English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

2:06 AM

Hi guys. Do you know any free website with complete English grammar illustrated? It would be nice to include some English pitfall/exception. I am non-native speaker. Thank you.

Alenanno

11:14 AM

@RegDwight hey!

RegDwight

Helloes.

Alenanno

Whoa, this chat is getting everyday more boring and abandoned... or is it me

:D

RegDwight

Shall I dance?

Alenanno

Ahahah

No no it's ok...

xD

RegDwight

11:33 AM

I could entertain you with some boring stats, then.

You're number 47 by passive rep.

Alenanno

ahah yeah lately I haven't answered much

XD

RegDwight

Nah, passive rep is all about not answering.

That's why it's passive.

You're actually our top 8 rising star.

Alenanno

ahahah

rising star :D

wait, brb

RegDwight

Sure.

Rising stars, top 50 users ordered on rep per day

Robusto

@RegDwight — So, new data dump?

RegDwight

11:36 AM

Yeah, I totally forgot.

But now I've checked all the queries, compared everything with everything else, drawn all kinds of faulty conclusions, and am up to date.

Robusto

Spoken like a true statistician.

RegDwight

I don't have enough data to know if you're right.

Robusto

Your link says nothing about passive rep

RegDwight

True, that's because it's about rising stars.

Alenanno

I'm back

RegDwight

11:39 AM

The passive rep link would've been titled "my money for jam".

Robusto

But I'm more of a falling star. Or maybe a shooting star.

Alenanno

Can we pretend that airplanes...

xD

RegDwight

My money for jam.

Robusto

How do you just get passive rep over all questions?

Kit

What's passive rep?

RegDwight

11:40 AM

@Robusto perl.org

Kit

Morning.

RegDwight

@Kit See the explanation on that page.

> Reputation in the first two weeks of post is ignored, all reputation after that is considered passive. Post must be at least four weeks old.

Kit

Oh, sorry. Didn't see that all the way at the top.

RegDwight

BTW, Robusto is finally leading by passive rep.

It took him quite some time.

Kit

Wow, I'm number 5 on the rising star query. I better start slacking.

@RegDwight He's gained critical mass.

RegDwight

11:43 AM

Even last month it was nohat 35.892, Robusto 35.395 (passive reps per day).

Now it's Robusto 41.238, nohat 36.577.

Kosmonaut is catching up like mad, too.

From 28.610 to 33.240 in just one month.

Kit

Is that an aggregate of the money for jam query?

RegDwight

Ayup.

Kit

Why do you call it that? It's cute.

RegDwight

Not my idea.

The original query is not mine. I've only made a few modifications here and there.

Robusto

@RegDwight — Not interesting enough to make me want to learn Perl or wade through SQL.

RegDwight

11:46 AM

I never said that it was interesting.

Alenanno

lol

RegDwight

In fact, I only mentioned it after Alenanno complained that this room got too interesting.

Kit

Doesn't seem like you'd need Perl for that.

RegDwight

@Kit Well, Alain wrote a query.

But it had some quirks and bugs and glitches last time I checked.

Kit

Oh. He's a Perl guy?

RegDwight

11:47 AM

Perhaps it's purrrfect now, I dunno.

@Kit I dunno, he wrote an SQL query.

You don't write queries in Perl.

Kit

Shows what I know. You can run queries using Perl though, right? With a data connection?

RegDwight

data.stackexchange.com/english/q/100940

Kit

I'm just trying to figure out the Perl part of the conversation.

RegDwight

May 19 at 17:18, by Alain Pannetier

It's still quite dirty (could have saved one intermediate table).

@Kit Perl is just a programming language.

Kit

@RegDwight Yes, I know. What I'm missing is why it has entered the conversation about the money for jam queries.

RegDwight

11:51 AM

All we're talking about is that the DataExplorer query returns the top questions by passive rep, but we want the aggregate data to find out the top users by passive rep, so we post-process the results. In my case, by using Perl.

Kit

Oh! That makes a whole lot more sense to me now. Thanks.

RegDwight

Of course, you could just write a monster SQL query that would handle all that, which is what Alain tried.

See the above link.

His results seem remarkably similar to what I get with the SQL+Perl combo, but not identical.

Kit

Interesting.

Robusto

@Kit — RegDwight linked to the Perl site, I responded to his spurious link first and then added the mention to SQL, which is what is used in his Money for Jam query.

Kit

I wish I had time to give it a try.

RegDwight

11:53 AM

No, you don't. Trust me.

Kit

In SQL, I mean.

RegDwight

Be careful what you wish for.

Kit

How bad can it be?

☺

RegDwight

Approximately very.

And then some.

Kit

I write SQL queries all day.

Robusto

11:54 AM

@Kit: You could become a DBA. That's how bad it could be.

RegDwight

Okay, okay, go write your SEDE query already.

I'll wait.

Kit

@Robusto Ah! runs away

RegDwight

But no longer than a week.

Kit

@RegDwight Um, maybe after I'm done with my current project.

RegDwight

A propos waiting for no longer than a week, I'll be off to Paris for three days next week.

Kit

11:55 AM

Lucky!

RegDwight

So my "316 consecutive" streak will come to an end.

And you will have to police the site all by yourselves.

Kit

Bummer.

Robusto

@RegDwight — Paris, France or Paris, Texas?

Kit

@Robusto lol

RegDwight

Have a guess. You have three tries.

Robusto

11:56 AM

Paris, Texas (film)

:This article is about the film. For the town, see Paris, Texas. Paris, Texas is a 1984 drama film directed by Wim Wenders. The screenplay is by L.M. Kit Carson and playwright Sam Shepard, and the distinctive musical score was composed by Ry Cooder. The cinematography is by Robby Müller. The film stars character actor Harry Dean Stanton as Travis, who has been lost for four years and is taken in by his brother (played by Dean Stockwell). He later tries to put his life back together and understand what happened between him, his wife Jane (Nastassja Kinski), and his son Hunter (Hunter Carso...

RegDwight

No.

Robusto

Then it's not interesting enough for me to guess further.

RegDwight

Fair enough.

Kit

It's my birthday next week, so would you please drink a cup of coffee at a hole-in-the-wall café for me?

RegDwight

It's not like it's interesting for me, either. It's just that my mother-in-law has never been there.

@Kit I'll see about that.

Robusto

11:58 AM

I like Paris. It's all about food and conversation. And, of course, wine.

RegDwight

And dog poo on the streets.

And waste and rubbish and hobos in tents.

City of Love my ass.

Robusto

The only reason there isn't dog poo on the streets in your town is because you ate all the dogs.

RegDwight

Cerberus is alive and thriving.

Robusto

But he doesn't live in your town.

Kit

He's tricephalic and therefore canus superioris.

You can't eat them.

RegDwight

11:59 AM

@Robusto We are not talking about your town.

Robusto

I have made amends.

RegDwight

J'ai fait d'amandier.

(I'm practicing.)

Kit

@Robusto So what sort of beast has more than one pair of legs?

Robusto

An arthropod.

Kit

rim shot

Nice one.

Robusto

12:01 PM

But let's not ring Vitaly's bell just yet, ne?

RegDwight

Wait, that reminds me that I promised @JSBangs some funny stuff...

Robusto

You mean more crap ...

RegDwight

english.stackexchange.com/questions/31373/…

Robusto

Yikes. It lives!

Alenanno

Am I missing something?

xD

RegDwight

12:07 PM

@Alenanno Yes, 2707 reps.

Alenanno

I mean, about the link

:D

RegDwight

So do I.

You only get to see it at 10k.

We're an elite elitist club . EEK for short.

Robusto

12:21 PM

The site is slow today.

RegDwight

That's because the last three days were insane.

Kit

And I've got to get my site ready for testing.

So I can't be as annoying as usual.

RegDwight

On 21st, we had 50+ questions and 180+ answers.

Kit

Solstice. What do you expect?

RegDwight

Out of nowhere, I should add.

It doesn't appear that we got Reddited or Hackernewsed.

In fact, if that were the case, we'd have tons of visitors but not new questions.

The traffic was completely normal. But the number of questions exploded.

Kit

12:28 PM

@Robusto, I'm going to accept Jose's answer because he needs the rep more than you. Thanks though. That Scottish dictionary was interesting.

RegDwight

@Kit We'll have to wait another year to be sure.

Kit

@RegDwight Or six months, depending on how you look at it.

RegDwight

Nah, December 21st doesn't sound promising at all.

Well, I be damned. I take that back.

The last time we tanked on Dec 22nd/23rd.

Kit

Did you just query?

RegDwight

But 21st was quite a peak.

@Kit No, I'm lazy. So I'm just looking at the mod stats.

Robusto

12:32 PM

Commuting.

Kit

So I guess solstices are the fullness of time.

RegDwight

CU Robusto.

Kit

Bye, Robusto!

RegDwight

But boy, did we tank on 25th.

Kit

Stupid people spending time with their families!

RegDwight

12:35 PM

9 questions, 18 answers, and barely any visitors beyond the 9 + 18.

Kit

stupid motion charts I think I despise my project leader.

@RegDwight What's the average traffic?

RegDwight

I'm not supposed to disclose averages like that, but thankfully, we have this nifty page: area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/1269/english-language-usage

So at the end of beta, we had 830 visitors per day. Let me just say that we are way above that now.

Kit

Oh really? How come?

RegDwight

We're getting more popular.

We have 9100 registered users now.

At the end of beta we had 2250.

Kit

I'm sorry. I mean, how come you're not supposed to share averages?

RegDwight

12:40 PM

> analytics data is intended for moderators only; please don't share the specifics of this data in public

I dunno how come, but it's their good right.

Kit

Oh. Well, then.

Now I know that 27 visitors is really low.

RegDwight

So basically why I'm comfortable with saying "we had exactly 9 questions and 18 answers on December 25th" is because you can check the dump, or go through the question list by hand and count them.

Kit

It reminds me of how someone I know with secret security clearance shares information about nuclear submarines —

RegDwight

@Kit Nah, we did have more than that. It's just that compared to our normal levels now, it was abysmal.

Kit

"They can submerge at least 50 feet and go at least 40 knots."

"And they carry nuclear warheads."

"Usually."

RegDwight

12:43 PM

Reminds me of my father.

Kit

Hmm. Maybe I know your father.

RegDwight

I doubt that. He's not allowed to leave the country.

Rhodri

That's better than not being allowed back into the country.

RegDwight

Depends on the country, methinks.

Kit

Depends on the country.

Jinx!

RegDwight

12:45 PM

Jinx!

Meta-jinx!

Kit

Meta-jinx!

Frig.

RegDwight

Meta-meta-jinx!

Kit

You are messing with my head dude!

RegDwight

Here's your coke, now where's my meta coke and my meta-meta coke?

Kit

RegDwight

12:46 PM

Wow, that nuclear glow is... something.

Kit

Well, I have access to all sorts of experimental ...

Never mind.

Rhodri

The meta-meta coke would be a description of the URL?

RegDwight

BTW, before I forget, 40 knots is actually freaking fast.

So that's like giving away too many details already.

He should be more careful and just say, "it can move back and forth".

Kit

Is it?

Maybe I've got that wrong.

Alenanno

Guys I'm going offline, see y'all

RegDwight

12:49 PM

CU

Kit

Rhodri

Have a nice day

RegDwight

@Kit That was a really nice commercial. I liked it.

Kit

Here's your meta-meta-coke

Bye @Alenanno!

It reminds me of a joke:

How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

RegDwight

Kit

12:52 PM

Orange whales melting in the trees.

Or

RegDwight

I liked the second better.

Kit

Three. One to hold the giraffe while the other fills the red bathtub with brightly colored blocks.

RegDwight

I still liked "or" better.

Kit

@RegDwight I'll remember that the next time I tell that joke.

Alenanno

1:09 PM

Sorry to bother you again lol... @RegDwight I corrected this guy answer, removing his "bonjour" and "cordialment" and if I got it right, he flagged me for that... So, I guessed I need your intervention

0

Q: Ellipses at the end of unfinished lists

After reading a question wrongly posted on programmers.SE and especially the post at PR Daily quoted in one of the answers, I have some doubts about the usage of ellipses. In French, ellipses are also used when there are several elements in a list, but only a few are enumerated. Example: Sta...

the answer

I'm not sure if he flagged me, because he's not fluent so...

RegDwight

@Alenanno I'm not seeing any flags, and I read that comment as "I will vote for you in the next moderator elections" at first, but seeing how he edited the salutations back in, I'm no longer sure...

Kit

Oh, that guy again.

Alenanno

Was I right about removing them? I remember you did remove them to me once

and I agreed

Kit

Sorry you ran afowl of him @Alenanno.

Alenanno

afowl?

:D

What does it mean?

RegDwight

1:13 PM

12

Q: Etiquette on addressing fellow-users

I had started an answer with "Dear [username] " and I see that this heading was deleted by a moderator. Is this a general policy on this site ? I'm a new user and don't yet know the rules. Needless to say, I am not arguing and intend to comply but I just wanted to ask about this point of etiquet...

discussion etiquette

104

Q: Should 'Hi', 'thanks' and taglines and salutations be removed from posts?

I edit a lot of posts everyday. I often run across posts with 'Hi' and 'Thanks' on the top and the bottom of the post respectively. I also run across things like: --User Should these items be removed during the editing of the post by an editor?

discussion editing etiquette signatures

Kit

@Alenanno Um. Means to get on the wrong side of.

Let me think a bit.

Alenanno

@Kit I see, yeah I suppose so

Kit

He's quite irritating.

I've had a couple of run-ins with him.

He has a very poor grasp of vocabulary and writes like an ad writer.

Alenanno

Oh... I'm going to re-edit his post and link those topics in the comments

Kit

I'd like to face punch him.

Dick is a good word for him.

Alenanno

1:18 PM

done

RegDwight

Hey stop interfering with my edits.

:P

"Your edit will only be accepted if it more thorough than the current one." Of course it is!

Alenanno

XD

ahah I didn't know you were editing sorry

It's ok, I'll leave the glory to you, Mr. Moderator

xD

RegDwight

Hey, I'm just trying to keep you entertained and all.

Alenanno

Yeah, I'm sure :D

RegDwight

So you freaking stop complaining how freaking boring this freaking place is.

Or something.

Alenanno

1:21 PM

I will I will

:D

Kit

I can't stand that user. He called one of my comments supercilious.

Alenanno

Thanks @Kit I know a new word now

Supercilious... Where can I use it?

RegDwight

And he didn't have you at "super"?

Kit

F*ck no.

RegDwight

ROFL.

@Alenanno Hey now. Don't thank Kit. Thank that other user.

He was the one to use that super word.

Alenanno

1:24 PM

I didn't get the joke

xD

Kit

@Alenanno Let's see. I should throw down the gauntlet after that supercilious remark about my honor!

@RegDwight thwack

RegDwight

Wait, how's that a thwack.

This inflation will not stand!!!

Kit

Don't be a punctidiot, @RegDwight. I have too much respect for you for that.

RegDwight

Oh. That was you!!! I forgot......

(Of course that's a lie. I never forget.)

Kit

Now if he'd called me "salacious" or "salubrious" ... That'd I'd've forgiven.

RegDwight

1:26 PM

0

A: Is there a way to search for ......?

You could try a DataExplorer query such as this one, but note that it searches the most recent dump, not the live site.

Looks like some work is waiting for you there, you idiot-hater you.

Kit

Yes. Yes. Hmm. pondering

Regex, but not.

Alenanno

Well, I'm off again... I'll keep thinking about that joke lmao xD later!

RegDwight

Laterz

@Kit Not enough "'d"'s.

Martha

@Kit I think you meant "afoul of him".

RegDwight

Jun 20 at 18:09, by Robusto

OK, punctuate this: John'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd'd.

Kit

1:33 PM

@Martha gasp blush

giggle

Whoops!

RegDwight

It's been ten days since I turned into a viscacha, and you still think of owls.

Kit

@Alenanno I meant "afoul" not "afowl." Bad not chicken.

Owls aren't fowl.

Uh. Are they?

RegDwight

No, that's a different animal.

Faultiere

Die Faultiere (Folivora) bilden eine urtümliche Unterordnung der zahnarmen Säugetiere (Pilosa) und sind mit Ameisenbären und Gürteltieren verwandt. Es sind sechs rezente Arten bekannt, die sich in die beiden Familien der Zweifinger-Faultiere (Megalonychidae) und der Dreifinger-Faultiere (Bradypodidae) aufteilen. Daneben gab es noch eine Reihe heute ausgestorbener Riesenfaultiere. Lebensraum Faultiere bewohnen hauptsächlich die Baumkronen der tropischen Regenwälder von Mittelamerika und dem Amazonasbecken bis zum südlichen Brasilien. Körperbau Die Tiere erreichen eine Körperlänge vo...

Kit

That's not helpful.

I didn't realize that "foul" could be used for birds in general. My bad. I take it back.

Martha

@Kit Hm. No, owls aren't, but what is? I mean, besides chickens? Is it just a direct synonym of "poultry", or are there birds that are considered "fowl" which aren't poultry?

Kit

1:37 PM

@Martha Yes.

Ha ha ha.

Fowl are birds for eating, I think.

Chickens, ducks, etc.

Martha

@Kit Ah! Yes, that sounds right.

In other news, this place is a friggin refridgerator. Pardon me, gotta turn off the AC, BRB.

Kit

Fowl

:For other uses, see Fowl (disambiguation). Distinguish from foul. Fowl is a word for birds in general but usually refers to birds belonging to one of two biological orders, namely the gamefowl or landfowl (Galliformes) and the waterfowl (Anseriformes). Studies of anatomical and molecular similarities suggest these two groups are close evolutionary relatives; together, they form the fowl clade which is scientifically known as Galloanserae (initially termed Galloanseri). This clade is also supported by morphological and DNA sequence data as well as retrotransposon presence/absence data. ...

Galliformes. I'd forgotten all about that one.

OMG, they use the term clade.

I am so hot!

Martha

Ok, and now the boss has arrived. Gotta go, longer-term-like. Have fun!

Kit

Bye!

F*ck it. The project leader can s*ck my n*ts.

* = u

RegDwight

I see the ladies are having lots of fun today.

Kit

1:44 PM

If he wants his "party piece," he can frigging code it.

Google API can lick them too.

Robusto

2:03 PM

@Kit — Wow, you kiss your mother with that mouth?

Kit

@Robusto Nah. I don't much care for my mother.

@aedia Hey, I set you a place last night, but you were a no-show. What gives? ☺

aedia

2:21 PM

@Kit I'm awake, I'm awake! I swear! Thought this would be a nice morning and I come in to find the client all up in my text rewritin' it worse. Ugh.

@Kit Heh :) I hope your dinner was good!

Kit

Did you say you're doing some accessibility re-writes?

aedia

Well, these are like five projects at once.

Kit

@aedia Barf.

aedia

Trying to get my developers to agree to retrofit something so it's properly usable with the keyboard, and then trying to rewrite a form so it makes some sort of sense. And then a couple more things.

Kit

Oh in that case —

Wait for it ...

►

Ta-DA!

aedia

2:28 PM

@Kit Exactly. That's exactly it.

Kit

Damn. I got guacamole on my report.

RegDwight

So it will be returned with the note, "A+++ would lick again".

Kit

Yes, much like my nuts.

RegDwight

You're so obsessed with nuts today that I feel obliged to remind you that in this room you're pretending not to be a guy.

Or a squirrel, for that matter.

Kit

You forget that I'm married.

So naturally I have my husband's in my purse.

RegDwight

2:37 PM

<ransacks wife's purse> Well, you are weird.

Kit

G-Deasley charts! I fix one and now t'other's all stove up.

Rhodri

What is it with you lot and licking today?

Kit

@Rhodri Lick!

I'm so happy to see you!

Shall we talk about Jeremy Irons and jam and fluffy bunnies?

Is it ok if I am inappropriately familiar with you?

Rhodri

@Kit I was going to say "Ick!" but then you mentioned Jeremy Irons

Inappropriate familiarity seems entirely appropriate. Oh, wait...

Kit

@Rhodri I know a little something about something.

☺

Rhodri

2:45 PM

Do tell :-)

Kit

Well, you know. We had that little chat about Brideshead Revisited.

And BTW, how does one spell "jammy dodgers"? Is that right? I'm practicing my Britspeak.

Based entirely on Eddie Izzard bits, of course.

Rhodri

@Kit That's a perfectly good spelling of a perfectly good biscuit.

Now I'm hungry

Kit

I must remember to call them 'biscuits' as well.

Faking British is hard.

Rhodri

Or "biccies" if you're feeling particularly informal

Hi, @jcolebrand. Be careful around here or you'll get licked.

jcolebrand

eh?

Kit

2:55 PM

Is that "cc" like an "s"?

@Rhodri I don't lick complete strangers.

Rhodri

@Kit No, /k/

jcolebrand

a) I normally lurk in here on account of I like EL&U overall, and b) I doubt anyone on here can make my life that bad ;)

Kit

Usually.

RegDwight

Wait what, licking makes life bad?

Rhodri

See, he isn't a complete stranger.

RegDwight

2:56 PM

He isn't a stranger at all.

He was among the first five people to ever enter this room.

Or fifty. Or two. Whatever.

Kit

Well, ok, I know his name.

jcolebrand

So anyways, back to lurking mode

Kit

But I've no idea how he feels about Jennifer Tilly.

RegDwight

@Kit Now you're just lying. Even I don't know his name.

I only know drachenstern.

Hear that, @jco something?

Kit

= complete stranger

jcolebrand

2:57 PM

@RegDwight that's refreshing ;)

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…