The Water Cooler

12:33 AM

Yes you should quit immediately. There are thousands of jobs out there you should not have to put up with a crappy title. In fact, I would explain how you were mistreated at every interview while telling them how bad that company was to work for. Just so they know how not to treat you. — Chad 2 days ago

^^^ @Chad, I swear - You see the world through "crap"-colored lenses.

jmac

7:19 AM

@gnat, you may be interested in the huge traffic spike we got from that last Hot Question. Double-visits in a day due to it...

gnat

7:45 AM

@jmac yup. Trouble is, this effect doesn't sustain...

2

A: Can we track the positive effects of a popular question?

Ever heard the phrase "a flash in the pan"? According to my mom, my grandfather and grandmother allegedly used this phrase to talk about Elvis Presley when he made his first break. The idea was that he would have a brief "flash" of popularity and then evaporate into nothingness; he wouldn't even...

stats at at Programmers show it even more prominently. Flash in the pan indeed...

oh I commented at that Workplace meta answer...

consider adding to your answer this screen shot. Taken at 3-months view from Quantcast, it clearly demonstrates flash pan effect on Aug 29 of a question that peaked at about 1.5x than the one asked about here; it also shows that current fake-elvis question will most likely end the same. Note wider peak around 10 Jan is likely related to the fact that question is around top of "SE multicollider" for 4-5 days — gnat Jan 14 '13 at 9:49

CMW

8:39 AM

-1

A: My manager takes every opportunity to remind me that I am a contractor. Should I feel threatened?

I think really do not need to feel threatened on his pointing just concentrate on your responsibilities and do great job. they would be realize your dedication and will offer full time position. CerveauSys OD Consultants in pune

some flags appreciated

jmac

8:52 AM

I'm heading off, but if you could keep an eye to see if the asker clarifies this question, it would probably be good:

0

Q: How to deal with a co-worker who preaches and head strong?

What is the recommended way to handle with a co-worker who just constantly "preaches" his answer and does not "seem" to view the point of the view of others. Take for instance a situation PM: Can you please give me a estimate for feature A? Co-worker: begins a whole rant about the validi...

Welcome to The Workplace! Is there any chance you could make an edit to focus more on what your goal is? It doesn't sound like you're his manager, so explaining what your position is in relation to him, what interaction it is you personally are having trouble with, and what your goal is when dealing with him, it would help get much better answers. Your question as it is seems more like a rant than a practical answerable question and may be put on hold, which is why I suggest the edit. Thanks in advance! — jmac 4 mins ago

We also have 19 questions in the review queue currently, so it may be a good idea to take a look at them if possible.

Enjoy your day!

CMW

11:07 AM

someone around with migration permission? We have a candidate here:

0

Q: file handling in c

i am using dosbox in windows 7 platform. and i am having some problems in compiling and running programs related to file handling and stacks & queue. i am new to programming, and i am following popular books available in the market. any suggstions as to what possible differences can be present....

education projects

Hugo Rocha

Good morning folks!

Battlecruiser operational! :)

Hugo Rocha

11:37 AM

So much to review!

*put on the helmet&

- Judgement time.

CMW

nice

@HugoRocha know what? Next winter, I want that hat

for, I don't know, emptying the review queue or something

Hugo Rocha

lol! :)

Hugo Rocha

11:57 AM

Okay, guess I am done for now... I'll be on my way to .net again... Bye for now :)

Hugo Rocha

12:08 PM

workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/18079/… also, I have released this creep from the cubes.

CMW

@HugoRocha Do you mind my rejecting your edit to that lazy answer? It's still a rather low quality answer then, and if the poster doesn't want to improve it, I'd rather have it go away in light of the really good answers already given.

Hugo Rocha

12:38 PM

@CMW Course not. I also flagged it for not being a answer. Lol

Just edited because... it was hurting my eyes. Badly.

still is...

@CMW Good job anyway. Let's keep this place clean and as good as we can get.

CMW

@HugoRocha agreed!

Hugo Rocha

12:58 PM

back to work!

CMW

yes, sir!

gnat

3:15 PM

I have flagged this as a migration candidate to The Workplace. @Quillion - Please feel free to flag your question and request a migration if you agree. — GlenH7 3 mins ago

do we want it here?

-1

Q: How to tell my boss I want to stop working on a side project

At my company my boss is the CTO of the company. When I was first hired I was super excited and grateful for the job and was ready to do anything. This is my third job out of university, and my first job where I am actually not treated as a slave, and am treated as a human being. He has asked me...

work-environment project employee-relations

Hugo Rocha

3:28 PM

" This question appears to be off-topic because it is about a workplace problem not unique to programmers. – Martijn Pieters 23 mins ago "

I think this question do belong here...

CMW

4:10 PM

@gnat I think it's a fitting question here. Maybe with some edits to tune down the level of detail.

Hugo Rocha

4:30 PM

@CMW How can we improve this?

It's already in our hands :) workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/18338/…

CMW

I will start by voting it up and see what reactions come in

Hugo Rocha

Should we remove somehow the comments that do not fit anymore?

CMW

I was wondering the same. Not sure what's usually done in these situations

Hugo Rocha

Flag the comment as.. obsolete?

I am not sure.

CMW

6:43 PM

Yay, a hot question of ours, without flags or a lot of down votes

2

4

Q: Cheating in a phone interview

I'm going to interview someone on the phone, I have been involved in a few in-person interviews before but this is my first phone interview so I have some concerns about the process. It's a technical interview for a software developer position. What if the interviewee had some notes with him dur...

professionalism interviewing software-industry phone

Hugo Rocha

7:10 PM

:D

Are you ready for a miracle?

Today is the day

My text console adventure is evolving. Got stat modifiers for things like weight and max height by race of the character.

Like, if you choose a orc, you got a definition of max weight and max height, that in turn, can help you with other derivated stats

=D

jcmeloni

10:21 PM

@jmac nice bounty :) thanks

Rachel

10:33 PM

@CMW that question makes me smile because it makes me think of my phone interview a few months ago when i was actually googling answers during my phone interview....

not necessarily so I could repeat them verbatim, but more because I didn't know the technical term for a lot of things, and it helped me understand the question and come up with a coherent answer

CMW

@Rachel Awesome :) exactly the point I was trying to make

CMW

10:51 PM

can we please vote the heck out of this question?

0

A: Is it ethical to write answers to work-relevant Stack Exchange questions on the clock?

Conversely I would ask: Is it ethical for a company that thrives on the 'work' or support of a community, not to give something back? Can a company call on ethics to forbid you from participating in this case? I think not. They can forbid you from drawing on outside resources of course. O...

This is what I would see as a 'hot' question in the list on the right

Rachel

@CMW :)

I agree with this. A few months ago I had a really tough technical phone interview where I was actually googling some stuff as we talked. I went in for an in-person interview a week or two later, where a variation of the same questions were asked. I got the job, and later asked them why on earth they liked me so much when I felt like I had failed the phone interview so badly. It turns out they were evaluating how candidates were learning and retaining the knowledge from the difficult phone interview, and if they could communicate it effectively. They didn't just want some "right" answer. — Rachel 1 min ago

@CMW I don't know about that question... It reads more like a "give me justification for spending time at work on StackExchange" :)

Ultimately I would say spending a limited amount of time on a related SE site when you have no other pressing work-related duties can definitely be considered valuable as it improves you as an employee in your chosen profession, however as to if that should be done on your employer's time is up to your employer. You shouldn't try to justify it with your own reasons. If you're feeling guilty about it, talk to your employer about it

CMW

That question will pull basically everyone into WP.SE

Rachel

haha that may be true

but I'm not sure if it gives the best representation of WP.SE

CMW

compared to the last couple of 'hot' questions from us it's not half bad :)

Rachel

Yeah, but I have to disagree a bit with your answer :)

An employer hires you to do something. If they want you to stay off discussion forums and focus on your work, then that is what you should do.

I feel your answer promotes doing your own thing and justifying it to yourself by saying you're giving back to the community that helped you, which is not always the best thing to do

especially if your employer is against something like that :)

CMW

11:08 PM

That's actually one of the points of my answer

They may full well keep you away from forums and the like

But letting you go there to consume resources to speed up development time, hiring process, or other things and at the same time telling you not to participate if you find something that you can help with, that's where it becomes hypocritical and unethical

in my opinion

Rachel

Its one thing to read forums to gain answers. Or even ask on forums to gain work-related answers. But posting answers on forums is not usually part of your job. i'd say the same advice given to the "reading programming books while on the clock' answer applies: its fine as long as it's relevant, not interfereing with your work, and not forbidden by your boss

and I'd add that you shouldn't be spending an excessive amount of time on it too :)

CMW

I appreciate your disagreeing :D

I'm way too opinionated ^^

Rachel

haha me too :)

I'm fine with people not sharing my opinions, but I'm not going to be silent if I disagree with something ;)

Rachel

11:27 PM

@CMW Are you newish to WP.SE? I don't recognize your name :)

CMW

yep, newish

last August?

think so

Rachel

Hrrm ok, so after I got a new job and stopped coming by here so much

CMW

or septober or something

Rachel

I was noticing a lot of good answers from you, and seeing you pretty active in the community moderation stuff

so was wondering if you were someone who renamed themselves or something

CMW

oposite for me. I took on a new position where the questions discussed here became very important

nah, just same old me

Rachel

11:29 PM

:)

CMW

before that I've only posted the occasional answer to SO, but there arent that many rails related questions that don't get great answers within short amounts of time

yep, I kind of like the review queues

Rachel

was just curious, I got laid off early last year so was on this site a lot trying to help it find it's identity and not go the direction of another subjective site, and didn't recall your name from then :)

and of course, finding answers for helping me get a new job :)

CMW

I read somewhere that it went through some transitions

boy, if nothing else, the questions do get funnier with more activity

Rachel

haha yeah, i'm happy with the way the site is now, with a fairly large group of active users helping ot moderate it

oooooo

7

Q: Beta Sites Data is Now Accessible Through the Data Explorer

NEWS FLASH: After 6-8 weeks of waiting, you can now write queries for beta sites using the data explorer The data explorer uses TSQL which seems to be similar to regular SQL with a few variations. You can browse existing queries and yoink stuff from them as well. For instance, taking this q...

discussion statistics data-explorer

about time they do that :)

CMW

It's green for all indicators except number of new questions per day

and I think we're getting there at the moment

Rachel

11:37 PM

hahaha I'm somewhat surprised to click on the link in the first answer to that meta post, and find a query I wrote a while back

ok, maybe not fully wrote but "borrowed" and edited :)

CMW

hehe :)

I think jmac posted this yesterday or so, asking for someone with SQL skills, to do queries. didn't have the time to look at it yet, though

Rachel

I might write a few for him then if I get time later :)

I've done a lot of SQL, and have messed around with data.SE a lot

it really sucks that deleted stuff isn't in there though

and the Community user auto-deletes low quality closed stuff after a period of time

so it's really hard to evaluate some things

jmac

@jcmeloni You deserve it. Really, that answer is spectacular and is helping drive lots of very good traffic to our site (people who are looking for help writing resumes and listing language will find us with almost any related search term as the top hit on google). All thanks to you!

@CMW Generally-speaking, there is no "what's usually done" -- here at The Workplace we have a great group of people with good judgment on how to handle anything that comes along. If you think you can improve it, improve it! The only thing I strongly suggest is that any significant change is accompanied by a (friendly) comment to the author explaining the change and telling them how to change it back if they feel the need.

CMW

@jmac That line was about deleting comments from before the migration which were about migrating it in the first place

jmac

@Rachel Actually, it was fully written by you -- I just migrated it to TWP from the old one. 100% stolen.

@CMW Same logic applies (though obviously you can't delete comments as a non-mod, you can flag them for a mod to handle)

Rachel

11:44 PM

@jmac Yeah, but I stole the query from some obscure comment I found on Meta.SE, tweaked it a bit, and modified it for Programmers :)

jmac

@Rachel I beg you Rachel, please! Please SQL us some new queries! I am so technically incompetent that I need your help!

Rachel

hrrmmm what data do you want to see?

jmac

(and by the way, welcome back to The Workplace chat! Nice to see more people around)

Rachel

(I'm not really "back", I'm just bored and procrastinating going shopping)

jmac

I'd love to see a query about quality of first-posts by users, reception, and what happens after they ask it (do they ask more? come back? stay away? etc.)

Rachel

11:46 PM

hrrm some hard stuff to quantify

jmac

Something like this:

49

Q: What happens to new users?

I've been looking at what happens when new users post their first questions on Stack Overflow... Not really done yet, but I figured I'd toss what I have up here in case anyone else has useful suggestions. For window of time between 30 and 90 days ago, I looked at users who posted their first que...

discussion stackoverflow new-users

That's Shog magic, which you don't have access to, but something similar would be tremendous

Rachel

oh that's more specific, shouldn't be too hard to figure out

of course, we don't have deleted posts which I think makes a bit difference

jmac

I have a strong feeling that we get a lot of one-off questions, but it'd be nice to see it quantified

Yeah, but if we make the query, I can throw it at Shog and beg him to include those stats

(he tends to be really responsive when you ask nice)

Rachel

select id, (select top 1 id from posts where owneruserId = users.Id order by creationdate) as [FirstPostId]
from users

That gets you users and their first post id

from there, just need to figure out what happened to their post, and do another sub query to see if they posted again

jmac

I have no problem writing basic queries, the issue is grouping them together

Rachel

11:49 PM

haha ok :)

jmac

I don't grok SQL syntax for combining stuff, or how it works, I just learn from screwing with other people's queries

(I am neither a professional nor amateur enthusiast programmer)

(I am a data nerd, but tend to compile data the slow and stupid way)

Rachel

you're an Excel master then? :)

jmac

Something like that.

I can write an Array Formula for all seasons

And even half understand the concept of why BIGNUM (9.99999E+307) is useful in Excel

The only people I've run in to who know Excel better than me are on the web -- no company I've worked for has ever had anyone whose formulas didn't make me grit my teeth

Rachel

haha I'm quite happy with anyone who is proficient enough in excel to write their own forumlas instead of coming to me :)

I've got to get going,b ut you can take this for a start if you want

select count(*) as [TotalUsers]
, sum(case when firstPostId > 0 then 1 else 0 end) as [UsersThatPosted]
, sum(case when PostCount > 1 then 1 else 0 end) as [UsersThatPostedMoreThanOnce]
from
(
select id as UserId,
(select top 1 id from posts where owneruserId = users.Id order by creationdate) as [FirstPostId],
(select count(*) from posts where owneruserId = users.Id) as [PostCount]
from users
) as userstats

will return you total users, count of users who posted, and count of who posted more than once

got to join the FirstPostId to the PostHistory table to find out what happened to it for more stats

(fyi, 2632 posted, 909 posted more than once)

and over 10k exist

it would be far more accurate if we had deleted posts in there though, as I am fairly sure they account for a lot more

I know Shog once confirmed on Prog.SE that the count of Closed, Deleted, or Downvoted below 0 was at over 50%. Last I checked and based on the rough numbers available to us peons, roughly 10% of questions there were deleted (that was before the auto-deletion script was tweaked if I recall correctly)

WP.SE isn't as bad as Prog.SE though

jmac

Thanks!

Rachel

11:58 PM

:)

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