Activity for Mark Bakerâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edit | Post #75028 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Are speaker tags always necessary when multiple people are in the conversation? Essentially, you do need a speech tag if the reader can easily tell who is speaking. Under what conditions can the reader easily tell who is speaking: 1. There are only two people in the conversation and we know who spoke last, so the new speaker must be the other person. But note that you can't c... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #75025 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: What to do with cliched metaphors? As is typical with tired language and cliches, the main problem here is not simply that the phrase is overly familiar, but that it is inappropriate to the scene. This is not a scene in which two people fail to take each other's meaning, despite speaking the same language. Mother and daughter understa... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #75024 |
@Sigma, yes, language is hard. Or, to be more precise, language is organic, not mechanical, and therefore it is hard to understand it in mechanical terms, and hard to govern it using mechanical rules. Any system of prescriptive grammar has to be understood as at best an approximation of the organic w... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #75024 |
Post edited: typos |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #75024 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: "The tale how" vs. "The tale of how" What is wrong with it is that it is not idiomatic, as you note. Writing idiomatically is the important thing here. It really does not matter whether you can explain or justify an idiomatic expression grammatically. In fact, grammarians can really tie themselves in knots sometimes trying to fit so... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74972 |
@ArtOfCode Well that is unfortunate. The only use of last activity date that I can think of is to see if there is anything new to look at since you last visited. It's one more thing that makes it hard to keep up with what (if anything) is happening here. Anyone who visits the site regularly basically... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74972 |
It seems now to be reporting the last answer or edit on an answer, but not comments. If there are comments made after the last answer or edit to an answer was made, they don't seem to be reported as activity. For an example, check out the last modified date for this question. (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #75011 |
I don't disagree with that. Users are familiar with the term click and familiar terms are incredibly persistent. (Horsepower, for instance!) Select and click are both viable options, IMHO. Trying to come up with some exotic new term is the fatal mistake. But we need to make the argument for the right... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #75011 |
The language that the code speaks to the machine really has no bearing on the language that the documentation speaks to the user. The machine must be addressed in terms that the machine understands. The user must be addressed in terms that the user understands. They are often very different terms.
... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #75003 |
Agreed. The only way this place thrives is if it becomes known as the best place to ask questions, and that only happens if it becomes known for having the best answers. Otherwise SE's first mover advantage will be insurmountable. More vigorous curation could certainly do a lot to improve the quality... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #75001 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: What new data should we import from SE? I don't know. What this place needs is not more data but more users. Bringing over a few more months of questions from SE would give the few of us who still check in here something to chew on for a little while, but I don't see it changing the dynamic. Sooner or later this place has to learn to fly o... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74983 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: mice don't tap and tablet-users don't click: what word can I use for all audiences instead? Notice that you don't "click" a mouse. You point to an object with the mouse point and you press the mouse button. And the mouse button makes a clicking sound. Click is not an action, it is feedback. In other words, the current word is not a literal description of what you do. It is a word chosen... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74958 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Question | — |
Last activity data incorrect The "last activity" data on posts appears to be inaccurate. I just answered a question, but while the answer count shows my answer, the last activity data still refers to the time the question was asked. Image alt text I've noticed in the past that the last activity indicator on posts often se... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74957 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: How can I make a transition from third person omniscient to first person less jarring for the reader? It is almost certainly just a really really bad idea and you should stick to either one. At novel length it has been made to work by people like Charles Dickens and Cormac McCarthy, but at short story length I can't imagine it being successful. Novels can be episodic in structure, but a short story i... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74906 |
This sounds a lot like the various types of reactions that you can make to a Facebook post. The difference being that on Facebook they don't accumulate to an reputation or other form of trust mechanism. But why shouldn't they, in principle? Getting a lot of "that worked" votes, for instance, might me... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74904 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Accepted Answer? It strikes me that there was something contrary to the stated aims of Stack Overflow about the accepted answer button. SO set out not to provide an answer to one individual but to create a permanent collection of questions and answers that would be valuable to many people. Given this, what is the poi... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74879 |
Post edited: typos |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74882 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Question | — |
Naming of Categories Apropos of the Sequence of Categories can I suggest some standardization of the naming of categories. In particular, I would suggest renaming "Q&A" as "Questions". Yes, questions have answers, but then Challenges have responses, so it is not necessary to name both components in the category name. ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74879 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Is sharing prior research does more harm than good, in general, in Q&A sites? I think the point of requiring evidence of prior research is to avoid clogging up the site with endless repetitions of the same basic questions. The point of a Q/A site, or, at least, the stated goal of Stack Exchange, was not to provide answers to individuals to to build up a permanent resource that... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74845 |
Post edited: typos |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74845 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: How do I deliver a historical plot reveal? The question you always have to ask about a reveal is, what is it paying off and how its it paying it off. The narrative technique you use should be appropriate to the type of payoff you are creating. Dramatizing the moment of the reveal may be absolutely necessary if the information pays off in term... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74800 |
Good question. I'm not sure if there is just one word. "Arc" might come close, but I don't think it suggests the whole idea, perhaps only because it is so commonly used that its implications are forgotten. (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74810 |
The best decision that the Writing community on SE ever made was that critique was off topic. There is no shortage of critique sites on the web and they have developed rules and mechanisms to keep things fair and civilized. Let them do what they were designed to do (but by all means list them as a re... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Comment | Post #74807 |
Maybe the standalone posts would work better. I was thinking one page per resource, rather than lists. The other thing could work to, I suppose: a request for resource recommendations followed by answers suggesting resources -- the dreaded list post. :-) But I was thinking more in terms of proactive ... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74807 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Shall we showcase some of our fiction, poetry, and other work? Speaking of categories, what about a category for Resources. People could suggest books on writing, write reviews on them, and other resourses, and share opinions on their virtues and vices. (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74801 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Shall we showcase some of our fiction, poetry, and other work? For what purpose would people publish their work here? If it is for critique, this seems like too public a forum for it. It will look like publication and that will make the work ineligible for publication elsewhere, at least until it is taken down. And if it is taken down, what happens to the co... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74800 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: What information about a fictional world is unnecessary? To solve questions of this kind, you have to understand the role of setting in a story. Stories do not exist to describe settings. Settings exist as a place to stage stories. Settings contribute to a number of aspects of a story. They contribute to the plot, obviously, when the material circumsta... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #38613 |
Post edited: typos |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74775 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Is publishing a book around the age of 14 possible? Lots of people start writing novels in their teens. Most of them are not very good at first. That is to be expected. A novel is one of the most complex forms of art that can be created by a single person. After all, a novel has to entertain a reader consistently for ten or twelve hours. What other wo... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #74769 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Question | — |
What happened to the Questions Tab? What happened to the Questions Tab? We used to be able to see multiple pages of questions and view them in different ways, including "Lottery". Now there is just one page of questions with no navigation and no alternate views of the list. (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39433 |
Post edited: |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39443 |
Post edited: |
— | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #41988 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: Is the first page of a novel really that important? Yes, the first page is vitally important. It is the place where engagement happens. It is the place where the reader either sinks into the world of the story or skates of the words without engaging. It is the place where the character and/or setting either comes to life or remains lifeless. It is... (more) |
— | over 4 years ago |