The Ink Spot

Wrzlprmft

07:41

Who are those persons voting to close everything as tech support? For example, this question. Sure, it may be off-topic and I for once do not understand what is asked, but it’s certainly not tech support.

Vincent

08:31

@Wrzlprmft Hey there. I think people are too lazy to fill out the 'something else' form?

Wrzlprmft

Possible, but this is really beginning to become a problem.

Vincent

I do agree

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll keep an eye on it. If it really gets out of hand, a meta post might be in order

And if you think me / us too slow in that, be my guest :)

Wrzlprmft

It’s not so big a problem, if one person selects a bad close reason. It’s a problem, if four other people are willing to follow and leave the asker with no guidance whatsoever

Vincent

yup.

Good to see you here, btw. You're doing great work on the site, imho :D

Wrzlprmft

For example here.

Vincent

08:39

Yeah, indeed. Seems like 'tech support' is the default reason for 'I'm too lazy to think about this'

The fact that there are a lot of close votes lately, doesn't help in the voters'... conciseness?

typing up a meta post now

Wrzlprmft

Thanks

Vincent

0

Q: Is the close voting system lacking or a hassle?

Lately, more and more questions that are off-topic have garnered close votes with the 'tech support' reason, even when they obviously aren't. Examples here and here. We have seen a definite increase in close votes, and I understand that they can be a hassle to vote on. I suspect that the reason ...

Oof, only two more views on my Helvetica question and it's gone gold :D

Wrzlprmft

I suggest that you add a sentence or two why selecting a proper close reason is important.

Vincent

08:55

@Wrzlprmft at your service, sir :)

you know there's edit buttons on Meta, too? ;P

Wrzlprmft

Yes, but I knew that you were still around and had a better overview of your post than I do.

Vincent

I'm pulling yer leg :)

Thanks for that edit :)

Stack Exchange

1

Q: Is the close voting system lacking or a hassle?

Lately, more and more questions that are off-topic have garnered close votes with the 'tech support' reason, even when they obviously aren't. Examples here and here. We have seen a definite increase in close votes, and I understand that they can be a hassle to vote on. I suspect that the reason ...

discussion close-reasons

joojaa

Hi ALL :) <boing_boing>

Vincent

hey @joojaa You on something? :P

joojaa

09:10

Yes, they gave me this thing called food

Vincent

what o_0 where did they get that

joojaa

One gets suprisingly energized by this, no wonder its so popular.

I must try it more often :)

@Vincent I want a close reason.

"It reads **GRaphic Desings** NOT Graphic**s** design for christ sake"
"Your a blody idiot RTFM, and go home"

Vincent

@joojaa If you can formulate that in a nice, non-hostile, preferably friendly way, I'll see what I can do for you

Wrzlprmft

Let me guess, you want this close reason for Meta?

joojaa

"Hurr durr how shoudl i know what to do with that"

@Wrzlprmft yes for meta i want:

""Fo fucks sake man, stop smoking that shit""

:)

Sorry couldnt resist

@Vincent and @Wrzlprmft But in anycase I think its a valid point. I hate the tech support reason.

Vincent

09:18

@joojaa It's a necessary evil. There is still a lot of these Qs that need to be closed for that reason.

Wrzlprmft

FYI: I have an idea what could replace it and am working on elaborating it for Meta right now

Vincent

@Wrzlprmft thumbs up

joojaa

@Wrzlprmft you sem to be everywhere, but havent seen you on Computer Graphics yet whats up with that

Wrzlprmft

@joojaa It’s not really a topic I am working on (though I may be highly qualified).

joojaa

@Wrzlprmft its just that it could use someone with good inner workings of exhgange to get it running. Seems like it might be happening.

Wrzlprmft

09:25

@joojaa I was referring to outside of SE. I do not do anything that seems on-topic there. I probably have good qualifications, but I have no experience whatsoever.

joojaa

@Wrzlprmft yes sure. One needs qualifcations on SE? :P

Wrzlprmft

Well, you think that I am qualified to do something on CG

BESW

2

Wrzlprmft

Sometimes I say things with no apparent correlation whatsoever.

joojaa

@Wrzlprmft sure 2D, is on topic. There was a question where the the user wanted curvature based random distribution question for example. That could be in your alley for example

Wrzlprmft

09:35

Can you link that question?

joojaa

Its still in closed beta

Wrzlprmft

I have an account.

(you can get one without committing, it’s just not advertised)

joojaa

@Wrzlprmft yes i know

9

Q: How can I concentrate points in areas of higher curvature?

How can I distribute points over an implicit surface, to concentrate them more densely in areas of higher curvature? I've considered adding points randomly and rejecting points not required based on the curvature, but I'd like to know if there is a better approach giving a more even distribution...

algorithm triangulation

he reyo ugo! <- im talking a foreign language like in comics (spaces in wrong place)

Stack Exchange

11:34

0

Q: New criterion of on-topicness for tech-support, 3D, beginner questions and similar

Tentative Proposal The following is only an idea that certainly needs to be fleshed out but I want to share it with you nontheless. What if we drew a line between on-topic and off-topic as follows? A question is off-topic, if it is not conceivable that any concepts, ideas or techniques from ...

discussion on-topic-definition

Wrzlprmft

@joojaa: I fail to get what your comment is aiming at.

joojaa

Oh this one:

Yes but you see when I expect you to know what a bezier handle is when asking a inkscape question. Now this is fine and dandy. But this expectation translates to a 3d object in a mapping that has many dimenisions. So a handle becomes a vertex, normal, vertex data like uv coordinates etc. It becomes hairy, The problem is that if illustrator has 50 or so basic concepts a 3d app can have 353 (sqrt(50)^3) basic concepts + you need to know most the concepts of 2d graphics. Therefore the same question that is valid in inkscape is nologer valid in 3D as it would require me to explain too much.

Wrzlprmft

Yes.

joojaa

Ok imagine that we need a vocabulary to talk

for me and you to talk in inkscape we need a few base concepts

Wrzlprmft

I understand your arguments, but what is your conclusion?

joojaa

11:38

Nodes handles etc etc...

In 3D you need a bigger vocabulary because its a much bigger problem.

so every vocabulary got 3 times bigger. Many concepts went from easy to complex.

Take rotation:

in 2d theres one rotation, and ist either clockwise or anticlockwise.

It simple, you teach, it in school

In 3D you have 3 rotations.

Except it does not interpolate

So you need another representation

it has 16 numbers its a matrix

Wrzlprmft

I do not dispute that 3D may need a bigger vocabulary or differs in vocabulary. But what do you conclude from that in respect to my post?

joojaa

except it does not tell anything for a artist so you use the 3 rotations because its somewhat familiar

The problem is:
*That vocabulary change means what is acceptable in illustrator or inkscape as a question. nolonger is valid as a 3D question*

Wrzlprmft

@joojaa Sidenote: Actually, in science, rotations are often described with two angles.

joojaa

@Wrzlprmft if its a direction vector then yes

if its a object then it wont work, because that fails to tell how the object is aligned with the direction

So knowing what way to point a pistol does not tell the caveman how to hold it

Wrzlprmft

@joojaa Yes, but I am not claiming anything different. Not every GIMP question is translatable to Indesign either.

joojaa

11:45

Im just pointing out why a question that might be a ok beginner problem in 2d is essential knowlege to begin talking 3d

Wrzlprmft

I am not suggesting that you should be able to translate question between all types of software but only to some other software.

joojaa

Im not talking about translating im talking why something that is acceptable to ask in 2d is nolonger acceptable in 3d

The net result is that it WILL look unfair

Wrzlprmft

Okay, but is this really the problem? My understanding was a different one.

joojaa

you simply cant ask the lowest possible questions we have in 2D, in 3d its too much missing form base to continue efficently.

Yes the fundamentals are different. We ask minimal competence in software. Minmal competence is quite much more asked in a 3d app.

THerefore what goes foer 2d deos not go for 3d

Wrzlprmft

Okay, I understand. But is this really the problem we are facing with 3D? The word beginner does appear prominently in the recent discussion on 3D for example. Also, how does this relate to my proposal?

joojaa

11:52

Beginner in 3d is a much higher hill to climb. You need to be much more competent to talk about the subject.

Wrzlprmft

I can only repeat my last comment.

joojaa

@Wrzlprmft does my answer make any sense

Wrzlprmft

I think I am beginning to see where we are misunderstanding each other now

@joojaa I think you misunderstood my proposal – see my edit.

joojaa

12:10

@Wrzlprmft ah ok now i get it

So your saying if it does not pass the test:

* is this valuable to a user of another software it probably is not valid here

Wrzlprmft

More or less

More precisely: If it the answers cannot be valuable to a user of another software, the question is not valid here

joojaa

So basically what i said

http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/58170/rendering-shadows-against-transparant-background

Ok sounds better. Pease add something like this:

The onus is on the asker to forumlate the question so that this would be somewhat evident

joojaa

12:36

@Wrzlprmft Seems like somebody disliked your idea :(

Wrzlprmft

@joojaa I would rather discuss the criterion in general first. Putting an onus with respect to close reasons is a delicate issue and does not really affect the on-topicness.

joojaa

@Wrzlprmft yes but the asker needs to be aware for the criteria and play ball. Otheriwse the criteria is not good.

Ryan

morning

or whatever where you two are

Ilan

hh

joojaa

evening

Ilan

12:41

hi

@Ryan whats up?

joojaa

we are fighting over critria

Wrzlprmft

@joojaa Exactly, hence the question how to best formulate them.

Ryan

@Ilan superuser.com/questions/424459/batch-ocr-many-pdfs

joojaa

@Wrzlprmft Yes, i think your suggestion is too long and academic for the crowd

Ilan

2012

I wanted some private experience to be shared

joojaa

12:43

@Wrzlprmft no problem for me i teach and work with scientists

Ilan

but Thanks! I'll read it immediately

joojaa

You can do this in acrobat pro...

Wrzlprmft

@joojaa Note that the actual criterion is not long, only the explanation. I certainly do not suggest to cram all of this into a close reason or similar. Still, I agree that the criterion is too academic as it stands and identified this problem from the beginning.

joojaa

12:58

Duly noted... Im going home

Bye

Ryan

14:26

Anyone else having image uploads malfunction? Think its been happening for a few weeks now

JohnB

hmmm no issues here, what goes wrong?

Ryan

keep getting extra [1] or whatever number when I use it and have seen in edits others having it as well

JohnB

ohhh that, that's so you can click on the image to view the full resolution. Sometimes I did that manually if it was a big image

but if the image is, say, less than 630px wide (the width of the post container), I don't think it serves much purpose

Ryan

it never used to show a second [1] for me. Maybe I just never uploaded large enough images :|

JohnB

It's definitely new

Ryan

14:28

Ah, thought it was some bug and have been manually deleting the extra number

JohnB

8

A: Extra square brackets and numbers when using automated link or add picture feature in questions and answers

This has been added recently to images, so they can be easily opened in another browser tab/window. This does not happen with links - don't know where you encountered that.

Ryan

well glad im not the only one confused by it

JohnB

I'll remove them from my posts if the image is a small one, in that case the extra links are just noise

Ryan

15:28

2

Q: Is there a job title for someone who only designs internal work

Apologies if this is the wrong place for this question, it is my first time using a stack exchange site. I have an employee who's role has evolved over time. She now almost exclusively works on internal jobs such as designing presentations for pitches, internal posters, designing our business c...

designers job

Is Internal and In-House used interchangeably in other countries or something?

Stack Exchange

16:11

0

Q: Are Software Usage Questions Acceptable?

I'm having a problem with gimp, and I am not sure if this is the right place to ask the question. If this is not within the scope of the community can anybody recommend any other communities where I can ask the question

support

Ryan

19:13

Tomorrow! Tune in for the first Design Challenge

5

Q: Thursday Weekly Design Challenge

On Thursdays at 15 UTC we're going to be hosting a weekly design challenge. Come in to Ink Spot A random topic will be provided for people to design on. I'll host and pick topics the first few weeks but then open it up to anyone else who wants to throw out a topic. It could be a logo, a new way...

discussion featured

AJ Henderson

19:42

I thought cat gifs belonged in Aww

have you guys been keeping them all to yourselves?

Ryan

@AJHenderson mostly

Zach Saucier

20:20

Looks like a lively day for GD meta

@AJHenderson cat gif

AJ Henderson

20:53

@ZachSaucier YAY!!!

I've determined my 11 month old believes he is a cat. He will motor back and forth like that cat, always tries to get in to the cat food (both wet and dry) and always chases the cats

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