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On the Stack Exchange Front Page, there is a section for Top Network Users, which links to the profiles of the askers and answerers of the top posts featured on that page:

Stack Exchange front page

It reads

Top Network Users

These users asked or provided top answers for the posts on this page

It may just be me, but that sounds a bit off: they "asked or provided top answers?" I understand the intent: "they asked (or provided top answers for) the posts on this page, but it sounds like it says that they asked top answers, which doesn't make any sense.

You could insert commas to emphasize the or:

These users asked, or provided top answers for, the posts on this page

However, this still sounds quite off and I think it could use some rewording.

I think that it should be something along the lines of

Top Network Users

These users provided the top questions and answers on this page

(Thanks, random)

However, anything moderately clearer will suffice.

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  • 2
    "These users provided the top questions and answers on this page"
    – random
    Commented Jul 13, 2014 at 20:58
  • @random I like that much better.
    – AstroCB
    Commented Jul 13, 2014 at 21:53
  • Not entirely sold on the proposed wording, but I agree that what we got now is clunky at best.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Jul 13, 2014 at 21:54

2 Answers 2

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+50

Perhaps it could be worded like this:

These users either provided the question or top answer to a post on this page

But even with updated text (this or otherwise), I could not help but observe that the list, at least when I checked, only ever contains the question asker, and not any of the top answerers.

That being the case, the whole list is really just duplication of what is already available on the page (since each post specifically lines out who asked it and when). Perhaps the entire widget could be replaced with something more relevant or the algorithm which decides who to place in the list could be altered.

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  • That is quite true: that list is only the question askers. Editing this post would invalidate both answers, so it looks like that warrants an entirely new post. I'll give you the bounty for noticing that.
    – AstroCB
    Commented Jul 21, 2014 at 22:52
  • 1
    @AstroCB - That is generous of you :) I hope you manage to influence the improvement of this feature since the main page seems like it could become a high traffic area.
    – Travis J
    Commented Jul 21, 2014 at 22:56
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The addition of two commas could fix this:

These users asked, or provided top answers for, the posts on this page

or if that is still too clunky

These users asked for, or provided top answers for, the posts on this page

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3
  • I'm not quite sure about that: the wording of the notice itself (even with modified punctuation) just seems quite awkward to me.
    – AstroCB
    Commented Jul 14, 2014 at 13:58
  • The first version doesn't produce a valid sentence. If you were to take out the part in the commas, you'd end up with "These users asked for the posts on this page". The second version suffers from a similar issue - nobody's asking for the posts.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 19:13
  • Fixed the first option now. My comma was in the wrong place.
    – Rory Alsop
    Commented Jul 15, 2014 at 19:16

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