?
For a situation of the following type: I wrote a grammatically correct sentence but maybe it is unusual in a ...
Andrew LeachMod
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After I fix my closed question, how or where do I ask for it to be reopened?
I have a question about my English Language & Usage Stack Exchange post: defining “Well,” when it introduces these sentences
My posted question was closed by a moderator who wrote this ...
Andrew LeachMod
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What does the "save this question" button do [duplicate]
What does the "save this question" button do?
How do I find it and recall it after I have saved it?
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Is the background color of the ELU SE website based on the background color of the Etymonline website?
I was surfing etymonline and I found its background color exactly identical to the one of our beloved site. Is ELU’s background color based on Etymonline’s or is Etymonline’s based on ELU’s?
tchristMod
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How did I get an "Unsave this answer" flag?
Earlier I wrote and posted an answer to this question:
Order of prepositions "of" and "by"
Somehow, in the process of making one or two edits almost immediately, the flag under the ...
LaurelMod
- 65.2k
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Ahhh! I lost my consecutive days streak
I had over 3950 consecutive days visited. That's over 10 years. And today I looked and I was at 2!?!
I've been on the site every day. How did this happen?
I'm really bummed.
I've got browser history ...
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Comments moved to chat 3 months later
Courtesy link: https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/140390/discussion-on-question-by-arunabh-bhattacharya-why-are-just-and-justice-writ
There have been a long list of comments on one of my questions I ...
tchristMod
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Does this answer your question?
After I created a question, I get the notification "Does this answer your question?" with yes/no choice and a link to another question which is no related to my question. I click "No&...
Andrew LeachMod
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Why “Request Failed” alert on iPad?
I was trying to do some minor voting and commenting on my iPad and each time I tried to complete the action, I obtained the following alert:
Request Failed.
Could not perform this request with your ...
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How to add diacritics to my phonetic transcription?
When I need phonetic symbols, I just copy them off of Wikipedia. I don't know how to add diacritics with this method though. Take ◌̥ for example. When I try to delete the dotted circle, and replace it ...
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Are questions asking about the structure of sentences too broad?
I recently asked this question: Parts of speech and functions: "Bob made a book collector happy the other day"
The question asks for the structure of the sentence:
Bob made a book ...
CommunityBot
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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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How do I know if my vote has been registered?
I have ordered the four candidates in the current election, but there seems to be no mechanism to check and then confirm/finalize my vote.
There is a note that my choices have been “saved” but what is ...
LaurelMod
- 65.2k
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Should moderators lock posts without giving a reasoning for it?
I recently posted a question. It was locked within the hour for a day. Now what I need to understand is why that was done, so I can rectify it. As a corollary, should moderators lock questions without ...
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Why are some questions removed from the HNQ list very quickly?
I've noticed that some questions don't last very long in the HNQ list. For example, this question, Where does the "dysfunctional or broken" meaning of the word "demic" come from? ...
LaurelMod
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Is it possible to edit a moderator attention flag?
I flagged a question, intending to suggest it be moved to the language learners site but realized after I submitted it that I had typed "ELU" instead. I did not see anywhere I could edit my flag ...
LaurelMod
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The "short fuse" question is not opinion based
The question What sparked the figurative usage of “short fuse” in the 1960s? was closed as an “opinion based” one.
I am not asking for opinions, and the fact that users give their personal opinions ...
LaurelMod
- 65.2k
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Can you start a bounty on a question that already has an accepted answer?
Can you start a bounty on a question that already has an accepted answer, if you feel that your answer to the question is better than the one that was accepted?
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Why was this question removed from the HNQ list?
I would like to know why What is the origin of "playing into someone's hands"? was removed from the HNQ1 list. According to the guidance given in this post
In general, we recommend that ...
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Wasn't your issue with so called "opinion based" question opinion based?
I have a question about my English Language & Usage Stack Exchange post: Punctuation rule in U.S. English
My post wasn't by any means opinion-based. How it is different from questions about "...
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Question deleted in 2011 is on-topic in 2022
I suggest that the following question, which is deleted and invisible to users with less than 10K reputation, ought to be undeleted.
What is the English equivalent to the Russian proverb ""...
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Unlock "Why use singular they?" then reopen
You may be able to read the question I'm referring to at Why does English use singular they instead of making up a new word for this? (currently re-reopened).
Sometime a while ago there was a ...
LaurelMod
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Does self-deletion of a comment flagged as 'unkind' lock in the flag?
Quite some time ago, a hi-rep user told me in a comment on meta that self-deletion of a comment on the main which has already been flagged as "unfriendly or unkind" will lock in that flag, ...
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If I am NOT running for Mod, but would like to state my personal platform
Recently, Meta has become a little confusing for me...
We have Mod elections, and Question collection, but if I am not actively seeking election yet would still like to post my opinion vis a vis site ...
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Why does (almost) every answer in this question have a banner?
I admit I'm not overly familiar with how these banners work, but I was reading "What is the word that is used to describe the oversimplification or non-academic discussion of a complex issue?" and ...
CommunityBot
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