ELL's Cabin

MARamezani

13:00

I respect their decision.

Gowtham

I think the shortest cooling period is 1 week , lemme check it out

Damkerng T.

I think I've seen a way longer suspension.

nods

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. THAT WAS WORTH EVERY PENNY.

Anonymous

@Gowtham A week is normal

MARamezani

Or every day,

or whatever.

Anonymous

13:01

But a moderator can choose any number of days, I think, from 1 to 365

Gowtham

@snailboat hmm , ok

Anonymous

There's a box where you can enter it in, I just checked

Anonymous

But the default for a first suspension is 7 days, so unless you have a reason to change it, that's what it is

MARamezani

So, 7 days for that guy is a bit long.

What is done is done.

Gowtham

what was he doing

Anonymous

13:02

@MARamezani Seems fine to me.

MARamezani

Let's find something interesting slash funny to talk about.

Anonymous

@MARamezani Suspension is the only solution

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. You used to be able to do suspensions for longer than a year, I think

MARamezani

@Gowtham ell.stackexchange.com/questions/55586/…

@snailboat Hammer 'em down, boys!

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I can't remember the number of days, but I think it was either 200+ or 500+ days.

Gowtham

13:04

Was that some kind of encryption ?

Anonymous

@MARamezani I don't understand "Hammer 'em down, boys"

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. Hmm?

@snailboat It's a quote from a movie,

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani The longest suspension I've seen.

MARamezani

and mods are famous to be from Asguard.

Gowtham

@snailboat I can relate to it as Ban Hammer from gaming or twitch streams

MARamezani

13:05

@DamkerngT. Gimme a minute.

Anonymous

I think the suspension is a cooling off period, not a form of punishment

MARamezani

@Dam

13

Q: How long can a temporary suspension be?

I ran into a user profile that states: This account is temporarily suspended to cool down. The suspension period ends on Apr 27 '24 at 7:54 At first, it seemed like a somewhat longish suspension period. Referring to A Day in the Penalty Box reveals: Depending on the severity of th...

Anonymous

@MARamezani Yeah, I don't think you can do that anymore

Anonymous

Oh, the meta post says so

Damkerng T.

Ahh

Damkerng T.

13:39

1

Q: What does "hardcore" mean in this picture?

I saw a picture on Reddit. What is the meaning of hardcore in it? Thanks,

meaning word-usage word-meaning

I wonder if that hardcore is really English. It looks like it's a loanword from English.

Jorge Wants To Be Hardcore But His Mom Won't Let Him!

►

2:01 - Mom I want you to let me be my "style"

2:23 Mom: I know that all the young people want to live their "fashion" and "style"

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Yes, in the Spanish sentence, it's a Spanish word loaned from English

Anonymous

And in the English translation, it's an English word

Damkerng T.

I guess that hardcore in this context refers to kids' style and fashion and probably kind of music they listen to, not way of life in general.

The way the word is used in the show's caption (Mama Dejame ser Hardcore) makes me think of the word headstrong or self-willed.

Anonymous

I didn't watch the video so I can't offer an interpretation, but that sounds reasonable

Anonymous

I don't know how the word is used in Spanish

Anonymous

13:52

Nor do I know how good the English translation is

Damkerng T.

Me neither!

I got curious because of this comment:

Precise and nice answer. — Khan 20 hours ago

I mean, they seem to know!

Anonymous

But it sounds like it'd be much the same if you replaced hardcore with, say, punk or emo

Damkerng T.

I didn't know emo!

Anonymous

It's a thing. Was a thing. Is? I dunno.

Damkerng T.

Ahh... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo

Anonymous

13:54

Do a Google Image Search for "emo hair"

Damkerng T.

Oh, reminds me of Cristina Gimmy!

Hmm... I think I didn't spell her name right!

Christina Grimmie: youtube.com/user/zeldaxlove64

Choko

14:10

@JimReynolds Oops sorry~~

Damkerng T.

2

A: usage of "as" and "nevertheless"

However it is not as reliable in evaluating the radiation risk as is the patient method, nevertheless employing a phantom with a more anatomically realistic background. X is not as reliable in doing something as is Y = Y is more reliable than X in doing something X is (not) as {adjectiv...

> It is a concession clause of some kind.

"A concession clause"!

looking that up...

> There are only three subordinating conjunctions that introduce concession clauses: although, even though, and though.
http://esl.enkouyu.com/grammar/542-concession-clauses.html

0

A: mistake vs make mistake vs do mistake

How do we define what is do-able? That which we do must be a deed. Did you do the deed? A "deed" is something which can be done properly or something which can be completed. (Special placeholder cases are "something" and "nothing", where "thing" stands in for the deed.) Thus, we cannot 'd...

I wonder how well deed is received by learners...

According to my plain English, task is a simpler word than deed.

> This explanation may in fact be a proper mess.

LOL

Anonymous

14:40

I can't believe people are downvoting a community wiki that explains that a phrase is informal. The funniest thing is that this all started with that "socioeconomic stereotype" rhetoric by someone who probably has much more socioeconomic privilege. "Hey don't talk bad about the poor, you ignorant poor person!" The downvote had nothing to do with the answer. It is informal English. Even snailboat agrees with that. Why downvote for telling people this? This is cyber bullying and you clearly don't like poor people or care about English. — iyrin 19 mins ago

Anonymous

Looks like my meta post didn't really help anything

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Those words don't form a coherent class

Anonymous

(Well, I'd probably say even though is two words.)

Anonymous

@Choko Jim Reynolds is a bit of a jokester :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I remember that I thought downvotes on the meta site meant what stated in the post was wrong, too. I look at it differently now because you helped me understand that downvotes only express disagreement.

And the balloon "This question does not show any research effort; ..." is not really helpful.

I think it would be clearer if the balloon said "I disagree with ideas in this meta post".

Dane

15:21

@MARamezani

Anonymous

15:37

3

Q: What subordinate clauses are here?

1) Am I right to divide these senteces into clauses like this? 2) What about their types(subject, predicative, object)? It’s odd (main clause) / how it hurts/ at these times/ not to be part of your proper family (predicative). It was only then (main clause) / that I realized (predicativ...

grammar clauses syntax subordinate-clauses

Anonymous

Now these questions are locked and people can't post answers

Anonymous

there isn't really a difference between them and you could use any of them in all situations :) — alice yesterday

Anonymous

I think this is a good example of why a bad answer should not be converted into a comment

Anonymous

Now no one can downvote

Anonymous

And the incorrect answer comment will always appear above all the actual answers

Anonymous

15:41

So all we can do is comment saying that it's wrong

Anonymous

But it's bad pedagogy exposing readers to an incorrect answer first

Anonymous

If the answer can't be an answer, then it should be deleted, not converted to a comment

Anonymous

(Of course, that's not up to me)

Damkerng T.

I sometimes find it hard to make sense of comments once some of the comments are deleted.

Maybe it's easier if we keep placeholders for deleted comments, saying something like "this comment is deleted" or similar.

@snailboat I wish we could downvote comments.

Though I can see another kind of problem coming.

(You downvoted me? I downvote you.)

Anonymous

15:58

@DamkerngT. I don't really have an easy answer to how to fix the system, but I think it's bad deliberately promoting bad answers from the bottom of the answer list to featuring them above the top-rated answer

Damkerng T.

@snailboat The system already shows answers almost randomly for me sometimes, because there are more than one way to sort answers, and I use more than one devices, each has its own settings.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. The default sorting for answers is by score, and answers of equal score are deliberately shuffled

Damkerng T.

Sometimes it's confusing that I have to scroll more than a few pages to find a good answer down there.

Anonymous

I've had that problem though

Anonymous

When I picked sorting by age on one system

Damkerng T.

16:00

nods

Anonymous

The shuffling can be confusing sometimes

Damkerng T.

Indeed! I can't remember how exactly I set the options in each of my browsers on my devices!

Even my Kindle also has a browser!

(Though I've never used that browser for ELLing. :-)

Gowtham

I think these comments can be cleared by the mods anyway , so they can be deleted. Also i think main meta has discussed this issue a lot , couldnt find links

Anonymous

@Gowtham It was a moderator that converted it to a comment

Anonymous

I've flagged and written meta posts before

Anonymous

16:04

But it didn't lead to anything productive

Damkerng T.

I posted a funny answer!

0

A: Phrases that express "afraid of wife" in English

Another word I can think of is obedient husband. An obedient husband will say that he is not "afraid of his wife" per se, but if you observe his behavior closely, whatever his wife wishes, he will comply, for her wish is his command. ;-) Obedient husband can sound even poetic! I am, with the...

Anonymous

So most of the time, I just don't worry too much about it on ELL

Anonymous

I guess I felt like talking about it again today though!

Damkerng T.

I think that we can trust that our users will read comments at their own discretion, without the need of any kind of advice.

Anonymous

Well, sure

Damkerng T.

16:08

But where are my glasses...

Anonymous

I don't mean to suggest that everyone will see the first comment and assume that's the correct answer :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I think I should rephrase my message, "I think we can only trust that..." :D

I'm wearing the wrong glasses. (I didn't read what I had typed!)

0

A: Phrases that express "afraid of wife" in English

Another suitable word could be 'married'...

Finally, someone comes forward and speaks the truth! :-)

Hmm... Sin and Syntax... I wonder if Safari Books has that...

Anonymous

I haven't read that one

Damkerng T.

Too bad it doesn't...

@snailboat I was curious whether the book classifies out as a prep. or an adv.

Freddy

pussy-whipped

I don't think that's correct

Okay that is vulgar i just read it

Damkerng T.

16:25

@Freddy Because it's not specifically used for marriage, I guess?

I'm not sure if I'd really heard it before...

Maybe I had

MARamezani

I'm back! (Oh no)

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani I'm happy to see you're back!

MARamezani

Me too!

Freddy

Yes we can use it for any woman. Though you all can use it

MARamezani

What exactly are we talking about?

Freddy

16:36

pussy-whipped

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani In this answer: ell.stackexchange.com/a/55752/3281

MARamezani

@Dane You had to talk to me?

So what is the fight about?

@DamkerngT. How is the marriage of robots like?

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani Robot-ish, I suppose!

MARamezani

Explain.

Damkerng T.

Well, each of the couple (of robots) must have the concept of marriage downloaded first...

...then, they must consult other robots to make sure that they understand the concept accurately...

MARamezani

16:41

Site?

Damkerng T.

...then, they have to choose what kind of -gamy they'd like to have...

...being robots, they can have n-gamy.

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. So there are even school exams about robots? This is a conspiracy!

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani It's so complicated!

MARamezani

It's always complicated.

Anonymous

@Freddy Yes, it's vulgar, I don't really encourage people to say those words

MARamezani

16:51

@snailboat I do!

(Kidding)

Damkerng T.

17:53

1

A: Help understanding a grammar excersise about tenses

Let us go to the carnival, shall we? Your instinct about Q1 is correct - "shall we" is the best answer. There are some exceptions to the positive/negative question tag constructions. The Question Tags page on the Woodward English site lists some of them: Exceptions Some verbs / expres...

MARamezani

Nice answer at the first skim.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I find the guidelines for the usage of 'shall' for ELS learners are quite limited.

@MARamezani Agree. The first upvote was mine.

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. Agree. The second upvote was mine.

Damkerng T.

Though I think 'shall' in 3 is fine as well.

MARamezani

My name is 1 mms longer than yours.

Damkerng T.

17:55

Hehe!

> In a year's time, he shall become a qualified doctor; and I shall become his wife.

MARamezani

I shall not use shall a lot where I can use something other than shall. Shall gives me a weird feeling!

Damkerng T.

It sounds less good with 'he will' and 'I shall'.

MARamezani

Shall...

Shall.... I don't like that word coming outta my mouth. Sheesh.

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani In elevated English, I think it's fine.

Of course, Sheesh would be out of place there.

MARamezani

Which means I won't try to make use of ~~erected~~ elevated English.

Damkerng T.

17:59

nods

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. Sheesh is never outta place when I say it.

Damkerng T.

By there, I mean a different kind of English.

MARamezani

Yet another problem.

Dane

19:43

@MARamezani

MARamezani

@Dane Hullo!

@Dane I'm here, if you wanna talk.

Damkerng T.

21:04

1

Q: had selected vs. selected

An excerpt from Beginning Java Objects: From Concepts to Code by Jacquie Barker: Your client comes to inspect the work, and he is terribly disappointed. One of the reasons he had selected blue stars as a construction material was that they are extremely energy efficient but, because you used ...

grammaticality

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

"Any sufficiently complicated grammar construction is impenetrable by second language learners." - Anonymous

Catija

@DamkerngT. I think that's about what I just said... There really isn't much difference between the two in the native speaker's mind. You probably know more about English grammar than I do.

Damkerng T.

I definitely wouldn't say I know more. :-)

I think I take English grammar differently from most learners because I try to imitate the way native speakers process the language.

Catija

I couldn't tell you the purpose of a past participle... or even what it is, to be honest. I don't know the difference between past perfect, simple past, pluperfect... is that a thing?

MARamezani

@Catija I wanted to say: "Does a native even bother to check if the meaning has changed?"

Damkerng T.

I think pluperfect is a term influenced by grammar of other languages. In English, it's just the past perfect.

Catija

21:15

@MARamezani And the answer is, no. We just read it and don't think about it.

Damkerng T.

But just the simple past vs. the past perfect is already complicated enough for non-native speakers.

MARamezani

I mean, if the message has been delivered, the grammaticality minutiae is nothing.

Damkerng T.

Not to mention the progressive aspect.

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. Not for Turkish people!

Catija

@DamkerngT. Ah, that makes sense... over my years in school, I've taken Latin, Spanish, French and Japanese... I speak none of them... Plus, I used to be a voice major, so I've sung in about 20 different languages over the years.

MARamezani

21:17

Turkish tenses are very sophisticated.

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani Hmm... I'm sure I can abuse all the grammar and I can still communicate just fine.

But is that what we should do?

@Catija Wow! That's quite a lot!

MARamezani

YES!!!

@Catija Oh my...!

Catija

@MARamezani I think this is what Cookie Monster's questions always make me think... He's (?) almost always over-thinking things.

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. BTW I did say minutiae.

@DamkerngT. Also, if you can get the message across, there's nothing wrong with that.

Damkerng T.

@Catija Most learners tend to over-thinking things, because we have to.

MARamezani

21:19

If you abuse grammar, you'll be perceived as having the liability to communicate well.

And that would be your fault.

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani Hmm... That would depend on the occasion, I'd say.

Catija

@DamkerngT. Over-think ;) I get that. But true fluency comes when you're not thinking at all.

MARamezani

Still, if you are not in an IUPAC seminar, then a grammar mistake isn't really an irk to who can correct it.

@Catija Exxxactly!

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani That's the problem. I think most of the learners here aim to be that good.

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. I don't think that way. I believe people are here to be able to communicate first, and perfect the second.

Damkerng T.

21:22

@Catija It's a bit (or probably not just a bit) more challenging for adults.

MARamezani

You aren't most of the learners here!

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani I disagree. I don't see things like those tests (IELTS academic, GRE, GMAT, etc.) are about communication at all.

Catija

I've always heard that English is a very easy language to become conversant in but a very difficult language to become fluent in... I'm always ok with grammar issues and more than happy to correct if they welcome it.

MARamezani

Now I wonder if three exclamation marks have an equal effect with one

@Catija Like Othello?

Damkerng T.

@Catija I think that's absolutely true!

MARamezani

21:23

@DamkerngT. They are because they are.

Catija

@MARamezani The Moor or the board game or something else?

MARamezani

I mean, people have to take them.

@Catija What you said is the motto of the inventors of Othello Game.

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani Yes, and the questions in those tests aren't really about just communication.

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. It's that people think they are.

Catija

@MARamezani One of my favorite Terry Pratchett Quotes: Multiple exclamation marks,' he went on, shaking his head, 'are a sure sign of a diseased mind.'

MARamezani

21:25

Here, when I say I'm a bit good at speaking English, then I'm always subsequently asked: "Have you taken IELTS/TOEFL?"

@Catija Terry is right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!‌!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!‌!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!‌!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damkerng T.

Speaking English and taking those tests are two entirely different things, imho.

Catija

@MARamezani OH! I see what you mean.

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. I agree.

Damkerng T.

And being great at one doesn't guarantee the other.

MARamezani

But...

I'm not those people.

Damkerng T.

21:27

I don't think you will find those exams too difficult when you have to take them anyway, BTW.

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. I dunno.

I'm a weird guy.

Catija

You both write better English than a friend I had at University. I was an undergrad and she was a grad student and I was constantly having to correct her grammar (I was editing the script for the film she was writing).... She was from China... which is the point I missed saying before.

MARamezani

I won't be afraid of the university entrance exam, but I'd be afraid of a test I don't care about.

Damkerng T.

@Catija Aww

MARamezani

@Catija We're in disguise...

Damkerng T.

21:29

LOL

Catija

The point being, if you're planning to come to the US for Grad School... I think you'll do fine with the English language tests.

MARamezani

Interesting:

5

Q: Electorate badge percentage progress when a user has not cast any votes

I just created an account on a site (I hadn't cast any votes yet), chose Electorate as the next badge on my profile and got the following: It's still there. I tested on other sites (where I have not voted so far) and got the same discouraging percentage progress (-2147483648/25 percent on ques...

bug profile-page electorate-badge badge-progress

@Catija But I'm scared...

Damkerng T.

@Catija nods -- I believe our MAR will do just fine.

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. nods -- I believe our Dam will do just fine.

Damkerng T.

LOL

MARamezani

21:31

Oh I meant to ping Catija!

Catija

@MARamezani Now you've gotten us both :P

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani Ugh! "-2147483648/25 percent on questions"!

MARamezani

Even more interesting:

9

Q: My top-bar avatar has become a victim of continental drift

It would appear that today my avatar across all Stack Exchange sites has decided to distance itself from my relatively insignificant reputation. I suppose I don't necessarily blame it—I wouldn't want to be associated with a mere 1.2k rep on Meta, either—but it does feel a little bit excessive....

bug design top-bar

Catija

Anyway, I'm off to make dinner. Have a lovely evening.

Damkerng T.

Have a lovely evening!

MARamezani

21:33

Anyway, I'm off to sleep. Have a lovely <Insert time>

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani Until tomorrow!

MARamezani

8

Q: Russian SE has a slightly longer and more storied history than Japanese SO

In what I assume is a repeat of What's with the Japanese SO's stats?, the "All Sites" page sorted by age in list view shows that Rus.SE is 2014 years, 3 months old (click for full resolution):

bug status-planned stackexchange.com site-stats site-age

Damkerng T.

Lots of minor bugs are all around!

I guess SE will be able to fix virtually all of them in about a month or two.

Damkerng T.

23:35

Puzzle of the Day (What does she say?): dropbox.com/s/3lxyk8lw5dt9zss/…

2

Good afternoon! @StoneyB

Transcript for