Hi @quid I was about to correct a typo in your post (reasonn -> reason), then I realized that you probably wanted to write something else there, so I thought it's better to ask.
I have trouble understanding the sentence: "Maybe, not even this is clear, it was what pushed you over the edge, but the reason it is not."
I understand that your are saying: Maybe this (=the recent downvotes) was what pushed you over the edge.
But perhaps in the part "but the reason it is not" you maybe wanted to say something else. (Something explaining that it's possible that what triggered the question ban have been something else, not the downvotes.)
Of course, it's possible that I simply misunderstood what you wrote. (English is not my first language, etc., etc.)
And since I am nitpicking, I will ask also about another thing - but this is something where I genuinely do not know which one is correct.
Should it be "I recommend you get familiar" or "I recommend you to get familiar" or "I recommend you getting familiar"?
Wiktionary says: "This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs"
I see that you have changed this sentence to the formulation which avoids this problem. :-)
BTW, I have to say that you activity on meta is quite impressive. Looking at top answerers, much more answers come from you than from any other user.
And I assume you are rather active also with various mod actions on the main site - although I don't have some way in which that can be measured.
I think mods have access to stats showing how many flags were handled by whom. As a regular user I could check the mod actions which are visible to regular users - merging, HNQ removals, locking, CW - but they are only a fraction of what the mods do.
In any case, thanks for the edit - and sorry if this seems to much like nitpicking.
If nothing else, at least something was posted in this room - so it is prevented from freezing for another 14 days. (Although that is basically non-issue for a room owned by a mod.)
My original intent was really to say "the reason it is not" I believed this is a construct that can be use for emphasis in stead of "it is not the reason" I am not certain though and even if it might be confusing.
As I said, problem might be with my English language skills. (I considered this interpretation, it sounded a bit Yoda-like to me. But I should not be taken as an authority on language and grammar questions.)
Anyway, from the question it seems that the OP does not have great English either. (At least that's my impression.) So for them, it's probably better if the formulations are simpler.
@MartinSleziak no, just cumulative lack of sleep and my attempts to cut down on coffee (which will be good in the longer term but are causing some withdrawal symptoms)
Hello @Yemon, as a native speaker what would you think of this phrase: "The vote might have contributed to your problem, but the main reason it was not."
Since there might be other things to remark, the main question is regarding the word order in "the main reason it was not", which deviates from the more usual "it was not the main reason". I believe to have seen this used for emphasis.
@quid I think the phrase is legitimate, but these days that construction sounds slightly archaic. It could still be useful for emphasis and effect, in an opinion column or a speech or a novel, but I think the more usual word order will avoid potential confusion
In the present context, another down-side of using this construction is that "the main reason it was not..." suggests that this is going to start a new clause, as in "the main reason it was not crowded yesterday is that ..."
Thank you for the explanation. At least I was not entirely wrong in my understanding. But I have changed it by now, since in fact it was found to be confusing.
Since we mentioned all possible stuff around this particular question, I'll also ask whether the post-ban should be added.
To me it seems that the user asks mainly about the downvotes, so perhaps it's not really needed. (The question ban is just mentioned - as a result of the downvotes, at least that was the OP's assumption.)
