@lila Haha, nice

@lila But this one isn't really duplicate ... there's no blister or anything, there's just nothing to worry about.

@Elmy Well yes, but @lila can totally add that question to her drawing...:D

@SerenaT Maybe change "Dog takes dumps in my bed" to "Cat pees in my bed" to make sure we represent our diverse community of dog-people and cat-people ^^

Im at 490 rep, Im so close guys and i didnt even do anything this weekend, my posts must have just gotten upvoted.

i didnt review, edit, ask, or answer, nor did i comment.

I do have a question though so i will post just one.

Guys i think i have it

I think i know how to answer questions now.

And ask them.

@JosephCasey That's really good to hear. See how far a little patience can get you.

Ye

S

Thank you guys, I shouldnt have been so stubborn around you guys, its unprofessional.

I feel ashamed.

I didnt really copy the question, but instead provided a different way of slow transition.

answer* Rather.

Right.

You said to get two different boxes and allow him to choose it, however I explained to slowly decrease the amount of clay out of one box of mixed clay and silica litter.

so then he will only have silica

I really dont get you mate

Really dont

Ok im not going to argue with you because it is unprofessional, however the last thing im going to say is, I didnt copy your answer, let the asker decide which one to pick, Mine is opposite of yours and probably easier.

end of discussion

so @Elmy Hows your day today?

OMG

i just got....

500 rep.

Wow.

@JosephCasey Sure, you got your 500 rep. How much bad will have you generated toward yourself?

?

Im sorry?

Clarify please.

If you mean have I abused the reputation system, then no i havent, every single rep point that i have earned is legit, except for that 100 that i earned from site contribution

The regular users of this site are not pleased with how you have been conducting yourself. They have repeatedly given you recommendations to improve, which you have ignored. They have asked you to stop doing things that you continue to do. All you've cared about is the meaningless number next to your name, and not the people here.

Ok im sorry but you are incorrect. I have spent the whole weekend on here watching without posting.

The only posts i have contributed are from this morning on.

want proof? look through my post history.

@JosephCasey Two whole days. Now you're back to posting low-quality answers.

@JosephCasey I believe we were speaking more to the tune of observing for a few months, rather than two days. But ultimately, the proof is in the pudding. If you really have improved, then you should receive different feedback now. Are you?

You weren't asked to stop posting for "a day or two." Just to "stop posting." I've just gone through several posts that you answered recently, and your answers are just as low quality as they were before.

Yes @Sarov I have learned that quality triumps quantity

and allison.

I have only posted three to four times.

@JosephCasey Also, a warning, "im not going to argue with you [...] end of discussion" comes off as childish, imo. It comes off as "We shouldn't argue, so I'm right."

No, Im saying im not going to argue because it is unprofessional.

But did you consider the other person's points? Did you ask questions to ensure you understood them?

anyone in Pets.SE can access this chat, and I dont feel comfortable arguing in this chat.

Also

Points of view?

That's not arguing, it's basic clarification/discussion.

And honestly no, for example on pets.stackexchange.com/questions/31244/… , I have no idea why she is escaping.

ok

I understand that.

@JosephCasey My point is that it's (more) unprofessional to go "I'm not going to argue because it's unprofessional. Now let me just get the last word in before you can reply so you'll look bad if you keep trying to argue while I still get to look good and right."

@JosephCasey I have to agree with Serena on the cat litter question. Your answer alone is notably better than anything you posted in the last days, but it does repeat the existing answer and doesn't offer any new information. If there wasn't another answer, it would be absolutely ok, but this way it doesn't add any new information

I completlely understand that however what exactly do you want from me? Do you want me to change the format? Because if you want me to make it pretty, then no im not doing that. I dont believe that looks will get votes, I want to post information. Also @Elmy I understand that but Serena put it one way, and I gave the asker a different way.

If you're going to say "We shouldn't argue", then you should say nothing on the topic after that, no 'however the last thing im going to say is'.

Information that is good i mean

@JosephCasey No you did not. Serena offers 2 methods in their answer: 1) use 2 litter boxes and 2) transition the content of one litter box very slowly. You repeated the second method just in different words.

Stand by please.

If you believe that you offered new information, and Elmy is now saying that you did not, read Elmy's words as 'It is not clear that your Answer is providing new information'. Thus, consider editing your Answer to improve the clarity. 'Pretty' isn't just about votes - clarity of presentation is important.

Fine ill delete it.

There you guys happy?

@JosephCasey Personally, what I want to see, is that you start reading what qualifies as a good answer, and do not then immediately turn around and reword it into a new answer in an attempt to farm reputation. A good answer is not a fast answer. They take time to research, to format, to word clearly, to fully understand the question and what the questioner needs. Not five minutes of rewriting something someone else already researched.

@JosephCasey Tough to tell because text, but I'm sensing aggression. Keep in mind, I (and I assume the others) are trying to help you with this, not just improve the site at your expense.

Well I mean I am kind of frustrated, Not aggressively ticked, but frustrated. Fine, ill suspend myself and only work on edits and close votes for a month.

And yes i will read through the questions before editing or close voting

If you're frustrated, take a step back and breathe. You're not on a timer, and emotion clouds both judgement and tone of communication.

Ok.

Yes, I will.

Why does this feel like being a 911 dispatcher?

Couldn't tell you, I've never been a dispatcher.

Nor have i, But I have seen Real Life Dispatcher shows similar to Live PD.

And i swear

It seems similar.

In other news. My friend thought her pet chicken was egg-bound. Turns out it's ascites. Vet gave strong antibitotics and the chicken is improving, but not eating much.

Ok im going to comb through the unanswered questions and attempt to edit them.

oof

we

well its good that its improving but at the same time i feel sorry.

got one

edited one

Asking mods (@Elmy, @lila, @HarryV.) and the long-time users: How’s the pets policy for answers-that-basically-repeat-existing-answers? Sites do tend to handle it differently, delete/keep...? Do we have a Meta for that? Do we need one?

Something like “what qualifies as duplicate answer and when should it be deleted”?

@Stephie My personal oppinion and what I see on other sites is that an answer that doesn't add new information should be deleted. You can reapeat some information, but you must provide something new. TBH some of my old answers were also in debate because I skipped over some sentences and repeated them. It happens. But it shouldn't happen every time.

As a mod on other sites, I have in the past not touched posts that gave the same answer if they were posted within the same time frame - giving both the benefit of the doubt that they were writing their answers in parallel, so that none was truly “first”.

hi

As a user - I try to have my answers as unique as possible. If I have a slight variation - I'd use comments. Two answers close together is a pain but if mine's worse I'd yield to the other answer. Rep's not that important

@lila Morning.

Good Mythical Morning @lila

@lila good morning :) In regards to your comment, I added an answer to the question linked from that one to explain my process of teaching cats to sleep

@Stephie The [help] clearly states: Read the question carefully. What, specifically, is the question asking for? Make sure your answer provides that – or a viable alternative. So if the OP asks "Do cats shiver when they get a fever" and you answer "my cat also loves lying in the sun" it's not wrong, but it doesn't answer the question.

@Elmy that’s another point.

Sometimes people do get wrong ideas in their questions. You can either answer "the behavior you describe is very common in healthy pets" or "the symptoms of fever are XYZ and lying in the sun is not among them"

And here's a very good Meta post that explains why answers might get downvotes and how to fix them: pets.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/774/…

ik that

@Elmy IK its not wrong but if you look, i stated more in the comments.

Ok you know what.

My opinion is that answers are in a sense in the free market; paraphrasing information from already existing answers isn't really that good and efficient strategy anyways because these clones won't reach the success of the original answers. It is like you could technically create a clone of Facebook but no matter how close it is to the original, it won't outperform or even reach the success of the original if it doesn't offer some innovation.

Okay, you created a functional Facebook clone - well, too bad: Facebook already exists, why would people switch to yours if it is the same? And for answers, if they are not right-out-plagiarism or extremely-low-quality or not-an-answer or offensive, it is not up to me to decide what to do with them myself unless someone reports them.

I said I would suspend myself. And i am

Editing, and VTCing only.

@JosephCasey Comments aren't for answers, including parts of answers. If it's important, it should be in the answer, not a comment under it.

Ok.

@lila my post does answer the question. I specifically stated "Your cat will get up if it feels to hot"

Listen you are all my online family, and i understand that you are "trying" to help, However deleting/downvoting my improved posts isnt "helping", in fact its more likely going to make me give this site or stack exchange a bad review.

And also who took control of my account and put a comment in the question?

NVM i see now

Guys i have to take a break, eventually this is going to get me banned from Pets.SE

And i dont want to get banned from Pets.SE

Ok who banned me from suggesting edits?

Im not playing around who did it/

?

@JosephCasey IIRC there's an automatic daily limit.

I didnt hit the daily limit though

i was T Banned after 2 edits.

@JosephCasey probably the system. There’s a few mechanisms in place , that can and will automatically disallow users from doing things repeatedly if said activity is incorrect.

@JosephCasey pets.stackexchange.com/help/editing

^ that.

@JosephCasey We're trying to help by making you a better communicator and presenter, not trying to help by making you happy. SE is a bad format for that. SE's primary goal is to create a public high-quality knowledge wiki, not to have fun. Other forums suit that purpose better.

You've done a lot of editing for the sake of reputation farming, that does not improve the post. If enough of those have been rejected, you've been banned from the system.

Spend that week reading, and only reading.

And @JosephCasey the mods and your fellow users are not the ones putting you in time-out. The algorithms did.

Ok listen, I am starting to dislike you for calling me a Rep Farmer. Do you know what a Rep Farmer is, and what they do? Because I do, and its not because i am one.

They like to slip in and slip out and try and bypass the system. Most Tactics involve inflating a different account slowly to avoid detection by a system.

IK because i had a friend who got banned for doing it

@JosephCasey Then why do you insist on performing actions that will gain you reputation even when you have been repeatedly asked to stop, instead focusing only on your reputation number?

incorrect

> Do you want to know what my goal is?

> To earn as much rep as i can [...]

i feel like i have a role, a role to make this site better, a role to answer questions and provide edit suggestions for the good of the site. The only reason why i even care about rep is because it provides me with better tools to help the community

@JosephCasey None of the mods suspended you. That was an automatic action by the system

?

You claim it’s to help, but you have been told repeatedly that you are not helpful the way you are trying.

ok so? Im ust excied i hit a milestone

just*

Excited*

allison your not really providing good proof here.

Because it allows you to do what?

to better help the community.

You can now vote to close.

stephie.

Do you really think i would care about that?

@JosephCasey define “help”, please?

@JosephCasey You are already not using the tools you've been given appropriately. You've been offered guidance repeatedly that you have repeatedly chosen to ignore. Gaining more tools when you can't use the ones you already have will help no one at all.

because if you did, then your incorrect.

@JosephCasey that’s the privilege attached to the 500 rep threshold.

Help; make it easier for someone to do something by offering one's services or resources.

yes

IK its the 500 rep reward

@JosephCasey uh... these thing you can already do?

But do you really think i care about the resources that i am given? Do you really think i give a crap about even using them improperly? I am improving and honestly, it doesnt seem like you are helping me. if you take a look at my answers, most of them have 2+ upvotes, which is improving.

ok sarov.

I dont know how to put this so im just going to say it.

@JosephCasey Okay, let's address this. No, I actually don't think you care that you're using the tools you've been given improperly. You've been given advice on how to learn to use them properly, but you've refused to take it. You've insisted you want to help while being told what you're doing isn't helpful. Please, take the advice you're given.

People here have been trying to help you, but you have to accept the help. Instead, you're getting confrontational. Stop. Take a step back. Calm down.

I officially give up here. I work as a coach in real life, so I (hopefully) should know a thing or two about supporting people improving in a way that is good for them and good for the team. I can only offer advice. I can’t make anyone listen or learn.

From here on, I am stepping out of this specific discussion and stick to regular activities on Main.

ok?

And I agree with stephie that we should be this deep into a discussion like this.

shouldnt*

Well - if we want a change of topic....

Mom's mostly convinced dad's going to accidentally go into a pet store, and walk out with a puppy. Mom's literally at the same place she was 16 years ago and "Nope, we're not getting a dog"

lol

No way!

Well my dog finally caught a mole yesterday, I got it from her before she could injure it.

@Stephie If my dad decided to, it would happen

and i mean my dog really deep

and do you want to know what the worst part about it was?

(I mean I wouldn't mind, but I think its too soon + I'm not sure dad has the energy for a pup)

joudude

dude

I would get a pup, those things are awesome.

@JosephCasey We just lost our dog 2 months ago + I work shifts and live with my parents

Oh god, Im sorry for your loss.

Dogs are very much a whole family decision too

@JourneymanGeek so would it be a little Birch, or rather a Phoenix?

(I'm looking at local resources - unfortunately pet stores are an option)

@Stephie I have no idea what they'd call doggo no 2 :D

LOL very bad pun, I know.

@Stephie well - Ash's ex-owner thought he'd turn grey

We ended up with a little golden mutt

Ah. I was wondering about the name.

Never got round to asking, though.

lol

Yeah, I think he was an Ashley when we got him

Didn't stick

(He is very much an Ash)

I don't really think a future dog would be named after a Tree or colour tho :D

If it was the parentals, he'd probably get some tamil name

or be named after one of the old dogs they had

If I got a dog, he'd be a Journey, cause that's one tradition I'd like to continue :D

awwww

but no i wasnt able to make a termite farm sadly...

Howeve.

r

I was able to make an And Farm and I have ants that bite pretty hard.

@JourneymanGeek That's a great choice of name :)

Hopefully it works out! I'd planned for the successor to my previous cat Dante to be Virgil, but I ended up with Beatrice instead

Someone (a vet) once told me "One day they're going to make a programming language that anyone can use without needing a programmer", to which I replied "They did, it's called PHP. One day they're going to make a pet that anyone can take care of without needing a vet... oh wait, they already did. It's called a pet rock".

@AllisonC there was a running joke that I was the dog

@JourneymanGeek Hahhah, well in that case Journey is a perfect name!

lol

@AllisonC Precisely

@Sarov very nice.

(Also I'd be able to call him Mr J or Puddin... :D )

(as you should!)

oo

@JourneymanGeek i have a good name.

Mr. Journey Pudding

@JosephCasey "Mr J" and Puddin are a batman TAS reference

Great show.

IKR

@Sarov I've seen code written by people who aren't a programmer ... I would have prefered they stuck with a pet rock -.-

lol

lol

Guys i did post a question that is kind of important.

mostly because i need an answer and cant find an ant professional around here.

@Elmy @Sarov heh, I've been playing with node red as a way for getting some stuff I need done..

@Elmy I used to be a tutor in college, I saw a lot of code written by student programmers who probably should also have stuck to pet rocks.

@JosephCasey Would you PLEASE wait for people to answer your question in their own time? Unless this is a medical emergency I find it rude to ask me to look at your question right now because "it's kind of important".

@Elmy If it was a medical emergency, I'd be annoyed that OP wasn't bringing their pet to a vet first.

Im not asking

Im just let you guys know

sheesh

Hi

Hi @NicolásCastellanos

Please dont post these in here

Thanks :D

@JosephCasey We do have a dashboard of new questions. We see every new question there. Posting here about any question should be reserved to problems

Ik

Its in the top left corner

Sorry, I thinked would be good

No your good, just please dont do it anymore.

ok

@NicolásCastellanos Your always welcome here, however anything not related to Pets.SE or pets for that matter is not allowed in here.

chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/79660/pets-chat-off-the-leash is the place you would want to go for Off-Topic chat.

However you are again, always welcomed here :D

Man i feel so bad when im not able to help out people.

@lila can you please check and see how long im edit banned for? Because as far as you guys are concerned, thats about all i can do at this moment.

@JosephCasey it says 7 days

well

frick

ok well.

i guess im taking a 1 week break.

see you guys in a week. Enjoy.

ok you know what.

No

I dont have anything else to do and im stuck at school

Lila is there any way I can reduce that time?

@JosephCasey I don't think it is possible to reduce that time

@JosephCasey Nope. Mods can’t influence that. That’s beyond their power.

how about appealing?

and there really is nothing to do n school

@JosephCasey Yes. There is. Pay attention to school. And just read. You earned your suspension all by yourself. Serve it.

@AllisonC There really isnt, i have basically done everything possible in school A.T.M

What are you studying?

Im in high school

everything XD

what classes, specifically, are you taking?

Geometry, History, Economics, English 3

and 3 other noncore classes

English. Good. Go read. :) History's another good one to dive more into, especially if you start poking into obscure bits of history that get skipped by the vast majority of classes.

Speaking of abscure details of history... (and I apologize if this too far off topic or sparks political discussions) but did anyone ever notice how much the was Donald Trump got elected as president resembled the way Adolf Hitler got elected as chancellor?

For a while I was honestly scared and at the same time amazed at how history can repeat itself. And I'm very glad that our modern political systems are mostly designed to prevent certain history from repeating itself

@Elmy Don’t jinx it!

>.<

@Elmy Let's not.

Sorry. I just wrote 3 messages and deleted them again ^^'. Let's stick to purring and barking furry friends living in our homes

@Elmy That sounds purrfect :)

Hm. Is the other chat room still used? Or useful? Needed? Considering that it usually just freezes?

I mean, a lot of sites are fine with just one?

(Last post is 6 months old. And was just Lila saying “hi” to keep it alive.)

Yeah was also not too sure where to have small talk. But small talk over here doesnt usually interrupt the flow

Speaking of nonsequiters, I'm planning to have a RPG PC with a pet raven named Quoth.

@Sarov nice name!

May I ask which game?

Pathfinder.

Neat. (Not that I have significant personal experience.)

It's basically D&D.

As I said - I know the principle, just haven’t played. At least not in any significant amount.

I am a pro at watching though. Especially RPGs and strategy on the computer.

Aah.

I am an excellent sidekick. I remind you to save before starting an attack and keep an eye on the outer areas in case some opponent shows up.

We played StarCraft as tag team - back then when server desyncs were a common occurrence and Internet access payed by the minute.

@Stephie No, it is not used and is completely obsolete in my opinion, I was told that it was created years ago because certain problem user was posting unrelated things in Litter Box, but that user hasn't logged in since almost 2 years now.

@Sarov I am all for deleting it altogether but I cannot just go feral and decide by myself or with just a few supporting voices, I think we need official Meta discussion for that.

Feral bots are scary.

@Sarov We usually do not even have enough activity for one chat room, splitting it in two would result in even more lonely experience, at current times the Litter Box has somewhat passed the threshold of critical mass and people join and talk here because there already are people joining and talking here; splitting parts of discussion to another chat could end up in both Litter Box and Off Leash getting quiet again.

@Sarov Hahahaha I'm giggling :D

Hello!

@Sarov It's basically 3/3.5 enough that I run a game that uses both rulesets :) The Pathfinder sourcebooks have some fun stuff to mix in with the WotC books

Yeah, even the settings are similarish. For my own campaign I use a setting that's like a mixture of WotC, Golarion, and my own homebrew.

@SerenaT I am not the "deciding power" but I totally support small talk here because it is most often at least tangentially related to pets or the events on Q&A site; I think sticking on-topic was more important in the early days years ago because there was a lot more activity and more people - there was the need to prevent "disrupting the flow" to prevent chaos, but nowadays there aren't even enough people to cause the chaos ...

...at the first place, and the rare exceptions are lone and far-in-between so their disruptive behavior has an effect of immediately uniting the rest of the chat to speak within the synchronized calming melody in response.

@Nai54 hi ^.^

@Sarov My setting's mostly homebrew/generic fantasy world #36019. Though we may have alligator gods, that remains to be seen. (I had someone fail a knowledge check and let autocorrect decide what they learned about the temple they were exploring.)

@AllisonC God, I miss playing so much. Once upon a time I would meet friends every other weekend and play D&D with them (the pen & paper version). Haven't done that in 1.5 years now :'(

I currently live with most of the people I play with, we've been too busy for a while to actually play though. We're hoping to start back up again in the next couple of months.

@Elmy Online is a thing. I have played in person like a grand total of 1 hour, but hundreds (thousands?) of hours in Roll20 or Discord.

@Elmy My boyfriend and his group play online - it seems to work oki

We tried online here and we didn't like it. :( The one outside person who plays with us is fine coming over to play when we resume, though, so that's our current plan. Get things settled down and resume.

@Sarov Well I tried finding people online once, but that didn't work out

Roll20 has a LFG thing which kinda works.

@Stephie something else to consider is what to do with the old chat.

@Sarov nothing? Inactive/frozen rooms just remain readable without anyone being able to post.

It’s like a built-in archive function.

Fair, but could reword the description? Or is it better to just not bother?

We should at least post a kind of “no longer used”

then freeze the room

And adjust the description here so that there’s no link any longer.

I should probably collect all that into an answer?

I am writing an answer now, it will tell my opinion of officially considering this chat obsolete and tell to upvote if you agree, downvote if you disagree, or maybe someone has better idea?

@Stephie Makes sense to me.

@lila Usually one post for keep, one for abandon.

Or rather maybe you would like two polar-opposite answers: one saying delete Off Leash, one saying preserve Off leash?

More if someone comes up with a third idea.

@Stephie Okay I think it is better idea to do one answer for deleting and one for preserving. But please tell me, do we want to phrase the first as "abandon", "oficially consider obsolete", or outright "delete"?

I don't think there is need to "delete", its not hurting anything. Abandon seems reasonable, it will freeze byitself

As far as I know deleting chat room is like deleting Q&A post, it is not permanent and can be undeleted later, but I also think there is no need to delete it: just oficially consider obsolete and remove its link from Litter Box description.

That should be enough. If we simply stop using it, it remains frozen and thus archived. „Abandoned“ is probably the word I’d use.

I would suggest some kind of final message (maybe a link to the corresponding Meta decision?) and then manually freeze the room.

Just before some prankster decides that then is the right moment to start posting ;-)

Oh it is unfrozen now :o but it was frozen for 6 months.

Can't, it's - oh.

rushes over to start writing a novel

hahahaha okay :D

@Sarov I knew it! :P

@Nai54 duh. I was intending to remove the fragment ;-)

Update: My friend tried giving the chicken a bowl of mealworms and berries instead of her usual food, and she devoured it.

@Sarov Haha what I meant was "using its mouth a lot" :D

I figured, but the wording amused me nonetheless.

@Elmy Haha that reminds me of how I once fell down the rabbit hole on this chat's early messages and related Meta posts, and at some point in the past a few people were completely seriously upset that "The Litter Box" name strongly favors cat people and excludes dog people, and suggested opening a separate "The Kennel" chat room for dog people :D

@JosephCasey Reading through the chat now @JosephCasey and it seems as if you are trying to farm points. Not illegally, at least, but still farming points. Who cares if you have 500 rep, or 5,000, just as long as you have high-quality content. (and I also answered one of your questions a few hours ago).

Anyway, think about the advice you have received, calm down, and have a good week off @JosephCasey

@lila Alternately, rename it to something like... Pet Peeves! :D