The Reading Room

Bookworm

19:00

0

Q: Did Homer base the Iliad and the Odyssey off of mythology?

Homer's two epic poems follow the story of the Trojan War through various perspective. Did Homer make up the stories, or was their some kind of historical/mythological predecessor that he retold (or exaggerated if the answer is historical)

Riker

@Mithrandir huh, somebody retracted it then

I saw 2 CVs for a bit

Mithrandir

19:19

I love how that answer went from - 3 to +10 ;)

10

A: Is Judaism represented in the Narnia books?

Note: This does not in ANY WAY represent my own religious views. It's possible that C.S. Lewis meant for the Dwarfs to represent the Jews. At the end of The Last Battle, the Dwarfs refused to be 'taken in' by Aslan. It's possible that C.S. Lewis meant for this to represent the Jews refusing to...

Napoleon Wilson

Urgh, I can't see vote balances anymore. That's like the most trivial privilege with the biggest impact on everyday use. :'(

Mithrandir

57 mins ago, by Mithrandir

There's a chrome add on

That's at - 3/+10 if you're wondering.

Napoleon Wilson

Meh, I don't want me no mods to my gameplay. I prefer the experience of the standard system as devised.

Mithrandir

@NapoleonWilson then simply earn 750 rep

Napoleon Wilson

Hmm, I thought it was less. :'(

Mithrandir

19:45

Let's see how long @Librarian takes...

Hehe. Just got +75 on Area 51 for Lit :D

Standback

20:13

Following the short-stories discussion, I thought to meander over to SF&F and see how that tag is doing over there.

1,405 questions tagged short-stories ! Awesome!

...then I thought to remove questions tagged story-identification .

26.

Librarian

0

Q: Literature doesn't show up in the IOS app

When I went to the Stack Exchange app on my iPad, Lit didn't show up. It showed me SFF, Puzzling, Meta, ELU, and AI. No Lit. Why not?

bug ios-app

Napoleon Wilson

Half an hour apparently.

Shokhet

Hey, I just found out about this site. I don't have a particular question to ask (yet), but was wondering if questions like "Does X in Story Name symbolize Y?" are on topic here. Obviously, unsubstantiated opinions don't fit SE, but I'm thinking about a question that will ask for answers supported either by a close, analytical reading of the text, or an authorial opinion. Are questions like those on-topic here?

Gallifreyan

@Shokhet we had a couple, all were well received

Napoleon Wilson

As to my understanding such questions, if well worded, are totally on-topic and make up the essence of what this site is about.

Shokhet

20:19

@Gallifreyan That's good to know. I'll be sure to ask if/when one comes to mind :)

@NapoleonWilson That's what I would expect from a site named "Literature," but thought I'd check here to be sure.

2

Thank you both :)

Napoleon Wilson

@Shokhet Sure, that's appreciated.

Gallifreyan

@Shokhet you might want to look at symbolism

Shokhet

@Gallifreyan Perfect! Those look good (and mostly unclosed). Thanks :)

Gallifreyan

Hey, 31 rep left here till I can see votes

Meh

but I got my first guru badge over at SFF

Napoleon Wilson

Isn't that the one rarely any site even has?

Wait, that was Generalist. I always mix them up.

Gallifreyan

20:35

@NapoleonWilson Never heard of it! What's it do?

Napoleon Wilson

@Gallifreyan literature.stackexchange.com/help/badges/15/generalist

Gallifreyan

Oh, found it: scifi.stackexchange.com/help/badges/14/generalist

Napoleon Wilson

Unfortunately (and what isn't really mentioned) a site needs 100 (or 200?) questions in all the top 40 tags to even be able to award that badge.

Gallifreyan

Yeah, it's a no-go for SFF

Napoleon Wilson

(Which is why most of the people on that SciFi page you link got it at the same day.)

Gallifreyan

20:37

Maybe we should make a main meta post to lower the requirement

@NapoleonWilson Why is it?

Napoleon Wilson

1 min ago, by Napoleon Wilson

Unfortunately (and what isn't really mentioned) a site needs 100 (or 200?) questions in all the top 40 tags to even be able to award that badge.

That was the day this threshold was crossed on the site.

@Gallifreyan There is already one to make it a gold badge, which it definitely should be.

Gallifreyan

@NapoleonWilson Oh, I see now

kristan

20:51

Did the bot change its name?

Mithrandir

@kristan Meta is Librarian, main is Bookworm

kristan

@Mithrandir Ah, I see :-)

Napoleon Wilson

@kristan The Librarian started out as Bookworm, which was later reappropriated for the main site bot.

kristan

@NapoleonWilson Oh, okay. Sorry, I haven't been around here much lately; I'm really busy.

Napoleon Wilson

@kristan Don't worry. There's no need to apologize. ;-)

kristan

20:54

@NapoleonWilson Lol. If I haven't officially fulfilled my commitment before public beta starts, is it still possible to do it?

Napoleon Wilson

@kristan I think the time to fulfill it is longer than just private beta. But it is finite.

Mithrandir

@kristan It's impossible now I think. I just got my +75 on A51 for fulfilling commitment/referred someone who did.

kristan

I got a proofreading project and it takes up basically all my time, so I haven't been able to do much else on the computer.

I'm supposed to be working on it now, but I'm being bad.

Napoleon Wilson

> If you are very active, you may be able to re-use your commitment as soon as the second day of public beta. If you aren't active on the site, you won't be able to re-use the commitment until the end of the public beta, or until six months after the beta began.

Hmm, maybe it really is only private beta.

kristan

That's confusing... so what kind of lightning strikes when I don't fulfill the commitment? (by official criteria; I did post on the site)

Riker

20:58

iirc it's make 3 posts, all >0 score

to fulfill it

if you didn't, nothing happens

I did ^ on AI and deep web iirc

Mithrandir

Napoleon Wilson

@kristan There's no real punishment, other than just being unable to use that commitment slot (of which you have 3) for any other site proposal for 6 months.

kristan

I made three posts: the one about Horton, the one about Sounder, and the one about Boxcar Children, and they all have positive score, but I haven't gotten any rep change or notification.

Napoleon Wilson

Unfortunately, it's not really that easy to find the specifics of what exactly is required for a commitment to be fulfilled.

Or maybe private beta is just the minimum duration after which a commitment is fulfilled. But you might still have the whole 6 months for fulfilling it.

kristan

bleh. I tried. Not my fault I got a proofreading project right in the middle of private beta.

Mithrandir

21:02

> I commit to participate actively in (proposal) for at least three months, especially during the private beta, and to ask or answer at least ten questions.

kristan

everything is so vague

Mithrandir

So looks like you have 3 months to fulfill the commitment.

Napoleon Wilson

Ah, it seems you have the whole 6 months to fulfill it, but if you do it during private beta the threshold is lower. After that you seem to need 10 posts.

16

A: How to "follow through" on an area51 proposal

If you weren't active enough during the private beta, you will need to post at least 10 questions or answers to fulfill your commitment. Once you do that, you can commit to another proposal. The threshold is lower if you are very active during the private beta, though note that the earliest you...

kristan

I'll see what I can do; I'm not always full of amazing questions, and even less so of amazing answers... but maybe a downvote target has its uses ;-)

(not saying I'd intentionally make stupid posts, of course)

Mithrandir

Ask about harry-potter :P

kristan

21:06

I actually don't read Harry Potter; not much into fantasy and such in general. But thanks for the suggestion :-)

Mithrandir

38

Q: How can I fulfill a commitment?

I commited to some new proposal which I were interested in, but I seldom got questions on the new SE in beta, and I don't have the knowledge to answer the questions there too. Is there no other way to fulfill a commitment other than asking and answer more questions? And how much questions and an...

area51-meta commitment

@kristan It was sort of a joke, since I happen to be the top harry-potter answerer on Lit now :P

kristan

@Mithrandir Lol okay

Wow, all the info on the topic seems to be inconsistent. But I'll try to scrounge up some more questions...

Riker

21:42

@Mithrandir out of 4 questions :P

Mithrandir

@Riker yes. One of which I asked; two of which I answered.

Riker

:P

I was remarking taht being the top answer of 4 question isn't that impressive

Mithrandir

If you have any questions please ask them :P

Then I can try to answer and be more impressive

Riker

lol

I'll ask some if I think of them

Mithrandir

Although I think I know all of RR better because there is less of it

amaranth

23:18

We're getting a lot of hot network questions... humpty dumpty is the third one that I've seen. There was another one earlier today, but I don't remember which question.

kristan

@BESW My image isn't succeeding in uploading... is PNG filetype not allowed?

BESW

Yes, it's allowed. Maybe it's too large?

Napoleon Wilson

It should be, especially since that's what's allowed in the actual ad.

kristan

It just keeps saying "Failed to upload image, please try again!"

I'll upload somewhere else and link it

BESW

I've gotta dash, good luck!

Napoleon Wilson

23:27

@kristan On the site I think there's a limit of 2 MB.

(Unfortunately not in chat, though.)

kristan

Napoleon Wilson

That looks quite nice, but might be too hard to decypher fast and easily for practical puposes.

kristan

A lot of people I know can't read cursive under the best of circumstances...

Riker

nice handwriting though

kristan

my usual handwriting is a sort of hybrid; printing with loops and ligatures. Maybe that would be easier to read.

Doesn't help that the picture is slightly blurry; I just took it with my camera

Napoleon Wilson

23:33

I think the picture quality itself is good.

kristan

I can try a few more variations to see if they would work better.

Benjamin

@kristan That looks great!

@NapoleonWilson I think its fine, but I read a lot of older primary source documents on a regular basis.

kristan

@Benjamin Thanks! :-)

I think it's fine too, but I'm also used to reading cursive.

Napoleon Wilson

I can read it too, but with an ad you really don't have too much time on your hands. Of course one could also argue that its artistic qualities are more important than its content and it doesn't necessarily have to be understood immediately, which is a reasonable viewpoint, too.

kristan

But then I also can read and write like this, which is not necessarily the usual:

Benjamin

23:41

@kristan How do you do that? I can write in so many eccentric ways, but I can't write like that.

kristan

It just happened somehow

my brain works weirdly sometimes

non-binary handedness might have something to do with it maybe

Riker

@kristan fwiw that has some personal info attached, just an fyi

http://cdn.ipernity.com/200/92/62/40959262.678b4311.240.jpg works also

kristan

@Riker Don't know that I've got much to hide, but I can remove the link if it's possible to link just the image

Riker

use that link I posted if you want

it works

kristan

But can't people see the edit history? Or just mods? (never used the chat before getting nominated to pro-tem mod, so I don't know)

(on a different SE site, of course)

I don't expect that version of my handwriting to be used in the ad anyway, lol!

Riker

23:48

they can, but it's likely nobody's going to check

kristan

Though it might be useful for something...

@Riker Unless they're alerted that it has personal info attached XD

Riker

lol true but eh

kristan

whatever

they'll just see weird pics of the back of my head anyway :-P

So how did you get that link?

I couldn't find any way to link to the pic

Riker

clicked hte image again to zoom in, then open image in new tab

kristan

When I do that, all I get is "z.gif (1x1)"

you must have magic powers

Riker

23:55

<shrug>

kristan

@BESW Here it is (shown above also; scroll up past the mirror-writing, lol!): 4.bp.blogspot.com/-Tyezknf5fW4/WJz62dV4C4I/AAAAAAAAAwM/…

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