Tavern on the Meta

Moshe

12:36 AM

Yay

Moshe

1:06 AM

Does anyone here know how to use git?

I'm trying to check out a specific branch, not the master.

Googled it. :-)

Chris

1:23 AM

I keep forgetting. . .what's the character limit on questions and answers?

Popular Demand

@Chris 30k

Chris

@PopularDemand Awesome, thanks

Chris

2:44 AM

What should we do with questions like this?

5

Q: kviews should be k views?

came across this ...bug...? I don't think it used to do this.

The image is a broken link

phihag

3:28 AM

I have written an answer whose discussion turned into name-calling: stackoverflow.com/questions/8844771/…

any idea of what I can do to still help the questioner, although it seems to me that he is just looking for a confirmation of the answer he expects?

jadarnel27

4:16 AM

@phihag I would back away slowly from that question =) Seriously though, it looks like you've done everything you can. +1 from me for writing a great answer to a average question, and for keeping a very level head when the OP got...snippy.

Moshe

4:54 AM

Google+ integration with gmail just resulted in me being spammed on a list with over 450 other people. Wow. The funny thing was the text of the email:

phihag

@Moshe Question still open? git clone -b yourbranch git://repo

Moshe

@phihag Thanks, didn't get a chance to finish that.

phihag

@Moshe oops, and re: g+/email: ouch

@Moshe But you can basically checkout everything and then switch branches with git checkout yourbranch. That works too

Moshe

5:11 AM

Ok cool. Thanks. Router is down for the night but I can chat on my phone.

user176326

6:31 AM

Is it possible for me to float a question out here and see if I should really ask it on Meta?

Szabolcs

9:11 AM

Does anyone know how long private betas last for A51 proposals, or could you point me to the rules describing this?

tombull89

@Szabolcs Private betas are for 7 days. Public betas are "as long as it takes"

Any chat rooms for the site, however, are public.

Szabolcs

@tombull89 from googling I thought private beta might take longer than 7 days too, isn't this the case? But I didn't find how long exactly, or how many questions/answers are needed --> meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/100680/…

tombull89

Ah. Just checked an invite I got to a PB,

Private betas generally last 1-2 weeks while you prepare the site for opening day. Once the site is populated with questions, and its initial scope established, we'll open it up for public beta.

So it also depends.

Szabolcs

@tombull89 Thanks! I just wanted a rough estimate, i.e. is it likely to be as short as 1 week, or maybe as long as 6-8 weeks (as a comment said). So it's not that long then, and people won't really miss the chance to participate if they fail to sign up before it launches.

tombull89

@Szabolcs I don't know if you're aware but the 6-8 weeks thing is a bit of an inside joke. When people ask how long something is going to take, the answer is always 6-8 weeks.

Szabolcs

9:26 AM

ah ... I see :-)

tombull89

Private betas are just setting the rules and tone of the site, it doesn't really matter if you miss out.

jonsca

9:53 AM

@xiaohouzi79 Apologies if I upset you, I couldn't tell if you were kidding or not. I just figured you'd see the duplicate in the auto-comment. I meant nothing malicious by it.

Moshe

12:52 PM

@simchona sure, why not?

jadarnel27

3:32 PM

@balpha Do you know off-hand whether or not the question-title-uniqueness-check (this little guy) looks at closed / deleted posts?

balpha

deleted: no, closed: yes

jadarnel27

Thanks!

Anonymous

4:37 PM

https://stackexchange.com/about/moderators

Anonymous

Oh... this is a month old and I was just unaware of it. (The feature request was just retagged status-completed.)

Anonymous

26

A: Full list of Moderators

We finally added an all network moderators page to stackexchange.com: http://stackexchange.com/about/moderators You can categorize by and search for sites or users, and expand each section to see profile details. (Right now, information on the page is cached and updated daily.) Let us know if ...

Tim Stone

Hmm? Emmett retagged it back in December, when he answered.

Ah, it did just get the moderator-faq tag, I see.

Anonymous

Ah, right.

jadarnel27

4:53 PM

RAWR.

user176326

I'm sorry to interrupt, but is there any policy on chat rooms having to have conversation in English? I tried to search Meta, but the posts I found were about people who were chat-suspended for being rude in other languages

user176326

I'm referring to rooms like this which are ostensibly normal SO rooms.

jcolebrand

Jan 10 at 3:38, by jcolebrand

But we do ask that in chat English be the preferred language, if only for purposes of moderation. Until we get several moderators who can moderate in the native tongue.

I know that there is a policy of it, not sure where it's stated

at the time I was having that conversation, it was with the soon-to-be (IIRC) pro-tem for Chinese.se

user176326

5:08 PM

Should I bother posting a Meta question?

jcolebrand

if only so it prompts you some new suggestions in the list?

user176326

New suggestions? Like finding that policy?

jcolebrand

@simchona yes, when you propose a topic title, it gives a list underneath. Those are potential duplicates. You did realize that, right?

user176326

I thought you meant suggestions as in answers, sorry

jcolebrand

It's also worth mentioning (and these are the primarily salient points) that the reason for English is that the predominant language of the web is English, and that most of our moderators don't speak every language on the planet, and in order to ensure a proper moderation of the sites, where everyone is welcome, our moderators need to be able to do their job.

user176326

5:12 PM

Ok, I see. I just brought this up because I feel like I can't go into some of the SO chats due to not speaking Hindi

jcolebrand

If there are sufficient moderators that can judge that language (for instance, I may not be fluent in German but I can judge moderation questions on it in chat) then it would be permissible to use the mother tongue of the chatters, but we can only speak so many languages. We're working on adding new moderators all the time, but we can only do so much. We are, after all, only human.

user176326

I'll look for something when I'm on my computer. Thank you for your help!

jcolebrand

Aye.

I think that on the topic of "is there an Official StackExchange policy that English is the Only Language of Choice in Chat?" the answer is definitely no.

@balpha does that about sum it up? Is there a defined rule?

12

Q: Policy: Is it OK to have dedicated foreign-language chat rooms?

Meta-heads will have noticed a recent kurfuffle with a backdrop of people communicating in 'foreign languages' in chat. If we set aside the "it's rude to talk a language other people don't understand" (by having a dedicated room), and we presume that the house rules will be obeyed, what is curre...

discussion chat languages internationalisation

This is probably the closest to that, and rather reflects what I was saying

balpha

Yeah, the whole thing is a weird issue. We don't really want to force people into speaking english, but we do have moderation issues sometimes (usually in one of the hindi rooms). Non-solved problem, I'd say.

jadarnel27

11

Q: How did Doomsday kill Superman?

I have read the compilation graphic novel with the entire Doomsday battle. At the end of the battle Superman and Doomsday kill each other in a classic "same-time" final blow. It was my understanding that Superman could only be seriously injured or killed by Kryptonite. There was never any indi...

superman

My nerd-sense is tingling.

Chris

7:24 PM

@simchona Wow, I didn't realize that Hindi was that prevalent in SO chat

@Szabolcs For reference:

138

A: The Many Memes of Meta

Meme: 6 to 8 Weeks Originator: Jeff Atwood First Heard: May 13th, 2008 Cultural Height: In about 6 to 8 weeks Definition: The time estimate given "off the top of my head" when the Stack Overflow team has only a vague idea of how long a task will take because they have little-to-no formal sche...

Marvin

7:47 PM

Hey guys, I have a question that applies to Meta. I always understood that a question could not be deleted if it received an answer that got upvoted 2 or more times. Am I wrong in this assumption and if not, does this rule also apply to Meta?

jadarnel27

It cannot be deleted by the person who posted the question

Marvin

Got it, but it can be deleted my mods?

jadarnel27

It can be deleted by mods or by consensus of high-rep users.

I think it takes 5 delete votes to delete a question, and you have to have 10 or 20k rep on SO to cast such votes

Marvin

Understood. Out of curiosity, is this something that's transparent to the rest of us? What I mean by that is can someone else come along (with 20k rep) and see the reason why a question was deleted or is it lost completely?

I obviously don't have the 20k rep to do or see these things, which is why I ask.

jadarnel27

If you have a direct link to the question, then yes, you can see the question and why it was deleted.

It doesn't show in search, or on the askers / answerers profiles though

(which makes things a bit difficult)

Oh, and I don't have 20k either, I've just been spending too much time on meta lately :P

Marvin

7:53 PM

To clarify, I'm referring to the question posted yesterday (today?) by QED which had a lively discussion going, and it appears to be completely deleted.

I don't have a link to it either, but when I checked yesterday, it was along the lines of "this question doesn't exist"...

Tim Stone

It was deleted by a moderator

Kevin

@Marvin If you're referring to the same one as this post, the "lively" discussion was what got it deleted.

1

Q: Allow commenting on locked posts

If a question or answer is locked, one cannot comment on it either. One can flag it to share one's thoughts with a moderator, but one cannot address the specific moderator who locked it, or the user who asked for it. Also, locked posts seem to encourage one to post on Meta when feeling the need t...

feature-request comments locked

Marvin

@Kevin The reason I'm bringing it up here is not because I wanted the lively discussion to continue (I agree, it was distracting). What I wanted to see was the resolution (or answer) that Grace Stone was going to post.

Would it have been better just to lock the question (which would have prevented us mere mortals from commenting/posting) until Grace Stone responded?

Tim Stone

The OP explicitly asked for the question to be deleted, and in light of the progression of the discussion I think that was probably a good call...

Ben Brocka

What's the process for getting close vote migration choices added to a launched SE site?

Tim Stone

8:01 PM

Hmm, I assume bring it up on the site's meta.

Ben Brocka

I did, though it was before the site graduated:

14

Q: Vote to close options should include GD.SE and SO

You know, this thing: The most common sites we migrate to are easily Graphic Design.stackexchange and Stack Overflow; could we get these included in the Off Topic options? Usually this is a result of asking implementation questions in code or design, or asking a purely stylistic question. If an...

feature-request

Haven't heard about it since

Tim Stone

Ah, for UX. Yeah, those seem like reasonable migration paths. Hmm...

Marvin

@TimStone As I said, all I wanted to see was the official response and all the clutter could have been deleted/locked so no-one else could add to it. Is this something you can consider in the future or is it that if an OP asks for his question to be deleted it's deleted outright?

Tim Stone

I think in the circumstances it was a judgment call, and leaving it open in light of the OP's reaction would have been far more detrimental than deleting it immediately, even though @GraceNote had yet to formulate a (public) response.

Marvin

@TimStone That's fair - thanks for the clarification.

P.S. I meant GraceNote before and not Grace Stone .. I feel like a fool :(

Ben Brocka

8:09 PM

Ah, Grace Stone and TimNote, the doppleganger scourges of Meta

Tim Stone

Nah, we all (well, I suppose I can only speak for myself) knew who you meant, no worries. :)

Well, I am secretly Grace Note's sockpuppet. Or the other way around, or something. Also, we're all Rebecca Chernoff.

Marvin

On a related note, what's the deal with not being able to edit previous chat messages?

I could have sworn this was possible in the Android chat.. never been on this one before.

Tim Stone

You can edit. Just press the up key while in the input box, or use the drop-down menu on the left. However, it's restricted to a two minute window.

Ben Brocka

I thought we were all sockpuppets to ask questions for John Skeet

Tim Stone

Only when on Stack Overflow. It's a complicated system.

Ben Brocka

8:16 PM

Is there anyone in particular I should bug about the migration paths for UX? The community itself seems pretty agreed, it's just that the discussion took place 2 months before the offical release

Tim Stone

I will avoid getting blamed by not answering that question. :P

Ben Brocka

Then I shall bug everyone!

Nah, I was just wondering if there was any sort of process

Tim Stone

Are your moderators aware of the question, do you know? I imagine if they're in the process of migrated posts to the same destinations as a result of off-topic flagging, that might increase the likelihood of it being taken care of.

Ben Brocka

I believe we discussed it, I'll ask when I next see one in chat

jadarnel27

@TimStone it's true! Now that's funny stuff =)

Tim Stone

8:28 PM

I still think this was hilarious:

Nov 15 '11 at 15:30, by Tim Stone

> Hello does anyone know why everything on meta is Rebecca Chernoff, including my name. – Mobinga 6h ago

jadarnel27

Bahahaha

That is fantastic.

Chris

It's like Being John Malkovich

Being Rebecca Chernoff!

Rebecca Chernoff

o:

jadarnel27

Shhhhhhhh. She's here.

Tim Stone

oy

Chris

8:30 PM

@jadarnel27 She's always here.

:)

jadarnel27

=)

Chris

Unfortunately, I can't see the referenced post because it's been deleted

So I honestly have no idea what it was about

Oh well

Tim Stone

It was actually the new user page post.

Chris

And it was all rchern?

Tim Stone

No, the user just randomly commented that they were seeing her name everywhere, presumably because they had installed Yi Jiang's script at one point and had forgotten about it. :P

Chris

8:42 PM

Heh

Oh, I see:

24

Q: We're all Rebecca Chernoff \o/

On this frabjous day, our community manager Rebecca Chernoff has graciously allowed all of us *1 to be her for one day, and one day only. And so, ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you: We're all Rebecca Chernoff \o/ A userscript dedicated to making all of you Rebecca Chernoffs. Reall...

discussion fun greasemonkey oy rebecca-chernoff

Also!

20

A: The Many Memes of Meta

Meme: Oy Origin: rchern Cultural Height: TBD First Seen: MSO Chat, probably in The Tavern Background: Not completely known. Some believe it is the Jewish / Yiddish phrase "Oy Vey". Others like Michael Myers believe "It's 'yo' backwards. [Because] everything is backwards in Missouri.". "Oy" mo...

The turtles go deep here

jadarnel27

^^^That's what she said?

Tim Stone

9:00 PM

Uhh..

jadarnel27

Yeah. That was certainly not my best work.

Anonymous

10:06 PM

Oh boy, it looks like it's another dramatic day on the meta.

Anonymous

10

Q: Out-of-control moderating

Apparently, some moderators feel that they have a duty to delete long comment threads, no matter what. That once the thread is automatically flagged for being unusually active, it is an indisputable order to delete the comments. The moderator in question even said the following in defense of his...

bug moderation moderators

Anonymous

(I don't mean to belittle the complaints, just /sigh that it seems like it's going to be a while before this hot topic cools down.)

Chris

10:19 PM

Wow

Anonymous

The vote counts make me suspect that a lot of infrequent meta-users (presumably from c++) are hanging around.

Anonymous

The knee-jerk-defenders-of-the-status-quo alone would usually keep the scores more mod-favouring.

Chris

Couldn't casperOne have migrated the entire discussion to chat, instead?

Wouldn't that have been the more appropriate action?

I'm pretty sure that moderators have the ability to do that...

Anonymous

@Chris They don't, apparently. That feature request has been linked a few times in the discussion.

Anonymous

35

Q: Provide a tool for moderators to migrate comments to chat

One issue we have on Programmers.SE is that people like to have extended discussions in comments on answers and questions. Try as we might to delete long comment chains and educate them about chat (example 1, example 2, example 3, example 4, MSO example), our chat room sits relatively empty and ...

feature-request comments chat moderator-tools

Chris

10:34 PM

@JeremyBanks Awesome, thanks

That's what I was looking for

Anonymous

10:54 PM

IMO they're using the comments like a forum and devolving to a pre-SE format. A migrate-to-chat feature would help but there's probably a deeper issue if so many long comment threads are developing in the first place. (There's no way in hell I'm touching one of those threads today, but I'm still going to shove out my two cents.)

Chris

@JeremyBanks Can't say that I blame you :)

You do make a good point, though

I guess I always felt that chat was a bit of a concession to people who are used to more traditional forums

It's a relatively safe place to have a less structured discussion

But chat rooms don't pollute the site too much because they are automatically closed if they are inactive for a while

Anonymous

Yeah. It's a pretty good compromise.

Chris

One of my pet peeves: when people refer to an SO question as a "thread"

Anonymous

@Chris I've recently fallen into that habit. It started because it felt weird to call meta "questions" "questions" when they were really more like conventional threads, and then I started using the term elsewhere.

Anonymous

17

Q: Out-of-control moderating

Apparently, some moderators feel that they have a duty to delete long comment threads, no matter what. That once the thread is automatically flagged for being unusually active, it is an indisputable order to delete the comments. The moderator in question even said the following in defense of his...

discussion comments moderation

Anonymous

11:06 PM

It has its original title back and is locked due to an edit war.

Chris

What's the meme around here for "SERIOUS BUSINESS"?

Anonymous

Hmm

Anonymous

Editing "Eeeeeek!" into the beginning of their title would get the message across, but that would probably be considered inflammatory. :P

Anonymous

I fail to recall anything more appropriate.

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