23
It's perfectly reasonable for reviewers to assume that a common expression can be explained by consulting ordinary reference works. They shouldn't have to do that search. If it can't be, it's up to the asker to demonstrate that it can't be. Something like "I researched but maybe I missed it" isn't particularly helpful in this case: if you researched and didn'...
23
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the status of the Scots language with respect to English:
Because there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing
languages from dialects, scholars and other interested parties often
disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots
and particularly its relationship to English.
...
21
Don't be duped
No, you can't ask it again. It will just be closed as a dupe.
The first rule to remember is that, in general, there is no guarantee you'll get an answer to a question, here or anywhere else in life.
Crave attention
With that in mind, here on SE, you have two courses of action open to you:
start a bounty on the question, which is like ...
18
The flag you are looking for is "it is not welcome in our community", which has the following description:
This question contains content that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
Click on the "flag" link, and you will see the dialog box the previous screenshot shows.
I took the screenshot from this site, but the main ...
18
Up vote: Implement the 6/50 restriction.
Down vote: Do not implement the 6/50 restriction.
17
Tips for Newcomers
Avoid posting grammar questions at the weekends. The majority of regular users are away from their computers and generally have lives outside EL&U
Create a memorable, or, provocative title, but above all make sure it's descriptive. Titles that say "Is this correct?", "Please help me with this sentence", "which is correct" and "Present ...
15
No, this is one of those SE sites where this is an automatic message completely automatically generated by the SE engine. And by "those SE sites" I mean "all SE sites".
13
When I become disappointed with the inflow of current questions on EL&U, I resort to one of two strategies—neither of which involves worrying about how to improve the quality of new questions. Either (1) I plunge into the unanswered questions queue to see whether there may not be an overlooked, answer-worthy question lurking in there, or (2) I look into ...
11
That's not quite how reputation works. Voting for other people's answers (and questions) gives those people reputation (except on meta). Also, nobody gets reputation from comments, even when they are upvoted.
To make this more clear, I've quoted "What's Reputation", with some minor changes for clarification:
Your reputation is increased when:
[...
10
I think there are two basic meanings, and questioners should be asked to clarify which they're using.
There's formal written English, as used in textbooks, most novels, newspapers, and technical articles. This has well-defined rules of grammar and orthography. We can talk about the rules of comma placement, or how a semi-colon works, or verb agreement.
...
10
It is our policy that when a user account is suspended, any accounts that are created to circumvent that suspension are deleted without notice.
If you have further questions or if you want to appeal the decision, you can contact SE staff: english.stackexchange.com/contact
9
I can see definite advantages to all users if these restrictions were implemented. KitFox has mentioned the obvious ones.
No one objects to a slew of good questions. If a user decided to post, say, 12 good questions in the span of 24 hours, I think everyone would be happy, and everyone would win. However, in reality this is not a scenario I have ever ...
9
Look at what we have now. I see questions being asked that, in isolation, bear all the hallmarks of a "good" question--they raise reasonable points, they're well-phrased and courteous, they clearly explain the research the asker has done and why it didn't answer the question—yet they begin to gather downvotes almost immediately, apparently due solely to the ...
9
I asked a question about how to request a historical lock for old but seemingly popular questions that don't meet current site standards for preliminary research (or some other criterion) here: How can users nominate old, popular questions for exemption from closure as being of 'historical value'?
Since I stated explicitly there that my preference ...
9
I've often thought that a "weak" close would be useful - a way for folks with some knowledge in a given area to quickly take a new question off the table so that it could be discussed, edited, etc.
One way to prevent abuse would be to make the question re-open instantly if it was edited. Another would be to simply allow anyone with similar experience in ...
8
This is the most brilliant timing I have ever seen. As it happens, we can merge duplicate questions, and I saw a flag requesting this just before seeing this Meta post. So the questions have been merged and this specific case has been addressed.
As for the more general case, we probably should be merging more duplicate questions that have answers. If you ...
8
The idea appeals to me, but in practical terms, I don't think it is really feasible, for various reasons.
Mechanical: as far as I know, there is no existing Stack Exchange system that would be ideal for this purpose. The closest I can think of is a list on this Meta with answers that we vote for, as was done with Please vote for the most exemplary single-...
7
The short answer is no.
The longer answer is that a question like you propose would not have any conceivable right answer, and so it does not fit the SE Q&A format. It would most likely be closed as "primarily opinion-based" because of this.
Alternatively, you might possibly find some people in chat who would be interested in discussing your topics.
7
You cannot delete that question. You can only delete a question while it is unanswered, or it has only one answer which has not been upvoted.
Where you can delete the question, it is reasonable at least to consider doing so. The system allows it. If it has an answer, you should bear in mind the effort taken in providing it. You may not feel any pang of ...
7
You want a nice collection of exemplary questions? That's easy; simply use this link.
Footnote: I once praised Yoichi Oishi's questions in an ELL meta answer.
As others have said, I don't think having this link anywhere will diminish the high number of shoddy questions that continue to plague this site. Still, it might be nice to have a handy link when ...
7
Thank you for asking the meta question before posting your English question.
You ask:
Can I post my questions and answers here to check them? Or, how can I find the answers for the exercises?
The first step is to determine the appropriate community for your question. There are several Stack Exchange communities dealing with language, including the ...
6
If a particular phrase in a question offends you, you can edit it out from the question as long as you don't change the original meaning of the question itself. For example, in this question, you might change the phrase
It's not merely supernatural which has a connotation of being non-existent, like God.
to
It's not merely supernatural which has a ...
6
There can be no "definitive and permanent answer" to a question like this.
First, there is no definitive list of English word classes. Everybody uses their own.
Second, language changes constantly, so permanent solutions are out of the question.
Third, knowing the official "word class" of a word tells you precisely nothing about its use.
Fourth, the ...
6
To change the ratio of expert to beginner posts, make the site more welcoming to experts. It’s necessary to create a climate in which more experts join because they feel that this is “their” site.
Many things go into this: site design, editorial policy, and tone, and these are all very big topics.
Where we, the existing community, can make a major ...
6
Caveat: You must not regard my answer as altogether disinterested. I have been Listenever's consistent and somewhat outspoken champion on ELU, when some users there seemed inclined to shut down her questions about usage in Jane Eyre too 'archaic' (!) or too technical. I have enjoyed her questions, which often came down to fundamental matters which demanded ...
6
The question is located at https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/128000/cockney-how-should-i-know-more-about-it. It was automatically deleted because it met the following criteria:
If the question was closed more than 9 days ago, and ...
not closed as a duplicate
has a score of 0 or less
is not locked
has no answers with a score > 0
...
6
Please fill out the contact form providing any evidence that you have that that account is yours.
6
Welcome, Suhayl.
I hope you find EL&U an enlightening place. There is certainly a wealth of knowledge relating to synonyms, and not just synonyms, but thousands of single-word-requests. When it comes to grammaticality and usage, we've got you covered.
While there is a poetry section, we don't actually analyse poetry, per se. We do answer questions ...
6
I don’t see any value in having a general policy either way on this. I would definitely be against a blanket policy against questions about Scots.
As Dan Bron says:
If there evolves a more acute pain to be addressed, like being inundated with poor-quality or under-researched question on Scots, or a better place to address these questions is launched on ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
