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It has viewed more than 2,000 times already. The reason it has received so much attention is because it ranks high on the Hot Network Questions list. Such ranking always invalues a question to passersby. :)
I thought it had enough context given already, but others disagreed.
To address their concerns, I have myself provided many example sentences for it so ...
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I think it's worth bearing in mind that StackExchange is closer to Wikipedia than it is to social media sites like Facebook. People come to these sorts of site to ask questions and get knowledgeable answers. It would be very strange to go to a Wikipedia article and be greeted by something like "Hi, I'm Bob, this is my first Wikipedia edit, I'm single ...
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This question made me think about the ways in which English Language & Usage has changed since 2012, when I first visited it. Although the resulting commentary doesn't directly address the poster's central concerns, some readers might be interested in a (fairly) longtime site participant's perspective on the evolution of this site.
English Language &...
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I think it is important to note that the first review was three votes to leave the question open, so maybe the problem isn’t some pervasive broken culture but a different problem caused by “close” votes being stickier than “leave open” votes. I think it also needs to be pointed out that this terrible new user experience is about a a hot network question that ...
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I don’t like to see questions without any context, especially single word requests that read like crossword puzzle clues. What’s a word that starts with “t” that means easily irritated?
I am not an answerer on ELU, so when I read the questions, they’re more interesting to me if they explain why they can’t be answered with a thesaurus or by searching the ...
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Stack Exchange is not a discussion forum
You're probably expecting lasting discussions here because of how common discussion sites are on the internet. What you may not realize is that we are supposed to be something quite different from that! There are many other places on the internet that provide suitable forums for discussions, but Stack Exchange is not ...
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I like questions that are about the English language, and are not derived from popular superstitions about it. I get tired of telling people about them, and who wants to learn they're wrong, after all? So I usually avoid them, and single-word requests, except for comments in egregious cases.
I never downvote, and often upvote even questions I vote to close.
...
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Baby-naming doesn’t fit the SE model
I doubt you'll gain much traction here.
That's because naming programming elements such as directories, files, classes, functions, and variables is no better a fit for the Stack Exchange Q&A model than naming babies, companies, products, and websites is, and for exactly the same reasons.
Amongst others, there can be ...
7
What I want in a question:
It's about the English language, now or in the past, within the rules we have set out in the help section and here on meta.
It demonstrates that the asker has already looked into getting an answer.
For example "I have found [definition] in [dictionary], but this usage does not seem to match", or "[This sentence] has ...
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I am glad you address this issue, I almost left the site in the beginning because I first mistook the professionalness and high standards of the site as sheer rudeness and elitism. It takes a while to get used to it and come to appreciate it. And although nobody told me "Welcome to the EL&U", it was the kindness of some users that made me ...
5
The ethos of Stack Exchange is Questions and Answers. Just that. While the Code of Conduct expects the community not to be rude or unpleasant to each other, no-one needs any more than a question to which they give an answer.
That's actually in the Tour (if you take the Tour and read all the way to the bottom you get another badge):
Occasionally, the context ...
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I migrated it because it is off-topic on our site, but I had hoped that it might be acceptable elsewhere. It is off-topic here because we do not accept requests for help in choosing names of elements of computer programs.
Choosing names for operators in a programming language is off-topic here even when it’s one as trivial as unary plus. You’ll find that ...
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In truth I like the discussion (the comments) on questions that evoke different approaches or reveal some peculiarities on what at first appear to be obvious constructions.
Historical information on how something has been used over time interests me, whether in comments or a long answer.
I find the questions themselves often include incorrect assumptions and ...
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There are no metrics. There is only the decision of individual moderators. If this were something an algorithm could do without human judgement in the loop, it would. But it is not.
The aim is to encourage actual answers to questions asked. We are a question and answer site, not a question and comment site. Comment abuse breaks the SE model.
Just as soon as ...
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Mari-lou A has indicated in the comments that the question was closed because it lacked research. You seem to be assuming that it was closed as a duplicate because it has a "Does this answer your question?..." but if the post notice doesn't actually say:
This question already has answers here:
it wasn't closed as a duplicate (Even the really old ...
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I like questions that teach me something new, or that provoke answers that teach me something new, even if they seem simple or even dumb. I upvote for the same reason. I will also upvote a question or answer very well written, with wit (or astuce as the French like to say) and humour, but I will not upvote arrogance, even if it is "bewildering". ...
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I like questions I have never considered. Those are the ones I upvote. Of course it helps when they are articulately worded and well-researched going in. Questions that I want to know the answer to, questions that I would be willing to research myself—those are the ones I enjoy the most.
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Questions about punctuation may run afoul of some EL&U participants' preferences in several ways.
First and most obviously, punctuation is strictly relevant to writing, not to spoken language—and for at least the past sixty years a central tenet of linguistics is that spoken language is language, while writing is merely a kind of artifact of language. It ...
3
I'm a keen SE reviewer, and I have certainly noticed the difference on EL&U in the elimination of massive close queues. But there's an outcome that seems to have received little attention: fewer bad questions getting answers.
It's an unfortunate fact that a number of users, even some with high rep, will leap to answer a question but ignore its obvious ...
answered Jul 6 at 6:01
Chappo Hasn't Forgotten Monica
3,0501 gold badge9 silver badges19 bronze badges
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nothing to hide
If the question is really seeking, fundamentally, body language (and not terms for body language), as in, the only way to answer is with a photo, then no, off-topic.
In this case, seems like the OP is an author looking for ways to phrase a certain idea for his readers, i.e. he's looking for language. Now, if this were simply "...
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I don't know, but I've fixed it for you.
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The answer seems to be given by the OP when he says
@lly Haha, fair enough, though it answered my curiosity well. I didn't have a specific context in mind.
You will note that, because of this, no answer can be correct such that another person, seeking the answer to the same question, could reasonably say "Ah yes! The word I want in this context* is &...
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First and foremost:
This is not a discussion site, by charter.
In the past, the common failing of other sites for hackers was that good suggestions were often hidden in the flow of comments from well-intentioned contributors.
This is a Question/Answer site, created with the idea of providing real and workable answers--not just suggestions buried like tiny ...
2
The primary mission of Stack Exchange is to build a reference library of objectively ranked answers to questions about a topic.
If a question isn’t the sort that has answers that can be ranked by something other an individual’s opinion, it is out of scope.
If a question requires expertise in something other than the site’s topic to answer, it is out of scope....
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In addition to the excellent list of reasons mentioned by Sven, your question is asking about hyphenating a phrase that would more naturally be placed after the noun: The target can be resolved through one of the record types just mentioned. Since your question doesn't leave room for this option, which I think almost any native speaker would prefer, it is ...
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As has already been pointed out above, objections to such moving of comments to chat (or their outright deletion or blocking of further commenting) keep appearing regularly on this meta-site. The standard response has been that the moderators are overworked and cannot spend the time to separate the 'chit-chat, off-topic commenting, or extended conversation' (...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
