3

This site is geared towards native speakers as well as learners.

I feel that answers for learners need to take into account the "learning" status of learners.

In this question about alternative ways to say good-bye in German, the answers included "Hau rein" and "Du mich auch", suggested by two different members.

With all due respect to the efforts of the answerers -- who phrased it neutrally by stating that they were aware of these phrases, but did not give any recommendation about a suitable situation to use them -- that is probably not what a learner of German will want to try out on the general population as a non-native speaker without being aware of the context, the real meaning and the possible consequences.

So, do we need a disclaimer for "very colloquial", "use with caution", "vulgar" or the like? Do we downvote answers that offer such terms? Can we edit out (delete) the "cruder" bits so as not to embarrass the unwitting learner eager to try out the newly acquired vocab?

This site is meant to be helpful, but sending people off to their misery does not quite sound right.

Thoughts?

2 Answers 2

9

Downvotes plus comments are good enough. We don’t need an additional system to identify such answers.

7

There's a lot of misinformation and poor advice posted on the Internet. This is the very problem for which Stack Exchange was created. Folks are free to post their answers, but the users of this system are equally free to vet that information by the mechanisms of this site:

  • Voting
    Vote up useful answers; Vote down less-useful answers. The best answers will rise to the top while incorrect or incomplete information will be pushed down into obscurity.
  • Wiki-Editing
    If you find misinformation in a post, you have several options: Edit the post to add to or fix the information; Leave a comment on the post to suggest changes or additions; Flag the post for moderator attention for egregious problems that need administrative attention.
  • Forum Contribution
    If you don't like the answers you see, add your own (hopefully better) answer! You're content will get voted up and offer an alternative to the less-useful posts you are concerned about.
2
  • The problem is that "'Du mich auch' ist regional ein informeller Gruß" is not misinformation per se.
    – Phira
    May 25, 2011 at 16:26
  • 1
    @thei: Don't take "misinformation" too literally. Point being, the answers on this site are collaborative. If the answers can be made better or more applicable, the tools are there to do just that. May 25, 2011 at 18:31

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .