Tavern on the Meta

Gaurang Tandon

15:00

@JourneymanGeek did it pick up mistakes or pick up and correct them as well? I think the latter happened

Derpy

FOUND!

Journeyman Geek

@GaurangTandon picked up good things from the bad things of others

Derpy

> Si potrebbe andare tutti quanti allo zoo comunale. Vengo anch'io. No, tu no. Per vedere come stanno le bestie feroci. e gridare aiuto, aiuto è scappato il leone,. e vedere di nascosto l'effetto che fa

Gaurang Tandon

@JourneymanGeek yeah. that's a hard thing to do imo, and SE has achieved near perfection in this type of Q&A

Journeyman Geek

@GaurangTandon well, the folks who developed it had a clear idea of what they wanted at the time

Derpy

15:01

@GaurangTandon Basically, from what I remember, the song suggest going to the zoo, claim a lion has escaped its cage and then hide while watching the results.

Journeyman Geek

"The hyphen site, without a paywall, +++ extra gamification"

Gaurang Tandon

@Derpy is this what you meant - "We could all go to the municipal zoo. I'm coming too. No, you do not. To see how the wild beasts are. and scream for help, help ran off the lion ,. and to see the effect that it does secretly"

@JourneymanGeek "hyphen" site?

Journeyman Geek

lol

get off my lawn

experts exchange

Gaurang Tandon

it's a funny song though

@JourneymanGeek but stackexchange is not as funny as expertsexchange :P

Journeyman Geek

blog.codinghorror.com/whos-your-arch-enemy

Derpy

15:03

@GaurangTandon see above, that is an Italian song a friend sent me some time ago. I explained the actual meaning in my preceding message.

2 mins ago, by Derpy

@GaurangTandon Basically, from what I remember, the song suggest going to the zoo, claim a lion has escaped its cage and then hide while watching the results.

Gaurang Tandon

@Derpy ah, had missed it, yep, it makes sense

lol, TIL that experts-exchange is a 100% real company, and not some random internet meme

Journeyman Geek

And its worth remembering

Gaurang Tandon

how did they even come up with that name? i always assumed it was just an internet joke and nothing else

Journeyman Geek

early SO was literally 3 guys

experts exchange actually sounds cool

heck, SE had half of that

Gaurang Tandon

@JourneymanGeek but once you see its problem you can't unsee it ;)

Journeyman Geek

15:07

and that wasn't really the issue

they stuck stuff behind a semi paywall

people could google it, but not find the information

Twas ..

what do they call it

an antipattern?

Man who holds treat over a dog's head will eventually lose a hand.

Derpy

@GaurangTandon once upon a time, their site design was even worse than now. See the semi paywall that @JourneymanGeek is talking about.

Gaurang Tandon

@JourneymanGeek how does that proverb apply here?

Journeyman Geek

@GaurangTandon if you find information on google

Gaurang Tandon

@Derpy oh, interesting

Journeyman Geek

then find you can't read it. Unless you're highly desperate you arn't paying

or staying

HTTPS

15:09

was it like... the original quora?

Gaurang Tandon

@JourneymanGeek oh

HTTPS

e.g. register to read the rest of the answers

Journeyman Geek

SE's model, while not perfect kind of gives a core group of users an incentive to stay, done right.

Derpy

@HTTPS I think that in ages long forgotten they even went as far as having the question, then a message "pay to see the answer", then a so-long-is-not-even-funny list of ads..... and then all the answers you were supposed to pay for.

Journeyman Geek

On the other hand, the money dosen't come directly from Q&A so you're in an arkward situation where you have a core product that everyone knows about that dosen't make you money.

Gaurang Tandon

15:11

@HTTPS that isn't a paywall I'd guess? i'd happily create a dummy account to see the content. that said, Quora is only good because of the people who post stuff there. the site itself and its management is a bit off. and many many questions are just like yahoo! answers

Journeyman Geek

I mean, there's advertising but we're a technical crowd

@GaurangTandon its friction

the nice thing with SE is you can find answers and often ask questions with 0 friction

Gaurang Tandon

@JourneymanGeek yep that's very true

Journeyman Geek

the big antipattern for us is...

a lot of folk don't get the model

"Why are people so terse?" "Why did my thank yous get edited out?"

or the folks who assume its a forum

Gaurang Tandon

@JourneymanGeek i often feel like telling them, "just stick around and you'll learn to appreciate the site", but it's no use; they'll leave anyway

Journeyman Geek

well that's good and bad

I've often been a fan of lurking

and SE's a great place for lurkers and learners

Gaurang Tandon

15:16

yes

Journeyman Geek

tbh tho

If I was new to SE I'd start somewhere other than SO

(but I don't code anyway)

simply cause quieter sites are easier to grok the mechanics on

Gaurang Tandon

exactly! starting in smaller communities is often the best idea.

on smaller sites, there are people willing to teach you the ABCD of how the site works

rene

there are on SO as well but so many need their attention ...

Journeyman Geek

@rene SO's large and chaotic. ;p

Gaurang Tandon

if I was a brand new user, an entire fresh face, I would be scared by so many people around me

rene

15:21

see this one. Commented to the guy, offered links, he didn't seem to get it and then he links to his question on main and I go oh my .... and that is not a fresh user ...

I spend 15 minutes or so on that question.

I can't do that on every post or user that comes by

Derpy

"people"... what about all the cats, dogs, wolves, ponies, flowers, eyesight correction devices and so on? Don't we deserve consideration too? :?

HTTPS

I still love this answer: "You should absolutely be afraid to ask a question"

Gaurang Tandon

ofc, some new users never really get it

rene

@Derpy sure, when I say people, I mean objects.

Journeyman Geek

@Derpy all these are people

@rene that's something people miss.

Being helpful takes time, and its often better spent helping people with a clue.

HTTPS

15:31

Being helpful is stresful when they ignore the effort

That should be the job for a emotionless bot

(and that's why I won't be a good mod)

Derpy

@JourneymanGeek maybe I am a real pony and I am writing this in a magic notebook using a phoenix quill and kraken ink, who knows....

And even forgetting me, won't you include those poor bots that work 24/7 to help keeping the site clean?

Poor @SmokeDetector... ;_;

Journeyman Geek

@HTTPS actually

as a mod, its remarkably easy to get sucked into the mechanics of it

Magisch

@Derpy In that case your favorite mod should be @YvetteColomb

She likes horses a lot

(also using this as a shameless reminder for yvette to post foal pictures when they arrive)

Journeyman Geek

yup

@Magisch hah

user315433

15:53

user315433

I wanted to point out that Sandbox is not for playing with flags, but I can't open it anyway, so perhaps others can't either.

user315433

What if... new private betas got a featured post (hence, a mention in SO sidebar) a week or so after they launched.

user315433

There may be fewer instances of "aww that interesting site got closed before I knew it existed"

Tim Post

16:09

@SFTP We used to do that, in fact new sites used to get a blog post once they got out of private beta. It attracted lots of spectators that had opinions, but few people with actual topic knowledge that were willing to contribute. So, essentially, that kind of broad publicity more or less just makes a mess with a lot of onlookers.

At that stage we really need to attract a specific kind of worker bee instead of a swarm.

HTTPS

Chance of site's survivability ∝ chance of get into HNQ

user315433

@TimPost But it looks like you're willing to make a mess at Quantum Computing...

user315433

@SmokeDetector fp- Remember the good old times of waves of Chinese diploma mill spam?

user310756

@Magisch oh yes :)

Magisch

@YvetteColomb How's the flag queue treating you?

user310756

16:20

@Magisch nice - am looking at a certain persons flags. Will start clearing them tomorrow :)

Fawad

Hi guys,any idea about what computational natural sciences is?

Quora is not showing answer 😠 😠😡😡😠😠😠

Sonic Wizard

16:48

@Fawad I see the answer

Why can't you?

Sonic Wizard

17:08

@SmokeDetector tpu-

Sonic Wizard

17:42

@SmokeDetector tpu-

@SmokeDetector fp-

@SmokeDetector tpu-

Tim Stone

Heh, thanks @rene ;)

rene

you're welcome ;)

user315433

18:08

So... what've you been up to?

user315433

Maybe @username thanks! :) comments could go too, SE can always elect more mods.

user315433

1

A: Dismiss Company Ad - Block Company Entirely

We've shipped this today! You can now dismiss jobs and companies altogether. We're syncing this information with the ads system, so that you won't see jobs you dismiss on /jobs on ads (and the other way around). Dismissed jobs also won't make it into jobs emails or appear as results on any sear...

user315433

\o/ oh wait I use uBlock Origin

Sonic Wizard

18:34

@SFTP Have you heard of Nano Adblocker/Nano Defender?

user315433

@Moron: Thank you! — whuber Aug 26 '10 at 0:56

user315433

The user has changed their username long ago, but it remains in such comments. :/

Sterling Archer

I lol'd

Sonic Wizard

18:52

one-more-delete-vote-needed meta.stackexchange.com/review/low-quality-posts/57078

user315433

19:04

@SonicWizard gone

Cris

19:15

hi there

i notice i can't find one of my questions on software engineering ....

Catija

If it's not in your questions list, it was probably deleted.

Cris

there was some kind of a failure and they restored data from a certain point ?

ok.

Catija

Do you have a link to it by any chance?

If so, you could still find it. Alternately, you could ask on their meta site and a moderator could explain why it was deleted or what else might have happened to it. It's difficult for anyone other than a site mod or staff member to find deleted posts.

Cris

you are right

softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/368398/…

Catija

I can't see it since I don't have the requisite rep on that site. It may explain why it was deleted. If it was downvoted, the roomba may have removed it as an "abandoned" question.

Cris

19:19

it's fine seems was not the right place to ask...

i try to find out where :)

Catija

You can always ask on MSE where the right site to ask is. :) Use the site-recommendation tag.

We won't always have an appropriate site but, if we do, that's your best bet to find it.

Cris

MSE is meta stack ex...

Catija

It's the site that owns the room you're in now. Yes. meta.stackexchange.com

Cris

gr8

many thanks !

Catija

My pleasure.

M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

19:51

@Derpy English does have constant rules. You're just being taught or using the wrong ones

@GaurangTandon because you need to actually know something and have some free time to be able to do that?

Well, most of the sites

Just not LH and IPS

Sonic Wizard

20:18

@rene chaos-emerald-pls meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75477/…

user315433

Lack of reading habbits in youth is disgusting

user315433

As opposed to reading hobbits, which are frequently encountered.

Anonymous

20:36

let's fix this test. oh, this is a deep issue,
let's fix this utility. oh, this is a deep issue,
let's fix this framework. oh, this is a deep issue,
let's fix this compiler. oh, this is a deep issue,
let's delete it all and start on a better foundation.

Anonymous

gotta know when to cut your losses.

Anonymous

hint: it's before you give them years to compound.

Anonymous

"oh, we'll rewrite it some day!"

Anonymous

really? after it's even more rotten and ten other systems are integrated with the rot?

Anonymous

i do not believe.

Sonic Wizard

20:40

@SmokeDetector naa-

Sonic Wizard

21:49

In the spirit of Easter, here's a user script to more easily access SE Chat's Easter eggs

@SFTP Access the "Wheel of Blame" Easter egg without needing to open the JS console

Shog9

@JeremyBanks insert bongo solo here

Sonic Wizard

@Shog9 What's the purpose of the "Wheel of Blame" Easter egg, which without the above user script can only be activated by entering commands into the browser's JS console?

Anonymous

22:09

oops, was playing with the console easter egg via @Sonic's script

Anonymous

@Shog9 let's see if Garage Band can provide that...

Sonic Wizard

@JeremyBanks Did you try WoB?

Anonymous

@SonicWizard I have seen it many times in the employee rooms. :P

Sonic Wizard

@JeremyBanks Why is it disabled in most rooms?

Shog9

Because blaming non employees isn't fair

Anonymous

22:21

Staff add a lot of silly features for each other, bit those usually haven't gone through like proper product development or review.

Sonic Wizard

@JeremyBanks Oh, so it's only enabled in staff-private chat rooms? (cc @Shog9 )

Anonymous

22:34

Yeah. I don't know what all's enabled where, but there are a set of features that are only enabled in certain internal rooms. Mostly dumb jokes like the wheel of blame. Some minor internal features, like oneboxing of internal private content. I wouldn't expect to see any of this stuff added to public rooms, and I probably wouldn't want most to be.

Anonymous

Not all rooms are as cool and laid back as the tavern. 😎

Shadow Wizard

@JeremyBanks curious to know, how you activate WoB where it's enabled? What you need to type?

Anonymous

not my fault

Anonymous

> Our internal chat (aka Bonfire Chat) had some weird features like Wheel of Blame: when anyone said “It’s not my fault!” the program would randomly blame someone else using a loud alarm.

Shadow Wizard

22:51

It’s not my fault!

:(

@Jeremy was it first also internal only egg? ^

Anonymous

I was not aware of that.

Anonymous

:p

user315433

23:03

TIL usejournal.com "Over 6000 people on the waitlist. Currently in closed beta."

Sonic Wizard

23:15

1 hour ago, by Sonic Wizard

In the spirit of Easter, here's a user script to more easily access SE Chat's Easter eggs

@TelKitty Install this script and tell me what you think of the Easter eggs

1

Q: Request for a userscript to activate the "Wheel of Blame" Easter egg in chat

Note: This is not the same as The Unofficial Wheel of Blame. The Stack Exchange chat sites have an Easter egg called "Wheel of Blame" that activates for the current user only. Right now, the only way to activate it is by entering commands into the JavaScript console. I'm looking for a user scri...

user202362

I got 'Invalid script header'

Transcript for