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user202362

2:06 AM

I was never very fond of mathematics but was deep in love with physics and ended up as a engineer so how. Maybe I was never very good with abstraction ... or maybe I was more preoccupied with being pragmatic. Maths is a great tool, but more times people are more interested in what a great tools can make than how good you are with that tool ...

user202362

For example, I post an ad to rent a house, one of the webpages indicated that I had 31 views from 9pm yesterday - 11am this morning for the ad. 31 is a number, it means very little by itself, in order to make sense I could compare the number against what the ads for other houses in the suburb are doing.

user202362

I could also use metrics such as the amount of phone or email queries I have received.

user202362

I have seen old, cheap, rundown houses that had nearly 3000 views before it's rented out, and I have seen a brand new, upscale, relatively expensive apartment in the same area that rented out with just 36 views.

user202362

2:25 AM

a number is only the abstraction of all the variables behind it at that point

user202362

I am only interested in the number because the variables behind the number is very close to the variables that I am interested in ...

user315433

> If I explain my views on non-black turtlenecks (grey is acceptable, but not white) odds are someone else will want to share their opinion too. meta.physics.stackexchange.com/a/9662

user315433

Dark non-grey colors here: navy or maroon.

user315433

I also have an opinion on outstay vs overstay but maybe that's one opinion too many.

ɥʇǝS

@zaq I wanna hear it.

user315433

2:35 AM

Mari-Lou A already expressed it better than I would, in To outstay vs. overstay one's welcome

user315433

My familiarity with the word comes from a slightly different context... "overstayed my visa" has over 10,000 Google hits; "outstayed my visa" is under 300.

user315433

(For the record, I've done neither, so there's no need to take a stand on my behalf.)

ɥʇǝS

why.. would you expect me to support you overstaying a visa? Or am I misunderstanding?

@zaq Interesting read.

user202362

2:53 AM

“Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion"

user202362

no opinion of their own

user315433

@ɥʇǝS Perhaps not you, but supporting the folks who do such things in search of a better life is pretty common stand-taking material in some circles.

ɥʇǝS

3:09 AM

@Telkitty source for that quote? Very interesting.

@zaq hm.

user202362

How much is 'welcome' worth? Would it save me if I was about to drown in a river? </sarcasm>

iled

Hi all! I have read some posts here on meta on this issue, still, I decided to bug you here in chat just to make sure. I have been doing some reviews (triage, first and late posts).

It looks that there is a trend, where when I flag as "too broad" or "unclear what you're asking", those tend to age away, while others such as "off topic" or "NaN" are quickly accepted. I mainly use too broad or unclear when people just ask for "teh codez", or very incomplete questions without a MCVE. Is this flagging incorrect?

user315433

@iled Not an answer is a different story: those flags go to a different queue and get processed in reasonable time. (Same for other flags cast on answers)

user202362

@ɥʇǝS Apparently it's by Søren Kierkegaard

user315433

The Close queue habitually has more tasks in it than there are reviewers willing to look at them. So they tend to age away.

iled

3:16 AM

Oh, that makes sense. Is then reasonable to recast those flags again, right?

user315433

You may have had more success with off-topic if those are very straightforward cases so that the post gets several flags quickly.

user315433

You may recast the aged away flags, but... I wouldn't bother. If the question is so unclear that it can't be answered, it's the author's loss.

user315433

I would downvote and forget about it.

iled

I understand that. I do not have access to those queues, I imagine that there is also the need for a unanimous vote among reviewers

I see your point, but it is not only the authors loss, it is also the cluttering of the site... so, in a way, its everyone loss (ok, I know this is somewhat exaggerated :P)

user315433

If a question has score <0 and no answer, it's automatically deleted in 30 days - even if it's not closed.

iled

3:21 AM

I see. I did not know, I thought it required more negative than -1.

Thank you for your input

user315433

For reference: stackoverflow.com/help/roomba

user315433

Speaking of which, does anyone know the rationale for the clause "or a score of 1 in case of deleted owner"?

user202362

Grow the Pie (phrase)

Grow the Pie is an expression used in Macroeconomics to refer to the assertion that growing the economy of a nation as a whole creates more availability of wealth and work opportunities than does redistribution of wealth. == Summary == Growing the Pie could be called "more for everyone." This is as opposed to centrally controlled economic theory, where some give up some of their slice of the pie, that others might have more. Growing the Pie refers to a theory that free market economics grow the size of every slice, and thus raises the standard of living for all participants. This theory proposes...

user202362

I am always in favour of growing the pie so there are more for everyone than allowing more people to access the same pie, so some people have to get less ...

user202362

Being nice != being ignorant or being weak

Shog9

3:27 AM

@zaq presumably one fewer person cares

iled

Good point

Does the number of available flags per day change according to some metric (i.e., rep) or is it static?

user315433

@iled Yes, you get more if you have good flagging history and/or high rep.

user315433

Reference: stackoverflow.com/help/privileges/flag-posts the very bottom of the page

user315433

The Help Center does have a lot of such information.

user202362

To me, being a nice person means (s)he sees things are they truly are, is capable of being nasty but choose not to. But a lot of the times, a seemingly nice person is just either ignorant, weak or just pretend to be nice.

iled

3:34 AM

@zaq Thank you for the link. The other one about roomba was very informative as well. Sorry for making questions that already answered in the Help Center

user315433

Well, I didn't say it was easy to find there. :)

user315433

Help Center is great when you know exactly what you are looking for. Its search engine is weird.

iled

:)

I actually never came upon this page. E.g., I did not know it was possible to retract flags. Once I raised one spam flag by accident (wrong reason), obviously it was declined (even though that post was closed for some other reason) and it is ruining my count :p

ɥʇǝS

@Telkitty thanks!

iled

Let's say I'm on review and I edit a post from there. In the meanwhile, the same post receives an edit from a user that does not require peer-review. My edit adds a little bit on top of that other user added, i.e., my edit is relevant for improving the post, but the difference between his edit and mine may not be that relevant, even though it adds something. Is it reasonable that my edit gets rejected?

user315433

3:51 AM

Usually this doesn't happen because that other user will be asked to review your edit prior to submitting his. But if the actions are nearly simultaneous, it happens. Yes, your edit may end up looking silly in the diff window, and be rejected.

user315433

One example: suggested edit corrects some typos, while a 2K user corrects the same typos and removes "thanks in advance" at the end. Then the reviewers will see a suggested edit that only adds "thanks in advance". 8-/

iled

In this case, his edit went first. I got the warning that there was an edit just before I submitted mine; I open it, and decided to submit mine anyway since it added something (even if little)

Ahaha, yes, that is weird. In my example, it was more like the other way around, I adjusted more things than the >2K user

Still, I understand that it may look silly to reviewers, e.g., if the suggested edit just changes one or two characters

user315433

The simple solution is not to worry about on occasional rejection. I had a few perfectly reasonable edits rejected. :shrug: Needless to say, all of my edits are perfectly reasonable...

user315433

(Except for adding politics tag to a certain post.)

user315433

Can @bjb568 give an insight on Why does my cat not eat the hearts of its prey?

bjb568

3:59 AM

Would you eat a heart?

Cats aren't monsters.

user315433

> If you kill anyone, make sure to eat their heart, to gain their courage! Their rich, tasty courage... tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CannibalismSuperpower

user315433

Perhaps cats don't consider their prey courageous.

user315433

Also, people do eat hearts regularly... How should one prepare beef heart? for example.

user202362

shy creatures are usually not courageous, no

user202362

I like clumsy, daring & intelligent creatures, like Australian magpies

user202362

4:09 AM

but judged by the size of local baby pies, they are probably someone else darling already

Shog9

heads-up, I just changed the Hangul spam regexes on Stack Overflow to try & cut false-positives a bit... So, if I got that wrong, we might see either Hangul spam or folks complaining about a runaway regex making their attempt to post timeout.

2

user202362

user315433

There's always much fretting about a hypothetical wrongly-spam-nuked post; few consider how many legitimate posts are blocked by spam-preventing heuristics and are lost when the user gives up...

user202362

this pie often comes to the window next to me and stare at me from there, of course that's because I feed the magpies

iled

that looks like a quite angry bird

or hungry, depends on the point of view

user315433

4:16 AM

A bird that ends in GRY...

Jason C

@Shog9 I just tried to make a post and it timed out. It kind of feels like a runaway regex or something. Any ideas?

iled

has approved 345 edit suggestions and rejected 728 edit suggestions and improved 0 edit suggestions --> does this tell us that this user is in a reject-spree? Rejects so much and does not bother to improve any?

Shog9

@JasonC probably your network. See what TWC says when you call.

Jason C

Pfft. TWC is for the sheeple.

Shog9

well, I've never heard of your real ISP; they might actually have good customer service

(Also, making a joke about 'em in public is probably irresponsible)

Jason C

4:24 AM

"Hello and thank you for calling Time-Warner. Please choose one of the following: Press 1 to repeat this menu. Otherwise press # to hang up."

user315433

About the sheeple, you mean?

user315433

You will be led to judgement like lambs to the slaughter--a simile whose existence, I might add, will not do your species any favors.

iled

That looks like Pulgasari

Jason C

That plot summary looks spectacular.

23% on Rotten Tomatoes, sadly.

user202362

The problem with being friendly with local birdies is that, they will constantly coming to your window and trying begging for food. When you see a bird the size of 2 normal ones, you would have this struggle inside whenever it comes begging for food - should I feed it with meat or should I make it hunt for its own food?

Jason C

4:34 AM

Feed the smaller birds to it.

iled

@JasonC Its really worth to see it. It is an old movie, with "special" effects that are jokes nowadays (people laughed at them in a recent screening). Some weird acting. Super low budget. Kidnapped filmmaker and wife. But the plot and storyline are very good.

Jason C

I do actually intend to watch it. Annoyingly, Netflix doesn't even know it exists.

qwer

Survival of the friendliest

iled

@Telkitty get a cat (don't worry, he will spare their hearts)

Jason C

I don't think I will ever actually understand how SO's review queues work.

iled

4:41 AM

@JasonC don't bother with netflix, youtube is free

Jason C

Suhweeet

iled

:D

Hint: the "monster" is a metaphor for the dictator/king/govern -- the movie was actually censored for a couple of years

Jason C

Heh... I haven't done much CV queue reviewing on SO in a while. These questions are absolute crap.

user315433

It'd be nice to have a sequel to Off topic questions have to be cleared out of the way, but NOT via closure

user315433

(Not necessarily by the same author)

user315433

4:50 AM

> "Should I downvote, vote to close or flag? Should I do all of that?" - we need to make this much, much clearer. meta.stackexchange.com/q/285889

Jon Ericson

5:02 AM

@zaq Navy I can live with. It could make a decent base layer for a pullover sweater or blazer. Maroon? The less said the better.

Also, I'm surprised I picked outstay. Huh.

user315433

The color reminds me of Texas A&M, those were good times. And of an album I like...

user315433

Barenaked Ladies - Pinch Me (Video Version)

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SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] URL in title, bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, link at end of body, pattern-matching website in body, pattern-matching website in title: mirahealthgarciniablog.com/mylyfe-garcinia/ by user73105 on drupal.SE

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, pattern-matching website in body, repeated URL at end of long post: On the other hand, what exactly makes a Xtest more desirable than others? by nikaluabhinak on apple.SE

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword with a link in answer, blacklisted website in answer: How to apply a drop shadow on an object outer borders only? by user83940 on graphicdesign.SE

Shog9

5:22 AM

Speaking of Texas, some anonymous benefactor has been beefing up the migration FAQ

user315433

As in, FAQ on SO's position concerning migration to the United States?

user315433

Texas could bring a fresh perspective there for sure.

Shog9

Of course. Hence, Texas.

SmokeDetector

5:41 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Offensive answer detected: Received a letter from Toll Roads asking for Toll Due. Is that a scam? by fucku on travel.SE