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12:02 AM
@GitaarLAB There was also this feature-request to allow suggested edits to code blocks under 6 characters:
49
Q: Allow under 6 character changes if they are inside code tags

DarrellNortonI tried to update a jQuery code block that was missing a curly brace. The code is incorrect, but I cannot edit it since changes under 6 characters are not allowed (at least at my level of rep?). I understand why you don't want to allow minor copy-editing, and I agree that's fine for textual desc...

 
@jmac That is an excellent faq! +1
 
@GitaarLAB Thanks, it'd mean more if people actually didn't regularly reject edits on code blocks -- it seems that every week someone comes on meta asking why their code edit was rejected, even if they left a good reason for the edit. People just don't understand, and reject reflexively, and it makes the site a worse place for it.
 
I'll vote for that request to.
 
I also suggested that if code edits are constantly rejected, they should just prevent people from being able to edit code inside code blocks. This was not popular. So I don't really understand the community stance:
-7
Q: Prevent Suggested Edits on <pre></pre> Code Blocks

jmacFor whatever reason, it would appear that users with under 2000 rep are strongly discouraged from making suggested edits to code blocks even in answers: Suggested Edit rejected because reviewers didn't know programming language Why was my code edit rejected? Why was my suggested edit rejected r...

 
Yes, and, there was indeed a problem with jeb's edit: If he had explained his edit (and still make the comment how he hates adding the noise to fix the code) I wouldn't have had to scratch my had and wonder.. what did you change? - with - ?
 
12:10 AM
@GitaarLAB Ah, I get what you're saying -- the change of <s> </s> to - means the crossed out space ends up looking like a dash, so it looks like no change.
 
had=hat.. seems I'm getting tired (I almost have my personal high-score for typo's in a day..)
exactly
It is invisible.
 
@GitaarLAB That's a good point, it would make a good meta post ( if you don't have a solution, if you do)
 
But I have never seen a line OVER code (inside code)... I know, this is an edge-case, but even this edge could be made smaller using overline (aiding bad screens and color-blind people. Testing this would also be simple.. it's just a style-declaration to be changed...)
Well, I was worried for my rep, given that voting works different on meta, so I figured, let's talk here first with my peers..
 
@GitaarLAB Don't worry about your rep on meta. And generally speaking, any clear and demonstrable problem will be well received. Just take a screenshot of the markdown page, circle the change with red freehand circles, ask people if they can tell what changed, and explain what's causing it (<s> </s> to -), along with your proposal (you can edit the stylesheet to show what it would look like with overlines)
 
@jmac well, thank you for the extra guidance, I'll get to work.
 
12:17 AM
(if you are really worried, I will put it up myself)
 
Well if it could earn me some rep back... hihi..
 
I can guarantee at least one upvote. Generally speaking, meta is not very big on posts about making SE more like a forum/more social in any way, which is why your first question got so many downvotes. Problems, no matter how minor, tend to trickle in upvotes as more people understand the issue and when people come across it in the future. But meta rep doesn't matter, so don't worry about it!
 
I'd consider overline a suggestion that theoretical should make it to a feature-request should the community agree with the possible solution. Right?
actually.. part of my first post was actually implemented lateron.
for instance, while typing an answer, I can see when another answer is posted..
but that's all history , not digging up old cows haha.
 
@GitaarLAB I can't actually judge how the community will receive it to be honest, but if you create a markup version that has overline instead of strikethrough, and it is visibly better not only for this edit but for edits in general, then people will likely upvote it.
 
That is indeed the next biggest issue...
who knows, someone will have a better solution.
But this would require quite a lot of reasonable 'what-if'-screenshots.
 
12:23 AM
@GitaarLAB If you don't have a fixed suggestion, but want to throw the overline as an option out there, just tag it and perhaps?
 
Well. In the end.. I just want our shared knowledge-system to improve.. so If it has better chances if you'd post it, that would be fine to..
 
@GitaarLAB It isn't about who posts it. It's about the quality of the content. Like anywhere else on SO really. The only things that boost your chances are freehand circles in screenshots.
 
rep-wise, I only care about getting to 10K becouse the only thing I don't like is not being able to access my own content/answers should a question be 'deleted'
hahahaha
5 simple tips... haha true!
 
200
A: The Many Memes of Meta

TheTXIMeme: Freehand Circles Originator: TheTXI Cultural Height: TBD See Also: Here, Here, ...and Here as answer to this post

 
@jmac Thanks for sharing!
I'm setting up the post as you advised.
 
 
3 hours later…
4:00 AM
@jmac: Thank you for the motivation and advice to put this up: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/207047/…
 
@GitaarLAB Good job! 3 upvotes already! Just for your reference, if someone hasn't commented or edited a post, the @ping system doesn't work.
 
One thing to do when you are bored: Look through the 'lowest voted' list on mSO... There are some real gems in there.
 
@Undo Wow, the lowest itself is amazing:
-158
Q: Don't close questions where the user has requested that it not be closed

Adam DavisThe system should search posts for the word "please" in proximity to the phrase "don't close" or "do not close", and if found together disable the close link for the following reasons: They asked nicely They knew enough about the system to understand that posts can be closed, and thus are exper...

 
Yup :)
 
@Undo The most downvoted post on MSO, at -189, is our former fearless leader declining the ability to retract close votes.
-189
A: Can we have the ability to retract a close vote before it closes?

Jeff Atwooddeclining -- you can always cast a reopen vote if the post gets closed. Also note that all close votes automatically expire after two days. (and for that matter reopen votes, or any other vote that attempts to reach a threshold -- otherwise, over an absurdly long period of time, say 10 years, e...

 
4:08 AM
Lol.
Currently leading the daily downvote pack is this:
-16
Q: Writing code is really very un intuitive

CoconidoHDWhy is the way in which stack overflow handles code so unintuitive and annoying can't there just be a box where you enter your code instead of all of the indents etc.

...Which has an awesome title.
 
Yes, that is a quality title.
This is fun
can we have a competition for whoever brings the best non-locked post out of the heap?
 
Adding four spaces before every line is not unintuitive. Tedious, but not unintuitive.
 
And in third place:
-14
Q: Let users with no points vote up helpful answers

Sandy GoodI was surprised to discover that users need 15 points to vote up an answer. That means that a user asking a question for the first time can't vote up an answer that solved their problem. That doesn't make any sense to me. A new user can't vote up an answer that solved their problem. Is there...

This one sends chills through my spine.
 
This is a splendid post with an even better quote:
-25
Q: Who else thinks that editing question after it is answered should be prohibited?

Boppity BopI just realise that people still can edit questions after it has been answered. I think it makes no sense. Take a usual forum / board for example. Most of the large forums forbid to edit even your own post after few minutes. Simply because people want to know in what context other replies were ...

> "Did you hear that Isaac won 2 millions in lottery"
"Isaac won large amount of money in gambling"
"A person got lucky in horse betting"
"Dirty money for dirty people"
"Unidentified subject shot in dark alley. Mafia at suspect"
The page I'm on here, all at -25 downvotes or so, are all about how downvotes are mean. It is poetic justice of some sort.
-25
Q: Is down-voting really useful for Stack Exchange sites? An alternative solution

Lucas MalorEDIT: Added my thoughts about "downvote as quality info"; removed the part about opinions (thank you Manishearth); explained better the proposal. The question is already in title: do you think that down-voting is really useful for any Stack Echange community? In my opinion down-voting misses i...

-25
Q: Who feels that down-voting is used destructively on Stack Overflow?

Dave ADisclaimer: I understand that down-voting (social discord) is an important part of community building. Communal negative messages help to deter behavior destructive to the group. Down voting places warning sign in the road for new travelers (don't tread here) and to temper overexcitement. Rant: ...

-25
Q: Should a person be allowed to contest downvotes on question or answers?

Shakti Prakash SinghI have been feeling lately that there are a lot of trigger happy people on SO. Everyone is eager to click on the downvote button rather than leaving comments to improve QnA or justify their downvotes. I guess some people have taken this as a habit. I am not sure but I wonder if it would be bette...

 
There are literally no user markers in the far left column of chat right now. My Surface RT's screen is obviously not tall enough.
 
4:14 AM
@michaelb958 I hear that tall surfaces make more money than shorter ones even with equivalent ability. You may want to look in to that.
This one is awesome:
-25
Q: Stack Exchange with the greatest percentage of pedants?

Remixed123I hope this is an appropriate question for meta stackoverflow, guess I will find out soon enough ;-) Just wanting to get people's opinions on which stackexchange group has the highest number of pedants? You know, people who try and close down and put on hold questions that don't fit their defin...

 
On the subject, SO's lowest-scored post is the one about spam-mailing people.
-148
Q: How to send 100,000 emails weekly?

xRobotHow can one send an email to 100,000 users on a weekly basis in PHP? This includes mail to subscribers using the following providers: AOL G-Mail Hotmail Yahoo It is important that all e-mail actually be delivered, to the extent that it is possible. Obviously, just sending the mail conventiona...

It is also the only undeleted SO post with a score below -50.
 
Oooh! Fresh mSO programming question! Let's watch!
-4
Q: How to get middle part from URl in php

mahi2406How can I get middle part from url using php My url Eg: http://mysite.com/view/123456/ABCDEFGHIJK-some-title.html Getting full url using $url= "http://" .$_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"] . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; it getting my full url but I want to get ABCDEFGHIJK 11 characters to forward my pages to...

 
@Undo I win! I am the VP of MSO! I cast the deciding vote!
 
Where are all the mods? Programming questions almost never last this long.
 
@Undo I think there is a secret meeting of the minds. It has been dead here for a couple days. Remembrance Day/Veterans Day may have something to do with it (Note: this in no way is meant to imply that veterans had something to do with the death of this room. Imagine that last comment is a totally separate comment)
 
4:27 AM
Lol
It doesn't even have any delete votes yet... Weird.
 
I don't have the required rep.
 
:(
One would need to be 20k to actually cast a vote on that question... Even 10kers couldn't do it.
So I can't either.
Much as I'd like to.
 
Unclear on the concept of what a 1-year suspension means:
-27
Q: Banned for 1 year, is there any way to join sooner?

alim carikciI was banned for 1 year , this is my account http://stackoverflow.com/users/2566863/ali-carikcioglu Is there any way I can join sooner than 1 year? :) I contacted stackoverflow yesterday about this issue but didn't get any positive or negative response. Best would be if I could discuss this iss...

 
It means that a mod suspended him for 1 year.
See the red bar atop his profile.
Or wait, do you mean he's unclear on the concept? Or that you're unclear on the concept?
 
I meant he is
 
4:32 AM
Oh, yeah. Totally.
 
"You have to pay $100 for speeding." "Can I pay less than that please?"
 
1 year = life sentence around here.
 
Life 2.0 -- bigger, faster, and more freehand circles.
 
Lol.
 
Another quality "unclear on the concept" question:
-27
Q: Does SO allow multiple accounts with the same username?

Ramesh RajendranI have two accounts. My first Account was created through Stack Exchange and was used to ask questions. But since it is question-banned, I created a second account through Facebook to answer questions. If a username already exists, I cannot create an account through Stack Exchange. But if I cre...

 
4:34 AM
Anyway, got to go now. Bye!
 
Bye!
So what ? My old account was ban in ask question feature . So i create new account . It's fun ya ! So how can i ask question for this site ? — Ramesh Rajendran Apr 24 at 13:16
oh !! lol ; Sorry i am a freshers in this site !! — Ramesh Rajendran Apr 24 at 13:20
 
4:57 AM
@jmac Someone is going to stay Q-banned for a long, long time...
 
@michaelb958 But It's fun ya !
 
@jmac I bow in deference to your compelling, logical, grammatical reasoning.
 
I love this question:
-41
Q: Bill the Lizard's Closing Antics

James DonnellyBill the Lizard is the number 1 reviewer when it comes to Close Votes. Now I can only respect the amount of time he's put in to sealing that podium position, however he's doing this in such a way that prevents any other non-moderator from catching up: he's completing more than 40 reviews per day....

 
5:43 AM
From this quick review, I present the top 4 ways to get a highly downvoted meta post:
1. Suggest downvotes shouldn't be anonymous (or otherwise suggest that downvotes are a bad thing)
2. Complain about your suspension with an account made to skirt your suspension
3. Suggest badges for non-productive actions (downvoting, being downvoted, etc.)
4. Rant about the quality of the community in general
2
 
5:54 AM
@jmac aptly observed. Re 2.) insist that you have NO DELETED QUESTIONS AT ALL EVER
2
Re 1.) also: suggest downvotes should force you to comment
4.) Call all members of the community "moderators" (because they closed a question). Bonus points: insinuate those "moderators" a) have no life b) are losers in general c) have trouble satisfying their significant other d) are bitter BOFHs
 
@probablyPekka Didn't come across many of those actually. They probably got the delete treatment, which is entirely a separate issue.
@probablyPekka Yes, there are many variations on the theme. But anything that starts off with an insult is a good candidate.
 
@jmac yeah, I think they tend to vanish quickly. There's at least one every week though
Also: when told that suggestion xyz has been made a thousand times before and discussed at nauseam, insist that this is proof that you have a point. Because otherwise, it'd not been brought up this often.
 
Perhaps this should be a , "Why does the community hate my idea?"
 
@jmac yeah, I've been thinking how cool it might be to have some sort of a community blog where those ad-nauseam topics are condensed into one blog post (each) explaining the issue and the current status
 
@probablyPekka That would be appreciated.
 
6:00 AM
@jmac it would need support on SO's end, though. They do have community blogs but none for SO (I think)
 
The SE blog should work for these, no? I mean most of the issues are network-wide and not related necessarily to SO
I am also confused by this user, his comment, and whether it is serious:
Then why didn't Microsoft Bob use it? After all, Comic Sans was invented specifically for use with Microsoft Bob. — gparyani 3 mins ago
 
@jmac you mean the community continuing the tradition of Jeff's "canonical" blog posts?
That feels like sacrilege
:)
But interesting idea
 
@probablyPekka Sacrelicious is more like it!
Sacrilicious? Spelling is hard when making words up.
 
Haha
@jmac not sure either
 
I am relatively certain he thinks I'm serious. Which is okay. It would make a good april fools joke to swap the CSS to comic-sans, along with all the logos.
 
6:04 AM
Yes please
 
But back to the blog posts, seriously, why would it be so wrong to continue the trend? We could create a community sock puppet named Doowta Ffej. Our new intern from Monrovia.
 
Hahaha
That's a cool idea
Maybe posts created collaboratively on Meta, then published there
That might be worth a Meta question, interesting
 
Fact of the day: Monrovia is the capital of Liberia, which was the only United States Colony in Africa.
 
one of these days though, I'm done with work so heading for bed :)
@jmac didn't know that
 
It was colonized by freed slaves from the US.
 
6:07 AM
ohhh yeah true, I remember vaguely
 
Fact #2: Monrovia is named after President Monroe.
 
Wow, fascinating history
 
Yeah, tough times lately.
I came across this on my Africa kick due to work-related research. Namibia is another awesome country to read up on
as is Rhodesia
 
Re tough times - yeah. :(
 
Back to more pressing matters, as neither of us can save Liberia from its trials and tribulations, would you like to do the honors of resurrecting the blog with a meta post?
 
6:10 AM
Yeah, I will make a suggestion to that end! (Or you feel free if you want to)
Towards the weekend probably
 
I suggest topics on:
1. Why downvotes are anonymous, and why they won't change
2. Why complaining about the community is stupid (unless you hate yourself)
3. Why downvotes are really going to stay anonymous, the revenge
 
haha, yeah that sounds about right. And the "downvotes should have comments" thing
 
@probablyPekka Maybe a recap of what people keep suggesting about downvotes, and then shooting them down in a series of blog posts.
 
yeah, good idea.
And the closevoting of off-topic stuff and why we think that is important (as opposed to just ignoring stuff we don't like)
That sounds like a plan
I'm off for today, though
A good night to you!
 
@probablyPekka That's a good one too -- it may be good to have one that discusses, "SE users are humans and not out to get you (yet)"
Afternoon here, but good night there!
(wherever there is)
 
6:13 AM
Oh yeah right I forgot
There = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the moment
@jmac that is a good title
See you later then!
 
Enjoy!
 
 
3 hours later…
9:41 AM
Is there a place where I can see how many edits I've done in total?
 
10:22 AM
Ahah, didn't know that tab existed. Thanks @Bart.
 
Np.
 
10:43 AM
I've also found it via the review queue, when I click on queue progress on the "Review edits" queue. Although that number differs a little (only showing 935). Perhaps that is either out-dated, or measuring something slightly different.
 
 
2 hours later…
12:42 PM
I'll leave this here, in case you are all being too productive: animalsbeingdicks.com
2
 
A classic, if there ever has been one ^^^
 
1:31 PM
It totally stopped me from being productive, you got your job well done.
 
Bart: Causing unemployment one user at a time since 2010
3
 
2:14 PM
damn it bart...
 
2:54 PM
Why does this search not show me open questions only?
Because it's wrong!
Would help if I read the search tips. (meta.stackoverflow.com/search?q=[bug]+is%3Aq+closed%3Ano)
 
3:07 PM
Hia ll
 
All hail @amanaPlanaCAnalPAnaMA
 
haha I meant "Hi all"
The space ddnt go in the correct place :-P
 
Oh it ddnt, dd it?
 
@Bart np t ddnt t ll
 
That remained surprisingly readable.
 
3:38 PM
bng stng wth yr bts gn?
 
4:22 PM
Ahh, StackOverflow. Where working anti-pattern are on top of all the answers.
 
BUT STAK OVARFLOW TOLD ME USING REGEX TO PARSE HTML IS FINE <lol>(.*)</lol>
3
 
I believe if you search hard enough, you will find an example for that.
0
A: Regular expression to get cells content with link or not

EnissayHere's a way to do it with regex: <td>(?:<a.*?>)?([^<]+) DEMO But, it would be easier to do with DOM parsers like PHP Simple HTML DOM Parser

 
 
3 hours later…
7:26 PM
Since it isn't on main meta. Might as well put here:
8
Q: Some issues with a recent action that was taken regarding the Root Access chat bot

allquixoticI would like to discuss with some civility a recent action that has occurred in the Root Access chatroom. First, allow me to catch everyone up on the facts of the situation: Overview Q: What happened? A: Please see this message in Root Access chat. This decision is the primary reason for askin...

 
"I would like to discuss with some civility..." ... must .... resist ..... trolling ..... urges.
 
@Bart Discussion going on in the JS Room
 
Hehe, that would make you an enabler @amanaPlanaCAnalPAnaMA
 
@Bart eh? enabler of what? I tried flagging the meta.SU question for migration to main meta, but it was rejected for some reason....
 
Enabler of my trolling. Just kidding, don't worry.
 
7:31 PM
I am confused...
 
I am a windmill...
 
I am the walrus.
 
Seems to be a big kerfuffle over an issue that's pretty trivially handled.
 
@Bart What do you mean?
 
This whole chatbot thing
 
7:36 PM
What about it?
 
I don't see why that needs that much of a discussion. That post is entirely tl;dr
Though I did read it
 
@Bart Because the mods came into all of the chat rooms telling people to turn off the auto pinging of new users, which is completely unness. It is not up to the mods how people run the rooms... They are community run.
 
Up to a point
 
@Bart And that is the question. Where is the point.
 
Perhaps worth raising that issue (not necessarily with regards to that bot). If that hasn't already been discussed. There are various C++ Lounge discussions on Meta that I know of
 
7:41 PM
@Bart link?
 
24
Q: Lounge C++ frozen by mod?

Tony The LionSeriously why is Lounge C++ being frozen by Mod Gordon? I mean really? Because we're not on-topic?

 
@Bart Where is the reference to the bot?
 
Those are not with regards to a bot. I'm talking about the general issue of chat being community run without intervention
 
Is the JavaScript chatroom disclaimer in response to this?
Pretty hilarious if so.
 
7:47 PM
@Bart Yea. It is lol.
It has been a 2-3 hr discussion
in JavaScript on Stack Overflow Chat, 2 hours ago, by Benjamin Gruenbaum
room topic changed to JavaScript: THIS CHAT IS PROVIDED BY THE SO COMMUNITY "AS IS". THE CONTENTS OF THIS ROOM ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH STACK EXCHANGE INC. IN ANY WAY. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED HERE ARE NOT ENDORSED BY STACK OVERFLOW. BY JOINING YOU YIELD ANY WARRANTY, WRITTEN OR IMPLICIT TO YOUR SANITY. [consistency-of-suckiness] [ecmascript] [horse-grooming]
 
:) one small step and you'll be as insane as this Tavern
 
Someone posted a rant in defense on IE6 a moment ago... funniest thing I've seen on Meta in a while, it must have set a record for close/delete time
 
Ooh, I missed that
"why would 5% of humanity still be using it 11 YEARS after release" .... ooh, ooh, Miss...MISS....ooh....I know the answer to that one!!
 
Because 98% of humanity are stupid?
 
I would assume "because they have to" is the most comprehensive answer (although I like ThiefMaster's as well haha).
 
7:59 PM
That's is a very clean version of what I had in mind (and would have gotten me flagged) @ThiefMaster
Geez @jadarnel27 man. You're such a part of the system man. You've got to like fight it man. You don't have to do anything you don't want cause like .... brown and such.
 
@apaul34208 link?
 
IE was and in many ways still is a hateful non-compliant browser... I think we should just start a don't enable IE movement.
 
@Bart you make a compelling argument about brown and such.
 
8:03 PM
We need a rantoverflow for these people. So they can have rant-offs.
 
Rant: Don't make me come here to rant! Let me rant on Meta!
 
They say that the answer is always "caching" @jadarnel27. But let's be honest. We all know it's brown.
 
@animuson I second that
 
8:15 PM
If I have learned anything from being married so far (that I'm comfortable sharing in this chatroom), it's that I've been doing laundry incorrectly my whole adult life.
3
 
This is apparently true of all men and it's just a harsh reality we must face.
 
Ah, I see that our dear IE6 fan is going on a constructive path meta.stackoverflow.com/a/207117/161198
 
It is good to know that I'm not alone in this revelation, @TimStone haha.
 
Sigh, this @animuson again, abusing his mod-powers.
Ben had spoken ....
 
It would be nice if the SE app let you know that the question you're trying to view is deleted. Rather than just saying "Loading the question failed."
 
8:26 PM
Too bad he's suspended now...
 
claps
 
Hehe, that didn't take him long.
 
 
1 hour later…
9:44 PM
shakes fist
UNACCEPTBLU
 
 
1 hour later…
10:47 PM
Well... Was going through my brother's video games because they want to sell them off. Inspecting them to evaluate their quality and such, and what do I find in one of them?
 
Five dollars?
 
Elvis?
 
A used condom. Thanks for playing though.
 
Well then
 
I will be continuing my adventure with nitrile gloves.
 
10:57 PM
 
11:20 PM
souvenir of his first time I assume.
 
11:32 PM
Can you imagine if my parents had just gone and sold them without letting me look through them first? o.o
 
Can you imagine if your parents had gone through them first?
 

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