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rene

06:17

→ 27 messages moved to Chimney

DavidPostill

07:17

@SmokeDetector f

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

08:22

@SmokeDetector f

Can people please stop using Smokey to report low quality posts? It should be used to report spam or offensive posts. That's it.

@SmokeDetector why

...

Rob

08:37

A few people seem OK at first, but consistently do things counter to FAQs / usage instructions; it's after a consistent pattern of unexplained (unexplainable) behavior that your first impressions and benefit of the doubt change - worse that they have socks (or supporters) that defend them out of hand, like you once did. It's only after that ends that they become an outcast.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Rob so Smokey handles posts of three groups: 1) Spam, 2) Offensive, and 3) Trolls. That can make sense, but not sure if we should use it for 3) as the trolls can see this and it might fuel them.

Rob

#2 is subject to: charcoal-se.org/smokey/…

#3 needs a record of previous behavior; spam seeds, editing in grace period, etc. The troll potential is watched / BL'd users who later post innocent sounding posts (legit Q&As); there's DB you can query names to see a user names past record,but two similar names aren't necessarily the same person.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Rob talking in general, especially about Smokey auto detection which is its greatest advantage.

Since it can't auto detect trolls (yet?), using the manual report to report them is fine, in a way, but also not feeling 100% comfortable with it.

Rob

The person reporting needs to be correct.

Back in 10

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

08:55

@Rob seconds? Minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? Decades? Centuries?

@Rob of course, and I trust they are, or if not out of honest mistake. Still, since it can only fuel the troll, I'd avoid it.

@SmokeDetector k

Finally some actual raw spam. :D

DavidPostill

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard Post and user nuked :)

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@DavidPostill thanks!

Rob

09:13

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard You make it sound of lesser quality than this:

Jun 13 at 8:21, by Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

And that's pure, raw, spam.

It was not pure.

😀

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard Seconds and minutes are a measure of degrees, it's meters:

May 1 '19 at 13:56, by Shadow Wizard

@Rob 10 meters?! :D

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

09:36

@Rob "actual" and "pure" are similar enough. ;)

@Rob whoa that's long. taking a distance of 10 meters away

:D

!!/coffee Cole

SmokeDetector

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard brews a cup of Ristretto for @Cole

Rob

09:48

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_(computer_science) vs en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_function

Meta Andrew T.

Is pure trash... pure?

Luuklag

morning!

rene

Ola!

ColeValleyGirl

10:04

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard Thanks -- just what I need this morning.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

10:18

@ColeValleyGirl my pleasure. So, how are you? :)

@MetaAndrewT. no, it's raw. :D

Raw-R

ColeValleyGirl

You know I'm having a bad day when I start lurking in various chat rooms...

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@ColeValleyGirl lol yeah

Luuklag

Don't we all xD

M.A.R.

My day is not bad but it's 35 degrees

Rob

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard Meaning unclear: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rawr steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/12/357287935562309370

Luuklag

10:29

@M.A.R. I'd consider that bad

@SmokeDetector why

@SmokeDetector f

Luuklag

10:48

only one more

ColeValleyGirl

So.. should I ask on SuperUser or on Pets about how to stop my cat from shutting my PC down with one paw? Or maybe even DIY...

Luuklag

11:07

@ColeValleyGirl get rid of the paw?

ColeValleyGirl

@Luuklag Would still leave 7 others. (Two cats).

Do we have a DIY amputation site?

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@ColeValleyGirl Lifehacks might also fit, with answer like "Attach a sponge to the cat's legs". :D

Luuklag

@SmokeDetector f

@SmokeDetector k

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Luuklag k

@Luuklag f

:P

Luuklag

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard f

Tinkeringbell

11:09

@ColeValleyGirl Sounds like a Pets thing to me: How to keep the cat away from stuff they're not supposed to touch?

Luuklag

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard k

@Tinkeringbell I say electric fence

Tinkeringbell

@Luuklag yeah, that's my first thought too... I might need one once my apartment finishes. There already are neighborhood cats using the building site as their toilet at this point :|

Luuklag

Or a SU question. How to prevent my computer from shutting off when the power button is pressed?

ColeValleyGirl

@Tinkeringbell That's a lost battle -- when the weather is cold, the top of the PC is a battleground between them both vying for the warmest spot in the study, and I'm not keen to start spraying water around near expensive electronics. And I can't shut them out because they've mastered 0pening every door in the house (except ones that have locks/bolts).

Tinkeringbell

@Luuklag Yeah, there's two different questions there. But the cats are only on-topic on Pets, and the power button function only on SU ;)

Luuklag

11:11

@Tinkeringbell you could put in such an annoying sound machine. But chances are people like me pull them from the ground if they go off when I walk bye

ColeValleyGirl

@Luuklag That's where I think I'm heading. Once I've crafted something that won't get shot down in flames. Which (as usual on sites I don't use often) will take me some time and angst.

Luuklag

Another great question would be: How do I stop my roomba frim eating my shoes? -_-

Tinkeringbell

@Luuklag Why would you do that?

Luuklag

@Tinkeringbell cause the sound hurts my ears

Tinkeringbell

Ah yeah.

Luuklag

11:13

And it shouldnt bother me when I walk on the sideqalk

Meta Andrew T.

How do I stop roomba from gulping my question ;_;

Journeyman Geek

@ColeValleyGirl You need a molly guard :D

Luuklag

@ColeValleyGirl tou could also put spikes on top of your PC. Like city's do to deter homeless people from dry and warm places

ColeValleyGirl

So I do -- that's a new one to me.

Journeyman Geek

@ColeValleyGirl In your shoes? Unplug the power button and replace it with a remote controlled switch

But I'm a crazy person who enjoys working on computers

Tinkeringbell

11:16

@Luuklag Debatable :P

Journeyman Geek

easier solution? Tape a card over your power button so you need to lift it to press a button

Luuklag

Or put it in a place the cats won't sit on it. On the side or something.

ColeValleyGirl

@Luuklag I abhor those -- they're a cheap way of moving a problem elsewhere instead of solving it by, you know, actually helping the people.

Tinkeringbell

But I know the feeling, my neighbors used to have one (motion triggered) at a time and I would go crazy when sitting outside, and my parents couldn't hear it :|

ColeValleyGirl

@JourneymanGeek Me too -- might look into that.

Luuklag

11:17

That would be my prefered solution as well, but that isn't cheap and instant ofcourse. So it doesnt fly in politics.

ColeValleyGirl

@JourneymanGeek I have a tape-eating cat. No seriously -- any package that comes into the house, I have to lock away or remove all the sticky tape. One visit to the vet to extract tape from his throat is enough for me.

Luuklag

And your wallet probably ;)

Tinkeringbell

@ColeValleyGirl Yes and no. If there's no actual help out there, they are abhorrent. I have seen documentaries/short stories on TV where people actually refused to use the help out there? In that case I think it's not too bad to try and make refusing help a little bit more unattractive :|

@ColeValleyGirl Cats are so weird... I'm definitely not a cat person, and if I could do anything to get cats to stay out of what will be my future yard now, I would.

Journeyman Geek

lol

Tinkeringbell

But I guess it's just digging up poop before I can go and have an actual garden :(

Journeyman Geek

11:20

I kinda miss one of my local kitties

Friendly little thing

Tinkeringbell

I mean, to be fair: I like cats inside other people's houses. I'll take a visit to a friend and a fat lap cat to pet while talking at any time. Just not anything else :P

It's like liking kids, but only when they're not your own, and only for an hour or so at a time XD

Journeyman Geek

@Tinkeringbell lol she had a territory OUTSIDE my nehbourhood

would occationally ask to be lifted up onto a ledge or just get petted :D

Out local 'RC (think political party office)'s head's wife hates cats

So we got rid of most of the cats except the 2 useless ones...

and we have rats instead

Tinkeringbell

O.o That sounds like a bad decision...

ColeValleyGirl

@Tinkeringbell During the first wave of Covid way back in history :) there was a concentrated effort here in the UK to get people off the streets and into hotels or something better. It worked, and acted as a gateway to longer term solutions for an awful lot of the homeless. Some couldn't cope with e.g. no smoking/drinking/dogs restrictions, and so fell back to the streets, but it demonstrated what is possible with some political will. Now, of course, 'the necessity is passed'. Hah.

I'd favour a 'housing first' approach -- get people off the streets even in they have addictions -- easier to address the addictions once they're warm and safe and fed; and if they never manage to break the habit, it's still best all around.

Tinkeringbell

@ColeValleyGirl Yeah, I think the Netherlands had something similar, with more sleeping accommodations for homeless people than usual. I heard mostly migrant workers benefited from that immensely, since most of their contracts still include work + housing and if work stops, the housing stops too.

ColeValleyGirl

11:26

@Tinkeringbell I know what you mean. My catrs are indoor cats, but there are plenty hereabouts that use my garden as their toilet. Although the foxes are an even bigger problem in that regard.

Luuklag

@JNat cross site spammer: stackexchange.com/users/22010039/indian-magic-guru?tab=accounts

@SmokeDetector k

John Dvorak

~~and if they can't break their habit, force them to stay in the hotel by any means necessary?~~

ColeValleyGirl

@Tinkeringbell I'm a big cheerleader for indoor cats. They can be very happy with a little bit of effort (even if they were used to going outside); they live longer and healthier lives; and the local wildlife -- birds chiefly -- benefit as well. Downside? Litter tray -- but I once wrote an essay on Pets on chooseing cat litter :)

Luuklag

Oh wow, I wen't to check on this answer by Yaakov, and now spot the OP being temporary banned: meta.stackexchange.com/a/366594/361484

@ColeValleyGirl Same here, but don't have them on your balcony, ours fell down 3 stories

That was an expensive surgery to put that leg back together

PM 2Ring

Cat poop is dangerous stuff, due to toxoplasmosis.

Luuklag

11:33

@PM2Ring Same goes for dog's who poop in pastures

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@PM2Ring umm isn't any poop dangerous?

I don't think human poop is healthy to consume.

2

Tinkeringbell

@Luuklag Correlation doesn't mean causation ;)

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

That said, Israel might be on the verge of new COVID outbreak, due to some variant that infect vaccinated people. :(

Luuklag

@Tinkeringbell True, but I had a gut fealing already, as the tone of their comments wasnt very friendly

ColeValleyGirl

@Luuklag My mother (the original cat lady, who couldn't refuse a cat sanctuary if it turned up on her doorstep) had a story about that. Merlin (one of her cats) went out one day and brough home another male kitten (even her cats knew she was a soft touch).

Tinkeringbell

11:34

@ColeValleyGirl Yeah. I'm basically a big fan of keeping any kind of pet indoors. And if can't be kept indoors it shouldn't really be a pet, at least not in an urban environment (don't care about people owning farms and having a pet sheep)...

ColeValleyGirl

Condi grew up to be a nutcase. They were all indoor-outdoor cats but on one occasion she had to shut them all in the house because of some commotion outside. He decided to jump out of a first floor window. And broke both front legs. Cue expensive surgery and two plaster casts and a long time of enforced lock-in. So he deciced to jump out of them same window again. And broke the same (plastered) legs. As I said, a nutcase.

Luuklag

@ColeValleyGirl That was the end of that cat?

Ours only broke one leg, and has some metal pins in it still.

He had to be in a small crate for several weeks

ColeValleyGirl

@Luuklag Nope. More surgery (my Mum was also a nutcase and I ended up paying for it) and Condi died of old age 15 years later.

PM 2Ring

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard Sure, all poop can contain bad micro-organisms, but toxoplasmosis is "special". From the linked article: "The parasite is known to reproduce sexually only in the cat family. However, it can infect most types of warm-blooded animals, including humans."

ColeValleyGirl

@PM2Ring Yeah. People who have heart transplants are not allowed to change litter trays. I anticipate a lively discussion in a month or so with the transplant team about whether keeping indoor cats and living on my own is a blocker to going on the transplant list. I will probably lie and say somebody else changes their tray. To be honest, living alone is also a red flag for them...

John Dvorak

11:40

wait, why?

ColeValleyGirl

@PM2Ring And it can also modify the behaviour of mice to make them more fearless. Which is a pretty useful thing for cats.

PM 2Ring

Right.

Luuklag

@ColeValleyGirl Wow, sounds like your in for a ride

ColeValleyGirl

@JohnDvorak Immunosuppressants for life, in the case of taxoplasmosis. Living alone? Statistical evidence suggests solitatry transplant recipients don't live that long. The centre I'm dealing with do 20-25 transplants a year and choose to target them at the statistically most likely to survive and thrive.

Luuklag

Yay for boosting your numbers :/

Journeyman Geek

11:44

@Luuklag also hearts are kinda an uncommon resource

ColeValleyGirl

@Luuklag I might get told No for other reasons -- there's a Goldilocks zone (healthy enough to survive versus too health to need it yet), and an age limit (also statistically determined). If I pass 65, I'm off the list, so I've only a 2 year window, and I'm coping right now.

Luuklag

@JourneymanGeek yeah true.

@ColeValleyGirl wow, I get why there are these rules, but they sounds awfully harsh when you get to deal with them

ColeValleyGirl

With my emotional head on I'm all me-me-me, but then I think thst somebody else might benefit more and start wavering.

But it won't be my decision, which is definetly a good thing.

Wolf

hi

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

I feel dirty. I wrote VBScript program, about 6-8 years (literally!!) after touching VBScript previously. :D

Luuklag

11:59

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard VBscript has some resemblance with VBA right?

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

Was amazed I remembered by heart stuff like Option Explicit and Redim Preserve. ;)

But forgot about FileSystemObject, had to Google.

Goal was to iterate files in a folder, and extract part of their names into a text file.

Luuklag

Yeah these all sounds familiar

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

(for SQL query, actually.)

Luuklag

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard That is something really off the shelve

I have dozens of such loops in existing code

Usually to aggregate gazillions of xlsx files

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Luuklag only the VB part, yeah. (i.e. the syntax ;))

@Luuklag hehe, nice.

I had whole folder with dozens of .vbs files for all kinds of stuff.

Think the top was .vbs that writes other .vbs that actually do something. :D

Luuklag

12:02

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard yeah you just skip the application, and output a file directly right?

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard Yeah that is great stuff. I have some VBA to write BAT files that can then get executed

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Luuklag not sure what you mean but yeah, I don't use any IDE or compilation, so it's the fastest way to write and execute something. :)

@Luuklag lol

Luuklag

oreilly.com/library/view/vbscript-in-a/1565927206/ch01s03.html

VBS vs VBA

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@PM2Ring oh, nasty.

Wolf

epic

awesome

so nice

~~epic~~

Luuklag

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard is there a post about burninating text?

ah there is

It wasn't tagged with burn-request, so didn't find it

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

12:12

@Luuklag yeah linked to it in the reply.

@Luuklag added now too. :)

free helpful comment flags here

Luuklag

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard post already nuked

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

Braiam is too eager on tag removal.

He removes tags that nobody asked to burninate on his own.

@Braiam please stop removing tags that are not supposed to be removed. Thanks.

3

I agree about text, it should be removed, but you keep removing useful tags. So please, don't.

Spevacus

Well that request does seem to have community support for the moment. The speed at which it's being removed is mildly concerning, though, but it's not like it's a great tag in the first place.

The collateral tags being removed from posts isn't ideal, though, I agree with that.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Spevacus again, I'm supporting removing the text tag, but not tags like unicode.

Spevacus

yee

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

12:26

So deciding on your own to just remove useful tags is bad.

Spevacus

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard We've had a couple of instances where trolls accessed Charcoal HQ, at which point the public discussion of them/reporting of their posts with any additional commentary was halted. To be fair, though, those users posted much more abusive content than the one Ryan M just reported in the case that brought this up. So to address this concern, I'd say that the CHQ folks do try to keep anything that could egg the troll on to a minimum when reporting their content,

but this particular case needed some degree of explanation to reach the "Yeah this is a troll" conclusion as it wasn't immediately apparent (at least to me).

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

12:44

@Spevacus yeah, fair enough.

@Tink can you please unfreeze our room again? Thanks!

Tinkeringbell

If I can find it XD

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

1580

(and this time I checked it's the correct one ;))

Spevacus

Ooh, fancy private room.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

lol

Tinkeringbell

Hahaha. But it has a point: Maybe next time a mod-only flag might work on this chat server. ;-)

Since that wouldn't be annoying a whole network worth of mods ;)

Spevacus

12:50

The benefits of Meta being on its own chat server. :)

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Tinkeringbell or just a code, e.g. "@Tink 1580" and you'll know what it's about, without making too much noise for others? ;)

Tinkeringbell

Nah, flags work best :)

Makes less people suspicious or curious ;)

Spevacus

You can flag messages in frozen rooms, right? Though I suppose even if you can't, you can just point to the room in the message.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

Dunno, for me flags feels like last resort.

Spevacus

Oh, you can't flag messages in frozen rooms.

Tinkeringbell

12:58

Huh? I regularly see flags on chat.se asking to unfreeze rooms...

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Spevacus well can flag my own messages, no?

@Tinkeringbell not from me, but if you say that's the proper channel... might do it. ;)

Tinkeringbell

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard For this room, it is :)

On chat.se things might be a bit different because everyone sees the flag and might wonder why you want it unfrozen and stuff... but again, asking a mod to unfreeze a room in a chat flag isn't necessarily 'not done'.

40

A: How do I unfreeze a frozen chat room?

Room owners can't unfreeze a room; you need a moderator to do it. You could mod flag something and ask that way, or drop a request into the The Assembly room. Said moderator would then do so from the "access" tab of the room's overview page (accessed via the "info" link).

Not sure what The Assembly room is, but I'm never there :P

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

:D

Journeyman Geek

chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/2691/the-assembly

Spevacus

Oh nvm you CAN

I just didn't join the room >_>

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

13:07

lol

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

13:30

whoa!!!

MSE Yaakoved again.

Big time. :P

Just to keep in the Shelves of History.

@SmokeDetector k

Feeds

14:01

Can InnerSource bring open source practices to closed corporate bureaucracies?

Ryan Donovan on June 21, 2021

Open source won. Now, the OSS way of working is making inroads into new territories: the corporate engineering department.

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Feeds no

2

Luuklag

@ShadowTheVaccinatedWizard I feel that its more housekeeping then really fixing stuff ;)

Kevin B

14:21

do they mean... bringing version control to corps? or actual OSS

Shadow The Vaccinated Wizard

@Luuklag meh, final result is what matters: many bumps with status-completed. ;)

Luuklag

@SmokeDetector k

Kevin B

yeah, just vc. boring

Luuklag

@Ollie meta.stackexchange.com/questions/302321/…

user3342816