Let's get critical: Jun 2013 Site Self-Evaluation

Question

We all love English Language Learners Stack Exchange, but there is a whole world of people out there who need answers to their questions and don't even know that this site exists. When they arrive from Google, what will their first impression be? Let's try to look at this site through the eyes of someone who's never seen it before, and see how we stack up against the rest of the 'Net.

The Site Self-Evaluation review queue is open and populated with 10 questions that were asked and answered in the last quarter. Run a few Google searches to see how easy they are to find and compare the answers we have with the information available on other sites.

Rating the questions is only a part of the puzzle, though. Do you see a pattern of questions that should have been closed but are not? Questions or answers that could use an edit? Anything that's going really well? Post an answer below to share your thoughts and discuss these questions and the site's health with your fellow users!

Answer 1

I think we need to start talking about what level of research effort we actually require to keep questions open. We say that sharing your research is requisite, and when questions are straight dictionary-lookup we enforce it, but there are a lot of questions that could be answered (or at least attempted to be answered) by research first, and yet are posted sans-research. A recent example: this question and the first link that pops up on a google search for wrong vs wrongly.

It's entirely possible the OP could still be confused after finding that link, but they could have tried to find the answer, encountered that link, shared it, and explained what they still didn't understand. I'm seeing a disparity between (my interpretation of) what we've said we require as a level of research, and what we actually enforce when it comes to closing questions. So my question is: are we being too forgiving with leaving questions open? Or is our policy as stated too harsh and we're doing the right thing? Or is it something in between?

(Perhaps this should be a question in and of itself, because I've been thinking this for a while, but since the self-eval is what got me to finally post it I'll leave it here for now and see what the feedback is. But I don't see us closing many questions that I think require more research, and I'm wondering why, so I'd love to hear what the community thinks.)

Answer 2

Final Results

• Is there a specific term to describe time 6:00, 7:00, 8:00 etc

  Net Score: 8 (Excellent: 8, Satisfactory: 5, Needs Improvement: 0)

• Derisive laugh - usage context

  Net Score: 0 (Excellent: 1, Satisfactory: 11, Needs Improvement: 1)

• Proper term for dog waste

  Net Score: 7 (Excellent: 8, Satisfactory: 3, Needs Improvement: 1)

• Why isn't there any article?

  Net Score: 2 (Excellent: 4, Satisfactory: 6, Needs Improvement: 2)

• What does the word "colony" means in the context of a British colony in Berlin?

  Net Score: -3 (Excellent: 2, Satisfactory: 5, Needs Improvement: 5)

• "His sight blurs in dizzy."

  Net Score: 2 (Excellent: 5, Satisfactory: 4, Needs Improvement: 3)

• Rectangle Adjectives

  Net Score: 5 (Excellent: 5, Satisfactory: 7, Needs Improvement: 0)

• "Gave me one of the recipes that were/was"?

  Net Score: 9 (Excellent: 9, Satisfactory: 2, Needs Improvement: 0)

• "Is it proved that ...?" vs. "Has it been proven that ...?"

  Net Score: 8 (Excellent: 9, Satisfactory: 1, Needs Improvement: 1)

• Is "native" always considered offensive, when referring to a person who lived in a place originally?

  Net Score: 3 (Excellent: 4, Satisfactory: 6, Needs Improvement: 1)