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This website seems hard to me. Always getting down votes. It's highly degrading me. I am frustrated to use this website. I won't post comments or discussion or questions in this website. If I ask questions they are always down voted and so are my answers. This site won't help beginners, I think. I also want to mention another thing: tags, which are extremely disguising things, and also reputation. So that I am tagging here

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    Try English Language Learners -- that's for you! Good Luck
    – Kris
    Aug 22, 2014 at 6:33
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    Hello burm. If you read the explanatory material given under 'help', you'll see that the purpose of this site isn't to help people with basic questions about English. There are plenty of sites that are intended for that purpose. Sometimes it feels like people are demanding that the site fit in with their demands! Aug 22, 2014 at 6:42
  • Are you saying this site is only for research purpose @EdwinAshworth .Do you understand what i am trying to say.
    – burm1
    Aug 22, 2014 at 6:47
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    Having been a member for only a couple of weeks myself, I can understand what you mean. However, once you realize how much effort many of the other users put into providing useful and well-researched answers, and start selecting and formulating your questions and answers with the same care and attention, you will be amazed how useful this site is. Aug 22, 2014 at 6:48
  • "Are you saying this site is only for research purpose" Yes, that's correct. It's only for top experts to discuss expert issues. (It could be that this is not made clear enough - if that's the case, you're smart to point it out, good one @burm1)
    – Fattie
    Aug 22, 2014 at 10:21
  • As a side note, it is a rather bizarre notion that beginners are helped by upvoting their question. This is a question-and-answer site, not a question-and-upvote site. People come here for answers, not for imaginary internet points. And the helpfulness of an answer is determined entirely by the helpfulness of the answer, not by whether the question it's on is sitting at +10 or −10. Now, if there is no answer or comment or any reaction at all, that is not helpful — but again, that would not change one bit if we upvoted the question to 100.
    – RegDwigнt
    Aug 30, 2014 at 16:58

3 Answers 3

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You are very right in drawing that conclusion.

However, this site was never meant to help beginners! It is clearly stated that

English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts.

For beginners, people that are learning the English language, there is our sister site: English Language Learners.

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    +1 That makes it very clear (as long as you read the tour and understand those words). The 'Ask Question' page says How to Ask : Is your question about English language and usage? We prefer questions that can be answered, not just discussed. Provide details. Share your research. and makes no mention of needing any sort of qualification or skill level nor is there any mention of ELL. So it's no surprise that people ask questions that fit that 'definition'. ELU doesn't do a good job of directing learners to ELL.
    – Frank
    Aug 22, 2014 at 9:23
  • @Frank: I think part of the problem is that ELL isn''t yet a "fully-fledged" SE site (it's still in "beta"). Consequently, TPTB aren't yet willing to support Migrate to ELL on the "closevote" options. Added to which, some ELU users don't see the point of ELL in the first place - for a variety of reasons, including that some questioners feel it's "beneath them" to use a learners' site. Things will probably improve somewhat when ELL finally "graduates", but collectively ELU isn't currently doing much to help that happen any time soon. Aug 24, 2014 at 18:28
  • @FumbleFingers ELL seems like a good site, it is definitely more understanding of people who don't write English perfectly. I don't contribute there because I don't know the mechanics of English - I have no idea what a third person past-perfect continuous is (if there is one) and to be honest little interest either. Maybe it'll change if ELL fledges or maybe just one site where people only take an interest in questions that interest them. Who knows? But while ELU doesn't help to direct people to ELL before they ask ... same old, same old.
    – Frank
    Aug 24, 2014 at 18:55
  • @Frank: Some ELL questioners are obsessed with terminology like third person past-perfect continuous and third conditional, but many/most of them just want to know how to use English more like native speakers. Even if you didn't answer questions there, your comments and votes as an obviously competent speaker would be more than welcome on ELL. Aug 24, 2014 at 19:03
  • @Frank: you don't need the tour. Who this site is for is the first thing you read on the front page upon your first visit, before you even get to click on "Ask Question". You've got an account now, so you've long forgotten what the site looks like to an all-new visitor. Log out and see for yourself.
    – RegDwigнt
    Aug 30, 2014 at 0:30
  • @RegDwigнt It still says linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts which, if you really should be asking on ELL you might not understand those words and read into it just hmmm, hmmm (insects?) and serious English language hmmm, so English language then - perfect!
    – Frank
    Aug 30, 2014 at 10:01
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The Internet is full of people from different places, different cultures, and different age ranges. Stack Exchange is also a part of that, having a very wide variety of users, some/most of who are here to prove/approve themselves and disapprove all the others out there. This behavior will be more tangible when you're new to the place and the others with a higher reputation, feel they have more authority. This is not a good thing, but that's how the world works nowadays! We need to be able to believe in our own abilities, and try to improve them in a good way.

This website can have negative effects on the new (or even old) users, but at the same time it helps them grow up, and mature to be independent learners, being able to search, research and learn independently.

As @oerkelens mentioned, you should ask your beginner questions in E.L.L., but chances are you'll get burnt over there, too. I was looking at your profile, and I noticed you had an answer that provided two links only. You do get down-votes for that, because there's no content other than a link; and in case the contents of that link changes in the future, there will be no valid answer for the question on Stack Exchange, so if you want to provide an answer, you must explain it in detail and add the reference to it in your post.

Or, a question of yours has been put on hold as unclear what you're asking, since there are no actual questions in that post. You've thought about a person and tried to describe her in two lines and a subject line. We cannot guess what you're thinking about. You should express yourself clearly to get a good answer.

Also do not forget that all the users get here for the effort they put in answering questions and maintaining the site, is reputation (+badges), they're not paid to maintain such a service, so there should be a rewarding system to demonstrate people's activity, and there's nothing wrong about that. If you think that reputation and tags are disgusting/disguising (?) you shouldn't be bothered at the down-votes that you receive.

Try editing your posts and adding more context to them, and voters should remove their down-votes. However, there are people who enjoy being sarcastic and mocking others in addition to trolling, and find the Internet and these websites a great place to do so. This shouldn't hold you back, because as I said, different people are different in many aspects and you see this in real life, as well. Do the right thing, flag and report the irrelevant content, and eventually if you're still getting harassed for any reason, flag the related posts for moderation attention, and they'll take care of it, if it's a rational report.

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It couldn't be more obvious - the site you are looking for is ELL.

ELU has no connection to or involvement with beginners.

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    Yes it could be a whole heap more obvious. ELU does a very good job of keeping people away from ELL who might get better answers by asking their questions on ELL. If all the real English learner questions didn't come to ELU there'd be slim pickings for ELU and then there'd be one.
    – Frank
    Aug 22, 2014 at 14:35
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    @Frank: Your first sentence is true though unhelpful: your second purely argumentative if not a peeve: your third barely comprehensible. And if you really think you could do a better job keeping ELL questions off ELU than the mod and others who have been trying literally for years, go ahead and make a constructive suggestion. Aug 22, 2014 at 20:31
  • @TimLymington Neither argumentative nor a peeve, I don't care who asks what here, I just ignore the questions I want to, but there are people who would be better served by ELL and ELU makes no attempt to guide them there BEFORE they ask their questions.
    – Frank
    Aug 23, 2014 at 5:55
  • I agree on point #2: ELU does a very good job of keeping people away from ELL who might get better answers by asking their questions on ELL. EL&U is the 'official' site; ELL is in 'beta'. The URL for EL&U is english.stackexchange.com; ELL is self-titled. EL&U appears on the first page of google results for searches that don't specifically include ELL or ESL terms; ELL does not appear on first page of many searches that do include those terms. The EL&U landing, ask & help pages do not mention ELL at all. EL&U is in the top of the Culture/Recreation list in the footer; ELL is absent.
    – Patrick M
    Aug 25, 2014 at 15:15
  • Just noticed that the 'on-topic' help page does mention ELL, but that's far from a prominent mention.
    – Patrick M
    Aug 25, 2014 at 19:12
  • The situation is simple. This site is not for ELL questions.
    – Fattie
    Aug 26, 2014 at 10:22
  • In your comment, you wrote "This site is not for ELL questions." Fair enough, as far as it goes. But if, as quite a few people have pointed out, the signposting of the ELL site is inadequate (or even non-existent) where it would be relevant for a person seeking to post an ELL-grade question, then that signposting clearly needs to be improved/made more prominent, or else put in place if it is absent. They can hardly be blamed for posting on ELU if the inadequacy of SE/ELU signposting means they have no idea of the existence -- or relevance -- of the ELL forum.
    – Erik Kowal
    Aug 30, 2014 at 5:29
  • Hey Erik! Everything you say sounds 100% correct. {Perhaps technologically, need be a much simpler path "move this to ELL".} And just TBC, if this was SimCity and I was the player, I'd change the remit of this site to include ELL questions. But as it stands, "The situation is simple. This site is not for ELL questions." the OP has anger and indeed depression about the current situation. (Re-read the original question up top!) In response to that anger/depression, the situation is remarkably simple, HE ACCIDENTALLY HAS THE WRONG SITE, it's a case of: "it's that simple, OP buddy!"
    – Fattie
    Aug 30, 2014 at 5:42
  • Note too that since this answer is voted down heavily, it is, obviously, the correct and full answer, given the usual famous inverse voting on this site :) The situation could hardly be more simple: "I feel degraded by this site!" Answer: "Great news buddy, you've just come to THE WRONG SITE, you're looking for ELL." Or, "I think that this site won't help beginners" (ie: the question title), Answer: "Great news buddy, you've just come to THE WRONG SITE, you're looking for ELL." There are FURTHER ISSUES ARISING ("should we change the links etc"), but I've given the full answer.
    – Fattie
    Aug 30, 2014 at 5:47
  • Just TBC Oerk's answer (which is identical to this answer) is also perfectly correct -- the OP should tick it!
    – Fattie
    Aug 30, 2014 at 5:50

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