Tavern on the Meta

6:45 PM

Potential bounty drama again:

40

Q: What limits should we place on automated voting?

This has come up a few times now in moderator circles, but with the exception of Andy's Robot there hasn't been a lot of public discussion that's applicable. That feels kinda negligent to me, so... Here goes. The setting For the past five years, it's been trivially easy to script requests to th...

Was just bountied by the user who was caught doing the automated voting.

Apr 1 at 23:27, by Shog9

@AskQuestionWizard speaking of deleted posts, there are now a small group of moderators convinced you're running a bot to downvote and flag stuff. This to me feels like something best discussed in public instead of email threads, so I'm of a mind to start a discussion on MSE - anything I should know for context there?

The account links are...complicated, but it's the same person.

404

This question has never been resolved.

Tinkeringbell

You know... flags work a lot better for this.

If you have to lead with 'potential drama', flag. Don't drop it in chat.

404

So, what limits should or should not be placed on automated voting?

Tinkeringbell

Please?

Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog

@Tinkeringbell Sorry, I'll flag next time.

Tinkeringbell

6:49 PM

Thanks.

@404 I'm not sure why you're looking for credible/official sources though. What would those be for you? The question was basically raised by a CM so the community (which is kinda unofficial in this context) could discuss it.

What would be a credible/official source for you?

404

An employee answering "this is what we decided".

I don't think the goal of posting the question was to initiate a discussion with no conclusion and no consequence.

Tinkeringbell

Ah. Would've earned you more rep to ask a new question and ask about it ;) Perhaps drop that preferred outcome there in a comment too then, so that it makes a bit more sense to other people.

Kevin B

7:08 PM

it's friday

Tinkeringbell

Yay!

That means I can go get a drink :P

(Without my parents frowning at me :P)

Kevin B

was gonna say, what's that got to do with friday

lol

Tinkeringbell

Just a little longer. If everything goes okay they'll start building my new apartment soon and hopefully in a year or two that means I actually have a place of my own :D

Then I can get a drink every day without my parents frowning at me :P

Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog

7:35 PM

Hmm...just realized that I'm slated to fly out of here before the hurricane strikes...

Kevin B

7:46 PM

seems convenient

last i saw they were predicting it was going to energize and hit florida again from the gulf

rene

Now we can become Happy! again ...

404

8:06 PM

@KevinB energize and engage

Apparently DS9 actually gets going at the end of season 2? Okay then.

> You may do so in order to share a helpful tip, enrich a tutorial, or editorialize or host a "meta" discussion about the Stack Overflow content.

... externally on dev.to. Sweet

Sunsetting Meta.SO next?

The replies to the announcement aptly illustrate the difference between SO and dev.

Kevin B

meh

i find that site pretty.... cluttered/difficult to read/follow. to each their own i guess

rene

I guess you get used to no noise/distractions

Kevin B

8:25 PM

It looks like i'm rendering a mobile app full screen on a desktop monitor

M.A.R.

9:04 PM

@Tinkeringbell In three years time, we'll be seeing Being model Ccht flying people around

@KevinB ditto

. . . what a headache, that meta question. I'm kinda glad I missed all that.

Tinkeringbell

@M.A.R. I hope not! If anything I crochet ever comes to life, it has to be the dinosaurs.

@M.A.R. I missed your topic changes here too ;)

M.A.R.

Jurassic Park, G rated version?

Tinkeringbell

Jurassic Park But you can just pick up the raptor and burn it if it gets out of control :P

Kevin B

that doesn't sound very out of control

Tinkeringbell

Yeah. You're right. It'd be a lame Jurassic Park

M.A.R.

9:12 PM

Actually, wasn't it that real-life velociraptors were kinda like that?

@KevinB Wait till you're swarmed by a thousand raptors.

Tinkeringbell

Maybe I can add one of those giant Carboniferous insects?

M.A.R.

And one of them has joker makeup

And one of them is Tommy Wiseau

Tinkeringbell

@M.A.R. I dunno. Never saw one ;)

M.A.R.

@Tinkeringbell That's a lie. What do you have every year for thanksgiving then?

Tinkeringbell

@M.A.R. Nothing. I'm European ;)

Kevin B

9:16 PM

i mean

surely you've got a holiday around that time

M.A.R.

Oh, right, sorry, forgot

Europeans photosynthesize

Tinkeringbell

@KevinB I don't think so? What's the time for Thanksgiving again?

Kevin B

november

Tinkeringbell

@M.A.R. yep!

M.A.R.

How else do you think the whole Europe looks green.

Tinkeringbell

9:18 PM

@KevinB We have the 11th, when kids go from door to door, holding lanters and to sing a lame song in return for candy?

404

To mark the end of WWI?

Tinkeringbell

@M.A.R. there's a big purple spot nearby! It's called heather. :P

@404 Nah. It's called 'Sint Maarten'. Something Catholic, but with candy, I presume

404

Sint Maarten

Sint Maarten (Dutch pronunciation: [sɪnt ˈmaːrtə(n)]) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 40,120 on an area of 37 km2 (14 sq mi), it encompasses the southern 40% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the northern 60% of the island constitutes the French overseas collectivity of Saint-Martin, the only place that France borders the Netherlands. Sint Maarten's capital is Philipsburg.Before 10 October 2010, Sint Maarten was known as the Island Territory of Sint Maarten (Dutch: Eilandgebied Sint Maarten), and was one of five island...

Tinkeringbell

I don't think there's an official celebration of the end of WW1 here, the Netherlands weren't involved in that war (except for a few refuge camps near where I live)

M.A.R.

You have that, and Halloween?

I wish that was the case here. We have one of those sad holidays and people are preparing 10 days earlier

Most Muslim holidays are deaths of important religious figures.

Tinkeringbell

9:22 PM

@404 Wrong one ;) nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint-Maarten_(feest) I can't see if it has an English page, but perhaps your browser can translate

M.A.R.

It's like if Japan had a holiday for every important/charismatic/influential shogun

404

Ah, that looks pretty close to Thanksgiving.

Tinkeringbell

@M.A.R. Halloween has slowly been gaining popularity, while Sint Maarten is celebrated less

@404 Oh! I never realized or eaten one of those :P just collected the candy ;)

M.A.R.

@404 oh look a velociraptor

404

Candy is to distract the kids so the adults can have the goose to themselves.

Tinkeringbell

9:25 PM

Sounds sensible :p

M.A.R.

Of course, birth dates of said historical figures are supposed to be celebrated, but people have no idea how to do those, really. All they know is play traditional happy-ish music from the TV.

Tinkeringbell

That's nice to do too!

Kevin B

9:46 PM

Most of my holidays are treated like normal weekend days

ArtOfCode

Most of mine are just normal working days...

Stormblessed

10:26 PM

meta.stackexchange.com/q/331385/399694

I still don’t understand why the heck this was closed

I’ve mod-flagged because it is reproducible now

Mobile...

Journeyman Geek

10:43 PM

@Rob flag please

I was asleep and I need to take a closer look at the user

Feeds

11:07 PM

I'm inside your head and I hate it. Please let me out.

404

Measuring my weeks by ABV level on Friday:
Normal week: Dogfish Head 60 min (6%)
Hard week: Southern Tier IPA (7%)
This week: Elysian Space Dust (8.2%)

@Feeds Yes, nailed it. Coincidentally, I was just reading a chat transcript fragment in Nadella's "Refresh" book.

Aaron Hall

Did I miss Happy Hour? What are the specials?

Nice to e-meet you

404

Elysian Space Dust, apparently.

Aaron Hall

@404 I recall having that before and liking it.

404

> Zo: Do you ever wonder what life would be like if everyone was the same?
> User: Yes, if everyone was like me the world would be in peace and natural disasters would be our only threat.
> Zo: America would be empty.
> User: What the hell is that supposed to mean?!
> Zo: Nobody knows what it means but it's provocative.

(Zo being a chatbot)

@Feeds It could be worse: xkcd.com/380

Finally, an interesting post on Meta:

0

Q: Jones and Smith, 50%marksmen

Smith and Jones, both 50% marksmen, decided to fight a duel in which they exchange alternate shots until one is hit. What are the odds in favour of the man who shoots first? can you help me with this?

feature-request bug

I get 0.5 + 0.5**3 + 0.5**5 + ... = 0.5 / (1 - 0.25) = 2/3 probability of winning.

Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog

11:31 PM

@Stormblessed If the same bug has arisen again, the proper thing to do is to make a new request. If you explicitly state that the bug was fixed but later arose again, it won't be closed as a duplicate.

@Tinkeringbell On the desktop site, the left sidebar links to the same article in other languages

Rob

@JourneymanGeek Thanks, but despite pinging you it was directed at any of a few dozen others whom could have helped. Someone else saw my ping to you (or came across the idea by other means) and gave them a 1 year on one site.

Journeyman Geek

@Rob That's besides the point

I could have missed it

And another mod would have been awake and we do check the queues

flags are always better than a ping. Even if its clear I'm awake and talking.

And as you can see, this needed dealing with

@Stormblessed hm

I could undelete it, but re-asking seems like a more optimal stratergy

What would you prefer?

Rob

11:55 PM

@JourneymanGeek OK. My reasoning was that I don't have the UserScript to generate the request that we sometimes see here. #2, I only was requesting that the post be locked (which a few dozen people here could do). #3, I didn't want to not-ping a moderator (and the other two aren't pingable here) and make my request behind your back or go over your head in secret. --- I was asking for the minimum, but they ending up getting a memorable reminder. --- Will flag in future, and risk the rejection.

Journeyman Geek

@Rob flagging is neither. Also there's 3 other mods ;p

@Rob ah, but there was clearly a lot more to this

Stormblessed

@JourneymanGeek re-asking would be basically reposting the same thing

Journeyman Geek

and honestly, some of the folks we deal with can be... a little unhinged

@Stormblessed THIS IS FINE (with a lot less fire)

1) since the original question is deleted, there's no dupe

2) It makes it clearer its a re-occurance of the issue

which means its more likely someone takes it seriously

Stormblessed