Etymology of the day: bully (The word "bully" was first used in the 1530s meaning "sweetheart", applied to either sex, from the Dutch boel "lover, brother", probably diminutive of Middle High German buole "brother", of uncertain origin (compare with the German buhle "lover"))
Is it possible to use the word "patient" for the people who are cared for by caregivers or the people who are in need of nursing care? If not, what do you call those people?
I googled "word for large group of animals" and got "herd", which is what the top voted answer suggests. I don't understand why are high reputation users answering such basic questions - questions that are off-topic
The definition OP is asking about for "patients" is clearly written in Merriam-Webster 1(b).
Again, why are people encouraging these kind of questions. I don't expect highly reputed users to just forget DO NOT FEED THE BEARS
@EddieKal @snailplane @M.A.R. I want to know what you think ...
Animal collective nouns is a very difficult subject in English, because you basically have to memorize them individually for each animal
A lot of native speakers don't even have them down pat
There's a lot of disagreement among native speakers in regard to some animal collective nouns. All that said I agree that question should be closed and I've done just that
That OP should have done their research before posting.
The usage of "patient", well, is tricky. So I think I will leave it to the community to decide. I am cutting that user some slack because there are things learners don't necessarily know how to get information on.
@AIQ It wouldn't hurt to start a new discussion on Meta regarding this. Apparently some frequent users have different opinions. Your comment has been flagged as unkind, just FYI
@AIQ I have stopped considering whether doing one's civic duty in closing such questions instead of answering them is wrong morally or ethically
But there's your bitter truth: There's lots of rep gain in answering easy questions (and definitely easier than those) and none in closing them.
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On SO, there are people who manage to get to trusted user privileges and further than that by simply being rep farmers. It's of course different in ELL, you have to be a StoneyB to amass StoneyB rep
@M.A.R. I see. I don't know if I can word it anywhere as good as you guys can ... but it really frustrates me to see established users answer questions that are easy ... and what is worse is that the askers don't even do a google search
I'm not the sort of guy to start an inspirational quality-boost campaign to call to arms for moderation (snail probably can), but I'm a busy jaded idiot with a short attention span at the moment regarding anything SE-based so take this advice with a grain of salt, but I've found SE sites are often stoic and unmoving
Maybe not unlike normal communities. If you want to change a habit, you need people in positions of authority to be on the same page, and start shouting out for change until it takes effect in a few months or so
An always dormant but available spot to work on and improve on ELL is tags. Get a few interested folks to get on editing sprees and clean up obvious bad apples from tags
For now, I stick to downvoting stuff whenever I see them, but they've often made it to HNQ by then
@M.A.R. Thing is most of these meta posts that seem to go into details on these things and word it perfectly are by J.R. and ColleenV. And they aren't here to maintain control
@AIQ Don't worry too much about your comment wording. Frankly J.R.'s comments often come off as very strongly-worded. It appears to me J.R. also shares your view toward these questions.
J.R.'s comments were definitely not the most friendly on this site, but they were oftentimes to-the-point.
@M.A.R. touche
But I don't want to dump a bucket of ice on any question unless it is absolutely necessary (which could be never). I am against censorship.
Whom vs. who, I vs. me, was vs. were, and that vs. which questions should be removed from the HNQ, in my opinion. They often garner stupid answers and comment-answers with lots of upvotes before they're closed as duplicates (and if). I occasionally see questions with vague, uninformative titles such as "What does this mean?" and "Is this sentence grammatical?" reaching the HNQ as well. Making their titles less so is often enough to "cool them off".
@EddieKal My frustration is not just with askers. I completely understand that from time to time learners will ask questions that may be actually too basic even for other learners such as myself. But that is fine. It is important to them. And if the question does not show minimal effort, then we can nicely point that out in the comment - like I have done on so many occasions.
I think what annoyed me most is that I keep seeing some high rep users answer these very basic questions. And since they have a lot of reputation, my comment to improve the question won't be valid anymore. OP won't take such comments seriously when answers have already been written by an expert ...
@M.A.R. More like towards the community's members who are in the position of authority and keep answering these easy questions ... Why will askers change their behavior or listen to my comments which tell them to do a bit more research, when they get answers by user who have lots of rep points ...
Is it possible to use the word "patient" for the people who are cared for by caregivers or the people who are in need of nursing care? If not, what do you call those people?
With such a chiseled body, Johnny Bravo still has trouble finding a girl to date. Why is that?
My question is different from this question.
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