Tavern on the Meta

1:47 AM

@Cupcake You have been naughty.

@Cupcake Please do not do that sort of “editing” on ELU. I’ve rolled back your edit. Come to our chat room to talk about it, or take it up with Reg when he wakes up.

user163250

2:11 AM

@tchrist personally I didn't think that I changed the meaning of the post, but rather clarified it...but noted.

tchrist

@Cupcake It’s all the bold that was nasty, mostly.

But really, it’s Reg’s post. We’ll see how he feels.

2:55 AM

AAAH

gesundheit

you have done it @GnomeSlice, you broke Shog

GnomeSlice

wouldn't be the first time

Braiam

well, now we have it well documented

user163250

4:40 AM

My question is too broad, may I have it closed please?

user163250

0

Q: Why do Ruby ERB and jQuery use regexes to parse HTML?

(If you're impatient, just skip to the Summary section at the bottom) It is commonly expressed here on Stack Overflow and in the developer community that trying to parse HTML with regular expressions ("regexes") is a bad idea. To quote Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror: So, while I may attempt to...

user163250

I voted to close a long time ago, but my vote expired.

Jan Dvorak

5:10 AM

SPAM meta.stackexchange.com/questions/234928/…

ManishBot

5:27 AM

[ SmokeDetector ] All-caps title: TRANSIT VISA QUERY on travel.stackexchange.com

Jan Dvorak

5:46 AM

SPAM meta.stackexchange.com/questions/234931/…

SPAM tex.stackexchange.com/questions/187559/…

Jan Dvorak

6:09 AM

SPAM money.stackexchange.com/a/33853/11638

SPAM drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/121160/…

SPAM drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/121161/…

Shadow Wizard

6:39 AM

someone is casting useless close votes on MSE. sigh.

user163250

Speaking of close votes...

user163250

Too Broad cv-plz stackoverflow.com/questions/5203535/…

Final Contest

7:15 AM

wow, the bugreport that started off with two unexplained downvotes has now score 12 after the name disassociation.

@Cupcake: closed, but I think those (close vote 4) will be closed pretty quickly by the queue

Jan Dvorak

Wait, did just Final tell someone to not post CV-PLSes here, which is the same thing he scorned Bart for?

Shadow Wizard

@FinalContest it was only 2 votes when he posted it here

Jan Dvorak

@ShadowWizard he can't hear you

Final Contest

@Stijn: I do not know, I felt a sleep, eventually.

Stijn

7:31 AM

@FinalContest ah too bad, a lot of people say that it's been the most interesting game so far this cup

USA's goalkeeper is a beast :)

Final Contest

that is said for many matches, do not take it too seriously. ;)

Shadow Wizard

@JanDvorak he can hear Bart so I was hoping he can see it and just choose to be silent.

Guys I consider making this into a faq-proposed, what you think?

Stijn

7:47 AM

@ShadowWizard There's meta.stackexchange.com/questions/10369/… already, although it doesn't mention elasticsearch yet

Should elasticsearch (meta.stackexchange.com/q/160100/152535) and lucene be added here? — Beth Whitezel Mar 22 at 5:29

Bart

WHO SUMMONED ME?!?!

Shadow Wizard

@Bart not me! {goes into hiding}

Bart

@JanDvorak hah

Shadow Wizard

@Stijn good point! Think it fits as "External Bits"?

Stijn

@ShadowWizard yeah

Jan Dvorak

7:52 AM

SPAM webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/63048/…

Stijn

@ShadowWizard Lucene, elasticsearch and NEST

Shadow Wizard

status-completed

@Stijn think Elasticsearch alone is enough no need to get into all details in there. :)

Bart

Ehm, what's with the flag?

Who flagged that?

Stijn

Who flagged what?

Bart

chat.meta.stackexchange.com/admin/flagged?show=all

i.e. chat.meta.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/2155367#2155367

Stijn

7:55 AM

haha, an easily offended person I guess

Bart

Or someone who has had luck previously while washing turds ...

Shadow Wizard

@Bart turd is highly offensive and even aggressive. You do not want to be left alone with one, believe me.

rene

8:25 AM

@stijn headache from the party? (or in good ducth Kater?)

Stijn

@rene nah, I stopped after 4 beers, just a bit tired :)

the pub was doing 4 beers for 5 euro, a lot of meters were ordered :)

rene

hehehe

Stijn

just saw this in an error log

> HTTP_USER_AGENT Microsoft Office Excel 2013

This is someone who changed their UA, right? Excel can't actually open web pages?

Jan Dvorak

I'm afraid it can

rene

Maybe one of its import functions

Jan Dvorak

8:28 AM

Where do embedded links open?

Stijn

a link in a cell opens in my browser but I only have v2010

we don't do excel exports so I'm not really worried, just thought it was curious

user163250

8:44 AM

Never mind :/

rene

Psychic debugging skills requested:

google on the exact error message? — rene 36 secs ago

user163250

9:02 AM

duplicate cv-pls stackoverflow.com/questions/24526566/…

user163250

@rene you guys didn't want to just close that?

user163250

See, this is why I miss the "not enough information to diagnose problem" close reason.

Stijn

@Cupcake done. cv-pls stackoverflow.com/questions/24512801/…

Bart

@Cupcake One could argue the question is not "diagnose my problem for me" but rather "how can I diagnose such issues myself?" ...

Jan Dvorak

@Bart then it seems too broad

user163250

9:05 AM

@Bart hmm, interesting.

Bart

@JanDvorak you just want to close all the things, don't you? ;)

Jan Dvorak

"internal error" essentially means "an uncaught exception has occured in the server code"

user163250

^

user163250

"Something didn't work"

Jan Dvorak

"how do I debug a null pointer exception" is too broad. "I've got an exception. How to debug it" is way too broad.

@Bart I'd like to formulate it as I tend to focus on questions that I believe need closing

rene

9:09 AM

I gave that OP an option to respond to my undutchable comment or the friendly comment of @Stijn. If the OP choose to leave it at this I'll close vote before I leave for my lunch appointment in 20 minutes...

Jan Dvorak

and downvote?

user163250

http://stackoverflow.com/users/1016958/eastsidedeveloper
> I've been programming for a few years in C++, C#, PHP, Perl, and MySQL. Started learning Ruby/Rails in May 2012.

user163250

> Where do I get started trying to figure out what this is about?

user163250

Very unusual. For someone who apparently isn't a beginner.

rene

@JanDvorak I wanted this to be a cheerful day

Stijn

9:12 AM

315

Q: What is a NullReferenceException and how do I fix it?

I have some code and when it executes, it throws a NullReferenceException, saying, "Object reference not set to an instance of an object." What does this mean, and what can I do about it?

.net nullreferenceexception

Xeo

Any SO mod here? We got us a little Nazi problem on SO chat.

Stijn

perhaps a bit too broad, but very useful to close questions (currently over 1000) as dupe of that one

user163250

@Xeo Wow.

rene

No message yet...

Jan Dvorak

@Xeo just cast a mod flag

user163250

9:13 AM

^

Xeo

11 secs ago, by rene

No message yet...

Flag what? :)

Jan Dvorak

Anything at all

user163250

A question? Is that allowed for this kind of situation?

rene

There is nothing to flag yet

ThiefMaster

destroyed him

rene

9:13 AM

gone

ThiefMaster

he's a TOR troll so he'll most likely be back soon (it was his third incarnation)

Xeo

He's just idling in chat

@ThiefMaster How boring

and he already is back

user163250

user163250

The 404 page is awesome.

user163250

He's back already?

rene

9:15 AM

@ThiefMaster nuke this one as well stackoverflow.com/users/3796983/user3796983

Raging Scallion

Wow the CSS in this room is so slick

He's back stackoverflow.com/users/3796998/user3796998

Stijn

how bored must you be to get on TOR, create a user, upload an avatar and idle in a chat room

3

Raging Scallion

Isn't that what we all do

Next stackoverflow.com/users/3797021/user3797021

user163250

"Raging Scallion" is an awesome username.

user163250

Cupcake approves +1

rene

9:21 AM

@ThiefMaster nuke this one as well: stackoverflow.com/users/3796911/heil-hlitar

Raging Scallion

@Cupcake All my nicknames are awesome (thank you :3)

Xeo

> hlitar

lol

Can you ban based on an avatar?

R.J

Since when has the Swastika come back to fashion? :D

user163250

We don't allow new users to upload images to posts on Stack Overflow.

user163250

The fact that apparently it's allowed for avatars seems like an...is oversight the right word?

Raging Scallion

9:24 AM

Could be much worse than a swagstika now that I think about it

user163250

Ugh. Yeah, I just imagined how much worse it could be...

Raging Scallion

Next stackoverflow.com/users/3797043/user3797043 (is it even useful that I post these?)

user202362

wtf?

Xeo

Man that guy must be bored

@chmod711telkitty refresh

user163250

9:30 AM

duplicate cv-pls stackoverflow.com/questions/24526249/heroku-app-cant-be-seen

user163250

Did thief master lock down that room?

user163250

Here's one chat.stackoverflow.com/users/3797051/user3797051

ProgramFOX

9:44 AM

Destroy this one please: chat.stackoverflow.com/users/3797110/user3797110

balpha

done

ProgramFOX

Thanks!

Xeo

Feature request: Remove user from chat user list when he's killed. :P

in Lounge<C++> on Stack Overflow Chat, 1 min ago, by Jefffrey

user163250

Still?

Bart

All of a sudden the cat with the moustache in the middle seems ... well ...

3

Xeo

9:47 AM

@Bart hahaha

user163250

Is it necessary to post that image in your chat?

user163250

You're just feeding the troll.

user163250

You're not supposed to engage with trolls directly.

balpha

@Xeo Yeah, I just thought the same thing.

Xeo

@Cupcake I honestly don't think that troll does anything but join chats, creating new accounts in the meantime.

user163250

9:48 AM

Fair enough.

ProgramFOX

Another one: chat.stackoverflow.com/users/3797133/user3797133

balpha

the user isn't really there anymore, but the chat room will continue to show them until you refresh the page, because when the user doesn't exist anymore they can't generate a leave event

user163250

You need 20 rep to join chat, does this guy just have a bunch of pre-existing primed socks lying around?

user202362

in PHP on Stack Overflow Chat, 20 mins ago, by chmod 711 telkitty

pattern matching avatar to stop user from using the same banner? ~_~

Xeo

@Cupcake No, you need 20 rep to write in chat.

user163250

9:50 AM

Oh.

Xeo

It's all fresh accounts

user202362

do you need a new email address to open a new account?

user163250

I can't imagine that you'd be allowed to use one that was banned.

user202362

but can you use a, say facebook account that's associated with the banned email address?

Bart

/me is suspicious about what @chmod711telkitty is planning to do ...

user202362

9:57 AM

lol I know where to buy pre-verified email addresses, they are quite cheap :p

user202362

but I am busy as always ... ~_~ Didn't get to troll meta lately. You know ... trolling meta is as delicious as eating butter cream cakes for me ...

Stijn

/me slaps @Bart around a bit with a large trout

I had a sudden nostalgia feeling for mIRC

balpha

@ProgramFOX please stop flagging the swastikas again and again; I'm on it

ProgramFOX

Ok, I'm sorry.

balpha

no worry -- it's usually helpful, but not necessary now

user202362

10:04 AM

user202362

4

Alex

10:41 AM

are there any rules about the following kind of thing:

lots of them appearing in c++ room

Lounge<C++>

Today we're daydreaming about C++26 reflection

8

1

R.J

cv-pls : stackoverflow.com/q/24528932/2024761 because the user wants "an efficient code ".

Jan Dvorak

cv-pls stackoverflow.com/questions/24529270/…

Final Contest

12:05 PM

I want to open the terminal because my app requires it. Sorry I can't go in depth of my app right now — ishan3243 52 secs ago

yeah, right...

@R.J: for what reason?

Stijn

@FinalContest gimme-teh-codez is usually too broad.

Final Contest

12:21 PM

@Stijn: except that it is not "gimme-teh-codez"

the OP showed the code what he has tried.

Stijn

@FinalContest OP hadn't at the time. If the code works, it should be posted on codereview.SE, if it doesn't then it's unclear what you're asking.

Final Contest

I am asking it now, not "at the time".

Stijn

OK, well if you feel like it you can ask the OP if the current code works

Final Contest

@Stijn: do you have java experience?

Stijn

other than a couple basic Swing lessons a few years ago, no

Final Contest

12:25 PM

@Stijn: right, that code is valid as far as I can tell it to you. The OP is asking whether the regex could be replaced with proper parsing to be more efficient. It is a fairly trivial question though.

Stijn

@FinalContest then I believe codereview.stackexchange.com is the place to ask this question.

Final Contest

I am flagging the comments for removal.

@Stijn: why? He is asking how to do it without regex. Looks like a valid question to me. He gave a solution which he would like to solve differently.

Stijn

as far as I know asking to improve working code is not on-topic on SO

Final Contest

That is how he explained the issue (pseudo-code being valid regex code here).

Stijn

correct me if I'm wrong

Final Contest

12:28 PM

Well, I welcome everything that replaces regex since I hate them ;)

Joke aside, it can stay on SO IMHO. It is asking for a parsing feature without regex, demonstrating with regex what the use case is.

He does not want to fix this regex, he want a solution with different approach.

so it is not improving the code, but rewriting :D

(Besides I see this type of questions repeatedly on SO without migration)

Stijn

Probably because migration to beta sites is discouraged

anyway, feel free to answer if you like, I've already retracted my downvote and close vote now it was edited but I don't know enough about the subject to do anything more there

Final Contest

nah, I do not give more room to childish downvoters, at least for now. ;)

Shadow Wizard

12:41 PM

user can't be bothered to clean the question. I gave -1 and close vote, feel free to do the same meta.stackexchange.com/questions/234934/…

Stijn

a big mess indeed

> - Please type your reply above this line -

that alone warrants a downvote

Shadow Wizard

@Stijn he just copied and pasted the whole email chain, not bothering a millisecond beyond that. Can't be more rude than that towards the team. (who should read and handle the bug)

Jan Dvorak

SPAM english.stackexchange.com/questions/181833/…

Alex

i drank some redbull... i feel different

Stijn

@Alex that's the wings about to pop out of your back

Braiam

12:56 PM

@Alex more red or more bull?

Alex

i can feel between my eyes, tightening up...

i've got a second can in the fridge, i wonder if i should have that straight away or wait until later

Shadow Wizard

@Alex are you sure it's not Red Devil?

Red Devil Energy Drink

Red Devil Energy Drink is a premium energy drink brand that was formulated in Netherlands in 1995. Since then the beverage has become the #1 energy drink in Russia, and #2 in the E.U. In 2002, Red Devil was purchased by Britvic and is now the #2 energy drink in the U.K. It is now distributed in over 60 countries and is beginning its expansion into the U.S. Marketing Red Devil has an aggressive marketing strategy throughout the world. Their slogan is "The Taste of Energy" is translated into many languages in numerous countries. Red Devil mainly focuses on sponsoring many forms of raci...

Alex

for some reason i'd like nothing more than to lay down and close my eyes right now, that's not what red bulls meant to do is it? perhaps i should get some of that red devil stuff to counter the sleep inducing properties of the red bull. i feel so relaxed and mellow, this isn't right

Braiam

@Alex there are people where the caffeine just produce sleepiness, maybe that's what is happening

Shadow Wizard

@Alex is very special, no doubt.

Stijn

1:07 PM

be sure to read what's on the can, some stuff (like Monster I think) have warnings that drinking multiple of them in a short time can be hazardous

rene

Any CSS guru who wants to give this a try?

Stijn

@rene table, tr { display: block; } will get you a bit further

if I'm not mistaken, a table by default has display: table

Bart

@ShadowWizard "sponsoring many forms of raci...st rallies"?

rene

@Stijn that seems to do it...

hold on

Amal Murali

@rene Use clear:left?

Shadow Wizard

1:20 PM

@Bart blame onebox! ;)

rene

@AmalMurali Not on th or td... ;)

@Stijn If I try to add a width it becomes hairy again...

Stijn

@rene I'll try to write an answer, few mins :)

rene

OK, tnx!

Stijn

@rene is the horizontal space between the items a requirement?

other than that, I've got a solution

rene

@Stijn I'm afraid so. I assumed once more wrongly that it would be easy to add...

@Stijn tnx!

Stijn

1:41 PM

you're welcome :) was a fun challenge

rene

I admit I'll never going to master CSS and I can't be bothered

Shadow Wizard

@rene can't resist asking.... why make a duck into a dog? Or more to the point, why using tables this way? Not judging or anything, more curious. :)

Stijn

@rene it's just a matter of growing experience in it, over the years you'll gather a lot of knowledge from all the edge cases you had

rene

@ShadowWizard I'm not the one producing that...I had to be thankful that they delivered the fieldnames in the row. My gut feeling was that with CSS I should be able to fix that.

The product I use is basically a one trick pony: They produce html tables ...for everything...

Shadow Wizard

@rene sounds utterly evil!

Jon Clements

1:50 PM

Sorry to be a nuisance... but the (previously bearing an swastika user) is starting to get somewhat annoying

Is any headway being made on this?

rene

@ShadowWizard I'm one of their more demanding customers and their next major release is more closely to what I need, working closely with them/on their team.

@JonClements I think balpha was at it?

Stijn

@JonClements perhaps time to raise a feature-request to disallow avatars for users with 1 reputation?

rene

@balpha Can we silently assume you're still fighting those or do you want to be pinged in case of new occurences?

Jon Clements

No idea... it's just been a few hours now and I don't see anything on the meta about any progress or what's being done... I'm sure the team are working on something... but getting a bit tired of nearly every other comment being: "What's going on with..."

rene

Another one here

Jon Clements

1:55 PM

Just look here

Stijn

@JonClements I'm seeing rainbow flag avatars

rene

I'm not sure if it is wise to have a meta post up that you can point to?

Jon Clements

@Stijn yes, because it's been changed...

Alex

Final Contest

2:09 PM

This question appears to be off-topic because where is the own effort?! — Final Contest 44 secs ago

Alex

perhaps reword that

"what have you tried" or something

Shadow Wizard

@JonClements I don't see any of those in chat. What is the problem, only the profile page itself?

Bart

@FinalContest really? Now that's a crappy custom close vote description.

Final Contest

@Alex: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/261858/…

Shadow Wizard

@Bart better than "This question is off topic because you're not a real programmer"! ;)

Final Contest

2:14 PM

@Alex: that is not allowed.

Bart

Only barely @ShadowWizard. Photofinish.

user202362

rlemon

ha!

user202362

the tor troll is back ...

rlemon

my post is from the JS room :P

balpha

2:15 PM

how do you like the replacement flag I gave him? :)

Alex

"what have you tried" equates to name calling?

rlemon

@balpha ahh that was you :P

Shadow Wizard

@balpha strike right through his heart! But... why not just nuke all the accounts?

user202362

maybe randomly change the users' avatars instead of closing the accounts?

Bart

@balpha brilliant

Final Contest

2:17 PM

@Alex: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/251309/…

user202362

Is the tor troll slightly retarded or does the troll has a greater plan like making the user table to explode? Although I would thought the user table would be huge ... at this rate, it would take the troll a year or two ... that's if SE has done nothing in between ...

Alex

if "what have you tried" is too cliched, then perhaps "please include details of what you have done so far"

Final Contest

you apparently missed that ^

rlemon

@balpha there was a troll yesterday running a 'star bot' (just constantly selected random messages and stared then unstared them)

I wonder if it is the same user

(this user also has been banned from multiple other accounts in the past for harassment)

Final Contest

@Alex: it is not worth discussing such a crappy question. It is a waste of time for everyone.

Jon Clements

2:19 PM

@balpha can't say I see a difference even after a page reload

Shadow Wizard

@rlemon I think that only those who can write in chat (i.e. 20 rep) can star messages. No?

(activates sock to check)

rlemon

nope

anyone can

even if the room is locked.

Abhishek

If those two trolls join forces we'd have a spectacular starscape.

rlemon

regardless, the user had rep - they had another account they were bleeding rep from

@Abhishek I suspect it is the same troll. who is also the same troll who was harassing SomeKittens and I a few weeks / month back

Abhishek

Could be.

rlemon

2:22 PM

why I think this: as soon as the last troll was banned from SO with both accounts they took it off-site again

posting the same crap as before on my g+

I've blocked like 3-4 accounts on g+ of this person

Jon Clements

@rlemon they went that far? wow...

Abhishek

Ouch, he really hates u !

Shadow Wizard

rlemon

@JonClements yup. more than once. there is a 150+ comment chain on SomeKittens blog

2 mins ago, by rlemon

regardless, the user had rep - they had another account they were bleeding rep from

Shadow Wizard

So... those trolls can't star messages.

Bart

2:24 PM

Wasn't there a way to see who starred messages?

rlemon

yup

inspecting the ws data

Jon Clements

@Bart yeah... use to get the event id from the websockets

rlemon

which is how we determined who was doing it

Bart

Ah okay, way ahead of me then :D

rlemon

you can also see flags as it turns out.

Bart

2:25 PM

Ooh, interesting

rlemon

takes a bit of work, but you can.

Jon Clements

gist: 9198621, 2014-02-24 22:28:48Z

gistfile1.txt

var EventType = {
    MessagePosted: 1,
    MessageEdited: 2,
    UserEntered: 3,
    UserLeft: 4,
    RoomNameChanged: 5,
    MessageStarred: 6,
    DebugMessage: 7,
    UserMentioned: 8,
    MessageFlagged: 9,
    MessageDeleted: 10,
    FileAdded: 11,
    ModeratorFlag: 12,
    UserSettingsChanged: 13,
    GlobalNotification: 14,
    AccessLevelChanged: 15,
    UserNotification: 16,
    Invitation: 17,
    MessageReply: 18,
    MessageMovedOut: 19,
    MessageMovedIn: 20,
    TimeBreak: 21,
    FeedTicker: 22,
    UserSuspended: 29,
    UserMerged: 30
};

oooooops... didn't realise that boxed - sorry all

Shadow Wizard

lol

Good ol' Won't

Bart

rofl

Jon Clements

anyway - those are the "event" codes for the websocket on chat AFAIK

Alex

2:28 PM

@JonClements is gist boxing working now?

Jon Clements

@Alex it appears so

Alex

thanks

Jon Clements

@Bart Look for "event" 6 - and you get the user_id

Bart

Thanks @JonClements

Jon Clements

starring and unstarring are the same event though

rlemon

2:31 PM

Shadow Wizard

DDoS attack on Stack Overflow?

it's slooow

rlemon

still easy to determine who is doing shifty stuff '

Bart

@rlemon ah, him

rlemon

I would put money on it being him today as well

Jon Clements

Yup - I'd put a few quid behind that bet as well :)

rlemon

2:32 PM

and said user admitted to also being the person from before who was stalking SomeKittens and myself.

Shadow Wizard

@JonClements @rlemon @Alex you realize you play right into his hands by giving him all this attention, right? That's exactly what he's after: to stir the ant hill, draw attention etc.

rlemon

@ShadowWizard I learned how to sniff out the stars / flags because of him. so there is that.

Alex

oh... i didn't realise, but that makes sense

Shadow Wizard

@rlemon yeah, but if he will be totally ignored without a blip of attention, he'll leave out of sheer boredom

rlemon

and "just ignore them" only goes to a certain point. if someone is posting inappropriate content on my public facing social media sites then, yes, I think that warrents attention

the name is never the same. the content is.

Jon Clements

2:35 PM

@ShadowWizard we're just ignoring them... but I'm getting somewhat tired of having to explain to my room members to ignore things

Shadow Wizard

@JonClements true, when it comes to lots of other users it's hard to control. :/

user202362

No one ever sends me saucy messages here ... no one, ever!

rlemon

@chmod711telkitty Alfredo

Jon Clements

So, I couldn't care less really... except I have a room to run and too much time is already spent explaining "what's going on here!"/"what's with all the..." - that's my only concern

user202362

@rlemon only if they also invite me to dinner on the message ...

user202362

2:39 PM

Pasta sounds good, guess I am hungry ...

rlemon

but you are on the opposite side of the planet :( otherwise I would.

user202362

:(

Shadow Wizard

@JonClements good point, guess the team is doing their best.

Jon Clements