To the moderators of this site

Question

Grammar rules are not precise enough to say if y refers to la dimension or le désir, your question is purely about the meaning of a sentence that most native speakers will find too complex in its form, too obscure in its terms (and that was written by someone who loves writing complex sentences).

I thought this was an expert site dedicated to French. Obviously, it is not. This user's every words testify to this site not being an expert place where enthusiastic learners such as myself can gather to have their knowledge of the language vastly improved.

If it were, no one in their right minds would say that my question is purely about the meaning of a sentence that most native speakers will find too complex in its form, too obscure in its terms (and that was written by someone who loves writing complex sentences).

What does that even mean? Does it mean that there is a metric limit to the (self-proclaimed) expertise this site has to offer? If some sentence happens to be too complex in its form, too obscure in its terms, does this site offer no assistance to the learner who wants to grasp it despite its formal complexity, despite its perceived obscurity?

So the serious learner is actually encouraged not to know anything about the beautiful subtlety of the French language.

If this is what this site is really about, then I bid you all adieu.

It is clear that this site and I are not compatible; therefore I want the moderators of this site (those who can, of course) to delete my account effective immediately.

So no need for any of you to downvote this letter of protest; for I'm not coming back to be humiliated again.

Answer 1

Should you actually come back to see the response here...

That's not at all what this site is about, and you're being unfair to the people who have invested substantial time and effort in it, and in answering your questions.

As a moderator on another StackExchange site, a user with several years' experience, and someone trying to learn enough French to be able to start asking proper questions here (instead of just reading here and there), I would suggest you consider your motivations here.

Your user page shows 53 questions, and all but four have accepted answers. That's wonderful! I don't see how you can say that the site is not a place full of people helping you to learn about French when you've gotten that much from it in less than a month. Disagreeing with the closing of a question should not negate all of that if you're really trying to learn. It might be a reason to start a discussion on meta about that question.

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As for the handling of that specific question, honestly, based on what everyone said, it makes sense that it was closed, though I should note that some people were still trying to help you even as the question was being closed. (This is common on StackExchange sites - we'll often say "this is off-topic, but hint hint maybe try X.") If the question is "how do I understand this?" and the answer is "you can't, it's ambiguous" then it's not really an answerable question. And closing is, among other things, intended to deal with unanswerable questions.

If this were a site I had close voting privileges on, I would probably have voted to close it as primarily opinion-based, since second-guessing the author's intent is essentially opinion. As far as I understand, it's not inherently off-topic to ask about the meaning of a word, in perhaps a confusing or unusual context. But questions which invite everyone to share their own opinions (essentially a poll) are one of the types of questions which don't work well at all on StackExchange sites, so they get closed.

In any case, if you disagree, the right thing to do is post on meta. Sometimes people do decide to reopen questions, and even if not, you may come to understand that they have good reasons for closing them. In the meantime, you can go on asking your other questions and learning!

Answer 2

I'm sorry to see you go. I'd hoped that you'd sleep on it and come back.

The comment you dislike is one comment by one user.

That question has been closed and reopened.

No moderator action was taken on this post, only the moderation actions of closing and reopening.

I won't repeat Jefromi's very good answer on how we do encourage learning, and you have been able to experience this.

I do agree that “your question is purely about the meaning of a sentence that most native speakers will find too complex in its form, too obscure in its terms (and that was written by someone who love writing complex sentences)”. But since it was written by a French person, with the intent of being a French sentence, it's perfectly normal for us to explain it.