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@MarkMayo :)

I just updated @AndrewGrimm's cat question

I like it but your comment about law/travel was accurate. Hope the edit is ok

Also it occurs to me that we're just assuming house-cat. What about leopard/lion/lynx meat? :D

And more importantly, would you selfie-facebook yourself eating it?

he edited after my comment to make it more into travel, I wrote the comment after seeing the first version of the question, which if you see the history is IMO off-topic.

@MarkMayo cat is a cat... I just can't even imagine..

I love animals.. not particularly cats, but I can't imagine eating a cat..

Oh goodness, it's on the hot list. Wonder if this is going to draw an odd crowd...

noticed that

3:41 AM

I've always had dogs. Dogs are awesome. I could never kill a dog (or cat) but I do think if there was a piece of meat on a plate in front of me, already cooked, and I was told it was cat/dog....I'd probably try it

and i was expecting weird one-liner answers.. and was prepared to protect it.. but nothing yet

@MarkMayo I would never try a cat nor a dog.. kangaroo maybe..

kangaroo is nice!

really tasty

and common in supermarkets here

and not a house pet...

but you have to have it medium-rare, it gets tough really fast if you cook it, so a well-done kangaroo is not good :/

i assume young ones would have softer meat

3:45 AM

presumably

I asked on Rottnest Island if you could eat Quokka

i just checked the history of the cats question, i see no edit..

but they're even worse - they get tough with cooking as well, but they have disease which you need to cook out. So you either get sick, or eat tough meat. Clever animals, way to stay safe.

was i dreaming or did he edit in the 5 minutes window..

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

the answers in his lamb roast question are making me super hungry

the photo

yes indeed

and i just had noodles with fried chicken...

3:47 AM

From the front page of reddit

"Oh dear honey, I think they're going to blow up the plane"

Sikhs are poor.. hahahahahahahahahahaha

look at her face.. hahahahahahahahahahahah

it's pretty perfect. It looks like he's photographing his friend at the back - I was wondering why the weird angle for a selfie

I am putting it in my facebook for sure.. hahahahaha

Reminds of this scene from Harold and Kumar

(click image if it doesn't animate)

LOL

3:52 AM

Entire scene, if interested

I am serious.. the reason behind one of my questionss was the same kind of looks i got in a flight from JFK (or IAD) to LAX...

Oh for sure

this is just a bong... A BOMB... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

I may need to rewatch that film, it's funnier than I remember :)

yes...

it is funny..

I am heading to YIFI to download some movies now ;)

4:00 AM

@GayotFow seen the first episode of Lost Kingdoms, Sudan has more pyramids than Egypt!!

I really want to go now :/

@MarkMayo when will game of thrones start airing the next season?

its been like a year already

Q: Please help to clarify or rewrite 'How to plan... - with audiovisual travel guides?'?

4:50 AM

the teasers have been coming out this week aparently

-1

I apologise for having posted frequently here, but I'm truly trying to improve my questions. Yet I think that the main problem is my imperfect, rudimentary English, which has impaired my repeated attempts thus far. So would someone please edit, elucidate, rewrite my post at How to plan for road ...

this is like the 5th time he's asked this. At least 4 people have tried helping, he waits a day or two, doesn't act on the suggestions, and asks again :/

hippietrail

5:20 AM

close as dupe \-:

any suggestions where to buy a cheap raincoat and rain poncho in KL? (local knowledge only please)

7:45 AM

or Primark? :D

do they have something like Target or Kmart?

A: Kenyan citizen denied Schengen visa from Sweden

10:03 AM

-8

Several things tell me too that you were not planning to leave Schweden after your visa has expired. I am happy you were denied the visa. First, you talk about visiting friends and family, then it's your boyfriend, then your man. Second, you are a student but won't be a student anymore in one mon...

um, wow, this is an answer?

@pnuts I was going to say it's weird to downvote a new user, even if they've done no research, but the guy has actually been on the site for 5 months :P

Andrew Grimm

11:10 AM

@hippietrail why did you tag the cat question with "pets"?

@MarkMayo I'm curious what kind of questions become hot, and which ones don't become hot, but are still successful on other metrics (eg total votes, total views, etc.). Are questions with a high novelty value more likely to become hot?

11:28 AM

@AndrewGrimm I think it's partly to do with lots of activity early on. Edits, votes, answers. And it's proportional to the traffic/normal stats for the site - so a couple of quick answers on an expats question is currently more likely to go hot than say, one on travel.

but they don't seem to publish the algorithm, for good reason :)

@AndrewGrimm well if not pets, by 'cats' did you also mean lions/lynx/cheetah? ;)

hippietrail

@AndrewGrimm for the same reason the story made the news and the same reason your question is getting this much attention. because cats are not normally eaten either as farmed meat or as game. they're usually pets. also it will be fun for it to come up with other pet questions.

11:57 AM

and...the chocolates in the cargo bay are on the hotlist now. (@nsn)

Relaxed

12:18 PM

@MarkMayo That's the crazy thing, beside being hostile and offensive, it's not even an answer

It's sad

12:45 PM

@MarkMayo I realise -1 might seem offputting but (a) a new user asking a Q seems to me to be unlikely to care (or know much) about rep and for someone on 1 anyway it makes not much difference (b) I tend to show more consideration for those who have offered answers, accepted answers, who make an effort and/or who have taken the Tour, but do try to avoid favouritism.

The sooner a new user learns the better for all and I believe votes are intended to be part of the feedback process. Anyway, Julian seems OK with it, thankfully.

They won't care about rep, but arriving at a site and seeing their question go into negative is going to be off-putting regardless. They'll wonder what they've done wrong and potentially be hurt/confused. If people comment, that's great, but it immediately puts them on the wrong foot. This has come up lots on meta so there's not much point debating it further, some people want to help the newbies and not penalise them right off the bat.

However a user that's been there for 5 months already should have done the tour :/

@MarkMayo I did also offer him an 'answer' that I think is at least as good as the one he seemed satisfied with, so no particular reason to stay away in a huff, IMO.

he also edited an answer into his question, which was weird. @Dirty-flow took it out tho, I see

right, time for me to crash. night people!

1:11 PM

@MarkMayo The documentary series is awesome. Watch the whole series and BAM! 11 places added to your bucket list

2:06 PM

@Gayot Re Regret I don't understand "Multiply 60 x 112 and compare to 60 x 30..." Maybe, 1 person no big deal but 60 people and that gets significant?

Agreed, 4 months v. 1 estimated is not very accurate!

2:24 PM

@pnuts if somebody shows a bank account with 900 pounds (30 x 60) for a one month trip, they will say 'ok, that's fine'

but then the person goes on to use 6,720 pounds

And they say 'HEY, that money wasn't in his account'

Yes but if that is/might be an issue what are "the authorities" playing at by granting 6 months in such a case?!

You mean why they always give 6 months on an entry clearance?

If they do always do so, then yes, that!

In the 2004 - 2005 timeframe, they had a public consultation

and the government proposed changing it to 3 months

but the Home Office fought and campaigned against it

So it stayed at 6 months

And now they are considering

just to give exactly what is applied for, like 14 days or what-not

But the Home Office STILL fights against it

TQ. This is beginning to make sense - once one realises that it may not be a "6-month" visa (of the kind I am more familiar with - ie non-UK) but perhaps rather "short-term".

2:30 PM

Rationale.........

......... none?

It's too complex to change :( HUGE problems

Plus they would be over flooded with paperwork

I have NO sympathy for ******* who make such complex laws.

it would be a big mess

BUT

they want to start doing it with single American women

2

Stamp them in for just the date of their return ticket

"doing it" ?

2:33 PM

Not that kind of 'doing it' :)

2

lol

Give them leave that coincides with their air tickets

Also single Canadian women, but mostly single American women

They have published reports about it

And the border force is angry about it

let me catch up here guys.. UK wants to stop giving 6 months visas?

I think that + a margin (either a flat week or maybe percentage) seems bleeding obvious really - seems to be quite often the case when I apply for a visa (mind you, I might need 14 days where 15 is standard anyway).

@MeNoTalk keep 6 months for entry clearances

and change it for non-visa nationals who get leave to enter at the airport

Changing the 6 month entry clearance is just way overboard too complex

2:38 PM

ooh ok

@pnuts yes, they will be reasonable to give some slippage for delayed and cancelled flights

But they are really angry about being lied to all the time. Suppose you had a job were people lied to you all the time?

Anthony seemed to think he had been granted permission to stay up to 6-months. Sorry to keep quizzing you, but would he have had reasonable notification somewhere that whatever was said about 6 months the permission granted to him was for the duration as in his application?

Not literally. If he told them he was staying for 30 day, they would still issue a 6 month. Remember it wasn't the duration of the visa that upset them.

What upset them was WHERE DID HE GET THE MONEY?

Working illegally is one possibility - but there are others! £60/d is a LOT more than our government seems to think is adequate for survival.

If you live here as a Brit, you need less. But a visitor needs a place to stay and subsistence and blah blah blah

2:49 PM

And, thanks to your clarification, I now appreciate the link with "Finally I failed to include ..." is rather more than the separate issue I first thought it was.

@pnuts he won't be back. No solicitor will touch him

Hopefully someone in the same circumstances but who produced a bank statement for the earlier application that showed many thousands£ rather than a few hundreds£ would have had a soother ride. I think one word may have been enough to determine "he won't be back"! - criminality.

He is stuffed, it is not smart at all for him to waste time with random people on the net.

Did anybody see the answers left by somebody called 'visa expert' or something like that?

Yes

A: Questions of supposed scams?

read this........

1

I can speak reliably only for the case of visas for the developed Commonwealth and Schengen zone. It is riddled with scam operators. These are not necessarily based in Europe, but occur frequently in the less developed world as agents or lawyers providing visa services to the developed Commonw...

JoErNanO

2:58 PM

The corollary to your question: how NOT to do it is to conduct a trial by internet gossip relying upon personal anecdotes provided by random individuals. Random individuals include dissatisfied customers, vengeful employees, sock puppets, and the like yet all are given equal weight in a trial by internet gossip.

Totally agree.

@JoErNanO And when somebody just pops up looking for casework, it's pretty much a no brainer that they are scamming

JoErNanO

Having said all of that, questions which openly ask SO to confirm or deny if a given company is a scam should be sign posted to a regulator or marked as off-topic.

This too is very true.

Even if we all feel for the victims, the travel SE community cannot become a watchdog for visa scam services.

It would nonetheless be cool if someone in the community created a dedicated site.

perhaps, but not this boy :)

visaexpert was a little odd because though saying "contact me if you want help" no means to do so was provided (at least up till when the posts were deleted). The rest of the "answers" did not add anything useful, so yes, did otherwise seem like touting.

Get the guy thinking there's a good chance to get a visa

then charge him a 1,000 pound fee

3:08 PM

Yeah - maybe ask for an e-mail later.

and that's you sorted for a few months

(unless that's all you have to show when applying for a visa?) ;-)

once you have the 1k pounds, it's not your problem is it? :)

I am VERY grateful that applying for a UK visa is never likely to be my problem. There was a time when I got most upset by some of the rigmarole required for me to visit other countries but, since TSE, I have calmed down a LOT.

it is easy for me to apply for UK visa.. I do not even have to go to the embassy..

just go to the visa center, give them my passport and a small fee.. and they do it.

I like this new visa center thing... they apply for all visas for a small fee..

and it is government approved..

and approved by the embassies as well

3:14 PM

That's what the routine should be!

which visa centre?

well, my passport only grants me access to 65 countries.. I need visas..

in saudi Arabia, it is called visa center..

just easy.. one visit and you are all set.. it serves for all countries except US and Canada..

you mean vfs?

no..

it is something local here.. a new service with few branches in town.. large ones..

you show up.. submit the papers and passport.. and they do everything for you..

for a small fee really.. $40

and you also have the chance to do it yourself..

Sounds similar to CIBT - who are VERY good.

3:18 PM

I stopped visiting embassies.. I hate the security check and keeping the mobile phones away.. just boring..

what is CIBT?

I have go to all 24 time zones without. Not every country, but at least one country in each time zone.

I have go to?

Rather, I can go to all 24 time zones

or you mean you have to go?

unless it is some Shakespeare English I am not aware of :)

Consulates are not convenient when having to visit them from a different country and possibly on different days to deliver and collect.

3:20 PM

3 passports

CIBT - recommended by my Travel Agent when called Golden Arrow (subsequently taken over by the Americans) - I think the largest such in the world - but seemingly without a decline in standards.

CIBTvisas is an OISC accredited immigration service provider.

Europeans do not face this kind visa problems as frequent as others..

That's all you need

you can go to more than 150 countries without a visa or with VOA..

3:28 PM

If the site says OISC and it jives with the entry on the OISC's site, then you're good to go :)