20

Looking at the Help Center page on Cast Close And Reopen Votes, I notice the "Reviewing close and reopen votes" section at the bottom has the following paragraph:

This privilege level unlocks two more review queues for close votes and reopen votes to look over questions which may have slipped through the cracks or have been improved and now need reopened.

Should this not be:

... or have been improved and now need to be reopened.

or:

... or have been improved and now need reopening.

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  • We need English.SE people to come in on this one. – Forest Kunecke Jun 13 '14 at 13:50
  • 1
    @FKunecke english.stackexchange.com/questions/123562/… - this seems to be a Scottish production also active in Pennsylvania English. – ecatmur Jun 13 '14 at 14:00
  • I've run into this in Colorado as well, @ecatmur - after 10 years, it has started to infect my speech as well. Although I'm pretty sure I didn't write that originally. – Shog9 Jun 13 '14 at 17:00
4

Simpler is better:

This privilege level unlocks two review queues for questions which may need to be closed or reopened.

I also made some tweaks to the following paragraphs, which were somewhat dated.

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  • 1
    Pedantically speaking, it should be that instead of which (because may need to be closed or reopened is a restrictive clause). – Maxpm Jun 13 '14 at 16:53
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    FINE, @Maxpm. Edited again. – Shog9 Jun 13 '14 at 16:59
12

Yes, but if we are fixing that, I'd go further in that the language is still ambiguous even then (does the and or the or bind tighter?) - thinking about it, is 'slipped through the cracks' supposed to apply to the close vote or reopen vote queues? I assumed the former, but thinking about it, it could actually be either.

How about

...which may have slipped through the cracks (and need closing) or have been improved (and now need reopening).

or a complete rewrite:

This privilege level unlocks two more review queues: close votes, for questions which have been flagged for potential removal; and reopen votes for questions that may have been improved or incorrectly closed.

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  • 2
    I'd use 'that' instead of 'which' in the rewrite. I believe the first 'which is fine, but the seconds should have a comma before it if left as is. that or which – Tanner Jun 13 '14 at 13:31
  • Fair comment. Fixed. – Oliver Matthews Jun 13 '14 at 13:50
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    Needs a comma before "and reopen votes". – pixelmeow Jun 13 '14 at 13:55
  • Fair point, although the clauses contain commas, so added a semicolon instead. – Oliver Matthews Jun 13 '14 at 14:34

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