27

This is replacing a previous question (deleted, so 10K only) on the description of the Enlightened badge in the Help Center:

First to answer and accepted with score of 10 or more. This badge can be awarded multiple times.

The phrasing of this explanation is incredibly awkward without punctuation.

A suggested alternate, clear wording from Daniel Fischer's comment in the previous question:

First to answer, and the answer was accepted and has a score of at least ten. This badge can be awarded multiple times.

Improve this question
0

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
-2

The current sentence is fine IMO as it has a conjunction binding "answer" and "accepted", and score is obviously related because there are no commas:

First to answer and accepted with score of 10 or more.

The suggested alternative has unnecessary exposition:

First to answer, and the answer was accepted and has a score of at least ten.

If a user does not know that only answers can be accepted (and so the sentence definitely should make sense) then they are unlikely to be so worried about the Enlightened badge just yet.

Improve this answer
3
  • 3
    Is the goal to have the tersest technically correct description for the badge, or to have a comprehensible description? Not all users here are native English speakers, is it necessary to have a "clever" but hard to parse wording of the description? Besides "first to answer" refers to the user, while "accepted" refers to the answer itself. It's not coherent. The first "answer" in the proposed description is a verb, the second is a noun.
    – user262767
    Commented Sep 15, 2015 at 7:21
  • @NajibIdrissi No worries, I think it's perfectly decent English. Yes I'm native English, but even considering non-native I just don't see the problem with the sentence. What else would "first" be other than the user - "first to answer"? First what - first URL, first upvote? It's obvious.
    – James
    Commented Sep 15, 2015 at 16:44
  • I'm a native English speaker with a rather excessive fondness for overly-complex phrasing that technically parses to exactly one canonical meaning if you look at it right… and I think the wording in the badge is rather unfortunately cryptic. Let's not require too many double-takes.
    – Nathan Tuggy
    Commented Nov 13, 2015 at 4:45

You must log in to answer this question.

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