Language Overflow

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Anonymous

05:08

@GWarner I'll star that so people don't miss it.

Anonymous

Here on SE, we've got this little page at /admin which mods can use, called the "moderator dashboard". I used to keep two bookmarks for that page, one for ELL's dashboard and one for Japanese's dashboard, and I seem to recall they loaded pretty fast, just like most other pages on the site.

Anonymous

But these days, loading the dashboard on Japanese takes around 15 seconds, and loading the dashboard on ELL takes around 30 seconds. I'm not sure why, but it seems like a pretty excessive page load time!

Anonymous

The page itself doesn't appear to have changed, at least not in any particularly noticeable fashion.

Anonymous

I wonder why it became slow.

Anonymous

The mystery of the enslowenment of the SE moderator dashboard!

Anonymous

05:17

I'd go post about it on Meta.SE, but I had to take a break from that site for my own mental health.

Anonymous

So instead, I'll just casually chat about it in here and assume that someone else has already noticed it, so I don't really need to post anyway.

Anonymous

Of course, right after I write this up in chat, it starts loading really fast for the first time in weeks. :-)

CowperKettle

> risks related to switching the drug product to the OTC status.

Do I need the here?

Or is it like in pog form?

2 hours later…

Anonymous

07:21

I would think the is unnecessary.

ColleenV parted ways

11:09

@snailcar Meta is pretty calm these days and focused on stuff like where the buttons are in the dialogs.

@CowperKettle "the" should be left off. "Changing the drug's status to OTC" "It is an OTC stock." I'll try to think of an example where you need the article.

"The book was filed in the science section when it should have been in the fiction section."

We wouldn't say "The science section book" unless we were comparing it with "the fiction section book".

still not the best example :/

@snailcar I often find IT problems solve themselves when I complain about them to people who haven't experienced them.

Most of the time as soon as I try to demonstrate that they're happening

CowperKettle

Thank you!

> The investigator must immediately (within 24 hours of his becoming aware of the development of SAE) notify the Qualified Person Responsible for Pharmacovigilance

Shouldn't it be him? O_O

ColleenV parted ways

You can leave it off entirely in case the investigator is not a "he"

within 24 hours of becoming aware of the development is fine

But if you were to leave it in, my first instinct was "his"

but now I'm second-guessing it

I wonder if EL&U already has that question answsered

Q: When is a gerund supposed to be preceded by a possessive adjective/determiner?

I assume that the following sentences are grammatically correct: He resents your being more popular than he is. Most of the members paid their dues without my asking them. They objected to the youngest girl's being given the command position. What do you think about his buying such...

> In other words, gerunds (as in example 39i) can take either the genitive (his) or the accusative (him) as subject, with genitive being more formal and accusative less formal. The nominative (he) is not possible as the subject of a gerund.

> [39] i. She resented his/him/*he being invited to open the debate.
ii. We appointed Max, he/him/*his being much the best qualified of the candidates.

CowperKettle

11:29

I always want to use him in such cases.

ColleenV parted ways

I think it's fine, but less formal

after reading nohat's answer to that question

> When the possessive alternative is used, it focuses attention on the action described in the ‘-ing’ clause. In contrast the regular Noun Phrase form puts more emphasis on the person doing the action.

from english.stackexchange.com/a/42750/80039

4 hours later…

userr2684291

15:18

That's a really common question here on ELL as well, and the answer is it's difficult to tell when the possessive form doesn't sound overly pretentious. I use it almost every time I'm not sure because at least then I know it's going to be formal-ish-sounding, rather than potentially uneducated-sounding.

With verbs that denote sensing something, like see in I saw him opening the door, the accusative form is preferred, however, and that's the only "rule" that exists when it comes to the usage of this construction.

I once asked a native speaker which verbs sounded okay when followed by the possessive form (I tried like 30 verbs from various categories), and they were okay with all of them except the sensing ones.

Sometimes the distinction Colleen cited above is observed, and other times it isn't.

userr2684291

15:42

Just so it's clear, the possessive form is somewhat dispreferred in general. You'll see the accusative form in 99% of the cases, and if you're not sure, you should use it. I'm just stupid, and have lost the feeling for it.

Kinda hate myself for looking this up years ago. I would've been speaking my English, notwithstanding (also withstanding, heh) these niggling doubts.

3 hours later…

New Meta Question

18:52

Q: Sentence construction

I wand to know more about the differenc between these sentence and which one is correct in speaking English. Q1. I submitted the Inspection report to my boss a day ago before my office closed. Q2. I submitted the Inspection report to my boss a day before my office closed.