@Catija Not likely in this case, but you can see where asking for people to post code (via a template or a wizard) might tip people off that they shouldn't ask for code but about it.

@JonEricson I guess so. I'm a bit out of my depth as I don't actually use SO... I have upvoted a few questions that have helped me figure out, for example, how to turn a float into a fraction (and then into a mixed number)... because who wants 1.5 cups of something... or 3/2 cups... you want 1-1/2 :P

But that's the sort of question I could actually imagine being simple enough that you don't necessarily need code in the question?

You don't need code, but you do need more details.

Presumably a python tag would help.

Guessing "Use Kermit - the '80s are making a comeback" wouldn't actually make him happy.

does he need metadata for the files? Should the client send back some sort of status?

Oh, sure.

Not to mention context. Is there a reason he's using raw sockets for this instead of some file-specific (or at least mildly friendly) protocol? Is the connection operating over the public Internet, a local network, some low-power industrial system, carrier pigeons? What size is the expected payload? Does he need to deal with proxies or firewalls?

.... I'm not saying that question should stay open but I do think that I've seen questions elsewhere on the network that are similar that get "rescued"... I think it'd be impossible to rescue a lot of questions which makes me uncertain about when to attempt to save something or not.

What should happen if there's an error? If data arrives corrupt? If the connection drops after one file but before the whole transfer has completed?

morning....

@Catija that's where the nebulous idea of "quality" comes into play. If this was the only question that'd been posted all day, and I'm desperate for something to do... I'd be sitting there asking the author all these questions. And probably tearing my hair out at the responses, but...

But you probably would have still closed it before asking those questions?

With around 10K questions on any given day, after being warned that your question sucked and to please read some instructions on how to write good ones, posting something like this should just sink like a rock. It's not a good use of anyone's time.

@JourneymanGeek Morning :D

@Catija well, I would have because I can close and reopen things instantly.

I wouldn't have voted

You guys have been chatty ;)

@Shog9 That doesn't really jive with... about anything I've heard about closing questions quickly to prevent answers from coming before the question is improved...

@Catija I think he means he can closehammer anything ;p

To take an obvious example... ID questions on M&TV... why would we wait for the OP to edit the question before voting to close.

I would. then ask those questions

@Catija Oh, I'm not saying it shouldn't be closed. But in this hypothetical scenario where it's the one question asked all day and I'm starving to answer it, I gotta hope that somehow I can tease out enough info from the asker to edit it. If I have to vote to close and vote to reopen, that's like a huge pain in addition to this already-painful conversation.

OTOH, in this scenario I'm bored and just happy someone asked a question, so...

...Point is, there are very different motivations in play on large vs. small sites.

Except if you can't close it on your own, the chances of a site with only 1 question per day having enough people around to actually close the question before you got a chance to answer it if it were improved is... pretty low.

Right. So, total waste of time unless I'm a mod.

Especially with the queues being... well... shy.

The feature that sold me on SO was editing, not closing. Closing became important when it became apparent that there were too many questions to edit them all.

And then there were too many questions to close them all... So now Deletion is paramount.

Except that it's not... If it doesn't get edited by tomorrow and it's never been put in the closes queue, you have a cruddy question sitting around with no close votes. You can always retract them.

@Catija Worst-case, I can just guess and edit it anyway. In this hypothetical scenario.

This hypothetical scenario being that specific question you closed on SO?

on a site with nothing else to do

Does he need metadata? Yes - filenames, creation dates, last-modified date, image of government-issued ID for each author.

Why sockets? Limited memory and storage, dependencies are a no-no.

What network? Local wifi - client address preconfigured.

etc. If something looks wrong, the asker can change it.

But you couldn't start making all of those guesses on some questions... Sometimes you can't infer that sort of stuff.

@Shog9 as that brazillian guy on root access would attest, brazillian import taxen are nuts.

@Catija you can always guess. The chance of you being correct just drops as complexity increases and detail decreases.

@Catija pretty sure that some site t shirts are reprinted - I've got 3 SU T shirts from 3 different brands. The older ones are actually a little more comfy. (Also, the original run T shirts are so damned comfy)

... So would you recommend that sort of thing here: interpersonal.meta.stackexchange.com/q/1954/36 It seems like this user is making the same leaps of logic that you're recommending but I'm not really a fan of that.

@Catija I'd agree with the 5 users over the one.

@JourneymanGeek If you're talking about my claim that the stuff for the choose your own giveaway were leftovers, I was thinking more of the smaller sites that never really gave out stuff other than for graduation. I don't know when they closed down the SO shop to know whether the SU shirts were sold in it.

@Catija nah, I got quite a lot of swag from SE ;p

@Catija I would, except the question he wants to create still doesn't seem to be very much about interpersonal skills

Original run SU T shirt (which was super awesome), windows 8 T shirt (which I had terrible luck with), another SU T shirt... 100K was a white original run SU T shirt (Everyone went for white?)

I could kinda see trying to finesse it onto Travel, but...

and yeah, there was SU T shirts, and the SU Hoodie (which seems unique to us)

...seems like there's a very real chance his co-worker was just kinda particular if you know what I mean

@Shog9 would take a leap of faith.

He's lost his opportunity to ask the guy (if he knew a better way to approach the question), so asking that - about an actual interpersonal issue - doesn't seem productive.

So, the adjunct is that someone has to be willing to edit the post... which is something that's not really happening. If akaioi wanted to try to fix it by editing, they could and someone might vote to reopen it but as written, there's nothing to reopen and maybe that's the problem.

I find a lot of IPS questions are things that could be sorted by just asking on the spot.

It's a good story at this point. "The obsessive Egyptian". Why lose that?

I find that asking questions is good but it can be scary. You never know how someone is going to judge you for it afterwards... will they think you're stupid/needy/insensitive... or just... not be bothered by it...

@Catija it's akin to asking a question about replacing your phone's cracked screen on Stack Overflow, and leaving out which make and model of phone, whether or not you've already obtained a replacement screen, etc. And also not capitalizing or punctuating anything correctly. Even if someone fixed the cosmetic issues, added in missing details, it's still just never gonna be an appropriate question for the site.

@Shog9 Except that part of the "fix" recommendation is "how can I ask my coworker why/if they threw away my broken mug".... which would be... but it's pointless to ask because it's been 10 years.

@Catija yeah, at that point you're changing the question into a different question. Which... You might as well save some time and just ask it yourself.

@Catija there's a good reason why I posted my workplace questions with my bot ;p

@JourneymanGeek ?

I mean sock

(They felt silly ;p)

You talking about the people deleting accounts so they aren't connected to their real accounts?

naw, just the feeling of "is this a dumb, obvious thing to ask?"

Oh, gotcha. Sure.

Well it also turned out that the job in question had many unrelated quirks that made it troublesome, and turned into a bit of a chat soap opera...

"What's the latest wierdness that happened?"

But if it's a question that only one person can really answer, you don't have much choice.

Yup

and it could be quite literally "That looks dangerous, you could cut yourself"

"Why does my boyfriend hate me?"

which is true of mugs. Or kittens.

Or cheese slicers.

If your boyfriend hates you, why is your boyfriend your boyfriend?

Typing today has been fun. :/

@JourneymanGeek Well, there's two parts to that... if I love my boyfriend and he doesn't reciprocate, I could be trying to make him love me... or, if by "hates" I mean "abuses"... I could be confused on how/whether to get out of the situation.

... gosh, though... I hope Andy doesn't see any of this. :P

@Catija context would be important then

;p

He might think I'm having a fling on the side.

I think he'd understand its hypothetical...

@Catija with IPS? ;p

He calls modding my second job.

Well, amusingly, at this point, I've spent more time as a mod than in any of my jobs :(

:( Hmmm... are you still on the hunt for a new one?

Ya

heh, I kinda know what I really want, least on the short/medium term

Oh? What?

I probably should go get some certs but there's a ton of family drama

Oh, I'd like to work someone at least a little techie

somewhere?

lol

I'm not talking dream job ;p

I'm talking practically.

I don't have a dream job... I don't know that I'm happy where I am, particularly not having to work until 7.

Lets see - 3d studio, fun, but they closed down. Casino was meh, but it had moments of "ooh, lets do this!"

Private school IT tech was.... unfulfilling. Most of the people I worked with was very nice, but I could train a motivated highschooler to 99% of what I did.

And management was like "We have no idea what you do! You're like all over the place... so where's $senior_guy... we have no idea where he is"

(I wander around fixing things cause... more senior people seem to get away with not being in the office half the time)