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12:00 AM
cat and a dog here, not necessarily in that pecking order LOL ... run a shelter for small animals and had all kinds of other pets too ... not arachnophobic either
did ride on a donkey once...
 
user15026
As a kid I lived in a small country town, so all sorts of animals are familiar. :) But now I am in a small city apartment, so I just have the cat (I had frogs ,but they died, and so did my fish (they died from move-stress))
 
aww
 
user15026
I haven't put anything new in the tank I have because I still feel bad about hte frogs and fish dying
 
Anonymous
12:38 AM
 
1:18 AM
This tag is bothering me..
:D
 
Yeah, there's gotta be a better word for that
hmmm
 
could go for both with people and between animals..
 
1:21 AM
I also created , saw people tagging specific places like personal ponds etc
@JohnB to meta?
 
@iKlsR good idea
 
@iKlsR I disagree that is a generic tag. It is crucial to distinguish questions about in- and outdoor habitats.
 
there is only one way to settle this....your pets must fight to the death
 
@Baarn Disputable, but I think something general for all the future specific environs might work rather than having , , , etc
@JohnB Bring it on.
 
1:27 AM
D:
 
I don't think that it is helpful to group all those tags together in . I can imagine that some people want to look for (ie: fav the tag) questions specifically tagged with but don't care about creatures living in perches or cages.
 
natural-habitat and unnatural-habitat maybe?
or artificial... dunno, it's not my vocabulary day
 
do we have to make it artificially complicated? who is going to search for that?
 
I'm not on one side or another, but tag synonyms would resolve that
 
Just that those things are not synonymous ;)
Only because things can be put in groups, it doesn't mean that they should be.
 
 
2 hours later…
user15026
3:18 AM
@iKlsR I loved the Oatmeal comment link on my question, it really made me laugh
 
@AshleyNunn haha, yeah, it's a good one. :)
 
user15026
@iKlsR Ah, so I am doomed, then. ;)
 
@AshleyNunn You were warned. ;)
 
user15026
Thank you for the warning :P
 
3:50 AM
yey vox populi badge ... we should get 20 more votes when we get this badge too, it's not fair we're rewarded for voting and still remain vote capped :(
 
user15026
@TildalWave hahaha yeah, waiting for more votes can be annoying sometimes. I see why they do it, but sometimes I am like "but there is another good question or answer I want to reward"!
 
@AshleyNunn I just realized it's only 4 hours into new SE day... long time to wait for 40 more votes :(
I feel like I'm being .... conditioned! :D
one of Pavlov's dogs... :|
 
user15026
@TildalWave Yeah, I always forget that the SE day is UTC......
 
user15026
@TildalWave appropriate for a pets site I suppose ;)
 
hehe yes true
it's always the same tho with the first week of active betas ... never enough votes
 
user15026
4:00 AM
@TildalWave Pretty much. I am like "but look we are being awesome must reward the awesome oh no out of votes how can this be"
 
that's why I thought we should get more votes with those two badges ... 30 votes and 40 votes in a day, whatever the other one is called ... they're a one off anyway
re chatroom name.... any ideas?
4
Q: What should our chat room name be?

JohnBRight now, our chat room's name is just Pets. I think we can do better than that, what sort of clever and appropriate name could we use instead?

 
user15026
I am not good at being clever :(
 
Zoolatry?
The Feral Tribune?
The Pecking Order?
Common Ancestry? LOL
...
Pet Shop Boys?
Pet Peeves
Tree of Life
The Kennel? :D
 
user15026
I like the Kennel!
 
user15026
its kinda funny
 
4:21 AM
Huh, finally pets started. Rejoice Yo mortals!
:-)
 
4:37 AM
user image
3
 
@TildalWave No wonder, we knew we would be called someday :-)
 
 
2 hours later…
6:59 AM
@TildalWave i am happy that finally we gathered
 
 
5 hours later…
11:41 AM
Woof.
 
I wonder why the suffrage badge is called that way? I didn't suffer finding 30 things to vote on…
2
 
Back in the day, we had to walk 8 miles uphill in the snow to vote on a good post.
 
The snow is gone and the hills are eroded. Climate change seems to have an effect on StackExchange, too.
Maybe it is called suffrage because you know that you only have 10 votes left…
 
 
1 hour later…
1:21 PM
what a nice example question on the about page
 
1:38 PM
@Baarn Suffrage means the right to vote gained through the democratic process :)
 
@Beofett this is why I love English as a second language. It makes much more fun that way :P
 
@Baarn That particular word is one most people who speak English as a primary language are unfamiliar with :)
In fact, there was a bit on a TV show where some pranksters went out and asked people to sign a petition to end women's suffrage (women in the US have only been able to vote since 1920). They got a lot of people to sign before someone pointed out what the petition actually meant, and how offensive it was. It was in pretty bad taste, but its a good indication of how poorly the word is recognised.
 
Right, I remember hearing about this prank, but completely forgot it. The "right to vote" is the most common expression today, I guess.
 
1:56 PM
The word doesn't get a lot of use anymore, in many English speaking countries, because the right to vote is generally available to all citizens.
 
3
Q: Do my horses need to be shod?

SkippyWe have two horses, a thoroughbred and Arab cross that have spent most of their time in paddocks being ridden occasionally into the local bush land. They are not shod and their hooves are filed periodically. However the children are riding them more frequently and onto the road to meet up with ...

2
I read that as shot and now I have coffee mist on my monitor.
 
@TimPost XD
@TimPost I'm always drinking when I read stuff like this. :/
 
I try to only drink when I'm writing. Oh .. wait.
 
@TimPost - LOL, I can see that first glance read
 
Whee! Mortarboard :)
 
2:10 PM
Congrats. :)
 
ty!
 
@TimPost LOL..You forgot never drink coffee while infront of your laptop :P
 
2:26 PM
"Daily vote limit reached; vote again in 9 hours." … now I have to bookmark things that definitely deserve to be upvoted.
 
@Baarn Hit mine not too long ago too. Off to classes then.
 
Vote limits and reputation caps... two of the most frustrating aspects of the first few days of private beta :)
 
@Beofett yeah. This is my first private beta, and I hadn't anticipated the effect of asking a bunch of questions early. In addition to vote caps (I haven't hit the rep cap yet), some unanswered questions have already been pushed off the main page. Whee! Tag search here I come. :-)
 
2:43 PM
Yeah, I'm still answering anyways since it's about building some initial content.
 
@JohnCavan same. Plus its fun :)
 
Yeah, a site like this makes an animal lover like me happy
 
Honestly, I thought dogs are more in number than cats as pets. But it seems it isn't quite true.
Cats questions are also dominating the front page as well as dogs.
 
No, I think cats are a larger population. I love dogs, but cats are a kind of easier to keep and that tends to grow their population. Also, I think, cats have a more cross-gender appeal whereas dogs are typically more of a guy thing.
 
@JohnCavan There are also dogs IMO who are like made for ladies. Dogs who have deep fur and are small in size.
 
2:48 PM
In my (anecdotal) experience, cat owners are more likely to own multiple pets than dog owners.
 
@Beofett That's practical.
 
Hmm, I don't think dogs are a guy thing… all the girls I know love our labs :)
 
Don't read too much into a "guy" thing, dogs are very generally popular amongst men and women, it's that I think the balance tends to the guy side more for dogs than for cats.
Cats also tend to be less work and you can leave them for a couple of days more readily. Except mine, needs medication on a daily basis.
 
@JohnCavan What happened to her?
 
He has mega-colon so I need to treat him with lactulose to keep his stool soft enough for him to pass on his own. It's a fine balance though, too soft result in unpleasant messes to clean up.
 
2:56 PM
@JohnCavan I see.
 
Ah well, it's a pain, but less so for me than for him.
 
Any suggestions for a put-to-sleep tag? sounds a bit technical to me…
 
@Baarn Well I never heard it before.
 
@Baarn - It's accurate though
 
but the tag-wiki should help.
 
3:01 PM
wikipedia distinguishes between euthanasia and animal euthanasia, that's why I was wondering if it is appropriate to use it without "animal" on a site that is dedicated to pets.
 
Given the topic (and that keeping humans as pets is normally illegal in most countries), it's probably safe to assume the relationship. :D
 
OK, I just introduced . I think we can still change it to a more fluffy word if someone has a better idea :)
 
3:27 PM
You want to euphemise all that euthanising ? :p
 
3:48 PM
0
Q: How can I keep rats out of my chicken pen?

Kezz101I've got 5 chickens who all live in a pen that is being attacked by rats! The rats keep burrowing under the walls of the pen and it would be impractical for me to brick it up. What's the best way to keep them out without harming the chickens?

Seems off topic
 
@JohnCavan Agreed. Commented and VTC'd.
 
Me too, well voted anyways... I think livestock questions should be off topic, they're not really pet questions.
 
it might be on topic on diy.SE
 
@JohnCavan re: livestock... I see it as borderline. Some might be on topic.
 
I think if the purpose is food production it's probably left the realm of pet though.
 
3:58 PM
To repeat an argument I made in the proposal discussion: why is "how do I do x for my goat?" fundamentally different from "I love my goat, Mark, and he's a part of the family. Yet recently I have found that I need to do x for Mark... how should I do that?"
 
Yeah that's my stance on that, too. As long as the animal is considered a pet in the sense of the question, the question can be on topic.
 
I like Skippy's definition:
"I believe that any animal or group of animals that a human being has an interactive personal relationship with could be considered a pet."
3
 
"How to tell my cat he isn't an archaeologist?" - I really don't know how to answer this... you can't tell a cat anything, they do what they do.
 
… what?
wait … is it intended that you can go beyond the vote limit, when voting on answers on your own question?
 
Your own questions are usually excluded from restrictions as far as I know.
 
4:12 PM
@JohnCavan Just tested this, and I could not upvote an answer to my question because of the daily limit.
 
Oh, well there you go... the other site I'm very active on I'm a moderator and we're not that super busy like this is right now.
 
True, I wasn't able to upvote an answer on another question I posted …
 
Doh, after all this time, I just figured out how the rep score gets listed on the user board... All time is your overall score, anything else is your score less the starting 101 that gets you past the limits.
 
4:54 PM
@JohnCavan, No personal feelings.
But the question really was opinion based.
 
@Mistu4u - I deleted the question, but I think that definition fits almost every question asked so far...
 
@JohnCavan Which definition?
Opinion based?
 
Opinion, yes, a lot of behavior questions are opinion. Even the one you asked is opinion oriented. What all of us are trying to do is crowd source the ideas because it's not like the animals can speak up.
 
I guess you can get some objective answers there having some common points. Well, you can undelete the question again flagging for the mod's attention.
 
No, it's okay, I'll leave it. It may be better to do it by animal anyways. I just wanted to point out that opinion questions aren't always a problem and there is going to be a lot with site.
 
4:59 PM
I was actually leaning towards "too broad", but agreed that it was primarily opinion based to the point where it was a better closure reason.
 
Didn't know that unicorns are allowed as pet O-o
Now i can ask question on my pet dragon too ;)
 
Its unavoidable to get some amount of opinion in answers, and there's really nothing wrong with it.
But the best answers will have some basis in fact or logic, and then possibly expand upon that using opinion.
 
@Beofett - I ultimately deleted it because I leaned towards too broad as well.
 
@Beofett I agree. But that particular question was kind of "buying" suggestion.
@AnkitSharma Where? O_o then I am gonna ask about 2headed cobra I pet in my house :-D
 
@Mistu4u I don't necessarily have an issue with buying suggestions (although I would be very careful about how any we might allow would be phrased), so long as they provide sufficient details to work with.
 
5:02 PM
@Mistu4u have you noticed about page with unicorn question?
 
The "what kind of dogs are best for children" question is a good example... I'm still torn on whether I think its a good fit, but the answers seemed adequate
 
@Beofett Actually "buying" in turn produces opinions.
 
@Mistu4u generally, yes, but as I said... opinions are necessarily bad, particularly if backed by fact.
 
@Beofett And in some SE sites "shopping recommendation" questions are OT.
 
Product buying advice needs to be managed carefully, we get a ton of that on the photography site, but unlike camera gear, stuff for pets tends to stick around longer so not as likely to become dated advice quickly.
 
5:04 PM
E.g. if someone were to answer 'what breed dog should I buy for my kid' with reputable studies on dog bite frequencies against children, by breed, or an analysis of innate behavior tendencies by breed, and how that might correlate into positive or negative experiences for the kids, I would probably consider that a good answer
(of course, there are no reputable studies on dog attack frequencies by breed that I've ever been able to find)
 
@AnkitSharma Just saw now!
 
@Mistu4u the majority consider them off-topic, but I believe some allow them. Or perhaps some did allow them, and then decided to change the rules to ban them.
I haven't kept up with any of the sites I recall allowing shopping questions.
We've certainly discussed it at parenting.se many times, and never have quite come to a consensus that they should be allowed, even under heavy regulation.
 
@Beofett @JohnCavan, that's why I told to undelete the question and then raise a meta to see what the community thinks about it. As the site is now currently taking shape.
If it's decided not to be OT, fine, I will definitely +vote it.
 
I always prefer "what should I look for in $product" questions instead of "which is the best $brand"
 
Well, shopping-like questions such as "Are there products to help with situation X..." are probably good. Shopping-like questions like "I was thinking of buying X or Y, what would you pick" are bad. Shelf life of the question and answer is relevant.
 
5:09 PM
@Baarn That's what we try to steer people to in parenting.se. IMO, its about the only type of shopping question that really fits the platform.
 
especially because shopping questions are prone to carry a heavy subjective load, eg "what is the best $stuff" without describing what the OP considers to be best.
 
@Mistu4u - No, I'm pretty sold on the question being too broad at this point. Less about opinion oriented really, it wasn't intended as a "shopping" question.
 
Anyway, you guys discuss about what should be done. I am gonna attend my dinner :-) Bye
 
I agree we should discuss this on meta. Sooner or later it will come up anyway
 
@Baarn not to mention what's "best" now can quickly become out of date.
@Baarn agreed. Anyone volunteering, or shall I write up the question?
 
5:17 PM
@Beofett - Go for it. :)
 
5:45 PM
@JohnCavan yeah, I'm looking for questions to answer, but holding off on adding new questions for just a bit.
 
@MonicaCellio - I tend to answer far more than I ever ask on these sites anyways... I usually find the answers to any questions I might already have on the site before I needed it. :)
 
@JohnCavan I saw a news report not long ago that said that in the US more households have dogs than have cats, but there are more cats/household than dogs/household.
 
Hmm... I suspect location matters. I wouldn't be surprised that cats are more common in large cities, dogs in less densely populated regions.
 
@JohnCavan that's generally true for me too. I haven't been part of a private beta before, and the initial ramp-up is different. Usually I see questions come by and answer the ones I can, and ask less often (except for one site where I ask and answer a lot). But here I'm actively hunting for things to answer now.
@JohnCavan that makes sense. There were also regional differences reported, but I don't recall the details other than that Texas pegged the scale on dogs.
 
Not surprised about Texas...
 
5:52 PM
private beta is strange … I can access the close vote review queue without gaining the privilege…
 
I did not know you could earn Mortarboard on meta.
 
Yeah, it'll probably tighten up when it goes public beta.
 
@Baarn ooh, thanks for the tip!
 
I have no idea what the restriction was… earlier today I wasn't able to use it :)
 
6:40 PM
Hmm... You know, I don't think it really crossed my mind. I think I just assumed it was there because I'm so used to seeing it on Photo.SE.
 
 
3 hours later…
10:06 PM
Now I have to bookmark meta discussions, as I just ran out of votes there, too…
 
LOL, you don't take this suffrage thing lightly!
 
I wasn't really focused on getting that badge. I simply voted on stuff I liked (or disliked in one or two cases)
We already have over 100 questions on the main site. A lot of them are good and deserve the upvotes. On meta it is more about expressing consent, but as meta is the main place to form the site I think participation in the early stage is crucial.
And as I can't express some thoughts on meta due to being non-native I prefer using votes and comments.
 
I agree, the first week of meta is going to decide a lot.
I wouldn't worry about your English, seems plenty fine to me.
I almost regret that I'll be going on vacation as of Saturday and may be cut off a bit.
 
Thanks, I know it is readable, but some things on meta are just too hard for me to express correctly (even in German I would probably spend an endless amount of time writing and deleting stuff)
 
I've been to Germany, I suspect that's more a function of the length of your words... :D
 
10:22 PM
Our chained nouns are highly practical! I never get why there are certain words in English that are written as one and others are separated.
 
That's because we're crazy...
Actually, English is a language that kind of came together from all sorts of sounds. It's been described as the language of Poets because it's almost built to make rhyme easy at the expense of other facilities.
 
considering how many other European languages got mixed into English… I wonder how much of the original language is left
Why do we even need Esperanto as an artificial language that combines them all if English already does that job? ;)
 
I don't think there really was an original English, it basically formed. Consider that the English nobility spoke French until more modern times.
English is supposedly the hardest language to learn as a second language. Mostly, I think, because of things like "to" "two" and "too" amongst many others. Then there's the noun, slang, and other assorted crazy usage patterns.
 
I found it to be quite easy to learn. There are some irregularities, of course, but I guess every language has its complicated areas.
 
10:39 PM
I think German is a lot closer to English than many people realize. I found it remarkably easy to figure out what words meant when I was wandering about Lahr years ago. I do okay with French/Italian too, but that's mostly a result of taking French lessons in school.
 
The biggest thing people complain about when learning German are the articles. I can't understand why that should be so hard, to me it sounds logical to simply learn each noun as a unit that always comes with that article.
I can't speak french, but I can pronounce it a lot better than most (german) people who actually speak it. When it comes to Italian… well, I wont starve to death
I had Latin lessons in school. I never really managed to learn anything about that language, but I learned a lot about the theory behind other languages.
 
we've had as many questions in 1 day as Tor had in 2 weeks o_o
 
Tor?
 
 
\o/
 
10:49 PM
Good sign, gotta keep the momentum going though!
 
tor was the most recent proposal that made it to beta. It went through proposal and commitment phase in only two months or so…
far too quick I think.
 
Ah... I was wondering. Hmm... Interesting idea.
 
Astronomy came right after it actually
 
Oh right, forgot astronomy.
Not sure about pets, but I think it had an earlier proposal that was closed in commitment phase before beta?
 
not that I'm aware of, but they sometimes delete any trace those :\ so it might not exist anymore
 
10:54 PM
I expect the Pets site is going to get a lot of activity in the coming months
 
er, do you mean Astronomy?
Astronomy had a previous incarnation that I know of
 
Nah, I meant pets
 
ah. Dunno!
 
Me neither… just wondered that no one came up earlier with such an obvious proposal
 
Good question... I wonder why about that too. I committed to it the moment I spotted it on Area 51.
 
10:59 PM
What I like is that pets.SE really has the potential to attract more users without an IT background to the SE network.
That might have a positive effects on other sites of the network, too.
 
For sure, it's very hard to launch a non-IT site
 
That would be nice. Photo.SE is loaded with IT people (self included), but I'd like to see more pure art types on it.
Apparently I'm 58 minutes from being able to vote again...
 
I am an IT guy, too. But sometimes the stereotypical pedantry can be a bit annoying (contrary, that's what I like most about the network, too)
Oh well, I think I wont wait until I can vote again. I can clean all those bookmarks tomorrow, too.
 
Have a good night, it's pretty late in your neck of the woods.
 
Good night guys!
Oh and: Vote me for more dog gifs!
 
11:17 PM
@JohnB I guess The Kennel is a go.
10
Q: What should our chat room name be?

JohnBRight now, our chat room's name is just Pets. I think we can do better than that, what sort of clever and appropriate name could we use instead?

 
Sounds good! Would you do the honors?
 
I don't know, I'm really leaning to The Litter Box myself...
 
@JohnCavan The Litter Box sounds a bit nicer to me too. Kennel is so localized.
 
Menagerie got posted, which I kind of like as being more generally inclusive of all types of pets. I voted for that one.
 
Litter Box is more general.
@JohnCavan I say propose it.
Kennel sounds good for now, has the majority of votes.
 
11:23 PM
Done, I proposed it.
Wow, today has been a busy day on the site...
 
11:43 PM
@JohnCavan do you have cats and bunnies?
 
I had bunnies, they passed away of old age a few years ago. Great companions.
I have 2 cats right now (we had one pass away a year ago at 21).
 
Sorry for your loss, they are great pets.
 
At one point I had 3 cats, 2 rabbits, 7 guinea pigs, 1 hamster, 3 goldfish, 2 turtles but no partridge in a pear tree. :)
3
Thanks!
 
I love animals, it's heartbreaking when they pass, but having them in my life is worth it.
 

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