Tavern on the Meta

12:59 AM

→ 11 messages moved to Chimney

4:03 AM

Someone is copy/pasting hundreds of Stack Exchange questions to Quora... you can basically watch a livestream of this plagiarism here: quora.com/profile/Dex-Jackson/activity

28 minutes ago: gis.stackexchange.com/questions/367020/…

17 minutes ago: quora.com/unanswered/…

asked 3 hours ago: unix.stackexchange.com/questions/597095/…

plagiarized 9 minutes ago: quora.com/unanswered/…

Catija

... Technically they're just titles because Quora has no question body...

Rebecca J. Stones

Alright... yes, titles.

Rob

@RebeccaJ.Stones It's a weak effort and somewhat of an infringement, but rather than using Stack Exchange's complaint process I think you'll get more effect starting at the other end: help.quora.com/hc/en-us/requests/new --- let them know that someone is copying question titles in bulk, probably not really seeking an answer, and wasting their user's time.

Rebecca J. Stones

4:20 AM

@Rob Okay I'll send them a message and see what comes of it.

Rob

Contacting SE will get you a thank you email, and that's the last I've ever heard of it; after making a few such wholesale copying complaints in the past. Both options are open, but it's easier for the other end to block.

Catija

Depends on who's on the other end. Quora would actually probably do something about the user.

If I knew anyone who worked there I might try to talk to them about it ... but I don't... so I'd probably end up starting in the same place you would. :D

John Dvorak

TIL Quora only has one user

Rebecca J. Stones

4:41 AM

43 minutes ago: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/109508/do-pinto-beans-just-ferment-quickly
2 minutes ago: https://www.quora.com/unanswered/Do-pinto-beans-just-ferment-quickly-food-preservation-beans-and-cooking

1 year 5 months ago: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1112017/18-10-laptop-touchpad-two-finger-click-and-drag-stops-working-after-update
1 min ago: https://www.quora.com/unanswered/Why-does-the-laptop-touchpad-on-18-10-with-two-finger-click-and-drag-stops-working-after-the-update-mouse-touchpad-multi-touch-input-mousepad-Linux

I feel like if I went through, say, 20 different Stack Exchange sites and posted on their meta eye-catching phrases like "livestream plagiarism", giving multiple explicit examples of this plagarism taking place, highlight how this was first reported 5 months ago...

then eventually their respective diamond moderators will cause enough stir to encourage Stack Exchange to take action.

3 hours ago: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/3748024/how-do-i-solve-a-quadratic-where-x-is-in-the-denominator-x2-frac4x-3-0
"Just now": https://www.quora.com/unanswered/How-do-you-solve-a-quadratic-where-x-is-in-the-denominator-x-2-frac-4-x-3-0-algebra-precalculus-math

45 mins ago: https://magento.stackexchange.com/questions/316721/unable-to-export-product-csv-file
6m ago: https://www.quora.com/unanswered/Why-would-you-be-unable-to-export-a-product-csv-file-promptly-Magento-2-and-Magento

20 minutes ago: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/3748154/find-the-constant-term-in-x11-x7
2m ago: https://www.quora.com/unanswered/How-do-you-find-the-constant-term-in-x-1-1-x-7-binomial-theorem-math

Livestream plagiarism.

John Dvorak

Should we have a chatroom for that?

Rebecca J. Stones

4:57 AM

24 minutes ago: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/3748152/hadamards-formula-and-the-fibonacci-sequence
2m ago: https://www.quora.com/unanswered/How-is-Hadamards-formula-applied-to-the-Fibonacci-sequence-sequences-series-convergence-divergence-math

17 minutes ago: https://datascience.stackexchange.com/questions/77279/datasets-for-software-defined-network-sdn
3m ago: https://www.quora.com/unanswered/How-do-you-write-datasets-for-a-software-defined-network-SDN-precisely-dataset-data-science

"ayer" (Spanish): https://es.stackoverflow.com/questions/371282/badmethodcallexception-method-illuminate-database-eloquent-collectionseries-d
2m ago: https://www.quora.com/unanswered/What-does-BadMethodCallException-Method-Illuminate-Database-Eloquent-Collection-series-does-not-exist-mean-Laravel-eloquent-development

Couldn't Stack Exchange figure out this user's IP address and block them?

Catija

5:18 AM

Our IP blocks don't generally make the site opaque.

They just prevent participating or creating accounts.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

5:49 AM

@YaakovEllis we're all just vessels. ;)

@DavidPostill so you read it too? Nice! You can help @M.A.R through it.... :D

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

7:03 AM

@DavidPostill m(orning)

rene

7:48 AM

→ 17 messages moved to Chimney

Rebecca J. Stones

8:07 AM

Well... Quora banned me

They deleted my answers that say "this question was copy/pasted from [here]"

I would have flagged maybe 100 posts for plagiarism

I don't see any changes

Mithical

:/

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@RebeccaJ.Stones well, they want as much content as possible. They don't care about quality or legibility of the content.

So when one try to remove content... they become unwanted.

Another option, the spammer pays them enough.

Rebecca J. Stones

"Plagiarizing content is considered a serious policy violation on Quora and will be treated as such in considering moderation action against writers who violate the policy. We will ban people who violate this policy repeatedly."
(https://help.quora.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000470206-What-is-Quora-s-policy-on-plagiarism-and-attribution-)

Well, that's a lie...

djsmiley2kStaysInside

8:23 AM

Much like many of the answers.

DavidPostill

8:44 AM

@RebeccaJ.Stones I'm not convinced that just plagiarising of just the title is 1/ a breach of SE licence 2/ is actually plagiarism (it could be argued that just a few words is fair use).

Rebecca J. Stones

There are hundreds of titles being plagiarized

DavidPostill

Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors - Copyright Overview by Rich Stim - Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center

One could argue that Quora is a parody site :)

Rebecca J. Stones

Hahaha, I suppose that's true (:

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@RebeccaJ.Stones it's just a cover-up in case someone important will complain.

So they can say "Hey, we have that policy, here, see it written."

(yeah, I don't like Quora. ;))

@DavidPostill it affect Google search results, diverting people to Quora instead of Stack Overflow. Based on what they did to @Rebecca I can even believe it's their own doing, i.e. their own bot/employee posting those.

Rebecca J. Stones

9:00 AM

Anyway, I better do something else... anything else. Think about something else.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Maybe they became desperate, and use whatever they can to squeeze more page views and visitors...

DavidPostill

@ShadowWizardWearingMask That sounds distinctly possible.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@RebeccaJ.Stones coffee or tea?

Rebecca J. Stones

@ShadowWizardWearingMask I better not have another caffeinated drink... otherwise I won't sleep... maybe it's time to cook dinner though

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@RebeccaJ.Stones both tea and coffee got non-caffeine versions, let's see what Smokey choose...

!!/tea Reb

SmokeDetector

9:02 AM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask brews a cup of jasmine tea for @Reb

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

hmm

Wait... sleep?! @Rebecca what time is that at your place?

Rebecca J. Stones

Just 5pm... I'm in Beijing

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

oh. So.... umm... sleep at 5pm?

You have a night shift?

Rebecca J. Stones

Well, if I drink coffee now, I won't sleep later on (:

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

ohhh

lol for me the effect lasts for 1-2 hours, max.

I have my last coffee in 1 AM.

Rebecca J. Stones

9:04 AM

I've been having trouble sleeping recently... mostly because I keep finding interesting things to watch on YouTube

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@RebeccaJ.Stones so interesting you keep thinking about them in bed?? Well you can consider yourself lucky. :D

Rebecca J. Stones

ohhhh... I just have my computer next to my bed, so I watch them instead of sleep

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

There are very few movies/TV shows that have such effect on me, GoT is one of those few.

@RebeccaJ.Stones rofl

So.... add auto shut down. ;)

Rebecca J. Stones

maybe just learn self-control (:

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Ask @M.A.R how to control it. :P

He has a very good self control.

Rebecca J. Stones

9:07 AM

I feel like there's an in-joke here

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@RebeccaJ.Stones rare case where there's none. :)

When @M.A.R need to study, for example, he'll go study, and ignore everything else, including me! ;)

DavidPostill

9:32 AM

@RebeccaJ.Stones There have been lots of your in jokes in the last few days here :)

Lets see how many get the above ^^^

😂

M.A.R.

The only thing worse than a lunch that tastes awful is a lunch that doesn't taste anything

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Hah I wish

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Aww, come here gives a big hug

Well I have been around SO for many years and am not familiar at all with the hate concept you espouse. Perhaps it's cultural perspective differences but I see people helping people every day here and getting thanked for it — charlietfl Jun 28 at 20:11

This! So much this.

People that complain about downvotes as an act of hatred always miss the forest for the trees. You're here in the first place to help and get help, and you're tainting the ultimate goal with at most a petty annoyance

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. Corona? (one of its most "famous" symptoms is lack of taste...)

@M.A.R. but you have

M.A.R.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask I wouldn't know. A side effect of my main immunosuppressor is coughing

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. oh hey, social distance!

DavidPostill

Everybody in this room exhibits a lack of taste sometimes.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

9:47 AM

:P

M.A.R.

But I have no shortness of breath, thankfully. I jogged awhile yesterday

DavidPostill

So nobody got my pun above?

M.A.R.

@DavidPostill (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

@DavidPostill Too busy face-palming for a reply

DavidPostill

15 mins ago, by DavidPostill

@RebeccaJ.Stones There have been lots of your in jokes in the last few days here :)

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. urgh, coughing is annoying.

M.A.R.

9:48 AM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Thank you for that observation

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@DavidPostill some more than others..... ;)

M.A.R.

You're just making my life better today

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. my pleasure

@M.A.R. ^

M.A.R.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask ^

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@DavidPostill about @Rebecca's in jokes? Yep, didn't get it. :(

@M.A.R. >

DavidPostill

9:49 AM

Look how the room wakes up when @M.A.R. enters!

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R is a Party Starter.

DavidPostill

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Do you get it now?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@DavidPostill no, unless that's the pun itself.

:D

grabs pun in both ends

DavidPostill

There have been lots of ~~your in~~ urine jokes in the last few days here

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

gahaha

wouldn't get it since not native English speaker

For me, it's not close enough. But now I can't un-see it. :P

DavidPostill

9:52 AM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask You are excused then :)

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

yay!

@David but hey, no pee jokes today, so thanks for reminding me!

M.A.R.

20

Q: What makes supervillains want to tell their plans to adversaries?

Stark: What's the vibranium for? Ultron: I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan... - Avengers: Age of Ultron A pervasive trope throughout literature, television, and film is that the Big Bad Supervillain must always take several minutes to explain hi...

psychology

The plot of course.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

thinking of new urine joke

Mithical

"You sly dog! You got me monologuing!"

M.A.R.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask To P or not to P. That is the question

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

9:53 AM

@M.A.R. classic

M.A.R.

Literally

If the villain has waited for years to gloat, why can't they just wait a little longer and while everything is going to shit, cage the hero in a physical cell or a mental one and gloat then.

DavidPostill

Why don't public toilets have IP addresses?

8

M.A.R.

That's what military commanders do. And they're not the smartest of supervillains

Journeyman Geek

@Mithical woof?

@M.A.R. they do

Kill then bloat

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

I had a friend back at university who was.... like me, in some ways - when making homework, we named the vectors P1, P2, etc. I don't remember if it also spilled over to actual exams. :D

M.A.R.

9:57 AM

@DavidPostill Haha

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Dude I'm having lunch right now

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. top answer got it right:

> Because it feels so good

And if gloating while the gloated person can't do anything at all, it's much less fun.

M.A.R.

Of course it does. But real-life villains rarely reveal it before executing it

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@DavidPostill that one should be in the Hall of Fame!

M.A.R.

The closest you can get is psychopathic serial killers that call the police after killing someone

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. because they just don't have any genius plans, usually.

@M.A.R. nah, that's hardly gloating. That's just a desire to get caught.

M.A.R.

9:59 AM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask They often do

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. maybe, I believe they just act step by step, without really planning it all in advance.

M.A.R.

Why wasn't Walter White gloating before getting something done?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. so vectors make you sick? ;)

M.A.R.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask You can't do that in high stake robberies or stuff

And bankers definitely plan for it.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask depends on the starting point

Dude, do you even watch any robbery movies.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. they plan single robbery every time, that doesn't really count.

@M.A.R. not many, remember only Ocean (11?) at the moment.

M.A.R.

10:02 AM

The Town. Heat. Ocean movies

Jinx

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

This reminds me, is @Bart still around?

M.A.R.

Money Heist is also good

Not to be confused with Tower Heist

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

I'm out of Baci, but got new type of waffles.

M.A.R.

@Bart did you change your shape or are you still spherical?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Here you go. Those two are for @Bart:

M.A.R.

10:08 AM

I just can't get over how much they look like coal.

I'm used to chocolate having a tempting and vibrant color

Or is that not chocolate?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@M.A.R. it's not pure chocolate, it's mixed with vanilla.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

11:59 AM

plz-delete vedio @rene @Art @Glor @Sonic @Mith

rene

done

Rubiksmoose

1:15 PM

→ 11 messages moved to Chimney

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

→ 11 @Rubiks moved to moose

Does it ping? ^

Rubiksmoose

It does! lol

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

:D

Ping-a-link

Rob

1:32 PM

@RebeccaJ.Stones That was quite the opposite outcome that would be expected, but it gives the contact link that I suggested ...

Rubiksmoose

→ 4 messages moved to Chimney

Rob

@DavidPostill Outs the out joke

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob you're out!

:D

Rob

Sha, you're in

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

checks

checks out

going to take cereals

Rob

1:48 PM

Drink Oat Milk, a source of cereal and liquids.

Rubiksmoose

Drink beer, a source of beer and alcohol.

Rob

He wants to be a cereal peer.

user400654

Rob

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

2:04 PM

@Rob pear

Rob

2:21 PM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask ⚆⚆

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

> This Unicode character has no emoji version, meaning this is intended to display only as a black and white glyph on most platforms. It has not been Recommended For General Interchange (RGI) — as an emoji — by Unicode.

⚉

DavidPostill

@ShadowWizardWearingMask 👀

John Dvorak

😶

Rob

⚆ white circle dot right - amp-what.com/unicode/search/circle%20dot%20

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob right

@JohnDvorak no mask?!

@DavidPostill better!

Is there emoji or unicode character for bellybutton? Doubt it, but worth asking... :D

Or, I can just Google it?

Rob

2:27 PM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask 🗣️

John Dvorak

@ShadowWizardWearingMask As I have no mouth or nose, I have been granted an exception. I do have to wear a scarf at all times, however.

(except at home)

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob good, but gray.

DavidPostill

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@JohnDvorak fair enough

@DavidPostill ?

DavidPostill

> Unicode Han Character 'the navel'

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

2:29 PM

Well there's none in English...

DavidPostill

@ShadowWizardWearingMask You didn't specify English

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Designers will have really hard time to make such a thing though.

John Dvorak

You mean the bootstrap port?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@DavidPostill correct ;)

Rob

◌ or )𝅅(

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

2:30 PM

@JohnDvorak there isn't really a standard shape for naval. Each has it different. :/

@Rob looks more like what we have down below, in the other side, not bellybutton. ;)

John Dvorak

Each architecture needs to use its own native I/O port, for obvious reasons.

Rob

🚢 naval

John Dvorak

the translation platform is provided by the client

DavidPostill

@ShadowWizardWearingMask 🍊

A Navel Orange :)

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

lol

You're all so creative. :P

Twitter is also useless when it comes to bellybuttons, 90% of the results are of people who want to pierce it or already did and showing it off. The rest is spam of places who do those piercings... lol

Every edit to any answer on the thread will trigger this again, maybe better ignore the post?

DavidPostill

2:39 PM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask What triggered the obsession with bellybuttons?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@DavidPostill originally? Wish I could remember! :D

Now? It's @Rob's fault.

sdc blame

SmokeDetector

@ShadowWizardWearingMask It's JNat's fault.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

no no

!!/blame

SmokeDetector

@ShadowWizardWearingMask It's JNat's fault.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

...

Rob

2:40 PM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask 🞋

:( doesn't show up

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

What I do remember is that when I was 10, I read a biology book about the human body, with hundreds of pages - not a book for school, more like encyclopedia. I don't remember where I got it, probably in the school's library. :D

Rob

National Geographic ?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob Round Target? Google still identify it.

Rob

Correct

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob nah, something in Hebrew.

@Rob omg... yes! I looked for it now and you're correct. It was just translated to Hebrew.

This is the exact book, I was 11 when it was published, so I was 1-2 years off. :)

Rob

2:49 PM

I'm a good guesser, sometimes.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Or, you're actually someone who know me since childhood!! :P

going over list of people who knew me back then

Rob

🔮🔮

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

lol

So I read it all out of curiousity, and the rest is history. :D

Rob

They were removed from our elementary school library, too many naked images.

goes to drink coffee ...

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob huh, this might explain why I was so into it.... lol! (I honestly don't remember what's exactly in there, just that I read it.)

Anyway, Twitter power can be used for good things, which is rare. Bad actions that would otherwise go totally unnoticed, now have consequences.

Well, social media in general, actually.

Rob

3:11 PM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask She is in Ghana, and subject to the laws there.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob sure, but world wide organizations pushed the authorities there to act.

I doubt she'll be arrested or anything like that, but the message is clear, and people will think twice before doing such things, or at least before posting such things to social media.

Rob

There has been similar problems in the USA.

Those were private photos taken in to be developed, that were reported as unsuitable.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob Instagram and Facebook are not private, even if the original message was directed only for friends.

WhatsApp might be a different story, agree.

oh, you talk about the link, sec let me read.

Rob

Yes.

10 year nightmare.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Yeah, that's crazy.

Luckily nobody takes photos to develop anymore. Those leaks occur in WhatsApp these days, or hackers stealing pictures from phones.

hacking into @M.A.R's phone

finding no interesting pictures

ArtOfCode

3:30 PM

been there, done that, the pin code is 1337

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

lol

planting a virus that will wake @M.A.R up at 3 AM every night

Rob

3:42 PM

Translation for those who don't understand what's being posted:

Leet

Leet (or "1337"), also known as eleet or leetspeak, is a system of modified spellings used primarily on the Internet. It often uses character replacements in ways that play on the similarity of their glyphs via reflection or other resemblance. Additionally, it modifies certain words based on a system of suffixes and alternate meanings. There are many dialects or linguistic varieties in different online communities. The term "leet" is derived from the word elite, used as an adjective to describe formidable prowess or accomplishment, especially in the fields of online gaming and computer hacking...

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Explaining a pun is a pain.

2

Rob

There was a complaint about that yesterday.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

:D

DavidPostill

@Rob I think most people around here would know what 1337 meant. It has been used since the '80s you know.

Rob

True, and the complaint made yesterday seemed to indicate that the person didn't read the prior comment, and view what was posted in context; they simply jumped in to someone else's conversation to say that they didn't understand what was being said, or the relevance of the image to the preceding sentence.

That was starred twice and followed by another comment to complain that they understood even less than that.

John Dvorak

3:54 PM

I don't care about the context. That image was ... ahem ... unpleasant to look at, to the point I had to engage my ad blocker.

M.A.R.

4:05 PM

@Rob Heh, to be honest, you are a bit cryptic sometimes. I didn't check to see whether it's half the time or more. I don't think it's a good or a bad thing, just that I'd needed to get used to your chat, which I mostly have

We're not as meme savvy as we seem

Rob

@M.A.R. Spoiler: My profile has a video, created by a Doctor, that explains everything one could ask.

M.A.R.

@Rob I'd read your profile before, but YouTube is blocked in Iran so I'd have to remember to visit it when my VPN is on

Right now I can't because I'm interacting with our uni's website and it blocks foreign IPs

terdon

4:59 PM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask wait, what's wrong with that? The article seems to be simply that a mother was naked in front of her young child, right? Why would that be a bad thing? There was no suggestion of any impropriety or sexual acts being involved as far as I can tell.

John Dvorak

@terdon and that a recording was taken of the nudity

terdon

So? It was the adult's nudity, right?

I'm sure there are old photographs of me and my father naked somewhere lost in the family albums. Or at least, there might be and I wouldn't consider that strange. Why would it be an issue?

Honest question, I really don't understand.

John Dvorak

I'm not a lawyer either, sorry. But I do recommend against putting said family albums anywhere public without reviewing them first

terdon

hell, I don't post anything on any public platform, so that's not a problem. I am just trying to understand the rationale here. Why would someone find this problematic?

Apparently the poor woman was taken in for questioning!?

John Dvorak

Now I'm kinda worried about National Geographic. Many indigenous tribes wear little clothing. IIRC, Imgur has already slapped someone for ... a biology textbook illustration. Private. After another Imgur mod had already granted explicit permission.

terdon

5:07 PM

Some cultures are seriously uptight when it comes to nudity, yeah.

Seriously though, what would the problem be in what that woman did? Is it that because she was naked, some people may have thought that meant she had some sort of sexual relationship with the child?

Or is it a problem for some by definition for an adult to be naked in front of a child even if there is no suggestion of anything improper going on? I mean, do folks feel that the very act of not wearing any clothes on while in the presence of a minor is somehow offensive?

M.A.R.

Child Rights? Yeah, I guess it's a case of shoot first, ask later, or it's cultural

DavidPostill

Yeah. I was once with my (ex) wife on holiday in Florida. Sitting in the hotel spa pool one afternoon we were having a group (about 10 people IIRC) discussion about nudist beaches. Another person in the group (from the US, but some other state, I don't remember where) commentated that going topless was an invitation to rape. That shut down the discussion pretty quickly ....

terdon

Ooookay. I know who I think is batshit in that case...

First off, saying that anything is an invitation to rape is deeply problematic, let alone something as innocent as going topless!

M.A.R.

That's a case of violent movie aversion

John Dvorak

to be fair though, going topless to the streets would be inappropriate.

Rubiksmoose

5:16 PM

@DavidPostill ooooooooof

Not to mention the obvious issue that that "fact" would only apply to women.

M.A.R.

That people are concerned something suggestive in a way will have a terrible effect on an unsuspecting person or one more vulnerable/liable to do it

John Dvorak

not necessarily. Even males can be raped.

M.A.R.

It seems to follow from common sense, however never really rationalized AFAICT

Rubiksmoose

@JohnDvorak I meant going topless. I suspect they didn't have an issue with men going topless or indicate that it would be any kind of invitation if they did. (I fully agree that males can be assualted as well)

DavidPostill

It was about 20 or 30 years ago, but still. Fortunately none of the women were topless. The men were of course.

As an aside, does the US have (allow?) public nudist beaches?

terdon

5:19 PM

@JohnDvorak inappropriate is a far, far cry from "invitation to rape". For starters, there is such a thing as "inappropriate".

Rubiksmoose

@DavidPostill I vaguely know of at least one nudist beach in my state, but I'm not sure if it is public or not or even if it is technically allowed. I haven't investigated the issue at all.

terdon

I've been going to beaches where I can be naked all of my life. Never to organized nudist beaches, but always to places where it's both normal and accepted.

I've also taken part in naked protests two or three times, where we rode our bicicles around the city in the nude. That... was different. Fun though!

Neither of these situations was remotely sexual mind you.

DavidPostill

@terdon Yeah, me too. Official and unofficial.

John Dvorak

Isn't that kinda ... unhygienic and unhealhy? Leather on bare skin, I mean

terdon

@DavidPostill Yay! Down with the textiles! :P

John Dvorak

5:22 PM

(save all the other issues)

DavidPostill

@terdon There have been a couple of occasions where I had to turn over :)

terdon

@JohnDvorak Most women were wearing panties for that reason, yes. For men, it doesn't make much difference, no open mucous membranes.

@DavidPostill Sure. But I can't say it's happened particularly more on nudist beaches than on regular ones.

John Dvorak

... got to go.

terdon

@JohnDvorak As in "this conversation is making me uncomfortable"? If so, sorry! I'll stop!

John Dvorak

Thanks.

terdon

5:27 PM

Sorry about that. I guess I really don't get the whole nudity taboo so I misjudge what subject might make someone uncomfortable. I really didn't mean to cause anyone any discomfort.

DavidPostill

Same here ...

John Dvorak

Don't worry. I do suppose I'm at fault for introducing the topic of health and biology into the discussion.

terdon

Well, I'm the one that wanted to discuss specifics... Also, I am a biologist, so I guess those topics aren't that hard for me :)

M.A.R.

Yeah, as a student, I didn't find anything really gross up there either

Tim Stone

@Glorfindel Remote Local Local SEDE App would have been even more curious :P

M.A.R.

5:36 PM

Tangentially related rant: Why do infarction ECGs look so weird. It's like you'd look at them and say "hmm, oh no, see the Grand Canyon here, your heart is doing terrible"

@TimStone ohai, Tavern's poltergeist :p

@terdon I read you've read (or were reading) Rothfuss. Is his stuff good?

And how it does it compare to other fantasy and GRRM?

As far as my search led me it sounds like Earthsea updated for Gen Z?

Glorfindel

@TimStone I guess so :) Since you mention it, would you mind reviewing my suggested edits which have been pending since November?

terdon

@M.A.R. oooh, yes, I really enjoyed the name of the wind!

@M.A.R. heh, that might work, yes. Although for some reason I never really got into Earthsea myself. I love some of her other work, but that one never clicked for me.

M.A.R.

@terdon Well, the first and third books are really great. Book two is OK, but not much happens, and book four was a tad bit too aggressively feminist for my taste. Two remain, I haven't read The Other Wind and Tales

Tim Stone

@Glorfindel I suppose so ;)

Glorfindel

@TimStone thank you!

M.A.R.

5:46 PM

Le Guin was complaining that people were too bummed out about book four and not when she inverted the white hero stereotype (Ged has dark skin) Well, thing is, Ged didn't run around shouting or pondering how great dark-skinned people are. He went and did great things, and that's what people respect.

And she did hurt his character in book four. That's for certain

But the ending was good, very Earthsea.

terdon

@M.A.R. I think I only read the first three. I didn't fall in love with any of them.

But then I read some of her sci-fi stuff and those I did love!

Although if you found Earthsea too aggressively feminist, you might not consider The left hand of darkness an absolute masterpiece as I do.

If you're after some modern fantasy that's actually well written, fresh, new, and not a retelling of Tolkien, I cannot recommend N. K Jamisin's The fifth season enough.

It's epic fantasy and yet completely fresh and new!

Rubiksmoose

@terdon duuuuuuuuuuude! I was just about to mention that!

:)

I just started it.

Brilliant, innit?

5:54 PM

And it is very good.

terdon

Oh, hey, she has a new one out!

The City We Became (novel)

The City We Became is a 2020 urban fantasy novel by N. K. Jemisin. It is the first in her Great Cities series. It was developed from her short story "The City Born Great". It is her first novel since her triple Hugo Award-winning Broken Earth series. == Setting == The City We Became takes place in New York City, in a version of the world in which great cities become sentient through human avatars. == Plot == After the avatar of New York falls into a supernatural coma and vanishes, a group of five new avatars representing the five boroughs come together to fight their common Enemy. == ...

Rubiksmoose

@terdon It's very hard to put down and very compelling.

> As of her August 2018 win, the three books of her Broken Earth series have made her the first author to have won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in three consecutive years or for all three novels in a trilogy

oh wow.

terdon

Damn straight and well deserved, too.

Yeah. The Broken Earth series in Fantasy and the Murderbot series along with the Ancillary Sword books (at least the first one) in sci-fi were the most refreshingly original genre reads of the past few years for me.

Rubiksmoose

Honestly, I'm not even a fan of traditional fantasy. I liked Tolkien well enough and loved His Dark Materials, but besides those I haven't really engaged much with the genre. Besides Pratchett but I think that hardly counts.

terdon

There's a lot of really, really bad fantasy out there. I should know, I've read more of it than I can justify :)

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