The Library

7:37 AM

@ScottS Yeah, I had opined similarly, although I've since kind of come 'round.

2 hours later…

9:08 AM

@JamesShewey the answer appears to be lifted from here without attribution: missiontoisrael.org/couldUbe.php

Are you the author of this website? The text of this answer is the same as the text there — if you are not the author you need to attribute what you have written accordingly. — Jack Douglas 11 secs ago

7 hours later…

3:40 PM

@JamesShewey I know all too well how easy it is to forget, but....please remember that down voting is very important in such cases. If you flag something as very low quality, for instance, it's probably a good idea to DV. :-) (Mods have no special powers to see who voted how on a post, but if mine is the first vote it's pretty easy. ;-))

The system will automatically block further posts for a while if new users get a lot of DV'ed or deleted content in a row, which....makes our lives easier.

3:53 PM

@curiousdannii if a question seems to spring from a text then it is common practice here to edit in the text — much better to do so straight away than wait for feedback from the OP I think. I don't think this particular question was salvagable but I wouldn't say that means no-one should try. — Jack Douglas 8 secs ago

@curiousdannii happy to chat about this in here and get the input of others if you like?

4:29 PM

My opinion is that the OP is using this platform for spreading racist propaganda (based on the above links). I voted to approve the edit before I had that epiphany, so I am now voting to revert back to the original. I think this will serve a better purpose in terms of moderating the user.

If @Joseph really finds the question interesting he can just post a new question.

@JamesShewey it should probably just be deleted imo

but I think Joseph is trying to help the site by salvaging a poor question rather than editing because of a personal interest in the subject?

@JackDouglas - Maybe, but in that case, I think the best answer is to do both: delete the Q and let @Joseph ask a new one in the correct way without that kind of bias.

@JamesShewey in a lot of cases someone might be willing to salvage a question but not willing to post their own — I don't want editing to be discouraged, it is the engine of improving quality on the site

I typically agree, though this is an exception for me.

4:45 PM

Do y'all think this question is more clear after the revision? My own (biased) sense is that having the chart in another window complicates more than it clarifies, but that may just be me. Or maybe I need to reformat the original text.

5:05 PM

There's got to be a name of the fallacy he describes. (I think of it as a linguistic rather than a hermeneutic fallacy, but it's certainly applicable to exegesis. The OP knows the answer, but I like the question anyway.)

5:16 PM

@Susan The chart appears helpful, but my question back to you is whether you agree with all the additional information he provided above what you originally gave (Warning, Agent, etc.?) I suggest you look carefully through that and be sure you agree with his assessment since it is your question.

@ScottS Thanks. I actually didn't understand what it all meant. I figured there must have been text surrounding that explained it to some extent. I was thinking of everything added beyond to the original content as superfluous and therefore distracting rather than disagreeable it its particulars. (Also seems to me that if you don't recognize the transliterated tri-consonants that having them in a separate window from the question might not be helpful.)

I guess warning, agent, etc. are from the perspective of the plagues rather than the "harden(ed)" verbs/descriptors.

5:44 PM

That chart helps me. I noticed some things that I didn't initially:

1) didn't realize you could structurally divide the plagues into three triads of three plagues

2) that the statement moves up one plague for each triad inversely

So:
Traid 1 - Plague 3
Triad 2 - Plague 2
Triad 3 - Plague 1

And then it bookends, of course.

Which could also mean three different variants corresponding to the three different triads.

So perhaps that chart belongs as more of an answer?

@Susan

@JamesShewey Yeah, if it has something do with the question (?) it seems to me like that should be drawn out in an answer.

My way of shoving all the references together wasn't especially attractive though.

Well, it's not exactly like we can use tables in the markdown.

At least not without getting creative which is pretty tedious.

A: What formatting recommendations do you have for posts?

@Susan If you prefer more minimal data in the Q, then I suggest using the table maker found in this meta:

Simple Tables Sometimes tabular presentation of information is really what you want. Unfortunately, SE's Markdown doesn't (currently) support the table extension that many Markdown implementations include. For simple tables, there is a nice solution: Set out your data in your favourite spread...

@JamesShewey I'm not seeing the "inverse" you are, since Triad 1 has it in Plague 1 & 3, no?

By that, I mean the translation "was hard" (the verbs do not inverse either, though).

@ScottS Funny, I had never read that, or I didn't remember. I did quite a bit of modification/addition to the binyamin tables using keys on my keyboard. I just assumed that's how it was done.

Actually, I kind of thought I was probably missing something (the spacing my way is a nightmare) but was never sure exactly what it was.

@Susan Manually, that is how it is done... but why do manual when it can be automated :-)

6:01 PM

@ScottS Because if you get mixed up halfway through autom-..... then you have nothing. At least manually you can plod along steadily. I suspect that the interface between me and my computer is a bit less secure than yours. ;-) I'm inclined to try it though. Tomorrow. Then I'll be in here venting when I mess up.

@Susan Produce the table in Excel (or a spreadsheet) first, then copy and paste into the field on the link given at the meta post and click to have it remake it into the format needed for here. You can mix yourself up all you want while dealing with the Excel side, and still get something once you go to the automated.

In other words, you do not have to build the table info on the site page.