English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2011-02-11 (page 2 of 2)

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5:00 PM

If someone wants to decide if they should say fuckin'-a or motherfucker, they can't know when each is appropriate just by knowing how bad fuck is.

In fact, fuckin'-a is not very offensive, but motherfucker is very offensive.

(But I added your link as a "related" question.)

Sigh. Someone needs to vgv8 a talking to about how he comes across.

I know it's easy to sound arrogant by accident when you aren't using your native language, but he's going way past that.

Someone needs to vgv8 about his misunderstanding of how english.SE works. :-)

@Rhodri: Do you have a link to point to?

Hmm. vgv8 as a verb. How would one vgv8?

0

Q: Is "I'm write-only" comprehensible?

Would it be comprehensible to say I am write-only? Update: Well, I did not write what I meant on purpose, to check how it is understood. But the meaning of it in IT is that something (content of a file) can be written but not read. Update (to comment by @ShreevatsaR: I did not invent anythi...

meaning idioms expressions slang technical

"You are such a vgv8". :-)

It could work also as adjective.

Particularly "Looking at your profiles with eleveated reputation in IT-oriented boards, I cannot believe that you commented: [...]"

He's got a fair number of questions with -1 votes, entertainingly

5:11 PM

I agree; his reply to a ShreevatsaR's comment is quite offensive.

@Kosmonaut: Should his edits be removed?

Maybe. I am not sure.

He really keeps replying to comments by adding text in the question. What he adds is not something that explains better what he means to ask.

I agree.

If it would be so, he would not say "looking at your profiles".

Trying to hold a conversation between comment and question text doesn't really work.

5:19 PM

I edited the question down.

It looks like it will probably be closed anyway.

It already reached 3 votes (one is mine).

I didn't vote of course.

I figured that out. ;-)

If I could do one normal-vote, instead of automatic close-vote, I would vote.

Yes; that is really limitative.

I am sure there are times you would like to be able to vote a question, but still give to other users the possibility to vote.

As it is now, you can only vote when you are 100% sure the question must be closed.

5:32 PM

Exactly.

So, instead, I will give an opinion in the comments.

In other words, in those cases you need to wait 4 users vote to close a question, and then you can vote too.

That's a pain.

Well, sometimes I will vote at 2 or 3.

But many times, I see no votes to close, but I think it should be closed. If it is not obvious, then I want to wait and see what others think. But I also want to encourage people with my own vote :)

It can be annoying, but they don't want to give mods both kinds of votes.

5:53 PM

I agree: a vote and a comment is better than a comment. If you just add a comment, some users could interpret it as a "warning" to the user who is asking a vote that is "to the borders".

Yes

Even if it crosses the border.

6:32 PM

@Kosmonaut: you seem to forget that, as we have learned only recently, the grace period after closing a question is four freaking hours, so here's a FTFY:

Someone could ask for a recipe for a really tasty egg salad sandwich and probably get at least one answer after it could be closed.

Well, that is true too!

Sometimes I wonder if I should delete answers to really irrelevant questions.

Is this one a duplicate?

0

Q: In the sentence "You, too.", is the comma acceptable?

I tend to think it is, as "too" serves the role of a referential phrase, repeating the verb-phrase of a preceding sentence, and "you" acts simply as a subject pronoun. But, I've heard an argument to the contrary.

grammar punctuation comma

As it stands, someone could ask a question knowing it would be closed, but that they will get answers anyway.

Did people see this meta question?

3

Q: "Possible duplicate" message is difficult to notice

When a question is closed as a duplicate, the duplicate question is selected (by the users who vote to close) and then attached automatically to the top of the message. However, the message is attached as a quote. As you can see on the example below, this is not very noticeable on EL&U, where...

feature-request

Yeah, that's why I felt guilty composing that comment on the "promised" question, as it essentially amounted to an answer.

@Rhodri: I think this is a duplicate.

6:37 PM

Yep, I have upvoted that question. But not your answer))

I don't think anybody would scroll down to see the link.

If anything, it should be higher up, not further down.

In fact, there was a future request on MSO that dupes should automatically redirect.

That is a good point.

Why didn't you write an answer? :)

Was too busy voting to close vgv8's stuff.

Oh.... yeah.

And then too busy diving into the dump.

Lots of numbers todaz.

[kezboard error]

6:41 PM

What's with the vgv vs SchreevatsaR issue?

Haven't seen that comment.

I don't know.

Okay.

Which thing specifically?

Just would like to see and judge for myself.

No flags in the 10k tools.

Is there a post or something you are referring to?

6:42 PM

1 hour ago, by kiamlaluno

I agree; his reply to a ShreevatsaR's comment is quite offensive.

Ohhh, right.

That was deleted.

Geez. That offensive?

I wouldn't go so far as to call it "quite offensive" actually

It was just irrelevant and posted inside of the question body.

You can still view it in the history

Some people just won't stop doing that...

I mean, it's actually good practice to update your questions in response to comments. But update it with relevant information... and no at-mentioning, please....

Hm.

Right

6:44 PM

I wonder if we should be telling that to him rather than to ourselves...

But you kind of have.

Well, I did

Yeah, disregard "kind of".

Taboo word questions always attract oddness. I think it is good practice to automatically protect any question about it.

Hehe. Are you referring to my trying out my new shiny powers?

Yes

Exactly.

One user (with about 500 rep) commented out of nowhere on the fuckstick question with something like, "you want an F-bomb??? Ok!!" and then wrote "fuck" about 30 times.

6:47 PM

Well, I was just playing around, I must admit. Those questions don't actually attract answers from 1-rep users. But the "protected" message did seem to have some kind of off-putting effect, nobody wanted to answer that question for quite some time.

So strange.

I must say I don't think I have ever heard the word fuckstick. I've seen Shawshank Redemption a zillion times, but not in English.

I'm rather curious what word they chose in German!

It is not a common word.

Gonna check that out some time. Can't remember. Which scene is it in?

"You tell me, fuckstick, they're all addressed to you."

It is something to do with when Dufresne is writing all those letters to request something

Oh, to get more books

I think it has to do with that

The head guard says it

6:55 PM

Would make sense. Gonna check whether I have it on DVD in German.

Have to go anyway. See you later.

Oh Lor, he's off to play with the numbers again.

Nah, I'm playing with the numbers at work. I'm at home now))

Haven't seen you "leading by example", by the way. @Rhodri.

But who knows. It might be hidden somewhere deep.

Aaannd... I'm out!

7:29 PM

("Oh Lor', would you buy me a Mercedes Benz? My friends all drive Porshes, I must make ammend […]".)

Such an... adaptable song :-)

It's the first song I recalled when I read "Oh Lor'".

Must go. I just about have time to eat before going out for the evening.

TTFN

See you.

1 hour later…

8:38 PM

@Kosmonaut or @nohat: Can we get a linguistics pro to weigh in on this question?

2

Q: "zh" vs. "j". Are these pronounced in the same way?

I've seen some Chinese words like "YUEZHONG". Also in some other languages like Persian and Arabic I've seen words written with "zh". Are these two sounds pronounced in the same way? Is there any word in English using the same combination of letters? Is it right to use "zh" to imply the letter "j"?

usage pronunciation

I gave a layman's answer, but it might benefit from someone with a little more familiarity with plosives and fricatives and voiced and unvoiced consonants and what have you ...

8:59 PM

Wrote an answer.

2 hours later…

10:29 PM

in The Bridge, 4 mins ago, by Arda Xi

@GnomeSlice I thought there was a specific name for a portmanteau of two alternative spellings...

Anyone?

10:39 PM

Pah.

Can't think of such a word, but this might be a good question to ask on EL&U.

10:57 PM

Maybe, but I can't be bothered at the moment.

11:44 PM

What does that mean: "portmanteau of two alternative spellings"?

I need an example.

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