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You love your site and we love your site, but there is a whole world of people out there who might not even know it exists. When they do find it, their first impression will either scare them away or keep them around. Given this, let's take a hard look at the questions and answers here and make sure newcomers see the site at its best!

Below you'll find ten questions randomly selected from this site. What do you think about each of them and their answers? Are they the best they can be or can they be improved? Would they look interesting and inviting to an outsider or are they a little embarrassing?

Upvote the corresponding post here on meta when we're awesome. Downvote when our content just isn't quite up to par.

Oh, and do comment to let everyone know your thoughts and take part in this conversation. :)

Note: This evaluation will close on 10 October 2012. Please get your comments in by then!

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  • 2
    As an aside: よろしくお願いします~!
    – Aarthi
    Oct 1, 2012 at 22:28
  • Thanks for your help, everyone!
    – Aarthi
    Oct 18, 2012 at 20:16
  • 1
    I don't know if you caught this, or if it happened here (I was away for this eval), but apparently the vote fraud script is incorrectly removing multiple downvotes from some evaluations. Jeff posted a workaround where you disassociate the owner from the answer posts.
    – Troyen
    Oct 18, 2012 at 21:24
  • @Troyen yeah, Anna and I saw that. We're going to try and make sure we do that moving forward.
    – Aarthi
    Oct 18, 2012 at 21:29

10 Answers 10

Reset to default
9

How 「えい」 should be pronounced in the words like 英語, 先生, etc?

What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.

Question was edited -- and now this post is, too!

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    There is a slight mismatch here between a very low-level basic question, and an extremely informative (but very technical) answer by taylor. With that said, it's an excellent landing page for someone seriously interested in the language.
    – jkerian
    Oct 2, 2012 at 15:36
  • @jkerian I perfectly agree. Maybe a little too tl;dr for the casual reader though?
    – rurouniwallace
    Oct 2, 2012 at 22:13
  • [amused] At first glance, I felt even the "short" answer was too long. Improved formatting will help.
    – ento
    Oct 3, 2012 at 4:37
  • I took a crack at reformatting the short answer.
    – jkerian
    Oct 12, 2012 at 21:13
8

How did 家, 手, and 士 come to be included in the names of professions?

What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.

1
  • :( A case of answer-in-question-comment syndrome.
    – ento
    Oct 3, 2012 at 4:39
8

Difference between Fire : 火【ひ】and 火事【かじ】?

What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.

2
  • 1
    :( A case of answer-in-question-comment syndrome.
    – ento
    Oct 3, 2012 at 4:33
  • @ento we seem to get a lot of those on this site...
    – rurouniwallace
    Oct 4, 2012 at 17:54
5

The difference between 初めて, 最初に and 最初

What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.

1
  • There are some answers here, but it seems like they could be made a bit more authoritative.
    – jkerian
    Oct 2, 2012 at 18:49
5

What is よ doing as a connector before a comma?

What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.

3

Making sense of the N1にN2 construction (「パンにバター」＝「パンにバターをぬる」）

What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.

1
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    This is not the best introduction to the community, but this is only because the question was fundamentally the result of misunderstanding a grammar point. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, it's just not a great advertisement.
    – jkerian
    Oct 2, 2012 at 15:54
3

Where does the word キレる come from?

What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.

1
  • The combination of the two answers provides very good coverage. One covers what it means, why it's spelled in katakana+hiragana, and how to use it. The other discusses the probable origin of this form.
    – Peter
    Oct 3, 2012 at 18:41
3

Spotting the N1 に N2 construction (eg パンにバター）

What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.

1
  • Is the Nx notation familiar to most people?
    – ento
    Oct 13, 2012 at 3:57
3

What is 方 used for (when attached to a た-verb)?

What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.

1
  • 方 isn't a suffix, so the title might be a little confusing for someone who actually does know the answer. Edited the title accordingly.
    – rurouniwallace
    Oct 4, 2012 at 17:53
3

Different conventions for animal meat

What do you think about this question and its answers? Vote and comment to let everyone know.

[Edit!]

8
  • The existing answer doesn't provide a good explanation. The existing comments on the answer already make this observation. The answer is much more like a comment and less like an answer.
    – Peter
    Oct 3, 2012 at 18:38
  • @Peter: I kindof disagree. The answer actually does give you the pattern, it's just not a convenient rule you can use for any given situation. You have to know the etymology. I'll edit it to make it more explicit, but the information has been there since the original answer.
    – jkerian
    Oct 3, 2012 at 19:35
  • @jkerian - the updated version is much clearer and easier to follow.
    – Peter
    Oct 3, 2012 at 19:49
  • @Peter I have to agree with jkerian. It's unfortunate, but a consequence of this being a language Q&A site is that there won't always be a convention. Or at least, one as strict as the asker is looking for. This is one of those cases.
    – rurouniwallace
    Oct 4, 2012 at 17:47
  • @phoenixheart6 - my comment says that the answer didn't provide a good explanation, whether there was a pattern or not I felt that this was true. This was a comment based on the OLD answer. I posted a new comment shortly after jkerian updated his answer saying that it was much better. Unfortunately my -1 is already locked in and I can't remove it :(
    – Peter
    Oct 4, 2012 at 18:27
  • Maybe @Aarthi could modify the answer so I could remove my down vote since this question has been modified.
    – Peter
    Oct 4, 2012 at 18:44
  • 1
    @Peter Done! :)
    – Aarthi
    Oct 4, 2012 at 18:45
  • @Peter After looking at the original answer in the edit history, yea, you're right.
    – rurouniwallace
    Oct 4, 2012 at 18:46

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