Language Overflow

AIQ

03:22

Oh wow learnt a new word: catharsis

2

"the process of releasing strong emotions through a particular activity or experience, such as writing or theatre, in a way that helps you to understand those emotions"

CowperKettle

03:43

@M.A.R. That's great!

For some reason I feel very tired and depressed during and after running.

But I think running is good, and I love running.

It this a joke?

@M.A.R. Register on Strava!

I will see your jogs then.

CowperKettle

04:09

There was an opinion poll several days ago, and 23% of Russians said that COVID is a hoax.

Every fifth person in Russia is a clinical moron.

CowperKettle

04:20

CowperKettle

05:36

AliExpress just delivered it to me

SmokeDetector

06:37

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in answer, bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer, pattern-matching email in answer, potentially bad keyword in answer (348): Can I pay my credit card? by kevlin Ericksson on ell.SE

Cardinal

@CowperKettle It looks cool.

@AIQ By the way, I forgot to ask, what major you were studying? I mean what program did you get graduated from?

@CowperKettle I used to work out very regularly before the pandemic. I recall that at the time when I just started training I got really tired, but I got better over time. My food intake also increased proportionately. Anyways, now after couple of months, I get really tried after a 6 mile biking. It feels like that I have a flue-like fatigue in my entire body. It's weird. It probably has something to do with my diet since I do not eat enough and in an orderly manner.

M.A.R.

07:23

@EddieKal No no, Iran jogged for 7.0 km

M.A.R.

08:02

@AIQ Also used in Inception

ColleenV

11:11

@CowperKettle Survey says.... FAKE! goretro.com/2014/01/vintage-ads-realor-really-good-fake.html

("Survey says" is a Family Feud reference btw)

CowperKettle

15:24

Pulfrich effect

The Pulfrich effect is a psychophysical percept wherein lateral motion of an object in the field of view is interpreted by the visual cortex as having a depth component, due to a relative difference in signal timings between the two eyes. == Overview == The effect is generally induced by placing a dark filter over one eye but can also occur spontaneously in several eye diseases such as cataract, optic neuritis, or multiple sclerosis. In such cases, symptoms such as difficulties judging the paths of oncoming cars have been reported. The phenomenon is named for German physicist Carl Pulfrich, who...

SmokeDetector

15:47

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at end of answer, potentially bad ns for domain in answer (61): Help changing active to passive voice in this sentence? by a deleted user on ell.SE

RoundHouse

@Cardinal Econ

Is this for real?

15

Q: How do you pronounce 2×4 (board)

Recently, I found "2x4" as a weapon in a game I played. I found that it's a common standard for lumber board. I tried to pronounce it as "two multiplies four" but it feels really weird. How should I pronounce this word?

pronunciation

the correct answer says "two by four" and gets 43 upvotes?!!

@DecapitatedSoul Did you see that question?

this is really pissing me off ...

ColleenV

@AIQ Why do you think that's not the correct answer?

AIQ

it is the correct answer

but 45 upvotes for just that?

that is a simple question and a basic answer

ColleenV

Yep. Yay for HNQ.

ell.stackexchange.com/posts/248802/timeline

Everyone who would have posted the exact same thing up-voted it to indicate that

@AIQ I did leave a comment under the more complete answer that called the single liner an "excellent and correct" answer.

AIQ

16:03

how does such a question gain that momentum in the first place, I wonder. It's such a basic thing. Even if one doesn't know, they can find it by googling it. And if I had not seen this question, and someone told me about it, I would think it would get downvotes

ColleenV

@AIQ The "hotness" algorithm does not factor in question quality very well

And there's no waiting period that gives the site a chance to close them before they get hot

(on smaller sites) I think it's tuned toward SO

This is a description of the "hotness" algorithm:

101

A: What are the criteria for questions to be selected for Hot Network Questions?

Basically what's documented here: What formula should be used to determine "hot" questions? We have a few tweaks: Successive questions from the same site are penalized by increasing amounts. So, the first question from SO in the list gets multiplied by 1.0, the second by 0.98, the third ...

> Questions less than eight hours or more than 30 days old are excluded.

So we have to get them closed in 8 hours and that rarely happens without moderator involvement.

And I don't think that particular question should be closed

It's perfectly within scope on ELL even if it did attract low quality answers

Decapitated Soul

@AIQ, Yep. It's really annoying

It happens a lot on ELU

Lol

I could answer this question, but I don't answer this kind of questions

Meh

ColleenV

@DecapitatedSoul If everyone stuck to leaving them with one correct answer instead of chipping in their own 2 cents, they would be less likely to be "hot"

AIQ

@ColleenV I understand, I am just a bit shocked to see the attention it got ... I will be fine ... I couldn't believe a half line answer saying something so simple and basic got +45, where as a few answers I saw the other day by FFingers and Jason got like 3 upvotes

ColleenV

it's because our core audience doesn't vote much

But looky-loos from the rest of the network do

Once they've clicked on the "hot" questions, they're engaged with it and are more likely to answer or vote.

AIQ

16:18

"looky-loos" haha

ColleenV

The majority of the ELL community seems pretty results oriented and don't browse the questions to vote on them

They vote when they find a question that answers a question they had

so, less engagement, less voting

the only way to fix that is maybe to hold events that would cause people to engage with existing content more

But that's hard to do while still preserving the "only vote on content that deserves it"?

M.A.R.

Ideally, while there's an option for content rating, the community's best interests lie in the "I didn't consider it worthy of an upvote or downvote" region being negligibly small

So I always read that sentence differently

ColleenV

I meant if we had a contest to use up all your votes or something, people would vote without considering the content

Decapitated Soul

How does a question become HNQ?

ColleenV

Any event would need to balance the desired behavior with rewarding random voting

@DecapitatedSoul I linked the meta post above

There's an automated system that uses an algorithm

Decapitated Soul

16:25

Oh

M.A.R.

@ColleenV Fosure, if you tell someone to behave a certain way, that will affect how they will do it

Like the double blind thing in science experiments

Decapitated Soul

@AIQ, Post 'how to pronounce 2x7/8' and see what happens

2

AIQ

lol

M.A.R.

ZOMG that involves fractions

Decapitated Soul

Or post 'what is the formal alternative for d--head' on ELU

M.A.R.

16:30

MATH PROCESSING EXCEEDED CALCULATION LIMITS

How do I express the F-word without sounding impolite

Decapitated Soul

😆

M.A.R.

@DecapitatedSoul Jinx

Ish

Decapitated Soul

@AIQ, Give it a go... I'll upvote it

M.A.R.

Me too

Decapitated Soul

Yes @M.A.R.

M.A.R.

16:31

Only to prove a point

Decapitated Soul

Post what MAR said

:D

AIQ

lmao

Decapitated Soul

@AIQ, I'm waiting for your question lol

AIQ

@ColleenV Look look how they are enticing me

:P

Decapitated Soul

Go for it

We're going to prove something lol

AIQ

16:40

okay in a min

Decapitated Soul

Aight

ColleenV

@AIQ Idiom of the day: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Decapitated Soul

So true

CowperKettle

If you can't can 'em, ban 'em

AIQ

17:06

0

Q: How do you pronounce 2 x 9/2 x 8 (board)?

I called home depot to reserve some wood. This was my exact requirement: 2" x 9/2" x 8ft. I told them over the phone many times "I am calling to make sure if you have four 2 inch times 9 inch divided by 2 inch times 8 feet board." and yet they don't seem to understand and want me to go th...

pronunciation reading-aloud

please help me figure out my problem

@DecapitatedSoul

@M.A.R.

@ColleenV

Lol James K close voted it

that was fast!!!

Decapitated Soul

I've already upvoted it lol

AIQ

lolllllllllllllllllllllllllll

CowperKettle

Are you trolling the ELL SE?

Decapitated Soul

lmao

AIQ

@CowperKettle I was inspired

Decapitated Soul

17:11

3 upvotes in 5 mins

😂

AIQ

@CowperKettle please help me

ColleenV

Someone needs to answer it

AIQ

omg ColleenV's excellent comment

ColleenV

number of answers is an important factor

questions with no answers can't get HNQ status

but we have 8 hours before that happens anyhow

AIQ

@M.A.R. please help me

lol

Jesus, ... EddieKal will be pissed

Decapitated Soul

17:14

I'll answer it

ColleenV

I don't know. These sorts of questions are easy for native speakers to dismiss as too simple, but they can be very helpful to learners

If you're trying to ask if a store has something in stock over the phone, you need to know the most idiomatic way to describe it

AIQ

True that, that is why I phrased it that way

and also because I need to by them for my heavy bag stand

Decapitated Soul

How to pronounce it?

AIQ

too expensive - Home Depot

ColleenV

2 by 8 by 4 and a half inches

But I'm not an expert on lumber

I know there are 2 by 8 boards so I would probably put those together

and tack the fraction on the end

Oh wait

You want 8 foot boards right?

so that's completely wrong

2x8 is inches with different lengths

Sorry, my basement flooded and they've been tearing moldy stuff out for days now and I'm allergic. So I'm kind of stupid right now

AIQ

17:24

it should be 2 by 4 and a half inch by 8 feet

ColleenV

Yeah, but you can only get 2x4 or 2x6

If you really need 2x4.5, you have to get 2x6 and plane it down

or something

my husband is the builder not me lol

AIQ

@ColleenV I know - I just made that up for the sake of the question ... James K wrote me an answer

lol

You have a cool husband

an excellent answer by decap

ColleenV

He says 2x6 is actually 1.5" by 5.5" btw

Decapitated Soul

XD

Actually I asked a mathematician

AIQ

@ColleenV yup actual measurements are slightly different

ColleenV

17:31

@AIQ There is a good comment about your title needing clarification though

AIQ

I am incorporating it

I don't know how to add the division sign

the one where you have two dots and one line in the middle

ColleenV

I would just add "inches" and "feet"

2" x 9/2" x 8'

The lack of inches on the 9 could be seen as a typo, but it's less likely

AIQ

@DecapitatedSoul you made a mistake in your excellent answer

@DecapitatedSoul note the edit in the other answer

that is basically your answer

lol

@M.A.R. I am waiting for M.A.R. to say something. Please, share your wisdom ... let me learn

ColleenV

Now, all we have to do is wait 8 hours for the other 10 answers

Decapitated Soul

lmao

My answer needs to outscore the others :p

ColleenV

17:47

Well, you should probably add a link then

To some helpful resource on reading fractions aloud or somethign

Decapitated Soul

Ah

M.A.R.

Add a kitten pic

ColleenV

No-one wants to see 9/2 of a kitten

9 maybe, but not 9/2

M.A.R.

@AIQ Welcome, to the magical place called Hot Network Questions! Here, our slightly clueless folks about language cast magical modannoy spells and enchant our verbose oneline answers

@ColleenV We can keep the gore out of the frame

@AIQ Jokes aside, why? Your question seems to me to be more about a "real problem" and looking for a real solution than two thirds of ELL's questions

AIQ

@M.A.R. Oh because I already know the answer

M.A.R.

17:52

It's certainly more real than "Is this conditional type 53? I had had had had lunch yesterday since five years tomorrow"

2

@AIQ Most of the askers of better questions do

ColleenV

@AIQ The point of a question on ELL is only partially for the author to get an answer. It's more important that the 4 kajillion people who have a similar question in the future will find answers when they search.

AIQ

@ColleenV that's great to know I am doing some community service

ColleenV

And, echoing @M.A.R.'s point, it's much easier to state a question well when you already know the answer.

You can even self-answer if you think it would be helpful to others

Decapitated Soul

Yes

AIQ

someone downvoted it

haha

ColleenV

17:58

And it might be worthwhile to do that on this particular question, because it gives our experiment a little less of a "gaming the system" aspect

Decapitated Soul

I've slef-answered a question on ELU and I got 40+ upvotes on my answer and 30+ on my question

ColleenV

You saw the other question and thought it should cover fractions as well

AIQ

@DecapitatedSoul damn

Decapitated Soul

42

A: WhAt iS tHiS kINd oF caPiTaLiSAtIOn cAlLeD? - random capitalisation or intermittent capitalisation

After digging for a long time, I finally discovered the name of this kind of capitalisation. It's called studly caps or sometimes sticky caps. Studly caps: Studly caps is a form of text notation in which the capitalization of letters varies by some pattern, or arbitrarily (usually also o...

See how to ask a well received question

AIQ

@ColleenV True. But I guess I can't really add anything more than what all the other answers have addressed combined

@DecapitatedSoul That question was actually interesting - and your answer was original. If I self answer, it won't be original given all 3 has more or less covered every aspect

Decapitated Soul

18:02

Yes

But for your future questions-answers*

2

Q: Reduction of diphthongs to short vowels (/waɪz/ -> /'wɪz.əd/)

I've noticed this phenomenon / process in many words where a diphthong (or a long vowel as well?) reduces to a short vowel when it's inflected. Consider the following examples: Pronounce /prəˈnaʊns/ → pronunciation /prəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ Wise /waɪz/ → wizard /ˈwɪz.əd/ Know /nəʊ/ → knowledge /ˈ...

pronunciation orthography phonology vowels diphthongs

Add as much information as you can...

See, for example, this one

ColleenV

@AIQ You are not very good at this HNQ thing if you think you have to add significant value over the other answers. Put a picture in our something... ;)

AIQ

save me from the closevotes

Decapitated Soul

@AIQ, Ask 'how to say the F word without sounding rude/impolite' next time

AIQ

Sounds good

Decapitated Soul

Lol, they can't close it if you don't want

I had got 5 close votes on my quetion but i rejected all of them

AIQ

18:09

wait what? It doesn't work like that

does it?

Decapitated Soul

Um

You receive a private message from the Close voter

Select 'No'

And submit

ColleenV

that's only for dumplicates

and it doesn't prevent closure, it just allows you to say "Yes, that does answer my question" and close it yourself as a dupe

M.A.R.

Lol

"dumplicates"

AIQ

oh yes someone closevoted it as proofreading

M.A.R.

I'm definitely gonna steal that @Colleen

ColleenV

18:11

lol I'm not fixing it

M.A.R.

You shouldn't! It's a work of art

ColleenV

It was a bonafide typo, but I'm going to pretend I meant it

Decapitated Soul

It's called malapropism

M.A.R.

Fleming pretended he meant it too

Decapitated Soul

Search up 'malapropism'

M.A.R.

18:12

I'm just gonna call it work of art

ColleenV

It's not really a malapropism, because there is no real word 'dumplicate'

Decapitated Soul

:P

ColleenV

but that's nitpicking

Decapitated Soul

That's how malapropes (?) come into existence

ColleenV

There should be a real word "dumplicate" so lets call it a neologism

Nope, malapropisms are swapping similar sounding but existing words

Decapitated Soul

18:15

Then what's it called?? :/ I think I should ask it on ELU

Lol

M.A.R.

@DecapitatedSoul Art

@DecapitatedSoul no e

Decapitated Soul

Ah

Ye

Malaprop

ColleenV

@DecapitatedSoul Lol, it's called a "serendipitous typo"

Cardinal

@AIQ Nice!

AIQ

Cardinalllllllll

join in the fun

Decapitated Soul

18:23

It could also be described as 'spoonerism' @ColleenV

AIQ

@DecapitatedSoul I am writing an answer

ColleenV

Also, give me all your opinions:

0

Q: Should the "writing" tag be changed to "written-english"?

So writing has 251 questions and very few of them are focused on written English as opposed to spoken English. It's not a good tag, but changing the name to "written-english" would make it more obvious what the intended use of the tag is and mirror spoken-english. After looking at the questions i...

discussion tags tag-synonyms

Decapitated Soul

]Ooh

ColleenV

@DecapitatedSoul I don't think it really fits, although "is it kisstomery to cuss the bride" made me laugh when I was looking it up.

There's not really a transposition

Decapitated Soul

Lol

Cardinal

18:30

@AIQ what fun? :-)

AIQ

@Cardinal I asked a question

everyone upvoted because not only are we carrying out an experiment, it may also be a great resource for learners in the future

Cardinal

The one which is about the dimensions of the lumbers?

AIQ

yeah

Cardinal

I just read it! :-)

I recall that I left a comment below a sort of similar question couple of nights ago, but it turned out that I misunderstood the OP's intention. :-)

AIQ

Thanksss

Decapitated Soul

18:49

Someone has left a blot on your question

AIQ

what is a blot?

decap

@DecapitatedSoul @M.A.R. @ColleenV I posted an answer to my question

Decapitated Soul

Downvote*

Upvoted

AIQ

19:06

muchas gracias

what a crazy thing to do

@ColleenV how did it flood?

ColleenV

@AIQ It rained steadily for 4 days, and the float on our sump pump stuck one night and the pump didn't pump

My husband had fixed some drainage problems we inherited when we bought the house but we thought they had completely repaired the sump pump

and maybe they did, it lasted for a couple years after

We're insured. This will actually let us replace the carpet with tile in case it happens again

and do some clever stuff with the drywall to prevent it from getting soaked and moldy

They had to cut off the lower two feet of every bit of drywall down there :(

AIQ

That is terrible...

actually its not bad

considering it didn't damage any kind of wiring

ColleenV

Naw, we are blessed compared to a lot of people

we found the water first thing in the morning and managed to clear all the backup and get the pump working again

AIQ

I remember basement of my house (where I rent a room) flooded a bit few months ago

then at 3 am I help my landlord to clean out the drain in the backyard

which was clogged, and because of that water piled up in the patio and entered into the house from somewhere

ColleenV

our neighbor had to pump water every few hours for two days

Both of our neighbors' basements flood every time it rains significantly

AIQ

19:17

woah ...

ColleenV

my husband put a lot of work into some drains and we got a new gutter in the back so we thought we were 'safe'

AIQ

is it a drainage problem or is it due to the house being worn down?

ColleenV

We tempted fate and it bit us in the tookus

AIQ

but that should be the responsibility of the city

ColleenV

Lol, no we're out in the country

The houses here on on cinderblock foundations

which are porous

so basements are wet if you don't take care to move the water away from the house

The good news is our well is nice and full lol

So you have to do french drains and make sure your gutters aren't leaking near the foundation

AIQ

19:21

Oh ... I guess you and your husband learnt a lot then - not having to rely on the city corporation

do you have any farm animals?

ColleenV

It's actually better out here - less pavement, more grass

There aren't storm sewers to back up

No, we only have an acre

We live across a field from a couple of dairy farms though

M.A.R.

Sounds like some life

ColleenV

M.A.R.

I live in 1% of an acre

ColleenV

Like I said, we're blessed. We move out of Austin TX a couple years ago and are really happy we did

especially with COVID

M.A.R.

19:23

@ColleenV Holy moly

I CALL PHOTOSHOP

ColleenV

@M.A.R. I have more :)

I've taken a lot of pictures of the sunset from my front porch

that's the best one

AIQ

wowowowow this is the kind of place I want to live in

ColleenV

or one of the best anyhow

AIQ

I am already in a very beautiful place, with water all around me and then mountains and trees ...

ColleenV

It doesn't have the mountain in it - that's to the right

M.A.R.

19:25

0

Q: How to mention your rank about an exam you took

How can I mention a rank you are at on an exam. Can I use the work "rank" to define a success on a exam? An example sentence would be I was/ranked in top 100 out of 10 000 persons/people/applicants/test takers on the exam.

word-choice sentence-construction word-request

AIQ

but my other likes a city life

M.A.R.

Divide it by 42

@AIQ I also live in a beautiful place, with lots of . . . car noise and shouting mechanics and angry neighbors

Cries slowly

ColleenV

@M.A.R. Can you get food delivered to your home?

AIQ

she wants me to move to NYC

ColleenV

@AIQ Don't do it. I lived in New York state for more than a decade and it's not worth the expense

M.A.R.

19:27

@ColleenV Meh, we buy the ingredients

But we go bulk shopping, every once in a while

ColleenV

@M.A.R. But if you wanted to you could? Because we can't get any food delivered here

but we do get Amazon, which was important to me lol

M.A.R.

@ColleenV The ingredients, not ready made

AIQ

@ColleenV I don't want to, but we gonna have to make some hard choices, cz she lives there with her family ...

Do you guys travel to the city much?

ColleenV

19:44

@AIQ The city isn't that far away - it's not a big one lol

When I was going in to work, it was an easy 25 minute drive

I think you can have nice city living without living like ants though. My husband lived in NYC for a while and had nothing good to say about it

We moved to be closer to family, which is important, but if you're within a few hours drive, that should be good enough

It's hard for some people to make a big change like moving to a different city

but in the long run, it's really a good idea to see what else is out there when you're younger so you can choose wisely once you have had enough moving around

I mean, I could have baby goats if I can just trick my husband into saying yes.

I'm more likely to get a chicken coop though - they require less space and we would get fresh eggs instead of just cute baby goats in the spring

AIQ

haha baby goats

yeah for some reason I am deeply in love Canada

ColleenV

Beautiful country up there

I lived in Rochester NY, right across the lake from Toronto

They are very very picky about letting Americans work there on visas though

I blame the draft dodgers

It's still nice to visit

AIQ

lol where did my with go

New Meta Question

20:05

2

Q: Should the "writing" tag be changed to "written-english"?

So writing has 251 questions and very few of them are focused on written English as opposed to spoken English. It's not a good tag, but changing the name to "written-english" would make it more obvious what the intended use of the tag is and mirror spoken-english. After looking at the questions i...

discussion tags tag-synonyms

Decapitated Soul

@EddieKal, 'I know. As the asker I suffer the same fate. I actually thought you answer made sense. I don't see why every post under this question including the question itself has been so much downvoted.'

It happens a lot on ELU

I UV'd your question though

I'm thoroughly annoyed by these unexplained and unfair downvotes

Eddie Kal

20:27

@DecapitatedSoul Appreciate it. I just think if people think a question should be improved they could try and be helpful by leaving a comment. I think ELL has definitely been better than ELU in that respect (with AIQ, Jason, FumbleFingers and some other active users giving askers pointers)

ColleenV

20:43

> “Do you have a reason for calling your wedding off?”
“I can’t say I do."

2

Decapitated Soul

@EddieKal Exactly... The downvoters should at least leave a comment. I got 3 downvotes on my answer, I know my answer doesn't lack anything... :/ And the downvoters didn't even consider leaving a comment.

ColleenV

@DecapitatedSoul If they don't leave a comment, you may imagine any reason you like for the down vote.

Including that they were raised by wolves and wouldn't know a correct answer about English if it walked up to them and said "Hiya!"

Decapitated Soul

@ColleenV, I know my downvoter.

ColleenV

@DecapitatedSoul How so?

Decapitated Soul

Unexplained downvotes often mean that the downvoter doesn't know the answer and is jealous of the answer they downvoted

Welp

I keep an eye on the rep points of my downvoter and whenever I get a DV, their rep points decrease by 1

And oddly, I often get 2 consecutive downvotes

The question about 'nope' became HNQ

XD

ColleenV

21:02

@DecapitatedSoul You know sometimes down voters do you a favor and cause people to up-vote that wouldn't otherwise just to off-set it

Decapitated Soul

Yeah

ColleenV

It takes twice as many down-votes to offset one up-vote so shrug

Decapitated Soul

¯_(ツ)_/¯

Now I can expect 10 more upvotes

@AIQ, Good luck! Your question is going to be HNQ... I've gotta go. Laterz.

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