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verbose
verbose
12:01 AM
@Tsundoku oh, interesting. I found it really fun to read. Of course for me Vasco da Gama was someone we spent time studying in school, so I felt a connection to the story. And maybe that has to do with the translations we read? I haven't compared the Penguin translation to the Oxford one in detail but the Oxford one is well done on the whole.
 
bobble
bobble
I'm not sure the tag excerpt for meter is accurate to how it is used:
> Questions about determining and representing the meter of a poem, a practice called scansion.
While some questions with the tag are simply asking for a meter/scansion (example, example), some are about meter as a concept (example, example). Should the latter sort of question be retagged, or should the excerpt be updated, or something else?
(All questions taken from near the top of the "Newest Questions" page for meter, to represent current usage)
 
verbose
verbose
@Tsundoku Sir Walter Raleigh wrote The History of the World while in prison awaiting execution.
 
bobble
bobble
@bobble Is this a topic that should be discussed on meta and not just chat?
... bobble promises no more tag questions today
 
verbose
verbose
@bobble both, I think
 
verbose
verbose
12:39 AM
@bobble well, meter is messed up anyway. It makes no sense to count feet and then express the result in meters. Like, iambic dimeter is two feet, which is 1.28 feet short of an actual meter.
I'm sad I missed saying hi to @Sciborg when they were here earlier today.
 
bobble
bobble
If you're comfortable going to a different chatroom, Sciborg + Graylocke + North + I chat in The Grove on a semi-regular basis :)
 
verbose
verbose
Thanks! Who's Graylocke?
 
bobble
bobble
Another friend, from Puzzling. They're part of our D&D group.
 
verbose
verbose
ah.
 
bobble
bobble
If you want to read the D&D sessions, they're here: chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/info/118089/…
 
verbose
verbose
12:55 AM
I'ven't ever played D&D. My late husband used to, occasionally. Our dream was to go to Atlanta for Labor Day weekend so he could attend Dragoncon and I'd attend the underground equivalent, Dungeoncon. Never happened, alas.
 
bobble
bobble
Did he have a problem showing up on time?
 
verbose
verbose
@bobble No, he was typically very punctual. I'm Mr Late, he's Late Mr.
 
 
5 hours later…
verbose
verbose
5:38 AM
Just came across this meta question and was thinking perhaps we need a performance tag.
 
 
6 hours later…
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
11:38 AM
@verbose I was thinking about your proposed rewording of the proposed audience-specific texts for the recommendation close reason. (I've been giving it a few days before editing it into my answer, in case more tweaks come up on that new meta post.)
> Such questions lack definitive answers, making them unsuitable for our site.
Do we want to say this? Many literary-analysis questions lack definitive answers: an interpretation can be given, and backed up with evidence from the text, but often it can't be proved more correct than any other interpretation.
I deliberately avoided phrases like "can accept many subjectively-correct answers", which could apply to some analysis questions too, in the texts explaining why recommendation questions are off-topic.
 
Alex
Alex
Having a definitive answer and being able to demonstrate a definitive answer are two different things. The former is what determines questions’ suitability.
List questions are easier than analysis questions with regard to the latter, but the underlying concept is the same.
 
 
2 hours later…
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
1:38 PM
I would avoid saying "Such questions lack definitive answers, making them unsuitable for our site." for the same reasons that Rand al'Thor has given. We have "open-ended" in the suggested usage guidance but not yet in the suggested post-owner guidance.
@verbose And there are many other meanings of meter.
@verbose I don't think it has to do with the translation, or at least not primarily. It's mainly the content: the Portuguese being the greatest warriors ever, the sense of entitlement to the subjugation of other peoples, the Christians-good-everyone-else-bad point of view, the mixture of ancient gods and Christianity, the neverending lists of Portuguese heroes: these would be bearable in isolation, but the combination of all these was just too much for me.
 
bobble
bobble
2:23 PM
@verbose that would be because I bumped it for a tag edit :)
 
 
2 hours later…
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
4:12 PM
@Bookworm The OP deleted the Maupassant question, even though that was totally unnecessary. It had two reopen votes when it was deleted.
 
Bookworm
Bookworm
1
Q: Identification of a short story by Maupassant

BazinIn a short story by Maupassant, a young man is upset by the past infidelities of his mistress, a rather paradoxical situation since he came much later after the infidelities (and somehow benefited himself from them). I would like to identify that short story.

identification-request short-stories french-literature guy-de-maupassant
 
bobble
bobble
@Tsundoku undelete votes requested?
 
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
4:35 PM
You can try, but since the question is probably no longer in any queues, I don't know whether that will work.
 
Alex
Alex
5:02 PM
@Tsundoku I believe users with deleting privileges can see recent posts with pending delete/undelete votes from the Review dashboard, even though there is no specific queue.
 
Mithical
Mithical
Mostly correct - it's in the delete tab in the 10k tools, not review
 
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
5:53 PM
Ah, right. The question now has two undelete votes.
 
bobble
bobble
6:13 PM
Should the meta-comments for the Klipspringer question (that is, ones discussing why it should be closed, helping the author edit it into an acceptable form, and discussing why it should be reopened) be deleted now that the question has been edited & reopened? It shall they be left for posterity?
 
Alex
Alex
7:03 PM
@Mithical The link to Tools is on the Review page though, no?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@bobble I deleted the ones that were just about its closure and reopening, and left the ones that had some information about the actual question.
@Tsundoku Sorted.
@Alex Yes, but I'd wager most reviewers never bother to click there.
 
bobble
bobble
I was checking it more often but it's a pretty boring page for such a small site
"Top-voted questions, you say? I know those, I edited/commented/voted on them"
"Recent close reasons? Uh, I saw all of these already"
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
:-D
There's always something fun in the "recent close reasons" section on SFF.
 
bobble
bobble
Hey, it's Puzzling's Gareth!
What brings you here?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
> I’m voting to close this question because it's an obsession with nipples
> I'm voting to close this question because what?
> I'm voting to close this question as unclear what OP is smoking.
 
bobble
bobble
7:15 PM
@Randal'Thor what was the OP smoking?
 
Mithical
Mithical
7:33 PM
@Randal'Thor Sargeant Shadwell would like to know your location
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
:-D
 
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
7:47 PM
@bobble In a few months I will be ready to dump 95 questions. That might spice things up ;-)
 
bobble
bobble
s/I a/In a
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
Siaina?
 
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
I know what she sed ;-)
 
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
OK, let's not get upsed.
@Bookworm Still not sure about those infidelities.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
7:57 PM
I tried searching for some likely keywords in Project Gutenberg's collection of Maupassant short stories (even though it includes some from Richepin etc.)
By the way, I have a few more Effi Briest questions coming up.
 
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
Good. Those are not yet verboten.
 
Alex
Alex
@Randal'Thor See how many sentences you can construct that say “Most [category of users] never do [appropriate action].”
 
bobble
bobble
@Randal'Thor, a meta-meta reference for here?
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@Alex Most Alexes never do pedantfests.
In fact, I only know one that does.
 
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
 
Alex
Alex
8:05 PM
@Randal'Thor I’m not entirely sure what a pedantfest is, but it certainly sounds like fun.
 
bobble
bobble
@Tsundoku why?
 
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
@bobble "a few more Effi Briest questions coming up"
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@Tsundoku An easy one to begin with, then something which might require a bit more in-depth understanding of the characters/story, then something which probably has a lot of significance through the book.
@Tsundoku But why bobble?
 
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
Because she asked whether that was a [meta-meta-]reference.
 
Rand al'Thor
Rand al'Thor
@bobble Thanks, added.
(how many per-site metas are you following?)
 
bobble
bobble
8:10 PM
Puzzling's, Literature's, and RPG's consistently; other sites whenever I happen to pass by. My browser autocompletes "scifi" to the meta site and not main, so I end up passing through the meta whenever I want to check out main-site.
 
Bookworm
Bookworm
8:33 PM
0
Q: What are the "torch dance" and "garter dance", in 19th-century Germany?

Rand al'ThorFrom Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest, which I'm reading online, during the wedding of Effi and Innstetten in Chapter V: The dancing had continued till three o'clock, with the effect that Briest, who had been gradually talking himself into the highest pitch of champagne excitement, had made various...

german-literature cultural-context theodor-fontane effi-briest
 
 
2 hours later…
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
10:13 PM
Update on unanswered questions: "1,090 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers". Still a lot more than 1066.
 
bobble
bobble
You're making me want to skip homework to work on my Sexophonists answer :)
But I shall not... homework is important...
 
Tsundoku
Tsundoku
We don't need to get to 1066 today. 1066 is history, not urgent business :-)
By the way, did you know that the saxophone was invented by a Belgian?
 
bobble
bobble
It had to begin somewhere, and it makes sense that somewhere was with a "la" :)
 

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