English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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tchrist

2:00 PM

I bet we could use that to generate multisite average daily votes per average daily posts data.

I didn’t know we could make temporary tables in SEDE like that.

Robusto

2:16 PM

@tchrist: An Indian colleague kept talking about "the model view" and it took me some time to realize he meant "the modal dialog."

tchrist

@Robusto Oh. Not MVC.

Robusto

Yes. I kept wondering why he was bringing that up, but assumed it had to make sense somehow.

He pronounced modal like model.

And he used "view" to mean "dialog."

tchrist

As it is human nature to look for patterns in chaos, so do we all fall frequently into the trap of expecting to find reason and meaning in the inscrutable even where neither is to be found.

In other words, we assume things mean something.

Even when they don't.

Q: "Why did the programmer do this, what is the subtle and clever thing I am missing here?"
A: "Because he was an idiot. Nothing to see here, move along."

Ever since Google started sending hate mail to domain owners about immobile friendliness everybody is all into viewport meta tags.

I so don't care about tags.

I appreciate things that look good, and hate when they don’t, but my sense of elegance is oriented algorithmically not superficially.

Robusto

@tchrist I call that The Unreliable Narrator as Coder. We read on, wondering how such things can be, and eventually we realize we are being led down a scary path.

tchrist

And I will never understand sql.

Robusto

2:26 PM

I don't even try.

Life is too short to have it scourged by SQL.

tchrist

There’s something about how it all folds together that my mind does not ever quite grasp.

The idea of expending 10,000 hours of my allotted span towards sql savviness repulses me.

Robusto

Your statement contains an assumption, to wit, that it actually does all fold together somehow. See Unreliable Narrator above.

If SQL were an intelligent tool, one supposes we wouldn't need a DBA to fuss with it.

tchrist

Why does everybody have to know everything about everything? Why can't we have DBAs to do the database shit we need?

So, I can’t figure out how to get the trivial [posts per day]/[votes per day] to display here, and I have no idea why. I’ve managed things like that often enough before, but this query is too complex for me.

data.stackexchange.com/english/query/291576/…

Robusto

Q: Although vs Though?

Are these acceptable usages: Though it was raining, we had a good time. Although he didn't know the man, it didn't really matter. It could be anyone next although the alternative wasn't much better.

grammar

Another dupe

tchrist

Yes, I saw that last night as I falling off.

Is is, however, a boolean question that should probably be closed as proofreading.

I agree that closing as a dupe is almost always preferred wherever possible.

Andrew Leach

2:35 PM

Done.

Robusto

@AndrewLeach Good man.

Andrew Leach

Oh. Yet another tense question just popped up.

tchrist

Why do we never get chill questions?

Robusto

Because people come to us all hotted up about something or other.

VTC as WTF/Look It Up First.

And I don't know what to make of this:

Q: Why is 'Middlesbrough', so spelled?

Why is the English town of Middlesbrough so spelled, and why is the first 'o' of borough missing, as it is not with such as Scarborough, Peterborough, Knaresborough etc. I note that there are towns called Middlesborough in the United States which retain a first '0'. But my spell checker does no...

orthography proper-nouns

To say why anything in England is so spelled or so pronounced is beyond the grasp of mere mortals.

tchrist

But there may be gods walking amongst us unseen. Or at least angels.

God knows there are enough devils, and they are hardly unseen.

Robusto

2:42 PM

@tchrist: ¿Qué te detiene? or ¿Qué te impide? for "What's stopping you?"

tchrist

Well, the latter, but it’s kinda fancy.

I think it’s fine.

Google translate certainly seems to vacillate on that one. Go for impede.

Robusto

Good. That was my initial feeling.

Duolingo's Advice For Picking Up Chicas: Just say ¿Te perdiste? El cielo está muy lejos de aquí. I bet it helps to honk your horn at here while you're saying that.

tchrist

> Dime exactamente lo que es este gran problema que te impide terminar con todo esto antes del final de la semana?

Robusto

Hmm . . . final de la semana or fin de la semana? I've been seeing it as the latter in my readings.

Is there a different emphasis, perhaps? "End of the week" vs. "weekend"?

tchrist

Por muy lejano que aparezca el cielo, queda siempre dentro de nuestras aspiraciones.

@Robusto Yes, exactly that.

Fin de semana is a fixed phrase meaning weekend.

Robusto

2:53 PM

In Japan they would call you ひき字引. A "living dictionary" from which one can pull precise definitions at will. ^_^

Well, my close votes are all gespended.

Cerberus

3:07 PM

Morning.

I see this room is very English again.

Robusto

room topic changed to English Language & Usage: This room is very English again. (no tags)

@Cerberus Ain't that the truth.

tchrist

This works well:

data.stackexchange.com/english/query/291585/…

ELU is #5 SE site by traffic.

@terdon That was the dataset I was looking for.

terdon

3:22 PM

@tchrist Going to bash fileunderwater again?

tchrist

I prefer data.

terdon

Cut him some slack, poor guy asked a perfectly civil question about what he perceived as our hostile attitude.

I had the same reaction when I first started hanging out here. I had to understand the scope.

tchrist

However, the point is that ELU is no different from any other site.

terdon

@tchrist Well, it is slightly less welcoming than most in my experience. Only SO is more hostile than we are.

tchrist

At least, in the profile of how many votes per post per day it has.

terdon

3:24 PM

Sep 20 '13 at 3:39, by terdon

Yes, this place is surprisingly aggressive, took some getting used to.

Cerberus

@Robusto Nice.

Unrealistic, but nice.

terdon

@tchrist Yes, that's a good point to make. I did think that your calling him either inumerate, naive or disingenuous was a little harsh though.

Cerberus

@terdon I agree.

terdon

@Cerberus Heh, I know. The quote above is from one of our first conversations here.

tchrist

@terdon Actually, I was wrong. There are sites that are much more stingy than we are, and by a country mile.

terdon

3:27 PM

@tchrist Even when normalized by the number of Qs per day?

tchrist

@terdon Exactly.

terdon

Perhaps Q/vote or Q/vote/month would be better.

tchrist

Math

Cerberus

@terdon I see that now.

terdon

@Cerberus And it was about Tom, I now see :)

Cerberus

3:27 PM

I am glad that little has changed, in a way.

Haha yup!

tchrist

SO is much less also.

tchrist

3:41 PM

From this SEDE query.

Biology.

There is clearly a difference there.

1 hour later…

Robusto

5:07 PM

room topic changed to English Language & Usage: Now with 20% more English content! (no tags)

tchrist

5:19 PM

A: Why the lack of voting on questions at ELU?

TLDR: Run both this first query on totals and this second query on rates against different Stack Exchange sites. Comparing Like with Like You have to compare like with like before you can compare anything at all. ELU and Biology are very unalike in daily visitors and questions. Sorted by tr...