@Jin, @IsaacMoses, @DoubleAA, @ShmuelBrin, @HodofHod - catching up now that I can see images. The logo with the Hebrew under the tree is very striking, but I do worry that not having the English will be a challenge. I suggest presenting both to the wider community. The six-pointed star seems like an obvious candidate for the favorite icon. Crowns for badges sound neat; worlds is esoteric and also hard to render at that scale. (I didn't know badges were customizable!)
For arrows, let's not get too ornate or esoteric. What's wrong with simple arrow-heads? Sure, eitzim are evocative once you know what they are, but to many people they'll be a "huh?" until someone explains them, and I'm not sure it's clever enough to be worth the UX cost. Sorry if I'm being a wet blanket...
@ShmuelBrin If the worlds don't have continents, how do we know they're customized? :-)
@DoubleAA ooh, that sounds neat! Scrolls for tags should work well; the background is already dynamic, matching the width of the word, so we wouldn't have the layout problems that @Jin mentioned for votes.
In the lifecycle of a Stack Exchange site, we’ve long held the philosophy that “it takes as long as it takes” to build a sustainable community:
The simple answer is, it takes as long as it takes. We’ll wait. If a site needs more activity, go out and evangelize it. As long as your site shows steady progress and continues to make the Internet a better place to get expert answers to your questions, it will march on.
But when a site struggles to maintain any semblance of steady progress — when it’s struggling to garner an audience, a healthy core of experts, and a steady stre …
Oh, were we supposed to start a parasha chat 23 minutes ago?
Hm, I guess I'll start it now, then. Begin Parashat Hashavua' Chat #19 - Tazria-M'tzora / Achare-K'doshim 5772 It can end 23 minutes late, too. Or more. Whatever.
This year (5772) the seventh day of Pesach is on a Friday, so the diaspora has an 8th day of chag on Shabbat but Israel does not. The diaspora will thus read Sh'mini on April 21, Tazria-Metzora on Apr 28, and so on through Bamidbar right before Shavuot. Israel, on the other hand, will read Sh'm...
Okay... the Torah covers human tzaraas, then fabric tzaraas, then rehabilitating the human, then house tzaraas. Shouldn't rehabilitating the human be either at the end or after human tzaraas?
@msh210 Maybe that would fit according to the opinion that house tzaraas never actually happened. But I don't know how the other view would explain the sequence.
Moreover, I remember seeing that "house Tzaraas" would help Jews find money hidden in the walls by the knaanim (you have to knock down the wall, and whatever money is there falls out). Yet, it seems to be a punishment, so how could Chote Nischar?
@ShmuelBrin I recall seeing a footnote in The Midrash Says (I don't recall their source) that this would happen only if indeed the shock of having his house torn down made the person do complete teshuvah.
@msh210 Going back to the original question, googling טהרת מצורע נגעי בתים comes up first with an article from Virtual Beit Midrash, pointing out (among other things) that house tzaraas came into effect only later, when they entered Eretz Yisrael. So the Torah first finishes off with everything that is relevant immediately, and then goes on to the longer term.
@msh210 They quote from Midrash Tadshe why the Torah doesn't begin with house tzaraas (since usually that's supposed to be the first in the sequence of Divine warnings), but about the fact that it's placed after טהרת המצורע they just say "יתכן," it may be.
Come to think of it, too, it might indeed be that if the Torah had placed house tzaraas anywhere earlier in the sequence (and prefaced it with "when you come into the Land..."), then we might have misunderstood that anything described after that - say the procedure of purifying the metzora - also applies only after they enter Eretz Yisrael.
New topic, if no one minds:
I wonder, about tzaraas, whether the diagnosis was based only on the external symptoms, or whether the kohen had to consider underlying causes too. Say for example someone spills hydrogen peroxide on their skin, which bleaches the area white; would that count as tzaraas?
@Jin I think that is so in both religions because it is relatively neutral. (For instance, Christian artwork is filled with depictions of Bible scenes. Islam especially is very against any kind of anthropomorphism.)
@Jin That raises some possibilities... maybe we could find some old Haggadah images that would work for those (haggadahs being almost the only illustrated Jewish books in the pre-modern era)
@Jin Nah, none of the above. We had kind of gone off-topic there.
I guess maybe some subtle arabeques in the corners of the page might work - they would evoke some 19th-century title pages of Hebrew books - but I don't know.
@Jin Ideally, then, I guess we'd want to find one that was used for some well-known book (like the Talmud or the Code of Jewish Law or something), so that it would evoke that association instead.
On many editions of the Chumash, Talmud, and even many more-modern books, you look at the side of the book (opposite the spine) and there are random colored splotches printed on the pages. (For instance, the HaMaor edition of the Mikraot Gedolot Chumash has red and blue splotches.) Any idea why...
@ShmuelBrin That's a good point - if one or the other edge of the page can be made to look like the side of an open book, then those splotches could work as a design element
@HodofHod I used to be Joe Shmoe (IIRC), I didn't have access to hebrewbooks (or real seforim) when using it, so the answers are generally not worth too much.
That's why when I came back, I just made up a new name.
@DoubleAA Ah, I see. But the set of chatters is considerably smaller than the set of site users, so we may well get more good -- even consensually considered better -- ideas
@DoubleAA thanks for bookmarking the chat and updating the meta post
@DoubleAA we can always put in the 404 or Error pages images a few days following launches, those are not as urgent since those pages don't get seen often. however I'd like to get some good ideas about the Captcha image, since it's a lot more visible.
@Jin Hmm. I'll do a separate post for each. I think most of the images posted here were just examples of the idea, and don't necessarily have to be brought in the post. I guess we'll see.
Ok, post is up. I'll do whichever ideas I see, but if I forget one, please add it, @Jin @Isaac @DoubleAA @ShmuelBrin
As you all know, StackExchange's resident designer, Jin, has informed us that our site is due for graduation soon. Jin has been really awesome about getting input and ideas from the community about how the site should look. Now Jin is going to work on the design for the 404, Captcha, and Error pa...
@HodofHod it depends on the art work. I've done quite a bit of original drawings. but for something out of my abilities, I either purchase stock art, or commission someone to do it
@Jin Ahh, I was wondering, because I found it hard to find a good image of the Golem, unless we go with an image of its statue in Prague. I couldn't find any good images of that on google image search, but maybe some stock photography sites have one. The other alternative is a drawing
@Jin It's speculated that the Golem may have provided the inspiration for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The statue may indeed have been the inspiration for Vader, who knows?
@Jin But there's a Jewish kids cartoon that features a fight between the Golem and a robot called "Oy Vader" (from the yiddish phrase "oy vey" )
Speaking of which, there's Mendy and the Golem. (Not the same golem as in Prague.) I doubt many would recognize that one, either, though. I know I wouldn't. Plus, there are probably copyright issues.
This year (5772) the seventh day of Pesach is on a Friday, so the diaspora has an 8th day of chag on Shabbat but Israel does not. The diaspora will thus read Sh'mini on April 21, Tazria-Metzora on Apr 28, and so on through Bamidbar right before Shavuot. Israel, on the other hand, will read Sh'm...
On many editions of the Chumash, Talmud, and even many more-modern books, you look at the side of the book (opposite the spine) and there are random colored splotches printed on the pages. (For instance, the HaMaor edition of the Mikraot Gedolot Chumash has red and blue splotches.) Any idea why...
