TRPG General Chat

nitsua60

00:01

@Miniman (I thought I pinged you--regarding the SEDE query--'round 0530 your time...?)

Miniman

@nitsua60 This post was 9:20 my time.

nitsua60

Realllyyyyyy... I always thought we were 12 hours apart, +/-1 for "daylight" stupidity.

Miniman

More like 18, from memory.

BESW

@Miniman Super Serious Reality Simulations?

Miniman

We're at +10, you're around -8, right?

@BESW SQL Server Reporting Services.

nitsua60

00:05

@Miniman That's west coast. Here on the east coast we alternate between -4 and -5, depending on whether we're 60 or 90 degrees west of London.

Miniman

Ah, so closer to 15.

nitsua60

Or 9 =)

But still three off of what I'd thought =)

BESW

@Miniman No, I'm just barely keeping up with the database talk going on here, if that.

Miniman

Ah, I just wondered - I'm having somewhat of a graphic design issue with it.

nitsua60

Someone's playing your tune, @Miniman =)

Miniman

00:11

Nah, I have no useful advice to offer there - he's already decided his build, just wants levelling order.

Also, hatmas this year is acting as a perverse disincentive to participating in the site for me.

nitsua60

@Miniman Interesting; sorry to hear that.

Something about this year, or Hatmas in general?

Miniman

Well, this year I can only use the site while at work on mobile, and I'm trying to minimise even that. That leaves the period between work and sleep, which is a quiet one anyway.

trogdor

this year's hatmass has had a much lesser incentive for me, personally

though I did like the vader hat and this moon hat a lot

none of the others though,......

Miniman

That, combined with the much less exciting and much less attainable hat collection, makes hatmas not an incentive.

trogdor

except, I do like SSD's hat, at least on his particular avatar

Miniman

00:18

And it becomes a disincentive because it means the site is a mess - edits bumping random questions all the time, fastest gun in the west even stronger, and so on.

So I've still been doing stuff, but I've felt fairly unenthused and disenfranchised overall.

nitsua60

@Miniman =(

Miniman

It could also be a case of not being on the leaderboard - I'm only human, and not winning makes me less inclined to play the game :)

nitsua60

sorta a vicious "death spiral" of Hatmas, eh?

Miniman

Yeah, that initial 12 hours of not being active while hatmas was getting started sort of set me on a downward path.

trogdor

last year there were a lot more hats that I either liked because of what they looked like, or what you would do to get them

this year, not so much

personally

Miniman

00:23

Yeah, this year it's much more dependent on others, and I haven't seen any hats I really wanted anyway.

trogdor

though, again, I still really really like this one hat

@Miniman I have had an issue with that with every hatmass I have been here for

I get that some of them probably should rely on other people, but having more than just one that does that is a bummer to me

BESW

Mmm. My "Bad Dads" gimmick is a little forced compared to last year's.

trogdor

and this year in particular has more than just that restriction on some hats

nitsua60

you mean, the number that end up depending on votes?

Miniman

And then you've got SO-exclusive ones, and ones which rely on cross-site participation...

trogdor

00:25

yeah

they upped the ante on all of that this year, not a direction I am excited for

Miniman

@nitsua60 And stuff like the Jayne one, which requires that other people close a question that can later be reopened.

I mean, if I see a question that needs closing, I'm gonna cast my vote.

trogdor

yeah, one issue for me is that a lot of the hats this year encourage you to do things I normally wouldn't do here

and besides that, in a possibly abnormal way to get said hats

not a thing I am interested in doing

BESW

Tubey fair, Hatmas has always been about gamification of desired behaviours--perhaps this is a year when the behaviours we've been enjoying are common enough to not need seasonal gamification?

trogdor

some of the hats this year are also easier to get than normal, which I like

but it seems like every hat that isn't ridiculously easy to get is locked behind an action I don't feel comfortable partaking in

it's a weird hatmas all around

Miniman

Given how successful it was, and how much it's needed, I'm amazed they didn't bring back a hat for welcoming new users.

trogdor

00:35

it is odd

considering, especially, that they do seem to bring back the same hat, or very similar hats, every year

not the same hat really, but a hat for doing the same thing

getting a gold or silver badge, getting a particular number of votes on an answer to a downvoted question, stuff like that

nitsua60

00:56

My kids made their grandma a classic gable-roofed birdhouse for Christmas, which I just wrapped. That required some serious creativity, wrapping a pentagonal prism neatly.

@SevenSidedDie I don't know how you do it every morning.

trogdor

does what every morning?

nitsua60

=)

Magician

Wrap a pentagonal prism neatly. Keep up with the conversation, sheesh :P

nitsua60

[waits for it...]

trogdor

oooh

nitsua60

01:00

=)

trogdor

@Magician oh please, like I don't have better things to do XD :P

Magician

I know, I just got here after missing for a week :P

trogdor

hehehe

LegendaryDude

01:48

@nitsua60 In cases like that I resort to the ol' gift bag and tissue paper.

Adeptus

02:09

@LegendaryDude Deliberately oversized box & ton of bubblewrap

LegendaryDude

@Adeptus My wife does that to keep me guessing at what's in the box, haha.

doppelgreener

03:41

@LegendaryDude There was an imgur album about someone putting small gift in a guitar-shaped box

BESW

@Miniman I think ooze amulets are all-weather terrain vehicles; do they count?

SevenSidedDie

@nitsua60 I have a really good tailor.

doppelgreener

@Miniman there was a hat for doing that..?

nitsua60

@SevenSidedDie =)

Miniman

@doppelgreener Last year, yeah.

doppelgreener

03:47

@Miniman i am very confused because i don't remember it even a bit

nitsua60

from stackoverflow.blog/2016/01/Winter-Bash-2015-Hats-Off

doppelgreener

oh huh interesting

guess it must have been a secret hat

i wasn't in the habit of welcoming people regularly back then i think

BESW

Was there ever a hat for queue clearing?

SevenSidedDie

@BESW I don't recall one… If there had been, I imagine SO being pitchforks and torches since their queues never get cleared.

BESW

[feigns indifference]

nitsua60

03:57

113

Q: Greeter Hat seems to be causing problems

Is it just me or is the Greeter Hat causing a lot of questionable upvoting and trivial editing? Perhaps I'm growing cynical, but it seems like I've come across a lot of polished turds with single upvotes this morning. Greeter edit and upvote another user’s first post, which must have bee...

It's kinda interesting seeing how the hats actually are fairly-similar from year-to-year:

26

A: What positive behavior is each hat encouraging?

Questions about the origins/purpose of the hats have come up a few different ways in a few different places this year. I was planning on including a fairly detailed rundown at the end of the event. I think at one point I said in the blog post, although I've realized the post-mortem on meta would ...

doppelgreener

oh now i remember this :D

it wasn't for commenting, that's the confusing bit for me

nitsua60

Yeah, I didn't remember it either.

doppelgreener

13:38

Woo! Marty day! @BESW

BESW

[grin]

Chat doesn't seem to have caught up yet.

@doppelgreener Troggy and I talked a bit about what makes us happy about our Bubblegumshoe campaign in the Not At Bar. If you have anything to add, please do.

doppelgreener

@BESW I shall take a look while I wait on my train!

BESW