English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

A: What are the commonly accepted guidelines specific to this site (2015)?

4:42 AM

0

“Please set mentions in italic” Let me address the ﬁnal point. Yes, some people do set mentions in bold, but I really wish they wouldn’t. For the past ﬁve years, ELU editors have followed this simple standard posted by nohat♦ on October 15th 2010 at 8:05pm: I usually use italics. Sometimes ...

7:29 AM

@Mitch Wha_? Am I wrong or am I wrong on the internet or are you referring to me being in this room with Cerby?

SmokeDetector

8:54 AM

[ SmokeDetector ] Offensive body detected: A word similar to “self-promoting” by Varrick on english.stackexchange.com

Yeah yeah yeah. I just put that offensive word in.

Catija

9:41 AM

I'm not trying to be mean but could you please try to not send questions to ELL that are just bad questions entirely? If they'd be closed on your site for quality reasons, they'll be closed on ELL, too... and we can't reopen them if they've been migrated, from what I understand.

9:57 AM

@Catija can you point me to the questions that you consider "bad questions entirely"?

I do not send questions over for quality reasons.

"Bad questions entirely" are closed, downvoted, and deleted on sight.

What you get are valid questions a non-native speaker may have. Sometimes complete with non-native orthography, yes. Though more often than not we'll actually edit them into shape first.

Going by your command of English, you are not a non-native speaker. Cut them some slack.

10:44 AM

Are we allowed to use one of those flags to flag a question as NARQ?

11:02 AM

@Catija If they would go to ELL first then we wouldn't have to. But they don't, because the non-native speakers don't bother to check if there's a site more appropriate to their needs. We have become the meat shield for ELL, and we don't like it.

@RegDwigнt The word "flaggoty" comes to mind.

@MattE.Эллен: And how are you this fine morning?

I'm OK. had a bicycling adventure

how are you?

I'm good. I too had a bicycling adventure, but one that involves incremental increase in knee pain over time, instead of a catastrophic failure.

@MattE.Эллен What was your adventure?

@RegDwigнt must be off today, since it's the start of the Eastern Orthodox liturgical year.

Coastal villages are littorally on the beach.

I have decided to try and get into a regime of cycling in the morning. I waited for the rain to stop, because I wanted a nice ride, not a wet one, then I plotted out a ~10 mile route on google maps. Maps fought me on it, though. I would try and plot a route and it would ignore the shortest way between two points unless I forced it to use the roads I wanted.
I approached the first road google fought me on and it seemed OK, then half way up the slope the tarmac stopped. My bike is a hybrid with slick tyres. I carried on for a bit, as it wasn't too bad but eventually I had to get off and push,…

Surely you could search for an acceptable route in your car? I often scout routes from the car before trying them on the bike.

I don't have a car :D

11:15 AM

That would be an impediment, yes. But you don't know anyone with a car you could borrow?

not off the top of my head. My girlfriend has flat out said "I don't let anyone else drive my car"

Perhaps a better idea would be to use Google Street View.

yeah, that's a good idea

I didn't realize Oxford and environs were so rustic.

it's a small city surrounded by farms

does your knee recover between rides?

11:20 AM

@MattE.Эллен Not enough. I'm going to see the orthopedist one of these days.

I hope they can sort you out.

Q: Are countable nouns always in plural in recipes' names?

The thing is, I ride 400+ miles a month, and that wears on the knee over time.

I'm hoping a cortisone shot will sort it out. I don't want more surgery.

When I took a week off for vacation in early August the knee was fine upon resumption of riding, but after a week or two started to pain me again.

0

I have the following ingredients in a recipe: 40 g oat flakes 150 ml milk (1.5% milkfat) 4 g butter ½ apple, grated I need to know if I should name the recipe Oat Flakes with Apples or Oat Flakes with Apple Most recipes I've found use always plural with countabl...

That sucks. As you say, cortisone is good for that sort of thing.

I hate this question.

Who cares if you say Oatmeal with Apple or Oatmeal with Apples? This is an affront to the dignity of our site!

yes!

"WTF do I care, why are you asking me?"

11:24 AM

You should post that as an answer. I will upvote it.

I shall petition for a new close reason :D

Indeed.

We should not be tasked with sorting out grandma's recipe book.

@Robusto been singing psalms all day. Praise the Orthogonal Lord.

placed 90 degrees to whatever makes sense

@Robusto I imagine that Apple Inc. very much care.

They even sued the Beatles for being with Apple. Imagine what they will do to Oatmeal!

11:29 AM

@RegDwigнt Don't tell that to @Cerberus. He'll have three strokes.

And as we all know from baseball, three strokes and you're out.

That's base-3 math.

tries to work in </3 meme

Sometimes you do have to make breakfast before you're out.

@Robusto it looks like you are trying to work in </3 meme. Do you need help with that?

Yes! I do need help with it! Thank you, Clippy!

That's $3000.

11:32 AM

Fuck you, Clippy!

Hey, Bill didn't get rich by not taking money for shit.

Indeed. He even wanted to charge money for Internet Explorer, if you can believe that.

Also. It looks like you are trying to fuck Clippy. Do you need help with that?

When one of his top advisors told him to give IE away for free, he called the guy a communist.

640 free IEs ought to be enough for everybody.

11:34 AM

640 is also the number of KB involved in "himem" IIRC.

That was such a long time ago, in the Dark Ages of computing.

That tweaks a memory. He-man and . . . what was the little guy's name again?

Image file name suggests Orko.

I do not know of such things.

That is an example of Occidentally On Purpose anime.

OOPs for short?

11:38 AM

That could work.

I was thinking OOPA.

Image not found.

I know I know gimme time.

IDK what that image is.

Image is paramount.

It's a paramount image of OOPA.

11:39 AM

Oh, prolly oompa-loompa or some other CATCF stuff.

"Prolly"?

It means "for the proles" . . .

That's like the most iconic character in the history of most iconic characters.

I shouldn't have to tell a communist about proles.

How many other iconic characters with orange faces and green hair can you name?

You have 17 seconds.

11:40 AM

I'll do it for $3000.

You have 9 seconds.

So anyway. Is it just me or is that actually a woman under that makeup?

I thought them was all blokes.

Not any sort of woman I'm used to.

That is neither the subject nor an aspect of this inquiry.

There she is again.

Sucks to be a dwarf, I guess.

As a side note, this hair outdonaldtrumps Donald Trump.

Twitter is officially retarded. Quick, which cartoon character does this tower remind you of?

11:48 AM

Uh, Lego Man?

AUTOBAHN POLICE SIMULATOR - Evil Son Of Brock Lesnar

►

starts slowly but gets better

A different angle.

Still no idea?

@MattE.Эллен Auto-Bonn Puhleezy simulator?

yes

a video of someone playing it

Well, the hottest discussion on Twitter this week was about how much it looks like Spongebob and what was Turkey thinking turning national treasure into Spongebob.

11:50 AM

That is so not Spongebob.

Tell me about it.

And do tell Twatter about it.

Not even Bob Esponja.

Not even Maria Escubar.

It is literally just a not even.

It is the quintessence of notevenness.

@MattE.Эллен His German pronunciation leaves something to be desired.

I have no sound.

Holy crap, twelve minutes? TL;DW.

11:53 AM

He doesn't realize Germans drive on the right?

He doesn't realize everyone except three people drive on the right? FTFY.

Do they drive on the right or left in China?

They do not drive. They only smog.

Beijing.

Oh crap sorry, wrong image.

Beijing.

Can I say:

`Would you please let me know when it would be convenient for us my arrival in Kenya?`

You can, but you shouldn't.

11:58 AM

What?

You can, but you should not.

Parts of it are ungrammatical, and parts are nonsensical. But the message as a whole is understandable.

Okay, Thanks.

Can you help formatting the grammar?

Yes, if you tell me what it is you are trying to ask.

Right now you are asking someone else when it would be convenient for you to arrive in Kenya. They can't know that. Only you can.

Most native speakers would prefer using Nigeria instead of Kenya there.

@Robusto lol wait!

12:01 PM

Kenya is ungrammatical.

Imma let you finish.

@RegDwigнt I'm traveling to Kenya and I'd like to ask a convenient time.

A convenient time for whom to do what?

@Achu See, that's your mistake right there. You should travel to Nigeria.

convenient time for both of us, i'm going to give them IT support. @RegDwigнt

12:02 PM

"Let me know when you need me to be on site".

It's "give IT support", by the way. No article. And if it did have an article, it would be an "an", not an "a". But it has no article at all.

Thanks! i fixed that ;)

You naughty boy ;)

Thank you @RegDwigнt for your help. @Robusto My second journey will be Nigeria :-)

Hooray. Support all the Africas.

Q: Could you please do X vs. Could you do X please

Even Somalia?

0

I'm an English teacher, and I heard a student say "could you please open the window" the other day. To my ears, "could you please open the window" as a construction sounds exasperated, even irritated, whereas "could you open the window please" sounds polite and friendly. If I sent an email sayi...

phrases expressions connotation

12:15 PM

@Robusto Even Scotland. Their last king was so-so.

I'm surprised this guy's an English teacher.

Well, not really.

@RegDwigнt Hey, Forest Whitaker is great. Not so-so.

Aug 6 at 12:40, by RegDwigнt

@tchrist yeah. I'm Jack's roughly 51% lack of surprise.

@Robusto now that you've opened my eyes, yes, I agree, do not support Scotland.

> Looks like a squad of special needs bicyclists

What does "special needs" mean?

Crippled.

Invalids.

@crl It means crippled or retarded.

12:17 PM

thanks

Not to put too fine a point on it.

You talk like a fag and your shit's all crippled.

And the Dance of Euphemism continues.

Or not.

Euphemision Dance Contest?

@RegDwigнt You talk like a flag.

12:19 PM

You flak like a TOG.

12:29 PM

@RegDwigнt Tanks for nothing.

Chicks for free.

I want my MTV.

21 hours ago, by tchrist

@MattE.Эллен @RegDwigнt I would like to propose that ELU lower its auto-protect from 5 to 3 (undeleted, unupvoted) low-rep answers to match ELL's setting. What do you think?

Any thoughts?

I saw that. Then I thought that I couldn't think anything.

Well.

12:31 PM

I didn't even know what the limit was. Or that them was different between sites.

Ah, yes.

21 hours ago, by Robusto

@tchrist You get my vote for that.

I can find the link.

mine too

1 hour ago, by Robusto

@Catija If they would go to ELL first then we wouldn't have to. But they don't, because the non-native speakers don't bother to check if there's a site more appropriate to their needs. We have become the meat shield for ELL, and we don't like it.

12:32 PM

Some questions seemed to get autoprotected upon receiving just 1 (one) piece of garbage.

Others sat patiently waiting for 12 (twelve) for the price of one.

12 Angry Men (1957 film)

12 Angry Men is a 1957 American drama film with elements of film noir, adapted from a teleplay of the same name by Reginald Rose. Written and co-produced by Rose himself and directed by Sidney Lumet, this trial film tells the story of a jury made up of 12 men as they deliberate the guilt or acquittal of a defendant on the basis of reasonable doubt. In the United States, a verdict in most criminal trials by jury must be unanimous. The film is notable for its almost exclusive use of one set: with the exception of the film's opening, which begins outside on the steps of the courthouse followed by...

They weren't all that patient.

A: Auto-protect questions that get more than N answers from new users in a 24-hour period

18

This has been implemented pretty much as described in the question and is now deployed across the network. Default threshold is 5 answers in 24 hours (by new users i.e. users who earned less than 10 reputation on the site, excluding any association bonuses), at the point of which the question ge...

I don't really care for autoprotects much. I just protect things myself.

Which I can do with much more extreme prejudice.

Cabe esperar.

For every autoprotected question I see, I see like eight or nine protected manually.

Or maybe eighty or ninety, I dunno, I'm making this shit up.

12:35 PM

> This has been adjusted on several sites:

Programmers: 3
Workplace: 3
English Language Learners: 3
Programming Puzzles & Code Golf: 20

Twenty.

Puzzling.

Make ours OVER 9000.

We win.

I have something else I would like to ask you privately, because it is um one of those things.

@tchrist Wait, ELL gets three? Then we have to have that feature.

12:36 PM

@Robusto That's why I asked for it.

As I said, we are the meat shield for ELL.

We basically filter all their questions.

I am the walrus.

STFU, Donny.

You're the meat shield.

NOU

12:38 PM

that's for @Cerberus

Mine is more for Cerberus.

@crl What are those, eclairs?

@Robusto you are talking about the cameras?

Also, you left out Windows ME.

There. FTFY.

@crl They look like pastries.

12:42 PM

ah

Made with pride in Boulder.

We have those.

Also, you left out OS/2.

@RegDwigнt Is it ok with you if I unfreeze my private ELU mod room so that I can ask you guys a mod question? It could in the TL if not.

It's a particular thing not a general thing.

Unfreeze away.

12:43 PM

Thanks.

Notice how I changed the rock to a pile of dinosaur poop.

Notice how I did notice that.

I couldn't help but notice you noticing me noticing you.

This just in: Jesus invented binary, computers, and programming.

> All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Matthew 5:37.

Rafael Telles

Hi, guys!

12:56 PM

King James:

> But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

hi pal

Mitch

@Gigili I was trolling you and @Cerberus. You were the only ones who weren't around at the time so you couldn't defend yourselves.

King James was kinda uptight.

"Neither hot nor cold; I spit it out"

JSBձոգչ

1:49 PM

good morning everybody. i haven't stopped by here in a long time.

Good morning back atcha.

hello @JSBձոգչ

@JSBձոգչ How's the book selling?

2:03 PM

I am twelve and who is this?

@RegDwigнt You are no more than three or five.

If I am five, how can I be no more than three?

This is an important question. Exam tomorrow. HELP.

2:18 PM

@RegDwigнt five is more than three so you are no more three. HTH

Perhaps he is five of three. Which would seem to be a paradox, except in time.

Look, meta posts are getting stolen. And for no apparent reason. Who would want that content who was not involved with ELU? (Who even in ELU would want it is another good question, but I will set that aside for now.)

Andrew Leach

@Robusto I that anything like Seven of Nine?

2:35 PM

@AndrewLeach I dunno. I never watched ST:V.

hgrsiq mulberry outlet online gdpkds. now for only 3000 jlgskjkifs. hurry up these gajrrrhshovs won't last.

@Cerberus: 4.5 years later. A full billionth of the time the Earth has been around, and we're still dealing with this shit. — Robusto 16 secs ago

More to the point, and Cerberus is still alive.

After witnessing Chaos then Chronos then Herakles, he just had to also witness Donald Trump.

Jedem Tierchen sein Pläsierchen.

Speaking of which: as soon as we speak of the Bible, @JSBձոգչ shows up.

No coincidence? I do think so!

2:51 PM

@RegDwigнt Is this how you say "Every dog has his day" in German? Don't you need three dogs to talk about @Cerberus?

No, "every dog has his day" has a different meaning entirely.

This one is saying, "to each his own".

At least that's the best approximation I can come up with in English.

To each little animal its little pleasure.

In Russian, there's a very good equivalent, "чем бы дитя ни тешилось, лишь бы не плакало".

Feels like it could go in the direction I mentioned, but I'm not going to fall on my sword for that.

@RegDwigнt Thank you for clarifying.

"Whatever pastime the baby chooses, for as long as it stops crying".

2:55 PM

Now we're talking about babies. Baby animals?

You can talk about whatever you want in this chat.

No not talking about whatever you want in this chat.

I am bored in this chat.

I am Borat in this chat.

For the benefit of Kazachstan.

> Every dog has his day:
Jeder hat mal Glück im Leben
Auch eine blinde Henne findet (ein)mal ein Korn
Auch ein blindes Huhn findet (ein)mal ein Korn

> Every dog has its day

Deutsche Redewendung:
Ein blindes Huhn findet auch mal ein Korn
Jeder hat mal eine Glückssträhne

Zu »Every dog has its day« verwandte Phrasen:
at every opportunity
Every man is the architect of his own fortune
In every nook and corner
Every crisis is also an opportunity
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
Every reed will not make a pipe
every 6 months
Every one is worthy of love, except him who thinks that he is.
Every Jack will find his Jill

Hm. I think I'll go with "every 6 months".

Best fit for most situations.

@Robusto: Sour baby Jesus, we missed our 4th anniversary. It'll be a decade soon, and of course nothing from SE, even though this shouldn't be hard to implement (give users the option). — Cerberus 1 min ago

> Elke trol zijn eigen lol.

And:

> Elke trol zijn eigen hol.

@RegDwigнt Interesting that "(see full text)" actually means "(show less text)" in so many cases.

3:04 PM

Trol (troll) is a nice word to rhyme with.

@Robusto Yeah it is slightly flawed.

@Robusto isn't it ironic? Don't you think?

You should see what this chat does to your wedding days and free rides.

@RegDwigнt I said interesting, not ironic. Perhaps they don't have the former in your country?

@crl Haha very good.

@Robusto Of course you said interesting. Which is why I asked you if you also thought it was ironic. Perhaps they don't have questions in your country?

@Cerberus Sour baby Jesus . . . sounds like a profane version of Sour Patch Kids. Are they tasty?

3:11 PM

It's a highly sophisticated concept. Get an expert to help.

@RegDwigнt Questions in my country are closed between 11:05 and 11:15 a.m, EDT.

Who is EDT? Is it short for "IDIOT"?

All words are potentially short for that.

All people are just a little short of idiots. Most are short from the wrong side.

@RegDwigнt Otherwise known as "half-wits."

@Cerberus It depresses me to rehash all that. The absolute arrogance of TPTB.

3:16 PM

The glass is half wit.

@Robusto Never heard of those. But, yes, if you like sour.

@RegDwigнt Cela ne veut pas un verre.

@Robusto Yeah. The arrogance of every developer, though.

@Cerberus No. The arrogance I'm referring to is their shouting me down merely for asking the question.

Developers often say "this would be a bad idea / useless", while they really mean "I have no time/energy to implement this". The latter is more honest and satisfying as an answer, and yet it's always the former.

3:18 PM

@Cerberus who the fuck is this Robusto guy?

@Robusto Oh...

Sorry, I mean: WHO THE FUCK IS THIS ROBUSTO GUY?

Are you a developer?

NOU

I don't know, he arrived on this site somewhat recently.

NOU

3:21 PM

Girl, you'll be a woman soon. And your comments will still be abridged in the middle.

Not your twits, though.

Derrida coined the term "progress" to label this concept.

Did he?

I thought it was Varro.

The mark of Varro.

That's pretty much all he coined.

Quoi?

Too many movie references at once. Cerberus overflow.

Cerberus underflow, rather, since I wouldn't know any of them, probably.

The Mark of Zorro (1940 film)

3:30 PM

The Mark of Zorro is a 1940 American black-and-white adventure film from 20th Century Fox, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, directed by Rouben Mamoulian, and starring Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, and Basil Rathbone. The Mark of Zorro was nominated for an Academy Award for Best original score. It was named to the National Film Registry in 2009 by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant", and to be preserved for all time. The film is based on The Curse of Capistrano written by Johnston McCulley, originally published in 1919 in five serialized installments...

I only know Sex and the City: the Movie.

V for Vendetta (film)

V for Vendetta is a 2006 American political thriller film directed by James McTeigue and written by the Wachowski Brothers, based on the 1988 Vertigo graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Hugo Weaving portrays V, an anarchist freedom fighter who attempts to ignite a revolution against the brutal neo-fascist regime that has subjugated the dystopian United Kingdom and exterminated its opponents in concentration camps. Natalie Portman plays Evey, a working-class girl caught up in V's mission, and Stephen Rea portrays the detective leading a desperate quest to stop V. The film...

@Cerberus lies. You only know Sex and the City: the Movie TWO.

I don't know it.

Heh.

I don't even remember which one it was, except that it was the bad one.

I have seen Fight Club and the Matrix, though.

Two fine movies right there.

V for Vendetta is by the same folks who made The Matrix.

I liked Fight Club all right, also because I fell into it. I always like films better when I don't expect them.

The Matrix was all right, but nothing special.

3:32 PM

And with the same actor in a leading rôle.

Good circumflex.

All my circumflexes are hand-picked, from the finest Swiss chocolates.

Your circumflexes grow among the chocolates?

Which reminds me: all my commies are hand-muted, and I can't keep them waiting.

Happy mutilating!

3:34 PM

@Cerberus well, when given the choice, would you not want to grow among the chocolates?

Sure I would!

More is better, chocolate is bester.

3:50 PM

@RegDwigнt I think V for Vendetta doesn't wear very well. I watched some of it the other day and it just seemed like it was trying too hard to be polemical.

Look how stupid Paypal is.

This is why people are trained to fall for phishing.

I haven't used Paypal for 15 years because of this.

It was the Niagara Falls of phishing.

But it is easy to avoid phishing if you're careful.

And if you have protected your browser.

@Cerberus I prefer not to have to rely on my being eternally vigilant.

If you just only access Paypal by going to their site through a bookmark, you don't need any vigilance beyond that.

3:57 PM

OK, but they offend me for other reasons. We hates them, preciousss.

Oh, sure, we hates them too.

Like Facebook, they are obnoxious but too convenient to forgo.

Neither is too convenient for me to forego.

I haven't used FB since 2011 or 2012, and Paypal since about 1999.

If a site won't take credit cards, fuck 'em.

4:16 PM

Online credit card fraud is non-trivial.

@Robusto Good for you.

@tchrist How do you mean?

All you do is type in somebody's card number. There is no verification.

Are other kinds of fraud trivial?

@tchrist But the credit card company is on the hook for that, not you.

@tchrist Ah OK. Yes, I don't know why people use credit cards (except when forced to, as when shops only accept credit cards, as in my case). But at least you can revert the transaction, right?

Just as with automated bank transfers.

So I can just revert a payment to Paypal when I feel like it.

4:20 PM

I don't use my credit cards on sketchy sites.

Then again, I don't make a practice of visiting sketchy sites, either.

@Cerberus Bank card, credit card: same thing. But the reason is liability.

@tchrist Not necessarily. Sometimes a bank card is a debit card, and in that case I would never use it for any reason.

@Robusto Well, yes. But it can be both, and go over the debit network with a PIN or the credit network otherwise.

The point is, if it's a debit card, the responsibility to avoid getting ripped off is on you. With a credit card, it's on the company.

That changes on October 1st.

4:28 PM

At that point I may reassess.

What exactly changes?

@tchrist Do debit cards get better or do credit cards get worse?

Liability shift is to the merchant not the issuer come October 1st if they don't do chip.

For which?

Credit I think. I have to run. I think I explained it in chat already. Back eventually.

4:51 PM

@tchrist Well, you cannot withdraw money from my account by just using my account number.

You can try an automatic transaction and pretend I gave you permission to do so if you are in the register of organisations that are allowed to execute automatic transactions; but then I can easily and without any negative consequences (for me) reverse the withdrawal (you can only sue me then).

@Robusto Yes. But debit cards are (normally) well protected, by a PIN. Nobody ever sees my PIN except the bank's own physical machines.

On top of that, banks here will still reimburse you in practice, if your PIN was stolen and somebody withdrew money from your account (even though they're not legally obligated to do so).

5:52 PM

@Cerberus That is not comforting. The time it matters will be the time they refuse.

@Robusto Indeed, it would be better if this were official. On the other hand, what if people start defrauding the banks too much this way? At the moment, it is very easy to do. Just pull lots of cash from a machine in a different city while concealing your face, then call up the back and claim someone stole your card and code.

So far, I don't believe banks have ever refused, except when there was obvious fraud. One reason why they don't is that they really want people to bank online rather than go to bank offices; as long as people are assured that they will get their money back if someone hacks their computer, they will trust Internet banking well enough. Otherwise, they would run back to the physical banks and cost the bank hundreds of millions in staff and buildings.