English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

KitFox

16:00

Hi.

Mitch

So I understand the annoyance at people (I'm guessing you're pointing at me) for getting rep for answers to bad questions. Then address that problem with the right tool, which is downvoting. Closing is for inappropriate answers. It almost seems like any question that is closed after some time should have all answers deleted, doesn't matter when the question is closed.

Gigili

'Ello Kit.

Cerberus

@aediaλ Yeah but it's not allowed! He has defiled himself, probably got the Apple logo stamped on his pretty forehead...

KitFox

Am I walking into an argument again?

Mitch

@WillHunting I'm obviously having trouble typing. if it's understandable then great otherwise I'll rright it out.

Gigili

16:01

Argument? What's that?

Cerberus

@aediaλ In other words, I wasn't serious.

@Gigili According to Vitaly, it is a nonsense word.

Mitch

@KitFox I think so.well, just a disagreement. hmm.. that's probably an argument.

user19161

@Mitch No, I mean I know it stands for question since P and Q are on opposite sides of the keyboard in this case.

aedia λ

@Cerberus giggles I hesitate to think what variety of logos you imagine I've got stamped on me!

KitFox

@Mitch Can I jump in with an uninformed, judgmental opinion? Oh, can I? Can I?

Cerberus

16:03

@aediaλ Oh no! I hope you never "window shopped" at McDonald's...

Matt Эллен

@KitFox it is your public duty to do so

Cerberus

@KitFox I have been trying to do so, but he seems pretty...focused.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Mitch I am not pointing at anyone. I have no idea how often your answers end up being on closed questions, or whether at all. I am only talking to you because you happened to be the one to come in here.

Cerberus

I still don't understand what the argument is about.

KitFox

Down with things! Up with stuff! harrumph harrumph If you don't agree with me, you are stupid!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

16:04

-2

Q: Is this sentence correct as a heading on a software message?

Is the following message grammatically correct as a heading for a software success message: Data for last day processed.

grammaticality

Cerberus

@KitFox votes you down without leaving a comment

@RegDwightѬſ道 Thanks!

Matt Эллен

pop

RegDwight Ѭſ道

You will have to excuse me for twenty minutes or so, because I must run shop for groceries before the stores shut down.

Laters.

KitFox

@Cerberus Hey driveby downvoter, you are stupid!

user19161

@Cerberus That is a bit hard to do. One can't really window-shop fast food outlets!

Robusto

16:05

@RegDwightѬſ道 Is it OK to write //noop in methods that do nothing? Is that correct grammar? Also, spelling? And how do you pronounce that? Do you need a dieresis over the second o?

aedia λ

@Cerberus I've been living right near one and probably the only thing that stops me from going in is that I walk past the back where the dumpsters smell like yucky old grease or... something.

Robusto

I could go on. But you are so wise, you can probably answer all my questions at once.

Gigili

@Cerberus "@thedownvoter$#*&#(*(#@*$@ mind to explain why?"

Cerberus

@KitFox Hey you're not supposed to know who I am!

@WillHunting Well...

KitFox

downvotes everything by @Cerb

Cerberus

16:07

@aediaλ Aww...but it's hamburgers and yummy stuff!

@KitFox prays to the anti-revenge filter

Robusto

There should be a "Get off my lawn!" button, which uses up all of your downvotes randomly with one click.

5

user19161

@KitFox ...and then gets suspended

user19161

@Robusto This button should also come with auto-suspension when clicked.

KitFox

posts on meta about how ur all stoopid just becauz u think pissflaps iz offensiv

2

aedia λ

@Cerberus drools and tries to think about eating healthy homemade food

Mahnax

16:09

@aediaλ Hey, you want some popcorn chicken?

aedia λ

@Mahnax YES!

Mahnax

@aediaλ snickers

user19161

@Mahnax I have to ask: what is popcorn chicken?

KitFox

There are small children running in circles and giggling downstairs.

Cerberus

@Reg: I have read the beginning of the conversation, and I actually don't understand why you deleted those answers. I am inclined to side with @Mitch, however much I adore you and stuff.

Mahnax

16:10

@WillHunting Little chunks of chicken with breading, deep fried.

Cerberus

@aediaλ Like what, a carrot dipped in yoghurt?

user19161

@KitFox Sounds spooky. It happens in movies and nobody else can see them.

Mahnax

They are bite-sized for convenience. Also, terribly expensive.

user19161

@Mahnax Sold at KFC?

KitFox

@WillHunting It's not spooky. It's cute.

Mahnax

16:11

@WillHunting Yep.

user19161

@KitFox I mean in those movies, only the character can see them.

Mahnax

@WillHunting kfc.com/menu/chicken_popcorn.asp

KitFox

Uh oh. crash Ow. crash Ow. crash Ow. giggle giggle giggle

I wonder what that was.

user19161

@Mahnax Never noticed them here.

Cerberus

Perhaps we should have a Meta question about deleting answers to closed questions?

Mahnax

16:12

@WillHunting Hm.

Gigili

Suppose I'm a <1k user, I see a closed question and I open it (really exciting so far), And I see there are five answers and I conclude that one's allowed to write answers to closed questions. You get rep while you don't know the question is OT and it's still open, but not when it's closed. I'm not sure if I am making sense but anyway.

aedia λ

@Cerberus Like curry or chili, or salad, or pizza with mostly whole-wheat dough and homemade sauce and only a little cheese...

KitFox

Lasagna!

aedia λ

I actually don't have any leftovers for lunch today and have to go buy something, though. BRB

Mitch

@KitFox sure. I'm just beefing anyway. Sorta a similar situation as to when John Lawler got all upset because he had on numerous occasions spent time typing up answers only to have them rejected because the question was closed before he submitted.

Gigili

16:14

CU

user19161

@KitFox Yummy.

KitFox

10 mins ago, by KitFox

Down with things! Up with stuff! harrumph harrumph If you don't agree with me, you are stupid!

Getting my blood pressure up doesn't seem to be helping my head though.

Anonymous

Hello

Mahnax

Who said that?

Anonymous

I have a question about writing English.

KitFox

16:16

Aug 17 '11 at 17:35, by JSBᾶngs

@KitΘδς but i am against things and solidly in favor of stuff

Looks like JSB and I are in the same camp.

user19161

I have 11 stars on the starboard now, this is my new personal record!

Mahnax

@Anonymous OK, what is it?

Anonymous

What does it mean vs What does it means. Which one is correct?
I guess what does it mean (without s) but I am not sure.

Gigili

@Mahnax It's confidential.

Mahnax

@Gigili Shh, I'm trying to help.

@Anonymous Yeah, it's just "What does it mean?"

Gigili

16:17

Shh-es

KitFox

@Anonymous Yes, "what does it mean."

"It" is third person singular, and the verb should agree with "it."

Mahnax

Which is confusing, because then it gets flipped around, and one would say "It means…"

KitFox

Wait.

Or is it that it should agree with "what"?

Cerberus

@Anonymous The verb do is used as an auxiliary verb in that sentence. When so used, it goes with an infinitive (mean), not a finite form like means.

KitFox

Either way, it is third person singular.

Mahnax

16:18

@KitFox I think it's the does thing.

Anonymous

I confuse because I am learning about s in plural and verb that use with singular subject.

KitFox

Oh right. Do-support.

So what Cerb said.

Anonymous

@Cerberus Ahh, thank you. It's auxiliary verb. My teacher taught me but I can't remember how to call it.

Cerberus

@Anonymous The plural s is only attached to nouns. Verbs, on the other hand, only get s when they are third-person singular, so he/she/it.

Mitch

@Gigili makes sense. I totally get the annoyance at people getting rep for questions that you think shouldn't exist here (and that one should discourage bad questions and even more discourage answering bad questions). But the whole voting thing is to allow the possibility that individuals don't know everything. You don't -know- that a question is bad or off-topic.

user19161

16:19

@Anonymous Use "What does it mean?", "It means that" and "It does mean that" for example.

KitFox

@Mitch Well, the OP might not know, that's true. But high rep users should know.

Cerberus

@Anonymous Good. It might also help you to study a book on beginner's English grammar, so you won't have to pay for all those live lessons, hehe.

Mitch

@KitFox except when it's not clear.

KitFox

And should know better than to answer off-topic questions.

Mitch

'should know' is sometimes clear sometimes not.

KitFox

16:21

That's true, but Reg doesn't always delete answers on closed questions.

In fact, lots of times he doesn't.

Cerberus

I am firmly against it.

Gigili

@Mitch You don't know, you answer the question, you get rep for your answer (the question is not closed yet) then Reg comes (welcome on board) and deletes the answers because the question is closed as something.

Mitch

@KitFox and that was my own petty problem (because it was one of my answers among others that got deleted)

Cerberus

An answer should only be deleted if it is really bad itself, not for some site mechanic.

Anonymous

I use Azar red book - first book. I practice by writing my diary for 600 words three to five days per week. And I hire two teachers to correct and explain if I wrote something wrong. :)

KitFox

16:22

@Cerberus That's not so.

You can't delete a question if it has answers.

Mitch

@Gigili but that leads one to think that all answers to all closed questions should be deleted, and that just doesn't seem right.

user19161

@Anonymous Very good!

Cerberus

@KitFox I know you can't do that as the OP. But why do you say that?

Mitch

@KitFox I think you can...just the higher voted ones and those with more answers need more delete votes.

Anonymous

Anyway, two teacher correct me differently. They use different grammar and writing style. LOL.

Cerberus

16:24

@Anonymous Ah OK, that sounds good.

KitFox

I am pretty sure you can't delete a question if it has answers. Period.

user19161

@Anonymous Things are not so clear cut.

KitFox

That's why Reg gets in a huff when people answer questions that are clearly off topic.

user19161

One cannot delete his question if it is answered or his answer if it is accepted. QED.

Cerberus

@KitFox Notice the Delete button.

user19161

16:25

But one can flag for mod attention in these cases.

Mitch

Like Reg...gotta go...pardon the seriosity...yes @Cereberus a meta question would be good for me to ask.

Cerberus

@Mitch Please do!

Gigili

Please does!

KitFox

I know there is a delete button, silly.

Anonymous

I have a question about my writing too. "I went online on my laptop and prepared myself before class begins." Is the word "begins" technically correct here?

Cerberus

16:25

You mean please do(es).

KitFox

@Anonymous Before class began.

Gigili

@Cerberus Oops, my bad. I don't know what's wrong with me today.

Anonymous

I think I should use began to keep consistency of the verb too.

Cerberus

@Anonymous It is technically possible, but the switch in perspective from past to present is very unusual, and normally not a good idea.

@KitFox Then what do you mean?

KitFox

I mean what I said.

grouchy face

user19161

16:27

@Anonymous Or use everything in the present tense if you are saying you do this every day.

KitFox

Taking a nap. Later.

Anonymous

When my teachers correct me with a lot difference thing, I will ask them about the reason. :)

Cerberus

@KitFox I have just tested what happens when I click to delete a question with answers, and the delete vote is registered as it should be. So it is possible.

Anonymous

I have one final question before I off to bed. When you talk with non-native speaker and they use broken English like me - incorrect verb, tense don't use proper English. Do you need to concentrate and try to think what I talk about?

Robusto

Sometimes.

Cerberus

16:34

That depends on how complex the sentence is. If it is short, it is usually easy to understand what people mean.

Robusto

Sometimes it's pretty obvious, sometimes it's absolutely unfathomable.

Cerberus

But your questions are usually crystal clear to me, and your English is not so broken!

Anonymous

Thank you @Cerberus. :)

Robusto

Mar 9 '11 at 3:45, by Kosmonaut

I read through this question a few times and now I feel like I don't understand English anymore.

It can have that effect.

Here's the question:

1

Q: Aren't "senseless" and "irrelevant" synonyms of "unreasonable"?

This question is related to: What does it mean when someone calls himself “non sequitur”? comments to to my answer to Is there a better noun form of “unreasonable” than “unreasonableness?” Is not "unreasonable" synonym to "senseless" and "irrelevant" ? Update: Thanks for answers. I sti...

meaning synonyms

user19161

@Anonymous If it is very bad, yes.

Cerberus

16:37

Haha.

Good example.

user19161

@Anonymous Also if you keep looking at misspellings one day your spelling will be messed up too.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

16:52

@Cerberus the idea is that an answer that attracts bad questions to the site is bad.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 Huh?

That sounds very far fetched.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

We had the egg-salad sandwich example before.

Cerberus

Bad ≠ off topic.

It seems like an awfully indirect way to accomplish anything.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

If you ask for a recipe for an egg-salad sandwich, and people answer it before the question is closed, then you suggest we should keep the answers?

Cerberus

Possibly so.

user19161

16:53

Vagina

1

alphabet

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 But it would seem far more likely that people would just delete the entire question.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

But then more people will come and post recipe questions because they see that on-topic or not, they will get an answer.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 How likely is that? Let's burn that bridge when we cross it, oh wait...

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus now that would be abuse of power. That I didn't want to do so people still have a chance to disagree, or improve the question, and reopen.

There is a reason why you can't even vote to delete a question that's less than 2 days old.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 By "people" I meant several people voting to delete.

A question that is really bad, like the sandwich question, will get deleted anyway.

user19161

16:56

-1

A: Ye olde english alphabet question; Are there other letters that got lost than thorn, edh and yogh?

Are you FUCKING serious? Don't you have anything better to do, you old fucks? We are going to shove you in the ground soon, so think carefully what you want to do with your time than whine.

Cerberus

Another thing: often it is the interesting answers to a question that convince people that perhaps the question was not so bad.

We have discussed that before.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus again, they can only do so 48 hours from now. Let me ask you, how many delete votes have you left on the-day-before-yesterday's off-topic questions today?

@Cerberus Yes and I was precisely of that opinion.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 I personally am not very motivated to to do so, but I presume people who are interested in deleting stuff will do so?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

We only have 11 people who have the right at all.

That includes me, Kosmo, nohat, and yourself.

Cerberus

So your arguments are "keeping the answer up for two days may induce the OP to ask more bad questions", and "keeping them up makes it less likely that the entire question will get deleted later"?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

16:59

One of those four is not very motivated, another one is gone, and the remaining two's vote is binding.

@Cerberus no, you will know that that is not my general modus operandi. But we are seeing a streak of awful questions right now, and we have to push back.

Cerberus

You can just delete the sandwich question immediately as you see it?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I suppose that would get Mitch even more up in arms because that would delete his answer and remove the chance of the question getting improved and reopened.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 Hmm I am not aware of that streak, and I didn't think that question was so horrible. It was only a very short sentence, so not the strongest case of proof-reading.

@RegDwightѬſ道 If it is really bad, like the sandwich, then he will no doubt accept that. This question wasn't so bad, so why not just leave the answers visible?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Because then the OP will use that as a carte blanche to ask more questions of that kind.

This is not theoretical masturbation. This is what actually happens.

Cerberus

I understand your argument, but I just think the disadvantages outweigh the benefits. It really sucks if your answer is being deleted even though it was good.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

17:03

I do realize that.

But the idea is that 10k users think twice before answering a question that is ruled out in the FAQ.

Cerberus

If it gets really bad, the annoying asker could be suspended.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Yes, but it's preferable for that not to happen in the first place.

user19161

We can give the user some suspenders.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

The site should moderate itself. I should not be even doing anything. My job is to lean back and be invisible.

But if the site does not moderate itself, I must use the sledgehammer.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 I rebel against that, and it really feels like oppressing censorship to me, no matter how well intended, with long term benefits in mind, etc. I just really, really don't like it is good stuff is deleted.

user19161

17:05

@RegDwightѬſ道 Well said. I think you can be a politician.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus it is still visible to 10k users. And the authors.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 Maybe because there is a substantial minority of high-rep users who disagree with certain parts of the FAQ and/or policy. Should the minority be crushed, or should they get some kind of compromise?

@RegDwightѬſ道 But not to the asker, which is what matters to any answerer.

user19161

@Cerberus It might not be disagreement but rather different interpretation.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus the asker is precisely the one who should not get answers to questions that do not belong here.

I feel like we are going in circles.

Cerberus

I am in full disagreement with certain parts of policy etc., and I have always been open about that. At the same time, I accept that I am the minority. But...

@RegDwightѬſ道 Okay, and I disagree there. I understand your argument, but I just think it is too heavy a punishment.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

17:08

You know my stance on that. If we don't like the rules, we can always work on chancing them. It's our site. We are the community. We make the rules. But once the rules are made, we have to follow them, otherwise there's no point in having rules in the first place.

Cerberus

I am trying to mount some kind of argument like "the majority should not oppress the minority".

Gigili

What does thwack mean in this context: "The protests: we say thwack thwack thwack thwack"?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus Except that right now it's a minority (me) oppressing the majority (people with no command of English asking rubbish off-topic questions).

Cerberus

The fact that 60 % or so are of a certain opinion doesn't mean that they should therefore get their way 100 %.

Gigili

> to hit somebody/something hard, making a short loud sound

Doesn't make sense.

Cerberus

17:10

@RegDwightѬſ道 Haha, well, you are not really helping your case there. Which I appreciate.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I am saying it the way it is.

Cerberus

@Gigili It probably refers to the game of Thwack-A-Mole.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

If we allow anyone to ignore any rule at their own leisure, this site will fall apart.

user19161

@Gigili The line does not make much sense. You need to have more context.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 I don't believe that.

Gigili

17:12

@WillHunting It was a piece of news.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus we've seen that happen to this very room we are currently in.

Gigili

@Cerberus Umm, do I need to play the game to understand the meaning?

user19161

@Gigili What I mean is you need to read the article itself to really understand what the title means. It is deliberately vague to entice readers.

Cerberus

Perhaps your main argument should be that you have observed in practice that there are so many bad questions asked now by the same few noobs? I will accept that as an important argument, if it is really true. But there'd have to be a huge number, many more than before, and they should sort of swamp the site.

@RegDwightѬſ道 How do you mean?

Gigili

@WillHunting I would if there was an article about it.

user19161

17:14

@Cerberus He means we need to follow rules like "no flirting in chat"!

Cerberus

@Gigili I'm not even sure without context. But this may give you an impression:

@WillHunting But everybody violates those...

user19161

@Cerberus Except me. QED.

user19161

@Cerberus Oh so that is the game!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus well I have no idea how to reply to that because you don't really see the bad stuff that happens. I run amok on the site closing, deleting, and suspending, precisely so you can sit here and chat about penises without ever casting a close vote.

JSBᾶngs

@RegDwightѬſ道 we appreciate it. well, at least i appreciate it.

3

Gigili

17:17

@Cerberus Thank you.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

And again, at a hundred 10k users it should be the other way round.

user19161

@RegDwightѬſ道 Well I do cast quite a lot of close votes at least so you can also chat about penises.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@WillHunting yeah, you know that I will often ask in chat for support, even though I have the hammer, precisely because otherwise this happens.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 I have looked at a lot of recent questions, and they don't seem much worse than six months ago. I didn't notice a pattern of new users asking lots of bad questions in a row.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Anyway. Before there's any misunderstanding, I'm not here to whine. I wanted to send a strong message, and send a strong message I did. When I challenge four people at once, I don't get to be upset if one of them accepts the challenge. More to the point, we need to have this discussion.

Carlo_R., Italy

195 7

etymology word-usage history verbs word-choice grammar acronyms

user19161

17:22

-1

Q: what does "never a brake" means?

I was watching the movie "As good as it gets" and came across this phrase in reference to a car. What does it means ? and also what does title itself means ?

meaning

Cerberus

I'm not sure what you mean with this "challenging".

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus A metaphor. When I close a question with four people involved, I have to expect them to get up in arms.

user19161

NARQ above.

user19161

-2

Q: Meaning of the word 'moral'

I hear the word 'moral' many times i.e. moral right, moral sense, moral luck, moral landscape etc. Can you explain the what does the word 'moral' mean with an understandable explanation and example?

meaning vocabulary

user19161

GR.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

17:24

Anyway. I must be off, drilling holes in walls.

Laters.

Matt Эллен

CU

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 The large majority of this guy's closed questions have no answers at all. So would deleting answers really stop him?

@RegDwightѬſ道 Oh, you mean the answerers, right.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus It's just one user off the top of my head.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus it might stop others with similar questions

user19161

@Cerberus He is unstoppable since he is a Cathode Ray.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

17:26

You said you didn't notice anyone. I provided one counterexample.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 Yeah OK, but...is it really that big of a problem?

user19161

@RegDwightѬſ道 Very good. That is the way to disprove a statement. Here is a cookie for you.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 I said that also because his bad questions got no answers. So your argument doesn't really apply to him.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus It is. Because I'd rather spend time with my wife than babysit people who can't read on some site somewhere.

Mitch

@RegDwightѬſ道 sorry..which one is the sandwich question in question?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

17:27

@Mitch Kosmo's hypothetical example.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен I was suggesting that maybe this is not a big problem yet, and that heavy-handed measures should be postponed until it is.

Mitch

@RegDwight the sandwich recipe?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

I don't remember which particular question prompted that response of his back then, but I guess the transcript contains at least a clue.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 What do you mean?

Gigili

@Cerberus We have a quote that says, you can't see what's going on when you're involved or something like that

Cerberus

17:28

Well, you were leaving.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus set a threshold. Tell me how many questions must become bad before you consider it a problem.

Chances are, we've reached that threshold months ago.

We had people complaining on our meta about us having more questions closed than any other SE site.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 I understand your argument, but I still disagree with closing answers that are good. So perhaps a Meta question would be in order. Oh, and how about deleting comments that help the OP? Everybody posts those to off-topic questions while voting to close.

It is considered a nice thing to do.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus I'm glad you mentioned that.

Because that's how it all started.

Cerberus

Would you delete such comments too?

user19161

@Cerberus Yeah now that you mention it it has gotten me rethinking!

Cerberus

17:30

@RegDwightѬſ道 Oh, you should see Philosophy!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

People would post off-topic questions, which would get closed, but someone would invariably comment with the answer.

user19161

@RegDwightѬſ道 Are we supposed to or not?

Cerberus

And the reason why more questions are closed is not that OPs have changed, but that the community has changed. We used to be much more tolerant.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Fast forward twelve months, people now post answers instead of comments.

Cerberus

At least that is my impression. ^

So how about deleting such comments? They should encourage people to ask OT questions just as much.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

17:32

@Cerberus yes. Absolutely. We have changed a lot. I have closed a whole bunch of questions as gen-ref to which I had provided an answer months earlier.

Mitch

@RegDwightѬſ道 I very much appreciate it. (I just noticed it negatively when my toe got stepped on, that's all)

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 So why blame it on the posters instead of on ourselves?

Mitch

@RegDwightѬſ道 and did you delete your answer?

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Mitch again, I have no beef with you. You just happen to be the one to respond first.

Mitch

@RegDwightѬſ道 Sure, same here. I'd just prefer you close the question without deleting answers. and go wild on downvoting the answers and commenting to say 'couldn't you see this was obviously on-topic' to at least open it for debate.

Cerberus

17:34

Agreed.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus we can just change the rules right back. We can allow proofreading. I am not against it. I am against allowing it while expressly disallowing it.

Mahnax

0

Q: What does "never a brake" mean?

I was watching the movie "As good as it gets" and came across the phrase "never a brake" in reference to a car. What does it mean? Also, what does the movie title itself mean?

meaning

I had to decide if this was NARQ or TL.

user19161

@Mahnax I chose NARQ.

user19161

@Mahnax Also TL=Taylor Lautner.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 I am just saying that you are suggesting that questions have become worse and worse over time, and that I am not so sure about that, because our closing more questions than before doesn't prove that.

Matt Эллен

17:35

yeah, I read it and didn't know what to think, so I feel it is NARQ

Mahnax

@WillHunting I chose NARQ as well.

Hence it being closed as NARQ.

Cerberus

And for the record, I do vote to close questions, though probably less than the average person.

user19161

I see the three Matts chose as NARQ!!!

Mahnax

Hm?

Who is the third?

user19161

@Cerberus Since you are immortal.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

17:37

@Cerberus I am not saying the questions became worse. I am saying that we get more bad questions.

user19161

@Mahnax Me.

Cerberus

@RegDwightѬſ道 Well, either way, you suggest that something changed on the outside.

Mahnax

@WillHunting Uh, since when are you Matt? I thought you were Jasper.

user19161

@Mahnax Will Hunting = Matt Damon. QED.

Cerberus

And that we require sterner measures to deal with this outside factor, namely more bad questions.

Mahnax

17:38

@WillHunting Hahahaha.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Mitch some I did. Not any accepted ones. I would get in trouble with TPTB for deleting accepted answers with 50+ upvotes, mine or not.

@Cerberus yes, we got way more popular.

user19161

@RegDwightѬſ道 I don't think you would. They might want those deleted too!

RegDwight Ѭſ道

Anyway, it's getting dark and the holes won't drill themselves.

I am really sorry, but I have to postpone my participation in this.

Cerberus

Still, the fact that more questions get closed doesn't prove that more bad questions are asked. My impression is that we have always got bad questions.

@RegDwightѬſ道 No prob, later!

We just disagree.

RegDwight Ѭſ道

@Cerberus Cerberus. Please. Just believe me. We used to get two questions a day. Now we easily get more than two questions from people who can't spell "English" per hour.

4

I'm out.

Mahnax

17:42

Bye!

Wow, Kongregate's A Google a Day was really easy today.

I didn't even have to Google anything.

Aww, I got downvoted.

Gigili

What exactly was he talking about?

Mitch

17:57

@RegDwightѬſ道 allowing proofreading...questionable. For passages of more than a sentence it is very annoying (that's what livemocha is for), doesn't seem to be a good fit here, etc, etc, but could be spun as something interesting. Even for short things. (as in the OQ in question, but then I am not sure it is proofreading).

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