13
votes
Accepted
How can a native English speaker with no experience teaching or learning English help, if at all?
The way that I approach this as someone who enjoys language, but probably has a better technical understanding of the construction of software languages than natural languages, is to
be very aware ...
- 12k
12
votes
What is the recommended action when the top-voted answer is incorrect significantly?
Well, according to the answers to this question:
Comment (you already did that)
Downvote (I assume you did that as well)
Invoke the Meta effect
Write your own (correct) answer.
I think there's ...
GlorfindelMod
- 14.7k
11
votes
Stop answering close-worthy questions!
There are two sides to this coin. Some might wonder, "Why are people answering these close-worthy questions?" But others might wonder, "Why are we closing these answerable questions?"
Incidentally, I'...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
11
votes
Accepted
Cite your sources!
There is no policy declaring that answers must have a URL attached to be considered valid.
That said, there are a couple reasons why some in the community might appreciate a reference from a ...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
10
votes
So many answers in comments
Huh, weird. This gets asked often enough in metas, and I was fairly certain it was asked here too, but for the life of me I can't seem to find it. Anyway, here's the wisdom of the ancients on it.
...
- 7,351
10
votes
Are answers written by AI Chatbots suitable for the site?
We want original content, not copy-pastes.
I think maybe the best way to frame it is by asking something like "Do we want answers that just link another forum" or "do we want answers ...
- 766
9
votes
Accepted
If there is more than one right answer can I summarize the answers?
The As a learner, how do I choose which answer to accept? discussion might help a little. If you truly can't decide among all the answers which one helped you the most, you don't have to accept one at ...
- 12k
9
votes
How useful are "Here, say this instead" answers, when the OP isn't asking for them?
Your Q2 is interesting:
Is "foo bars the baz" grammatically correct?
If we followed your guidance to an extreme, and only answer what the O.P. is directly inquiring about, we'd end up with a lot ...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
9
votes
Let's use plain language (this time for real)
One thing that your post overlooks that should be highlighted is that ELL is not divided into "askers" and "answerers". In many cases, because they've struggled with the same ...
- 12k
9
votes
Let's use plain language (this time for real)
As an editor and proponent of what editors call plain language, I feel I have to act as a kind of apologist here, as well as provide possible side commentary to what's already been said.
In the ...
- 36.3k
9
votes
Accepted
Should I delete my answers?
There is no shame in an answer receiving no upvotes or not being accepted. Be patient. Do not be discouraged if an answer is not (yet) accepted or has received no upvotes. I have had answers accepted ...
- 70.8k
8
votes
Accepted
Lesser of evils on ELL: comment vs. LQ answer
If someone understands the SE guidelines and why they're a good idea, the answer to "what is the preference?" is (in my opinion) to simply act in good faith and do what you think is best for the site ...
- 12k
8
votes
How can a native English speaker with no experience teaching or learning English help, if at all?
I've been there!. First, read this post of mine which I had posted in March 2014. Take some time thinking on it.
Do you see the frustration I had in my mind then? I completely understand your concern ...
- 65.9k
8
votes
How can a native English speaker with no experience teaching or learning English help, if at all?
In general, if you think that something sounds wrong, but you don't want to say much more than that, I'd recommend leaving a comment.
If you want to expound on that some more, however, and leave an ...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
8
votes
Why was my answer on the "caps in soccer context" question removed?
Adding greater emphasis on the correct meaning in the citation would have probably been enough.
There are dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of posts across the entire network that expand and ...
- 26.5k
8
votes
Answering when proof of negative required
The appropriate answer on Stack Exchange to the question "Are any humans over 3 meters tall?" is not "I don't think so"; it is "The tallest recorded human is 2.72 m according ...
- 12k
7
votes
Should a refutation to an answer be added to the question?
I think when people can listen to the source for themselves it is not appropriate. When I listen to the clip of the game I hear “gearing up for a huge storm”, and I think that is correct based on what ...
- 12k
7
votes
How can a native English speaker with no experience teaching or learning English help, if at all?
I think the most important thing we can do as native speakers is provide something a grammar book can't, namely to tell what sounds natural and what sounds stilted, contrived, or just "off."
My ...
- 312
7
votes
Let's use plain language (this time for real)
While loquaciousness for the sake of loquaciousness is obviously a bad thing to have in an answer, I do think taking a common sense approach to writing answers is enough, and don't agree that ELL ...
- 9,467
7
votes
Am I allowed to post short, simple answers if they answer the question?
@gotube's answer is great, but there's another reason why such answers are often deleted, which is applicable to all sites in the network.
Suppose somebody else answers as follows:
The first sentence ...
GlorfindelMod
- 14.7k
7
votes
What should be the qualifications for answering questions?
There should not be any qualifications to answer questions on ELL based on level of expertise. Here are some reasons, though I don't doubt that there are more:
I've seen non-experts write some ...
- 15.3k
6
votes
How useful are "Here, say this instead" answers, when the OP isn't asking for them?
I think the best way to answer this question is by way of example - if you see somebody wandering around looking lost, and they ask whether an incredibly convoluted set of directions will get them ...
- 2,150
6
votes
Are answers written by AI Chatbots suitable for the site?
NO
(mostly)
Should such answers be deleted/flagged?
A post with unattributed content from a bot is plagiarism and should get flagged for immediate deletion.
The rest of my answer assumes proper ...
gotubeMod
- 48.9k
5
votes
Accepted
Guide to formatting ELL answers -- best practices?
In general, don't overuse formatting. If you can make do with a paragraph containing one italicized word and a "short" quote, don't turn it into a bulleted list with bold and italics and superscript ...
5
votes
Accepted
Is wiktionary a reasonable source to back up answers?
There is a list of resources, including dictionaries, on English Language and Usage Meta that you may find helpful.
To answer your question about Wiktionary: as long as the definition is accurate, I ...
- 7,038
5
votes
Should a refutation to an answer be added to the question?
Back when you wrote the question, it would have been worth mentioning how your written version of what's said in the video was taken verbatim from the transcript. It might have been nice to include ...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
5
votes
Accepted
How are answers with no votes sorted?
Answers with equal scores are randomly sorted according to How are answers with the same vote score sorted?
Accepted answers are at the top, unless the author of the question accepted their own ...
- 12k
5
votes
Cite your sources!
I'll repeat something I wrote in another meta post re. the things I look for in a good answer
Is it correct? Does it provide the right answer to the question? Does it use the right grammar/...
- 88.1k
5
votes
Accepted
No votes means not trustable?
When an answer has net upvotes, some users have expressed the view that it is a good answer. That presumably means that those users consider it trustable. But I have seen blatantly wrong answers ...
- 40.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible