English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Jez

08:34

hello

Robusto

09:17

0

Q: Alternatives to copper/bronze/silver/gold/platinum/diamond hierarchies

I have spent the better part of the last hour searching for alternatives to the copper/bronze/silver/gold/platinum/diamond hierarchies that appear so often in frequent flyer programs, on StackExchange, in computer games, and wherever else stratified user lists are appreciated. Because I believe t...

Off topic? It's a poll question, really.

Alenanno

@Robusto Did you get the "Stack Exchange swag for top users" e-mail?

Robusto

Lemme check.

Yup.

Free, too. Still, it's the top 2 pages of users, so that covers a lot of ground.

Alenanno

But what about the shipping?

:D

I mean, you're in the U.S. right? I live overseas

Robusto

Shipping is covered.

They say they'll ship anywhere in the world. Is Italia in the world?

Alenanno

Last time I checked, yes

:D

Robusto

09:26

You're sure? This is important.

Alenanno

Yeah yeah, don't worry.

:D

Robusto

All right then.

Funny the size dropdown defaults to XXL.

Alenanno

I was interested in the pen, it looks neat... Although I might miss the chance to look like a real NERD with that t-shirt... I mean, you go to the store with that...

by the way, that question was interesting but off topic, so I voted

Robusto

Quite the paucity of questions we have this morning.

Alenanno

Look, we have this one too... Note that Wikipedia has articles about it...

3

Q: Hidden meaning in "Got milk?"

I often see question "Got milk?" in ads related to milk and milk products. Does it have any hidden (maybe "Urban Dictionary" kind of?) meaning, any humorous/playful allusions in popular culture, movies, etc.?

meaning pop-culture jokes

Robusto

09:34

Yeah, definitely gen-ref. Otherwise known as a GAFDOT question.

Alenanno

GAFDOT?

Get a?

xD

fucking?

(guessing)

Robusto

DOT = Dictionary or thesaurus

Alenanno

ahahahah

Robusto

The rest is obvious.

Alenanno

The only other similar expression I knew was RTFM, but that's a classic

Robusto

09:36

Yup. Like any real man would ever RTFM, however.

We just ain't built that way.

Alenanno

Now I wonder... In the Game SE, when someone asks something stupid, will he/she get "N000b!!!111" ? I mean, that's the usual in the in-game chats

Good ol' times... I miss the internet games

I mean, the matches

Robusto

Well, the level of discourse in in-game chats ain't very high.

Alenanno

Yeah, usually it's low...

Robusto

Usually doesn't rise far above: "You fucken retard eat shit and die. Pwned! I just facerolled your dumb ass!" Except without the puncuation and capitalization. What was I thinking?

Alenanno

lol

ah yeah

I was the only one to use capitalisation

lol

Robusto

09:42

Speaking of pwning and facerolling dumbasses, where's @RegDwight this morning? Him don't chat no more lately.

Alenanno

Morning? It's morning here, but... there too?

lol

Robusto

Si.

Alenanno

Unless you're in our Time Zone

Robusto

It's morning in America. Ronald Reagan told us.

Alenanno

When did he? :D

Robusto

09:48

Well, 30 years ago. But still ...

AFK for coffee.

Alenanno

That's frickin' long morning...

ok

RegDwight

@Robusto Me chats all the time, just not on weekends.

It's not that I chat less than usual now, it's that I used to chat more than usual while my wife was outta house for several weeks.

Alenanno

What happened to the owl?

RegDwight

The owl is on vacation.

Jez

yeah that owl was cool

RegDwight

10:01

This funny creature volunteered to help me celebrate my midlife crisis or something.

Alenanno

To me it was Owl = Regdwight

RegDwight

And now it is ... = RegDwight. The question is, who can identify the animal?

Alenanno

It's too small, let me check your profile :D

Jez

rabbit

RegDwight

You are a rabbit.

Jez

10:03

or guinea pig

Alenanno

Hamster

RegDwight

You are a hamster.

Alenanno

xD

RegDwight

Have you ever seen a hamster????

Alenanno

This is a fat hamster! XD

ahahahah

lmao

RegDwight

10:03

So you have not ever seen a hamster.

Alenanno

I did I did

RegDwight

I doubt I doubt

Alenanno

So... c'mon, give a hint

RegDwight

Alenanno

lmao

RegDwight

10:06

I have visited the owl last weekend, BTW.

Alenanno

visited?

RegDwight

Yes.

Feb 9 at 13:58, by RegDwight

He was so cute, wearing those fluffy pants and all.

Alenanno

10:20

So... What animal was it?

I'm sure that when you'll tell us, I'll realize I knew it LOL

Alenanno

10:51

0

Q: Is the XY a Girl or a Boy? English Names!

Where can I have a list of English names, so that e.g.: Bob - Male name Joe - Male name Pamela - Female name etc.

names

Robusto

@RegDwight — Let us prey?

@Alenanno — Voted to nuke with extreme prejudice.

Alenanno

Prejudice? Anyway a "NUKE THIS" close-vote would be cool! XD

Robusto

So I wonder when my free swag bag will arrive?

0

Q: How it's better to format links to Internet in a text written on paper?

Links are useful to add additional information or second meaning or special flavour to certain words. This is especially useful for informal texts. Example: [Some programs](wiki://Metasploit_Project) allow [users](wiki://Script_kiddie) to launch security attacks with ease and comfort. This [cert...

formatting medium humor

Writers has its own set of knuckleheads.

I hope the OP realizes people won't be able to click on his hypertext links on the paper page.

Alenanno

Lmao!

z7sg

@Alenanno I like the way you deliver the bad tidings with a smile.

Alenanno

11:06

lol

I just try to be as "friendly" as possible

Robusto

Watch out for Bad Ambassador — he could be coming to your town!

Alenanno

xD

Maybe I should change my nick to that

lmao

z7sg

The Bad Ambassador has spoken.

Alenanno

Now that I think of it, it sounds cool. Poll: Should I change my nickname?

Robusto

He's bad! He delivers the news in no uncertain terms! He's ... Bad Ambassador! [In theaters everywhere June 21]

I wonder if we can get Justin Bieber for the role — oh wait, he's already playing @RegDwight.

z7sg

11:08

@Alenanno Nah don't do that, just sign off all your comments "Bad Ambassador :)"

@Robusto :D

Alenanno

Lmao, that smile is so insolent lol

Robusto

And I'm out. CYAZ

/logout

z7sg

Nic Cage? That looks like a stinker. :)

Alenanno

LOL

@Robusto ahahah

@z7sg what's your opinion about that comment I left anyway? I mean, does it sound ok to you?

z7sg

11:50

@Alenanno Yeah I think it's OK.

Alenanno

Thanks from the Bad Ambassador.

XD

later guys

I'm out

RegDwight

12:14

0

Q: usage of is and does grammer

Which sentence is correct? The directory is not exist OR The directory does not exist This message inform a user about a folder he or she trying to access.

grammar auxiliary-verbs usage

z7sg

Troll

Robusto

12:27

Whoa, @RegDwight is now a bunny? I like totally can't feature that.

RegDwight

Good morning.

I've been a bunny for like three days now.

z7sg

You've gained a little weight as well.

RegDwight

Yeah, need fresh batteries for the Wii Balance Board.

Robusto

This totally changes my perception of you.

Keerist, it isn't even Easter.

RegDwight

You are easy to manipulate.

And, you, say, you, play, poker?

Robusto

12:33

Poker players lie.

On the plus side, your drag outfit is cuter.

RegDwight

It's also more natural.

Robusto

I mean, like no contest.

@RegDwight — What's with the superfluous comma? Maybe you should switch gravatars again.

RegDwight

Which comma is superfluous? You have to be precise.

Robusto

Abuse of power.

That was way past the normal editing deadline.

RegDwight

Yawn.

Robusto

12:46

I think you misspelled "Mea culpa."

RegDwight

Right. Lemme try again: yawn.

Better?

Robusto

I bet from time to time, yeah. Why?

RegDwight

16 mins ago, by RegDwight

You are easy to manipulate.

Robusto

17 mins ago, by Robusto

This totally changes my perception of you.

RegDwight

Precisely.

Don't bet in my presence. I'll just change my gravatar and you will lose.

z7sg

12:51

Can you change species halfway through a poker game? That sounds like foul play to me.

RegDwight

Show me an actual rule that states that.

Robusto

@z7sg — It used to be fowl play, but that's when he was an owl. Now all bets are off.

z7sg

Well I don't have the rule book to hand. @Robusto Ah I knew you wouldn't be able to resist that awful pun. :D

Robusto

The awfuler the better.

RegDwight

Robusto used to have a different gravatar, too. So did Kosmo. Kiamlaluno changes his like every other day or something. Don't pretend I'm special when I'm clearly not.

Robusto

12:55

@RegDwight — Who's pretending?

RegDwight

7 mins ago, by Robusto

17 mins ago, by Robusto

This totally changes my perception of you.

Robusto

When you were an owl you used to be able to detect sarcasm.

RegDwight

Rubbish.

Sarcasm is like level 10, I didn't even pass level 1: Turing Test.

Robusto

Perhaps it is axiomatic that slackers are not Turing complete.

0

Q: What is implied in calling someone Citizen?

In many dystopian stories, people call each other Citizen. In other contexts too, I'm thinking Citizen Kane for example. Why? What is implied here?

meaning

Off topic?

It feels on the threshold of OT at least. Can't make up my mind.

Vitaly

Yo.

Fascinating stuff.

RegDwight

13:10

Dingdingdingding!

F'x

Come one, who's the rabbit pretending to be RegDwight?

z7sg

that's a much cuter vizcacha

F'x

“Vizcacha en escabeche (pickled vizcacha), a traditional dish of the Argentinean countryside”

that's how it should be

RegDwight

Disgusting.

F'x

@RegDwight: come here, sweety sweety sweety…

2

RegDwight

13:18

Stop it already. You never tried to eat the owl.

F'x

@RegDwight the owl didn't look delicious

Robusto

Wait, you haven't seen him in drag yet:

45 mins ago, by Robusto

F'x

and, I've killed and eaten a rabbit this week-end, which was good; that opened my appetite

RegDwight

Surrender monkeys are supposed to be eating cheese. Haven't you got le mémo?

Jez

hahaha! just had an error and got this:

F'x

13:21

@RegDwight: at least, there will be no need to upvote you any more

I can come on the chat and give you a treat for any good answer

RegDwight

I'm not following.

F'x

good answer, good bunny!

RegDwight

You're out of your element.

May 18 at 18:20, by RegDwight

Besides, I'm not really in the question-answering business anymore.

Vitaly

> The mountain viscacha’s warning call consists of a tweeter or high-pitched whistle

F'x

@RegDwight more like out of here!

see you all!

RegDwight

13:23

CU!

Vitaly

Later, Fx.

RegDwight

I still don't understand why that strange Frenchman never fed the owl.

Or tried to eat it.

Mr. Disappointment

Howdy.

RegDwight

That is correct.

In fact, I'm inclined to second it.

Mr. Disappointment

Aren't you always correct, @Reg?

Why you here anyway? Thought you'd abandoned this place for the refuge of german.SE.

RegDwight

13:28

Huh, how so?

This cozy place has carrots.

Them Germans only have umlauts.

Mr. Disappointment

13:47

Oh, it was just a presumption of mine on noticing your absence here and presence there.

RegDwight

Feb 17 at 19:07, by RegDwight

I'm on all sites 24/7.

Robusto

@RegDwight — Also Hasenpfeffer.

RegDwight

@Robusto Also Hasenmäuse.

in German Language and Usage, 1 hour ago, by RegDwight

Hasenmäuse

Die Hasenmäuse oder Bergviscachas (Lagidium) sind eine Nagetiergattung aus der Familie der Chinchillas (Chinchillidae). Es werden vier Arten unterschieden: die Peruanische Hasenmaus (Lagidium peruanum), die Cuvier-Hasenmaus (L. viscacia), die Südliche Hasenmaus (L. wolffsohni) und Lagidium ahuacaense. Merkmale Hasenmäuse erinnern äußerlich an Kaninchen mit langen Schwänzen. Sie erreichen eine Kopfrumpflänge von 30 bis 45 Zentimeter, die Schwanzlänge beträgt 20 bis 40 Zentimeter. Die Peruanische Hasenmaus ist die leichteste Art, sie erreicht 0,9 bis 1,6 Kilogramm, während die beiden and...

Mr. Disappointment

@RegDwight I hold boundless admiration for your tolerance.

MrHen

14:12

@MrDisappointment: In case the ping didn't work from earlier, we can talk here

(As time allows.)

z7sg

Kaninchen mit langen Schwänzen. uhuh

MrHen

(Of which I actually have none right now, but I check the chat throughout the day.)

Mr. Disappointment

@MrHen We certainly can, though I am at work so please don't be offended should I not immediately reply, or drop out.

@MrHen to be quite honest, I'm quite inclined to post my comment from the question here, just as a starting point of my view point, since it kind of sums up my issue with the thread in question.. so here goes...

For the record, I personally believe such deletions were an abuse of the privilege, particularly since you don't, in the update to your answer, include, reference of even try to consider the essence of what was said in body of those deletions - and none of it, to my recollection, was off-topic, or had any other reason to be eradicated (if it wasn't going to be added to the answer in some form.) All you did was essentially mute a user who had legitimate opinions and concerns with your answer.

Ohhhh, we have a room for this! Wow. I feel somewhat special.

Alenanno

17:04

1

Q: Animals with an "a" at the end

I don't know i this is the correct Stack-Exchange site, but i think the question fits here best;) I'm trying to rename some workstations and servers in mylocal network with animal names. The problem is, that there comes nearly nothing to my mind and the fact, that english isn't my mother tongue ...

vocabulary animal

Voting to close as General Reference (see comments)

Martha

I don't know if I would consider this a general reference question — Wikipedia has generic lists of animals, not animals that end in -a, and this is definitely not something you can easily find in a dictionary. If the intent is to supplant answers.com, then sending people there is kind of counterproductive.

MrHen

(FWIW, I voted off-topic.)

Mr. Disappointment

17:41

Never mind while elephants, we have unicorns in this room.

aedia

Hello there!

Mr. Disappointment

Howdy.

Not one of our more busy days, it has to be said.

Maybe everybody actually is busy, only doing stuff they actually ought to be busy doing.

aedia

It seems so! I've actually finished some of that. Maybe the worst bits.

Of course there'll be more worst bits now that I've said anything.

Mmm, wurst bits. I think I made myself hungry.

Mr. Disappointment

Lucky you. It usually just goes from bad to worse for me. It could be imagined that we actually have an active fan welded tight to a shit dispenser - it never stops coming, always hits the fan.

aedia

I get a lot of little slow times, like the sun breaking through the clouds. Gives one great false hope for a few minutes or hours before the storm rolls back in. Like you can almost forget what the pain was like.

@MrDisappointment How do you express it when it gets any worse than that? I suppose it would really stink if you've got your nose to the grindstone and you're burning the midnight oil and that fan gets clogged.

Mr. Disappointment

17:56

'Like you can almost forget what the pain was like.' You have clearly never worked below the order of a woman with a chip on both shoulders - now, that, you never forget that.

aedia

@MrDisappointment I think someone needs some rainbows!

Mr. Disappointment

I have this faint memory of something to do with puking out rainbows.

aedia

Jun 8 at 15:37, by aedia

@RegDwight Oh c'mon, everyone pukes rainbows in college.

Jun 8 at 15:36, by RegDwight

Oh look, a question!

0

Q: Meaning of pragmatic

I was wondering about the meaning of pragmatic in this example: Another C construct, the #pragma directive, is used to instruct the compiler to use pragmatic or implementation-dependent features. A most notable user of this directive is OpenMP. According to online dictionary, prag...

meaning

But wiktionary kind of answers it. I'm not sure I can add much. Hmm.

Mr. Disappointment

18:18

This is off-topic.

I'm not even sure where it does belong. People here could surely answer it, but to what end?

aedia

I am kind of curious about whether #pragma really is an abbreviation of pragmatic.

I don't know how to find out.

Mr. Disappointment

The people standardising the compiler implementations, or those implementing the compiler, could have used whatever they pleased.

aedia

I agree, and it's not really English anymore at that point.

Rhodri

18:36

I'm fairly sure "pragma" was coined for this purpose.

It turns out "πρᾶγμα" is straight Ancient Greek, though: "a thing done, or a fact" according to Wiktionary

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pragma

Anyway, enough of me. See you round, folks.

aedia

I think this is the page the OP got the quote from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directive_%28programming%29

it says pragma in Ada is short for "pragmatic information" but I can't find a good source for that... so I'm still curious

Mr. Disappointment

Don't sweat it. It's OT.

aedia

I knowwww but I still can't help wanting to know.

Robusto

@aedia — Voted to close as off-topic. So far I'm the only vote.

Mr. Disappointment

18:51

@Robusto: I voted.

That didn't show?

Ah, I'm so small-fry that it's a flag waiting for review.

Robusto

20:01

0

Q: "Types of" followed by singular or plural?

When using the phrase "types of" or "kinds of," it often seems appropriate to follow with a singular noun (e.g., types of rock), but at other times a plural noun sounds better (e.g., types of sentences). Is there some kind of rule about this?

grammar grammatical-number

Dupe of english.stackexchange.com/questions/5539/…

I know, because it was the first question I ever asked on EL&U.SE. ^_^

Martha

Voted.

Robusto

21:01

Still needs one more vote. Gah.

Jez

why are you so desperate to close questions down?

i used to like stackoverflow because it was quite liberal

aedia

21:32

Liberal in what you except, strict in what you omit, I always say.

Jez

I take exception to that.

aedia

21:45

Waah! Got my first downvote (that I've noticed).

Pouts my answer was so not not helpful. Maybe not the most helpful. Spiteful nincompoops, whoever they are.

Ok, I'm better.

Jez

22:03

i know that feeling. and the good news is Jeff has made it free to downvote

so ... apparently there weren't enough downvotes.

aedia

I knew downvotes on questions were free but are downvotes on answers free too?

Martha

@aedia Not as far as I know.

aedia

@Martha Thanks. After finding this answer I don't think so either, but I sometimes have trouble understanding whether any policies are different across all the Stack Exchange sites.

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…