Tavern on the Meta

forest distrusts StackExchange

12:04 AM

probably

Journeyman Geek

We kinda had a decade of stagnation and the interregium was not kind

forest distrusts StackExchange

I wonder if there's a feature request to change that behavior.

To only revert votes when voting irregularities are suspected.

{"error":"Unauthenticated users cannot use regex search"}

:(

Journeyman Geek

lol

what's the parameter?

Oh wait, I can't send you the link after searching can I? ._,

forest distrusts StackExchange

10 hours ago, by Spevacus

With regards to the discussion about "Trenbolone," it was added to the blacklist because of 23 true positives in the past.

Journeyman Geek

12:19 AM

Oh, metasmoke

can't help there

Spevacus

@forestdistrustsStackExchange Didn't know that was a thing. Damn. Well there are indeed 23 TPs I promise!

Journeyman Geek

BUT DOTH THOU SWEAR WITH THY PINKY?

Ryan M

@forestdistrustsStackExchange give this link a try

forest distrusts StackExchange

12:38 AM

ah that works

Man he really did choose an unfortunate name.

oh. my. god

That goddamn bug again.

I've got to stop clicking "move to chat".

11

Q: Bug causing profile picture to change when moving comments to chat

I have a profile picture set on site A, and a different profile picture on site B. Site A is my default parent site, so it's the one that should show in all chat windows. However the image seemingly randomly changes to that of site B when I click "automatically move comments to chat" on a particu...

Journeyman Geek

lol

forest distrusts StackExchange

Do I just not move comments to chat? :/

Ryan M

@forestdistrustsStackExchange yeah, we have fpu (False Positive, whitelist User) feedback that we can give for cases like that to tell SmokeDetector "this user's name isn't what we were trying to catch with that rule, don't report any more of their posts for that reason"

(or you can whitelist explicitly, as Spevacus did)

forest distrusts StackExchange

1:02 AM

> If you don't have an account or the necessary reputation, use the 'Contact Us' option, and pick the option 'I want to report a Code of Conduct violation'. Use the text box to provide as much information as possible and don't forget to link the post.

I did this for some of the posts linked in that recent question, but never got a response.

Ever since I first asked what the reason for my year-long suspension was (more than a year ago), I think I must have been blocked for the entire contact us email.

How do I find out if that is the case? All I can find is other peoples' anecdotes saying "yeah it happened to me too".

Ryan M

I'd be 0% surprised if the backlog for that contact form were quite substantial

forest distrusts StackExchange

Hm, well it didn't even provide me with the automated response.

Seems like it went to /dev/null.

Ryan M

Having never personally used that form, I am unfortunately unfamiliar with its usual behavior

forest distrusts StackExchange

I only used it after being banned and not once told why (despite some mods on MSE saying "we only discus it with people involved"). That's why I wonder if I'm black holed.

Of course, it could be that the domain I use is on a spam list.

Spevacus

@forestdistrustsStackExchange It's my understanding that a mod message is sent with every (at least manually-imposed) suspension. Did you never get one?

forest distrusts StackExchange

1:13 AM

Hm, I don't think so.

Or if I did, it was a boilerplate response.

Spevacus

Yeah that was gonna be my followup. It might have just been a boilerplate "you should relax" message or something.

forest distrusts StackExchange

Probably. It was weird since there were only two things I posted in between a chat suspension wearing off and a year-long suspension, so it must have been one of those, but I never got an answer as to what the reasoning was. It used to piss me off more before I realized due to the Monica situation that mine was not unique.

Spevacus

Yeah those were... Trying times. I said my peace in answers and was done with it, personally.

forest distrusts StackExchange

yeah

I'm just hoping they'll finally start listening to the community.

I've seen some good signs, but it's not enough.

Catija

@forestdistrustsStackExchange I'm not sure we even have one.

forest distrusts StackExchange

1:22 AM

ah

I must have misremembered then. Thought I read that it did.

Catija

We switched to Jira at some point and stopped sending them in some cases.

... I think.

forest distrusts StackExchange

meta.stackexchange.com/questions/364048/… Oh no, now the layout of my posts will change and my OCD will kill me. :o

Journeyman Geek

Yay. I mean sorry to hear that 😅

forest distrusts StackExchange

haha

I have this weird OCD about lines ending with only one or two words.

Journeyman Geek

@forestdistrustsStackExchange tbf - feedback your ticket was logged is invaluable.

Getting a real reply is messy

It would be nice - though I donno how practical to automatically mail a response on closure based on the ticket status

Catija

1:28 AM

We do take the contact form seriously and anything that comes in gets looked at. A subset are sent to the CMs for response.

forest distrusts StackExchange

oh

Catija

@JourneymanGeek I think we do that but half the stuff we get is not something we even want to do that for. Common cases get a standard template response with links to relevant info.

Journeyman Geek

@Catija that kinda will 'do'

I haven't used the regular contact form much tbf

Yay mod tools 🤣

Spevacus

Diamonds are forever or... Something like that.

Catija

Some trolls just abuse the heck out of the contact form. Like my favorite IPS one. And so we don't respond.

forest distrusts StackExchange

1:33 AM

Who is that?

Journeyman Geek

Lol

Catija

Avoiding naming names intentionally.

forest distrusts StackExchange

(I don't go on IPS, I just know it's a drama hub)

ah

Journeyman Geek

Does he try to pull the same stuff on the contact form as the site?

Catija

Mostly gaslighting.

Journeyman Geek

1:34 AM

Ah

Catija

It's been a while since he did, though.

That I'm aware of.

Journeyman Geek

Maybe he found a new hobby

Or finally got help

forest distrusts StackExchange

I assume most of his posts are deleted/unviewable?

Catija

Posted by socks.

forest distrusts StackExchange

Oh, a dedicated troll.

Catija

1:42 AM

IPS is an easy target.

forest distrusts StackExchange

I'm not surprised.

M.A.R.

2:32 AM

@forestdistrustsStackExchange It isn't recently though, for obvious reasons

Rob

4:07 AM

@Catija I occasionally have sent a 'this site is copying without attribution' contact link form complaint, and got the 'our lawyers will look at it' template - but last few times I didn't even get that, and it's not as though I send too many, or there's been a follow-up that I was incorrect - the replies simply ceased. --- I don't concern myself, or feel snubbed, but assume that replies are discontinued; due to short staffing. Must be broken.

Meta Andrew T.

4:29 AM

Poor automated system... I wonder how they got fired...

Rob

5:28 AM

8080

Q: Why does HTML think “chucknorris” is a color?

How come certain random strings produce colors when entered as background colors in HTML? For example: <body bgcolor="chucknorris"> test </body> ...produces a document with a red background across all browsers and platforms. Interestingly, while chucknorri produces a red background as w...

html browser background-color

and it comes up red!

Journeyman Geek

5:59 AM

@MetaAndrewT. realigned you mean

Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog

6:09 AM

@JNat Cross-site spammer: stackexchange.com/users/21470973/parsham-market

rene

@Rob regarding accepts that looks like old deletes went wrong. As in, didn't clear the accept mark.

slightly related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/301543

and meta.stackexchange.com/a/299488

Luuklag

6:52 AM

@Rob There was an MSE post about this

Saying they quit sending replies, because nothing ever happened

17

A: Send a follow-up email when a user reports that some Stack Exchange content is plagiarised by another website

To be perfectly honest: we don't send any follow-up because we do nothing with about 99.9% of those reports. After we did analysis on scraper reports a couple years ago, we found that the vast majority of content scrapers go offline or the problem is otherwise resolved within a couple of months b...

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

7:31 AM

@JourneymanGeek verify what exactly?

Journeyman Geek

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard that there's no deleted answers

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@JourneymanGeek where?

Journeyman Geek

OP seems convinced there's one

Oh

never mind

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

In the question itself? No, only yours so far.

Journeyman Geek

Naw, never mind

I'm slightly sleepy and it refers to some deleted comments

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

7:34 AM

oh, this I can't see.

Journeyman Geek

yup :D

oops

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@JourneymanGeek red button misclick?

bringing Super Shield

Journeyman Geek

naw

for the miscommunication

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

Oh, all good. I think.

OP is annoyed though.

Doesn't look like he's on his way to understand and accept what's going on, but can't do much. You, Tink, and others did your best to explain.

Luuklag

is this about getting banned without violating the CoC?

Journeyman Geek

7:47 AM

yup

suspended

If one is to be pedantic

Luuklag

well his new answer already has a delete vote from me

even before I read the drama that is a comment chain on your answer

Meta Andrew T.

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard I see red buttons. I click.

Journeyman Geek

@Luuklag well, he's convinced mods will delete it

Sometimes its helpful to disappoint.

rene

don't worry, blame will be assigned properly

Tinkeringbell

@JourneymanGeek Luuklag isn't a mod ;-)

Journeyman Geek

7:55 AM

Yup

Luuklag

@rene you can take some of that blame too ;)

-4

A: Hardware Description Language questions: Stack Overflow or Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange?

"Hardware Description Languages" - As the name says, it is used to describe hardware. It has nothing to do with programming. According to the help-center of the respective sites, hardware related questions are on-topic on Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange, while programming related questions ...

adds nothing new to the Q, just repeats the highest voted answer

Journeyman Geek

I mean, it is on topic

rene

I've had enough interactions on posts like that. I'm not going to get emotional involved again.

Luuklag

@JourneymanGeek yeah, but just repeats the other answers, so nothing of value to keep

Journeyman Geek

@Luuklag Well - I can't tell y'all how to vote, but if its not deleted by mods, he's got no reason to complain

Luuklag

8:00 AM

indeed :)

Journeyman Geek

and it can pick up votes in the meanwhile

Luuklag

Also he started a bounty on it :/

Journeyman Geek

Well, if he wants to waste his reputation...

Ryan M

what are the odds on them referring to users with moderation privileges as "mods"? :-p

Journeyman Geek

\o/

Meta Andrew T.

8:02 AM

@RyanM too high

Journeyman Geek

Well that's between him and them :D

Ryan M

Completely unrelated, there is a very snarky part of me that wants to comment on this post of mine asking why the downvoter thinks my question lacks research effort and is unclear or not useful ;-)

Fortunately, there is a larger part of me with better sense than that

Journeyman Geek

@RyanM I like that question

I just don't know what those tooltips should be :D

Ryan M

Yeah, there was a reason I only included a suggestion for one of them...

Anyone who has good ideas about the phrasing should comment and/or answer

Journeyman Geek

:D

I think part of the problem is meta is rather... ambigious

Luuklag

8:07 AM

@RyanM same goes for me here: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/364010/…

Journeyman Geek

We have questions that are questions, questions that are announcements...

and answers that are answers, and answers that are questions

Luuklag

Yeah, this Q&A model doesn't really fit the needs of MSE, but its all we've got ;)

Ryan M

Meta: the only place where writing a long comment as an answer will get you upvotes

Journeyman Geek

yup

or an opinion

Meta Andrew T.

You can... join child meta's community???

Journeyman Geek

8:10 AM

Site meta has the same issues, sans rep

so people care less

Ryan M

Yeah, I don't even know how I'd describe the line between an acceptable opinion-based meta question and one that would get closed as opinion-based.

I could tell you which questions are which, but I can't really describe how I'd tell that

Journeyman Geek

yup

I mean, I'm kind of a meta veteran and I can't really tell you either

and some of my posts get closed or nearly closed too

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@MetaAndrewT. lol

rene

@RyanM I left a comment with my pre-emptive downvote ...

Luuklag

Tink, Journey, can either of you delete the latest comment on this answer: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/85757/…

Ryan M

8:18 AM

@rene hmmm, interesting point about the word "I"... in some sense, the message is "it's a bad idea" but that's a bit...blunt

Journeyman Geek

@Luuklag done

rene

blunt would work for me ...

Luuklag

@JourneymanGeek thx

Journeyman Geek

@DavidPostill ._.

No repro

Meta Andrew T.

per-mod caching...

Journeyman Geek

8:27 AM

possibly

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@rene knife?

Who was faster than me?! Less than 15 seconds!

oh, Sonic.

Tinkeringbell

8:55 AM

@JourneymanGeek So that's how you keep your lead :P

Journeyman Geek

@Tinkeringbell I went to check and everything looked ok :D

Tinkeringbell

:)

Luuklag

9:20 AM

well that was strange

I was logged out for no apparant reason

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Luuklag cookie expired, maybe?

Luuklag

Mmmm I honestly can't recall this ever happening before

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

Maybe some security softwares also perform regular cookie cleanup, who knows...

Luuklag

I did sign out and in a few weeks back to check something though

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Luuklag lucky

:)

Luuklag

9:23 AM

or perhaps the FB cookie expired

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Luuklag yeah

Luuklag

No wait, that wasn't the case, as I just had to click log-in, it didn't ask for credentials there

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

Though their cookies are big and tough. :D

@Luuklag of course, that's because you're set to automatically log in into the provider.

Luuklag

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard yeah but if I was logged out because the FB cookie expired, I couldn't simply click the log in button and be logged in. I would need to enter the credentials to create a new cookie then

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Luuklag not sure, this stuff is way over my head... what happens when you access FB via the same browser session?

Luuklag

9:30 AM

just logged in

so its not facebook that expired

Luuklag

9:52 AM

@JourneymanGeek lets see how long it takes before complaining starts

Journeyman Geek

@Luuklag I'm confused over what the whole exercise achieved

Luuklag

@JourneymanGeek fire and pitchforks?

Journeyman Geek

I mean, I understand his goals - he very strongly feels VHDL questions belong on EE...

but EE can handle that on its own merits, especially since its not as busy as SO

Rob

10:35 AM

@rene Using that search on MSE we can see that they shouldn't have accepted the answer and the accepted answer is deleted. But on MSO I don't have enough rep to see the deleted and accepted answer; so I don't know the reason - but the reason that I suggest in my comment is different than the bug in either of those two URLs.

rene

yeah, it is different. I shared them more as a reminder that several other weird cases exist. So it is not a one-of or uncommon.

Rob

This searches all sites and produces fewer results, due to incorporating score:X - which can be lowered to catch them all.

^^ I don't know which error the OP means, but what we are discussing is different from exactly what they asked. --- They are new and returned two hours later to find their question deleted, it might be another day before they return. ;)

rene

@Rob lots of merged questions, at least on SO.

Luuklag

11:07 AM

@Rob Naughty Marc

Rob

@rene A few ways to slice it, and end up with a similar appearing problem; if you're not privileged to see the real reason.

@Luuklag Not Marc's fault: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/57030/…

Luuklag

@Rob he was socking there

Rob

Marc and Tobias are the same person?

Luuklag

@Rob I guess so, if you read this deleted answer: meta.stackexchange.com/a/57256/361484

Rob

or, ..., is he "The Blue Unicorn"? - and the comment is a misuse of pronouns.

Journeyman Geek

11:18 AM

@Luuklag Oh why I'd never. VOTING FRAUD! I'll refer them to the relevant... oh wait.

Rob

The History doesn't say who deleted that answer, while the other answer was clearly deleted by Marc.

If you have a beach body do people call you Sandy?

Luuklag

@journ I see they updated the job description to include: Living and working within GMT-7:00 (US) to GMT+2:00 (Europe) time zones

Journeyman Geek

@Luuklag yeah, sometime around the second email

Luuklag

I wonder if there are already many CM's in +3 to -6 though...

Journeyman Geek

Mostly US and UK based

I think Ayo's GMT +2

Other than that, Cesar's in Brazil, Jnat's UK the rest are US

Historically Tim was in the Phillipines when the hired him, and Jmac was in Japan

Meta Andrew T.

11:37 AM

@JourneymanGeek ugh, tough luck for early riser...

Journeyman Geek

@MetaAndrewT. that would involve getting hired

Rob

12:04 PM

@rene Those have a positive score, so it's more likely that there existed some value to the answer prior to its deletion; thus the merged results. If one searches only for negative scored answers (I can't see, there) then it's more likely to result in accepted answers that shouldn't have been accepted and were deleted.

I guess if someone accepts an answer and doesn't return then subsequently the answerer edits in spam, or their account and posts are deleted for whatever reason, that would leave orphan accepts too.

rene

yeah

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

What you discuss now? </lazy-mode>

Luuklag

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard question with accepted answers, but with 0 answers

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

12:21 PM

@Luuklag example?

eating waffle

sdc waffle

SmokeDetector

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard No such command 'waffle'.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

:(

Rob

Which may not be what the OP was asking about; we've gone of on a tangent, speculating about what they actually wanted to know; in their question closed for lack of details, to which they returned to two hours later and neither replied nor edited their question.

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard See comment directly above where you asked; again.

Here's 77 examples on SO.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

Oh, OK. Well the accepted answer is deleted.

So there is accepted answer, it just happens to be deleted. :)

Rob

But, what the OP asks about is: "... that the vote amount was green, but there was no answers specified ..."; which either we don't understand or is impossible and they miswrote their question.

IE: The votes aren't green?!

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

12:34 PM

@Rob yes they are:

Rob

The accepted answer is green, but it doesn't show votes, in that view; and since the OP is rep 1 they just see the question only.

What does "they" refer to?

That's not a "vote amount".

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

Better wording would be "the box showing amount of answers in the search results has green background".

Rob

Which isn't what they asked ...

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Rob sure, but easy enough to understand they mean answer count. :)

@Rob 90% of the time spent when answering is to figure what's being asked, at least for me.

Journeyman Geek

.... that question

wasn't it closed ?

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

12:37 PM

It's rare to have a perfectly clear question. ;)

Journeyman Geek

Well - At some point, if you're spending more time trying to work out what OP's thinking than OP spent typing...

Unless she's the second coming of Mavis Beacon... :D

Spevacus

Yeah we're really stretching our imaginations here in an attempt to eventually lucid dream up what the OP meant.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@JourneymanGeek then you're too kind of a person? ;)

Journeyman Geek

Maybe, but its better to teach a man to fish, than to try to figure out what he ate for breakfast.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

Maybe it's just leftovers from my time as active user on asp101 forums, where the quality of the best questions was worse than the average quality these days on SO.

Rob

12:40 PM

But since they are new, and returned to find their wonderful question closed, they'll only come back yet again to say they'll never come back again, if at all. --- Closed for lack of details, though @rene and I, perhaps @Luuklag, have guessed that is what they meant - we may never know. We can't totally change their question and reopen, they must clarify (and hopefully edit) then it can be reopened and answered.

2

Spevacus

Oh well :/

Meta Andrew T.

@Rob interestingly, the latest phenomena(non?) is Dec 2011

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@JourneymanGeek downvotes and even comments are more often a way to break the asker's pole rather than teaching them how to use it in order to fish. Not that it's a bad thing, overall it cause less low quality contents.

Rob

IItIt wwewe aarareare ccocorcorrcorrecorrect iinin oouourour ggugueguesguessguess iititsit's a ffafaifairfairly ggogoogood qququequesquestion, aanandand nnonotnot aa ddudupdupldupliduplicate.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Rob check your keyboard

Journeyman Geek

12:42 PM

@Rob dude, your keyboard. Its... possssssesssseeedddd

Meta Andrew T.

Also, I haven't downvote enough (time to browse meta leisurely...)

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

lol

Rob

JJeJeeJeezJeez I hhahathatehate wwhwhewhenwhen iitit ddodoedoesdoes tththathatthat.

Spevacus

ಠ_ಠ

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

dupe key board

Awesome!

Rob

12:43 PM

Jeez, I hate when it does that!

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

hehe

Virtual keyboard? @Rob

Meta Andrew T.

Your keyboard seems to have auto copy-paste, perhaps that's the power of SO's powered The Key™ ...

Rob

Google KBD, on Android Firefox.

Who to blame.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Rob Firefox, if you ask me

Journeyman Geek

Canada

Rob

12:44 PM

^ and local earthquakes.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

From my little experience with it, it's just bad.

Journeyman Geek

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard I mean, even a screenshot

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@MetaAndrewT. maybe mods don't delete accepted answers since then?

Meta Andrew T.

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard I deleted accepted answers until now though

Journeyman Geek

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard Its more a 'social' than a 'mechanical' thing

Rob

12:47 PM

But CMs doing account deletion could 'baby & bathwater' them.

Journeyman Geek

I don't think deletions nuke answers

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@MetaAndrewT. so it means that somewhere around December 2011 the code was fixed so that deleting accepted answer removes whatever mark is used for the search engine...

Journeyman Geek

destruction does

lemme check

Rob

Mebe

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

e.g. some "HasAcceptedAnswer" field in a table.

Meta Andrew T.

12:48 PM

the only answers:0 hasaccepted:1 on Android.SE is a merged question, back in 2010

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Yaakov might answer this for sure when he's back.

Journeyman Geek

@Rob needs a destroy not a delete

destruction has a few safeguards + means someone has been very bad

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@JourneymanGeek screenshot of what?

Rob

^^ The one on MSE is deleted, possibly for Science.

Journeyman Geek

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard what he saw

All long help threads should have a sticky globally-editable post at the top saying 'DEAR PEOPLE FROM THE FUTURE: Here's what we've figured out so far ...'

WHAT DID YOU SEEEEEEE

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

12:50 PM

LOL

Meta Andrew T.

DenverCoder9 is... Shog9 !?

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@MetaAndrewT. nope

Rob

@JourneymanGeek Possibly the destruction is chosen because they were a leaf in a fraudulent ring, and what few posts they had just weren't worth anonymously preserving ?

Journeyman Geek

\o/

destruction would leave the posts in place

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

The first is here.

Journeyman Geek

12:54 PM

2003 was... old internet though

in the somewhat after, before after times.

....

Rob

The days of the beautiful cuckooing of 56K modems.