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7:14 PM
@KitFox I shall keep my mental images to a polite minimum.
 
@DavidWallace Ach, it's a tough job, but it is my turn to learn.
 
What have they been doing now?
 
Who?
The users?
 
Yeah.
 
We just did a few for low quality contributions.
 
7:17 PM
I'm not entirely sure whether you're talking about ELU.SE or your workplace.
Nothing worse than low quality contributions.
 
Rather, I did.
 
You're a moderator - you are permitted the editorial we.
 
Waiwai's been doing a lot of them, and sim's had a turn. It was my turn today.
 
My son has a friend whose surname is Waiwai.
There seem to be a couple of annoying new users, without naming names.
 
I actually hate the "low quality" suspension. Most users just don't seem to get it, so it seems kind of unfair.
 
7:19 PM
You've been suspending people?
 
On the other hand, they can be mercilessly downvoted if no one corrects their behavior.
@DavidWallace Just a few.
And not the ones I'd really like to.
Makes a girl heady, you see. I keep thinking about the ones I really want to suspend...
 
Well, I've done it. I've gone ahead and answered one of my own questions. Not the first time, but the only other time I've done it was to publish the "tenses" graph that I cooked up with Kosmonaut as a service for non-native speakers.
 
I assume there's an opportunity to explain to people first why their contributions are low quality, and tell them "shape up or ship out"?
 
Here's my answer. I wonder what the community will think:
0
A: Punctuating question tags: A question mark is always required, isn't it?

RobustoI don't normally answer my own question, but in this case I feel compelled to do so. FumbleFingers' answer — the only answer this question has received — while well-argued and not incorrect, feels like the answer of someone who is faced with a problem he recognizes but cannot solve, and so falls ...

 
@DavidWallace Yeah, ish. There's a lot of boilerplate involved, so as to not rile people. Unfortunately, there is a lot of boilerplate involved.
 
7:22 PM
I think that's OK, Robusto. It's like three months later; so you have had the opportunity to learn and grow in that time. Or even to find out the answer from somewhere else. I would say it behooves you to post it.
Of course, when I say that's OK, I'm referring to the principle, not the answer itself.
 
Yeah, I actually thought I'd get more answers to that question. I don't feel the issue is at all cut and dried.
 
I think it's too hard. I think the user community here are not sufficiently expert.
We would like to have 20 Barrie Englands. Instead, we have a Carlo, a Robin and a Xavier.
 
We would?
 
Don't forget Nortonn S.
 
Oh, how could I forget Nortonn?
Kit, you wouldn't like 20 Barries?
 
7:25 PM
No, actually, I wouldn't.
 
upon which you're about to elaborate, no doubt.
 
Oh.
 
Actually, I'd like a few more John Lawlers. Barrie can be too glib, and he relies too much on the OED even when it's not appropriate.
 
I wasn't planning to elaborate.
 
Lawler always makes a reasoned argument, with illustrations.
 
7:27 PM
and yet sometimes I find him annoying. My own personal foible, to be sure.
But, Robusto, I feel you are right. I miss Vitaly.
 
Everybody is annoying sometimes.
 
My dearest KitFox, you have NEVER annoyed me!
 
pfah I will try harder next time.
 
I have to go. See you all.
 
@DavidWallace Yeah. Vitaly added a dimension to this chat that has abruptly gone missing.
 
7:29 PM
No kidding.
 
later.
 
0
Q: Date sent/received VS Sent/Received date?

DerfderI am not sure which form is correct. I have a table in MS Excel containing my emails that I have sent or received. First collumn is called "email", second is called "subject", third "message" aso. One of the collumns is called "Sent date", so I know when I sent this email and one "Received date...

Vitaly had a lot of interesting things to discuss. I liked it when he argued with Cerb too.
He certainly had expert-level questions to ask.
 
> grammatically kosher
I'm just not sure what to say
0
Q: Saluation punctuation: Is "Hi!," ok?

user25724A friend of mine uses both an exclamation mark and a comma in his letter saluations, like so: Hi George!, I have never seen this before, and was wondering if it's grammatically kosher. Thoughts?

 
@KitFox You were most probably alone, then!
 
not at all. I enjoyed the show!
 
7:37 PM
@DavidWallace Lawler is far from crazy, and very knowledgeable; but he is inflexible and a bit dogmatic.
@Robusto He should just return!
 
@Cerberus Hahaha. But now you argue with me instead! That's no fun at all.
 
@KitFox You're not as virulent and tenacious as Vitaly, that's for sure! I do miss those discussions.
Not for every-day use, though.
 
@Cerberus Back handed compliment?
 
@ΜετάEd I don't know myself.
 
@KitFox You think the users here are bad? This guy doesn't understand the difference between an answer and a comment.
@Cerberus I'm sure you're three times as dogmatic as he is!
@KitFox I feel sad that his questions and answers are gone too. If he wanted to leave, he should have just stopped using the site, rather than getting himself deleted. Then the community could have continued to benefit from the work that he'd already done.
 
7:48 PM
Well, I imagine that's rather the point, innit?
 
@DavidWallace Am not! stamps foot
 
@KitFox Err, I hope not.
 
I can see how all things are relative and that there are alternative perspectives.
 
@DavidWallace Vit's not the type to make rash, irrational decisions. I am absolutely certain that his actions were well-considered.
 
Lawler exhibits nothing like this when pressed.
@KitFox I disagree, and I am not.
I may agree about rash.
 
7:50 PM
What?
 
@KitFox Then you are more charitable than I.
 
@DavidWallace Maybe I just know him better than you.
 
Well, it is a bit too easy to call him irrational behind his back. But I have done so to his face too.
@KitFox I have talked to him quite a bit, and I don't find him very rational in some things.
 
I don't know how to respond to that tactfully.
 
@KitFox I'm sure that you do. I am just perplexed.
 
7:51 PM
;-þ
 
Kit with a pacifier?
 
Lip-ring.
 
@Cerberus Are we talking about Vitaly or Lawler now? I'm confused.
 
Vitaly.
 
Cerb is enough to confuse anyone
 
7:53 PM
@KitFox I won't get mad if you respond tactlessly.
 
Vitaly is not irrational. He is, if anything, rational to a fault.
 
Or not.
@Robusto Then let's agree to disagree.
I like him.
 
I like him too. And I miss him. But I still think he should have let his questions and answers remain here.
 
What, did he delete them?
I didn't know that.
 
There is no evidence on the site that Vitaly ever existed.
 
7:55 PM
That is because the name of a deleted user disappears from his questions, right?
 
I managed to outrageously insult Vitaly without realizing it once:
May 27 '11 at 12:51, by Robusto
@Vitaly — So a person can be vain and reclusive all at the same time? Interesting.
He seriously took umbrage at that.
 
No, the questions actually disappear.
So do any answers.
 
But not chat comments. Those are forever.
 
@Robusto Haha.
@DavidWallace Then he must have deleted them.
 
No @David, you're wrong.
 
7:56 PM
@Cerberus You should read on. It's kind of interesting.
 
@Robusto I think I read it at the time.
 
@KitFox Well, whether it was manually done, or automatic, Vitaly's answers have gone.
 
@Robusto What? Too -glib-? I would think quite the opposite, terse to the point of logically answering the question correctly as minimally as possible, but with giving the (usually unknowing) OP a good grasp of the range of contexts his question has. He is just shy of "Do you know what time it is?", "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do".
 
@DavidWallace That seems very bad. Once content has been posted, why in the world would SE delete all of it just because the user was deleted?
 
@DavidWallace His questions are still there. The answers should be too.
 
7:58 PM
@ΜετάEd OK, so maybe it's not automatic. But I checked some of the questions that he answered. His answers are NOT THERE!
 
The usual rule for deletion is that a question can't be deleted if it has upvoted answers. I hope there's no exception for deleting the user.
 
@Cerberus What I mean is, rationality doesn't solve all issues. And there are some things which may not be reasoned.
 
I will admit, I didn't check the questions. I only checked his answers.
The ones that I could remember.
 
Show me. Maybe I can tell you something.
I see at least one of his questions still.
 
Maybe we mere mortals can't?
 
7:59 PM
@DavidWallace Were any of his answers accepted? Those should still be there, according to normal deletion policy.
 
Oh, I can't remember.
 
@Robusto That may be true.
 
If his Q&A were deleted by him, any accepted answers would necessarily still be there.
 
11
Q: What does “they made bones” mean?

user3286Context: an old (70+ years old) Londoner is being interviewed about his past as a lighterman on the River Thames and says the following: Three big wharves there, they've flattened, all gone. One of them we called the stinker wharf. They made bones. It used to pen and ink when you went by ther...

 
@Cerberus And he did take a rather religious approach to the whole idea of the Singularity.
 
8:00 PM
@Robusto Not only that.
 
Jinx! I was just typing "Kit can you post a link to one of his questions please".
 
@DavidWallace Oh, we know who they are.
 
But let's not gossip.
 
@ΜετάEd Yes, that's possible. But you should still be able to see what he deleted.
 
8:02 PM
stamps on stupid SE search function
How come everything else on this site is always so nice?
 
@KitFox oh...there are some who don't meet the suspend criteria who you want to , and others who -do- meet the criteria but are not annoying? I'd kinda like to help out the latter ones.
 
@Cerberus Party-pooper.
 
Oh, that idiot is still being an idiot!
"You guys are playing a game I don't want to play, so I'm taking my ball and going home."
 
BTW, we have proof that @Kit is a liar:
May 27 '11 at 14:06, by Kit
@z7sg There's absolutely nothing going on between me and @Robusto.
Patently untrue on the face of it.
 
Maybe it was true at the time, but has since become false.
 
8:05 PM
Maybe in an alternate universe. But there has always been something going on between me and Kit. What it was is not certain.
 
Well.
calls in Kit's hubby and Rob's wifey
 
So tell me, @Robusto, in your universe, what is it exactly that is going on between the Foxy Kitty and your good self?
 
Ehh, I'd call it some kind of electronic communication.
 
@Cerberus you're such a gossip
 
@KitFox Can a mod get to the deleted user's page, which might (or might not) be: english.stackexchange.com/users/3286
 
8:07 PM
We are always meeting in chat. That is not nothing. Ergo, it is something. QED.
 
@ΜετάEd No, it's gone.
 
@MattЭллен I fight it every time.
 
Then the best anyone can do is google [ user3286 site:english.stackexchange.com ].
 
That's what I was doing.
Google cache doesn't have his user page either.
 
What about the Wayback Machine?
 
8:10 PM
Hah!! Somebody's been making sock puppets!
16
Shia Islam

Proposed Q&A site for who want to know about Shia Islam to compare and find real Islam and God among sects of Muslims. also for who want to know about political ideologies of Shia countries and groups for example (not limited to) Iran, Hezbollah and other Shia countries.

Currently in definition.

 
@ΜετάEd Rien du tout.
 
Look at the six newest followers!
glares at Cerberus
 
The WABAC Machine (pronounced, and often synonymous with, Way-back) refers to a fictional machine from the cartoon segment Peabody's Improbable History, an ongoing feature of the 1960s cartoon series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The WABAC Machine is a plot device used to transport the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman back in time. The meaning of the acronym is unknown, but mid-century, high-technology names often ended in "AC" (generally for "Algorithmic Computer" or similar), such as ENIAC, Univac, EDVAC, MANIAC, and JOHNNIAC. The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show Within the Peabody's Impro...
FTFY.
 
@DavidWallace Hmmm what?
I'm not Morteza.
 
No, I mean, for doing a Mahnax
 
8:13 PM
If that's the guy I remember from some other forum, I'm glad I'm not.
@DavidWallace What? The French?
But I do that all the time!
 
Shall I rename a Mahnax a Cerberus?
 
We both got it from someone else.
The French.
 
@Robusto You needed proof of that? More than 75% of my statements in this chat have been lies.
3
 
@DavidWallace That is not necessary.
 
I've never met The French.
 
8:14 PM
@KitFox How about your statistics?
@DavidWallace Then it's time.
Paris is lovely in October.
 
@Cerberus That's a bit personal!
 
That was my widget speaking.
 
Clearly.
 
It is semi-transparent, yes.
 
translucent, one might say
 
8:15 PM
I'm off. Laterz!
Hi @Matt.
 
I mean, it's almost opaque, so you can quickly scan stuff that passes under it.
 
Bye @Matt
 
Bai.
 
Bai @KitFox
 
8:16 PM
waits
 
bye Kit
 
@Cerberus um, what's going on under your widget?
 
Ask David.
 
is David under your widget?
 
I don't think so.
yesterday, by Cerberus
user image
 
8:20 PM
I see no widgets above me.
I just thought it was rude to ask Kit her statistics.
 
@Mitch I don't think so
 
is that a saddy face or a frog?
 
8:23 PM
4
A: The info about who deleted what and when is gone

Kevin MontroseThis will be fixed in the next deploy.

@Cerberus lol
 
See, I wasn't lying.
 
wait, you said you didn't think he was
I suppose that isn't a lie
 
@MattЭллен waiwai calimed that XVH's prior suspension was automatic, and RM hasn't had half the time to be so annoying (but does have multiple deletes and downvotes)
 
From the look of your widget, I'd say you need to see a doctor.
 
Why?
More importantly, who?
 
8:25 PM
@Mitch saddy
 
1 hour ago, by KitFox
We just did a few for low quality contributions.
 
2 hours ago, by KitFox
I've been disciplining users at the expense of page testing.
Oh, jinx, sorry!
 
@cornbreadninja because you were also greatly entertained by him, waiting for the next bizarrity, and you mourn the loss?
 
8:26 PM
@Cerberus a:gha: ye doktor tæshrif næda:rænd. mitu:næm komæketu:n konæm?
 
Ehh is that Newzealandish?
 
@DavidWallace na mikonam. really.
@Cerberus north island. really far north island
 
@Mitch Must be!
Almost oceanic.
 
so all these suspensions are not automatic?
 
Because I don't understand it.
 
8:29 PM
@Mitch I don't know for sure. some of them aren't
 
@tchrist awww, Torgo
 
Tor went.
 
@Mitch his picture tugs at my electric empathy strings
@Mitch The master will not be pleased.
 
oh...yeah the rubbish tearing seagull
 
hyphenate that, mister!
 
8:33 PM
@KitFox Is this one of them?
 
rub-bish tea-ring seag-ull?
Ya know, this chat interface is spoiling me. when I make embarrassing mistakes on other interfaces, I can't go back and edit them.
 
If you are excited by tickling, you are ticklish. But if you are excited by rubbing, are you rubbish?
 
@Robusto your French chicken joke still cracks me up.
 
Anybody?
 
8:36 PM
@cornbreadninja oh. that's the punch line?
 
looks around nooooo
 
Are we supposed to reverse-engineer the joke?
 
@Robusto and if you're excited by brakes you're brackish
 
Aug 5 at 1:20, by Robusto
It's what a pouting French cow says: moue
Wait, that's a cow. Not a chicken.
 
Jul 31 at 15:05, by Robusto
When you hit a French chicken in the stomach, does it say oeuf ?
 
8:37 PM
@cornbreadninja Ah, yes. That was definitely star-worthy. But ... I get no respect.
 
@Robusto I starred it, Mr. Dangerfield.
 
@Robusto Do bigots enjoy bigotry as much as adults enjoy adultery?
 
Ah, so you did.
@DavidWallace I can only answer for adultery.
And what do you call a Scottish hat salesman in Germany? A Hüt Mann.
I can go on.
 
@Robusto Booooo.
 
Some people got no sensayuma. They need more sinsemilla.
 
8:41 PM
throws Robusto veal
@KitFox No not lying in this chat.
 
-1 for being right. whodathunkit?
 
@MattЭллен That is EL&U. Sometimes being right means being unpopular.
 
And so to my commute. Adieu all.
 
safe commuting
and a +1 to an answer on the same questions that starts "I'm not sure I understand your question"
crazy folks here
 
8:49 PM
@MattЭллен where?
 
1
A: British English: How. How

MikeI'm not sure I understand your question, but I believe the speakers are using this native American word. From Wikipedia re: Lakota language: "Hau kola", literally, "Hello, friend," is the most common greeting, and was transformed into the generic motion picture American Indian "How!", just as t...

I'm not saying he's wrong, it's just odd that would get an up vote at the same time I get a down vote
I find it odd how people vote sometimes is all
 
The Wikipedia article that you linked to contradicts itself repeatedly. It's a VLQ link.
 
hmmmm
I will have to adjust that
 
And I'm not sure that your answer is right. Is the author actually making fun of Native American speech?
 
Hahahaha Native American speech, hahaha that's so funny.
points
laughs
 
8:55 PM
@DavidWallace he's imitating it in a non-serious manner, yes?
 
Mike's answer seems more convincing to me, apart from the first 10 words.
How would he imitate it in a serious manner?
@Cerberus Huh?
 
@DavidWallace right, so he's making fun
 
He's transcribing how it sounds.
 
@DavidWallace Making fun of Native American speech.
 
How is that making fun?
(How indeed)
 
8:57 PM
Meanwhile, I'm still allowed to eat 1100 more calories today!
That's insane.
 
he's not transcribing, he's talking
 
not even really hungry
 
I'm talking about the character
 
So? If he uses a word that's not in his native tongue, then he must be making fun of someone? Really?
 
that's not what he's doing.
if someone talks in broken English, pretending to be a native American, he's not making fun?
 

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