English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Martha

02:41

Geez, someone named Nyuszika7H shows up in chat, and I'm not here. Figures.

(Stupid car. It would break down when my mom & sister borrow it.)

Cerberus

03:47

Cars breaking down suck... I hope it is fixed now?

Whoa, did Robusto get suspended from chat earlier?

Martha

04:46

Yes. Some weenie flagged one of his comments, and at that point, it's pretty much automatic.

Car has been towed to shop, but it was long closed by that point. I get to find out the damage tomorrow. :/

Jez

11:33

hi all

Robusto

12:44

@kiamlaluno: I try to give non-native speakers the benefit of the doubt on short "proofreading"-type questions.

Robusto

13:05

This feels like a dupe to me:

0

Q: Where is vs. where are?

Is the question incorrect by using "is" rather than "are" in this question. "Where is my mother and father?" Grammatically, it should be "Where are my mother and father?" But, I for some strange reason, I think I would use "Where is my mother and father?" and I can't explain why that is. Perhap...

grammatical-number

But we have 18 pages of questions on plurals and I started to flag after 5 or 6 of them.

kiamlaluno

@Robusto: I am not against giving the benefit of the doubt; I simply think that what reported from the FAQ is thought to limit too basic questions.

It seems a duplicate, or I am having a dejavu.

@Robusto: Did you find its exact duplicate, or at least a question with an answer that can reply to both the questions?

Robusto

No. I got tired of looking. But there seem to be many duplicates in the plural category that were never cited or closed.

See? This is the dirty little secret reason I do not want a moderator job. I don't want to run around performing janitorial chores.

kiamlaluno

@Robusto: Moderators operates with the help of 10k users.

I remember that 10k users can vote to delete questions, for example, which means to hide a question from all the users without "powers".

Robusto

Yes, but the help of the 10k users, while encouraged, is not obligatory as it is for moderators.

kiamlaluno

I simply remember it from when the "tools" menu where available to 2k users (the old times).

Or was that 4k users?

Of course; it's not obligatory, but it's how the system is thought.

Robusto

13:15

How the system is thought what?

kiamlaluno

If it would be different, then you would need more than 5-6 moderators.

Robusto

Do you mean "how the system was conceived to work"?

kiamlaluno

Yes.

If you notice, the "system" works around the moderators receiving notices from other users: some users flag posts, other users vote to close the post, and moderators take the final decision.

Moderators have the final decision even when a question is closed; if a moderator votes to close a question, that is automatically closed.

Robusto

Only because the site is not big enough. But there are plenty of people on this site with "vote to close" privileges.

Yes, I know how it works.

kiamlaluno

There are many users who can vote to close a questions, but there are few who can vote to "delete" a question.

Taking out who is also moderator, there are two users who can do that.

Robusto

13:24

I can only vote to delete closed questions.

So there is some due process.

kiamlaluno

It's what I meant.

Robusto

A mod can delete a question out of hand.

kiamlaluno

A moderator can delete a question directly, in the same way he can close a question directly.

Robusto

1 min ago, by Robusto

A mod can delete a question out of hand.

That's what that means.

kiamlaluno

The fact is that, when it's not so evident when a question should be closed, the moderators looks for what other users think.

@Robusto: I know what you meant.

I am simply saying that not all the work is done by moderators.

Robusto

13:28

Your rephrasing of my assertion seemed to imply that you didn't understand, or were attempting to contradict or elaborate upon my statement.

kiamlaluno

I didn't rephrase it; I added a clause.

The point I was trying to make is that moderators rely on the votes of other users, at least in some cases.

Robusto

Not to put too fine a point on it, but you made that point after the post in question.

kiamlaluno

Which post?

Robusto

See above

Start with chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/538675#538675

@Kosmonaut: I made another comment on your nomination, which I think you should be aware of. "I want to add that while I do support @Kosmonaut's bid to remain a moderator, I wish he would go a little lighter on the "close question" button, at least waiting for a quorum of high-rep members (i.e. 3) before bringing the hammer down."

Obviously, when questions are plainly inappropriate this does not apply, but I feel that too often you do take it upon yourself to be judge, jury and executioner.

kiamlaluno

I am replying to you saying "that is the reason I would not be moderator"; my reply is simply "moderators don't do all the job".

kiamlaluno

14:00

I keep to have deja-vus.

2

Q: How to pronounce FAQ? ˈɛfˈeɪˈkyu or fæk?

FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. I checked some dictionaries, they list both of the pronunciations. So I'm confused. What is the common way to pronounce FAQ?

pronunciation common-pronunciation

3

Q: What is the commonly accepted pronunciation of FAQ?

I hear FAQ(s) pronounced like a word in "FACK(s)", while I go letter by letter. In usage, what is more common? (Similar to SQL vs Sequel)

pronunciation colloquial acronyms

Robusto

@kiamlaluno — I think that is irrelevant to my statement.

@kiamlaluno "I keep to have deja-vus" => I keep having feelings of déjà vu.

I notice you often use the infinitive when you should be using present progressive.

kiamlaluno

I didn't mean it was relevant, or not. I am simply commenting on what you said. Take it as "I understand if you don't feel like offering as candidate, but don't take that if you become moderator you must do all the job alone and not sleep."

I notice it too. :-)

It is possible that Americans speaking in Italian would keep to use the progressive when they should use the infinite. :-)

Robusto

@kiamlaluno — I'm sure that's true; nevertheless, this is not Italian.SE, and as someone with high rep on English.SE who purports to be an expert on the subject, you should be aware that such solecisms tend to undermine your credibility. I'm just trying to help you out here.

Look at all I've done for @RegDwight, for example. He could hardly speak three coherent words in any language before I took him under my wing.;-)

kiamlaluno

14:18

Are you in the eastern area?

Robusto

If you mean the eastern United States, yes. I'm in the Boston area. Why?

kiamlaluno

Because I am already corrected from somebody in the New York area; if you would be in an area that is far from there, it would start to be confusing for me. ;-)

Is still there the red line that goes across Boston?

Robusto

There's no part of the U.S. I'm aware of where they would say "I keep to have ..." instead of "I keep having ..." Possibly it would be heard in immigrant communities, but you would hardly want to use those as our model, would you?

If you mean the Red Line rail system, yes. Also there are Blue, Green, Orange, and Silver Line routes.

kiamlaluno

I am not referring to the metro.

It's simply a red line that is "drawn" on the street pavement, and that connects some of the historical/tourist places in Boston.

Robusto

Oh, you're talking about the Freedom Trail.

kiamlaluno

14:27

Yes; that trail.

Robusto

You can see [where it runs])maps.google.com/maps/…) via Google maps.

maps.google.com/maps/…

Damn, whenever I use the backspace key trying to edit a chat entry it sends me to a different page. I should probably report this as a bug.

kiamlaluno

Do you mean when you edit a post that has been already posted, or a post that has not been posted, yet?

Robusto

When I notice I've made a typo in a chat comment, then try to edit it before the deadline, I frequently get flummoxed when I try to backspace to delete. Suddenly I go to StackOverflow main site for some strange reason.

kiamlaluno

That is really odd.

It is surely a bug. It has never happened to me, but I am on a Mac; that means we probably have different computers, and we use different browsers.

Robusto

By "I am on a Mac" do you mean "I am not on a Mac"?

Cerberus

14:41

Greetings. I know the backspace problem.

Changing an option in the Firefox about:config fixed it for me, iirc.

kiamlaluno

I am on a Mac.

Cerberus

If you change the value of kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.backspace_action to anything other than 0 or 1, backspace will do nothing but erase letters etc.

Robusto

I am on a Mac too. I just posted the bug in Meta SO.

Cerberus

Which browser?

The native one?

Robusto

@Cerberus: Thanks, but I'm using Safari.

Cerberus

14:44

Ah ok.

Perhaps it has a similar setting.

Robusto

I use Firefox for development, but it's just easier on the Mac to use Safari for other stuff.

Cerberus

OK.

Robusto

Which option did you change, @Cerberus?

Cerberus

Do you need to use backspace for navigating pages at all?

Browser.backspace_action

Robusto

I swipe with my Air Mouse.

In any case, why would it dump me on the main page of SO? That is truly bizarre, considering that's not in my history queue.

kiamlaluno

14:46

@Cerberus: The backspace key takes you to a previously visited page, but it works normally in a text field.

Robusto

My delete (backspace) key doesn't take me to the previous page even if the focus is on the page in general. But even if it did, that event should certainly be captured in an input field.

Cerberus

@Robusto: Right, that is bizarre. And mouse gestures, good for you, now I remember.

Robusto

I guess event.preventDefault() isn't working right in Safari on this site. Or something like that..

kiamlaluno

If that would be the reason, why doesn't it happen to me?

Robusto

Do you mean why doesn't it happen to you?

This is probably some combination of conditions that produce an intermittent bug. As a UI developer, those are the ones I least like to work on, so I doubt my request on Meta SO will meet with much enthusiasm.

kiamlaluno

14:50

That is what I meant. I have an application that replaces the text I write, and that I wrongly set.

Cerberus

@Kiamlaluno: Yes, that is how it is supposed to work. But I always got erratic behaviour in FF until I turned it off; this is possibly due to some pages' unfocusing the text input field at inconvenient times. Since this made me terribly mad every time it happened, even though it wasn't that often, I simply turned it off, because I never use backspace to navigate any way (I use mouse gestures with alt+left).

kiamlaluno

@Cerberus. That is probably the reason it happens.

At least, it's the only reason I would find plausible.

Robusto

@Cerberus: Please see my post on Meta SO and, if you feel like it, add a comment including your own experience so people won't think I'm nuts.

0

Q: Editing issue in Safari on Mac OS X?

I'm using Safari 5.0.3 on Mac OS X v. 10.6.6. When I try to edit a chat post in English.SE to fix a typo, selecting text and hitting the backspace key (for delete) often for some strange reasons will send me to the main page of the StackOverflow site. I find this rather bizarre behavior prevents ...

bug osx

Cerberus

@Kiamlaluno: Yeah I think so. Though if I remember correctly I could not always explain it that way, i.e. it also happened even when I could still see the caret blinking in the text field.

@Robusto: OK will do.

Robusto

The most bizarre thing is that it dumps me on SO main page. How in the hell would that happen?

FX_

14:54

ok, testing the issue

Robusto

test away

FX_

can't reproduce

Robusto

As @Cerberus said, perhaps it involves some timing issue.

Cerberus

Come to think of it, I seem to recall some strange navigating from the chat page too, though I can't remember what it was exactly.

kiamlaluno

I would bet on a mind-reader script, or a gremlin.

Cerberus

14:54

Yay!

FX_

so, is this supposed to happen when editing one of my own messages?

Cerberus

@FX_: It is not easy to reproduce, because it happens at seemingly random moments. In my experience there might have been some relation between these errors on the one hand and long/heavy browsing sessions on the other, or heavy CPU use.

FX_

I'm editing, selecting text, hitting backspace, and no chaos ensues

Robusto

Maybe when someone enters another post while I'm editing my own the field loses focus for a little while? But why does it send me to SO?

@FX_: That's why we used the term intermittent.

Cerberus

(I often blame strange pages on my memory instead of browser instability so... I am never sure.)

(Memory not being RAM.)

FX_

14:58

@Robusto: yeah, I read from the chat history that it's intermittent, but it's not clear from you meta post, I think

where the only mention of frequency is “often”

so anyway, I don't hang out here often enough that I have already seen it

Cerberus

It seems someone else has already added a comment on the similar issue on FF.

Robusto

@FX_ — "When I try to edit a chat post in English.SE to fix a typo, selecting text and hitting the backspace key (for delete) often for some strange reasons will send me to "

FX_

@Robusto: yeah, I read “often” as meaning “most of the times”

Cerberus

To some, "often" is "more often than I'd like".

FX_

so I tried a dozen time, but could not see it

Cerberus

15:00

I wish I had Safari...

FX_

but from your description it looks more like an Heisenbug than what I'd call “often”

Cerberus

(not! hehe).

FX_

no big deal

Robusto

I edited the post to make the first word of the title "intermittent" ... I hope people will see it there.

Cerberus

There might be other factors involved that are not present on your computer, FX...

FX_

15:01

@Cerberus: yeah, input language, input manager, plugins, whatever

Cerberus

Yeah something like that.

Robusto

@Cerberus: What's keeping you from having Safari?

FX_

@Cerberus: I spent hours yesterday hunting for some strange problem that only one other person in the Internet could see, which was very frustrating (bug report fixed as WORKSFORME!)

Cerberus

Hmm? Does it exist for Windows?

Robusto

I don't use any plugins in Safari.

FX_

15:02

@Cerberus: yes

Robusto

Certainly.

Cerberus

FX: what problem?

Robusto

I have to test with it on Windows every day.

Cerberus

Ah I see.

FX_

@Cerberus: nothing related to here, a valgrind malfunction

Cerberus

15:03

It never occurred to me to use anything but FF or Chrome (brainwashed).

OK sounds complicated and frustrating, even though I don't know what that means, hehe.

Robusto

Valgrind is used for tracking down memory leaks, etc.

FX_

@Robusto: it's so useful that I felt completely crippled during the few weeks I could not get it working on my Mac

Robusto

Haha, I know the feeling.

Cerberus

I can't believe I am actually using something Apple... I feel tainted...

Robusto

Believe it or not, I work with people who tell me I use Firebug as a "crutch" ... they're still inserting alert() statements in their JS code for debugging ...

I call them Luddites.

Cerberus

15:07

Woah I see a giant apple, what is happeni.....waaaahhh...... click

FX_

@Robusto In my workplace, students and other researchers consider me as some kind of strange guy, because I actually use a debuger to debug my codes (and theirs)

Robusto

Haha.

FX_

@Robusto very different community (scientific software development) but same customs

Robusto

Yes. Real programmers don't debug their code, right?

@Cerberus: Welcome to the dark side! Mwahahahah!

Seriously, one of the things I like best about Mac is it lets me have Mac OS, Windows XP, Windows 7, and Ubuntu on the same machine using the same keyboard and mouse (thank you, VMWare Fusion!)

Cerberus

Manm this feels almost like... like installing MS software, which I haven't done in years.

Hmm couldn't you do the same on Windows?

Robusto

15:10

Word of warning, @Cerberus. Just install Safari, don't get anything else like iTunes and QuickTime unless you really want those.

Cerberus

Not that I want to defend MS or anything...

Robusto

@Cerberus: No. You can't run Mac on Windows. Well, you can run a kind of Hackintosh, but it is not supported and it really screws things up.

Cerberus

@Robusto: Thanks, but don't worry, us MS users are used to crap and bloatware well enough to avoid strange-sounding programs like "Bonjour"; I mean, wtf?

Oh I though multi-boot Hackintoshes were somewhat common?

Robusto

Yeah. I have never used Bonjour and don't intend to.

FX_

@Cerberus: Bonjour is Apple's branding of the Zeroconf protocol

Robusto

15:12

I have enough shit in my life already.

Cerberus

And doesn't Mac work in a virtual environment on Windows?

FX_

@Cerberus: no, Mac OS doesn't work in virtual environments

Cerberus

@Robusto: Yikes... bad shit?

@FX_: Ah ok, good to know.

Q: Is there anything particularly attractive about Apple products to power users?

Robusto

Yeah. The Unix command line, for one thing :)

Cerberus

Hmm... what is that exactly?

Robusto

15:14

And the fact that all the hardware is so well designed.

Cerberus

Designed, as in exterior?

Robusto

Do you ever use the Windows command line?

Cerberus

Yes, but rarely to be honest.

FX_

@Robusto +1 to you for both Unix and hardware comments!

Robusto

Designed as in everywhere. If I want to change a hard drive I just open the side of the computer and slide it out.

If I want to change or add RAM there are two easily accessible slide-out DIMM trays.

Cerberus

15:16

Okay, I get that stuff, but I don't consider that power-user friendly; rather for the common public.

I mean, except this Unix command line.

Robusto

When I had a bad DIMM, I was on the phone with the guy at TheChipMerchant, and he had me swap two DIMMs and try again. While he was on the phone I shut down the computer, pulled the DIMM trays, swapped the DIMMs, closed up the computer and rebooted, and had full use of the computer — all within 60 seconds of starting the process. I defy anybody to do that on a PC.

FX_

the Pro laptops are very well designed: they're slim, quite powerful, and certainly very resistant! (I tend to use them quite carelessly, and they all lasted for many years)

Cerberus

Okay, let me rephrase that: I can see why anyone would like easily accessible hardware components; but not specifically power users, unless it were much easier than with a modern ATX tower; I could easy slide open my PC and replace memory in 60 secs too...

Robusto

Including shutdown and full reboot?

Cerberus

@FX_: Okay, but I still don't see design and sturdiness as something mostly aimed at power users...?

Oh, I see! No, I didn't read the reboot correctly.

Robusto

15:20

Some people just like nice things, @Cerberus. If you can be happy with a PC, go with God. :)

Cerberus

So does a Mac reboot quicker than a modern PC with SSD etc.?

Oh I was not speaking for myself: I am not really a power user hehe.

Robusto

SSD changes the equation, obviously. But you can get that for the Mac as well.

Cerberus

So do Macs generally boot significantly faster than Windows? That would be a point.

FX_

@Cerberus: my family members treat their PC like China antiques, because they don't use it much and see it as an expensive investiment

@Cerberus: power users see it as a tool, handle it like one, so they stress it more

Cerberus

@FX_: Aww I have seen that too!

Oh, that is what you mean.

FX_

15:22

@Cerberus: the most expensive thing on my laptop is not my laptop, it's the data

Cerberus

Agreed.

I was just trying to map the points of attraction of Apple products to different kinds of users; my underlying goal was to find out how much people are swayed by the looks as opposed to the actually functional components...

Robusto

@Cerberus: I like the looks. But I love the power.

Yes, I'm power-mad. Just as well I'm not running for moderator, eh?

Cerberus

Hehe... come on, Robusto, we all know it.

This Kosmonaut guy is your sock puppet, admit it.

Robusto

If he is, he's the most independent, self-governed sock puppet I've ever seen.

Cerberus

Oops what a coincidence, look who both happen to be logged in at the same time...

Robusto

15:26

My other sock puppets don't give me anywhere near as much trouble.

Cerberus

I know, you need to make 'em believable.

Is it your goal to have 2/3 EL&U moderator seats and thus dominate the world?

Robusto

I'm content to have a dual-quad-core 64-bit system with 16GB RAM and dominate my computing environment.

Cerberus

Nice.

Does this environment include leather swings and tied-up slaves?

Robusto

Only virtual ones.

Cerberus

Too bad.

Robusto

15:30

No actual humans were harmed in the making of my desktop.

Cerberus

At least tied-up sock puppets then?

Robusto

Sock puppets don't need to be tied up.

Cerberus

How much of Wikipedia do you control at the moment?

Robusto

I'm not even registered on Wikipedia.

Cerberus

Oh, you don't hire people as sock puppets? You do them all yourself?

Robusto

15:31

I don't want them to ask me for money more than they do.

Cerberus

Yeah the ads are terrible.

I can only hope that the charter of their foundation is strict and the board sound.

Same for the "Mozilla Corporation".

Robusto

15:52

Hmm, my Gravatar revision shows up in here but not on the main site. They must have a cache timeout that resists forced reloads.

kiamlaluno

I see it on the main site, but not here.

Robusto

Try hitting shift-refresh.

kiamlaluno

Now I see it, after I reloaded the page.

Robusto

Not sure I like it. Hmm ...

Robusto

16:30

@FX_: I got the answer to my Mac issue on Meta already.

Jin

tes

@Robusto so it looks like your problem has been resolved?

testing

Robusto

Yes, thanks. Normally I'm 100% perfect in every way, but I guess this one time I had an epic-fail moment.

Jin

I can't reproduce the Delete key issue though

it seems to work fine for me. I'm on OSX, Safari 5.0.3

Robusto

Thanks for following up, and sorry for the trouble. I will pay close attention to the Delete key issue. It doesn't always happen, so it's one of those tricky intermittent things.

I'm pretty convinced the fault must lie with me somehow, though.

Since it does go to SO main page each time, just like the other problem.

Jin

okie. let us know if you run into any more problems.

Robusto

16:42

Will do. Thanks.

BTW, extremely nice job on the chat UI, @Jin.

Or have I told you that already?

Jin

@Robusto oh i didn't do the chat UI. it's all @balpha(Ben)

and marc

Robusto

Just like déjà vu all over again. ;)

Jin

They're the two devs who created the chat system. Whenever we launch a new site, Ben grabs the styling from the main site, and put the new skin on the UI.

@Robusto btw I love your gravatar. do you know what that Chinese character means?

Robusto

It means "dream"

Only I know it from Japanese: yume

And thanks!

Jin

it's my one of my fav characters. (I'm Chinese)

Robusto

16:53

I surmised as much. It's one my faves as well.

I forget which character from the I Ching your gravatar is. Harmony? Balance?

I had considered 和 as well, but it has too many Japanese-y connotations. In addition to harmony it is how the Japanese refer to things that are Japanese.

kiamlaluno

Isn't the hexagram for "after completion"?

Jin

8164.org/%E2%98%B5%E2%98%B2

it is :)

chapter 63. "water over fire"

kiamlaluno

I remember I saw it in the Unicode characters. :-)

Robusto

Thanks for the link. Excellent hexagram meaning, btw. Very evocative.

Jin

i also like its structural make up too. 010101

Robusto

16:58

So it does mean balance and harmony in a sense.

Jin

yes

Robusto

I like the site design as well. Very understated and majestically peaceful.

Jin

but a lot of i-ching chapters are about balance too. it's a main Taoism theme.

Robusto

I remember that.

It would have been a good guess even if I hadn't noticed the complementary trigrams :)

Jin

I started my blog a few years ago because I wanted to translate Tao-Te Ching

after a few chapters I stopped. :)

then i started writing more about design related stuff instead.

Robusto

17:02

Interestingly, the idea of harmony and balance is also present in ancient Greek philosophy. The idea of "nothing too much" (frequently mistranslated as "in all things moderation") hits at that idea. The well-rounded Greek citizen is very similar to Confucius' notion of "the superior man" I think.

Just reading the Tao-Te Ching promotes inner peace. In times of turmoil, I can think of few things better to contemplate.

Although I have only read it in translation. I'm sure there is much more to grasp in the original.

Jin

The interesting thing for me personally, as I think I understand more about Tao-Te Ching's teachings, the less I want to talk about it. That's why I stopped writing about it.

Robusto

Hahaha.

That's kind of a Zen notion, no?

Jin

It is lived, not discussed or lectured.

That's probably why you don't ever see Taoists knocking on your door trying to convert you..

Robusto

No doubt.

Jin

(btw I'm talking about the Philosophical Taoism, not the religious one)

Robusto

17:06

And when you ask the Zen master "what is Zen?" you get a slap. :)

deoxy.org/koan/29

Rebecca Chernoff

17:37

good morning (:

Yi Jiang

@RebeccaChernoff :)

Rebecca Chernoff

Who wants to have a Town Hall Chat? (:

Josh

Did I hear Town Hall Chat?

Rebecca Chernoff

lol

Yi Jiang

need to close parenthesis left open by @RebeccaChernoff's smilies :)

Rebecca Chernoff

17:45

):

Josh

@RebeccaChernoff No overwhelming response ):

Rebecca Chernoff

Yeah, just 2 hoodlums.

Yi Jiang

@RebeccaChernoff Aaaargh... runs out of the room

Kosmonaut

@RebeccaChernoff: This sounds good to me.

Robusto

Chat about what?

Josh

17:58

A Town hall Chat, where all the candidates for moderator can answer questions from the community

See..

7

Q: 2011 Moderator Election - Town Hall Chat Digest

The following is a "digest" version of the 2011 Moderator Election Town Hall Chat . The format, as described on Meta Stack Overflow, is one answer to this question for every question asked in the Town Hall, containing all the candidate's answers to that question. To view the digest chronological...

discussion chat election

8

Q: 2011 Moderator Election - Town Hall Chat Digest

The following is a "digest" version of the 2011 Moderator Election Town Hall Chat. The format, as described on Meta Stack Overflow, is one answer to this question for every question asked in the Town Hall, containing all the candidate's answers to that question. This digest will contain the quest...

discussion election

Robusto

Wouldn't that mean getting them all together at the same time in the same place?

Josh

Yup

Robusto

And wouldn't the world, like, explode if that were to happen? I'm just saying ...

Josh

Ask Ubuntu Town Hall Chat

meta.askubuntu.com/questions/6042/…

That's an example of one that happened

The meta answers I posted were the "digest versios" I have been creating

I think they're great

@Robusto well, @RebeccaChernoff does a fantastic job of scheduling them, and preventing world explosion

Except for Gaming... LOL

Robusto

I would attend such an event if there were time.

Josh

18:02

@Robusto as in, you don't have time, or as in, if you could find the right time?

Robusto

Both, really.

If it occurred at a time when I was available and not busy.

There may seem to be a very small distinction between those two states, but they are not identical.

Kosmonaut

I submitted my availability. We'll see what we come up with.

Josh

I can relate to this

@Robusto if you are unable to attend the town hall chat (if one occurs) you can submit your answers at any later date, and I will include them in a digest version (like I posted above)

For whatever that's worth

Robusto

@Kosmonaut: I don't think you'll have too many Sarah Palin moments. But I might be foolish enough to ask you what Supreme Court decisions you don't agree with. Be warned.

Josh

@Robusto There's always the possibility of trick questions like this one:

in Seasoned Advice Town Hall Chat, Feb 16 at 0:56, by Michael Mrozek

You've got mad and are abusing your mod powers. A dev is on the way to suspend you for life. You only have time to ban one person before they get to you. Do you suspend: Rebecca Chernoff, Jeff Atwood, Josh, or whichever innocent user's profile you can find first

XD

Kosmonaut

18:06

Well, if you ask me what publications I read, I might say "all of them"

Robusto

@Josh: hahaha, you read my mind.

@Kosmonaut: Then I would say, "I'm not talking about porn."

Kosmonaut

Touché.

Josh

ROFLOL

GnomeSlice

19:19

How does Blonde vs. Blond work?

Are both acceptable?

(I'm playing an online Scrabble clone, and want to know if I should dispute Blond)

RegDwight

19:41

@GnomeSlice Without checking any dictionaries, I would say that blonde is English while blond is German.

Have to leave. Was just checking the posts by rchern.

TTYL.

GnomeSlice

Ciao.

kiamlaluno

19:59

0

Q: Is sign/manual (body) language for the deaf a language?

Does "Signed language (manual communication, body language)", used by for people, constitute a language? And which one - English, Chinese?

usage meaning foreign-words

FX_

20:51

@kaimlaluno: what is the guy's ratio of closed v. valid questions? close to 50%, I think

kiamlaluno

@FX_: Let's say he is going to win the cup for the most closed questions. :-)

I wonder what is difficult to understand in "this is a Q&A site about English".

FX_

has any mod tried to reach him and discuss the issue?

kiamlaluno

It doesn't mean "a site where you ask questions in English".

FX_

he now represents a significant part of the site's traffic :(

kiamlaluno

He is thinking that EL&U is handled by people against him.

Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine

20:54

@FX_: agreed, and he is single-handedly making a significant dent in the site’s quality :-(

and downvotes and attempts at reasonable advice don’t seem to be discouraging him in the least…

FX_

@kiamlaluno: well, he was banned from SO or MSO (he said, but I don't remember which)

@PeterLeFanuLumsdaine: yes, he is proud of not reading much of what is directed towards him

kiamlaluno

@FX_: I am not surprised.

He asked a question I cannot find, now.

Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine

@FX_: ah, that is useful to know — I thought that SO didn’t ban people.

I wonder what their banning criteria are,

kiamlaluno

It was about the word used for a system based on rigid rules.

2

Q: What is a term for a system with rules without any exceptions?

What is the term for a system/organization/things order rigidly governed by rules without any exceptions?

single-word-requests

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…