Tavern on the Meta

12:08 AM

Looks like I handled it identically the last time ._.

2:21 AM

If I want to ask a question on English.SE, but it will involve quoting older text which contains the n-word, will doing so be against the rules or cause some kind of auto-ban?

Assuming of course it's a legitimate question.

Journeyman Geek

@forestdistrustsStackExchange owww...

I'd think checking their local meta would be the first port of call

(for current stuff first)

auto-ban? No

We don't have a naughty word list

manual suspension or people flagging? No promises

forest distrusts StackExchange

Well, I'm sure it'd result in "offensive word detected" appearing.

> I jump’d aboard the telegraph and trabbeled down de ribber,
De lectrie fluid magnified, and kill’d five hundred N*****.
De bullgine bust, de hoss ran off, I really thought I’d die;
I shut my eyes to hold my bref—Susanna, dont you cry.

An 1840s Oh! Susanna verse.

Which has some very confusing English, in addition to a bad word (censored here, of course).

OK, it looks like English.SE has a large number of questions and answers with the n-word.

Journeyman Geek

Well, to be frank, its a site I'm not familiar with, and I don't want to give bad advice

forest distrusts StackExchange

Where do I find a site's list of tags again?

Journeyman Geek

Assuming you're not on a phone? Left side, tags

On a phone, with the responsive view, its in the burger menu

forest distrusts StackExchange

2:36 AM

Another stupid question because I suck at English... Is "I shut my eyes to hold my breath" a simile?

Journeyman Geek

._.

Don't think so

forest distrusts StackExchange

I didn't think so either but I can't seem to think of what it would be. It's some figure of speech.

Erm, I mean idiom, not simile (see? I suck at English)

But it's not an idiom I don't think.

Journeyman Geek

I'm kinda sketchy to that too....

Its a very wierd phrase

I wonder if it was mistranslated

forest distrusts StackExchange

It was originally in English though.

The literal original line is "I shut my eyes to hold my bref" (breath)

Journeyman Geek

Or its a song lyric

forest distrusts StackExchange

2:41 AM

Folk song, yes.

Oh! Susanna by Stephen Foster.

Written in a slave dialect.

Or what Foster considered a slave dialect, anyways.

Journeyman Geek

pidgins might be 'mentally' translated from another language

Singlish has a few structures that only make sense in hokkien (don't ask me which, I forget)

forest distrusts StackExchange

Possibly, but Foster wasn't a linguist writing down what an actual slave said.

Journeyman Geek

Only what he thought they would say? :D

So its probably potentially inauthentic

forest distrusts StackExchange

It's a folk song, not an actual story. He wrote it from the point of view of a slave.

Well, I posted the question to English.SE. Not linking it here just in case the bad word would be displayed in the preview since then I'd probably get banned from chat lol

bobble

@forestdistrustsStackExchange Literature SE accepts questions asking for literary-device identification, if you think this falls under that

forest distrusts StackExchange

2:47 AM

@bobble Would a folk song be on-topic there?

bobble

Songs are on-topic. See here for how to tag.

Journeyman Geek

@forestdistrustsStackExchange if you arn't sure, it would be a great meta question

bobble

3

Q: Are the lyrics of a poem / song on topic?

Precise situation is this: there's an old Christian song (1870's) for which there are a couple popular lyric versions. I would like, if possible, to determine which one is the original. Several things to note: It's not about a classic work It's not about a book ... on the other hand ... ...

Journeyman Geek

Or that :D

forest distrusts StackExchange

Well, I already posted it to English.SE, so I don't really want to cross-post. But if it gets closed on English, I'll consider Literature.

>Happy 10 year anniversary

Huh? For what? SE is older than 10 years, isn't it?

Journeyman Geek

2:59 AM

@forestdistrustsStackExchange the network, yes

the sites, well no?

forest distrusts StackExchange

Oh

So that's for the individual sites?

Journeyman Geek

Yeah

28

Q: A lot of sites are going to be 10 this year - could we do something to celebrate?

Admittedly, the other site I mod is 11, and I embarrassingly missed the anniversary in the midst of a bunch of things. I had a mod go "My community is coming up on its 10 year anniversary, and I think SE should recognise that" in a private conversation. He kind of has a point, since these communi...

discussion stack-exchange

Slightly my fault

forest distrusts StackExchange

ah

Yeah I saw it on Linguistics.SE on linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/39100/… when I was (about to) edit my post and it wasn't clickable. Usually those kinds of things point to a meta post or something.

Vanished when I canceled the edit but came back when I refreshed (probably a caching issue).

forest distrusts StackExchange

4:34 AM

I just reported a comment with a flag saying that the excessive comments were part of an unnecessary argument and that they should probably be moved to chat, and the comment I flagged instantly vanished. Is it just being hidden or did it get auto-removed?

Will a mod still see the flag?

Hm, it shows as "helpful" in the flag log. Should I re-submit on a new comment?

forest distrusts StackExchange

4:55 AM

@JourneymanGeek Looks like it resulted in someone getting very upset and downvoting all 94 posts with the word and taking it on themselves to edit it out of the entire site when I pointed out to them that it's allowed under meta.

Also I'm afraid to click "move comments to chat" in the growing argument because last time I did that, a weird bug screwed up my profile on many sites.

16

Q: Bug causing profile picture to change when moving comments to chat

I have a profile picture set on site A, and a different profile picture on site B. Site A is my default parent site, so it's the one that should show in all chat windows. However the image changes to that of site B when I click "automatically move comments to chat" on an answer's comment thread. ...

bug chat profile-picture move-to-chat

This is the bug I'm worried about. Is it still there?

Because I don't like replying to arguments or threats under a question when the number of comments just keeps building, and I don't like screwing up my profile with a bug either.

Journeyman Geek

5:20 AM

@forestdistrustsStackExchange ow

that's very much a problem for the local mods

@forestdistrustsStackExchange No idea, but I don't think there's any new work on chat

forest distrusts StackExchange

@JourneymanGeek I know. I reported the comments and just edited my question to avoid an edit war. But I'm certainly going to edit it back later, given that meta is pretty clear that it's allowed in context (once this user is dealt with, at least).

@JourneymanGeek Ugh. Well until it's fixed, I'm sort of stuck cluttering up comments. :/

Also, just to verify, but:

> Oh, lawdy, lawdy, I do declare: I'za frettin' now, boss; I sho nuf iz… Jesus!

This is "rude and abusive", right? (It was directed at me as sarcasm)

Journeyman Geek

At this point... flag your own post

It probably needs attention and I don't trust comment flags to be seen ._.

forest distrusts StackExchange

I already have three flags on three of their comments (for different things). I don't really want to spam the mods, or be seen as trying to spam them with flags.

Journeyman Geek

(not the comments, the post, explaining the situation)

then leave it.

forest distrusts StackExchange

Hm... OK, but I really hope that mods won't get upset at me if I use a fourth flag for one general event. :/

Done. Flagged my own post.

inb4 mod bans me for spamming them with flags

@JourneymanGeek (Does "I downvoted as many as I could in 8 minutes" count as vote fraud if it's directed at all posts containing a specific word as opposed to all posts by a specific user?)

Journeyman Geek

5:30 AM

@forestdistrustsStackExchange leave it to the mods

forest distrusts StackExchange

aight

Journeyman Geek

At this point probably best not to poke at things further

forest distrusts StackExchange

Probably. That's why I didn't continue with the edit war, anyway.

I wish the rules on SE were easier to understand. Just like statutes and case law in Common Law as in the US, it can be very hard to narrow down exactly what is allowed and what isn't since rules are often determined by precedent buried deep in some meta thread.

Journeyman Geek

Well the alternative is "No foo ever"

forest distrusts StackExchange

I guess. And it's harder to affect statutes than it is to affect case law.

Journeyman Geek

5:39 AM

And practically, it gives individual sites leeway as long as its within the broader requirements that SE imposes on us

forest distrusts StackExchange

Mods are a good bit less racist than some folk in the US, too.

@JourneymanGeek The more I look at it, the more the SE system of rules resembles Common Law.

Journeyman Geek

@forestdistrustsStackExchange its very much the metaphor I use to describe it

forest distrusts StackExchange

It's an apt metaphor for sure.

And it comes with its pros and cons. Less cons than when it's implemented in politics though since suspensions and the like don't actually restrict a person's IRL liberty.

Journeyman Geek

Only your ability to post...

forest distrusts StackExchange

It's easier to get a proxy than it is to break out of prison.

And you can always find other sites even if you don't evade.

Journeyman Geek

5:43 AM

Finding other sites works.

forest distrusts StackExchange

Not like you can decide to move from prison in the US to the streets in Russia.

Journeyman Geek

Not getting suspended works better

forest distrusts StackExchange

They both work fine for the common meaning of "work".

forest distrusts StackExchange

7:17 AM

Why is that user blacklisted on that site? They have >1k rep so they're not a spammer.

Journeyman Geek

Probably the username was used by someone who spammed/trolled in the past

SD's "basic" "this looks fishy" checks are fairly naive.

Mithical

@JourneymanGeek no, that would be blacklisted username. Blacklisted user specifically refers to the account.

Journeyman Geek

ah oops

Mithical

As can be seen from the link, the user posted a nonsense answer which was caught and flagged.

I've marked that last caught post as a false positive, automatically removing the user from the blacklist.

forest distrusts StackExchange

huh

I wonder why they'd post that. On IRC you can suffer a cat on your keyboard, but not SE.

Mithical

7:27 AM

(Argh, I fell victim to Cunningham's Law again.)

Journeyman Geek

uh

Did I or you? :D

Cause technically I posted the wrong answer

Mithical

I did, because I wasn't going to answer at first and then I had to chime in after you posted the wrong answer.

Shadow Wizard Is Vaccinated V3

?

Journeyman Geek

7:43 AM

"The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer."

forest distrusts StackExchange

ffs, another edit war on my question. This time over whether or not a link's title needs to contain the link's domain or not. :/

"description of what link points to" vs "description of what link points to - link"

@JourneymanGeek In my experience, doing that only results in someone getting confused.

Then again, I fall for that all the time as well.

Journeyman Geek

8:01 AM

@forestdistrustsStackExchange Its a quote :D

rene

someone getting confused ...

forest distrusts StackExchange

@JourneymanGeek I know. That's the definition of Cunningham's Law.

I'm commenting on its validity in my own experience. :P

Journeyman Geek

On the other hand

@ShadowWizardIsVaccinatedV3 asked a question and got an answer...

forest distrusts StackExchange

The best proof that Cunningham's Law is far from universal: Yahoo! Answers. :D

Shadow Wizard Is Vaccinated V3

@JourneymanGeek I deny

:D

I asked no question ;)

I put a mark

Journeyman Geek

8:17 AM

That seems... questionable...

Shadow Wizard Is Vaccinated V3

-?_?-

forest distrusts StackExchange

8:32 AM

⸮

Rob

8:51 AM

Richie Cunningham

Richard J. Cunningham is a fictional character played by Ron Howard on the 1970s TV sitcom Happy Days. He is the second son of Howard and Marion Cunningham, brother of Joanie Cunningham and Chuck Cunningham, and a friend of Fonzie, Ralph Malph, and Potsie Weber. Cunningham was the original lead character, but was supplanted by Fonzie when that character's popularity came to dwarf that of Cunningham and the other characters (however, Ron Howard and Henry Winkler (Fonzie) continued to share top billing in the opening credits of the show).Howard also played the character in several other shows: he...

Cunningham's law was supplemented by Fonzie's law.

rene

Oh man, I'm old ...