Tavern on the Meta

Shadow Wizard

11:01

@rene regarding that user who copied your screenshot, looks like a troll or spammer, since they also have a deleted account on other site: chemistry.stackexchange.com/users/79089/jimmy-benjamin

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

11:16

A little announcement: I've analyzed every anonymous edit made to this site since I deleted my previous account in November 2013 to the time I recreated my current account in December 2017. I've gone through each edit and determined which ones are mine and which ones aren't. Here's the chart: 1drv.ms/x/s!AqtMgKjEFIvOgcYhXA4N97y_V6hYIw (cc @Shadow)

If you look at the year before I created my account on December 10, 2017, you'll see that I've made at least 280 out of 305 edits, or 92%.

Overall, I've confirmed to have contributed at least 318 out of 419 edits, plus maybe around ~10-20 more.

Shadow Wizard

Congrats, I guess? :)

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

For the benefit of those who want to analyze the data...

Mithrandir

I kinda doubt that anyone besides you actually cares about the data... At this point it's really giving off the impression that you're just going "HEY REMEMBER I DID THIS" for the attention.

Like, cool, great, thanks. But there's no reason to keep bringing it up again and again and again and again.

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

Well, I actually started this analysis in March 2017, just as everyone was reeling in from it. I burned out with around 50 more edits remaining to analyze, then I discovered this file during a drive cleanout, so I figured I'd finish it now.

@Mithrandir Point me to the last time I brought it up before this one.

Shadow Wizard

@Mithrandir hmm? When did he bring it up before? (In this way)

When we do something good, it's OK to brag a bit.

But yeah, there's a line somewhere.

looking for the line

found a flower instead

e.g. I brag sometimes about being King of Pings. :D

(uh, well, that's not example of something good, but meh.... ;))

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

11:24

A quick search reveals the last time to be one month ago (though that wasn't bragging), then the time it could remotely be considered bragging November 2018

And if bragging about it once every six months crosses the line, I'd be surprised.

There was also one mention in December 2018, though that wasn't bragging either.

Shadow Wizard

There's this one:

Mar 19 '18 at 21:04, by Ano

Over spring break, I've been working on checking each anonymous edit made since my first one in January 2014 and my coming out in early December. After having checked all but 48 of the 413 anonymous edits made during that time period, I've counted 312 as by me, 46 as by others, and 6 as "unknown" (as in, I don't remember). While this isn't the actual count, I can definitively state that I've made 300+ anonymous edits here.

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

6 mins ago, by Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

Well, I actually started this analysis in March 2017, just as everyone was reeling in from it. I burned out with around 50 more edits remaining to analyze, then I discovered this file during a drive cleanout, so I figured I'd finish it now.

(2018, not 2017, that was a typo)

Shadow Wizard

oh lol

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

Plus it's March 2018 which is 8 months before the next brag

Tinkeringbell

@Mithrandir If they do, you just gave them attention ;) I'm going to recommend that if people are uninterested in discussing this data they just ignore it and don't have conversations about it. :)

Shadow Wizard

11:33

!!/coffee data

SmokeDetector

@ShadowWizard brews a cup of Affogato for @data

Shadow Wizard

!!/tea Marg

SmokeDetector

@ShadowWizard brews a cup of darjeeling tea for @Marg

Shadow Wizard

Mar is taken by other user.... since you ditched the dots.... :/

Tinkeringbell

I could use an extra latte. Perhaps in a few minutes, during refinement :)

rene

11:41

@ShadowWizard yeah, it looks like someone who was bored and/or experimenting. We dealt with it, right?

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

!!/latte Tinkeringbell

SmokeDetector

@SonictheInclusiveHedgehog No such command 'latte'.

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

Darn.

!!/coffee Tink

SmokeDetector

@SonictheInclusiveHedgehog brews a cup of Espresso for @Tink

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

Will that do?

Oh, almost forgot the stroopwafels

Rob

11:43

Smokey's just brewing the coffee, says nothing about giving it to the person afterwards :)

Tinkeringbell

I'll take a stroopwafel then ;) I drink latte's because they contain a lot of milk, an espresso would be too bitter for me :)

Rob

Also, that command brings me way back to the good old irc days

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

All café. No smoke.

@Rob Pretty much all coffee shops here in the States are counter service

Anyone got the new Pixel 3a?

Tinkeringbell

Not me.. Pixel is a Google brand, right?

Journeyman Geek

Yup

Shadow Wizard

11:54

@rene left

Journeyman Geek

It's kinda like the Nexus but more googly

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

As a Nexus 6P upgrader I find it the 90% perfect phone to upgrade to

It was a great phone, but over time it kept facing increasingly worse problems. It wasn't running the latest Android well, one of the two speakers would randomly cut out, it stopped being supported in December 2018, and eventually the fingerprint sensor failed. The last straw was a cracked screen, so I immediately upgraded to the Pixel 3a XL.

It's quite a massive upgrade from the Nexus, and being a new phone it will be supported for longer

Rob

90%?

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

One of the two stereo speakers is bottom-facing, so it lacks true dual front-facing stereo speakers, a feature of the Nexus model. But otherwise it's perfect...

Tinkeringbell

I have a OnePlus (5, I think)... works amazingly well for me. Was also a pretty great upgrade from my previous phone, which was a geriatric samsung ;)

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

11:58

It costs less than $500, considering that that's how much the Nexus 6P cost

If you're willing to go smaller, then it's only $400

Shadow Wizard

And tiny? $300?

My phone cost $320 and it's pretty fine.

It's not small at all, just... Chinese. :D

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

@ShadowWizard Speaking of tiny...I spotted this at the store. A normal-sized phone is on the right for comparison.

Mithrandir

How do you define a "normal-sized" phone?

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

Too bad Xiaomi doesn't sell in the U.S. market, and hasn't for years...

Journeyman Geek

@SonictheInclusiveHedgehog I love the form factor.

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

12:02

@Mithrandir It's a Pixel 3 XL (non-A)

never mind, edited

Shadow Wizard

@SonictheInclusiveHedgehog so? These days you can order anything over the internet. The phone I bought isn't being sold in Israel.

John Dvorak

J5 here. Cheap yet good. Great size.

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

Import duties from China have increased...

Shadow Wizard

@JohnDvorak better than jQuery?!

oh it's 5

Saw it as JS. ROFL

John Dvorak

It can run jQuery, too

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

12:03

Plus consumer electronics are cheaper in the U.S. than anywhere else.

@JohnDvorak Galaxy J5?

Shadow Wizard

@SonictheInclusiveHedgehog already?? Thought Trump's tweet will take actual effect only in June.

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

The J series is budget or midrange?

42 secs ago, by Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

Plus consumer electronics are cheaper in the U.S. than anywhere else.

Shadow Wizard

@Mithrandir measure all phones, make average? ;)

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

Finally, rather than wait a while and be forced to use my cracked Nexus for possibly a month, I wanted a new phone now, from a brand that actually sells phones in the States.

John Dvorak

@SonictheInclusiveHedgehog yes

Shadow Wizard

12:05

@SonictheInclusiveHedgehog fair point

When my screen broke I had to order a new one from China and wait few weeks, yeah.

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

My budget was $500, the same price as my Nexus, and at $480 the Pixel 3a XL came under that budget while supporting 90% of features I was accustomed to

John Dvorak

I once had an off-brand phone for $50. It was junk but it still lasted me a long time.

Shadow Wizard

With snake, I hope?

John Dvorak

It was technically an Android, but it had the memory of a floppy disc (B:), and anything more complex than a graphing calculator would keep crashing due to insufficient RAM

Shadow Wizard

I once had a phone with some helicopter game I forgot its name.... can't find the game now. :(

John Dvorak

12:09

it finally died when it ran out of internal memory and couldn't boot.

My mother bought an Element P002. It doesn't have a screen lock key, but it does have a flappy helicopter game.

Shadow Wizard

@JohnDvorak wait... what game??

John Dvorak

10 kpx. Not width. Total.

Shadow Wizard

Might be the one I'm looking for.... :D

John Dvorak

It's a spaceship / helicopter flying through an increasingly tight tunnel / obstacle course, and all you could do was rise slowly or freefall.

(or tap the button to reset freefall velocity)

Shadow Wizard

@JohnDvorak flappy bird style?! lol

John Dvorak

12:15

The splash screen shows a helicopter, but the in-game sprite is a sorta-spaceship

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

Don't forget that every Android phone since Lollipop has a built-in Flappy Droid game

Shadow Wizard

Well, not what I had back in the day.... 15-ish years ago... there was helicopter that could fire missiles or throw bombs, and he goal was to eliminate all enemy forces.

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

(In Nougat the official access path was removed, but it's still there; it can be accessed through a helper app)

Journeyman Geek

@ShadowWizard striker!

Shadow Wizard

hmm

Journeyman Geek

12:17

Dos Game Review: Striker

►

Rob

You might say my phone has gone commando, but it's actually quite secure; and doesn't stick out like a dog.

Sonic the Inclusive Hedgehog

@JourneymanGeek That looks CGA

Rob

How the Galaxy S9 Tactical Edition Is Transforming Mission Operations

►

Shadow Wizard

@JourneymanGeek no... not DOS. It was on my (non smart) phone.

Before smartphones even existed.

@Rob my phone didn't have cover for few months, I didn't know it doesn't arrive with one. I was weird to hold a phone without any cover. lol

John Dvorak

oooh, phone covers. I feel old.

Shadow Wizard

12:19

Guess I can look at all 2000-2005 games.... too lazy....

John Dvorak

My favorite game from that era is Scorched Earth.

Rob

My MilSpec cover certainly adds some weight, and it's annoying to have to remove it for the goggles, but it's drop proof.

Shadow Wizard

@JohnDvorak awesome game! Played it for years with my nephews after family dinners. :D

Favorite weapon: Funky Bomb.

Though they usually just used Death Head and won. So unfair. :(

John Dvorak

My favorite: bouncy walls, 10x magshield, max boom power, launch a death's head

Shadow Wizard

hmm... sounds like you played some fancy advanced version

Rob

12:23

Missile Command, with the large inertial trackball, was one of my favorites.

Shadow Wizard

Too bad it became really buggy on Windows 7 and 10, got stuck frequently.

Journeyman Geek

@SonictheInclusiveHedgehog yup

No Distraction Wizard

13:56

Hot Meta Post (and important too):

20

Q: Does meta have to mean murder?

It's often said on this site that meta means murder and that this acts as a deterrent. Our site, which is supposed to act as the central clearinghouse for network-wide matters, doesn't have a great rep despite the good efforts of many people here. Using a system designed for objective(ish) Q&A,...

user302202

14:07

It's a large critical audience. (Come to think of it, it's not that large, but it makes up for size in being extra critical.)

user302202

I do like gnat's suggestion about hiding comments on Meta, though.

No Distraction Wizard

I have a more radical proposal by mixing Magisch Geek's answers... but too lazy to write :x

John Dvorak

located and downvoted Gnat's proposal

user302202

Hm, is this a good suggestion or a bad one? Let's check the comments... oh, it's a bad one. DV.

user302202

Also, why does it even matter? If SO-the-company likes the idea of chatty system comments, they can go ahead with it all the same, whether the proposal is at -30 or +30.

John Dvorak

14:11

This suggestion seems reasonable... Oh, wait, the comment by User314276 shows why it cannot work. Dow... Oh, wait, I didn't read the comment. Upvote!

Journeyman Geek

@NoDistractionWizard eh, My original idea was a little more extreme

user302202

A two-line comment hardly "shows" anything as much as expresses a belief.

Journeyman Geek

but I was doubtful that fundamentally changing how meta works would be feasable

No Distraction Wizard

Basically:
1. Only allow 1 "required tag" because mixing them is confusing and open to "abuse" (is this tagged with [support]? but it's also tagged with [feature-request]! *dv*)
2. Abolish downvote penalty
3. Only allow downvote on [discussion]

Journeyman Geek

@NoDistractionWizard then everyone avoids discussion ;p

John Dvorak

14:13

#2 and #3 don't make sense together. Additionally, even #3 alone is bad.

user302202

From personal experience: "If we add an optional filter by reputation, NOBODY will see the posts by new users, and the site will collapse" does not show anything. It reiterates a wrong idea of how people use site settings. But the conversation stops there, everyone now sees the proposal is bad.

No Distraction Wizard

That's why it's radical. Even yesterday's proposal in jest about giving +1 for downvote as consolation reward.

user302202

@NoDistractionWizard Remember the score I got when I proposed removing DV penalty?

user302202

(checking) -20

Journeyman Geek

@VoteDukakis that's part of the fun of meta. People love their sacred cows and challenging them is hard

user302202

14:16

That somehow didn't require disassociation of the post, though.

John Dvorak

I got to go now. Please don't ruin the site while I'm away! (Or afterwards, for that matter)

Journeyman Geek

Well you'd need to request it

besides, you do occationally dump your accounts and make new ones ;p

user302202

Spring cleaning...

user302202

> Do you want to be a vampire,still in human,having talented brain turning to a vampire in a good posture in ten mines time to a human again, with out delaying in a good human posture

user302202

Sure. What wouldn't people do to have a good posture...

user302202

14:20

Throw in the promise of weight loss with the all-blood diet, and I'm in.

No Distraction Wizard

Oh yeah, about the comment, while some comments themselves might be problematic, the inbox notification to the OP is more problematic on Hot Comment Post... like getting 20+ notifications in a short time..?

I actually want to propose to automatically create a chat room for a meta post as the only comment, then disable the comment thread. But that's also too radical.

In the end, it's Meta Radical Exchange...

user302202

14:38

Meta Emotional Exchange

John Dvorak

@JourneymanGeek wait, isn't that illegal?

user302202

I'm unaware of any U.S. federal or state law on the subject, at least.

Journeyman Geek

@JohnDvorak only if you do it to get around system restrictions

Which isn't the case here

user302202

Unrelated: the custom question filter looks so under-powered that I can't even bother enabling it for testing.

No Distraction Wizard

You mean it lacks of reputation filter?

fbueckert

14:50

We could prevent all these complaints about people trolling or new users posting junk if we could just filter out specific users or add rep thresholds.

Shadow Wizard

@VoteDukakis under-powered?

@NoDistractionWizard well it was expected

user302202

@NoDistractionWizard Or anything I could conceivably use to zoom in on a few decent questions floating in the ocean of laziness and desperation.

user302202

Doesn't have to be rep. "Hide the posts with a tiny black hand attached" could be good enough

Shadow Wizard

Well, Brian made wonders with the iOS app. So if something is wrong, it's surely not on his side. (i.e. it's somewhere above him.)

user302202

Sure he's not deciding what features the filter should have.

Shadow Wizard

14:57

Exactly.

user302202

15:08

@fbueckert And yet, you've posted this comment on a proposal to do just that:

user302202

You can't. Who posts something doesn't matter. The content does. — fbueckert Apr 28 at 16:37

user302202

As the current theory goes, this comment (being the 1st posted) "sealed the fate" of the post.

No Distraction Wizard

Why don't you ~~advertise~~ share your userscript again? ;p

user302202

Because it would destroy the sites, of course...

fbueckert

@VoteDukakis Yes. Because I don't think that's a problem.

Ignoring people just turns into an echo chamber.

user302202

15:28

It's fine with me if the black-handers experience an echo chamber full of crickets. But whatever.

fbueckert

I really feel that there's a massive expectations disconnect between us and new users.

And our attendant sites do an extremely bad job of teaching new users how these things work.

user302202

@NoDistractionWizard Another example: if I want to avoid the routine homework problems on Math, I need to filter for questions that remained with no answer, say, for 12 or 24 hours. Can I do that with this filter? No. It's "newest" only. Of course the newest questions have no answer, that does not mean much.

Margarine

15:45

@ShadowWizard Give me some direction here. I'm pretty sure you were annoyed by the dots.

@Loong Why? Where was your quote from?

CoC? Somehow the abbreviation seems more apt now.

Dog's Code of Conduct khkhkh

I'm 12 again -__-

Mithrandir

So I guess that makes me older...

And you too young to use the site. Checkmate.

No Distraction Wizard

Looks like you have found the formula for ether-nal life...

Tinkeringbell

@Margarine At least act like you're 13 or you'll end up reported for behaving underaged ;)

John Dvorak

Maybe @Margarine is just making an "I'm 12 and what is this" joke

Tinkeringbell

@JohnDvorak oh, don't worry. Maaaaybe I was just joking too ;)

No Distraction Wizard

15:52

@JohnDvorak Explain Because I'm 5

user302202

Mar 4 at 2:54, by Shog9

I recommend acting 30. Seems like a reasonable age to act... at any age.

John Dvorak

> This is the closest thing to crazy I have ever been
> Being 22, acting 17

Margarine

@Mithrandir Not really. In a reality where I'm 12, you'd not even be born. The relation is antilogarithmic.

No Distraction Wizard

> So here I am, growing older all the time
> Looking older all the time, feeling younger in my mind~

(was it my first time to quote a song?)

Margarine

Yes, we're still deciphering it

You know, if it wasn't for the rhythm, more than half of all the songs would sound like the dumbest things humanity has ever said.

John Dvorak

16:05

I can understand the quoted part. The rest might as well have lyrics in Bengalese.

fbueckert

@VoteDukakis Hard to act that age when you haven't hit it, yet.

user302202

I liked the idea, suggested by h00k on bash.org, of a Twitter bot that messages prominent politicians to tell them when they've unnecessarily used sms-speak abbreviations despite having plenty of characters left.

Margarine

@fbueckert I imagine it's just like being a bureaucrat with an attitude.

John Dvorak

Scratch that. I can actually understand them, at least in terms of speech-to-text confidence

fbueckert

@Margarine "No soup for you!"

fbueckert

16:27

That expectation mismatch rears it's head again.

Margarine

@fbueckert Not your normal grayish area though it seems chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/50286256#50286256

fbueckert

@Margarine Oh, so less mismatch, and more wilful ignorance.

Margarine

Willful mismatch

fbueckert

There's always users like that. Help sites are there to help them. Rules? What are rules? Just answer my question!

Tinkeringbell

16:50

@fbueckert so. Solutions? Or just venting again?

fbueckert

I tried assuming good faith, @Tink. I still think setting expectations upfront would nip a lot of this in the bud.

Tinkeringbell

@fbueckert sure. So... Question wizard?

fbueckert

Based on the results we're getting from SO, I'm not confident that's the answer to all our problems.

user302202

Say "how to add a question wizard to every site"

fbueckert

Public messaging needs a dramatic rework, even if SE discounts the reach it gets.

It'd help a ton if there was something in all that feel good welcoming messaging if it was tempered with the fact that we still need to maintain standards.

Tinkeringbell

16:58

@fbueckert Well, the code of conduct has a few sideways things that can be interpreted as such...

fbueckert

@Tinkeringbell None of it is explicit, though, and users are far more likely to twist it to be a shield against curation.

Tinkeringbell

@fbueckert well, at least this user didn't do that ;) I think they're just generally annoyed that they can't get their question through IPS quality control, and went to another site where they could post to find a sympathetic ear, only to find a brick border wall of more quality control :/

It's hard, a lot of people think IPS is just about interacting, but an Interpersonal Skill is really a behavior used when interacting to achieve a goal, and their questions weren't about that :/

fbueckert

And if those expectations had been made clear, it may have prevented the annoyance in the first place. I'm not confident of that in this case, but it's still a non-zero possibility.

We can't force users to read, or much of this wouldn't even be an issue.

I'm starting to come around to needing to pass a test before being able to ask your first question.

Tinkeringbell

@fbueckert I recently put that definition in the first paragraph of help/on-topic on IPS, but yeah... It's not visible enough there :/

fbueckert

The flip side of a test is that it's a pretty massive barrier to entry. In my more cynical moments, I'd say that's a good thing.

Tinkeringbell

17:08

@fbueckert Tests are ... Fickle. There's people that can pass tests very well then completely mess up in practice, and people that may get turned away/discouraged because they can't pass the test (e.g. language issues)... Who could've asked great questions that just needed some editing

@fbueckert Ehh, not for a movement focused on enlarging the user base of a site ;)

fbueckert

@Tinkeringbell Hence my flip side. I'm not unaware of the downsides of doing so.

Dealing with too much low quality content burns out your curators, though; once the ones holding back the dam break, you've got a flood you can't handle.

Where the balance is between new and curators, I don't know. But it has to be a balance. None of this welcoming new users and ignoring curators.

Tinkeringbell

@fbueckert I don't really feel ignored here... Because it's basically those curators that can say 'hey, if you want me to be able to help new users better, I need X' or 'hey, I think new users would benefit from a question wizard, and it would save me work too'. Of course they can't implement all stuff at once, but I do feel they're working on stuff...

fbueckert

@Tinkeringbell You and I are going to disagree on that one. And I don't really want to vent some more about the situation, so it's best to leave it.

Tinkeringbell

Okay :)

No Distraction Wizard

Funny it's also in these months. Almost like a curse. (Random no-context messages generator)

Tinkeringbell

17:15

@NoDistractionWizard Funny month was last month, already long over ;)

Margarine

I wanna vent, but I'm busy. And not all that frustrated

fbueckert

I can vent about something unrelated; I got a look into how data is stored for an application yesterday.

It needs high frequency reading and updating, and needs to be perfectly accurate.

Tinkeringbell

@fbueckert please tell me it wasn't in see through plastic bins?

No Distraction Wizard

Last month my room got attacked by ants though >_>

fbueckert

So how did the designers store it? Pseudo XML, with all data related to one user in a single field.

@Tinkeringbell Nah, that's my workplace.

Tinkeringbell

17:18

@fbueckert bad workplace! Find one where they use acid free cardboard boxes to avoid damage by light ;)

fbueckert

So a single user might have up to 200 items, each with their own unique data. All stored in this mishmash Text field in SQL.

Margarine

@NoDistractionWizard google.com/…

rene

@fbueckert Pseudo XML? You mean JSON?

fbueckert

@rene No, just an XML-like structure.

Tinkeringbell

@fbueckert Hah. I think you and @Magisch would get along just fine, I've heard they're also having fun with data being stored in conventional ways :P

fbueckert

17:19

It has nodes and properties, but it ain't XML.

No Distraction Wizard

@Margarine GAAH! Chat's sound notification suddenly went on again!

rene

@fbueckert and a Fulltext index on it so you can search in it?

Tinkeringbell

@NoDistractionWizard BOING!

Margarine

@NoDistractionWizard I know, it feels like being abducted by a UFO

fbueckert

@rene Likely. Didn't look.

I just saw it, and my brain broke a little.

Margarine

17:21

That sounds painful. Except it isn't

fbueckert

And then I felt better about my abilities as a coder, as this was written by people I assume were better at this stuff than me.

Margarine

The brain doesn't have pain receptors AFAIK

No Distraction Wizard

rene del

Tinkeringbell

@rene gone :)

fbueckert

@Tinkeringbell Well, this isn't professional. This is me digging through the structure out of curiosity, and maybe writing some utilities as a hobby.

Tinkeringbell

17:23

@fbueckert Ah. Find a better hobby then :P

I can recommend crochet, books and music ;)

fbueckert

@Tinkeringbell I already have tons.

Tinkeringbell

None of those come with wacky data storage ;)

No Distraction Wizard

Looks heavy...

Tinkeringbell

@fbueckert like? If I may ask?

fbueckert

I build (and paint!) gunpla, decent amount of gaming, freelance consulting (although that's not a hobby, really), and I dance ballroom.

I guess 3D printing needs to be in there somewhere, too...

Tinkeringbell

17:24

Those last two sound best ;)

What's a gunpla?

fbueckert

@Tinkeringbell Scale model kits of Gundams.

Tinkeringbell

@fbueckert what's a Gundams? :P Is that a brand or a thing?

Mithrandir

Where you stack piles of rifles to hold back water.

fbueckert

@Tinkeringbell Uh. Japanese anime series with giant human piloted mechs.

Tinkeringbell

@Mithrandir Aw come on, we were having a serious conversation!

@fbueckert Ah. Forgive me for not knowing that one ;)

fbueckert

17:27

Basically, scale model kits, only of sci fi stuff instead of trains and tanks.

@Tinkeringbell Nah, I was trying to figure out how to describe them.

Mithrandir

@Tinkeringbell Why on Earth would you have a serious discussion in a Tavern?!

fbueckert

@Mithrandir Because nobody's serving alcohol.

Tinkeringbell

@fbueckert I tried my hand at a Titanic once. Messed up the painting, broke one of the life boats... Then decided to never finish it as it wouldn't be perfect

No Distraction Wizard

Looks like Titanic...

fbueckert

@Tinkeringbell Fun part about gunpla: painting is optional.

As is glue, screwing, and all the other manual bits to hold stuff together.

Tinkeringbell

17:29

@fbueckert ooh! That sounds better :)

No Distraction Wizard

I admire those who "break" the Gunpla's material to get a rusty feeling though...

and they also have competition

fbueckert

@NoDistractionWizard I know some that like to go for a weathered look.

I go for a more, "fresh off the assembly line", perfect condition look.

No Distraction Wizard

Yeah, I just admire them. If I did that, it would just go to the thrash bin...

Tinkeringbell

@fbueckert which might be even harder... Weathered means a little mistake is more easy to hide

fbueckert

@Tinkeringbell Surprisingly, my prep method leaves a decent amount of damage on the plastic; I use a steel rasp to remove all the numbs.

Tinkeringbell

17:33

@fbueckert ehm. That's going to leave a mark, yes :)

fbueckert

Still pretty new to here; anybody mind if I post a pic of one I've built?

Mithrandir

not at all

Tinkeringbell

@fbueckert Nah, I brag with my crochet stuff all the time too, and Mith does photography as a hobby and posts it too ;)

I made that one tonight.

rene

nice

Margarine

@fbueckert I mind. I can't see images :(

Tinkeringbell

17:40

@Margarine oh right. Mine is a picture of plain purple garden flowers ;)

Hope that helps :)

They're not blurry, but nicely focused

Margarine

As Mitch puts it in ELU chat, The Great Wall of Mullahs™, haha

@Tinkeringbell Yeah, I only know one weirdo who does blurry rolls eyes

Or maybe not weirdo, just smart. Might be a marketing strategy

Tinkeringbell

I'm still waiting for that gunpla picture ;)

I'm now imagining fbueckert staging an entire set, setting up proper lighting and stuff, to take a picture ;)

user302202

Do images in chat support alt-text like the site does?

user302202

alt="user image"

fbueckert

This one is mostly a straight build (out of the box, no extra work).

Tinkeringbell

17:49

Oh nice! So the parts are already coloured? That saves a whole lot of painting ;)

fbueckert

Mostly, yes. The really painted parts here are the inner frame. Which you barely see.

user302202

Not sure if "105" or "iOS" on the shoulder patch.

Tinkeringbell

Are there decals or stickers you have to put on it yourself, or are those little details also already taken care of?

fbueckert

@Tinkeringbell Both. Stickers, dry rub transfers, and sometimes wet transfers.

Depends on the kit.

Tinkeringbell

@VoteDukakis definitely 105 ;)

@fbueckert those are fun to do :) I do them for my brother's tanks sometimes, when they are wet transfers that require some fine motor skills ;)

fbueckert

17:52

And for some super painted kits, here's some parts undergoing gloss:

Which all go together for this one:

Tinkeringbell

Airbrushed? Or paintbrush?

It does look shiny, which I suppose is the point of glossing ;)

fbueckert

@Tinkeringbell Airbrush.

rene

@VoteDukakis I would be surprised. Take that as a no ....

fbueckert

That kit is actually about three different one, mushed together.

Rob

20:04

It's quite interesting, what goes into making all those plastic pieces; improvements in 3D printing will be the wind of change, allowing medium sized runs of both metal and plastic precision parts at a low cost.

Kevin B

meh

at a small scale maybe

user302202

Glancing at this photo, I thought they were carrying the world's largest smartphone.

user302202

Indeed, if miniature models are fun, why not also do things the other way around?

fbueckert

20:32

@Rob 3D printing isn't quiiiiite there yet, though.

It's still much rougher than injection molding.

Rob

21:07

@fbueckert Strength - Titanium Mags for a car:

Smoothness:

Airline seat buckle:

user302202

21:22

"reprex" will be right up there with "cellar door" one day

Mithrandir

@fbueckert I hear Atherton bikes is creating their bikes using entirely 3D printed stuff.

user302202

21:39

The UX research shows: users who don't have much reputation don't care much about reputation, except they'd like to be able to comment so they can write "worked for me, thanks" comments.

Shog9

and no one who had spent time handling support emails was surprised

Rob

@fbueckert Using Milling, grinding and 3D printing in one machine you can produce highly complicated metal molds with intricate internal cooling channels which can be used to injection mold the master grade models. Individual prototypes are easily produced and modifications easily made.