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12:50 AM
Hi guys.
 
o/ fellow blue
 
hey there @ArtOfCode and @JDługosz
how're things going?
 
@SerbanTanasa Thanks! I just reloaded my browser and see new things on the status bar. :)
@SmokeDetector Wow, I had no idea I would do so well. Expected the Venerable
Michael Kjörling to have been a landslide.
@DaaaahWhoosh my answer to that is here. Make it out of Programmable Matter.
@HDE226868 Answer: cruise there in Celestia and look around. I answered a similar question concerning a different star that way.
 
1:11 AM
@JDługosz o/
 
@JDługosz Oh, tempting. That's something I've always considered trying out.
 
hey there @JourneymanGeek and @HDE226868
 
@JourneymanGeek what do you mean by “oh slash”?
 
It's a wave :p
 
yup: o << head / << arm o/ << wave :)
 
1:26 AM
Just gonna leave this here...
11
Q: How feasible is it to write a story without any worldbuilding?

SnowshardIs it possible to make a story (with a plot and characters) that has no worldbuilding or explanations for events? Like whenever anything happened in the story there was no background or explanation behind it. It would be similar to things like "The Call of Cthulhu" or "Alice's Adventures in Wonde...

 
1:48 AM
posted on February 22, 2017 by DonyorM

Note: This is part of a series of short stories based in the world of Ivanturia. The primary purpose of the stories is to explore the world, so more focus has been given to that than plot. Previous Story Crash, Kulan heard the tunnel behind him collapse. He spun, watching billowing clouds of dust obscure the disappearing structure. “Again?” he yelled, lifting his hands towards the approaching

 
So I thought I remember someone asking a question about why people wouldn't cross mountains bordering their land, but I couldn't find it. Does anyone remember it/have any luck searching for it?
 
 
2 hours later…
3:51 AM
@Mithrandir24601 I used to do this (though not all that well): youtube.com/watch?v=7NnnC8kT5ZY
 
 
4 hours later…
7:36 AM
@JDługosz - Many congratulations, well done sir on a well-fought fight.
 
7:48 AM
1
Q: Topic-Specific Vocabulary

ZxyrraWorldbuilding is an amalgamation of dozens of topics, geared toward building fictional worlds using expertise that pertains to those topics. Usually, this system runs smoothly. However, sometimes questions don't just call for expertise - they're worded so that only a true expert can understand th...

 
8:20 AM
Uh oh. Seems that I have posted really nasty question. I thought that it will be taken with humor. Sad me
2
Q: Help, the Worldbuilding moderators are going to take over the world! (Soon to be on-hold)

Pavel JanicekThe recent Worldbuilding Moderator elections? Totally fake reason of electing JDługosz. I know the real reason of recent elections. According my calculations, you need 5 people to take over the world. And who else can take over the world than Worldbuilding moderators? They have access to all hy...

2
 
@PavelJanicek - I really love to see humour based questions here on WB (and stack in general). I'm not sure whether I want to see who has cast the VTC votes.
 
@Pᴇᴛᴇ To be honest, I did double-think if I should post that question, but I thought it will be funny
 
Well, it's been closed down now, which is a great shame. But thank you for posting it - signs of humour and fun are sadly few and far between here and I celebrate each and every one of them.
 
I am on edge of asking Meta question, begging Moderators to reopen the question and save my life
But I dont really know, because I also received this answer:
-1
A: Can there be done more to assure users that closing questions is not a Bad Thing?

PbxManLook for alternatives to Stackexchange. The idea of worldbuilding is great. A highly imaginative forum and very entertaining. The ability to dream of a better or different world is one of the most important human qualities. Stackexchange is not open source and moderators tend to be abusive for...

 
Sadly, they will point at the rule-book and ask that you reword it...
Pbx did raise a point, which has been raised many times before, sometimes the closure (or on-hold) of posts do seem somewhat arbitrary. I've always felt there should be more room for creativity on a creativity-based stack as this.
 
8:37 AM
But fun fact. Vegetarianism just became public beta: vegetarianism.stackexchange.com
 
I do, however, get there's a point that if you allow one humorous question, it becomes "allowed" as a practice and it gets progressively harder to justify the closure of future humorous questions....
Vegetarianism? I'd make an awful vegetarian, I can barely spell it, let alone practice it.
 
SE hates humor.
@Pᴇᴛᴇ I practice. I mispell it a lot.
 
Worldbuilding did welcome humor. I remember several humorous questions
 
I often mispell "misspell"
 
0
Q: Why is this question about an underwater city off-topic?

ZxyrraThis question was closed as off-topic. It's in the middle of being re-opened, but there's no point in fighting to close or re-open until a consensus is reached. It can't be answered because of a fundamental flaw. In short, it asks answers to calculate the area of a city, but only says how thick ...

 
8:41 AM
But I admit, my own question has issues. I am at work now and really should be working, so I will keep the question on hold and think if it can be improved
 
@Pᴇᴛᴇ people with sufficient rep (established users, not easily-confused newcomers) can still see deleted humor. Sometimes one simply must post the joke.
 
@JDługosz Congrats to being elected, BTW. Please save my life
 
If you can type the mystical “Ł” you will be among the chosen, @PavelJanicek
 
ŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁŁ - Nerr.
All hail the power of Ctrl+C
5
 
8:52 AM
Did I tell you that I use Czech keyboard by default which has lots of weird symbols?
 
@Pᴇᴛᴇ pasting doesn’t count, you pretender! Must learn to type it for yourself. (Though writing your own driver is optional)
@PavelJanicek I was pretty sure, vaguely, but didn’t check your profile before answering. The joke works either way. (There are a few Latin-2 users around).
 
@JDługosz Luckily, Czech and Polish are migrating to UTF-8. I remember times of Latin2 and I hated Jan Hus for all the special symbols introduced to Czech language :)
 
@JDługosz - I'm a software developer - about 75% of my work is generated using Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V. The other 25% is in typing search terms in Stack Overflow.
 
Could be worse. Non-Unicode (Windows) programs in Chinese only work if the right system page is set, and text files vary between Big5, GB18030, or strange other ones. Setting the right one for the program makes it wrong for opening fikes in Notepad, etc.
@Pᴇᴛᴇ sounds like an xkcd graph.
 
I remember EBCDIC, now that was a character set...
 
9:06 AM
@Pᴇᴛᴇ yes… trying to discuss C++ on IBM internal forum over a 3270 terminal was "difficult" since important chars are missing.
My conlang starts with a non character set.
 
I used to do a heck of a lot with character sets in my past, decoding old Word Processing file formats. Every manufacturer did it's own thing when ASCII wasn't enough.
 
s/it's/its/
I remember Atari’s ASCII. Could type the interesting chars via a control key.
 
Time to get back to my Solution Design Document and see how many apostrophy's I can misplace.
 
9:37 AM
Apparently, you can't discuss how to stop WB moderators on their own ground — BgrWorker 1 min ago
Apparently, loads of people do not know what Moderator means here and who can close question
Also, I really do feel bad. My joke idea apparently started some people to actually think that Worldbuilding is a bad place where all your questions are closed
 
10:32 AM
1
Q: So, I started with joke and people took it seriously. What can be done with the question?

Pavel JanicekToday, I got idea for a joke. Worldbuilding moderators are taking over the world! So, I posted it as a question Inspired by Facebook sysadmins preventing Cthulhu, my original idea was, that joke about computers, sysadmins, moderators and what could people do about it, is inside scope of Worldbu...

 
11:25 AM
@PavelJanicek - I think only one person thought your question was "real". Everyone else saw the joke but followed the rule-book regardless.
 
@Pᴇᴛᴇ Yeah. Still thinking how to rephrase my question to make it fit to worldbuilding
 
11:50 AM
@PavelJanicek - let me have a thing about it and put something in the Sandbox if anything comes to mind.
In the meantime, I was looking at my badges and wondered what the "Generalist" badge was and how to get it. I found a data query that claims to track progress. data.stackexchange.com/worldbuilding/query/631411/…
This shows I have > 15 score for 19 out of the necessary 20 tags. Surely there must be more established users in WB who qualify for this badge...
 
Provide non-wiki answers of 15 total score in 20 of top 40 tags
At level of 15 000 points, I made decission to stop caring about my score or badges
 
Yes. According to this query, I have > 15 score for 19 tags of the top 40.
 
12:39 PM
I love my latest question. It is getting loads of upvotes
And downvotes
 
 
1 hour later…
1:53 PM
I have 38 out of 40 >15 according to that query
 
@TimB - So I guess this badge is broken on WB then, or I'm misreading the criteria.
 
sort of
 
sort of broken, or sort of misunderstanding it?
 
there's a minimum activity requirement. it's not documented since it only applies on newer sites
you can't get tag badges until the tag has a certain number of Q&A for example
I can't remember what the threshold is for generalist
but once we hit it everyone who's met the requirement should get the badge
 
ok. so this explains why people on SF&F have it, but Workplace doesn't.
 
1:56 PM
yep
 
Ok, so it's probably best to ignore it for now then, thanks.
 
17
A: Does the generalist badge require 15 score total, or 15 score per tag?

NicoleCIt's definitely not 15 total score across all tags. According to the List of all badges with full descriptions, it requires a cumulative answer score (all upvotes minus all downvotes) > 15 per tag in 20 of the top 40 tags: Generalist silver; awarded once Earn a tag score of 15 on ...

Apparently, 200 questions in each of the top 40 tags.
 
so that's at least 200 questions each for the top 40 tags?
 
We're at 36, with the 4 remaining at 190 or over.
 
cities, near future, moons, gravity. I see them.
 
2:01 PM
How soon can we build a city on the moon? With, you know, gravity stuff.
 
It can be done in near future
How many moons can have cities in near future?
And does it depend on gravity?
 
yeah, that sounds right :)
 
In the near future, how could my moon's gravity disturbance affect my city?
 
Since we're pretty close, does it make sense to create a few questions for those tags and pop this badge cherry for the good of mankind? (at least those in WB).
 
I have no problem with you doing that if you want to...so long as the questions are both good and on topic
 
2:06 PM
Regarding that, I have strong opinion that some questions get closed too quickly just because they appear in review queue and people are hunting for badge
 
Heck, if you produce 10 good questions on each of those subject rapidly, that's worth a badge.
 
Not implying that mine question is in the line ... but actually, I am implying that
 
@PavelJanicek - I don't think that's the case. I believe that there's a psychology thing going on where people see several close votes and get led into believing the question is bad without fully making their own mind up.
 
I want to go answer some questions on politics and alternate-history now though :D
complete the set
 
Personally, I'd rather the vote count be hidden.
 
2:07 PM
@PavelJanicek There is no badge for closing. It seems easier to vote not to close (not that I'd know, I'm just a 2.5k)
 
I have 10 score in politics, 8 in alternate history...rest are all >15. They should have a gold badge for that erally :D
 
@PatJ - aren't there badges for reviews?
 
@PatJ There is badge for certain number of reviewed questions
I have Gold badge on SO for reviewing
 
Yes, but you don't have to close it to get the badge.
"No action needed" is enough for progress.
 
Actually, you have to decide if Leave Open or Close
 
2:10 PM
@PavelJanicek Oh (again, never reached 3k, never VTC)
 
It did strike me because I received one VTC just because I put (Soon to be on-hold) into title of question
Meh, stop being bitter
 
@PavelJanicek you take your chances, you get your bumps ;p
 
It only proves that the moderators are going to take over the world!
And no one believes me...
 
WB is easy, try another smaller stack like Health where I gave up fighting a broken system...
 
2:30 PM
@TimB I appear to have >15 in all 40 tags. We need just 3 questions on , 4 on , 6 on , and 10 on .
So if people ask a bunch of questions on creating artificial gravity for cities on the moon in the near future, we're set.
 
@Pᴇᴛᴇ how is the system broken?
@PavelJanicek Being a mod is a pain in the arse
especially when you need to make the hard decisions
 
@JourneymanGeek - You need to read a bit further - nothing is broken, we just need more questions for four tags.
 
... Like taking over the world?
 
@PavelJanicek like socially engineering users for the greater good ;p
As a mod on SU, roughly 90% of what I do is it the open
and a chunk of that's aimed at nudging users towards the right thing
 
@JourneymanGeek - The Health stack. somewhat overly reliant on "good quality" answers, even to common sense questions. I answered a question there based on experience and got rebuked for not providing citations to back up my "opinion".
 
2:34 PM
@Pᴇᴛᴇ some stacks have conditions over and above the usual cause of the subject matter
 
And they wonder why there's not enough high-rep people there to perform moderation tasks.
 
Bad health advice could be lethal
likewise, law
Even some technical stacks have had to clamp down, cause otherwise...
 
Not for every single question. The one I answered was for healthy use of a computer at work. I've been doing that for the past 20 years or so, but personal experience obviously isn't good enough.
 
And there's a ton of myths about the subject.
 
And for something like health, how could you possibly verify the correctness of linked citations when there's so much confusion and quackery around?
 
2:37 PM
My setup is roughly as unscientific as it gets. Works for me. There's people who swear by cutting out blue light. I don't believe in that
@Pᴇᴛᴇ its the difference between "I said so" and "I have sources proving that"
 
but when the sources are basically "I say so"? If I like to a UK health page which condradicts USA health guidance, who's right?
 
@Pᴇᴛᴇ How many times does that happen, though?
(Rhetorical question)
 
@HDE226868 How many medical "Articles" on the internet are funded by drug/product manufacturers?
 
@Pᴇᴛᴇ who need to go through very rigid certifications and such
@Pᴇᴛᴇ if two sources contradict, its awesome
Quote both. Interpret.
 
@Pᴇᴛᴇ But that's why you don't link to articles. Scientific studies - even if they are done from a neutral perspective - are often extremely misrepresented by the media (see, for instance, here). Secondary sources aren't necessarily the thing to cite.
If you're a John Oliver fan, there are some extremely funny examples explained in youtube.com/watch?v=0Rnq1NpHdmw.
 
2:44 PM
I've given up on the Health stack. If common sense answers aren't allowed, I'm not going to spend a huge amount of time searching for articles. Basicially the whole stack ends up being an internet search service.
 
That's why you don't cite an article that says "Farts cause cancer", because that's not what the science says.
 
@HDE226868 Its too early for you guys
 
Do cellphones cause cancer? That's a tough one to look up.
@James - tough luck - I voted for you.
 
Yeah disappointing.
 
There's a bright side - you won't get blamed for anything.
And no one will now start hating you and questioning the size of your ego.
 
2:49 PM
@Pᴇᴛᴇ Unfortunately, any >3k as been blamed as "raging mod" those last days.
 
@Pᴇᴛᴇ essentially that's the end goal of SE
to have a large body of searchable questions/answers for problems
 
@Pᴇᴛᴇ I am pretty sure that already happens.
:D
I'm not disappointed in the moderator we got, just that the mod we got isn't me ;)
@JDługosz will do just fine.
 
to be honest you, JD and Michael were the clear "top 3" contenders. I wasn't surprised that you were all head and shoulders above the rest. Between the 3 of you was a much harder choice though.
 
@James I can pronounce your name though. That's your key selling point.
5
 
@Pᴇᴛᴇ lol
@TimB Yeah any of the three would have been fine obviously
Now I just need to find a way to force someone into retirement. Elected officials always have skeletons in their closets... Bwahahaha
 
3:02 PM
I can't pronounce JDs name without slashing my tongue, and I can't pronounce Michael's full name without spitting.
 
@TimB I'd say the badge/rep info had a big impact. Especially amongst users that don't Meta/chat.
 
Yeah the score is always a big deal
 
yep, it's very rare for anyone to ever get elected who doesn't have a good candidate score
 
@James Just so long as you don't find out about my (obviously nonexistent) enemies list and wiretap equipment.
 
I think JD had be by 3 or 4 points
 
3:03 PM
Lucky me. I grew up in Czechoslovakia, so they learned us how to pronounce ł :)
 
Awww...World Building...I can't stay mad at you. You're like a puppy that keeps crapping all over the floor but then like...trips on its own ear or does something similarly adorable.
@MonicaCellio I finally got my silver discussion today :D
 
@PatJ That's a really good thought in your comment on the question - just adding the tag where appropriate could well tip it over the edge
 
@James What does that make the mods, walking talking pooper-scoopers?
 
@HDE226868 Even if I did...
@HDE226868 Well...not walking...typing I suppose
 
@TimB Just verified, we get more questions than necessary for each of those four tags.
 
3:12 PM
so long as the tag is genuinely appropriate :)
 
@TimB Indeed.
 
1
Q: Popping the "Generalist" Badge

PᴇᴛᴇI was taking a look at the list of badges today and there's a few that no one in WB have managed to collect as yet. So I took a look at the requirements for the "Generalist" badge where the wording confused me: Provide non-wiki answers of 15 total score in 20 of top 40 tags So what this m...

 
3:41 PM
Howdy
 
Dude!
 
yeah?
 
IH5!
 
What does that mean?
 
srsly? Internet High Five
 
3:44 PM
oh, high!
I don't roll with the kids on the internets
 
I was rolling with the kids on the internets ever since usenet
Ever since FidoNet, in fact.
 
Good man :)
 
Congrats of JDługosz for winning the election
 
Did I just have a stroke?
What the hell are you guys talking about?
 
YOu know what they say
Different strokes for different folks and these here folks probably had strokes
 
 
1 hour later…
4:57 PM
I can’t pronounce anything right now eince I’m recovering from laryngitis.
 
@JDługosz That one always sucks...
I always prescribe whiskey for sore throats
 
 
1 hour later…
6:01 PM
@TimB It is known that in this stackexange people are leaving for this reason. This is a "fantasy" site and most operators are not qualified to moderate all questions. A 18 year-old Star Wars freak boy probably haven't heard much about Nietzsche. It seems to me that this is not the place to make this kind of questions. Nothing wrong with that. — PbxMan 2 hours ago
"18 year-old Star Wars freak boy" - Perhaps that's me.
Well, probably not, but it has a nice ring to it.
Holy mothers of Zaphod, three planets possibly in the habitable zone: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAPPIST-1.
3
 
6:57 PM
@HDE226868 "Holy Mother of Zaphod..." nice touch. :)
 
@Green Thanks - although I believe Zaphod claimed to have more than one mother, so I really should be more specific.
 
Holy Mothers of Zaphod is an easy fix.
And, what do you bet that we get a bunch of questions about astronomy over the next week or so?
 
There we go.
Hey, Astronomy Stack Exchange will probably be bombarded with some, too.
 
@HDE226868 :) Nice.
 
Wouldn't the habitable zone of a cool dwarf star be smaller?
how in the world do 3-7 planets fit into it?
 
7:02 PM
@James I heard that sometimes the orbital separation is only an order of magnitude or so above that of Earth and the Moon.
 
@James Yes. The dwarf star doesn't put near as much heat as Sol, so the zone must be smaller. But, one may be able to pack more planets into that habitable zone (though I have no way to explain this other than "I see these results so denser packing must be possible.")
 
Also, the star's Wikipedia page changed wicked fast today. There's now a lot more info, which seems accurate.
 
TRAPPIST-1, also known as 2MASS J23062928-0502285, is an ultracool dwarf star located 39 light-years (12 parsecs) away in the constellation Aquarius. A team of astronomers headed by Michaël Gillon of the Institut d’Astrophysique et Géophysique at the University of Liège in Belgium used the TRAPPIST (Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope) telescope at the La Silla Observatory in the Atacama desert, Chile, to observe TRAPPIST-1 and search for orbiting planets. By utilising transit photometry, they discovered three Earth-sized planets orbiting the dwarf star; the innermost two are tidally...
I hope someone from the Universe Sandbox community posts a model of TRAPPIST-1 for people to play around with. The Wikipedia page looks like they have enough detail to work out orbital parameters.
 
7:24 PM
@Green The 2MASS naming system is terrible. It requires way too many letters and numbers for casual use.
 
@HDE226868 Which handily explains to me why TRAPPIST-1 is the common name for the star. 2MASS's stuff is ridiculous.
 
@Green A year or two ago, a 2MASS object - a brown dwarf, I think - was one of the objects we had to study for Astronomy in Science Olympiad. Thank goodness we didn't have to memorize the name and could use reference materials; it was impossible.
 
Why couldn't they use something like Eve Online's naming system for null sec? NB-ALM works just fine for a star name.
 
"2MASS J22282889-4310262"
 
@HDE226868 "Cool name you've got there. It'd be a shame if someone...forgot it."
 
7:31 PM
Then again, my own username is a string of numbers and letters, so who am I to judge?
 
@HDE226868 Yeah, but no one ever calls you HDE 226868. You're known as "HDE".
Also, we don't have anyone else with a username prefixed with "HDE".
 
@HDE226868 This is extremely convoluted, but you name feels like there's almost a pattern there - 2 of 2 numbers with a difference of 2 starting with the value of 2+2x2
So another example would be 333, 12, 15, 18, 12, 15, 18, 12, 15, 18, which is clearly a pattern
Or perhaps, looking at it a different way, eg. 31AD0AD0AD0
 
7:48 PM
I love my job. I'm getting paid to draw pretty pictures and play with graph theory.
 
0
Q: Delete my Worldbuilding account

PbxManI would like to delete my WorldBuilding account. The "Delete Profile" button isn't there. What can I do?

 
@Green That's true.
@Mithrandir24601 You'd have to ask the people who named the star.
 
8:24 PM
1
Q: Add feature to automatically add a notice to new questions

SecespitusI added an answer to the question Can there be done more to assure users that closing questions is not a Bad Thing? and wanted to raise this as a new Meta-Post to discuss as Tim B and dot_sp0t suggested. I had the idea for this answer because I am trying my best to help new users understand why q...

 
8:38 PM
@Green We already have one on Astronomy SE.
 
9:16 PM
@HDE226868 Want to bet someone at NASA had the edit all ready to go? Having said that I imagine some enthusiasts jumped on it fast if they didn't.
 
@TimB Heh, that would be amusing.
 
ok, so 7 earth sized planets with 3 in the goldilocks zone
impressive
 
Exciting!
 
and in fact depending on atmosphere etc they think even the 7th could plausibly have liquid water
 
@TimB I've heard that a few could, even.
 
9:21 PM
yes, the summary I'm reading here says that all 7 plausibly could
sounds like they're orbiting in resonant sequences which may be why they can pack in so close
they also think the star is dim enough that they can get spectographic readings off the planets
and look for atmosphere & composition
 
Still not as exciting as the day our Advanced Gravity lecturer walked into the room and gave us 3 experiments that validated general relativity. He then added, "but by the end of the [academic] year, there's probably going to be a fourth"
 
@Mithrandir24601 How old are you?
 
@TimB The phrase "pretty awesome" comes to mind.
 
(y)
 
@Green 23 (as of a month ago)
 
9:25 PM
I'm really happy that it's so close. 40 light years is nothing.
 
0
Q: Recent NASA discovery: 7 Earth-like planets found revolving around a star 3 in the habitable zone

Dtb49If sentient life formed on a number of these planets how do you think they would interact with one another? Do you think one race would conquer the solar system or do you think that with the planets being so close that they would form trades and or alliances and why? https://www.youtube.com/watc...

 
@Mithrandir24601 My expectation was that you were older since I am under the impression that experiments validating general relativity have been around for a very long time.
My apologies.
 
@Green No worries! The experiments have been around for a long time, but there's not a huge amount of them (that we talked about anyway). He was actually referring to the discovery of gravitational waves :D
 
@Mithrandir24601 Oh, gravitational waves are a completely different story. That is brand new stuff.
I love WB. This phrase, "julienned zombies" was in one of the comments about what happens to zombies pressed against a chainlink fence.
85
A: How can I build a door to repel a horde of zombies?

AndreiROMHuman engineering can, 100%, keep out a horde of zombies. In The Walking Dead things fail because if they didn't the show would be boring. In real life, there exist castle gates hundreds of years old which would hold, no questions asked. First and foremost, realize that thousands of zombies will...

 

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