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M.A.R.

1:24 AM

@rene so productive much wow

1:45 AM

@Tinkeringbell Once you do it it's either OK or doesn't happen again; but you shouldn't be the one who pays for it (by getting regular time or nothing) - there may be other benefits to consider, do they let you load up with the last of the plants to make way for new stuff; that's worth something.

Rob

2:01 AM

@DavidPostill Odd, things sometimes work the opposite way. They don't tell you about their disability, but it becomes apparent after repeated dealings with them (obviously not in an anonymous (large) call center) that something's up - it's on you to figure out if they need assistance or it's something else. Occasionally it's revealed that there is a disability, then you're relieved that you didn't lose your cool. --- Still, if someone needs to be told I'm the one for the job.

Aibobot

2:23 AM

\o/!

Rob

^ Wage subsidy extended until March 2021?

Aibobot

@Rob naw

we don't see that money, and since I indirectly work for government, retrenchment or WFH isn't going to happen

Rob

It seemed an especially happy "hello".

Aibobot

naw, had to deal with a user who had trouble understanding we're not the desktop support vendor

Rob

Pass the buck, sweet.

Better to give than to receive.

Aibobot

2:36 AM

"I can't email cause I need email set up" "I'm so sorry, but we're unable to assist, you need to get one of your co-workers to help"

Rubiksmoose

3:04 AM

→ 24 messages moved to Chimney

Rob

^ Fortunately they haven't heard of SMS, or realize how easy e/Gmail is to set up - NMP.

Aibobot

3:21 AM

@Rob there's no way too contact that vendor over sms, and our client would likely be unhappy with folks using their private email for officialish things

Rob

3:31 AM

Hmmm, G does charge for businesses but adds a lot of value, AOL is apparently free for business accounts. --- Still, if they could use a browser they could learn how to set up their mail.

A memo to their manager or tech support might be all they need.

Aibobot

@Rob uhhhhhh

Its not that simple :D

We're not supporting a business, exactly

Rob

Without asking for personal info, perhaps they have an Intranet with their answer; or the Security Admin can put them on the list ....

Aibobot

:D

yes, but that's very SEP

Rob

I've been places where "it's a box" that runs one program - if it's not there it's not there, that's all they know.

Aibobot

@MetaAndrewT. since there's an obvious desire to status-review that post from TPTB, I've taken the liberty to slap on the tag

@Rob - yes

@Rob though, saying more than I have probably violates all sorts of scary TLAs :D

Rob

3:41 AM

At least there will be no strongly worded email :D

Aibobot

well, yes

rob

oh, HERE's the tab that's making star trek communicator noises. I couldn't figure out who was talking to me. Turns out the answer is "no one."

Aibobot

lol

uh... this is an old bug :D

40

Q: How do I ping the right bob?

We have two bobs at the moment. Bob (with the fox avatar) is a long time user, and bob, with the green avatar. I'd like to ping Bob, without bothering bob with my pings. I see two ways to do this - It's trivial for me to get the username - so could we have a way to ping a user by user id numbe...

sorry other rob

rob

Not bothered, but I appreciate it.

Rob

To top it off, he's the wrong wrong Rob.

Where two wrongs or a double negative help him not.

Aibobot

3:58 AM

@Rob technically I could just reply

but that's more clicks :D

Rob

4:10 AM

Reminds me, I should visit the Physics site more often; so not a wasted mediacollege.com/downloads/sound-effects/star-trek/tos/… or barbneal.com/wp-content/uploads/chirp.mp3 .

Rob

4:34 AM

Ping

It's certainly quite different from the first, and distinctively different from the second one.

Feeds

4:49 AM

stackoverflow.blog/2020/08/18/…

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

5:09 AM

@rob welcome!

Well we can post a feature request asking to have the names case sensitive in chat, when it comes to pings. This way, @rob won't ping Rob, and @Rob won't ping rob. Thoughts? ;)

balpha and rene will also be happy.

Many times they're misspelled as Balpha and Rene.

Aibobot

@ShadowWizardWearingMask or they just do the mockup that balpha did ages ago

It is not like they do not have a solution

Rob

5:40 AM

I tried to search for our ping, to see what it was - no match.

I have a candidate for a new ping sound, this guy's got chainsaws and pew pew down to a fine art:

Lyrebird: The Best Songbird Ever!

►

Meta Andrew T.

@Aibobot thanks for the slap!

Anyway, Android is a little more tolerant about that, since users can just download an APK (e.g. from APK Mirror) and install it...

Aibobot

6:04 AM

tbh, I'd be hard pressed to do things without mobile notifications :D

Meta Andrew T.

6:16 AM

Being a messenger is sux due to the comments...

Rob

@Shad It's probably an issue for πάνταῥεῖ and their ilk, as they're the default name; such people probably get an extraneous ping from time to time. --- dunno why it hooked the wrong message before the edit.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob not sure, people still have to press tab before it actually adds the name.

@Aibobot it's using the ID, right?

Rob

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Yeah, but some people are clicky ... More than a few pings within a minute means it better be important if and when I make time to look at it later. Not everyone gets the advantages afforded to good acquaintances.

Sometimes I'm actually doing something other than waiting for a ping, even if I can hear it.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

6:33 AM

@Rob no way. Pings here must be your zero priority.

Rob

What you say is fairly important, even if you are joking around.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

There's no smoke without a fire, and there's no joke without some truth in it?

I just follow @M.A.R around. ;)

Rob

You meaning "you", and not everyone on Earth who wanders by and knows this is of their concern.

He gets cut off from time to time, making the following a challenge.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

meh, he's around more often than most.

sdc tea Eleeza

SmokeDetector

@ShadowWizardWearingMask brews a cup of lemon tea for @Eleeza

Rob

6:38 AM

Some of the regulars seem to be absent, and not just because of a lengthy chat ban.

Maybe they changed their names, and lurk. ;)

Meta Andrew T.

sdc sdc

SmokeDetector

@MetaAndrewT. No such command 'sdc'.

Rob

Lies

Meta Andrew T.

!!/cake

SmokeDetector

@MetaAndrewT. No such command 'cake'.

DavidPostill

6:41 AM

!!/blame

SmokeDetector

@DavidPostill It's Catija's fault.

Meta Andrew T.

okay, what am I doing in the middle of the work...

Rob

There's only brown cake.

!!/brownie

SmokeDetector

@Rob Brown!

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob brown is a lie

It's just black lacking some white.

Rob

6:43 AM

Nope, I know him.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob Dan?

Rob

2 mins ago, by SmokeDetector

@Rob Brown!

rene

→ 2 messages moved to Chimney

Aibobot

@ShadowWizardWearingMask I think so

@MetaAndrewT. not working

Aibobot

7:02 AM

whoo

at exactly 201 rep :D

now I can probably chuck a 100 rep bounty at something and be a 101 rep user again...

Meta Andrew T.

+17300 ?

(or how many sites are there now...)

Aibobot

@JNat meta.stackexchange.com/users/810494/stop-watch cross site spammer who might be out of time

@MetaAndrewT. I don't think I'll bother to sign up for all of them even with my main, unless I get hired

and I have 944 on SU, not really seriously rep shed there yet :D

Meta Andrew T.

Oh, I thought it's the first time for the assoc bonus frenzy :p

Aibobot

naw

the whole joke was I accidentally posted a throwaway answer on SU and it isn't a low rep user any more

Meta Andrew T.

throwaway question -> HNQ ... (wait, that seems familiar...)

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

7:09 AM

@Aibobot oh, wanted to report that one yesterday but it was before JNat was back.

Aibobot

@MetaAndrewT. actually worse

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Quick trivia: is the pic here of the user? ;)

Aibobot

@MetaAndrewT. it ended up on howtogeek

@ShadowWizardWearingMask probably stock photo

Rob

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Chaka Khan

Aibobot

255

A: My cat sat on my laptop, now the right side of my keyboard types the wrong characters

That's the standard tenkeyless Num Lock key layout found on many PCs. Turn off Num Lock - on my Lenovo, it's Fn + F10, but the combination may vary by manufacturer.

howtogeek.com/280856/…

Rob

7:16 AM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Or, are you asking the same question here?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Aibobot you're too good at it lol

@Rob well that one is super trivial, nobody will ever use such a real image for avatar. What I noticed above it bit less trivial. :)

glaring at the U

Rob

@ShadowWizardWearingMask That is an AD for the photographer. When you order a photo shoot, before you pay for them, the sample images are presented on the website; after you pay you get hires versions without the watermark. Another example is if you want a discount you give up a photo for their portfolio. The final possibility is that they are at a major event (such as the Grammy's) and the photographer is one of the ones chosen. So, your user is suspect.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

7:38 AM

@Rob don't think so, more likely the user just Googled "beautiful girls", and picked one. I suspect many people do it, thinking it will boost their chances to get upvotes.

Spam via avatar alone is... interesting, though.

Aibobot

@ShadowWizardWearingMask the fools

everyone knows the secret is a dog avatar :D

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Aibobot I have a feeling it actually works. Until the "core users" arrive and ruin the party. :D

lol

Rob

@ShadowWizardWearingMask That isn't true, there's not a dozen watermarks on 100's of images, and they are all much better photos.

In the early days there was some research done on the question:

21

Q: What makes a SOpedian's profile worth visiting? (Data dump analysis)

After reading folks' posts here on MSO about the prominent personalities on SO (Atwood, Spolsky, Skeet, Gravell, Rich B, et al) and the impact on reputation, I decided to "run some number", graph them, and of course blog about it: The Personalities of Stack Overflow by the Numbers For the kids t...

discussion reputation data-dump profile-page

Somewhere, couldn't find the post, there was a guy who used a female avatar and racked up a record number of profile views - but really if a person couldn't find a better image to look at than a puny avatar purported to be of another user they need to work on their search skills.

Aibobot

8:30 AM

:D

Rob

Here's another good question, including the link in Ciro's answer:

28

Q: Are profile views on Stack Overflow positively correlated to the level of reputation points?

As my reputation keeps increasing, I notice that more and more users come to see my profile (538 users have seen my SO profile as of now). So I was wondering: is there any way to demonstrate a possible correlation between the reputation points level and profile views and if so, which would this ...

discussion reputation profile-page statistics

Aibobot

I'd also consider people reached :D

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Rob

Reached is a page load (and certain conditions listed in the FAQ), while views is almost always an avatar click (an exception being a link to the profile, either in a Q|A or an off-site link to pump the profile view count).

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Aibobot agree with Rob, it's not really relevant for what we talk about. :)

Aibobot

8:37 AM

hm, I guess

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

But while a nice avatar usually means more profile views, what matters is the amount of votes. And assume most profile views are by low rep users who can't vote.

Rob

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Nice grammar.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob maybe this one?

Lightness Races in Orbit

33.8k 6 80 148

discussion feature-request bug status-completed comments support chat

He used to always have female avatars. (drawings or anime, but still)

Rob

Very few views.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

178,733 profile views on SO

Aibobot

8:40 AM

also didn't he have another ava before?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Aibobot many, yes.... I think. But looks like he's retired from SO, hence this new one.

Rob

No participation, just views:

Muhammad Mahtab Saleem, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

1

Aibobot

maybe he has his profile on his namecard :D

or people keep linking him as an example of no participation just views...

Rob

Hehe

The link in Ciro's answer leads to the linked list of outliers.

Glorfindel

Is SEDE down for you as well?

Aibobot

8:53 AM

yup

will boop it a status review

Tinkeringbell

@Glorfindel I don't mind it being offline for a while :P At least now I got an answer in before you :P

Mithical

repro'd

Rob

9:09 AM

Your reign was short-lived.

Meta Andrew T.

so, rene already predicted the ~~doom~~ down of SEDE since yesterday...

22 hours ago, by rene

Is SEDE unstable for anyone else?

Aibobot

and has a question :D

Journeyman Geek

13

Q: The Stack Exchange Data Explorer intermittently goes down

Since Sunday, I expect after the refresh of 03:00 UTC, the Stack Exchange Data Explorer seems to have troubles serving pages to us. I notice that I'm either logged out frequently, I get the red error box that something went wrong with executing my query or I'm presented with the maintenance page....

bug status-review data-explorer

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

> CEO at MS Network

Aibobot

MS are probably his initials, not microsoft

Rob

9:23 AM

@Glorfindel Works everytime, in North America.

Aibobot

@Rob that's interesting

Rob

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Yeah, [no](quora.com/profile/Muhammad-Mahtab-Saleem facebook.com/MMahtabSaleem.Official) - there's minimum requirements.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob there are quite a few

12

Q: How to find the sample points that have statistically meaningful large outlier ratios between two values of the point?

As an example application, consider following two properties of Stack Overflow users: reputation and profile view counts. It is expected that for most users those two values will be proportional: high rep users attract more attention and therefore get more profile views. Therefore, it is inter...

ratio

Rob

The other outliers have more than 1 rep.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Still, far from enough to justify the views.

Rob

9:41 AM

and that's why they call him The Champ.

Rob

10:23 AM

@Aibobot Unless this needs an update the SEDE servers are all in NA, must be a loose wire. :)

642

A: Which tools and technologies are used to build the Stack Exchange Network?

Core Stack Overflow uses a WISC stack via BizSpark (we graduated!): Operating System Microsoft Windows Server 2016 x64 Web Server IIS 10 Database SQL Server 2019 running Microsoft Windows Server 2016 x64 Language C# Software Development Tools IDE Visual Studio 2019 Framework Microsoft .NET Cor...

Aibobot

@Rob they still run a CDN in front

fastly I think

Rob

Glo probably got cut off for excess use. :)

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Aibobot yeah

> This change was completed last night on the Fastly side

Maybe they really added some data usage limit?

Rob

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

11:08 AM

@JNat cross site spammer for your gentle care. ;)

Stella Rigeo

12:02 PM

Howz my new avatar pals?

Tinkeringbell

avatar-ish.

M.A.R.

12:26 PM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask AFAICT the whole thing isn't built in a way to make that possible. Just throwing ideas around of course

@StellaRigeo the color is nice, but for avatars common sense dictates that you stick to things without too many small details because the avatars are very small in chat. Of course, many don't go by this logic, and my avatar itself is bordering on violating that guideline

And sometimes people want to go by something they identify with, so if you're a Rocket Raccoon fan it's pretty OK and don't let anyone tell you what to choose for an avatar.

@Aibobot the cycle of evil continues

@Rob "SOPedian" what is this, 2009?

That image is bork. Does it work for you?

@JourneymanGeek doesn't rene post one of these every few months?

Sustainable source of rep

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

12:51 PM

@M.A.R. of course, but what SE got talented developers for? ;)

M.A.R.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Making features we'd rant on meta for

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. in the question? Try now.

@M.A.R. oh, that's right.

M.A.R.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask SO front page was changed back, right?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. back? When? From what?

Guess over the years it was changed many times. What about it?

Rob

1:28 PM

@StellaRigeo Low resolution, blocky.

M.A.R.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask from that front page that obfuscated public Q&A and was selling products instead

Rob

@M.A.R. Yes, Jul 6 '09

M.A.R.

1:42 PM

@Rob Whispers "that's the joke"

Rubiksmoose

Hey, who allowed a joke to be put in here!

Rob

It is, by definition, a SOpedian joke; with an uppercase P that escapes me - an Escape P.

If you planned to escape you should have gone before you left.

Journeyman Geek

2:05 PM

@JNat one for for the spammer tab stack meta.stackexchange.com/users/652280/zinavo

Journeyman Geek

3:04 PM

→ 16 messages moved to Chimney

Rob

5:53 PM

@JNat Spam profile and now one spam post: stackexchange.com/users/19323563/eclipseketocr?tab=activity

rene

→ 7 messages moved to Chimney

user400654

7:49 PM

🚽

Ollie

8:54 PM

Hello.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask learn what?

Does retracting a spam flag also retract the automatic downvote?

Mithical

yes

Ollie

9:42 PM

sdc coffee ShadowWizardWearingMask

SmokeDetector

@Ollie brews a cup of jQuery for @ShadowWizardWearingMask

user400654

if jQuery was a coffee flavo(u)r, what would it be

Ollie

@user400654 cherry.

Which tastes really bad, BTW.

Rob

Coffee cherry tea

Coffee cherry tea is a herbal tea made from the dried skins of the coffee fruit. Often it is more than the skins that are used, and include the dried berries (or "cherries") of the coffee plant that remain after the coffee beans have been collected from within. It is also known as cascara, from the Spanish cáscara, meaning "husk". It is different from cáscara sagrada tea, a powerful plant-based laxative derived from Rhamnus purshiana, which is native to the Pacific Northwest. Coffee cherry tea is a common drink in some coffee-growing nations, notably Bolivia, and, as the variant qishr, in Yemen...

Ollie

9:59 PM

sdc tea @everyone

SmokeDetector

@Ollie brews a cup of lemon tea for @everyone

Ollie

Going now.

ta.