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03:09
@Tsundoku I did read that on Wikipedia but I choose to believe otherwise. So there
@Tsundoku haha
03:22
0
Q: Book about a video game that makes its players do cruel things in real life

TechnoPorgI'm looking for the name of a book about a video game that makes its players do cruel acts in real life in order to be able to continue playing the game. The main character is a teenage boy. The game is distributed using CDs, and for some reason the other students try to avoid giving a copy of th...

@Tsundoku Oh I think quarterly works well for this site ... any particular advantage to going annual instead? I would think that keeping track of good answers for an entire year would be rather cumbersome.
 
2 hours later…
05:49
Imma start an activist group dedicated to bringing back the term fortnight. Who's with me?
06:01
11
Q: Fortnightly Topic Challenge #48: Unusual tag mix

FTC_BotThis is the seventh installment of the Fortnightly Topic Challenges Rerun described here and the forty-eigth installment of the FTCs overall, with topics suggested and voted on here. This fortnight's topic is "Unusual tag mix" (suggested by melfnt) and will span from the 24th of January to the 6t...

Puzzling endorses the use of "Fortnightly", at the very least
06:18
@Tsundoku yea! 👏🏼
 
2 hours later…
08:14
That was meant for @bobble not @Tsundoku. sorry
0
Q: How to interpret the meaning and find the predicate of a sentence from The Plague

Phantom wager wallow gilt opusAn excerpt from The Plague A word that conjured up in the doctor's mind not only what science chose to put into it, but a whole series of fantastic possibilities utterly out of keeping with that gray and yellow town under his eyes, from which were rising the sounds of mild activity characteristi...

 
3 hours later…
11:21
@verbose Bringing back? Did it ever go away?
Oh, apparently it's more BrE than AmE. That'd explain why Puzzling uses it, because I was the person who first kickstarted fortnightly topic challenges there.
 
4 hours later…
15:10
0
Q: Why is there a courtroom scene?

rosendsThe Merchant of Venice, Act 4 begins with a courtroom scene. During this scene, the contract between Antonio and Shylock is discussed. But why is there a courtroom scene at all? Was every contract executed via a courtroom discussion? Antonio indicates no interest in fighting the terms and if the ...

15:34
What do y'all think of getting a tag warning for ? It would be a little box that pops up if you use that tag, and we could stick links in the box (to the tag wiki, or to any meta posts that are relevant, for example). It's just that I've written bunch of comments that cover the same ground, ask for the same information, and while it's important and I don't mind terribly, a warning might do some good.
(obviously the procedure requires a meta post, but I didn't want to do that unless people in here agreed)
And here's an example tag warning:
16:00
0
Q: How and when did the term "spoilers" originate?

Rand al'ThorNowadays, the word "spoilers" is frequently used to describe a twist, major plot point, or anything which, if known beforehand, might spoil the experience of reading a story. This whole concept hasn't always been much of a thing, and I'd assume that the word "spoiler" itself in this meaning is an...

16:30
@bobble I don't think this site has much of a problem with poorly-asked ID questions (unlike some others), but we could add some ID-specific guidance, as well as tagging guidance, to the Ask Question page for new users.
Jan 18 at 20:24, by Rand al'Thor
Especially customising the text in the tag popover, since here we have a pretty rigid tagging system and it'd be nice to explain it to new askers as soon as possible.
It's something I brought up before in here, inspired by SFF successfully getting some site-specific guidance there.
@Bookworm I managed to beat @Tsundoku to a Shakespeare question ;-)
17:02
...
@people-who-have-meta.se-accounts: there's a bug when you click on "Ask Question" for Meta.SE or SO. It prompts you to create an account. The "cancel" button doesn't work. The back button, to work properly, has to be clicked n + 1 times, where n is the number of times you click "cancel". ("Join Community" has functioning "cancel" and back-buttons, and the bug doesn't show up for other communities I checked.) I would post a bug report except I don't want to make a main-meta account...
Why don't you want to make a meta account?
because I am lazy and I wouldn't participate beyond the occasional bug report
I have an account on every single site, most of which I just use for a flag here and there... is there any particular reason you consider having an account that's mostly unused a problem?
(honestly curious)
I have a problem where if I make a commitment, I will have a very hard time walking back on it. And I view creating an account a commitment to use it.
17:09
@bobble I tried to post a Meta SE question in a different browser, was prompted to create an account and did not see a Cancel button. I think I missed where that Cancel button was supposed to be.
@Tsundoku Pretty sure it only appears for linking to an existing profile.
Ah, I see.
that's the cancel button I am talking about
(I think that's the correct way around? "profile" is the network account and "account" is the per-site profile?)
shrug I think so too
17:12
@bobble Thanks.
Anyway, I'm happy to make a report, I just have to dig out a sock that doesn't have a MSE account
Unfortunately, I think I lost the login to the sock that would meet that criterion
The closest thing I have to accounts on other sites are the browser cookies that track my anonymous edits, for example the current Physics cookie has four edits according to the suggested edit review
@Mithical Ah but you've been a Charcoalier ;-) I'm the same as bobble in this: don't want to have any "extra" accounts beyond the ones I actually use or on sites I'm actually interested in.
*shrugs* To each their own.
you're free to steal my screenshot :D
17:15
I deleted a whole bunch of accounts last year or in 2019. I currently don't know on which SE site I would create a new account. And I don't use socks.
I gave it the compulsory red freehand circle
@Tsundoku You prefer to go barefoot?
Oh, I think I found a sock. Let's see.
@Randal'Thor I wear socks, I don't use them :-P
@Randal'Thor By the way, at Stuttgart University there is a guy who walks barefoot for most of the year. Can't remember seeing him wearing shoes.
I write "most of the year" because walking barefoot is what makes him stand out. I might not have noticed him on winter days when he was wearing shoes ...
 
6 hours later…
23:23
@bobble I think it's a good idea
@Randal'Thor what's a Charcolier?
@verbose There's a group of Stack Exchange users who help run a spam-detecting bot called SmokeDetector. They call themselves Charcoal, so I guess a member would be a Charcolier. Here's their website
One of the things members do is manually flag spam that is detected, so having a bunch of accounts to use for flags would be useful
@bobble Oh nice!
When an account is suspended, does their reputation get zeroed out? I happened to notice that someone whose rep was around 800 was suddenly down to a rep of 1. I went to their profile to see what was up and it turned out they have been suspended.
Considering that I've been on SE for about a decade and have a respectable amount of rep on at least two sites, it's really odd how little I know about the network's actual workings
23:41
Yes, rep goes to 1 for the length of the suspension. Votes and such are still tracked, and after their suspension is over their rep goes back to whatever it would have been.
@Mithical That's what my dryer says every time it wants dessert
@bobble How odd. I don't see the point? If their reputation is still being tracked on the back end, is there an advantage to not displaying it on the front end?
I'm not saying there isn't an advantage, I'm just curious about the reasoning
19
Q: Why do suspended users have a reputation of one?

damodarI have some questions regarding suspended users: Why do suspended users have a reputation of one? According to the default reputation of a new user, he/she will have reputation of one and he/she has the privilege of posting questions. When comparing this, this is getting violated when compared ...

The main thing seems to be taking all privileges away
Any more questions about suspensions?
23:57
@bobble Not at the moment, but I'm sure I'll have to pick your brains some more once @Tsundoku has had enough of me and sends me the suspension warning
in The Sphinx's Lair, Oct 31 '20 at 0:51, by bobble
Something I'm curious about: how do suspensions work? Do you need to consult with other mods first? Is there a little button that you click to suspend someone? How do you usually determine what is suspend-worthy? Do I ask too many questions?
I've bothered the Puzzling mods about suspensions before
@bobble ah

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