please help promote useful questions

[user_gary]

Threads without context will be summarily closed. Please help promote useful questions and answers by reporting such threads (use the red triangle), instead of wasting time begging and pleading for background and context.

I know the meaning of every word in the above paragraph.
But I could not understand what the above paragraph mean.

What does `red triangle' you refer to?
Please explain it.

 

[Old Novice]

The "promote useful questions" means to encourage questions that help achieve the goals of the forum (helping people learn, etc. -- see the sticky thread at the top of page one).

(The "red triangle" is in the top right corner of a post. It's white in the middle with a vertical black stripe. It also appears at the bottom of a reply, below the box where you type words, when you're drafting it.)

 

[cuchuflete]

The red triangle is this:

 

[user_gary]

Thank you.
Now I understood almost. But not quite well.

could you tell me what is the link between :

Please help promote useful questions and answers

and

by reporting such threads (use the red triangle), instead of wasting time begging and pleading for background and context.

 

[Old Novice]

Thank you.
Now I understood almost. But not quite well.

could you tell me what is the link between :

Please help promote useful questions and answers

and

by reporting such threads (use the red triangle), instead of wasting time begging and pleading for background and context.

My interpretation (which I assume the mods can correct if necessary) is that questions without context are hard to answer. They often lead to requests for clarification, or to responses that turn out not to be addressed to the question at all. That makes them less useful, and it wastes peoples' time and disk space on whatever set of computers holds this forum. All of which can be avoided if the questioner supplies enough context in the first place.

 

[user_gary]

Thank you very much

 

[cuchuflete]

Threads without context will be summarily closed. Please help promote useful questions and answers by reporting such threads (use the red triangle), instead of wasting time begging and pleading for background and context.

I know the meaning of every word in the above paragraph.
But I could not understand what the above paragraph mean.

What does `red triangle' you refer to?
Please explain it.

A useful question is a question that is fully and easily understood by those who read it. That usually requires that a thread has most, if not all, of these features:

1. A meaningful title that directs the reader's attention to a specific word or phrase or grammar topic. Examples of useful titles-- "Snowed in" "Going nowhere fast". These are phrases that will appear in a full sample sentence in the first post, and for which the member is seeking understanding beyond that which is available with a dictionary look-up.
A bad title that is not useful might be "Please review" or "What does it mean?".

2. A full sample sentence, rather than a fragment.

Good: If you prefer your answer in another language, please ask in the forum for that language.
Not so good: ...your answer in another language, please ask in the forum


3. Background: Where did you see or hear the word or phrase you are asking about? This may help members distinguish between a number of valid uses of a term. For example, if the thread topic is "on deck", the meaning is completely different if the background is a sports report or an article about an aircraft carrier in the navy.

4. Context: Words and phrases have different nuances and meanings in different settings.
If the sample sentence is presented by itself, we may not have all the information we need to establish the meaning or intention of a word or phrase. Placing a sample sentence in context, with both the preceding and following sentences, can help make understanding much easier.


Example:

No context, but a full sample sentence-- You have no idea how much that comes in handy in the minute or two you get to dash in there between quarters.
Suppose the thread question is about "you get to dash in". It's difficult to know what the sentence is about. Now suppose we have some context--

But there are never lines in the press box women's restroom. You have no idea how much that comes in handy in the minute or two you get to dash in there between quarters. Being one of only a few female sports reporters, I only have to compete with them and the handful of women on the UH crew for restroom time.

It now becomes clear that the dash is a quick trip to the bathroom.

 

[hly2004]

Yes, simply put, the meanings of a word or phrase always depend on the context it's embedded in. No context, no accurate answer~!