English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Feeds

00:02

1

Q: Word request. Any other words for "delicate beauty" or any similar?

I'm trying to make it sound that her beauty is the opposite of dangerous, it's delicate but it doesn't perfectly describe what I want to say.

1

Q: Word for how a person who knows little Spanish speaks

Is there a word for English speaking people that know little Spanish? It's for a book I'm writing. "An American who moved to Mexico recently for the people but mostly for the underworld society, tells her firmly with _____" [broken Spanish]

single-word-requests grammar alternative-words

6

Q: A word or expression for being paralyzed by fear or scare, like German *Schockstarre*

I am searching for a nice, possibly picturesque and idiomatic way of expressing in English what Germans call Schockstarre - being paralyzed by fear. in Schockstarre verfallen The word is used, first, to discribe the state some animals fall into when under threat, for example a beetle may ...

single-word-requests expressions phrase-requests idioms

-1

Q: Is there a word or expression to describe when " doing something reminds you of someone"?

Is there a word or expression to describe when " doing certain something reminds you of a certain someone" ?

single-word-requests expression-requests

1

Q: Concisely describe an action as being performed in a paranoid fashion?

I would like to describe the manner in which a person performs a task as something like "done in a paranoid fashion." Suspiciously is close, but I'm thinking there should be something more like Paranoidly for this situation. The use case is actually for documenting a software routine that is par...

single-word-requests synonyms

Tonepoet

00:41

@tchrist Are you interested in my opinion on the matter?

I could write a great deal of my thoughts but it's probably a waste of hand movements if you're not receptive.

Jasper Loy

Well, for single word requests, it is how specific the question is.

And different people will judge the level of specificity differently.

So this will always be a controversial issue.

But I don't answer if I find the question not specific enough for me to understand.

So that's my opinion on single word requests.

@Tonepoet You can always write them down for every chat user to read.

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy I could do that, but I doubt it'd be as conducive.

tchrist

01:13

@Tonepoet I'm not receptive to loving these.

I have nothing new to say on the matter.

Tonepoet

@tchrist Hmm, I'll skip the rhetoric then, esp. since I don't expect you to but I suppose you are interested in the problems then? Do you want to know what I think one of the biggest problems with this website is?

tchrist

Of course.

Tonepoet

@tchrist Racing.

tchrist

He's ok.

Tonepoet

@tchrist Haha, we have a member by that name?

But no, really, the way this website is set up strongly encourages racing against each other. The first answer to a post, right or wrong, has a number of advantages over the others if it sounds reasonable enough. It has the most time to be voted upon importantly it is likely to be sorted to the top of the page to be reviewed, and perhaps most relevantly to our community, it has the strongest chance of being published at all, since we close more questions than we leave open.

tchrist

01:22

FGITW

Fastest Gun in the West

Tonepoet

Ah, yes, exactly.

tchrist

Nothing of what you say is unique to ELU. SO and all sites have it.

Tonepoet

Oh of course, it's built into the software.

tchrist

Some of what you say isn't quite right in all cases.

The real trend is that upvoted stuff tends to get upvoted and downvoted stuff tends to get downvoted.

Things tend towards extremes.

Tonepoet

The worst thing is, is that the fastest answers have a tendency to discourage more thoughtful repeat suggestions. I vaguely remember a number of occasions where I spent days writing an answer to explain why I think a word very well suits a situation, only to drop it because somebody else suggested it, and it no longer seems as impressive. 'Tis pedantry sure, but pedantry is one of the key appeals of this format.

@tchrist Downvoted stuff does tend to get downvoted more, but to a lesser extent. Fewer people get to read the worst answer on a page before they lose interest in the default vote sorting.

tchrist

01:31

That does not happen with actual questions just with the stoopid game. A scholarly explanation of linguistic matters never has that problem.

Syntax, morphology, etymology even sometimes. Grimm's law et alios.

But guess me a cool word? Fuck that noise

I have not thought about it this way before. Interesting. Thank you.

Tonepoet

@tchrist I was getting to that. You see, what is unique to our website is that the dictionary looks like a big, juicy, and most importantly prefabricated list of answers that people will draw upon and use to corraborate their answers. Now personally speaking, I think if nothing more is left to explain after the definition is given, that may be fine, but all too often it's not, and people treat it like it is anyway.

tchrist

I've told them a hundred times. Even Shog' s told them.

Questions whose answers are copypasta should not be.

Be original.

They don't use them for corroboration.

Tonepoet

B.R.B: Cat.

tchrist

They do that.

Consider this question:

5

Q: Word for someone who acts like an expert but who has very little knowledge?

What is a word to describe an individual who acts like an expert in a subject area, constantly stating facts and correcting people, but who actually has very little knowledge on the subject?

single-word-requests pejorative-language

Tonepoet

01:46

@tchrist Actually, do correct me if I'm wrong, but if I recall correctly, I believe you and Shog are against all barebones paste answers, with no overriding considerations. I don't recall any exceptions being made for axiomatically applied definitions, and more importantly, I don't recall you explaining what might constitute a good definition only answer, and a bad one.

tchrist

All of its answer but one alone fall into the copypasta category.

Tonepoet

Sometimes, I think the opportunity to learn about something relatively obscure is an overriding consideration.

tchrist

I know of no good example of a barebones copypasta answer ever once helping to contribute to our library of expert answers.

We want original content.

Notice how the accepted answer of those nine is original; nothing else is.

It was my deliberate rebuttal against the form.

Tonepoet

@tchrist I can't speak to your personal taste, but I like this answer. I think it could even be reduced to a single line and still be somewhat useful.

tchrist

Ça ne marche pas.

Linky linky parlez vous.

Fatigues toxins.

Tonepoet

01:54

I'm not saying that it's ideal, but the word is relatively obscure, so learning of its existence is useful and it matches the described concept almost perfectly. The main defect is that it might have an ambiguity between driver and rider. How much more explanation could be needed for that? The most important thing though is that it goes to show that even among these answers, not all are created equal. Give me a moment to draw upon another question from our meta-website.

tchrist

No your link is broken.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Tonepoet

23

A: What is a person who rides on camel-back called?

cameleer dictionary.com a camel driver wiktionary Camel driver or rider, one who travels by camel. Oxford English dictionaries A person who controls or rides a camel. American Heritage dictionary A person who drives or rides a camel. As you can see in the defi...

tchrist

> The cameleers had stamped upon their features, almost blackened with the sun, a character of uncouth misanthropy. Enveloped from head to foot in goat-skins, they were placed between the humps of their camels, just like bales of merchandise; they scarcely condescended to turn even their heads round to look at us.

Notice what that provides and which your chosen answer lacks.

Tonepoet

@tchrist It's a fine piece of writing, but is it necessary?'

tchrist

Like butterflies, fine writing needs no excuse.

It gives context. It raises the answer into something to remember.

Tonepoet

02:03

As much as I love to stop and smell the roses, it vaguely does sometimes. This is a Q. & A. website though, rather than a discussion forum. No chit-chat, no distractions, no fun, remember? XP

Regardless, what I want to do next is contrast an answer like that, to an answer like the one mentioned here:

3

Q: Lack of context with this template

An answer (since modified, this is the version which got templated) I recently gave had the following template added to it: We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer; explain why your answer is right, ideally with citations. An...

discussion answers moderation

tchrist

@Tonepoet No epeolatrous logomachy in this chat.

Tonepoet

Now I'd argue that Mr. Andrew's answer, even in its current form with the added explanation, does everything to show that fuming for feeling anger, but nothing for silently sitting in it!

An illustrative quotation would really do much to help it, and I even found one because I was planning on writing a fuller critique. Let's see if I can find it.

Feeds

0

Q: Hollywood Humor in Shakespearean Old English

I want to adapt a modern hollywood/blue collar joke to Old English. Specifically: "He who smelt it dealt it." My initial attempt was: "He who hath smelteth it would have then veritably dealteth it." However given my limited background in Old English, I'm thinking there is probably a m...

single-word-requests old-english shakespeare

0

Q: What do you say about radio programs? Do you say you broadcast a radio program?

As in "I have been broadcasting a daily radio program for kids through mobile applications". Sounds kinda awkward but not sure how to phrase is.

single-word-requests word-usage phrase-requests

Tonepoet

@tchrst Would you please turn the feed off? It's going to interrupt everybody's discussions, and perhaps most especially ours if you think what I have to say is of any interest?

Anyway, from Ghost of a Flea by John Binting we have this:

"One night at the club–after Moody had stopped coming around–Gideon and I were having a drink. Some guy, flirting with the girls at the bar, made me think of Moody, and I asked Gideon what happened to him. Gideon said he'd helped Moody with some business contracts and the ungreatful son-of-a-[redacted] didn't need him anymore. After that, Gideon couldn't forget about him, and he just sat there fuming, getting angrier by the minute. Before long, he had himself worked up into a real rage. He claimed Moody had used him, and he hated being used. It was all right[sic] what he did to people but h…

I think a passage like this would greatly help Mr. Andrew Grimm's answers, because it serves the purpose of showing that Grimes is being silent in his displeasure, and time is elapsing all the while, which is something the chosen dictionary does not do in this case!

And sure, you can say something, but how do we know if it's true or not? How do you know if it's true or not?

I think the number one criterion for a good stack exchange answer is that it is correct, but I can't deny that a close second is that it proves its proposition sufficiently,

And it's not just Andrew's answer that needs to be taken into consideration here either. Something I noticed about the much more highly voted upon answer by ab2 is that unlike Andrew's answer, his suggestion of seethe already contains the information that Andrew's lacks:

90

A: Word to describe to sit in quiet anger

seethe, from Collins English Dictionary When you are seething, you are very angry about something but do not express your feelings about it. She took it calmly at first but under the surface was seething. She put a hand on her hip, grinning derisively, while I seethed with ra...

So yes, it is still a copy/paste answer, but it is qualitatively better, and unlike Andrew's, it wasn't tagged.

Granted, Alwayslearning's answer is tagged, despite having the same quality, but I suppose life isn't always fair in that regard.

Feeds

02:51

0

Q: One word for a state which is neither here nor there

Is there any word to describe a situation in which one is undecided about the relative desirability of two mutually exclusive alternatives in an abstract sense? For example, as regards the relative merits of doing X and not doing X, I have always been in state of ____. As regards which of the tw...

single-word-requests

Tonepoet

Now I am at a loss for words, but I think the point I have to make with this is that I think a distinction should be made between answers which adequately prove their point, and posts that don't. One of the reasons I am suggesting this is because using a broad brush that fails to distinguish differentiate adequacy from inadequacy is actually a barrier to greatness, because I think what great answer is crafted with a purpose in mind: Prove your point.

And right now, I think people are being told to go through the motions, rather than aiming to achieve a goal. Is it really such a wonder that most S.W.R. answers seem pointless?

Tonepoet

03:09

But alas, somewhere along the way I've lost my original point and went onto another, and I have Bogarted the room long enough. I'll have more to say about the matter later of course, but for now, without a conversation partner, I think I'm done.

Feeds

06:53

1

Q: What's the term for claiming someone does something that you do to weaken the power of people's criticism of you doing it?

For example if a politician who's corrupt accuses another one of being corrupt with the intention of making it less likely for people to believe accusations against their corruption. I don't really mean projection, I think that's more subconscious.

single-word-requests

Tonepoet

08:43

hypocrite

Noun: hypocrite (plural hypocrites)

Someone who practices hypocrisy, who pretends to hold beliefs, or whose actions are not consistent with their claimed beliefs. [from early 13th c.]
hypocrite m, f (plural hypocrites)
hypocrite.

Adjective: hypocrite (plural hypocrites)

hypocritical

Next please. XP

Oh wait, it's "for claiming someone", which is an action, not a person, so hypocrisy would fit better, whatever though. >_>

marcellothearcane

09:15

0

A: What's the term for claiming someone does something that you do to weaken the power of people's criticism of you doing it?

Hypocrisy A feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; Behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel Source: Merriam Webster See this chat transcript

Tonepoet

@marcellothearcane I didn't post an answer for a reason.

XP

marcellothearcane

@Tonepoet >_< why..?

Tonepoet

@marcellothearcane While I think the question is a close match I don't actually think it's close enough, and I think a great deal more explanation should have to be necessary in order to make such answer complete. The only real reason I posted a Wiktionary onebox is as a sort of a joke.

marcellothearcane

Fair enough... all gone!

Hey, could that smoke detector be tuned to look out for massive lumps of text (including things like IELTS or TOEFL in the title) and just kill them? english.stackexchange.com/questions/404087/…

Tonepoet

@marcellothearcane And people say that paragraph formatting isn't a part of English grammar. =P

marcellothearcane

09:24

Exactly. Maybe it could just check if return was used at all... :P

Jakub

There have been many lumpy questions that have turned to be really good/popular after a simple rewrite.

marcellothearcane

@Jakub it would be interesting (and time-consuming) to find some like that..

then compare them to the bad ones

Jakub

I've just looked at the link [...] well maybe they weren't as lumpy as this one.

marcellothearcane

@Jakub hopefully not! :D

Tonepoet

The lump of text problem really should be dealt with by editing, rather than closure though, unless an ambiguity exists. Then it should be closed as unclear...

marcellothearcane

09:31

@Tonepoet The title speaks for itself: Hi everyone. I start to learn TOFFEL writing and I have lots of mistake. Could you find out and fix them for me? I'm not too worried about the block of text, but it does seem to be correlated with these kind of questions

It should be closed as proofreading anyway - that's what they're asking for

Tonepoet

@marcellothearcane Yes, yes, but that's a separate matter.

marcellothearcane

@Tonepoet To the lump of text, you mean? Quite a few text-block questions are proofreading, even if not all proofreading are text-block questions...

(if that makes sense)

Tonepoet

@marcellothearcane Yes, that's quite right. Anyway, I'm not too worried about expediting the closure of proofreading questions. The community is really quick about it, and perhaps maybe even a little too eager to use the close reason already with the way the closure reason presently defines itself.

I'd be a little more remiss to lose a perfectly salvageable question because we didn't care to apply due process.

marcellothearcane

@Tonepoet Doesn't ol' smoke detector post a message in the chat every time it burninates something? (if it does, I'm unsure)

Tonepoet

@marcellothearcane The only time I've seen Smoke Dectector post is to forewarn really. I don't think it works as a fire extinguisher.

marcellothearcane

09:40

Block-text questions are specific to ELU and ELL (and maybe other language sites?), I guess.. which is probably why it's not a feature

@Tonepoet Okay. Maybe worth a feature request then...

Feeds

0

Q: What is it called when you put an asterix behind a word or phrase and then later explain it more?

This is often used in ads to refer to their website for additional rules. I'm using it in a list of skills, and to not clutter the list, I added some additional notes to some of the items at the end. Such as: Playing guitar Webdesign, 4 years of experience* Sports * At school and during my sp...

single-word-requests

Tonepoet

10:06

@Feeds I really do wish people would refrain from posting inadequate answers in the comments. I have nothing against hints but if it's meant to be conclusive, it's every bit as bad there as it is in the actual answers section, if not worse.

Also, the next thing I suppose somebody will point out is that footnote has been verbified. >_>

Matt E. Эллен

feel free to flag comments that should be answers. you wouldn't be the only one who does it, and we're happy to delete them

well, I'm happy to delete them. I can't speak for the whole moderati

Jakub

moderatus?

Tonepoet

@MattE.Эллен @tchrist is a little more discretionary. He ran his campaign in part on that basis. Granted, he's more for preserving really good comments, by top rated users, but I think the actual policy is to post them as answers. There's a meta S.E. post about that which I'm too lazy to actually find.

Then again, I have seen him doing just that though.

Matt E. Эллен

:D

Jasper Loy

11:23

There are so many different views on so many different matters on ELU I no longer know what is official.

So I just do things my way until there is some big problem, and then we will see. =D

marcellothearcane

@JasperLoy that's what everyone does, pretty much :P

Jasper Loy

@MattE.Эллен Do you use instagram at all? I am trying to find the best way to upload a picture from my Windows laptop instead of using any phone apps. It is soooo stupid.

@marcellothearcane Are you Italian? Marcello is one of my favourite Italian names!

Matt E. Эллен

I do not use instagram

marcellothearcane

@JasperLoy I'm not, actually...

Tonepoet

@JasperLoy I don't either to be honest.

Jasper Loy

11:30

@Tonepoet Exactly. I don't even bother to argue with certain unpleasant individuals on the main site about certain things.

Feeds

13:05

0

Q: outgoings, expenses, payments or something else?

US-EN I'm a developer currently working on a Web Application for keeping track of your personal finances. I have a page where the user can view all added outgoings (bills as well as other expenses like food) as well as add and remove outgoings. The link in the menu to this page is simply calle...

single-word-requests phrase-requests

MetaEd

13:23

@Tonepoet The problem as I understand it with giving help in comments is that comments aren't indexed by search engines.

Mitch

@Feeds WTF. Stop it. Who toggled the 'new questions posted to chat feature'? It's the worst.

MetaEd

So that interferes with the main goal of the site, to provide searchable answers to questions.

@Mitch Huh. That's new.

Mitch

@MetaEd I give answers in comments frequently. Only to those questions that I expect will be (or should be) closed.

MetaEd

@Mitch See that makes sense to me. The question is going to disappear, why not help the asker.

Mitch

Right. It's usually in a case where the question will definitely not help anyone else ever.

The 'SOV' question is unfortunate. It should be very interesting to any answerer here. It may well be very elementary linguistics, but even elementary is entirely new to the great majority of people.

On the other hand, how to fart in Old English is dumb.

Jasper Loy

13:36

@Mitch Are you here?

Mitch

Birds do ir, bees do it. something somethety Cole Portery, champagne gives me gas.

Jasper Loy

1

Q: Verb usage when the subject is a list

Periodic measurement of blood pressure, continuous electrocardiography (ECG), and pulse oximetry are required during sedation. Is the verb "Are" correct?

verbs

Mitch

@JasperLoy Unfortunately, I'm already late and have to run. But I'll probably be around later.

Jasper Loy

@Mitch Anyway, Edwin said my edit was incorrect, but I think it is still correct because even though I edited the title, the form remains the same as the original sentence by the asker. But anyway, they rolled it back. Just wanted to ask what you think of the matter. You can see the edit history and the comments there, if the question is still there later.

user288256

13:49

I have been learning English all my life and still make grammar mistakes, I give up on English.

user288256

@Mitch Running is healthy.

Jasper Loy

@Ghalib I think your Eng is fine.

user288256

@JasperLoy okay, thanks. And howdy.

user288256

So I lived. I slept the whole night and in the morning I was feeling fine.

Jasper Loy

So it is not as bad as my case.

user288256

13:58

Fortunately. Although I am always ready to die. =)

user288256

Yeah.

Jasper Loy

@MattE.Эллен Not really important, but I finally figured out how to do it. I need to download bluestacks to use instagram on my laptop, lol, and it was 250 MB download, lol. It enables you to use your laptop like a phone, just like WINE enables you to run Windows software on Linux, interesting...

Matt E. Эллен

ah

Jasper Loy

I guess maybe now I can use ALL android apps on my laptop, maybe...

Maybe I should try out some of those dating apps now, lol.

user288256

What's the ratio of males to females on dating sites?

user288256

14:04

Just idle curiosity.

Jasper Loy

No idea. You need to look at individual site stats.

user288256

I am guessing more dudes.

user288256

Yeah.

Jasper Loy

Nope, I don't think so. I think there's no way to guess.

user288256

But overall in the world there are more females I hear.

user288256

14:05

Different in different places though.

Jasper Loy

Yes, which is one argument used by some Islamic preachers to justify a man having four wives.

user288256

I'm a muslim too by the way, but I don't like the idea of having more than one wife at a time.

user288256

I could divorce one and get another though.

user288256

Otherwise they would just fight and get jealous etc.

Jasper Loy

Yes, I really think it strange to have two wives.

user288256

14:07

But many arabs marry more than one (if they are rich enough).

Jasper Loy

However, I don't find ten year old children having other children strange. It has happened before.

Ten year old boy and ten year old girl can create babies.

user288256

Um how? Do people hit puberty that early?

Jasper Loy

I think there is a twenty something grandfather, because he and his son both made babies when they were ten something.

Biologically you just need the sperm and the egg to be good enough, which is not that incredible an idea.

Feeds

0

Q: Offering a specious argument by diverting attention?

I am looking for the word that describes this situation - In the US, there are people looking to eliminate the estate tax. Their argument is "This will save families that are leaving farms to the next generation." In my opinion, the truth is that there are multiple billionaires who would simply ...

single-word-requests

MetaEd

14:21

@Mitch It doesn't seem to be posting all questions. I'm not familiar with the Feeds bot but wouldn't you think it would be all, or nothing?

Jasper Loy

@MetaEd Hiiii, your pic looks all messed up!

tchrist

14:44

@MetaEd Feeds only posts single-word-requests here.

terdon

Tag definition - "This tag is for questions seeking a single word that fits a meaning. To ensure your question is not closed as off-topic, please be specific about the intended use of the word. YOU MUST INCLUDE A SAMPLE SENTENCE demonstrating how the word would be used. Please use the "phrase-requests" tag instead ..." - I went through painstaking detail on the exact use, per the tag instructions. If "research done" is a requirement, you should consider updating tag definition. — JoeTaxpayer 7 mins ago

@MetaEd ^^ IN case you want to answer.

Jasper Loy

@terdon Painstaking detail, lol.

terdon

@JasperLoy He probably did. he has no way of knowing that the site regulars dislike a class of question which is nevertheless, on topic, has its own tag and is probably the most popular class of question on the site.

Admittedly, @MetaEd just closed without giving any explanation or guidance to let the OP know what he did wrong. And the poor guy apparently did try to do it right.

Jasper Loy

Indeed, this site appears very frustrating even to an old bird like me.

I think many newer users must find it even more frustrating.

Oh there is even a site called Data Science SE now, wow.

terdon

15:01

@MetaEd why did you close that?

Jasper Loy

Anyway, I have gone vegetarian for two days now, lol. I am trying to do it for a month and see what changes I feel.

MetaEd

@terdon JoeTaxpayer's question? Research.

And looks like Joe is making a good effort.

terdon

15:18

@MetaEd Ah, you answered him. Cool. I just felt bad for him since he had actually put effort into the question and had given a perfectly good example and it was closed with a very vague message and no guidance.

M.A.R.

15:44

The research requirement thing again?

It's so convenient to use and the only objective tool to qualitatively measure the quality of some questions, but it only works in a smaller subset of questions than the site gets everyday

terdon

@M.A.R. No, the problem was (my problem, anyway) that the close reason given is:

>Please include the research you’ve done, or consider if your question suits our English Language Learners site better. Questions that can be answered using commonly-available references are off-topic."

That's 3 separate things, so it might help to give the OP a clearer reason.

M.A.R.

I never liked that reason

"Go look into a dictionary, or ask on ELL." -> "Let's ask on ELL! It sounds like a good dictionary site"

But hey, it's not like ELL's avid askers ask questions of better quality than an outsider asking something that can be answered with a dictionary link

They just probably know to use ">".

Jasper Loy

Still think ELL and ELU should be one, lol.

M.A.R.

And go crazy with markdown bold

@JasperLoy well, after a few years, it's evident that the audience either site has gathered is different.

That's the reason ELL became reality in the first place, so it succeeded in that regard

Jasper Loy

@M.A.R. Sure, but after a few years, the questions on ELU are still not much different to me.

M.A.R.

15:59

What doesn't seem right is a significant portion of active ELL users, which doesn't make me very happy about the whole SE mission of "driving experts"

Jasper Loy

It's already Friday here.

I don't know but I cannot feel the difference between the questions here and there in my bones.

I know all the arguments but I really cannot feel any difference.

Maybe my heart is wrong, so I can't feel anything.

M.A.R.

Not all of the questions need to be different

Not even a large number

Just the ones the answering part of ELU spends time on

Which indeed are different.

Jasper Loy

Are you in college now?

user288256

And I think there should be different sites for every broad category. Like a separate site for etymology, a separate site for English learners, a separate site for grammar, a separate site for English in general etc.

Jasper Loy

Seriously?

user288256

16:04

Yeah.

Jasper Loy

OMG

user288256

At least on reddit it is like that. And I frequent all those sites there.

M.A.R.

@JasperLoy I don't know how that translates in our educational system, but there's a big annoying university exam which I happened to take and I'm waiting for the results of

user288256

I like it here too. Not saying I don't.

Jasper Loy

I guess we can have a separate one for word requests too, if we do that.

@M.A.R. So you have not started the first year?

I finally realised the instagram people really want people to use their phones to do everything, because you can do almost nothing with a browser on your laptop, lol. Unless you use the bluestacks thing I just installed, lol.

M.A.R.

16:06

@JasperLoy Nope, I don't even know if I have to study another year and redo the exam if the results aren't good enough, or that I would be able to choose a major

Jasper Loy

Hey do you use instagram? If so I wanna ask some questions.

M.A.R.

@JasperLoy bluestacks is nice.

Jasper Loy

@M.A.R. So bluestacks lets you use all android apps on your computer, is that right?

M.A.R.

@JasperLoy nope, sorry. I don't have a social media life

@JasperLoy yep

Jasper Loy

@M.A.R. Then I need to explore it more, because there are tons of things like instagram where you can do almost nothing on the computer, lol.

M.A.R.

16:08

I only visit SE chats. Friends in real life do weird things on social media.

At the very least pointless

So IMO it'd take a few years for Iranians to learn how to use social media responsibly

@JasperLoy try Netflix. It's awesome.

Jasper Loy

@M.A.R. I already watch many movies from everywhere, lol.

In fact this year I watched all 26 James Bond movies.

user288256

I have never used Instagram, Snapchat or Pinterest etc.

Jasper Loy

I have never used facebook or twitter either.

M.A.R.

You spend three hours watching show titles and deciding what to watch

Then just quit and watch nothing

user288256

I don't use facebook or twitter either.

M.A.R.

16:11

Best. Show. Ever.

user288256

Although I have an account on facebook.

Jasper Loy

But recently I got interested in instagram for some reasons.

user288256

I signed up to access other sites.

user288256

It is a photo sharing site right?

Jasper Loy

Yes. Just photos basically.

I think I will take a nap, bye.

user288256

16:13

Have a nice nap.

M.A.R.

See ya Jasp

Feeds

16:37

0

Q: What is it called when you created something to perform one task but then you use it in another way?

I am not sure if this question should be asked here, but I asked anyway)

single-word-requests

0

Q: Technical Name of the shop

Like how we call shops where they sell stationery, stationery shop, what is the technical name of shop or the terminology they use to refer a shop where they sell mattresses and pillows on their own production based on the order and where they sell some textiles also?

single-word-requests

M.A.R.

I wish for oneboxes to be smaller.

MetaEd

17:16

@M.A.R. But when they're larger they make better targets :-)

M.A.R.

@MetaEd improve your precision

MetaEd

@M.A.R. That's what my girlfriend says too.

user288256

I usually hear "That's what she said", the most versatile joke.

MetaEd

@Ghalib That's generally used to make a crude sexual joke out of something. Example: "Make sure it's long enough." "That's what she said!"

M.A.R.

And they overdid it at some point

user288256

17:30

@MetaEd Heh. Yeah, I know. But that's a pretty good comeback to "improve your precision".

MetaEd

My joke is about basic standards for the toilet bowl.

Admittedly a bad joke.

Jasper Loy

Did I hear toilet bowl? Here I come!

user288256

lol

Færd

Hello.

MetaEd

\o/

_o_

@Ghalib My arms were tired for you. That's the second time I've had to do that today.

Jasper Loy

17:40

Meta Ed gives you what education can't give you.

I have no idea what is going on between MetaEd and Ghalib now.

They often tell you in the male toilets to aim properly. Well, it's not so much about aiming or not. It's more about how there are certain male structures that make you miss the mark. It's not as easy as you think, which is why so many times it goes wrong.

MetaEd

Jasper Loy

That is a very good design, because it gives you a large area to aim for.

MetaEd

@JasperLoy And it gives you a little fly target.

21st century life -- everything gamified.

Jasper Loy

Oh, I think the fly in the picture got there by mistake.

I did see it just now, but I did not think it was part of the design.

MetaEd

@JasperLoy Nope. It's a feature of the product. Google: urinal fly aim

Færd

17:55

Maybe it's printed on. Who knows.

@MetaEd Unfair to women.

Jasper Loy

There seem to be many Iranians on SE. And the first woman Fields medallist who recently died from cancer was also Iranian.

Hello @AndrewLeach no see long time.

Andrew Leach

Hello Jasper. You're not monochromatic any more.

3

Jasper Loy

Yes, something about me has changed. I love taking selfies now.

Andrew Leach

That's good. However, I'm afraid I just dropped in, almost by mistake. I'm actually just off to meet friends in person for a meal. Back soon.

(I nearly wrote "real-life friends", but everyone here is real-life. Just not "in person")

Færd

in corpse.

@JasperLoy Tell me about it. They're plaguing the Earth.

Tonepoet

18:20

@MetaEd That's just another problem to add to the list. Comments Answers (C.A.) can't be voted against if they're disagreeable. C.As. don't count as answers for the unanswered questions tab. C.As. cluttering up commentary space which is supposed to be reserved for mere hints and suggestions, esp. since they don't have their own commentary thread. C.A. quality is no better than S.L.As. If people want to surrender rep. rights, they should post a community wiki. answer...

As things are, the whole website design is predicated on the notion that answers are to be posted as answers, and not comments.

MetaEd

18:49

@Tonepoet Yes. The sole reasonable justification I've seen for AinC is in my meta answer post today.

Tonepoet

@MetaEd I'm not so sure that is a justification, actually. If a question is going to be manually deleted, surely it doesn't matter where the answer is posted. Otherwise, what we're relying upon is for the bot to delete the question, but the bot is only supposed to delete questions without useful answers. This seems like another circumvention of website design.

I think I may have mentioned something like that to @Lawrence in another chatroom.

Also, when I say "without useful answers" I mean using objective criteria that the bot can determine: Namely a voting threshold.

Jasper Loy

Last week, I met Lawrence whom I haven't seen for a decade, but it is not this Lawrence.

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