Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
52
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
14
votes
1answer
264 views
Resources for learning Chinese dialects: Should we centralize this like we did mandarin chinese
This is a question in the same light as Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese: should we have it at all?
Most of these questions are scattered and not formatted or maintained to the same standard ...
10
votes
2answers
194 views
Why is the main site entitled "Chinese Language" rather than "Chinese Languages"?
As there are so many different spoken Chinese languages (i.e. topolects, e.g. Mandarin, Min, Cantonese etc.) and a few written Chinese languages (e.g. classical Chinese and various dialects of written ...
8
votes
1answer
204 views
What is the purpose, mission, or goal of Chinese Language SE?
I am a fairly new user of this stack exchange (active for only 1 week) and wish to ask a few re-occurring questions.
What is the purpose of this Stack Exchange?
What is this SE used for? Is it to be ...
8
votes
5answers
323 views
Weekly chatroom discussions/talk session(s)
The chat room has been quite ronery these days.
I was wondering if anyone would be interested in organizing a weekly discussions/talk sessions about things related to the Chinese language and ...
7
votes
0answers
62 views
Comparing our post scores with our peer sites
I adapted some Data Explorer queries to compare our post scores with our peers (questions and answers): see plots below.
I included posts created since 2019 (i.e., in 2019 or in 2020 up to the last ...
7
votes
0answers
43 views
How to keep improving this site
We have had a steady increase in the number of visits to our site over the past few months and I want to highlight some of the ways that we can continue to improve and maintain a healthy site.
Voting
...
6
votes
0answers
39 views
Improved IME Handling, re-enabling Enter to submit
In the past there was an issue (reported here) where pressing the Enter key to select an IME suggestion would also submit the comment.
The good news is that we believe to have found the proper way to ...
6
votes
0answers
122 views
Proposal to drop "& Usage" from the site title
Update 11/25: Thanks for your feedback! We're going to go ahead and drop "& Usage" from the site title. The header image and the "official" language around the site (in the help center and about ...
5
votes
0answers
32 views
2020: a year in moderation
As we say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the past 12 months.
As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange network ...
5
votes
0answers
50 views
Synonymize [taiwan] and [taiwanese] tags?
The two tags seem definitely redundant.
taiwan, 53 questions, tag excerpt: "Questions related to the varieties of Chinese spoken in Taiwan."
taiwanese, 10 questions, tag excerpt: "...
5
votes
0answers
52 views
July 2020: survey of comments on questions containing the substring "close"
Using this Data Explorer query, I searched for comments that contain the string close on questions. I went through them manually, and took a snippet from each relevant comment.
This is just a ...
4
votes
0answers
30 views
Can we pick another question for the tour page?
The current question on the tour page is was What are the common ice-breaker sentences in Chinese?. I see multiple issues with it:
It functions as an advert for ChineseHulu.com.
The question is ...
4
votes
0answers
16 views
Burninate [doraemon] tag?
I'm going to bet that this burnination request is not controversial. Nevertheless I'll pay my respects to my fellow users.
This tag is used in 7 questions (4 of which are closed) by the same asker, ...
4
votes
0answers
42 views
2018: a year in moderation
It's New Year's Day in Stack Exchange land...
A distinguishing characteristic of these sites is how they are moderated:
We designed the Stack Exchange network engine to be mostly self-regulating, in ...
4
votes
0answers
67 views
Moderator Pro Tem Nouncement
Throughout the beta, we need members from the site whose focus is to engage the community, both in community-building issues and site management. That's why we select a few members from each community ...
4
votes
0answers
75 views
Voice Chat Suggestion
Krazer and I were dicussing in chat today the most important aspects of language learning.
We both agreed that while chat/QA/learning characters is important, it's the ability to speak that will take ...
3
votes
0answers
41 views
Moderator Appreciation; 1 Year Anniversary
It has been just over a full year since the results from our first moderator election came in. We had two new moderators elected last year and they have just finished their first full year.
I would ...
3
votes
0answers
67 views
Basic statistics snapshot of SE languages sites: November 2019
TL;DR: I looked at some Data Explorer data for Stack Exchange's language sites. It seems
we create a lot of answers compared to our peers (is this good or bad?),
we really should be voting more (we'...
3
votes
0answers
107 views
Let's edit away "this sentence" from titles
Examples of "this sentence" in titles:
Help in this sentence
Is this sentence ambiguous?
What does this sentence mean
Does this sentence sound awkward?
Help me translate this sentence
...
3
votes
0answers
63 views
Use of code tag backticks / grave accents `` to mark up sinographs
I have seen a lot of people use backticks / grave accents (``) around sinographs, resulting in the browser rendering it as code. They are already monospaced, so why?
If my intuition is anything to go ...
3
votes
0answers
35 views
Which poster should I put up for promotion
If someone designs a poster promoting this site, I will put it up around uni in the Chinese language department.
Last year I did this myself, but I thought I might get some better designs if I opened ...
2
votes
0answers
87 views
Should character identification requests be answered or not?
I frequently see character identification requests, like this one:
Trying to translate signature and stamp for Chinese print (Characters identified: 戊午九月石年)
that have no actual answer — as defined ...
2
votes
0answers
35 views
Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese: resource eviction
In the Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese thread, there are useless resources, e.g.: (a) some guy wrote an app back in 2004, and it hasn't been maintained since, or (b) a predatory company copies ...
2
votes
0answers
60 views
Why don't users cast votes?
Prompted by this question, I considered that there is an abysmal lack of vote-casting in Chinese.SE
By looking at the voters stats, it looks like there's basically two active voters on Chinese.SE. Two....
2
votes
2answers
82 views
How do I make the following puzzle on-topic?
How do I make the following puzzle on-topic?
a. Just ask people to solve it.
b. Post the puzzle with the answer and ask which hint is not accurate
Recklessly run around
Make things up
A big mistake ...
2
votes
0answers
14 views
Merge [poem] into [poetry]?
I propose merging the tag poem (4 Qs) into poetry (48 Qs) (thereby getting rid of the poem tag). Again, this seems about as obvious as it gets. I'm mostly just posting this for the record.
I guess ...
2
votes
0answers
84 views
2020 Community Moderator Election
The 2020 Community Moderator Election is now underway!
Community moderator elections have three phases:
Nomination phase
Primary phase
Election phase
Most elections take between two and three weeks, ...
2
votes
0answers
30 views
Fixing broken links in the "Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese" post
This is the post: Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese (and the relevant meta post is here: Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese: should we have it at all?)
Going through the links one by one, ...
2
votes
0answers
57 views
Suggestions on the guidelines on the proper uses of the tag `glyph-origin` and `etymology`
Thanks to all moderators/high-rep persons involved in reviewing the question edits under the original etymology tag. Hopefully, this tag and glyph-origin, and their descriptions, are now compatible ...
2
votes
0answers
44 views
What does the tag 'taiwanese' cover?
The tag taiwanese currently has no tag wiki excerpt. It's purpose it not entirely clear, since it may cover:
Taiwanese Mandarin,
Taiwanese Hokkien,
Taiwanese Hakka,
the superset of all the Chinese ...
1
vote
0answers
30 views
Why were these two flags declined?
I raised a "comment no longer needed" flag on the comment to this question: How is “戚” Being Used as a Standalone Verb to Mean “Feel”? [closed]
I will once the system lets me- there's ...
1
vote
0answers
14 views
Synonimize [word-order] to [syntax]?
Syntax is defined as (emphasis mine):
[...] the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences (sentence structure) in a given language, usually including word order.
...
1
vote
0answers
35 views
What's the difference between [terminology] and [technical]? Burninate [technical]?
The usage guidance for the terminology tag reads:
For questions about technical or specialized words in fields like grammar, IT, politics, sports, etc.
Which is very much appropriate. The formal ...
1
vote
0answers
36 views
Tag synonym: [difference] and [usage]?
The tag usage is pretty clear:
Questions that concern the use of expressions, parts of speech, words, verbs, etc.
The tag difference instead is, to me, absolutely obscure:
For differentiating ...
1
vote
0answers
44 views
Should we defer editing old off-topic posts until after they get closed?
This post What should I consider for a one month language program? was recently edited, after four years of inactivity.
While the edit itself is sensible (some unneeded tags were removed), it bumps ...
1
vote
0answers
39 views
Difference in Textbooks and Books from "Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese"?
What is the difference between the sections Textbooks and Books from the Resources for learning Mandarin Chinese post? I believe there is some confusion between the sections.
1
vote
1answer
45 views
The new ask page "Step 1: Draft your question" has a few problems: what should we change it to?
When asking questions, we now have this message:
The community is here to help you with questions about Chinese language. Provide details and share research with your question.
See The new ask ...
1
vote
0answers
30 views
How Physics.SE handles "resource recommendation question"
This post is just a reference, and food for thought. Maybe we can adapt some of these ideas.
Their policy is described here:
See my answer here for the
rationale behind this policy
Note that this ...
1
vote
0answers
28 views
Should [reference-materials] and [resources] be synonym-ized?
It looks like reference-materials is almost the same as resources.
Question: Should reference-materials and resources be synonym-ized?
The tag reference-materials has 19 questions:
What are some ...
1
vote
0answers
79 views
Help for finding relevant answers in this reference request question
Learning Chinese using traditional characters is great because traditional characters respect the rules in the Six Writings (六書).
It might be a little bit late, but it would be more helpful if ...
1
vote
0answers
16 views
Are questions on quote origins off topic?
Again and again I see 墨子 citing Confucius on statements I believe he never said (in the extant records). I am tempted to ask about this, but guess it is off topic. What do you think.
1
vote
0answers
36 views
Is there a resource for the Classical Chinese Literary canon similar to Perseus for Greek&Roman materials?
Tufts university created a highly useful resource in Perseus that allows scholars of all levels of capability and experience to access Ancient Greek and Roman text in the original languages, usually ...
1
vote
0answers
66 views
Are questions about Mongolian allowed?
Mongolian isn't in the same language family as Mandarin Chinese. It is, however, a language which is spoken as a native language by some citizens of the People's Republic of China, and is even an ...
1
vote
0answers
56 views
We need some work!
This is not a question, close it if you need to.
I would like to remind everyone that we really need to ask more questions every day.
We have no hope to get past beta if we continue like this.
...
1
vote
0answers
35 views
Closed questions
The policy on SE is to delete closed questions that aren't salvageable, spam, illegal, too localized, etc. Only duplicates might be left there, as they serve the useful purpose of directing users to ...
0
votes
0answers
17 views
What should we do with "How to estimate your score for an HSK practice exam?"?
The question is here: How to estimate your score for an HSK practice exam?.
It was asked in 2013, and the top/accepted answer is now obsolete (as per my understanding). If I recall correctly, this ...
0
votes
0answers
23 views
Is preforming a survey on topic?
From time to time, some users would post a survey to gather some statistics. For example, "How many Chinese characters an average Chinese know?"
The table below contains 71 idioms. Native ...
0
votes
0answers
14 views
Burninate [gender] tag?
Currently there are 6 questions tagged gender.
I feel the tag is very narrow and used in a somewhat inconsistent way (see below). It can be better represented by other tags. In particular:
Does ...
0
votes
0answers
65 views
Interested in a Languages.SE supersite?
I'm considering proposing a site on Area 51:
Would a general Languages.SE supersite (synchronized with the current language sites) be feasible?
Short description of what I have in mind:
An English-...
0
votes
0answers
67 views
Chinese Romanizations
There are several romanizations of Chinese. But all of them are just that, romanization of Chinese. They do not represent Chinese language. What they do represent is the pronunciation for a variety of ...
