...for when you can't think of what to say.
Sometimes we get questions and answers from new users, and I don't know what to say to greet them nicely while also providing advice or criticism. Narnian does an excellent job of providing these:
- say more Welcome to the site. This appears to be the start of a good answer. Can you expound a little on how this directly answers the question?
- what are you asking Can you be more specific about which part you are asking? Are you interested in ... or are you interested in ...?
- don't preach Welcome to the site. It certainly seems that you will have a lot to offer this site. However, this particular answer doesn't seem to stay focused on the question at hand. Also, it seems to get away from informing and into preaching. Answers on this site should be informational and even persuasive, but not preaching.
- don't preach Welcome to the the site! This really does not answer the question, but is more of a comment. Please see the FAQ page. It is important to provide answers for this site that are informational rather than pastoral, so answers can give evidence and reasoning, but should not transition into preaching. Such answers will not be well received here, as the participants come from quite a vast background.
- don't pick fights This seems to be combative. If your have been offended by Christians or Christianity, I truly apologize for that. None of us are perfect, and we make mistakes. We are all human. If you are genuinely asking questions, you will be well received here.
All of the above are nice things that I can paste in for when I just can't find the right words to express myself. It seems to me that it's important to make the person feel welcome, to criticize what they did rather than them directly, and to quickly explain the issue and give a neutral reason for criticizing.
What are some good standard "highly-helpful" comment templates for various common situations?