TRPG General Chat

7:23 PM

@Rubiksmoose We could, and they'll be protected next time they're spammed, but it's just, you know, based on their M.O., absolutely guaranteed to happen

Hence why I and others tend to protect a question immediately after just one spellcaster spam post

Since it'll be just a matter of time til the second one

not necessarily after other kinds of spam posts, but those ones for sure

Someone_Evil

I guess only tangentially related, what do normal users (10 - 15'000 rep) see on protected questions as of the update?

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener I guess for me it would matter how soon we could expect the next spammy post. If it was one week or less definitely insta-protect. If it is months or more, maybe worth it to wait. Considering that protection prevents the vast majority of visitors to the site from answering, I think it is a meaningful thing to think about.

And I'd be willing to trade the chance (even a sure thing) of a spam post in a few months for the chance that some new user could give us a quality answer.

At least on a new post.

doppelgreener

It takes one vote on anything to be able to answer a protected question

It's not a big hurdle

And, no, I don't want it to be something we wait for

We put up those protections. Someone removed them without checking with anyone. That shouldn't have happened, and it shouldn't be something we just, you know, chill out on.

3

Work got put in so that additional work wouldn't have to be done again in the future.

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener The biggest hurdle for the site IMO is to get people started using it. So getting that first vote, that first post, is significantly harder then me getting an upvote now, for example.

doppelgreener

Sure?

So some several hundred questions cannot get one brand new user's answer

vs they cannot get absolutely guaranteed spam

(short of all the spellcaster spammers just packing it in tomorrow and calling it quits)

Bear in mind the system is going to protect a lot of them anyway, even if we do nothing, after they get spammed again

Rubiksmoose

7:36 PM

@doppelgreener Now you're shifting the topic. I'm talking about going forward. It has nothing to do with what has happened. I'm assuming that we reprotect all questions here and thinking about how we improve our use of protection going forward. I think every single person on this site thinks that the actions were wrong.

doppelgreener

It's just a matter of not having them get spammed again

@Rubiksmoose Then I am not sure what you mean by "might be worth it to wait" (for what?)

I thought you were talking about waiting to revert the de-protections

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener oh no I see where the wires crossed. I was speaking assuming a new post popped up and got spam. Totally separate from the whole issue of what to do with the unprotected posts.

doppelgreener

typically it takes some time before spam arrives, it doesn't tend to arrive on brand new posts

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener (which BTW we do still have to wait on that even if the community decided, the people that are able to pull the trigger on this SE-side are on vacation til sometimes later this week, at least the easily accessible ones)

doppelgreener

so usually by the time it gets spammed + protected the dust has settled

Someone_Evil

7:40 PM

@Someone_Evil (Because I can check by finding a protected Q on a site I'm such a user on): Those users see no indication on the actual question that it is protected (without checking the timeline). That seems important when considering 15k learning what that tool is. They won't have seen it that much before it's theirs to wield.

Rubiksmoose

@Someone_Evil oh really? huh. Not even at the bottom? Because I always forget to look at the bottom.

doppelgreener

whaaat, really?

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener That's fair - a good point.

nitsua60

@Carcer There does exist such a collection--a whole series of weekly articles by Mearls and Cook that were on the Wizards website leading up to and through the Next playtest. Like 40 of them, maybe. Everything from high-level theories (bounded accuracy, feat trees or no) to consideration of individual classes and mechanics.

Someone_Evil

@Rubiksmoose User's that are blocked from answering by a protection see an explanation instead of the answer box (even on closed questions, confusingly)

Or, it's possible 10k's see something, but I'd need to burrow one to find that out

Rubiksmoose

7:43 PM

@Someone_Evil That just seems really messy...

Someone_Evil

@Rubiksmoose It sure was

Rubiksmoose

Then who sees the post notice at the bottom? I swear that is a thing.

Or it was

Someone_Evil

Post notice on which bottom?

Rubiksmoose

On the bottom of the post. There's one notice that ends up there and I thought it was protection.

Someone_Evil

The old protection notice was at the bottom of the q I think?

Rubiksmoose

7:45 PM

17

Q: Move the "highly active question" banner down below the question

Maybe it's just me, but the new "highly-active" banner seems kind of jarring: It feels to me like the most eye-catching thing on the page, positioned as it is above the question text, and yet it's probably irrelevant to me: the average person to arrive on a question just wants to read the cont...

Yup. That was changed I guess.

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nitsua60

8:02 PM

What's the word I'm looking for: it's kinda the opposite of notoriety, something in the neighborhood of obscurity and privacy...

LizWeir

Anonymity?

not quite, hm

nitsua60

I'm writing to a monastery in the Canadian Rockies, and trying to make it clear that I don't want to intrude. (If their _________ would argue against my request.)

Someone_Evil

Ignonomy?

nitsua60

Like, "I want to respect your obscurity" just doesn't sound right, though.

(It took a bit to track them down.)

Someone_Evil

Seclusetivity? (doesn't quite sit right, probably isn't a real word)

nitsua60

8:05 PM

hermitude =)

solitarity =\

I'm just going to go with 'privacy.'

Rubiksmoose

@doppelgreener BTW the recent comments were not meant to be argumentative there, just to document what I thought was a salient point in a more visible place (on Meta).

I realize you were here and active for the discussion in chat so just wanted to be sure that was clear.

doppelgreener

gotcha

Rubiksmoose

(obviously if you have counter points you wanted to bring up, feel free, but the intent of them wasn't to try to shoot down your answer)

doppelgreener

no, i appreciate it

naturally we should be looking at the facts of what's going on

it's the ... doing the opposite of that which i didn't like :P

Rubiksmoose

Definitely. Sticking to facts is a good plan lol

I also recognize that I have a "competing" answer so any facts I share could look like I'm trying to argue one down

doppelgreener

8:21 PM

nah it doesn't look like that to me, it's fine

LizWeir

@nitsua60 "seclusion" might be what you want, actually? (from Someone_Evil reminding me!)

Carcer

8:51 PM

yeah, seclusion seems appropriate

KorvinStarmast

9:30 PM

@HellSaint it did until they changed it with an errata, and in the srd

HellSaint

@KorvinStarmast Oh okay I'm not completely insane yet then

KorvinStarmast

@HellSaint yeah, it was a bit of a wake up call to me in re one of my early answers when they errata'd that. Kind of bummed me out, I liked the original version better.

@doppelgreener meta se or meta rpgse?

Someone_Evil

Are you sure? I'm not finding that anywhere

doppelgreener

@KorvinStarmast meta rpg.se, but a lot's happened since that message, and i even went and left a meta post

KorvinStarmast

@doppelgreener ok sorry, I am catching up, will get back to you. I only got through 160 of the q's, and the "RL spell casting" bait were among those I thought might need a re protect. Not sure how I find them all, though.

doppelgreener

9:35 PM

no problem!

You don't need to.

Staff can re-protect them.

KorvinStarmast

ah, ok

doppelgreener

Rubiksmoose has done some SEDE queries too, to better understand how much stuff is spammed and how much of it was protected.

(and also how much protected stuff was protected because of spam)

Someone_Evil

And eventually we managed to parse how the autoprotection condition works correctly... :)

Rubiksmoose

@KorvinStarmast do you mind if I ask you something about your most recent flag here? If not I could open a chat or something.

KorvinStarmast

@Rubiksmoose ask away

Rubiksmoose

9:43 PM

@KorvinStarmast I'm not really seeing an insult there. My read is that it's a bit presumptive (and of course we know how experienced HICC is) but I don't read the comment as aggressive at all. Am I missing something?

KorvinStarmast

@Rubiksmoose That comment was asking if HICC understood gaming and what a BBEG is. What you are missing is something inside my head that was screaming "uh, hello, HICC was fighting BBEGs and running BBEG fights while you were an embryo" or something like that. It looked quite "you don't get it" as a comment with a snide tone. To me, anyway.

But, if you see it differently, that's fine. Have not had my sedative yet today (that's what beer is now called) so perhaps my annoyance factor is off of calibration

I'll call the calibration lab, see if we can get it re set ... if need be.

Rubiksmoose

@KorvinStarmast I'll let it percolate a bit and see if I read it differently in a few. I think part of it is that we know HICC and they don't. So it might help to read with that perspective?

Anyways just wanted to check in :)

KorvinStarmast

yeah, I see that, but HICC was being the usual super helpful, and it just struck me as a cheap shot ... I can see how that was me seeing it through a lens and all that ...

nitsua60

@LizWeir Seclusery is a good call =)

Carcer

what's the interest in the monastery, anyway?

(I assume something to do with bells, if my memory of your interests is correct)

Someone_Evil

9:51 PM

Nitsua is clearly sick of us all :)

nitsua60

@Someone_Evil (he he he)

KorvinStarmast

@Someone_Evil he should have worn better protection ... PPE is the new fashion statement

Carcer

heh

nitsua60

@Carcer Yeah, it's bells. It turns out that there's an "unlisted" bell tower hiding in the Canadian Rockies!

Carcer

off on a retreat to contemplate the meaning of life, the universe, and 5e spell targeting mechanics

nitsua60

9:52 PM

vision and light rules...

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 There's probably a joke there with unlisted and bell corresponding to unlisted phone calls. Or maybe not actually.

nitsua60

("Unlisted" in the sense that they're not a member of the North American Guild, they don't show in the worldwide database of bell towers, and they don't accept visitors ringing.)

Rubiksmoose

@nitsua60 Do they allow breaking in at night with a group of your closest and sneakiest ringers to ring their bells?

Medix2

Is there a link for "don't ask multiple questions"? I found an MSE one, is that the go-to?

Someone_Evil

12

Q: Is there a rule or guideline stating that each post should only ask a single question?

A mod said I should ask if there is a rule that says one single (arbitrarily defined) question per post. Too Broad does not mention it. Is it an actual rule somewhere or a guideline or what? And how does it define 1 question? Questions can need very broad answers (like explaining how a spell wor...

discussion questions close-reasons faq-proposal

Medix2

9:58 PM

@Someone_Evil Ah just found that too, was looking at the FAQ but see now that it's not there

I wonder if there's a way to see the "most linked to Meta posts", hmmm

Someone_Evil

Views would give some indication

@Medix2 Do you think it should be?

Medix2

@Someone_Evil Already upvoted XD

I have the FAQ proposal page or whatever it's called, followed

Someone_Evil

Actually, I don't think we broadcast it very much, but a bunch more questions were added to the FAQ proposal index. For those who would like to opine, or just vote.

6

Rubiksmoose

@Medix2 So do I. That follow feature was the best new thing they've added in ages. I love it.

Medix2

@Rubiksmoose I wonder if you get notifications on comments on deleted posts...

Rubiksmoose

10:04 PM

@Medix2 Hmmm I don't believe so.

@Medix2 Did you?

I got that

Neat, then one does

Wait uh... how did you know I followed that?

Rubiksmoose

Well that was a fast experiment XD

Someone_Evil

10:06 PM

Diamond moderators can see the list of followed posts on your profile

Medix2

Oh did you delete the comment? the notification went away presumably since I never clicked through to it

Someone_Evil

Yeah, no need to leave it (even on a deleted post)

Medix2

10:18 PM

Apparently the "frequent" tab is literally "most linked to"

Someone_Evil

Huh, how 'bout that

Bardic Wizard

Hey, is there a pregenerated comment for formatting issues in an answer?

Someone_Evil

I think formatting issues come in too many shapes and sizes

Medix2

@Someone_Evil 0_0 I need to know how you typed "sizes" like that (or it's normal and my brain is telling me it isn't)

Bardic Wizard

Specifically: Names of spells, feature names, and other conventions of RPGSE

Rubiksmoose

10:22 PM

@Medix2 How about that indeed! I've never really even payed attention to that..

Medix2

@Rubiksmoose I can't find a way to search for "Frequent" with any sort of other parameters hmmm

Someone_Evil

@Medix2 It's code formatting (which looks like that in chat), enclose in `

Medix2

@Someone_Evil Oh it's just code, *facepalms* give me my monospaced font!

Someone_Evil

@BardicWizard Those conventions may or may not be game specific

Bardic Wizard

For d&d 5e

The Post in question:

Someone_Evil

10:24 PM

And in general not super important(?)

Bardic Wizard

0

A: Is this combination of a pre-cast Shadow Blade with a Quickened Green-Flame Blade and then a Twinned (action) Green-Flame Blade legal?

I agree with above post, you can by RaW cast gfb off shadowblade but can't twin gfb as it can hit multiple targets, it should be noted that boomingblade CAN be twinned, as it is a single target spell. It should also be noted you should ask your DM if you can take both greenflameblade/boomingblade...

I might just leave a generic welcome, but I found it hard to read

Someone_Evil

Huh, green flame blade wasn't carried over to XGtE? Contender for most common non-core core spell?

Bardic Wizard

I left a comment.

And Cubic appears to have said what I meant to say

Medix2

The problem to me is that the answer isn't answering the question, but like... it provides a very similar spell that does work.... it kinda says, "unfortunately (as others have explained) what you want to do won't work; however, you can do something similar"

Bardic Wizard

^^^

Medix2

10:39 PM

And imagine if the only answer there had exlpained why GFB didn't work and explained that BB was a good alternative; nobody would say "remove the information on BB because it doesn't answer the question" (or maybe they would and I'm out of the loop)

Someone_Evil

There's 7 upvotes on the comment suggesting to do that, so maybe I should've. But now it feels awkward

Bardic Wizard

Honestly, I’m not gonna flag it as a non answer but I’m not sure how it should be improved

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 gotta a link or is this way back machine material?

nitsua60

@KorvinStarmast Wayback. I might be able to track down a link, but I think it's buried in a comment on an answer I wrote the mentions bounded accuracy.

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 that would be a great find.

Rubiksmoose

10:47 PM

@KorvinStarmast there's an answer here on site that references some of it, but yeah its WBM

nitsua60

see footnote 2: rpg.stackexchange.com/a/80708/23970

crap--no. Wrong thing.

@KorvinStarmast it all starts here: web.archive.org/web/20131203143449/https://www.wizards.com/DnD/…

Medix2

There's this thing but I don't think that's what you want?

KorvinStarmast

@nitsua60 thanks! o7

nitsua60

Although, yeah, it looks like you might want to dig back even earlier, as @Medix2 found something nearly a year earlier that's relevant.

Someone_Evil

11:28 PM

G' evening @kviiri

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