The Factory Floor

Morning :)

Fulli

back at work XD

one more week private and nothing in my mind to ask about ... dang it

7:25 AM

Hehe

8:32 AM

I'm thinking about a question on how to decide how much of a world to leave as Okapi butts, but it'd be purely theoretical as I'm not currently facing such a challenge.

That's the problem with me asking questions, there are a few "just curious" questions I could ask but they're poorly recieved

generally I solve my own problems though

Hmmm.

I might actually have just faced such a problem, with not entirely satisfactory resolution.

@TimB You could make it a self-answered question!

Most of our questions seem to be about content rather than process. I might be able to help with that.

8:47 AM

I didn't know what okapi butts were so I googled... well that's stuck in my internet history now!

Thanks guys, much appreciated. If I get a call from upstairs I blame you!

Oh, sorry. I linked to that article at least once before here, and it's in my profile.

Quote of the article so far "knowing what makes an alluring okapi-butt"

Ursula Vernon is my favourite contemporary author, by far.

Fulli

do i want to google it?

@Fulli I just linked to it again. And it's not anything bad.

It's a metaphor for creating implied rather than actual world elements, comparing them to seeing a part of a wild animal in the jungle.

8:55 AM

For a couple of days now I've not seen any questions where the existing answers don't already cover them pretty well....that's a good sign I guess :)

So I'm going to put together a question asking about when to stop worldbuilding.

I just had an experience where I was trying to design a very small, focused setting and it got way out of control. This is common for me.

I'm good at making super-complex settings, but I can't keep myself reigned in for simpler high-concept pieces.

yeah, could be interesting

it's a common problem in creative fields

knowing when to stop

oh I am looking forward to when this site makes it public

9:36 AM

@Fulli it's just some zebra bums

@Omen me too - I hope there's a big influx of new questions we've not even dreamed of yet!

@Liath I have been 'building' worlds since I was a kid, as a hobby

@Omen for what purpose, RPG? Writing? Or just general fun?

@Omen last feedback was that it's likely to be about another week

writing, fun and occasionally scientific simulations

A: How are we doing in this Private Beta?

15

I'm Grace Note, a Community Manager at Stack Exchange. And one of these days I'll get to make an announcement for you guys as a question rather than an answer. Statistically, this site's doing great. We're very happy with what we're seeing. The volume's doing decently, the breadth of coverage is...

10:13 AM

If @Omen is not part of the beta can they see that?

afraid i can only see the preview there

The jist is that it's going well but there still some discussions going on about what on/off topic and how questions/answers should be formed

Yeah, they said stats and community were really good but we needed to finish defining on/off topic, back it up policy, etc a bit more

Which is fair, given we're challenging almost every question at the moment!

I fully expect my one about techniques to create conlangs one to spark up a discussion....

10:40 AM

indeed, definitely fair enough

10:55 AM

Hmm, I miss the room description having a link to the main site, I used to click on that to get from one to the other

@TimB Check the bottom right corner, above the help/faq/legal/etc line of links.

Ahh, that's a link too. Ok, cool

I would not have removed the site link from the description blurb if there weren't an alternative.

Q: Is there an established framework to create a language?

1

I'm coming at this with a limited grasp of some European languages and for my world I'm faced with the daunting task of creating anywhere between 9 and 2000 languages (we never pick easy projects do we!?). They're nearly all for humans or at least humanoids. So far most of the characters speak "...

linguistics

That feels too broad, but I'm not sure

since it's asking for a framework...not actually for creating languages

so maybe it's ok

Far, far too broad.

11:08 AM

Yes, I am absolutely inclined to agree. The litmus test ought to be "is this possible to answer within a few paragraphs?", which this isn't. (Now, people may expand on answers beyond that, but it should be possible.)

I think there is a core to the question that could be not-too-broad though

since it's asking for techniques

lol, we both commented saying essentially the same thing

At the same time, too.

Constructed language

A planned or constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary has been consciously devised for human or human-like communication, instead of having developed naturally. It is also referred to as an artificial or invented language. There are many possible reasons to create a constructed language: to ease human communication (see international auxiliary language and code), to give fiction or an associated constructed world an added layer of realism, for linguistic experimentation, for artistic creation, and for language games. The expression...

Yes, it's probably possible to split up into a number of questions which can fit just fine. But it isn't there now, at all.

well it's not that big a coincidence since we discussing it :)

11:10 AM

But to within two seconds?

yeah I edited my comment to suggest splitting

This question encompasses experience and procedure from literally thousands of years of practice around the world in dozens of different languages.

Damnit Monty Wild. Now I've found another venue for wasting money!

It's kind of like walking into writing.se and asking "Is there an established framework for writing a novel?"

@BESW Actually, there is. Buildup - climax - resolution, for each story arc. That's answerable within a couple of sentences if one wants to. Not so this one.

With reservation for that the words may not be exactly the ones commonly used.

11:13 AM

That's one established framework.

And the question would ask for "an established framework".

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of other equally valid and equally respected frameworks for novel-writing.

That would make it opinion-based, not too broad, though.

So it's an "all answers are equally valid" problem.

^^^

Approximately, "too broad" means "I see what you're asking, but you are asking for too much", "primarily opinion-based" means "I see what you're asking, but there is no way to judge an answer objectively".

And "unclear what you are asking" means "I have no clue what you want to know in the first place" (or in some cases, "this needs further constraints for a good answer to be possible")

11:15 AM

Aye, and in this case it's probably all three.

to break it down - if he split the question into chunks such as for example ""how do I design the grammar for a constructed language"" would that then be ok?

@TimB Still too broad IMO.

Something like "I'm designing a grammar for a constructed language, what word classes are necessary to convey meaning and why is each required?" might fly, though.

@TimB Still waaaay too many possible answers without context about his goals so that answerers can know whether their suggested method will be useful.

yeah, I just did a follow-on comment

Q: How does one go about developing a language for a particular culture in your world?

There is also this question, which was asked early on and closed as too broad:

5

In Worldbuilding, linguistical communication within and between cultures can greatly affect how the world is shaped. What should one look for when building variation between languages (ancient and modern, including dialects.) How does one make a fictitious language feel authentic (how do the sh...

community linguistics

Maybe Liath's question should have been closed as a duplicate of that, but alas.

11:35 AM

Good catch.

DonyorM

I'm not sure lang-con will work on this site, it's kinda broad

Then again, the one about insect phonemes was pretty good

con-lang not lang-con *facepalm

It can probably work, IMO, iff the questions are just focused enough.

It's the same thing we keep coming back to: questions with actionable goals ("real problems") are easier to fit into the SE guidelines than speculative theory questions.

DonyorM

that's a big one

Q: Create the "On-Topic" FAQ Article

"Is there an established system for designing a planet?" works no better on Stack Exchange than "Is there an established system for designing a language?".

DonyorM

11:40 AM

Check this out please: meta.worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/214/…

Hi Liath

0

We need to prepare for our site to enter public beta, and one of the things we need to do is define what goes in the help center and the tour. This is one of The 7 Essential Meta Questions of Every Beta. Here's what the 7 Essential Questions page says about creating documentation: Much of th...

discussion on-topic help-center

There link worked better that time

Might get yelled at, but I thought it was worth a shot

Thanks for the input guys

I suspected it was too broad when I was writing it hence trying to tailor it towards the high level details but I bow to people who have some experience with it.

I find a useful trick is to find the equivalent programming on SO "What steps should I take to design a CRM"... yeah probably too big!

Still, good example of what is too big!