Winter Bash 2020

12:03 AM

@Scratte I just joined ServeFault after seeing an SmokeDetector report for a post there. I raised one spam flag. It was marked helpful, and I earned the Vexillologist hat.

kylejrp

I just tried posting a new question and answered myself it as part of the submission, I'll see if that triggers TikTop

Scratte

12:20 AM

@IanCampbell How do you know the hat isn't "Flag a post that get's deleted"? or "Flag or delete vote a post that gets deleted the same day"? :)

Or the above but replace post with Answer :)

It could even be: Raise a flag that gets handled by a moderator (assuming the deletion had a moderator involved in your case :-)

Ian Campbell

No moderator was involved, my flag was the deciding flag.

Scratte

Though it's been revealed that there are two separate triggers for this hat, so I'm leaning towards my "Flag or delete vote an Answer that gets deleted"

Was your post an Answer?

Ian Campbell

The post I flagged was an answer, yes.

Scratte

It's very tricky to find the trigger of my entire guess as one needs enough reputation to cast a delete vote. But trying to flag a Question would debunk the Answer part of my guess if it triggers a hat.

Ian Campbell

You just need to find a 10k+ user who doesn't care to participate in flagging.

Scratte

12:32 AM

But is willing to cast a delete vote on an NAA Answer? :)

Ian Campbell

As you know, answers are 20k+ to delete.

Maybe by 2038 I'll get there.

Scratte

Ah.. right. But you already have the hat :)

And I'm only 1/10 of the way ;)

Catija

... If you're trying to test whether deletion is necessary... why not try with a mod attention flag and have the mod accept it without actually deleting the post?

There's 170 sites... having the hat on one doesn't prevent you from testing it on a different site.

Ian Campbell

It's tricky to find something needing mod attention on a site I don't already have the flag and then wait 10 years for a mod to get to it. =P

Scratte

We were trying to work out if a delete vote (without flagging) was enough to get the hat.

Ian Campbell

12:36 AM

But yes, that seems like a good idea.

Catija

Or you could find a friendly mod on a site you don't have the hat already.

Someone_Evil

@Catija But then you'd to find a cooperative mod and I don't know where you'd do that :p

Catija

Yeah, most of them are pretty evil...

Scratte

I've once mentioned that one could make moderators happy by raising a custom flag saying "Hi dear moderator. This flag will be super easy for you. I just wanted to make you smile :)". Then a moderator told me that it would make them smile to decline it :D

Catija

OK... so not that mod.

Scratte

12:39 AM

LOL! Right.. :D

Anonymous

Ah, to be a moderator.

Ian Campbell

Sounds like something a certain pair of glasses might say.

Scratte

Of course.. I suppose the reply was a give away :)

kylejrp

I got it on english stackexchange by flagging a comment thread that got moved to chat, I don't know the moderation tools enough to know if that's helpful for solving the trigger or not though

I did also flag one of those comments as rude though, not sure which of the two flags got me the trigger, but the rude comment made it to chat so I'm inclined to think the rude comment flag didn't get handled first

Scratte

@Someone_Evil I hadn't noticed you're a squirrel :)

@kylejrp Ah.. a new puzzle. Is a comment "deleted" if it's moved to chat?

Anonymous

12:46 AM

@Scratte I would assume so, it is removed from the site if it's been moved to chat.

Someone_Evil

Yes, moving and deleting are technically two seperate actions (often done together)

Ian Campbell

@Someone_Evil shall I raise a custom flag on your site, for science?

I can do it on one of your posts so it won't cause anyone else trouble.

U11-Forward

Hello guys!

Someone_Evil

Sure (not that flag history is usually much trouble)

kylejrp

@U11-Forward Hello #1, I'm not far behind!

U11-Forward

12:50 AM

@kylejrp Hello!

Ian Campbell

@Someone_Evil I have raised a custom flag on this post

Catija

... What's with the chat flags?

HyperNeutrino

is there an actual flag going on...

Anonymous

See the above posts.

kylejrp

?

Catija

12:51 AM

If the chat message isn't spam or rude, you'll likely need to use a custom flag to explain why you're flagging.

Someone_Evil

@IanCampbell Marked it helpful :)

Ian Campbell

Excellent, now we wait!

U11-Forward

@IanCampbell Which hat are you targeting?

Ian Campbell

We are trying to clarify exactly which action triggers Vexillologist.

U11-Forward

@IanCampbell Oh okay

Anonymous

12:54 AM

It has something to do with flagging, right?

Ian Campbell

Nothing yet. On the bright side, you've pushed me to create an account on RPG, so now I can upvote the cool questions I see on HNP.

Someone_Evil

Presumably, though I would assume chat flags don't count. They're a bit different

Anonymous

@IanCampbell RPG? HNP?

Ian Campbell

RPG: Role Playing Games. HNP: Hot Network Posts. That is, the random things you see on the sidebar to the right of whatever site you spend most of your time on.

I guess I'm leaning towards flag/vote on a post that is later deleted.

Scratte

Or.. that real estate one ignores until it gets updated and one notices it out of corner of one's eye.. ? :)

@IanCampbell How long ago was it marked helpful?

Ian Campbell

1:02 AM

Only 11 minutes, but still...

Someone_Evil

Yeah, no idea how I reearned vexilololology (first was deleting some flagged comments)

Catija

Chat flags are not a trigger.

kylejrp

FYI I just earned TikTop by answering my own question once the scores were positive, hope that helps someone get it: gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/379420/…

Someone_Evil

But I did reearn Balalaika following a tag edit which reduced some tags to 0 questions earlier today, so that might be relevant info for that trigger (don't know if the second part is, probably shouldn't be)

kylejrp

@Someone_Evil I think we were leaning towards Balalaika being a new user answer your question, but we don't have data to really confirm it yet

Ian Campbell

1:05 AM

@kylejrp Thanks for the info, I don't see any reasonable way to get that hat without self-answering

Catija

Please realize how terrible that would be. R/a flags, if validated, give an immediate 30 minute chat suspension and draw the attention of every 10k network user in chat. Mod flags don't come with the penalty of suspension but do attract the attention of every moderator in chat.

@kylejrp I'm kinda surprised we didn't require them to not be self answers.

Anonymous

@Catija It's not too late to update that, is it?

Ian Campbell

Personally, I think it's a good idea to allow self-answers, because otherwise it encourages high rep users to ask terrible questions.

kylejrp

@Catija Me too! Feels like a weird loophole, but please don't take my hat away 😭🙏

Catija

@Anonymous meh. They're rare enough as it is.

Someone_Evil

1:08 AM

Bad faith self answered questions can open you up to a whole lot of downvotes

Catija

@IanCampbell that's why a positive score is required.

Ian Campbell

I spoke too soon! I earned Vexillologist on RPG

Thus confirming it is the helpful flag that earns the hat.

3

Would you be so kind as to confirm Catija?

Scratte

@Someone_Evil I have the Balalaika. It's been discussed a lot today. It's not editing. Not Answering. Not asking a Question. Not reviewing. cc @kylejrp

DavidPostill

@kylejrp I have 2 questions testing this, 1 self answered and 1 not. Both questions and answers currently at +1. Waiting for a hat script run

Scratte

Why are you discussing the TikTok? It "Ask a question that gets an answer in under 5 minutes. Both the question and answer must have a positive score."

Ian Campbell

1:15 AM

@Someone_Evil I can confirm it's not anything about people answering your question. I have that hat and have only ever asked 2 question, the last answer to which was 5 months ago.

DavidPostill

@kylejrp It's not. I earned it on Super User where I hadn't posted any questions.

@Scratte Damn, I missed the 5 minutes on both of my tests :/

Scratte

@IanCampbell But.. the plot thickens

kylejrp

Vexillologist is vexing

Scratte

@Scratte Here's the guess

Someone_Evil

Pretty sure marking a flag as helpful is supposed to be one of them. Though seeing as my first one got revoked, it's probably marking a post flag as helpful

kylejrp

1:25 AM

Speaking of vexillologists, this is a worthy watch youtube.com/watch?v=pnv5iKB2hl4

Scratte

@Someone_Evil The revoking was due to a bug that gave them out without the user having earned them, no?

Someone_Evil

@Scratte Yes, but my initial earning was for marking comment flags as helpful

user435118

Did we figure out what balalaika is?

user435118

I earned it on MSE a few hours ago without doing anything.

Scratte

@Someone_Evil Ahh.. so it's both for the users and for the moderators :)

@Xnero That's good to know. No we didn't. My guess was to post comments on 3 separate days and receive the flag sometime the day after.

user435118

1:36 AM

@Scratte I have no logged actions for the past day.

Scratte

Yes. That blows a hole in my guess :)

You seem to have commented only on the 16th.

Were you logged in at MSE when you got it? Or did you get notified on another site?

user435118

I can't remember, sorry.

Scratte

OK :) No worries. This hat is a source of much mystery for us :)

Could you have commented on the 17th and 18th, but the comments were deleted?

U11-Forward

2:55 AM

Is the Samovar hat for having a self-answer with 2 upvotes?

Scratte

3:10 AM

@U11-Forward You know there's no more room for hats on your profile, right? :)

U11-Forward

@Scratte Yeh I know

@Scratte But I still want Samovar...

Scratte

I have no idea how to get that. Sorry.

U11-Forward

@Scratte haha no more room for hat

U11-Forward

4:23 AM

I am pretty bad with Hat Dash, my best score is only 1175

U11-Forward

5:21 AM

I have 200 rep today

215 now

U11-Forward

6:07 AM

Lol 275 now

Rob

Bug: I'm so good I'm on the Network List twice, placing 21st out of 318708.

U11-Forward

@Rob The first in the leader board is always yourself

@Rob Try going to another page

Rob

Follow the link, to page 2

U11-Forward

@Rob You're still there right?

Rob

I get what you're saying, on the per-site Rankings the seperation is better; and it's obvious that the top one is your overall placement, there the spacing is the same.

U11-Forward

6:11 AM

@Rob Yeah true...

Rob

On the second page (of the Network Ranking) I'm 21 twice so it appears double listed; while on MSE I'm 6th, so it's never confusing regardless of which page I'm on. 🤯💨

U11-Forward

Now I think I should get Rep Hunter hat...

Rob

It's been a good day @U11-Forward when you got 275 rep and have no room left for hats; how do you choose hats that aren't shown, is it scrollable or are they lost?

U11-Forward

@Rob Now I got 290 rep today, one UV didn't count

@Rob Have no Idea where to see hats lol

Yes I got the Rep Hunter!!!

Rob

@U11-Forward This link WFM: stackoverflow.com/users/8708364/…

I can see 29.

U11-Forward

6:21 AM

It Becomes smaller lol

kylejrp

6

Q: Why does my profile show twice on the Winter Bash leaderboard?

In the Windows Phone leaderboard, it shows my profile twice. This shouldn't happen. Here's the link: Windows Phone Leaderboard - Winter Bash

U11-Forward

Rob

That's what I see.

U11-Forward

@Rob It becomes smaller lol

Rob

Lots of room for hat:

3 hours ago, by U11-Forward

@Scratte haha no more room for hat

U11-Forward

6:24 AM

@Rob yup

Rob

There could be 11 or more hats remaining.

U11-Forward

@Rob Yeah around that

Rob

If it shrank one more time there could be 6 rows of 9.

U11-Forward

@Rob Haha yeah that will be strange

Rob

When I started there was only 5-6 in a row.

U11-Forward

6:28 AM

@Rob Yeah until you get 29 hats lol...

Rob

When you have very few hats they are bigger and fewer per row:

U11-Forward

@Rob Much fewer per row

Rob

They have 6, you have 8; but if there were nine or ten there could be ~70 hats maximum.

U11-Forward

@Rob Yeah

Rob

You seem to be the Leader, yet maybe you could still get twice as many as you have now.

U11-Forward

6:37 AM

@Rob Hard to say i think there is only 39 hats this year

Rob

Got to make coffee, replenish blood pressure.

U11-Forward

@Rob Haha :-)

Rob

I dunno, I was never planning to get as many as I have now.

Eran

Yes, they probably won't go far above 40 hats.

U11-Forward

@Eran yeah

Rob

6:38 AM

But, there is room.

U11-Forward

@Rob Haha yeah

Eran

The most they ever had was around 41-42

Rob

yesah sounded bettered.

U11-Forward

@Rob Haha

Yesah!

Rob

✔️

U11-Forward

6:39 AM

Yesah

YESAH!

0

Q: Curious badge track hard to understand

Since there is a hat on Winter Bash about the Curious badge (doing what you should for getting curious badge), I always check the tracking of the Curious badge, but I see that it seems that it tracks all your question since you created an account, and writes: "need positive question record", I ge...

discussion feature-request badges badge-progress

Here is my MSO question

Rob

Like huzzah! but means Yes!

U11-Forward

@Rob Haha correct

Typo to a joke

kylejrp

@Eran Just wait for the Winter Bash Battle Pass to come out with 100 tiers of new hats to earn, just like all the new video games do 😉

Rob

@U11-Forward There's a Q&A on MSE about the Curious badge.

Think of it as a double value tracker - one number is integer and the other is binary. Similar to the discussion Tag Badge, except it has two integers (and displays them both without having to click on the progress:

U11-Forward

@Rob Maybe yeah

Rob

6:49 AM

^ From your link above (on SO).

U11-Forward

@Rob I have the problem on SO not MSO

Rob

I don't think you could have it on MSO, as there's no reputation on per-site-meta.

U11-Forward

@Rob Yeah true

Rob

Here is the MSE question:

23

Q: Don't recommend the asking days badge series in the user profile if user doesn't have a positive question record

The Curious, Inquisitive, and Socratic badge family (i.e. the "asking days badges") are awarded based on two criteria: Achieved a threshold number of qualifying days (days when one's asked a positively-received question, and asked no negatively-received questions) Have a question record score of...

feature-request profile-page badge-progress asking-days-badges

Not the same question, but might assist to understand, or answer your question.

Gasps, coffee, ....

U11-Forward

7:08 AM

@YaakovEllis Is the trigger for Samovar hat to write a self-answer that gets 2 or more upvotes, but the question also gets 2 or more upvotes?

Rob

7:23 AM

@U11-Forward You can attempt to test it there; as they don't have Samovar now, but it's a per-site-meta and might not be the same result as the main site.

U11-Forward

@Rob I have it now on SO

Rob

Give them a couple of votes and check if they get the hat.

Did you get it that way?

U11-Forward

@Rob Yup

Rob

Thanks.

Could check if it works on meta sites, with the link above.

U11-Forward

@Rob I almost sure that It's like that since I did a self Q&A but my question only gets 1 upvote, answer got 3, that didn't give me the hat until somebody else upvoted my question

Rob

7:26 AM

Was that a trigger in a previous year?

There are hints here, Peter says just 2 upvotes.

U11-Forward

@Rob Yeah i know the answer 2 or more and question 2 or more

Rob

K

One more here will test on a child meta.

Now we wait ...

Yaakov Ellis

@U11-Forward :thumbsup:

U11-Forward

@YaakovEllis Yes i got it right! because I got it lol :-)

Rob

7:53 AM

We still wait here to see if it works on a per-site-meta - he has the votes, but not the hat, yet.

U11-Forward

Oof 320 rep today

Rob

@U11-Forward Will you edit the Community Wiki for Samovar, now that it's confirmed, and add the Spoiler?

U11-Forward

@Rob Ok I will

Rob

Better you than me, or someone else.

Not really a "credit" or benefit; really more of a punishment :)

U11-Forward

@Rob Done now!

Wonder if there is a hat for reputation, like Eliza Doolots from last year

Eran

8:13 AM

@U11-Forward Yes there is! Just noticed Eliza Doolots

U11-Forward

@Eran REALLY???

Eran

This user has it - stackoverflow.com/users/10676716/gmb?tab=topactivity

U11-Forward

@Eran Wow

@Glorfindel There is an Eliza Doolots hat!

stackoverflow.com/users/10676716/gmb?tab=topactivity

That guys has it^

Eran

That dude got 2035 rep on SO since the start of WB. You probably need 2020

U11-Forward

@Eran Maybe!

@Eran Or 2021

I have 860 on SO so far @Eran

On all sites I have: 1108!

Rob

8:24 AM

It should be one more than last year, not that that's any harder to get.

U11-Forward

@Rob Haha yeah

Rob

Still no Samovar for meta Q&A, probably been long enough, maybe not.

Toby Mak

@Rob I can confirm that it doesn't work on meta with this post, but no Samovar yet.

It might also be because the answer is community-wiki, but I don't see how that could affect the badge.

* the hat

U11-Forward

9:35 AM

After UTC 12:00 PM we can all get the Where in the World hat!

U11-Forward

10:07 AM

Wait... what I just got the Where in the World...

Eran

And I got Balalaika again. I hope this time it stays. Do we know the trigger for that one yet?

U11-Forward

@Eran I got it too yesterday

@Eran Did you get where in the world?

Eran

Not yet. I have to vote something first

DavidPostill

@U11-Forward Timezones

U11-Forward

@DavidPostill Yeah

DavidPostill

10:17 AM

U11-Forward

@DavidPostill Oof yeah

Zoe

12:13 PM

Is getting both where in the worlds considered a bug?

Thomas Markov

I only got 1...they have the same trigger though

Toby Mak

@Zoe Yep, and I have the same problem as you.

Zoe

Ninja'd: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/358401/…

rene

You'll get a hat! You'll get a hat! You all get a hat! Oh, no wait... forget that.

Toby Mak

It's been fixed for me, so no gold stars for everyone.

Eran

12:22 PM

Is the trigger for Cordovan hat known? If not, I think I figured it out.

U11-Forward

Hello guys I am back.

double-beep

@Eran yes it's in the hat list MSE post

Zoe

@U11-Forward Hi Back, I'm Zoe

double-beep

> Post a comment on a question that, within a day, gets edited by the OP.

U11-Forward

@Zoe Hello

Eran

12:24 PM

@double-beep yep, that seems to be right.

Cody Gray

Does anyone know how the decision was made in past years whether to award the sun or the moon?

Is it based on geolocation?

Eran

@CodyGray I believe it was random

Cody Gray

The time of day in your region, based on IP, in which you first access the site on the award date?

@Eran Ah, well, that's significantly less cool. :-)

Zoe

guess not

rene

yeah, it is random.

Cody Gray

12:29 PM

The White Bear decides

U11-Forward

@CodyGray Haha lol

rene

@CodyGray Hardware RNG: sklivvz.com/posts/i-built-a-hardware-rng-for-christmas ...

Cody Gray

Ah, right. I remember that blog post, but did not make the connection.

Thanks.

Derpy

12:52 PM

@Scratte been the same since day one, see here for reference. Devs won't give a clear reply either, so do not go waste time. This is also relevant, apparently it has been ignored again.

Scratte

2:42 PM

@Derpy I do not remember writing that message. No idea what happened there. I don't think I've ever started a message with /..

Yaakov Ellis

3:05 PM

@CodyGray relevant: twitter.com/Nick_Craver/status/1339179199131693057?s=20

Cody Gray

3:24 PM

@YaakovEllis Is that a Unix-style home folder path that I see?

With the migration to .NET Core, a change to Linux systems might be feasible, but how could that be in historical code?

DavidPostill

What's the trigger for Soapbox? Does it need multiple answers?

Tinkeringbell

> Ask a question with the [discussion] tag on a meta site that gets a score of 2 or more and receives 2 or more answers.

DavidPostill

@Tinkeringbell Thanks

Zoe

3:39 PM

@CodyGray The clearly superior style home folder path you mean? :P

Cody Gray

3:51 PM

Well, it's just a shell feature. It's not an actual path.

That's weird... my soapboxes don't usually get answers. :-)

Soleil - Mathieu Prévot

4:39 PM

@DavidPostill what's the trigger for balalaika ?

Zoe

I just got one on MSE for no apparent reason

Might be related to having a certain number of upvoted comments?

DavidPostill

@Soleil-MathieuPrévot We don't know

Rob

4:59 PM

@U11-Forward Fixed:

nobody

5:10 PM

What sort of random does Where in the world? use? I got seven of them on different sites and all were Sun

Catija

You only get one

The first is random, the rest are the same.

Rob

@YaakovEllis, due to this answer would you reconsider your red tag on the question; the complaint has been fixed, rather than left alone (by design).

Rob

7:24 PM

^ Thank you.

Charlie Armstrong

7:38 PM

So I've seen people guessing at hat triggers in here. Is the idea that anyone can throw a guess in here and someone will confirm it as correct or incorrect? If so, my guess for the Vexillologist hat is that you need to get an accepted spam flag.

DavidPostill

8:07 PM

2 days ago, by Catija

You could say there's two triggers for Vex.

dbc

9:29 PM

For "Rep Hunter", what is the exact definition of day? The description days, Post 10 answers on the same day. All answers must have a positive score. - but is that UTC calendar day, 24 hour period, day in my time zone, or something else?

@Catija How vexing.

kylejrp

@dbc I expect that it's UTC day

Rob

@dbc One year day-based requirements were 14 hours before and 12 hours after it is the required day anywhere in the world - that huge leeway was to avoid "why didn't I get ..." hat questions and make it fun instead of stressful.

dbc

@Rob That's for hats like "Where in the World". But since the time span of that rule is around 2 days, I bet it doesn't apply to "Rep Hunter".

@kylejrp That seems likely but I'd like confirmation.

Rob

9:59 PM

I wouldn't bet any money that there's that much leeway, but if you don't get the hat for 10 in less than 24 hours I'd file a bug report - that's why there's bound to be a few extra hours above just 24, to avoid any such bug report - two days would be "The King of Wishful Thinking".

kylejrp

Not sure if it's helpful, but if you visit the URL for a hat name, you can see if it exists or not. For example, I don't have "This Is Fine" unlocked but I can see the shadow of it here: https://winterbash2020.stackexchange.com/this-is-fine

Other pages just 404

I ran through all the old hat names from 2013 onwards but there weren't any duplicates that I saw that weren't on the 2020 hat list

Scratte

10:47 PM

@kylejrp Since you did that the staff at Stack used their time travel machine and changed the names of some (all) the duplicates, except that one. Try every combination you can think of that's not a duplicate name of the previous ones ;)

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