English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

timothymh

2:20 AM

My perspective on "whether or not": english.stackexchange.com/a/73227/17084

I'd love to hear other people's opinions on this.

timothymh

2:35 AM

Anybody alive?

David Wallace

I think I disagree with your answer. Let me read it again, just to be sure.

Yeah, it's a good answer, up until the last sentence. I find I don't care whether or not anyone joins me ... to be perfectly correct.

Mahnax

2:54 AM

@timothymh Billions of people!

David Wallace

Has anyone else noticed that after a few days have passed, the comments under an answer sometimes appear in a different order from the order in which they were posted?

I have a comment, under someone's answer, that's actually a reply to a comment that appears two places BELOW it.

timothymh

@DavidWallace It should be "I don't care whether anyone joins me;" the "or not" is completely unnecessary. Not that it's incorrect, just "less correct", as I said.

@DavidWallace Link?

@Mahnax Nice.

@Mahnax No.

3:00 AM

@DavidWallace Uh… why not?

David Wallace

@timothymh I find "correct" to be a binary condition. It's either correct or it isn't - there's no "less correct". And in this case, it's correct.

That's not to say that I don't understand your point of view; of course I do. I just happen not to agree with you.

Mahnax

@DavidWallace I have an idea as to why that might occur, but I can't confirm it if I don't have an example to look at. Is there any reason why you won't link to it?

David Wallace

@Mahnax I just thought someone might know why it would occur. That's OK. It's not terribly important.

Mahnax

Well, if something gets enough comments, then some of them are hidden; the highest-voted comments will be certain to appear, and the ones related to those might also appear. Just a guess.

David Wallace

Nah. Both my comment and the earlier one appear, without my needing to click the "more comments" link. The earlier one just appears after mine.

Mahnax

3:12 AM

Does yours have more upvotes?

David Wallace

No. All three have the same number.

Mahnax

Huh, interesting.

tosses awful theories out the window

David Wallace

It's just a caveat, I suppose, against holding dialogues within comments. Like sometimes they end up not making sense.

I just upvoted the comment that was in between mine and its predecessor, just as an experiment; and it didn't affect the order.

Mahnax

I see.

David Wallace

Hey, happy Canada Day.

Mahnax

3:22 AM

Yes, to you as well.

David Wallace

For me, it has already passed.

But I never knew it existed until yesterday.

Cerberus

Hello.

Mahnax

Hi doggy.

Cerberus

I wish you a great Canaday as well!

David Wallace

Hi Cerby.

So what did you do to inspire such a magnificent work of art?

Cerberus

3:27 AM

Hello, which work of art is this?

David Wallace

The Hibiscus of the Linnaea.

Cerberus

Ohh.

Yeah that is very nice. No idea.

David Wallace

Well, very sweet. Whatever the reason.

Cerberus

Yeah.

Mahnax

Well, I'm off, bye.

David Wallace

3:31 AM

Bye.

Cerberus

Bye!

So what's this penthouse room about?

David Wallace

Huh?

Cerberus

M&M were posting some pictures of penthouses there earlier.

Mahnax and Meysam.

David Wallace

You mean, top-floor flats? Or the magazine?

Cerberus

The former, of course.

Though I must admit I thought of the latter first.

David Wallace

3:40 AM

Yeah, otherwise I would have suggested you replace "of" with "from".

But boys will be boys, so anything's possible.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Oh, haha, so that was the only thing that concerned you...

@DavidWallace But these boys are so well behaved!

It's bed time.

Not for you, probably.

Bye!

David Wallace

No, not for me. Sleep well though.

Bye.

Cerberus

Ciao!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

4:00 AM

Huh, I opened this chat window, but then watched a movie on youtube and didn't notice that people were chatting here

►

timothymh

4:23 AM

@DavidWallace As outlined in other answers as well as mine, "whether" introducing a binary option stands perfectly well on its own—"or not" isn't needed. I'm finding it hard to express the difference without the ability to use vocal inflection.

(I've just posted a comment which may make it clearer...)

user19161

5:16 AM

1

Q: Expression: 'Correct! J'?

To q question that I had asked I got a reply as below: Correct! J Is there an expression like this in English. Just to clarify, neither my name nor the sender's name has the alphabet J embedded. The sender's entire reply was as follows: Correct! J -Sender Name Also, this does not appear to be ...

expressions

user19161

ED

Mahnax

Nice catch, Jasper.

user19161

@Mahnax As always, Matt.

user19161

I remember this one because Daniel answered it.

user19161

I also think we have been downvoting too many duplicates. Firstly, the duplicate may not be searchable. Secondly, even if it is, I think we should vote based on the quality of the question itself, not whether it is duplicate. Sure, one can always close it or delete it.

Mahnax

5:26 AM

> This question does not show any research effort

One moment.

If they had bothered to search at all, they would have found it.

Also, if the title had been more specific, it would have popped up as a similar question.

user19161

@Mahnax Depends on how the search is done.

Mahnax

english.stackexchange.com/search?q=j+in+email

I'm giving it a -1.

user19161

@Mahnax Sure you are a free man.

Mahnax

If they had bothered to Google search, they would have easily found the answer.

IMO, that demonstrates a complete lack of research.

user19161

@Mahnax In any case, I am glad my comments got two upvotes.

Mahnax

5:33 AM

@JasperLoy Of course.

user19161

@Mahnax By the way, that comment was autogenerated and disappears when the question is closed.

Mahnax

@JasperLoy I know.

Mahnax

6:10 AM

Hi @Gigi!

Gigili

Hey @Mahnax.

Mahnax

@Gigili Are you still in Canada?

Gigili

Nope.

Mahnax

Did you enjoy your trip?

Gigili

A lot.

You were extremely busy all the time! How was the Canada Day or whatever it's called?

Mahnax

6:18 AM

Ah, it was just a day of work.

David Wallace

I thought Sundays were a day of rest?

Gigili

@DavidWallace Umm, not for Mahnax.

David Wallace

Right. People want fast food, every day of the week.

Gigili

He refused to meet me there, which is really something.

How are you today @David?

David Wallace

Mahnax did that? Gee, that is something!

Mahnax

6:21 AM

@Gigili I refused? I was busy!

David Wallace

@Gigili Umm, much as I was last time we spoke.

but thank you for asking.

Gigili

@Mahnax You refused because you were busy is what I said.

Mahnax

@Gigili Oh, alright.

David Wallace

You're back home now, I take it?

Gigili

@DavidWallace Umm, anything I can do?

I am, yes.

David Wallace

6:23 AM

@Gigili Could you make me chicken soup?

Or bring me grapes?

Mahnax

@DavidWallace Are you sick?

David Wallace

@Mahnax I didn't go to work today.

@Gigili Are you feeling rested? Or are you suffering from jetlag?

Mahnax

@DavidWallace Aww.

Gigili

@DavidWallace Umm, hum? Sure!

@DavidWallace Both?

David Wallace

@Gigili Gee; you're so nice!

user19161

6:40 AM

@KitFox Happy birthday!

user19161

@Gigili Contradiction.

user19161

8:13 AM

@david I see you answered many questions today.

user19161

8:25 AM

@Gigili Now I can't find out how the meeting went because it did not exist.

Gigili

@JasperLoy Huh?

@JasperLoy HALT.

user19161

@Gigili I see the Islam site is in public beta.

Gigili

I see you see many things at once. Good for you.

user19161

GR

user19161

-1

Q: which is correct? paid or payed

I want use this as status of my customer's billing factors. which set should I use? pain/unpaid or payed/unpayed? If I should use another set of words, please let me know.