@PersonalNexus You're doing a great job with the edits, every one I saw (and of course approved) significantly improved the post. Thanks for all the hard work...
@YannisRizos Don't mention it. I usually keep a browser window open showing the newest questions. When I have time and see one with with grammar or formatting issues. I just fix it. Plus, I really want that Strunk & White badge :)
There are several products for tracking the usage of your application. I know at least 10 offers. They tell you which features were used more often than others. Thus you can identify features that may not make into new versions.
While with Google Analytics or similiar stuff this a standard tool ...
@PersonalNexus I got 9 more edits for Copy Editor, I'm trying so hard to resist doing silly edits just to get it sooner. You have 81 revisions all ready, so unless most of them are to your own posts, you'll get Shrunk & White very soon. Then, it's on to Reviewer... That was the sweetest badge for me because I was the first ever to get it (on Programmers)...
@YannisRizos I am currently 9 edits away from Strunk & White. At my current rate of editing that's just a couple of days. The badge I really want to have though is Marshal. Nobody has it (yet) and after the recent change it requires "only" 500 helpful flags, which I think I can pull off. Maybe in time to be the first one to get it
@PersonalNexus If you really want Marshal, try really hard to not reach 3K rep :P It get's impossible after that - If you flag a question as off topic, your flag is converted to a close vote... So you can mostly flag answers, and fortunately there aren't many of those that deserve flagging...
Thanks for the 3K warning. I think you had mentioned it earlier, so I actually have plans in place to keep that from happening.
I had even thought of compiling a little tutorial "How to be a good flagger and earn a Marshal badge in the process", but a lot of the ideas for this are no longer relevant now that an occasional bad flags no longer results in a massive flag-weight loss.
@Yannis, it isn't impossible, just harder. You can still flag things for moderators attention. For example, answers that should be comments, answers/questions that are offensive or spam, etc.
@DanMcGrath Yeap, there are always stuff to flag, but fortunately not that many. Spam answers (just a link) is what I flag most after 3K, and the occasional "very low quality" on some incomprehensible answers. But I Marshal being extremely hard to get may only mean that we don't get a lot of crap content, so it's a good thing...
@YannisRizos: Speaking of flagging just a link, should such answers be flagged i.e. if the only thing in the answer was a link to a external source? If so, what should it be flagged as?
user2334
9:52 PM
@Jae If it's only a link, you can flag it as not an answer: however, if the vast majority of the answers are just links (like, the question is the really not constructive "What's your favorite blog about programming?") and the question is closed/should be closed, there's really no point to flagging the answers unless it's part of an answer consolidation
user2334
When there are 35 answers that are mostly links on a closed question and only one answer is flagged as not an answer, it really doesn't do anything to save the question and raises questions as to why one answer was deleted but the other 34 weren't
@MarkTrapp @YannisRizos: I'm guessing then a lot of my recent flags have been unnecessary? Sorry about that. Won't happen again.
user2334
@Jae If you think a question could/should be saved, try focusing on the whole question before moving onto others; consolidate all the link-only answers into one, try to come up with at least a blurb explaining why those links are useful, flag that consolidated answer for community wiki, then flag all the now-duplicated link-only answers for deletion
@MarkTrapp: What if an answer is a 1-2 word, non-link, answer; it, technically, answers the question, but is not very explanatory. Can I just flag those?
@Jae If the question is otherwise good and a couple people just decided to phone it in, yeah, flag those. But if most of the rest of the answers aren't much better, there isn't much point unless the question's getting some serious love
@YannisRizos: Say there are several, well written answers to a question, and someone comes out with a 1-2 word answer. But that answer is getting 3+ upvotes. Do I flag it?
I'm trying to find some places with algorithmic exercise? Do you know any?
I found some:
Project Euler
Python Challenges
Google Code Jam
I'm especially looking for website providing automatic verification (like Google Code Jam) and featuring difficult algorithmic question (with hints).
I fo...
I'm trying to find places where I can hone my craft outside the context of school or work. Are there places online, or books available, where I can access lists of programming puzzles or challenges?
That's actually a pretty good example of what we're talking about when we mean "save" a question: before we consolidated the answers, there were 15+ answers that contained nothing but a link
@Jae Now you can move the recommendations from the question that was just closed to the canonical one, if they aren't already there...
user2334
@Jae This question should've been flagged instead of a single answer: all the answers are pretty similar in quality, but the problem is that the question is from the Antedisciplining period, when asking silly, pop-philosophy questions was allowed and encouraged. The question itself is not constructive