The Reading Room

12:03 AM

@steelersquirrel Kind of, yes. I've studied ... probably around 5-10 of his plays in detail, and read retellings of at least double that.

steelersquirrel

12:14 AM

@Randal'Thor Were you required to study his plays in school?

Rand al'Thor

I did have a module on Romeo and Juliet for my Eng Lit GCSE.

I think the other possible choice in that paper was All's Well That Ends Well.

user15026

I feel bad because I retained so little of the lit courses I took and I took a whole English degree >.>

Rand al'Thor

Maybe there were a couple of non-Shakespeare possibilities too. I don't remember.

steelersquirrel

Ahhhh...okay. I was just curious if they focused on Shakespeare in the UK High School like they do in US High Schools

Rand al'Thor

@Ash You have a degree in English? You qualified person! Quick, get to answering questions here! ;-)

2

BESW

12:18 AM

mmm, I studied at least a half-dozen Shakespeare works over high school and college, and I feel like I "get" them more from my amateur study later on.

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel Probably even more so?

user15026

That's the problem though, I've studied a lot of Lit in a formal sense but it never really stuck

user15026

(most of the "Literature" stuff I was taught bored me to tears)

Rand al'Thor

@BESW Amateur study FTW.

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor So, you did all of them in High School? Is High school in UK the same as US?

BESW

12:19 AM

Hmm. Would it be lit.se or sff.se to ask if there was any hubub about Doctor Who placing JKR on the same level as Shakespeare?

Rand al'Thor

@Ash I've met so many people who've been turned off Shakespeare by having had to study it in school :-(

user15026

(I don't super love Shakespeare, or really most of the dead white guys we studied)

steelersquirrel

Like grades 9-12?

Rand al'Thor

@BESW I'd say SFF, since it's more about the TV show's commentary on those literary works than the works themselves.

BESW

@Randal'Thor I'm thinking of it as more the literary community's response to the show's commentary.

Rand al'Thor

12:22 AM

@BESW Have we had any questions here yet about "the literary community", as opposed to particular works or concepts in literature itself?

Don't think I've seen any.

steelersquirrel

Who in here went to High school in the UK? Anyone, anyone?

BESW

There's certainly a lot of questions which hinge on it; anything about categories or definitions is inherently asking what the literary community thinks about the subject.

Rand al'Thor

I believe US "high school" = UK "secondary school"?

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor Oh, okay. So, when you were in high school, was it like grades 9-12 like the US?

Rand al'Thor

Well, like I say, I don't think there's anything called "high school" in this country.

Where's that fiance of yours? ;-)

steelersquirrel

12:29 AM

@Randal'Thor Oh, sorry. I just assumed that you went to a normal "high school" over there or the equivalent. My apologies :)

I am brewing up a question about Bram Stoker, though...just sayin'

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel About Dracula, or more about the author?

I never read the original Dracula, only a retelling. The storytelling style of the original sounded like a bit of a turnoff for me.

2

A: Do we have enough visitors?

[P]erhaps we should make a point of answering some unanswered questions, even if imperfectly Please don't. Even if we have to move slower than usual, I'd much rather that Literature have high quality answers that speak for the site better than a simple statistic can. If you have a partia...

YES.

doppelgreener

@steelersquirrel In the UK, schools can either go primary (grades 1-6, ages 3-11) then to secondary (grade 7+), or they can do something closer to the USA with three schools of 4-5 years each. here's a table covering the different divisions.

I live in London but i don't know which one's more common since I went to school in Australia. I could ask some work colleagues tomorrow if you'd like.

BESW

@Randal'Thor You mean being an epistolary novel?

Rand al'Thor

Yes.

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor More about his relationship with Henry Irving and the inspirations that come of it.

I know that Irving was the main inspiration for Dracula, but how if Stoker perceived the other characters as himself. Something like that.

Rand al'Thor

12:42 AM

@steelersquirrel Your candley pal had a question related to this ... hang on, I'll find it.

BESW

@steelersquirrel Citation needed?

Rand al'Thor

10

Q: What sources influenced Byron's "Fragment of a Novel"?

Lord Byron's "Fragment of a Novel" is an unfinished story about a vampire. (It's not clear from the story that the man is a vampire, but at least according to this site, Byron said that the man would have arisen from the dead to feed on the upper class.) What sources influenced Byron's writing? ...

lord-byron

steelersquirrel

Like...I always thought that Stoker was to Irving as Renfield was to Dracula.

Rand al'Thor

Apparently Polidori's The Vampyre was another inspiration for Dracula.

BESW

I'm only aware of one article making that claim, and a quick check implies Wikipedia doesn't have any other sources either.

steelersquirrel

12:44 AM

@BESW Well, some sort of definitive source if there is one...I don't really know what my question will be, but it will be something along the lines of comparing the real life relationship of Stoker and Irving to Renfield and Dracula

doppelgreener

@BESW there's still time for citogenesis!

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor Yeah, Irving's mannerism and dress was more that part of the Dracula inspiration, if I remember correctly.

Rand al'Thor

@BESW Which claim? About Irving or Polidori?

BESW

@Randal'Thor Irving. Stoker explicitly drew on the decades-long Victorian vampire craze including The Vampyre, Carmilla, and Varney the Vampire, as well as doing in-depth independent research into folk lore; a lot of Dracula comes from European werewolf lore.

steelersquirrel

I just recently watched a biography on Stoker and I was baffled how much of a servant he was to Irving IRL.

BESW

12:45 AM

And it's useful to note that Dracula's physical appearance maps... interestingly... to contemporary phrenology.

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel Oh, Irving was someone Stoker knew IRL! Sorry, I thought he was another author whose work had inspired Dracula.

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor Oh, sorry! The actor, Henry Irving.

Rand al'Thor

("knew IRL", he says, as if Bram Stoker had a lot of internet friends too :-P )

BESW

(I took an upper-level lit class on the vampire in English pop culture, and have tried to keep my feet wet ever since.)

steelersquirrel

They were bffs ;)

BESW

12:47 AM

@Randal'Thor Pen pals were Deffo A Thing.

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor He totally does! He still lives. His user name is "Adamant" Duh ;)

doppelgreener

@BESW who is the vampire in English pop culture? is it Dylan Moran? Why was there a class devoted to them?

BESW

@doppelgreener My term paper proposed that it's the Phantom of the Opera.

doppelgreener

@BESW i can see that working.

steelersquirrel

So, would a question like that about Bram Stoker's personal relationship with Henry Irving and comparing it to Dracula and Renfield an interesting question to ask?

Riker

12:58 AM

sure

steelersquirrel

Rokay :)

That's the scooby doo version of "okay" :P

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel Sounds like it to me!

Especially if good citations on this are hard to find, as BESW said.

That makes it more challenging and therefore more interesting.

steelersquirrel

Okay. It takes me a long time to put a question together, so I will start when I have my down time.

BESW

I haven't studied Stoker's inspirations deeply, but I've read a good handful of essays and articles. Admittedly it was a while ago, but Irving's not a name I remember at all in conjunction with Dracula--and the article Wikipedia cites is from before I did that reading.

Riker

@steelersquirrel hey you can review tag edits on M&TV right

steelersquirrel

1:03 AM

@Riker Yes

Riker

can you review some on meta.m&tv?

I just suggested a tag edit for the scheduled-event tag, for the topic challegnses

steelersquirrel

Uhm...I don't know. I never have.

BESW

(By contrast, Lord Ruthven is famously speculated to be a thinly-disguised satire of Lord Byron.)

Riker

@steelersquirrel meta -> review

steelersquirrel

@BESW Irving was more of an inspiration of Dracula's mannerisms, I believe. I watched a really good biography on Stoker about it and they really focused on the relationship between him and Henry Irving.

BESW

1:07 AM

I'd be interested to see multiple sources for that (I'm very wary of biographies in general and film biographies in particular).

steelersquirrel

Well, it was on the educational channel...OPB is what it's called here Oregon Public Broadcasting. I always watch Henry VIII educational shows with David Starkey who is a well respected Doctor. So, I have always trusted those shows. This one on Stoker was the only non Henry VIII show that I had watched.

BESW

46 museums and libraries that have digitized all their knowledge and offer it free on the internet.

steelersquirrel

1:38 AM

@doppelgreener Oh, don't worry about it. I was just curious how the school system worked over there and I know that Rand lives there, so that's why I was asking him, just assuming that he went through a regular school system in the UK, but it is apparent now that he obviously attended Hogwart's :P

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel Shhh! It's a secret ;-)

And I totally don't have a lightning-shaped scar on my forehead.

BESW

No, we know you have arm tattoos instead.

steelersquirrel

1:56 AM

Ohhhhh...Rand is a total bad ass!! ;)

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel He certainly is.

The book character, that is.

steelersquirrel

Hehe!

BESW

I'm having a hard time tracking down the original of that fan art...

I know the one I linked is aggressively cropped, because I used the original as inspiration for a project about 12 years ago.

Bookworm

2:16 AM

0

Q: Was Susanna Clarke using any particular author's style for "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell"?

Susanna Clarke's excellent novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is written in a very convincing (at least to me) "19th-century literature" style. Not only the language used by the characters but also the sentence structure and storytelling style of the non-dialogue sections of the book feel very m...

inspiration strange-and-norrell susanna-clarke

steelersquirrel

4:38 AM

Interesting. It appears that Bram Stoker named his son after Henry Irving. His son's full name is Irving Noel Thornley. Irving was the child's Godfather.

BESW

Huh.

steelersquirrel

Their relationship was quite interesting.

Almost as if Irving was so envious of Stoker's writing talent that he almost ruined his self esteem, but Stoker was completely devoted to him.

Bookworm

9:58 AM

0

Q: What is the significance of the black void in "The Dancer on the Stairs"?

Sarah Tolmie's novelette The Dancer on the Stairs is a kind of portal fantasy, with the protagonist whisked away from our world into a strange fantastical one -- except the place she is whisked to is a guarded stairway, where she depends on charity and desperation to survive, and can get out only...

symbolism short-stories the-dancer-on-the-stairs sarah-tolmie

Benjamin

11:11 AM

@steelersquirrel You killed chat.

BESW

b_jonas

1:10 PM

11

A: Did J K Rowling base platform 9 3/4 on the Gump?

If she did, she hasn't admitted it. In her writing on Pottermore she states: King's Cross, which is one of London's main railway stations, has a very personal significance for me, because my parents met on a train to Scotland which departed from King’s Cross station. For this reason, and beca...

^ I dunno, I think I vote less here than on Sci Fi, mostly because on Sci Fi I already know which questions I'm interested in and seek them out, whereas on Lit, I look at almost all questions.

Rand al'Thor

1:42 PM

@Benjamin Steeler usually brings chat to life rather than killing it!

5

Skooba

@b_jonas just vote on all of them! the site is young, Vox Populi every day!

@Randal'Thor chat only dies when she leaves

Rand al'Thor

@Skooba You can only earn Vox Populi once :-)

Skooba

@Randal'Thor I know, which is a shame, but I can see why... you want to encourage voting, but not just voting to get badges. Although, I guess there are the Civic Duty and Electorate badges

so your first ~600 votes count to something

Rand al'Thor

Each of the voting badges can only be earned once.

So that people can't get zillions of badges by doing nothing but voting, I suppose.

Skooba

yeah I had a brain fart. I was gonig to say that there should be a silver gold badge for "max voting for X days" but those two already cover that

101 rep. 50 badges :P

Rand al'Thor

1:56 PM

I see those old pins have finally disappeared.

@Randal'Thor yup

mmmhmmmm

@Skooba yup

@DForck is a yuppie today :-P

DForck42

@Randal'Thor yup

lol

you see my vtc spree on movies yesterday?

Rand al'Thor

2:06 PM

@DForck42 yup

DForck42

16 of them are closed now, lol

Rand al'Thor

Used up my full 20 Close Vote reviews in the first half hour of the UTC day.

DForck42

I wasn't expecting that many

i love the data tool, makes it so much easier to find these

Rand al'Thor

@DForck42 I did the same thing a few months back. Searched for old low-scoring still-open ID questions and flagged a whole lot of them.

Apparently M&TV has become much stricter on ID questions in recent years.

DForck42

@Randal'Thor yes

mainly to try and prevent them from strangling the site

i kinda wish for mods there was an option to make a soft vtc instead of a binding vtc

so that they could go through and vote on stuff to potentially close, but might be a bit borderline, and let the community decide

however, there are people that'll just vtc if a mod vtc, so... i dunno

Rand al'Thor

2:14 PM

293

Q: Add a way for moderators to cast a normal, non binding close/open vote

I think moderators should have the ability to cast a normal, non binding close and open vote like they were a normal user (while of course retaining their ability to cast a binding vote where necessary). This can be used in "grey areas" where a moderator can choose to give his or her opinion, bu...

feature-request status-declined moderation moderator-abilities binding-vote

(I'm sure there was a newer one than this too, but can't find it now ...)

Himarm

i asked about golds being able to dupe to mulitplz and was told that never happens, except all the time on sff

and potentially here/movies

Rand al'Thor

No duplicates here yet.

Mithrandir

*asks duplicate question*

DForck42

@Randal'Thor to give you an idea on the situation, on movies we had ~7300 questions asked in 2016. ~45% were id questions

sorry, was looking at the wrong year

Rand al'Thor

@DForck42 And how many of those ~45% were closed or deleted?

DForck42

2:24 PM

@Randal'Thor 15% were left open

these numbers are a bit rough though because of the somewhat unreliable nature of the data queries when it comes to deleted questions

Rand al'Thor

Yep.

DForck42

and what year they're reported as deleted vs when they were asked

Rand al'Thor

I'm well aware of M&TV's issues with bad ID questions.

With over 250 Close Vote reviews, it'd be hard not to be ;-)

feature-request: tv.stackexchange.com should redirect to M&TV just like movies.stackexchange.com does.

DForck42

@Randal'Thor lol, true

doppelgreener

2:49 PM

@Randal'Thor I'd upvote that.

Rand al'Thor

3:05 PM

0

Q: Can/should tv.stackexchange.com redirect to this site?

http://movies.stackexchange.com is the URL for this site, Movies & TV, but http://tv.stackexchange.com just gives a "Page Not Found" and a sad panda. Given that the site is equally about both movies and TV, should we ask Stack Exchange for a redirect from http://tv.stackexchange.com to here? Re...

discussion feature-request site-url

doppelgreener

@Randal'Thor I dun gone upvoted that.

DForck42

@doppelgreener same

Rand al'Thor

Ooh, a featured tag too!

Next I should go over to Anime & Manga and suggest a redirect for manga.stackexchange.com :-P

DForck42

3:20 PM

@Randal'Thor why not? ;-)

doppelgreener

@Randal'Thor ^ yes

Rand al'Thor

@DForck42 Well, for one thing I don't have an account there. For another, I'm not even sure what anime or manga are, so I have zero interest in getting involved with that site.

But at least now I've put the idea out there so that someone who's more interested can do it.

Napoleon Wilson

@DForck42 Which...is telling...

@Randal'Thor But it's a classic &-site. So they should definitely have a redirect too. I'm sure the omittance of those are more due to obliviousness than genuine reluctance.

doppelgreener

3:36 PM

11

Q: Make manga.stackexchange.com redirect to anime.stackexchange.com

It would make sense to have http://manga.stackexchange.com redirect to http://anime.stackexchange.com. The site is Anime & Manga after all.

feature-request

Looks like the request has already been made.

I'm going to wait to see how M&TV shakes out, then update this request.

Napoleon Wilson

And...declined. Dafuq wut?!

Riker

I'm not against it, I'm just trying to figure out how to ask them to do it :) — Tim Post ♦ May 24 '14 at 9:07

doppelgreener

@NapoleonWilson Not officially.

Napoleon Wilson

"Justify bugging the devs"? Um, shouldn't this take...like...5 minutes? I'm sure the heavily Documentation- and SO-newnav plagued devs can spare that during a smoke break.

doppelgreener

I decided to leave an answer now.

steelersquirrel

6:10 PM

@Benjamin I know. I saw that! It's all good. I'm used to talking to myself at times ;)

@Randal'Thor This Bram Stoker thing is turning into a huge undertaking. I feel like I am almost answering my own question with the research that I am doing. I don't want my question to sound like a statement, but I want to show that I researched the question. Sorry, I am not really asking you anything...just typing out loud ;)

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel If you've done enough research to almost answer your own question, you could always do a self-answer job on it.

Riker

that's actually a good idea

steelersquirrel

Oh, right. Well, I haven't really answered it with any sources, though...just really bizarre coincidences and comparisons that can't be ignored.

Riker

ah

Himarm

self answers, where, -1

steelersquirrel

6:18 PM

I did get an email reply from a Stoker historian assistant this morning.

Riker

o_O

Himarm

answer from steeler +1

answer from steeler is also self answer = explodes

2

Riker

so +0 and you explode?

Rand al'Thor

@steeler Also, ignore all this nonsense about self answers being a bad thing. They're explicitly encouraged by SE; hating them seems to be an SFF-specific phenomenon and linked to the culture of caring too much about rep.

2

steelersquirrel

Well, as Napoleon said about my mod nomination...This isn't a popularity contest.

Rand al'Thor

6:21 PM

Since everyone knows you're not motivated by rep, I doubt even SFF people would downvote you for it.

steelersquirrel

I don't have a problem with self answering. I just like to wait a bit before doing so

Riker

ah

steelersquirrel

Isn't self answering right away a sign of being rep hungry or something?

Riker

not really

I've done it a bunch of times

here with my brothers grimm one, another on gaming, a couple others on hidden accounts iirc

steelersquirrel

I guess that my question would be...if you self answer it within minutes of asking, why ask it in the first place.

Himarm

6:33 PM

@steelersquirrel usually its the person who does it, who is known to be rep hungry, that gets the downvotes

Riker

@steelersquirrel there's a "answer your own question" while asking for a reason :P

Bookworm

0

Q: Is Shakespeare a religious fanatic?

In the play The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is pretty much disdained and humiliated only because he was a Jew. His thirst for revenge against Antonio is fuelled by the fact that Antonio constantly humiliates Shylock in front of his fellow merchants. Even at the end, after Portia skilfully tricks...

william-shakespeare the-merchant-of-venice

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel No. See, that's the SFF mentality affecting you.

2

Riker

did somebody delete their accoutn?

8

Q: Is a [title] tag useful?

I proposed a [title] tag for the questions a bout the title of books. When people need to understand, or discuss about the meaning of a book, they could use that tag. Examples: What is the significance of the title of the book Wool? Meaning of the title "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" What ...

discussion tags

steelersquirrel

Riker

6:36 PM

lol

steelersquirrel

@Himarm Ahhhh...so, it's more based on the person who self answers and their intentions. I see!

@Randal'Thor I know! Those damb SFFians!! ;)

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel Which is bad, of course. "Vote for the post, not the person" is one of the most fundamental tenets of SE. But ... shrug, what can one do.

steelersquirrel

"This isn't a popularity contest" ;)

@Riker Did you lose any rep?

Riker

nope

just noticed the deleted user though

2

Q: Meaning of the title "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"

Horace McCoy's title They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is also What is the meaning of this enigmatic sentence? How is the crime related to horses?

horace-mccoy title

the posted this on main also

steelersquirrel

I don't get why people delete their account. Why couldn't you just keep it even if you're not using it anymore.

2

Himarm

6:50 PM

mom yells at you for being on the internet talking to strangers

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel Various reasons. Some people don't have the self-control not to use their account if it still exists. Some people don't want to leave any of their personal information on the site. Some people simply want an absolutely clean break, for whatever reason.

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor "Some people don't have the self-control not to use their account if it still exists" wow! That sounds intriguing!

HDE 226868

@steelersquirrel I've self answered only after I've written the question, waited for answers, then did even more research and decided I had enough to write an answer with, or if I had wondered about something for a while, then eventually researched it, and figured it would prove useful to others, if it seemed hard enough to answer.

2

steelersquirrel

@HDE226868 That's exactly how I would self answer. Actually, I have only self answered one time and it was for a much more noble cause...it was for a hat! ;)

Riker

lol

HDE 226868

6:57 PM

@steelersquirrel I've actually written as many self-answers on Literature as I've gotten answers from other folks. (cough cough) more answers are appreciated (cough cough). That said, I've seen others write some really excellent self-answers on the site.

steelersquirrel

Well, we will see how this question turns out. I sent some correspondence out last night to some historians. I'm waiting for some replies.

HDE 226868

@steelersquirrel Let me know when it all gets posted.

Riker

dedication right there ^^

steelersquirrel

I just like to have things sourced ...obviously ;)

Riker

congrats you've won understatement of the year

steelersquirrel

7:07 PM

Hehehe!

Rand al'Thor

7:21 PM

@steelersquirrel Why?

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor Because it doesn't make sense to need self control not to use your account.

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel Sure it does. Stack Exchange is addictive as hell.

steelersquirrel

Sorry to everyone in Mos: my tablet can't handle too many gifs. It was on the verge of exploding in there. Thanks for the cheeriness! It also appears that there is a koala lover in our midst!!! Nice!!

Himarm

we blew you up

steelersquirrel

Yeah. Sorry :(

Gallifreyan

7:28 PM

Just one more

Easterly Irk

do you have a note 7

Rand al'Thor

@steeler ^^ let me know if you need me to delete that gif so you can still chat in here ;-)

Gallifreyan

@Randal'Thor Oi, don't touch koalas!

Actually that last gif is more for @Himarm's yawns

DForck42

@Gallifreyan boop

Rand al'Thor

@DForck42 Better than poop.

DForck42

7:37 PM

@Randal'Thor true

Rand al'Thor

chat.stackexchange.com/…

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor Nope. All is good :)

Gallifreyan

@steelersquirrel one more gif then? :P

Rand al'Thor

@Gallifreyan I have a better yawning gif.

steelersquirrel

@Gallifreyan Probably not. My tablet would lock. I'm sorry :(

Don't withhold gif posting on my account, though! I will just wait until they move off of the page to continue chatting :)

Gallifreyan

7:41 PM

@steelersquirrel well, check out this one on a computer: 9gag.com/gag/a1YjYrG

@steelersquirrel Nah, I'm out of koala gifs

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel Well, you were the one who asked for gifs originally.

Gallifreyan

I have jpg's, or I can try and switch to pandas

Rand al'Thor

Is there any good literature about koalas or pandas?

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor Hehehe! I know. Mos was dead, so I thought that it would be safe to request a few from Himarm ;)

Rand al'Thor

<on-topic>

steelersquirrel

7:44 PM

@Randal'Thor You're a dog lover, aren't you?

Gallifreyan

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel Yessss.

I don't mind cats either (unlike some dog lovers).

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor I know that you don't really watch movies, but you really need to watch Hachi: A dog's tale. It is soooo great! And it's based on a true story. Wad would also love it.

I rarely cry at Movies. I was in tears at the end of that movie. It was just so awesome!!

Gallifreyan

Do you mean Hachiko?

Rand al'Thor

@steelersquirrel Have you watched Lassie Come-Home?

steelersquirrel

7:48 PM

@Gallifreyan Was that the real dog name? There is a book about him.<staying on topic>

Rand al'Thor

Another tear-jerker film about a dog.

steelersquirrel

No. I have seen no Lassie movies :(

Gallifreyan

@steelersquirrel No idea, but that's what I see the film called everywhere

The one with Gere, right?

steelersquirrel

I was so moved by the Hachi story because of how amazing that dog was IRL.

Gallifreyan

steelersquirrel

7:50 PM

@Gallifreyan Yes :)

Awwwww. Sleeping squirrels :)

Gallifreyan

@steelersquirrel Did you watch Grave of the Fireflies? Now that's a film to cry to

steelersquirrel

Now I will have to look at Hachiko books to ask about ;)

@Gallifreyan Oh, I haven't even heard of it!

Gallifreyan

@steelersquirrel It's not about dogs, or anything like that. It's about two infants during WW2 in Japan. Made by Studio Ghibli

steelersquirrel

@Gallifreyan Oh, God...it's already sounding stressful for me. I can't handle seeing child abuse or rape or anything in movies. Does it have any of that?

Gallifreyan

@steelersquirrel Mmmm, no. It's a PG-rated anime, but you'll cry nonetheless

steelersquirrel

7:58 PM

Oh, good! I will check it out :)

Rand al'Thor

8:54 PM

@steeler Quick, they're talking about American football in Puzzling chat!

Himarm

9:19 PM

i was meaning to find this for you earlier @steelersquirrel

the power of cheese

steelersquirrel

@Randal'Thor Hehehe! Well, it is superbowl weekend!

Argh! Tablet stuck. Sorry guys, I have to go, anyways :)

Himarm

i killed her :(

3

Rand al'Thor

You and your gifs.

Himarm

imagine if gandalf just threw cheese on saurons face

now its on topic

Rand al'Thor

@Himarm Why on earth would one want to imagine that?

Did Sauron even have a face, by the time of the Third Age?

SQB

9:27 PM

@Gallifreyan My wife wants those.

Himarm

i think he was pretty gastly

Riker

9:54 PM

question: if I have 10k network rep, why can't I see chat flags? do beta sites not count?

Rand al'Thor

@Riker You should be able to.

Riker

I haven't seen any so far and it's been a couple days

Rand al'Thor

They're not all that frequent.

In the last 4 days, there have been 11 chat flags visible to 10k users.

(Not counting mod flags, or posts unilaterally flagged by mods.)

Librarian

3

Q: Is there a confirmed date for public beta?

Is there a confirmed date for public beta? I am just wondering, as I could not seem to find one.

support

Rand al'Thor

@Librarian You're five hours late.

Riker

10:03 PM

^

@Randal'Thor ah, makes sense

iirc I've been at >10k for 3 days, so that makes sense

Rand al'Thor

feature-request: introduce a new chat privilege for people with 100k network rep.

:-P

Benjamin

@Randal'Thor How late has it been recently?

Riker

about that iirc

Benjamin

@Riker Wow, that's slow!

Riker

thanks captain obvious

ermahgerd i has starz

also, it turns out "ermahgerd" with random y,c,h,k inserted is welsh

Rand al'Thor

10:22 PM

@Riker Anything with random y's and w's inserted is Welsh.

@Riker Ermahgerd?

MAHS ERSLER

ER MAH GERD SCERNC-FERCTERN ERND FERNTERSER CHERT

Zizouz212

Why is @Rand having a panic attack?

2

Rand al'Thor

@Zizouz212 ?

Zizouz212

Never mind... I read the message from the side bar, and it was a whole bunch of all-caps gibbrish

And I was really confused

And who starred that?

Rand al'Thor

@Zizouz212 Riker? Loong? A lurker?

Zizouz212

sigh Who knows...

Riker

10:37 PM

@Randal'Thor "oh my god" in a southern accent

@Randal'Thor not me

now me

Rand al'Thor

@Riker :-[

Riker

@Randal'Thor 10/10

@Randal'Thor no longer me

Rand al'Thor

@Riker :-)

BESW

Well, for people who've never been to the South maybe? It's using rhotacism to indicate a speech impediment for humorous effect.

Riker

ah cool

user61230

11:54 PM

It sure is hard to find questions to answer if you limit yourself only to works you're familiar with.

5

Riker

yeah

BESW

[amused]

Reeeaaaad mooooore.

Rand al'Thor

@Emrakul Are you planning to do a Rand al'Thor and answer questions about works you're not familiar with?

user61230

I'd never taint my integrity so!

user61230

:P

Rand al'Thor

11:57 PM

I've found that generally harder to do here than on SFF, which probably says something about the difference in the kinds of questions we get.

user61230

That's probably a good thing, honestly.

Rand al'Thor

Trivia questions can be answered by some clever Googling even if you'd never heard of the work before. Literary analysis questions ... usually can't.

user61230

It means we've found a niche of questions that are not just tricky to answer, but hard to Google.

Gilles

@Emrakul I find it hard to find questions, period. How are you supposed to find questions without tags to help you?

user61230

Which is really valuable.

MAHS ERSLER

Transcript for