The Factory Floor

Q: How would the absence of tides influence the geography of a tidally-locked moon?

7:36 AM

@HDE226868 Hmm, unfortunate timing. I'll just ask my question now.

I'm building a world that involves a tidally locked moon

and was wondering if you found out anything about the tides and ocean currents after asking your question:

5

On Earth, the presence of tides due to the Sun and Moon influence certain currents and other movements of water. This in turn leads to different forms of erosion, which can transform a landscape. I'm working on a moon that's tidally locked to a planet - pretty much identical to the Earth-Moon sy...

physics moons geography

12:06 PM

Hmm, is it ethical to change the approved answer after having chosen one a while back?

Yes. It is your question, choose the most appropriate answer. Even if that answer comes after you accepted another.

There is a reason why you are allowed to answer questions even after an answer has been accepted, a better one might come along.

hey @Mourdos, haven't seen you for a while

I mentioned you a while ago in some chat

did you happen to see that?

Hmm, moment

yesterday, by overactor

I don't remember with whom, but a long time ago, a bunch of users and me tried to work out a theory that explains which questions work and which don't

from there on

Yes, I posted the entirity of it on meta

incomplete as it was

docs.google.com/document/d/…

Q: Finding a more objective way to identify questions that are too broad

12:20 PM

Oh, now I found teh meta question

5

This is an attempt to settle a discussion started by Mourdos almost a year ago. I would like to know what others think of this. There is the full version here but I made some modifications to the proposition, see below. I believe this could help people write their questions and help users deter...

discussion on-topic too-broad

thats where I took my link from

:P

The analysis broke down because it was a generalisation

there were a number of questions that failed to fit into the format

In the end, it all came down to: This is the problem question: A + X = ?

You have to specify what aspect of B you want to know the answer to

An asteroid hits earth with mass Y, what happens? is too broad

Yeah, that's where the Z values would come in again

but things become a bit washy there

An asteroid hits earth with mass Y, how <b>? is okay ish

It comes down to: Does this take an essay to answer.

Actually, an asteroid is normally okay. XKCD's what-if normally has the kind of 'everyone dies' answer that happens here.

The really insideous ones are psychological

or political

Actually, that gives me an idea for a close reason.

Needs tighter scope.

I know its similar to too broad, but its a better fit for these specific kinds of question

Though probably not different enough to have its own reason

Okay, doing a couple of duolingo lessons, will read after

12:36 PM

@AndyD273 Changing the accepted answer is fine if a better ones comes...however changing the question is not good. Really rather than adding an edit that changes the allowable answers you should ask a new question (linking to the old one if needed)

@TimB well, there was an edit, but it was a long time ago to, before I accepted any answers, mostly to fix the fact that the original question was kind of dumb

Yeah, was just mentioning it since you asked :) basically edits should improve a question, not change it

12:59 PM

I don't know if the edit changed the question to much... I was going to just award the new answer a bounty since its a really good answer, but then I accidentally hit the checkmark, which I didnt know could be done. So I took the accepted away from you and gave it to the new answer... And I don't know if I should leave it, or put it back and just award the bounty

1:22 PM

the new answer is better, give it the accept :)

Ok cool. Thanks for being understanding

@Mourdos This tighter scope or "insufficient answer constraints" looks to be an effective counter-measure to "too broad" and "idea generation".

1:41 PM

Needs tighter scope vs too broad. Both mean the same thing, but the former leads to less questions on meta, I would hope.

@Mourdos "Needs tighter scope" is more useful because it implicitly explains to the OP what they need to do to fix their question instead of merely stating what's wrong with it.

Yes. Isn't that what I said?

The problem is that Too broad already exists and shows up on a higher level menu.

You have to go to other close reason to get to our custom ones.

@Mourdos Yeah it is. (I was just making sure I understood what you were saying.)

@overactor nice starred link. I'd forgotten about that. that was ages ago.

Do you still think the same thing? That we need to be lenient with what we consider too broad?

I think a lot of "broad" questions are actually pretty good/relevant

the problem is when the OP is lazy and wants someone to basically define an entire universe for him/her

I've voted to close a number of question as "too broad", even though I felt that a more appropriate reason might be "lack of research", or a lack of constraints (which is often, again, just laziness)

1:56 PM

Unfortunately, I'm not really an active participant in the site any more. I'm vaguely intimidated by the level of knowledge people bring to answering the question (that is to say, there are a lot of people who can answer things better than I can), and I don't have many questions to ask. I was very active early on in meta and helping with site scope, and I mostly visit meta now and again to keep up with events.

Hehe. I have +11 -4 on my suggestion for oxygen challenge.

I'm going to remove the [tag:unobtanium] from this question. It isn't about unobtanium.
http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/35325/can-i-just-stack-the-earth

@Mourdos - I've yet to ask a single question myself. As far as answering goes, yes, some questions I don't even attempt to answer, however I find that for most all you really need is common sense

which is surprisingly uncommon

A good deal of our questions are not hard science, are are more 'give me a general idea'

He says, not having read the WB page for about 3 months.

I should probably do that before making that kind of statement

@Mourdos That's still the general level of question. Hard-science and science-based questions aren't the norm.

@Mourdos Did I say that?

2:12 PM

We should definitely have a "multiple questions in one" close reason under too broad :)

5

Election results, votes are still coming in, but the overall picture is the same:

@Hohmannfan Woo, I'm not negative!

@AndyD273 12/-11 I think :)

@Hohmannfan I don't really get downvoting in an election unless there is a constraint on the number of votes you get to give. I could +1 the person I like, and -1 every one else, and effectively give the person I like 2 votes. It seems kind of a weak system.

Because a -1 to a person is a +1 to everyone else.

Sometimes you 'don't' want a person, sometimes you 'do' want a person.

@TimB I agree.

2:22 PM

Wonder what the presidential elections would be like if they were handled the same way as the SE elections...

I really want to suggest another close reason. It's a kind of magic - Answer is that magic did it. Not really answerable.

Comments all over the place talking about how certain people would moderate this tag out of existance.

@Mourdos I'm not sure I follow?

Support Tim_B and he will ensure that the fantasy-based tag is never revived!

Unlike the dastardly HDE, who will bring it back as a plot to gain popularity when he burns it!

And don't forget the voter blocks. support-tim and support-hde

For some reason, I read your comment about the SE election as same was as the American elections.

I don't know why.

I just did.

Ah

That is what I meant

And I would do the same misreading again, for the fleeting amusement it brought.

I got it the wrong way round

2:26 PM

It may be what I meant. I really don't know any more

ok

Anyway, as for the close reason. If the answer is magic, then we can't really answer. There is magic in my world, how do I create a dragon with it?
You say Abracadabra.

there are some answerable magic questions out there, but not many

Ah, ok. I think that falls under not enough constraints

The good magic questions give enough rules that you can work within the structure

yeah there have been some very good magic questions

but they need to constrain it right and ask the right question

Occasionally, I find one that is possible to answer, like this: worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/35473/16186

2:30 PM

The "only answer is magic" questions are about on par with the "only answer is unobtanium" questions

yes

probably the best way to get magic questions answered are to pretend there is no magic when you ask them. You find out why the things you want are impossible, then insert magic in those areas

Physics strikes again.

does anyone else feel like they can remember the majority of the questions on the site? I often surprise myself at how often I detect possible duplicates.

When I was really active with answering questions, I could detect possible duplicates fairly frequently. Not so much now.

2:43 PM

what I find frustrating is trying to find that original question that I seem to remember from months ago

@AndreiROM agreed, sometimes questions have the weirdest titles

@DaaaahWhoosh most of the time they have terrible titles. But there's only so much you can do without copy-pasting the question itself in there, i guess

When answering, I usually think of magic as just undiscovered science. It's only "magic" because we can't explain it and don't know how it works...

@AndyD273 If we don't know how it works, how can we make answers about it?

"Magic" really falls into two categories

Wand-waving type of stuff, such as: my mage summons demons from the underworld to burn the city refusing my terms

or simply "science" that should be possible at some point in time: the clothes on the generation ship are made from a comfortable polymer which is recycled with 95% efficiency so that new garments can be made from it.

it's not something we can do right now, but it's reasonable to imagine that being possible in the future

sometimes, however, a question will demand something ridiculous, like that recent question about shape shifting humans retaining human speech in animal form. The original animal form can't replicate human speech. They just can't. But since you're shape-shifting anyway, simply explain it away by using more "magic"

3:03 PM

@AndreiROM I did not read much more than the question, but I think some form of communication might be kept. For example gestual ones. But of course, that somehow prevent the complex communication process that the OP was interested in.

@bilbo_pingouin That's one aspect which sometimes bugs me - people not accepting that there's no "scientific" way to achieve what they want, and refusing to accept that "just use magic" is the way to go. The OP in that case def fits the bill

@AndreiROM but it might be very valuable to the OP, to explain just what I did. that some form might be kept. But that would prove very hard for complex and abstract discussions. They might not realise on their own.

Those are cases when an answer challenging the frame of the OP might come in handy.

3:24 PM

@bilbo_pingouin Memories of "You can't...." answers are making me smile. So much fun....though one needs to be careful to not rub it in the OP's face.

@Green - but .. but .. that's the best part! :-P

@AndreiROM I guess it depends on the OP then. :) New users, probably not. Users like Samuel, HDE, James or bowlturner could take it quite nicely.

Though I'd be really surprised if Samuel ever asked a question like that. He's usually really good about doing that kind of homework before hand.

@green that's really what it comes down to ... some people don't do their research

@AndreiROM And far be it for me to deny you your pleasures. :)

@Green - don't worry. If I can't dash someone's hopes and dreams I can always just have chocolate.

3:29 PM

How about this for a close reason "Insufficient Googling".

?

that's a bit sarcastic...

i love it

can we has it? :P

@bilbo_pingouin Yeah, I know but does drive the point home...to the hilt.

in all seriousness, however, insufficient research is actually an issue with a fair amount of questions (especially lately)

I can see that correlated with the recent influx of new users.

3:33 PM

i think that as the site gets more popular, the more people will try to ask trivial, poorly thought out questions

let's face it: it can be seen on any Q&A site - especially SO. Some users do zero research, yet expect others to post links to where they can get info, etc. Sometimes even MSDN would solve their issue, but they clearly never bothered to look it up

@James did you remember you're volunteered for a case study post today?

at that point closing a question as "too broad" doesn't quite reflect the true reason for closing it

yay, 300 close reviews :)

@AndreiROM That would be a close as "too broad" then include a comment on why it was closed.

...or that's how I would do it.

@DaaaahWhoosh ...yes

;)

but I appreciate the reminder.

3:38 PM

Hey @James.

Morning

So were we just going with top 5 questions or 5 selected questions?

for the case study

selected questions. I chose five questions with the most views.

But top 5 is suggested I think

3:58 PM

You can choose whichever 5 questions you think are most valuable to investigate

but I think top questions are usually important because one of our big issues is that we don't close popular questions

either way, people don't seem to be responding

at least three of you have volunteered to ask, why aren't you answering?

Anyone know of a query that will find questions closed for being too broad?

@Green I have one, somewhere

data.stackexchange.com/worldbuilding/query/353426/…

use that, filter to get only the broad ones

Worldbuilding Meta

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Q: Case Study #3 - James

Part three of the case study series. Part 1 - Tim B Part 2 - Daaaah Whoosh I submit the following for review. What single element could destroy the world? About world building? Insofar as destroying worlds is about world building yes, I believe this is on topic. My major gripe with this q...

discussion

@DaaaahWhoosh Thank you.

data.stackexchange.com/worldbuilding/query/353426/…

Q: Is Worldbuilding a What if Site - a followup

4:47 PM

So

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For some this is a problem brewing, for some this is a problem that has brewed, for others, its sat on the desk going moldy from being ignored. What do I talk about? Well Is Worldbuilding a What If Site? Looking at the responses, we shouldn't be surprised to find that the answer is No. I'm gla...

discussion policy moderation

Link?

Yo @SerbanTanasa

The edit in question was out of order, IMO, but the question itself is too broad.

@Mourdos what's up

Ask for a specific terrain type.

You want floating islands like in avatar? Ask how they are possible

You have asked multiple questions

@Mourdos, yo!

So you already know that part.

Yo!

Was just saying hi :P

yeah, i was busy opening champagne bottles

got my great question gold

4:54 PM

are you asking how to terraform a world? Make a new world from new?

@RileySantos I am a little unclear on what you are asking for, I made a comment on your post.

Hey James

Hola

I've decided to ask the big question. How the heck do we enforce policy?

:P

ruthless closings?

Q: Is Worldbuilding a What if Site - a followup

4:55 PM

see meta :P

So basically, you want a low gravity world with islands floating on an electromagnetic current, creatures would need to use a similar principle

Alternatively, magic.

You have the reality-check tag on there. So magic is out. The answer is No, you can't, not with current technology. You would need to custom design a planet

Worldbuilding Meta

0

For some this is a problem brewing, for some this is a problem that has brewed, for others, its sat on the desk going moldy from being ignored. What do I talk about? Well Is Worldbuilding a What If Site? Looking at the responses, we shouldn't be surprised to find that the answer is No. I'm gla...

discussion policy moderation

Bam.

@Mourdos, sounds like exactly the kinda thing moderators with fresh political capital should endeavor to address

It does indeed.

And that is why we have roll back :)

5:05 PM

I still think that question is too broad.

I don't really know. I think the question itself is potentially bad. you are asking 'how do I make a video game world real?'. The answer something along the lines of advanced technology.

Do you really want this to have the reality-check tag?

Good, because I would have to downvote most answers as ignoring it.

alternate-worlds is your tag

and you probably want physics

and possibly science based, up to you on that

Mind if I edit the question to make it more of a question?

ok...any other chat mods getting a ton of flags today?

@RileySantos If you have an old account and can reasonably demonstrate that it's you then a CM can merge your accounts. I don't know the details as it's not a mod thing it needs an actual SE employee

Im not sure I feel terribly comfortable assessing what is "spam" in other chatrooms...considering all the randomness here.

chat rooms need to be limited

or one or two people can turn them into swirling cesspools of filth and discontent that spread out to blacken the internet usage of all who come near them.

be nice & don't spam :D

what is list item?

5:15 PM

oh &stay on topic

Have a look at my edit and see if that is what you are after

if you don't, roll them back

Now, I'll agree it isn't too broad.

I've said this before. 90% of being too broad is bad wording.

3

@Mourdos Amen

@Mourdos 90% of all problems are bad wording

mhmm

platformer planet might open just for me to close it as a dupe

Your question is open now.

And now I need to prep, to make Tim's life mierable.

All the ranged attacks

5:21 PM

@Mourdos Oh? Do share

I'm running a RPG game that Tim is in.

Ahhh...

I've put the potential dupe in a comment, not going to mod hammer it though

Do you know how I can check a users edit activity, or if it is possible?

One of my players once created a character who hated birds for some reason. He was attacked by and aaracocra (spelling is off) at least once per session.

5:23 PM

it's in their activity history, not sure if that's mod only or not

found it

I just wanted to check the history of the person who decided to turn Riley's question into a content to see if they had been doing it elsewhere.

Doesn't look like it though

@Mourdos Yeah, I'm really wondering why he thought those edits were a good idea

It concerns me, as he is a 5k rep user and running for mod.

well, he's not going to win

that might be more concerning

hell, if I won, I'd be concerned

That assumed people know what it was done and who did it. Most people don't look at edits.

@DaaaahWhoosh It is more they they think they are ready to be a moderator and do things like that. Its a one off, so its okay.

I'm voting for fi12

probably

and?

5:31 PM

I just posted the latest tally in the election room

I never said which vote button I was voting with.

lol

well I've given 0 downvotes and about 12 upvotes so my votes aren't actually doing much to change the end result :D

Right, time to do real prep

I still have very little idea for this session.

I haven't down voted either, seems unnecessary on the primary

yep I haven't downvoted anyone either

5:35 PM

@RileySantos Sorry, I'm not letting anyone take my 12th spot away from me

I'm going to give you some advice. I just look at your meta profile. You made one post before the mod elections, and it was in the challege thread.

The advise is that anyone who does not actively participate in meta is ever likely to be a mod.

@Mourdos ya, the is likely one of my bigger weaknesses. I should spend a little more time participating over there.

Me? I've been sprouting my mouth off in meta since the site began. Until I dropped of the radar.

Might not always be right, but we got some things done. Wouldn't want to be a mod though.

I'd like to think I've been reasonably active in meta, but maybe I've just been reading and upvoting things

@DaaaahWhoosh that is most of what I do.

and I do it in spurts. Though as a mod you get pinged when new things show up so it's easier to stay on top of things

6:36 PM

I know everyone's busy with the elections, but has anyone else noticed we're nearing 5000 questions (at 4,894 now, so by the past weeks' trend, we should hit 5000 late next week)? Perhaps it calls for a celebration of some sort?

5

7:24 PM

@SerbanTanasa I'll buy the first round

Q: Progress towards Outspoken badge

haha, good

Worldbuilding Meta

7:41 PM

0

In my mad rush to f̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶r̶i̶c̶k̶ burnish my credentials for the moderator election, I have noticed that I am missing one vital badge: I am now aware that you can check your own starred posts The condition, however, is that the posts are starred by different users How are we to know?

support badges

^Completely unrelated to starbait post above

:)

7:59 PM

I refuse to star that. :p

2

@James, never start it

Dangit...hoped no one noticed the type error

2

8:16 PM

I've had outspoken for ages so can't help you :)

2

@TimB Starred that.

@TimB Yeah same here...turns out I talk alot.

2

Which I am pretty sure was mentioned by every grade school teacher I ever had.

It's raining stars like it's the end of the dinosaur age down here

@SerbanTanasa Not quite enough to cross star threshold...

@SerbanTanasa they seem to be missing you! you Survived!

2

8:26 PM

I think it's my natural awkwardness around stars. It just drives them away

Seems like everyone are posting star-baits here now

nah, it's just the star-bait-haters

11 Ways to get stars in WB chat you just have to see! (Download->)

2

One weird trick to get stars! Star to see...

2

Dang it @Samuel, beat me to it.

8:29 PM

Local man figures out how to get 1,200 stars a week from home. Star to see...

2

You won't believe what happens! Just star and you'll see. I didn't believe it either. She w...

5

loading...

I'm chuckling so hard people nearby are looking to see what's up

(wait I already have outspoken... ok strike that ;-))

See how to get great stars in <town name of your ISP>.

3

8:31 PM

'Meet hot young singles in your mom's basement today'? Man, screw you, GeoIP.

3

That's an incredible meteor shower going on right now!

yeah, we successfully wiped out all relevant election-related links from the sidebar

Where do the tags in the upper right come from and can they be modified.

?

don't know

There have always been baloon-whales in WB chat

8:36 PM

@James They are automatically extracted by a script as the most important themes. :P

...i just found out that they are editable...bwahahaha

not so sure about reasoned-discussion

yeah, that one is probably obsolete

@SerbanTanasa that seems more like a 'suggestion'

@bowlturner You mean like stop signs?

8:39 PM

Exactly

and blinkers

oh good, just got the silver medal

So. Important question for everyone.

What should we name the robot from the site design?

...and would this question be out of line for a meta post?

Slartibotfast

5

I think that's alright for a meta post :)

Just got an upvote for the glow in the dark bunnies. It's been a while!

8:45 PM

but maybe worth to be waiting for the final one?

someone's digging

@SerbanTanasa Victory! (Isn't that what Star-spam is supposed to do?)

@Samuel "I told you my didn't really matter.)

"

@bilbo_pingouin Yeah basically would be asking for suggestions and then let people vote.

@Green, it's for a good answer! Unfortunately, I had topped out on reputation long ago, so most of the votes got swallowed into the great sock drawer where SO votes go past 200.

@James, i think it's fine as a meta

I'm the computer from Superman 3, I get the rep when you're over 200 for the day.

8:49 PM

@Samuel That explains a lot.

I am off to forge.