English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Matt Эллен

12:04 PM

@Robusto essentially he misread (stack)(English bulldog) as (stack English)(bulldog).

Robusto

Either way, I voted to close as too localized.

KitFox

And OP answered the question almost immediately.

Matt Эллен

probably checked the "answer your own question" box

Robusto

May 14 at 14:36, by Robusto

KitFox

How much trouble would it be if I just deleted the question?

Robusto

12:09 PM

I don't think I've ever answered one of my own questions, but I'm considering it in the case of the one about question tags, which yielded a disappointing amount of responses, and most of that was unhelpful.

@KitFox You should probably just bring the hammer down and close it.

KitFox

I think I answered one of my own once.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox Well, I don't think it's that bad. it is badly written, but if it were cleaned up, it could make for an acceptable meaning question.

KitFox

Except OP already knows the answer.

And has posted it.

Matt Эллен

yeah, but that's OK. people are allowed to do that. dog owners represent a large minority of human beings

Robusto

@MattЭллен But it is dog-breeding argot, not really a question about English in general.

Matt Эллен

12:11 PM

I bet a lot of them don't know what stack means

I didn't, but I don't own a dog

Robusto

@MattЭллен Dog owners are minor human beings. They have no rights here. Teh Internetz belong to cats and their videos.

Matt Эллен

you're all so catist!

KitFox

OK @Matt. You want it, you clean it up.

Matt Эллен

alright. I'll give it a try

KitFox

I'm not happy to have an OP who asks a question and answers it all in the same breath.

Robusto

12:13 PM

@MattЭллен Stop being so dogged in your opposition.

@KitFox More and more, I simply want it out of my sight. Will no one rid me of this turbulent question?

Matt Эллен

@KitFox hey, I was cleaning! ;)

KitFox

It's not really off-topic.

@MattЭллен Sorry. Habit. I can't stand pointless links nor nudity.

Robusto

It isn't even a question about English, fer chrissakes.

How do you get from "stack training" to "Stack English"?

Matt Эллен

@Robusto it's about the meaning of a word used in English. we allow terminology questions

Robusto

So you believe that person is teaching a dog a version of English (i.e., "Stack English") no one has ever heard of? — Robusto 14 secs ago

The OP's question is ridiculous on the face of it.

cornbread ninja

12:20 PM

@Mahnax oooh!

Matt Эллен

Well, I've given it my best shot. do with it as you will

Mahnax

@cornbreadninja Yeah!

I'll be the proud owner of five new books by the end of this school year.

And hopefully more from elsewhere.

Robusto

I think I'll just go and misunderstand something, then pose it as a question on EL&U. Then I'll suddenly understand it and provide an answer.

cornbread ninja

It is shower o' clock.

washes butter off of self

KitFox

@Robusto But then say that I haven't.

Robusto

12:23 PM

@KitFox You're making this very difficult.

KitFox

@Robusto I am here to make things difficult.

Matt Эллен

If you want to close something as too localised:

1

Q: Which etymology of "perpetrate" is more convincing?

This time I find two statements each from Wiktionary and Etymonline. perpetrate(Wikitonary) From Latin perpetratus, past participle of perpetrare (“to carry through”), from per (“through”) + patrare (“to perform”), akin to potis (“able”), potens (“powerful”); see potent. perpetrate(Etymonline)...

etymology

@KitFox I added the bit about looking in a dictionary to the Stack question. In case you didn't realise. I was just trying to make it valid.

KitFox

@MattЭллен Oops.

Mahnax

12:41 PM

I'm off to get breakfast, bye.

Matt Эллен

CU

user19161

@Mahnax I'll be hiding in your food as usual.

user19161

So I am teaching Matt's new chat trick in the other room.

user19161

The one where you drag the left down arrow directly into the box.

Matt Эллен

yay!

spread the knowledge

user19161

12:47 PM

openSUSE 12.2 is out!

Matt Эллен

are you going to upgrade to it?

user19161

Not upgrade, just install. I change these things like diapers.

Matt Эллен

I see

Mitch

@Robusto I totally thought this was...

bat.

shit.

crazy.

But then I wasted time looking at the links.

user19161

@Mitch Bad shit or bat shit?

Mitch

12:49 PM

bat shit

Matt Эллен

guano, man, guano

Mitch

crazy

user19161

I have seen bats before I think. They were flying in the sky at night, very scary.

Mitch

anyway..and RM answered his own question immediately.

Matt Эллен

bats in the UK aren't scary. AFAIK, they don't carry rabies.

user19161

12:50 PM

And one morning I was going to school, there was a huge flock of birds and they shit all over me.

Mitch

so -not- guano induced delirium, just weird.

@WillHunting that wasn't shit.

user19161

@Mitch It is bird shit.

Mitch

reminds me of a joke....so there was this guy...standing in the middle of a crowd...and a bird flew over...and the bird crap happened to land on him and only him...and he started to wail and gnash his teeth...his friend said 'You're not special, the gods are not out to get you. it had to happen to somebody in this crowd.' And the guy said. ' Yes, I know all that. I know it was just a random accident of me out of hundreds. But...

Matt Эллен

... Mitch won't finish the joke.'

Mahnax

@WillHunting Neat.

user19161

1:03 PM

@Mahnax Did you see me in your eggs?

Mahnax

@WillHunting I did not have any eggs.

I don't really like them.

user19161

@Mahnax I like three yellow foods: eggs, bananas and noodles. In fact one can survive on them alone for a lifetime.

Mahnax

@WillHunting I will eat eggs if they are prepared for me, but I'd rather have toast or hash browns.

I love noodles, but I dislike bananas.

user19161

@Mahnax You like oranges I know.

Matt Эллен

I wonder if you can dessicate banana into a flour like substance and make noodles from it...

KitFox

1:06 PM

Sure can.

Banana flour noodles.

Matt Эллен

Sounds yummy :)

Mahnax

@WillHunting Yes.

user19161

How about banana egg noodles?

KitFox

Man, I want Thai food for lunch.

user19161

The three into one.

Mahnax

1:07 PM

I just want Thai food all the time.

Or Indian food. Yum.

KitFox

Sure. Banana flour mixed with eggs and water to make noodles.

0

Q: Wich one is correct 'Wish I was here' or 'Wish I were here'?

which one is correct form, 'Wish I was here' or 'Wish I were here', even though I heard both of them many times, but I don't kno

conversation

user19161

3 is a very special number.

user19161

Proton, neutron, electron.

user19161

Past, present, future.

KitFox

4

Q: "Was" or "were" in subjunctive clauses

I'm not a native english speaker, so even though I'm decently proficient at it, I don't really "know the rules" sometimes, and this is one that's been confusing me for a long time. Which one is correct in each sentence? If the movement [was/were] to continue uncorrected, the tower would on...

subjunctive-mood

Maybe this one.

Matt Эллен

1:13 PM

how about

32

Q: "If I was" or "If I were". Which is more common, and which is correct?

My question of whether to use if I was or if I were. Which one is incorrect or nonstandard?

word-choice grammaticality subjunctive-mood

Mahnax

Does anyone else see that when you click the grey thing that says 1 new answer to this question?

Mitch

... why me ?'

@MattЭллен ha!

KitFox

1:30 PM

I should've worn a bathing suit today.

It's very wet.

Also, cold. So I'd need a fur bikini like what's-her-name.

Spark

@kit

@kitfox, you should probably go inside if it's that wet.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox did Betty Rubble ever wear a fur bikini?

Cerberus

1:49 PM

The owner of the Twin Towers has sued the airlines of the planes that destroyed his towers.

Insane.

Matt Эллен

o_o

how does he hope to win?

Cerberus

Well, this is America...

Matt Эллен

unless the airline is run by terrorists...

Cerberus

Yeah.

The idea is that they could have prevented the attacks by better screening.

Matt Эллен

lol

cornbread ninja

1:52 PM

@Mitch when I saw 'classes just started' in my inbox, I thought you were referring to those in Empathy.

Matt Эллен

they should just walk up an punch straight in the face, then sue him because he should have screen better for face punchers.

Cerberus

How about if he had screened his towers better for collapsing?

Matt Эллен

:D

cornbread ninja

@WillHunting Marcia, Jan, Cindy.

Cerberus

And don't forget the bombing that took place in the underground parking thing.

Wasn't that in the WTC too?

A few years earlier?

Only because the terrorists miscalculated did the tower not collapse then.

Huge holes was blast into several of the lower floors.

Matt Эллен

1:57 PM

he needed to have contracted to people who build with indestrutable materials

then the plane would have bounced off

cornbread ninja

@Cerberus Is this news from 2002?

Robusto

@Cerberus Faulty design. All aircraft should be designed to prevent all unforeseen circumstances from ever happening, and all airline personnel should know what to do in all situations, real or imaginary, and to act in such a way that the meanest junkyard-dog lawyer could never find fault.

Matt Эллен

> I think definitions 1 and 2 do not fit what Mitch feels because, to the contrary, Mitch loves Reg

but is that love requited?

Robusto

@MattЭллен Who is this "Reg"?

cornbread ninja

businessweek.com/news/2012-09-04/…

Matt Эллен

2:00 PM

@Robusto probably Reginald Perin

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Exactly.

@cornbreadninja I read it this newspaper today.

He got permission to sue them.

@Robusto Very good idea. And every citizen should make sure not to breathe such that the circulation could cause a storm on another continent.

Matt Эллен

Yes! I could sue a religious establishment for getting me to pray to the wrong god!

Cerberus

Yes!

If you had prayed to Brahma, those planes would have been diverted.

Matt Эллен

2:16 PM

If only, if only.

KitFox

@Spark lol

tchrist

0

Q: Evolution of the word 'hate'

Reg: - I just finished my homework. Spending the rest of the day playing in the garden. Mitch (who is not finished with homework): - I hate you! hate (verb): 1. to feel extreme enmity toward; 2. to have a strong aversion to, find very distasteful. I think definitions 1 and 2 do not fit...

meaning

Interesting names there.

@kit I meant that I keep finding deleted things that don’t say why they were deleted nor when, just are in pink. Not that they don’t autobox, which I understand.

@Robusto Apparently "Reg" is the one who hates "Mitch", per Torpour.

KitFox

@tchrist Yeah, @Matt's asked about it on Meta.SO.

tchrist

k, thanks.

KitFox

8

Q: The info about who deleted what and when is gone

I can only reproduce this at EL&U because I don't have 10K elsewhere. It could be a problem elsewhere. Yesterday a deleted answer had a little note saying who deleted it and when: Today that same answer does not have that information: Link to the particular answer This is happening on...

bug deleted-answers

tchrist

2:23 PM

Lemma check on SO to see if deleted answers also have that missing.

No.

KitFox

Comments say yes.

I think.

It seems spotty and across multiple sites.

tchrist

That includes an extremely recent deletion.

5 seconds ago being extremely recent. :)

Yes, I saw that one, too.

Don’t understand it.

Robusto

@tchrist That can't be coincidence.

tchrist

I see nothing on MSO about it.

@Matt I think this should go on MSO.

Matt Эллен

@tchrist what should?

tchrist

2:30 PM

The issue with missing delete info.

Matt Эллен

I mentioned that the bug affects answers on main and meta EL&U in my MSO question

8 mins ago, by KitFox

8

Q: The info about who deleted what and when is gone

I can only reproduce this at EL&U because I don't have 10K elsewhere. It could be a problem elsewhere. Yesterday a deleted answer had a little note saying who deleted it and when: Today that same answer does not have that information: Link to the particular answer This is happening on...

bug deleted-answers

tchrist

You have an MSO question?

I saw your meta-ELU question.

Matt Эллен

I do indeed

@tchrist that's on MSO

tchrist

Hee.

I thought it was a meta-ELU question. Har.

Matt Эллен

:D

cornbread ninja

2:32 PM

english.stackexchange.com/a/80085/18399

Mitch

@cornbreadninja There are classes in Empathy? Awesome. Actually I didn't get your empathy reference "My empathy surfaces at strange times and in strange ways".

tchrist

@cornbreadninja Yep, that’s an another example.

cornbread ninja

@Mitch I wanted to help Robin Michael.

tchrist

@cornbreadninja Good luck with that one.

cornbread ninja

@tchrist I think I'm over it.

Mitch

2:35 PM

@cornbreadninja Oh I see.

tchrist

Go here for recently deleted. Those are all all messed up. [sic]

cornbread ninja

@Mitch ...but I'm a jerk in real life.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja there's help there that is needed though. So there's RM, and Torpour, and there are a couple of other dudes that are not spammers but just ...weird.

cornbread ninja

@Mitch I never wanted to help XVH.

Mitch

juts came out in the past week...is it 'Eternal September' starting this September?

oh yeah. X. but he's not an idiot.

well...

@cornbreadninja excellent. sort of. I think.

cornbread ninja

2:38 PM

@Mitch it's not. I dislike it.

KitFox

0

Q: Can the Meta sites have non-color-based visual cues to help distinguish them from the Main sites?

A color-blind user posted a feature-request on our English.SE site, asking for non-color-based visual cues to help distinguish the Meta site from the Main site. I think it is an excellent request to accommodate users with poor color vision. Some of the suggestions on that user's request include...

feature-request

By the way. ^

I've been meaning to upgrade our user's suggestion.

cornbread ninja

@Mitch I can't get out of my head most of the time.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja how about just 'cranky'?

cornbread ninja

@Mitch it's more than that.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja oh..empathize?

Matt Эллен

2:39 PM

@KitFox +1'd

cornbread ninja

It's more than that, too.

KitFox

@MattЭллен thx

Now I'm back to testing, unless there's something pressing?

Mitch

@MattЭллен +1'd also. me too.

KitFox

@Mitch thx to you too.

cornbread ninja

Let's say things at work are bothering me (this happens frequently). I get up to go to the restroom, I run into a coworker. Most of the time I can't stop telegraphing my frustration/anger and just let it go for a minute and smile or talk to the person. And most of the time, I don't care. When I do care about it, it wrecks me.

Mitch

2:41 PM

@cornbreadninja I've heard that trying to overcome things like that takes a lot of energy and resentment is a natural response to that effort.

@cornbreadninja just say 'I gotta poop'.

that'll shut em up.

cornbread ninja

-_-

Mitch

Or 'Excuse me, can I get back to you real quick? I have a meeting.'

when you say 'let it go...', ... I'm just wondering.

cornbread ninja

@Mitch let my work frustrations go. Sheesh.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja what I was referring to:

►

Note Emperor Palpatine as the butler in the background

Matt Эллен

The times when I really must go
To my coworkers I must say "no!
Your time is not now
You silly old sow
It's important I do this, you know?"

KitFox

2:53 PM

There's the one I was looking for.

Matt Эллен

whoa

KitFox

Laetitia what's-her-name in the fur bikini.

Mitch

It doesn't look that warm.

KitFox

It is a rather odd choice.

Form? Nope. Function? Nope.

Mitch

Who keeps flagging and then undoing it?

@KitFox Then it's Art!

KitFox

2:55 PM

And lunchtime.

bbl

Matt Эллен

CU

Robusto

@KitFox So that's what the Russian wax job looks like. I think I prefer the Brazilian.

Spark

3:15 PM

@kitfox Thanks for that. I remember that picture from the SI Swimsuit issue that it originally appeared in.

Matt Эллен

kermit time

tchrist

Colorless green dreams sleep furiously.

@JR I am in full concordance with your expressed opinions in this matter, but only wish to pass, and possibly perpetuate, an ironic comment with respect to the verbosity that I perceive as an attribute of the utterance inspiring both my earlier pronouncement and your response to the same. — David Wallace 16 hours ago

That is just so scrumptious, I wanted to repeat it here.

Robusto

3:36 PM

@tchrist No Chomskyites in chat.

user19161

@Robusto I can't tell the difference.

user19161

@tchrist This is incomprehensible to me. It sounds pretentious.

Robusto

@tchrist Also, DW must be disqualified because he didn't end with an exclamation mark. It's too bad, really; he was so close!

@WillHunting You mustn't be looking in the right place.

simchona

@KitFox I can't see any mod chat rooms any more. Can you?

Robusto

Oh? You didn't get the memo?

simchona

3:41 PM

I usually miss the memos.

What did I miss?

Ah, there we go.

Why did all the parent users change?

user19161

@simchona They change according to how they are set by the user.

simchona

@WillHunting I didn't change it.

Other people apparently had the same thing happen

user19161

I change the chat parent user almost everyday for fun.

user19161

So I don't notice any weird things happening.

Robusto

Prepositions pose more communication problems for learners of English as well as for native speakers than any other part of speech. In addiction, as "Nortonn S" has demonstrated, there are circumstances when prepostions cause difficulties due to a variety of factors; for instance: "he graduated high school in 2008" or "he graduated from high school in 2008", "he never wrote of it to anyone" or "he wrote nothing about it". — Xavier Vidal Hernández 22 hours ago

"In addiction"? Really? Do we really have to suffer this clown and his not-English invasion?

simchona

3:47 PM

Those prepositions are a heady thing.

Robusto

And WTF would he know about the problems of "native speakers" of English?

user19161

@Robusto The claim about prepositions might not be true either.

simchona

I am happy to be learning of a school. Yes?

user19161

Articles are a big headache as well.

Robusto

He also cites "Nortonn S" as an authority. That alone should be a tip-off.

KitFox

3:49 PM

@Spark Thank @Яeg. I stole it from him.

mafutrct

Hello, could anyone help me rewriting a sentence?

KitFox

I'm not sure soft tacos for lunch was a good idea.

Robusto

@KitFox You misspelled whatever Reg's name is now.

KitFox

@mafutrct Sure.

@Robusto Oh, thanks.

mafutrct

@KitFox "All tiles that have not yet been removed are assumed to be possible to be removed without increasing shanten, thus leading to the minimum possible shanten number of this node."

I'm worried about the consecutive 'to be'.

KitFox

3:50 PM

Mahjong?

mafutrct

Yep

KitFox

"It is assumed that all remaining tiles may be removed without increasing shanten..." is probably clearer.

Robusto

@KitFox This.

KitFox

I'm not sure how I would reword the other part of the sentence though.

mafutrct

That's a nice idea, it does sound clearer.

KitFox

3:53 PM

"The minimum possible shanten number for this node is figured by assuming that all remaining tiles may be removed without increasing shanten."

simchona

@KitFox Did you see this?

user19161

I can't rewrite it as I dunno anything about mahjong.

mafutrct

@KitFox Nice, that's something I can use :)

I'll try that, thank you very much!

KitFox

@mafutrct You're welcome.

@simchona I had been avoiding that question. Looks like a lot of people talking.

Robusto

Ya, It's a Pome for RegDwight

The time has come, you knew it must,
To cease abusing our chat-room trust.
For you to show us the proper deference
You'll have to allow us to give you reference.
In short, it's time to stop being a dick:
Just dump the annoying faux-Cyrillic.

simchona

3:57 PM

@KitFox Also, sent you a page to check out in the SAI room

KitFox

@simchona Saw it, thanks.

user19161

@KitFox I fit none of the four criteria in the question, hehe!

ΜετάEd

@Robusto Dammit, that is so close to being a limerick. Fix it.

Robusto

@ΜετάEd Too late.

user19161

@Robusto Is that a Pome or Poem?

ΜετάEd

4:00 PM

It's a pome, obviously.

Robusto

@WillHunting It's a Pome. Can't you read?

ΜετάEd

jinx

Robusto

Mine was capitalized.

ΜετάEd

That's a typographical convention. We said the same thing at the same time.

You owe me a Coke.

user19161

Pome

In botany, a pome (after the Latin word for fruit: pōmum) is a type of fruit produced by flowering plants in the subtribe Malinae of the family Rosaceae. A pome is an accessory fruit composed of one or more carpels surrounded by accessory tissue. The accessory tissue is interpreted by some specialists as an extension of the receptacle and is then referred to as "fruit cortex", and by others as a fused hypanthium it is the most edible part of this fruit. The carpels of a pome are fused within the "core". Although the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp of some other fruit types look very mu...

ΜετάEd

4:01 PM

Made with cane sugar.

user19161

Ah, pome does exist!

Robusto

@ΜετάEd Damn. I thought I could squeak out of that one.

user19161

Obviously, it is not in my minuscule vocab.

user19161

Perhaps we can randomly rearrange letters of a word to form a new word.

ΜετάEd

"a pome for fall" by E.E. Cummings.

user19161

4:07 PM

@ΜετάEd A falling pome rather.

user19161

Apple drops on Newton.

Robusto

@WillHunting Apple dropped the Newton back in the '90s.

@ΜετάEd Close. The reference was to something that is only fragmentary in my memory. Might have been cummings. Could even have been a funny greeting card. But the piece ended thus: "What did you expect, a pome?"

Which has always struck me as funny, even if I don't remember its provenance.

ΜετάEd

@Robusto I think for trying to fiddle the jinx you now owe me ȥ Cokes.

Robusto

Will bacon help?

KitFox

Bacon always helps.

user19161

4:15 PM

@Robusto That spoils both the bacon and the coke. Only for dummies.

KitFox

spackles bacon on codez

Robusto

@WillHunting It's an acquired taste. Like pineapples on pizza.

bll lunch

tchrist

Is this "Not An Answer"?

0

A: "Do a shop" for "go shopping"

"Do a shop" is no more or less "correct" than other slang, e.g., "Let's do lunch", "Let's take a meeting", and "Enhance your manhood by 3 inches instantly!" It's what people say. If they say it, and if other people understand what they mean, what on Earth does it matter? This is the first time I...

KitFox

No.

ΜετάEd

@Robusto "bacon, lettuce, and lychee lunch" ftfy

KitFox

4:18 PM

It's not a good answer.

tchrist

I didn’t think so.

That’s what I thought, too.

KitFox

But it is an answer.

user19161

Why do I see "delete(1" instead of "delete(1)"?

tchrist

I ask because there were several comments by people claiming it is not an answer.

But I would not flag it.

I just wanted to be sure my instincts were on track here.

user19161

Counting the number of delete votes above that is.

tchrist

4:19 PM

@Kit Thanks.

@WillHunting Where?

ΜετάEd

@tchrist Including one comment of mine. Opinions are not answers.

user19161

-2

Q: Is "literarilly" a word?

Google and my spellchecker seem to agree that literarilly is no word, but nonetheless Google finds hundreds of matches. Moreover, the word literary exists. So I'm unsure now. Anyway, in the sense of "non-interpreted", only literally makes sense, right?

meaning

tchrist

I think the last build screwed up the delete code.

12

Q: The info about who deleted what and when is gone

I can only reproduce this at EL&U because I don't have 10K elsewhere. It could be a problem elsewhere. Yesterday a deleted answer had a little note saying who deleted it and when: Today that same answer does not have that information: Link to the particular answer This is happening on...

bug deleted-answers

user19161

@tchrist Oh, so you see it too. Phew!

tchrist

No, I can’t see it too.

Lemme look on SO where I have 30k.

It is too recent for me to see delete votes on ELU.

They don’t trust me yet on recently closed things.

I have to wait 2 days.

simchona

4:22 PM

0

Q: The closing parenthesis is missing

On a question that has been voted to be deleted, what I read is "deleted (1" instead of "deleted(1)" I was previously seeing. Looking at the HTML output, I notice that effectively the parenthesis is missing, not that two HTML items are overlapping each other.

bug

user19161

@simchona He sees everything!

tchrist

Yup, it’s a bug. Confirmed.

Does somebody have an example question with deleted answers of both flavors: at least one each that shows why it was deleted and another that fails to show this? I’m trying to check HTML. It looks like the ones without an annotation are missing it from the HTML, too.

ΜετάEd

Speaking of bugs. It's a hilarous fact that the person often credited with inventing the term "debugging" (after a real live bug got into a Harvard Mark II) was named Grace Hopper.

tchrist

Oh god! That is so funny!

ΜετάEd

Did you ever see her speak?

tchrist

4:35 PM

@kiamlaluno reposted it to MSO, so vote/comment there:

2

Q: Missing parenthesis after the number of deleting votes

When I see a question that has been voted to be deleted, I read "delete (1" instead of "delete (1)" I was used to read before. This happens on Meta Stack Overflow, and other sites. I checked the HTML output, and effectively the parenthesis is missing. It is not hidden by two HTML elements t...

bug

ΜετάEd

Grace Hopper on nanoseconds:

►

I heard her deliver one of these lectures. I wish I had gotten a nanosecond to take home! :-(

Mitch

@tchrist I removed all the crap.

tchrist

@Mitch Bravo for you! Bet it pisses Huitzilopochtli off, though. He’s a firebrand.

KitFox

@Mitch Oh, you forgot to leave in the part where he said that he didn't know its origin.

Mitch

@KitFox yeah..I didn't think that added anything. Should I add it back in?

KitFox

4:45 PM

@Mitch Well, it 'answers' the origin part of the question, is all.

ΜετάEd

A non-answer is not an answer.

So I wouldn't leave that part in.

Mitch

I think there are good answers that say 'there is no answer'. And possibly also 'I don't know the answer'. But it was part of a screed, not an explanation that his lack of knowledge is probably a sign that it doesn't exist

ΜετάEd

@Mitch "There is no answer" is an answer. "I don't know the answer" is not an answer.

Mitch

@ΜετάEd "I don't know" is an answer if it is some kind of example (by authority, where authority is acceptable) that others would answer the same way.

anyway a quick google search shows that a number of people use the phrase in the stated fashion. I've never seen it before but, weird, some people have.

ΜετάEd

@Mitch You mean "I don't know" can basically mean "nobody knows because I don't know and I would know if there were something to know"?

Mitch

4:51 PM

@ΜετάEd Yes, if not presented so arrogantly (that is without some support, like few # of google hits or 'not in a dictionary' of course with all the difficulties of 'proving a negative')

ΜετάEd

@Mitch I like the edit; but now what's missing is anything to substantiate the claim that people do use the phrase. Do you want to add the results of your Google search?

Of course the other answer has the same problem.

In fact the two answers are virtually identical now, except for style. "I don't know; people do use it though (unsubstantiated)."

Mitch

@ΜετάEd well, the screed kind put me off from helping out that answer.

ΜετάEd

@Mitch Understandable.

Cerberus

5:03 PM

Hey.

Do you know hackertyper.com ?

It's great for hacking and stuff.

Even I can do it.