English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

LessPop_MoreFizz

15:01

What the hell is up with this scare quote question

RegDwight ΒВB

Well he keeps posting stuff as answers. Five stuffs so far.

I can barely keep up incorporating them into the question, verbatim.

LessPop_MoreFizz

He seems weirdly obsessed.

RegDwight ΒВB

Today is the International ELU's Not A Forum And I Don't Get It Day.

Oh wow, Edit 5 incoming!

Only just saw that one.

Well at least we can scratch the "Don't Get It" part.

> i am doing major major reserach frm my computerless cave here in south Taiwan, been here since 1991, ..Tufts 1971 grad....literature ...been a reporter all my life since then....DC and Alaska and Tokyo..... and now i am doing RESEARCH on SCARE QUOTES.....can you interview me or do a light hearted piece on this re

This stuff needs some heavy editing.

> DANNY BLOOM 1949-2032

Is this for real?

LessPop_MoreFizz

HE HAS FORSEEN THE MOMENT OF HIS DEATH.

RegDwight ΒВB

Well if I were mean I would say he's twenty years off.

LessPop_MoreFizz

15:08

His comments have a... deranged quality to them as well.

thanks for heads up on this: and more here: Who's afraid of a silly old 'scare quote'? by Danny Bloom Tufts 1971, - Danny Bloom is a freelance writer based in Taiwan, where the mysteries of the English language still confound him. I'm not much a style guy and newspaper style guides don't interest me all that much, but as the coiner of "crash blossoms" and a few other newspaper terms over the past few years -- ''snailpapers'' for print editions arrive 12 hours late, for example -- I have recently taken a keen interest in the term "scare quotes." — dan bloom 10 hours ago

We're dealing with a character out of a Vonnegut fanfic or something.

Cerberus

Yuck.

Off with him.

RegDwight ΒВB

Well I'm letting this one for the community. Can't be having all the fun for myself.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@RegDwightΒВB Historical Lock IMO.

RegDwight ΒВB

In its current form more like an Instadelete.

Thirteen questions in one, including "I am writing OPED now for NYTimes on this. want to seek sneak peek?"

LessPop_MoreFizz

@RegDwightΒВB Also, "I am a word sleuth."

RegDwight ΒВB

15:12

Well to be fair, I have to take his word for it.

We are not discriminating against sleuths here.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

if only we could bring him to the chat room and explain to him some of the forms of his wrongness

RegDwight ΒВB

You can leave a comment to that extent. "Here are some of the forms of your wrongness."

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

But he can't come in here to discuss it

he can only read the transcript

RegDwight ΒВB

Oh.

Well everyone upvote him many times quick.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I'm just voting to close the question

who's with me? it's a NARQ in its current form

RegDwight ΒВB

15:17

Well I'm with you but I'm leaving this up for regular users to close.

It's just that everyone's AFK ATM.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Cerberus @KitFox @MetaEd @Robusto @simchona can I get some close-vote love please?

KitFox

As soon as I finish cussing out the sandwich girl.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

anyway it is time for ME to be AFK. I'm off!

KitFox

I said honey mustard, damn it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@KitFox She thought you said "mustard, honey"

RegDwight ΒВB

15:19

Mustard mayonnaise >> honey mustard. True story.

Cerberus

@MrShinyandNew安宇 Sure, which questions of yours do you want closed?

MetaEd

I like the WAY he capitalizes some WORDS. Reminds me of Zippy the Pinhead.

KitFox

@MrShinyandNew安宇 She doesn't know the difference between dijon and honey.

LessPop_MoreFizz

I kind of don't want to see this closed yet because he's still going with the deranged comments.

KitFox

She just killed this sandwich.

LessPop_MoreFizz

15:21

plogspot101.blogspot.tw/2012/06/…

KitFox

Holy fucking crazy.

RegDwight ΒВB

While writing formally proof-of-concept's could be used I guess.. — userSeven7s 1 min ago

KitFox

I think someone must have recently had a psychotic break.

RegDwight ΒВB

WHAT?

simchona

Jesus F Christ, how many comments does he need?

2

A: Who ''coined'' the term "scare quotes" and when, citation please, and why the word "scare" there?

From Wikipedia: "Scare quotes are quotation marks placed around a word or phrase to imply that it may not signify its apparent meaning or that it is not necessarily the way the quoting person would express its concept. Use of the term scare quotes appears to have arisen at some point during the...

LessPop_MoreFizz

15:23

@simchona More.

KitFox

@RegDwightΒВB I snarked.

simchona

> 11.my main qusest via you and crowdsorucing and comment feedacbnk is WHO coiend the term adn what did he or she MEAN?

I'm voting to NARQ this.

RegDwight ΒВB

I was going to close it as a dupe of

18

Q: Words that are pluralized in the middle?

This is purely a curiosity, but I'm fascinated by mid-word pluralization, even if the word in question is a compound word. For example, passersby or standersby. No others have occurred to me. Can you provide other examples, or a link to a resource that enumerates them? I'm particularly interes...

But now I'll just go with gen-ref.

Wiktionary has the answer.

simchona

Why is Total D still around?

LessPop_MoreFizz

@simchona His blog is even more deranged than his question/comments

plogspot101.blogspot.tw

simchona

15:27

@LessPop_MoreFizz THE RED. IT BURNS.

KitFox

Try penicillin.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@simchona Oh god and he has crazy conspiracy theories about Sarah Palin being Jewish.

simchona

@LessPop_MoreFizz Link?

LessPop_MoreFizz

@simchona That was one.

simchona

Oh, I meant to that theory

He just commented on his question again

LessPop_MoreFizz

15:31

@simchona Yeah, I linked it 3 lines up. Here, have it again.

Cerberus

@LessPop_MoreFizz Brilliant.

KitFox

Polar cities

RegDwight ΒВB

0

Q: Only Meaning of

///-----/-/-/-/-/---/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/--.-.,-,-,- Source For that reason, some academic writers conclude that the traditional civil law terms used in tax law should be interpreted in the meaning of the civil law jurisprudence. What could in the meaning of be? ///-----/-/-/-/-/---/-/-...

grammar

2 hours ago, by RegDwight ΒВB

dish dish dish wank dot wank...

KitFox

> So what was the most decidedly not-Jewish Jesus-loving Palin doing wearing [a star of David] in Israel?

Um, maybe she was being diplomatic?

But it's Palin, so maybe this guy is right.

LessPop_MoreFizz

I love how he is now using Diabetes as an excuse for his discombobulated thoughts

RegDwight ΒВB

15:34

For all I know, she just thinks that Jewish is some brown-people misspelling of Jesus.

LessPop_MoreFizz

Also, he gets letters in 2099

KitFox

@LessPop_MoreFizz Well, diabetes can make you crazy. I mean, look at Wilford Brimley.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@KitFox Point.

KitFox

nods

0

Q: Only Meaning of

///-----/-/-/-/-/---/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/--.-.,-,-,- Source For that reason, some academic writers conclude that the traditional civil law terms used in tax law should be interpreted in the meaning of the civil law jurisprudence. What could in the meaning of be? ///-----/-/-/-/-/---/-/-...

grammar

Reg, can you please just put him out of our misery?

RegDwight ΒВB

Slow jinx.

KitFox

15:39

Oh FFS, I thought you had "More Meaning Of" up there.

RegDwight ΒВB

I do wonder, what is it about this site that makes random passersby think that we don't care about quality or formatting or anything at all. We might be failing in some crucial aspect.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@RegDwightΒВB They come to it from google. Happens with every SE site in my experience.

On Gaming, we get people that think 'poop' is a valid answer to 15 questions within a 5 minute span.

KitFox

... but it is, innit?

RegDwight ΒВB

@LessPop_MoreFizz Well yes. But if you come to, say, a NASA discussion board, the whole atmosphere is immensely different from YouTube comments, no?

Don't people catch the drift?

LessPop_MoreFizz

@RegDwightΒВB No. No they don't.

RegDwight ΒВB

15:43

Many in fact do, but some seem to think that THEY can do ANTHING yteh please & get away wit it ololol.

LessPop_MoreFizz

Oh man, Danny found some new material to spam up the comments with quotes from.

MetaEd

I'll have spam, spam, gerunds, eggs, and spam.

KitFox

15:59

Now where was I?

RegDwight ΒВB

0

Q: Please, see the picture: how is this alphabet called?

Anybody know how is the alphabet shown in the picture below called? How could we write the following sentence using this alphabet? He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

alphabet

You were here.

simchona

> @fredley re ''This whole page is just surreal.'' – fredley .. please bear with me, i always get my man. remember "crash blossoms"? I used the same MO, these things take time. SMILE – dan bloom 5 mins ago

RegDwight ΒВB

Where would he get the picture from without knowing what alphabet it was?

KitFox

@RegDwightΒВB And how is it that I'm the first one to vote "off-topic"?

RegDwight ΒВB

Googling for "peep bib tot" returns a Wikipedia article.

Shavian alphabet

The Shavian alphabet (also known as Shaw alphabet) is an alphabet conceived as a way to provide simple, phonetic orthography for the English language to replace the difficulties of the conventional spelling. It was posthumously funded by and named after Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Shaw set three main criteria for the new alphabet: it should be (1) at least 40 letters; (2) as phonetic as possible (that is, letters should have a to sounds); and (3) distinct from the Latin alphabet to avoid the impression that the new spellings were simply "misspellings." Letters The Shavi...

KitFox

16:02

It's not an English alphabet, and writing an English sentence using a different alphabet doesn't make it about English language.

Hmm, OK, well, maybe it's an English alphabet...

But writing a sentence out phonetically? How is that on-topic?

RegDwight ΒВB

Adding my very own two cente, phonetic orthography is the most asinine idea ever. Closely related words would bear no resemblance to each other. History to historical would be like bottle to Madagascar.

KitFox

Hmm. I never thought of that before.

I suppose they would sound similar though, so you'd probably get in the habit of grouping symbols that sound similar together.

RegDwight ΒВB

And of course two, too, and to would all be spelled the same.

KitFox

Like d and t, and b and p.

RegDwight ΒВB

More to the point though, the people from the town ten miles away would write with funny mistakes, and the people from a town ten thousand miles away would write complete gibberish.

KitFox

16:09

That's not so bad.

It'd be a kind of adventure.

RegDwight ΒВB

Well, we already do not understand Australians.

KitFox

But writing NZer would be easy.

RegDwight ΒВB

How much more less understanding do we need?

KitFox

All of it.

RegDwight ΒВB

Then just assign random numbers to letters. Every time before you start typing a word.

MetaEd

16:11

@KitFox First part of the question is on topic: asking for the English word that identifies the alphabet.

RegDwight ΒВB

412 51096 2 81459.

KitFox

@RegDwightΒВB Aww. I love you too.

Oh, wait. Or was that Elvish?

MetaEd

@RegDwightΒВB A Google image search for the posted image immediately returned the Wikipedia article. I voted to close no research.

KitFox

@MetaEd Not really. Only kind of.

RegDwight ΒВB

@MetaEd ah, I tried TinEye and it actually failed.

@KitFox It wasn't not not not not not not Elvish not. 51926.

MetaEd

16:13

@RegDwightΒВB I have both the Google and Tineye extensions for Chrome; I very rarely use the Tineye extension anymore. Google has a larger collection and seems to do a fine job. But I do use the Tineye extension when I want to see exactly how an image was photoshopped.

RegDwight ΒВB

I actually have to google for TinEye every time because I can't remember their name.

MetaEd

3 14 159 26535 8979 3238.

RegDwight ΒВB

462643383279

LessPop_MoreFizz

taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/05/10/2003502879

MetaEd

If you use Chrome, install the Tineye and Google Image extensions. Then you can just right click any image and search for them.

LessPop_MoreFizz

16:15

So this is who we're dealing with.

MetaEd

Do we know it's the same person?

KitFox

> In addition to printing loo-lat on his name cards, Bloom rewrote Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star into The Song of ‘Loo-lat’ and then recorded it and posted it on the Internet to encourage students to use it every day when extending their gratitude to others.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@MetaEd All the facts match up. Taiwan, Tufts, etc.

Cerberus

Aww.

It is sort of cute.

@RegDwightΒВB Same here/

LessPop_MoreFizz

@Cerberus Yeah, it's definitely a more endearing and determined flavor of crazy, rather than downright scary crazy.

MetaEd

16:19

Oh, well that's just perfectly normal crazy. Everybody has that.

Cerberus

It's not exactly crazy, trying to revive a dying phrase.

MetaEd

(Apologies to Douglas Adams.)

KitFox

He can't help it. That happens sometimes when you engage in sexual relations with the Kitster.

RegDwight ΒВB

@KitFox In a similar spirit, I put my name on my name card. And yet, exactly nobody to whom I gave one can so much as read it.

LessPop_MoreFizz

@Cerberus No, that isn't. But everything else about him seems pretty crazy.

KitFox

16:20

@RegDwightΒВB The important thing is that you can't either.

simchona

0

A: When is it appropriate to use "scare quotes"?

Punctuation -- can someone help me re ''feedback'': re: Who coined the term "scare quotes" and when? Why "scare" in the term? Might calling them "distance quotes" be better? Do you ever use this term? i have also heard them called sneer quotes, horror quotes, queer quotes, distance quotes, quot...

MetaEd

@KitFox Your Freudian slip is showing ... :-)

Cerberus

More like eccentric, and too chaotic to write a properly formatted, readable question, even though the "core" of the question seems legitimate?

simchona

If I say "smile", am I smiling or telling other people to smile?

KitFox

@MetaEd Nuh-uh. I didn't say anything about 'wither.'

RegDwight ΒВB

16:22

@Cerberus yes. But I'm afraid it's long past the point of us being able to help. Better start from scratch.

MetaEd

@Cerberus Or just engaging in forum-like discussion and needs to know the local rules of engagement?

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВB I understand.

@MetaEd Right, that too. But his blog is also chaotic.

simchona

@RegDwightΒВB Four close votes. One to go.

RegDwight ΒВB

I mean, and many people keep getting this wrong, "closed" doesn't mean "go away we hate you". "Closed" means "we love you, but can't you please edit this into shape first? Then it can be reopened."

MetaEd

@Cerberus It's his blog. He's allowed.

simchona

16:23

> Dear Simchona, i apolo and i will shut up now and let others post and comment. sorry for being a sorry mess. it's my MO. i have diabetes and a stent in my heart and my days are numbered and i can't type so save my life, only learned the 2 finger style deep bow of sorry – dan bloom 50 mins ago

MetaEd

My blog is a mess. Maybe not chaotic but certainly not up to MY high standards. :-)

Cerberus

@MetaEd Still unreadable.

MetaEd

@RegDwightΒВB It always helps to put a note to that effect in the comments on the question.

@simchona sweet

Cerberus

@simchona Jesus...

@RegDwightΒВB And which meaning would you interpret it as if you came here for the first time?

MetaEd

ADHD in old people. I plan to make many people crazy in my dotage.

RegDwight ΒВB

16:26

@Cerberus I honestly can't tell, but I am pretty sure I would at least read the explanation of the close reason.

> Questions on English Language and Usage - Stack Exchange are expected to relate to English language and usage within the scope defined in the FAQ. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about closed questions here.

Cerberus

It is a bit of a boilerplate text, you know.

RegDwight ΒВB

That should be a dash. Grrr. But other than that, it's pretty informative.

With links, too.

Cerberus

And the first thing you see is a big "[Closed]"...

RegDwight ΒВB

Well what do you suggest?

Cerberus

Nothing.

KitFox

16:29

...I wonder if he used "scare quotes" because it sounds kind of like "scarecrow."

Cerberus

Just expressing my sympathy who come to this site for the first time.

RegDwight ΒВB

Plus, you seem to miss the point: many of those people don't so much as see the [Closed].

Cerberus

We are by now widely known as close- and downvote-happy even across the SE network.

KitFox

It was just that one guy spreading rumors.

I'm sure SO is worse.

simchona

@KitFox The one who deleted himself?

Cerberus

16:30

I have heard it from several directions.

KitFox

@simchona Yeah, that guy.

Cerberus

From nice people.

simchona

I think being ELU allows for more crazy

KitFox

All of them with agendae.

simchona

Ergo more downvotes

Cerberus

16:30

@KitFox !

KitFox

And all of them with confirmation biases.

Cerberus

What have you done!?

RegDwight ΒВB

@Cerberus of course. Did you also point those nice people to the crap we have to deal with day in, day out?

Cerberus

@KitFox The whole world is crazy and we are not?

@RegDwightΒВB Yes.

RegDwight ΒВB

Well thank you for that. Really.

KitFox

16:31

@Cerberus There isn't enough evidence to decide one way or another.

RegDwight ΒВB

Because it's driving me insane.

Cerberus

It is an impression.

KitFox

And impressionists are frequently blurry.

I think, is how the expression goes.

Cerberus

*expressionists

KitFox

expressionista

Cerberus

16:32

I am just saying.

KitFox

Q: Who coined the term "expressionista" and when?

@Cerberus What are you saying?

Cerberus

People see questions down-voted or closed here that they think are not so bad. That is the impression they give me.

RegDwight ΒВB

We were very careful about quality right from the start. We had a great site. Then the powers that be showed up to tell us that we were utter crap, and provide us with an additional close reason only one other site has. How that was supposed to help us with closing less (hi @Kit) questions, is beyond me.

KitFox

Why do you do that? Why?

You like seeing this little vein in my right temple, don't you, you sick bastard owl?

Cerberus

TPTB are in some ways more close-happy than we, sure.

KitFox

16:34

Ohai, @Matt!

RegDwight ΒВB

@Cerberus they should go spend a day on MathOverflow.

KitFox

How's your hair?

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВB Have you seen the screenshot I posted a while ago of the first page of questions on Phil?

3/4 were closed.

Matt Эллен

hiya @Kit :)

Cerberus

And still we are seen as more close-happy and downvote-happy.

KitFox

16:35

Yeah, but most people don't get Phil questions.

RegDwight ΒВB

@Cerberus Hah. Well that's because it's not a good fit for the SE format, I guess.

KitFox

So they don't feel qualified to disagree.

simchona

-1

Q: Counter Meaning Of

Source "The word 'creator' should be understood in the meaning of 'author' as in copyright law. " What could "in the meaning of" mean here?

grammar prepositional-phrase

RegDwight ΒВB

We had that discussion before, you and I.

simchona

@RegDwightB Can you please deal with him?

Cerberus

16:36

@RegDwightΒВB Perhaps: I must say I found those questions correctly closed.

Because philosophy as an academic discipline is more clearly defined; English is harder.

Perhaps because we do not aim at being about the academic discipline of English at all.

RegDwight ΒВB

@simchona I think he will get autoblocked faster than I can say "jump".

simchona

@RegDwightΒВB Even though he's a dupe?

RegDwight ΒВB

@Cerberus we kind of did, but we were always fighting a losing battle, which we have subsequently and unsurprisingly lost.

LessPop_MoreFizz

And so the hammer falls on poor Dan Bloom.

KitFox

@RegDwightΒВB What are the conditions for auto-blocking?

RegDwight ΒВB

16:38

As @Robusto correctly says, the only solution at this point is to create an ELU Lite.

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВB Have we ever tried at all?

RegDwight ΒВB

@KitFox he'll get autoblocked faster than I can find that out.

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВB That may actually not be such a bad idea. English as a Second Language and an Excuse for Silly Questions.

3

KitFox

@RegDwightΒВB I think you should make a chat room and shuttle all the ELU Lite questions there.

Cerberus

Anyone up for an Area51 proposal? ^

KitFox

16:40

You could call it The Pineapple Express.

Cerberus

Haha.

Then the target audience will immediately know where they are.

RegDwight ΒВB

@Cerberus I'd say that some of the core people always did. Most of them still do, but many are not even on board anymore, and they got replaced with many, many, many more that don't.

For every linguist we lose, we gain three thousand people who can't spell "English".

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВB How? Literature was banned a long time ago. Linguistics too. And ESL/SWR is allowed.

The overlap with the academic discipline is tiny.

I don't know what the site is about.

I guess we do still take linguistic questions that are only about English?

RegDwight ΒВB

Well yeah, in hindsight that was probably our worst mistake: never really defining which ESL questions are and aren't on-topic.

Cerberus

Not sure that could be defined.

RegDwight ΒВB

16:45

We relied on people having a look at the site and figuring out for themselves, "wait, this is not a place for my crap".

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВB If we had wanted to be academic, they should have all been banned.

And SWRs too.

We would then be 90 % smaller.

RegDwight ΒВB

I know it when I see it

The phrase "I know it when I see it" is a colloquial expression in the United States by which a speaker attempts to categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly defined parameters. The phrase was famously used by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to describe his threshold test for pornography in Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964). Obscenity is not protected speech under the Miller test, and can therefore be censored. The expression became "one of the most famous phrases in the entire history" of the Supreme Court. Stewart's "I kn...

Cerberus

Yeah, exactly.

That never works, unless you have a small, tight group of people.

RegDwight ΒВB

Which brings us right back to my point: for every person who knows it when they see it, we have thousands who don't.

Cerberus

By tight I mean "who are always agreed".

@RegDwightΒВB Of course.

RegDwight ΒВB

16:48

Exactly. That's the thing.

Cerberus

And it basically amounts to "no rules at all: we decide what we want on our own discretion".

RegDwight ΒВB

I mean, the obvious question is, if there are so many people who see this site as X, and so few who see it as Y, why not make it a site about X?

After all, democracy etc.

Cerberus

Yes.

Matt Эллен

throw it to the dogs, eh?

RegDwight ΒВB

But the sad answer to that is, because it's the few people who actually care about the site at all.

KitFox

16:49

And the foxen.

Matt Эллен

I would be quite sad if we let it decay

RegDwight ΒВB

Everyone else is just in to post some crap and never to return. Some don't even check back to read the answers.

KitFox

@MattЭллен Well, there isn't much we can do about it.

Cerberus

That's why I was in favour of "soft" closing: moving all questions that we didn't like to some sublist "low quality" (fill in euphemism).

@RegDwightΒВB That's what happens with any internet Q&A site...

RegDwight ΒВB

Perhaps we should just stop talking the talk and start proposing ELU Lite over at Area 51.

Matt Эллен

16:50

@Cerberus much as meta tags are discouraged, we could do that with an elu-lite

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Yeah, exactly, we could actually do that.

RegDwight ΒВB

Nah, wouldn't stand a snowflake's chance in hell.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox If there are 5 people who care in the same way, then we can form a closing posse and close questions until dawn

Cerberus

Or the opposite: all interesting questions could be given a tag interesting.

@RegDwightΒВB How about if we disguised it?

KitFox

How do I put a line break in a span so that the span's border encloses the whole block? Or am I just doing it wrong?

Cerberus

16:52

Let's say, as academic.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox am confused at what you want. does <br/> not work?

RegDwight ΒВB

Sure. Why not lipstick-on-a-pig?

KitFox

@MattЭллен It makes two lines, both of which have the border.

Matt Эллен

I see

KitFox

@RegDwightΒВB l-o-a-p

Cerberus

16:53

If all interesting questions got the tag academic, those in the know could quickly filter out uninteresting questions.

Matt Эллен

:D

RegDwight ΒВB

The original post against meta tags was precisely against things such as "interesting", "beginner", or "academic".

Cerberus

Why?

Because of conflicts that could ensue over the categories?

RegDwight ΒВB

Because you are a beginner. I am a beginner. Kit's questions are not academic.

Cerberus

Why are we beginners?

Matt Эллен

16:55

yup

RegDwight ΒВB

For starters, our SCUD scores are too low.

Cerberus

What are those?

I am talking about interesting questions.

RegDwight ΒВB

No idea, but them's important, very.

Matt Эллен

stupid chat isn't autoscrolling

Cerberus

Surely we could easily reach consensus about which questions deserve the predicate interesting?

RegDwight ΒВB

16:56

0

Q: Question And Meaning

-==-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-==-=--=-=-=-=-= Some Source "The word 'creator' should be understood in the meaning of 'author' as in copyright law. " What could "in the meaning of" mean here? =--==--.,,.,..,=-=-=-.,.,,.

grammar idioms usage prepositional-phrase

@Cerberus how so, if we can't even reach consensus on which questions are on-topic?

KitFox

Well, what if you tagged your question with one of "linguistic", "etymological", or "(serious) enthusiasm"?

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВB Because on topic is a bit of a bs criterion.

RegDwight ΒВB

If you want to mark interesting questions, that's what the "favorite" star is there for.

Cerberus

@KitFox Yeah, like that, but then "serious enthusiasm" would have to receive the bulk.

RegDwight ΒВB

Go look through the most favorited questions, you'll see some great stuff there.

Matt Эллен

16:58

then perhaps we need to downvote even more

Cerberus

What I mean is rather a way for you guys to get your heartbeat down over the uninteresting questions and duplicates and stop closing them.

Matt Эллен

> this question isn't the least bit interesting -1

Cerberus

Only close real spam.

Or just delete it, actually.

Unless you actually find managing and closing questions fun.

And you don't mind the bad experiences of new users.

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