Tavern on the Meta - 2020-10-25

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12:15 AM

It's great, to be able to share deleted answers: meta.stackexchange.com/a/286876/282094

12:34 AM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask thanks

Can someone tell me wha tis response from my flag means? "helpful - meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/252270/… "

Journeyman Geek

uh. a SO mod would be better equipped to answer that

especially since they could see the actual flag

Have you ever responded a helpful flag with simply a link?

Journeyman Geek

I think they mean the serial vote script will pick it up

but I don't know, not being said mod

Thanks. But if that were the case, I kind of think the flag would be declined...

Bye

1:33 AM

@AnnZen The possible outcomes are: Helpful, Declined, Disputed, and Retracted. --- It's uncertain what "Helpful" and that link means. IF they are directing you to that link a neutral response is "Disputed" and a negative response (which is what that appears to be) is: "Declined - Just read this [link]".

Sonic the K-Day Hedgehog

@Rob Moderators can't manually dismiss custom flags as disputed, only the system can dismiss some canned flags (e.g. NAA, VLQ) as disputed. Marking as helpful with a reason is done if they believe you flagged in good faith and don't want to penalize you and push you toward a flag ban, but are choosing not to action the request in the flag.

1:58 AM

There is also "Aged away", where no action is taken, that was happening on some of my DV fraud flags until a long period of time passed; then someone wrote that they found no evidence. Other "Aged away" replies for different flags simply aged away. Exactly how a flag is handled depends on where and who - a more helpful link for Ann could certainly have been offered, for someone with as high a reputation as her's that info is already known.

While I don't claim to know every moderator on SO what I can say from both my own experience and reading the writings of others is that they wouldn't hesitate to decline a flag, if that is indeed what they meant, and the link implies: 'Don't tell me, or you need to wait longer"; thus it is declined. IF they were prepared to wait on their end it would be ageing, then the outcome would be presented. --- It's a mixed message, that's (presumably) why she asked.

2:47 AM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Probably would much prefer: mh-distillery.com/cask

user image

4 hours later…

Sonic the K-Day Hedgehog

6:29 AM

I just posted a Q&A that attempts to address why questions only relating to one site are considered off-topic here. Would be nice if others reviewed it:

0

Q: Why are questions only about one site in the network considered off-topic here?

This site seems to have a rule that "questions that are only about one site should be asked on the site's own meta", and such questions are nearly always marked "off-topic" here. However, I don't understand why this rule exists. I checked the help center here, and I found this help page which exp...

support meta new-users per-site-meta

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

6:45 AM

@Rob unless it's some new feature, there's no "age away" for flags. I had flags pending for years, probably still have. At some point I stopped checking or being bothered by it.

(all on MSE of course.)

Sonic the K-Day Hedgehog

@ShadowWizardWearingMask What they actually said was, there is the "aged away" status, and, separately, that they raised custom flags that were unhandled for months before eventually being declined as "no evidence".

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@AnnZen if you keep getting serial downvotes that don't get automatically reversed after a while, and it's bothering you too much, try submitting "contact us" form, this reach SE staff who are better equipped to detect and handle complex cases. Moderator tools are quite limited on this regard as far as I know.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask You need to have one to see the message:

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Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

meh, didn't check my flag history for long time.

@SonictheK-DayHedgehog well, it should be mostly common sense: since the site is about the whole network, and each site in the network has its own meta, site specific questions are off topic. Fits as comment, clear enough, so not sure such a detailed post is required.

It's nice to have, of course - but bottom line, when you point people this way, comment with the above content will usually achieve same goal of explaining them the reasoning.

7:03 AM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask I logged in and checked, indeed you need to have one to see it; here's your account (PII hidden):

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this is interesting: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/402339/…

:)

^ Dupe, in a few places; and doesn't work (apparently); why would it ...

I would love to do a sponsored field trip to verify ...

Sonic the K-Day Hedgehog

Um, I was thinking the exact same thing just when reCAPTCHAs became mandatory for searching here while logged out. It seems that in the meantime, China began blocking access to that domain. So unfortunately, that hack no longer works. — gparyani 10 secs ago

7:22 AM

Kudos to China for protecting the privacy of their citizens ...

and employment for locals and visitors:

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2

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

7:43 AM

recaptcha.net gives me 404 error message. Guess it works only for China users, if at all, but I prefer if it won't break for me. — Shadow Wizard is Ear For You 1 min ago

So SE needs to check the location of the user, and based on it, include different JS files. Lots of work, doubt they have the time for such complex change.

With all due respect, it's not Stack Exchange place to fight China. If China blocks something, it's not SE problem.

Sonic the K-Day Hedgehog

@ShadowWizardWearingMask It might be a false 404 to prevent "regular" users from accessing it, just like how SE's sitemap.xml works

@ShadowWizardWearingMask but it's not the Chinese citizen's fault they are Chinese!

8:06 AM

Perhaps SE could try to load the global version first, and if it fails, use the other one as a fallback.... or blindly load both and hope for the best

@ShadowWizardWearingMask I wouldn't mind if only changing a single script resource solves that specific problem and doesn't break for the rest of the world.

Do we have any specific numbers on how many Chinese users we have / would have if things worked?

8:40 AM

It's completely blocked for years: en.greatfire.org/search/all/http%3A//www.google.com --- other checks: meta.stackoverflow.com/a/288497/3648282

8:51 AM

StackOverflow itself is accessible, but Captcha won't work, and over 4% of the traffic is from China: en.greatfire.org/stackoverflow.com similarweb.com/website/stackoverflow.com --- How much more we'd get if it weren't for the inconveniences and Chinese based competing sites isn't something that can be accurately guesstimated.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

9:09 AM

@JohnDvorak of course, but if SE will spend its resources on trying to fix the world, they'll go bankrupt very fast.

@rene it's never so simple.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask but.. inclusion?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@JohnDvorak sure, different thing. Accepting anyone doesn't mean they have to spend money and resources on making the site fully accessible to anyone. I can think of good analogy: trying to play some fancy game on old and slow computer. The game might load, but won't work that great.

Should the company that developed the game make it backward compatible to work flawlessly even on old computers? I don't think so.

Presumably loading a script from an alternate source costs less money than optimizing a game to gain 100x speed increase when the game had already run through several rounds of speed increase?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

I once had to work a full week to fix a bug that was caused from a tiny change I made per request of the client.

We can't know what a change will cause... kind of "butterfly effect".

Ah, yeah... cascading bugs. Those are fun.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

9:21 AM

Also, from quick look in the code on recaptcha.net (turns out link to the code itself works fine), it's just wrapping the code from google.com itself. It's not serving any actual code. So for everyone outside China, it's one more useless step - waste of time. Multiple it by millions per day, and you get lots of wasted time.

1 hour later…

10:30 AM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask nice!

1 hour later…

Sonic the K-Day Hedgehog

11:47 AM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Before the recent hike in captchas, only very little of those would ever be served to real users. Even today, anonymous users usually search for and find things on Google, and don't normally use the site search.

So the impact would be very small.

!!/watch prominencesupport\.co\.uk

@SonictheK-DayHedgehog That pattern looks like it's already caught by Potentially bad keyword in answer and Potentially bad keyword in body; append -force if you really want to do that.

Sonic the K-Day Hedgehog

@JNat Cross-site spammer: stackexchange.com/users/19815130/phillip-will

!!/watch shahzifpc\.com

@SonictheK-DayHedgehog That pattern looks like it's already caught by Potentially bad keyword in answer and Potentially bad keyword in body; append -force if you really want to do that.

2 hours later…

1:59 PM

If Americans say every "ounce of decency" do Australians say every "gram of decency"

real thoughts

2:20 PM

Every fiddy of decency

user image

2:39 PM

Both URLs are identical, and you are allowed to answer your own question, if you agree that the answer is there; a cross-site duplicate can't be closed as a duplicate. — Rob 4 mins ago

I have posted the link in this form: "Mjolnir doesn't work on old synonyms (should it?)". It is better readable than just plain link> meta.stackoverflow.com/q/307207 (perhaps with added uid on the end).

That was the only reason I repeated the link in my comment - but with inclusion of the title. (And I did not notice when I posted the comment that [meta.so] doesn't work - unlike [so] which gives Stack Overflow.)

@Rob Yes, I know that it links to the same question, but in this way the other users see also the ttle.

I will no object if you expand your comment to an answer - I might wait a bit whether somebody adds a bit more on that, if not I might accept it.

I did not want to create too long thread in the comments - that's why I responded here instead.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

sdc coffee Surprise

@ShadowWizardWearingMask brews a cup of Espresso for @Surprise

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

sdc surprise Coffee

@ShadowWizardWearingMask No such command 'surprise'.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

:(

2:50 PM

@Martin, on a good day in the upper right the "Linked" column would have grabbed the URL and listed it; if you want to search/file that bug too be my guest. --- I have work scheduled, without everyone knowing the which and how of what part of the other helps you (and makes your question valuable here) people need to take the time (each time) to read both. --- I've no objection you pinging here, but it might be a half hour before I answer. --- Thanks for asking your question on MSE.

Well, the linked list only works if the posts are on the same site, right?

Thanks for the response!

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Martin correct

Suggestion to change it was declined long ago.

94

Q: Display other SE site links in the linked questions sidebar

Maybe using a different font or a small site-icon. Hijack edit: ~~~~ jco - Based on this discussion: Hodofhod Asks About Intra-network Related Questions Example. In the below answer from Justin is a link to a Super User post. The current "linked questions" box doesn't show the SU link, but it...

feature-request status-declined linked-questions site-crossover cross-pollination

3:10 PM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Thanks for the Coffee

Another possibility is that the your post on MSE will be closed as a Duplicate of the FAQ - because the FAQ should clearly answer your question, making it unnecessary. It should be that a script runs and massages everything into place ...

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@SurpriseDog thanks for the surprise! ;)

@Rob massage can be painful.

Actually, if it's not painful it's sign that it's not effective.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask !!/Blame @LackOfCaching

16

A: Display other SE site links in the linked questions sidebar

In the last 90 days, there have been 1592 SO posts that link to other SE sites and 5537 comments (some of which might be to MSE). That's really a tiny number relative to activity on the site. Therefore the feature won't have much of an impact on the whole. But for those questions where cross link...

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

In the meantime, bus arrived at a wrong station.

user image

Due to missing FavIcon.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

3:22 PM

Due to 81 y/o driver without a license to drive a bus.

Guess nobody bothers to check for a license if the person is old enough.

... and they should have worn a mask:

Oct 14 at 13:37, by Rob

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Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

dupe!

On what date?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Oct 14 at 13:37, by Rob

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Trivia: what's the first image you ever posted on chat?

Time's up! Here it is:

Dec 11 '18 at 23:35, by Rob

user image

Remember what it counts?

Geez, just found it ... It's the countdown, seems a little off.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

3:32 PM

@Rob here's a search tip: chat.meta.stackexchange.com/…

You're welcome. ;)

844 images, not bad.

I guess it was subject to Leap Months.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Think I have thrice the amount, let me see...

> 3706 messages found

Minus bodily fluid related ...

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Well it also includes re-posts like the above.

[replies: 6] :(

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

3:34 PM

@Rob they always flow away, can't be counted.

hmm.... if I'll rename to "Shadow Wizard Is 10 Years Old" to indicate I'm 10 years on the site (in 3 days), guess my profile might be nuked?

doubt it

the mods are all familiar with you

and they'll check your account in any case - if you've had an account for ten years you can't really be ten years old

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Mods perhaps, others with the power to destroy who roam MSE... not so much. :)

"144.5k rep? Ten years old? Seems off... oh, the account is ten years old!"

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

"User claims they're 10 years old?!" push the destruct button

Dog years.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

3:44 PM

Shadow Is 60-80 Years Old

Better?

Also, almost true.......

:P

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Fear not, they are found by the fish; and resold in the finest restaurants:

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So, you eat yer fish!

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

I love Salmon bagel.

Salmon can be fresh water.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

user image

I didn't like NY while being there for a week, but I'll return just for the salmon bagels they have there. Didn't find anything like it anywhere else in the world/country.

No idea why, it should be pretty simple to make. But it's not, taste is just different.

@ShadowWizardWearingMask Just buy this and make your own, it will be mouth-wateringly better:

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Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

3:54 PM

@Rob pretty sure it's not only the salmon, it's everything around it either. The cheese, the spices, the bagel itself.

One goes wrong, the whole dish is just another food I had, not Hall of Fame worthy. ;)

> "According to popular mythology, the uniquely superb texture of the New York bagel has to do with New York City's water — specifically, its low concentrations of calcium and magnesium, which make it softer.".

Blessed by Zeus Inc.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

4:11 PM

> But while New York's water does play a role in influencing bagel texture, the effect is actually pretty minor, according to the ACS video. Harder water toughens the gluten in the dough, while super soft water can make it goopy.

And this is how true glory is achieved:

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@ShadowWizardWearingMask There is a way to find the best New York bagels locally.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

4:27 PM

@Rob believe me, I tried.

Not even close to NY bagels.

I checked, and the top four places in New York won't ship outside of North America; so you'll have to go there again.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

The closest I found was trying to make it myself, with stuff I bought in supermarket. But too much efforts/money, and still much less tasty.

@Rob I know. :(

!!/bagel salmon

@ShadowWizardWearingMask No such command 'bagel'.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

:(

Customs Agent: What is the purpose of your visit?

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

4:31 PM

Me: eating salmon bagels.

Shadow: I am The Shadow, I seek Bagels and Lox.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

:D

Quick path to prison. :P

Or mental institution?

Glove search. 😧

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

Meh, nothing to hide. ;)

I wonder how many people ask for a re-check.

I think few enjoy getting tagged for secondary. I'm happy when they wave me through.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

4:34 PM

That said, time to go.... time to make the "coffee for the way home" and, well, go home. Cya!

Soon, or in 10 hours.

Shadow Wizard Wearing Mask

@Rob I was tagged two times with the SSSS, but never got any actual check.

@Rob in 10 hours it will be 4:35 AM here, I'll be in deep sleep. Hopefully. Probably dreaming about salmon bagels.

We'll ping you then. 🛎️🛎️🛎️

3 hours later…

Sonic the K-Day Hedgehog

7:29 PM

Is this R/A? meta.stackexchange.com/a/355802/377214

@SonictheK-DayHedgehog yeah

Sonic the K-Day Hedgehog

@Tinkeringbell Thanks. FYI, there was one user who reviewed the post as "Looks OK"

meh

still wondering how a user can ask almost 1 question/day on average...

dedication

8:25 PM

@ShadowWizardWearingMask My first tampering with the monkey!

2 hours later…

10:24 PM

@Tinkeringbell Yes, the reviewers got it wrong; and one has already been told for the last time to report themselves with the Contact Link. --- It's not the opinion queue (too cheap to vote), got to use good judgment and make correct decisions.

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