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This post was inspired by the bug report posted on ruSO.meta about tranlsation defects.

The current description of "Talkative" badge says:

Post 10 messages, with 1 or more starred, in chat.

This message is slightly confusing with respect to my understanding of English. In particular, here it is not clear enough to me whether a user needs to post:

  • at least 10 starred chat messages, OR
  • 1 starred chat message of at least 10 messages

Maybe the comma (after the "messages" word) is highly important here, but it's still not clear for me.

Should the description be improved? Or do I need to improve my English?

Here is how the badge currently is defined.

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  • 3
    I’m not sure how the current description can be interpreted as “[Post] at least 10 starred posts”.
    – Sebastian Simon
    May 17, 2019 at 14:24
  • "Post 10 messages, with 1 or more starred, in chat", means, in English "Post 10 or more different messages in a chatroom, AND (of those ten or more messages left in a chat room), at least one must have been starred by another user".
    – amWhy
    May 17, 2019 at 14:37
  • @Namaste How would you interpret the following one: ""Post 10 messages with 1 or more starred, in chat" (hint: there's no comma before "with")?
    – αλεχολυτ
    May 17, 2019 at 14:49
  • The same way. The "with 1 or more starred" is a prepositional phrase referring to the 10 messages left in a chatroom: that one or more must be starred. For example, suppose you've left 10 messages in chat. None of them starred. You post another message, none yet starred. You post a 12th message, and in the meantime, the 11th message is starred. Then you have met the criteria for the badge: "Post (at a minimum) 10 messages in chat such that at least one of your messages posted in chat is starred."
    – amWhy
    May 17, 2019 at 14:54
  • Some of the confusion could be with the word "starred", which is an uncommonly used adjective and therefore may be unknown to those who are learning English. While native speakers may understand it to mean "Having a star", non-native speakers may second-guess themselves.
    – Thunderforge
    May 17, 2019 at 14:55
  • Or, e.g., say you've posted six messages in chat, and one of them has been starred. As soon as you post four more messages (totaling 10 messages in all), you will earn the "talkative" badge. If you don't understand "starred", on the stackexchange chatrooms it serves as an adjective, meaning "has received a star, which appears to the right of the message field."
    – amWhy
    May 17, 2019 at 14:56

2 Answers 2

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It seems to me that there are two issues:

  • "With 1 or more starred" is a prepositional phrase that some are interpreting differently
  • The word "starred" is uncommonly used in English

How about we rephrase the statement to avoid those two issues reduce the amount of ambiguity?

Post 10 messages in chat, with at least one receiving a star.

My statement is 61 characters, compared to the 50 characters of the original message. However, I think it is far less ambiguous and would prevent any confusion.

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  • Are the downvotes because people don't like my alternative message, or because they disagree that the message needs to be changed? If it's the former, I'm happy to make changes to it.
    – Thunderforge
    May 17, 2019 at 15:07
  • I did not downvote. But the asker seems to fully understand what "starred" means, since they clearly ask whether the tag means: at least 10 starred chat messages, OR *1 starred chat message of at least 10 messages." That is the confusion, and expresses no confusion about "starred", as the OP uses it themselves in trying to understand which option is the correct understanding to the badge description. Indeed, as I elaborately detail below the question, the latter of the two options listed by the OP (the second option) is the correct interpretation. Your answer fails to address this.
    – amWhy
    May 17, 2019 at 15:40
  • This is more straight forward and it eliminates another potential source of confusion (the definition of "starred"). The fact that the OP thinks that version 1 is a possibility suggests that he may be interpreting "starred" as "stars." This misinterpretation is avoided by this suggestion, so this answer certainly addresses the concern raised by the OP.
    – Nathaniel is protesting
    May 17, 2019 at 16:07
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The wording of the badge called "Talkative" is consistent with the wording of the badge called "Outspoken" (in English), how you would like to translate the English to each language is more a question for each site's Meta, though asking here once is OK.

The badge says:

Post 10 messages, with 1 or more starred, in chat.

and the badge says:

Post 10 messages in chat starred by 10 different users

The "Talkative" badge is awarded for posting 10 messages in chat and getting 1 starred, the "Outspoken" badge is awarded for posting 10 messages in chat and getting 10 starred (by different people).

Each language specific site is free to translate it accurately for themselves, for a native English speaker it is sufficiently clear and unambiguous.

Once you meet the requirements for the second badge it is awarded in addition to the first, there is no subsequent gold badge for chat.

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    Will I get Outspoken badge if only 1 of my many messages is starred 10 times?
    – αλεχολυτ
    May 17, 2019 at 18:15
  • The Outspoken description is even more ambiguous, as it could mean that each message need to receive ten stars.
    – Alex
    May 17, 2019 at 20:55
  • The and is implied, it's the minimum that's applicable.
    – Rob
    May 17, 2019 at 23:46

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