The Sphinx's Lair

I do think it's funny how I've gotten so comfortable on here and talk so much, but then in real life i have to rehearse my order for like 20 minutes before i can call and order takeout

matt

hm

bobble

6:35 PM

I have a practiced front of "everything is fine" random small talk, but I'd rather not converse

speaking of "everything is fine", The Good Place is very good

Sciborg

There are certain people i can talk to for hours and hours about literally anything because i just love talking to them, and then other people i can't even get out two sentences.

The Good Place is really good

matt

@Sciborg ~~which group are we in?~~

Sciborg

@matt ~~you're all in the first group~~

matt

~~thanks :p~~

~~you too~~

Sciborg

<3

bobble

6:38 PM

I would like to talk for hours and hours about my favorite things. My family has a habit of snapping at me if I do so, so I don't. I also don't entirely trust other people to not snap, so mostly I have a bunch of long monologues stored up inside.

matt

> my family has a habit of snapping

aw that sucks

good news: we wont snap

Sciborg

That's incredibly relatable and if you ever want to monologue about things we're always around

bobble

latest time was over break, I was trying to tell my sister about a book I was reading and after about 5 sentences (spread out over time) she was "I don't care about your book stop talking to me"

matt

:(

Sciborg

eeek

matt

6:40 PM

also, <lunch> in 14 minutes

Sciborg

Maybe we need a chatroom dedicated to giving us a place to monologue about things?

matt

one sec...

bobble

we could always use The Grove or square-land

Sciborg

True, if North doesn't mind

matt

or this:

the monologue room

for monologues about very niche topics. come on in! :)

Sciborg

6:42 PM

Matt being the MVP today :p

matt

thanks :p

bobble

I don't have a monologue at the moment, perhaps later

Sciborg

Starring for when i want to info dump later

I think i mentioned a while back that my friends have a Discord channel solely for me to rant about things i like :p

matt

yep

hey jafe!

Sciborg

that channel

matt

6:45 PM

"spam"??

wh- no

Sciborg

We joke about it being me spamming

matt

i see

also, mom & i will be setting up xmas stuff later today so yayyy

Sciborg

Yay! My tree is set up but I have to put on the ornaments still, i'll take a picture when i'm done so you can see all my Star Trek stuff :p

matt

yesss

bobble

put Poofy somewere in the picture

Sciborg

6:48 PM

I used to collect all of the Star Trek ship ornaments, so I have basically all of them

bobble

maybe she's climbing the tree

matt

i just have normal ornaments

Sciborg

Poofy can sit under the tree, it's too small to put her on the branches :p

bobble

can she be a tree-topper?

Sciborg

Tree is too small, she would fall off :(

matt

6:49 PM

oh no :(((

<lunch> in ~300s

Sciborg

But I'll let her sit under it with my presents and give her a little Santa hat

matt

~santa poofy~

bobble

I have a list of books that my relatives are probably going to use to buy presents for me - any recommendations to put on it?

Sciborg

Santa Poofy, so hurry down the chimney toniiight

bobble

they both insist on getting presents and have no idea what I want, so the book list is a compromise

matt

6:51 PM

@Sciborg do-do-do-do

Sciborg

Hmm, trying to think of what I enjoyed recently

matt

@bobble trek novels

Sciborg

I read The Bastard Brigade by Sam Kean, he's my favorite science author and it was his new historical one. Very good and immersive

bobble

hmm, probably would be a better question for the Lit chat (though they're probably recommend some fancy-smanchy literary theory book or the like)

Sciborg

Also read The World Without Us which is a very good speculative environmental book

Lit chat would definitely recommend Moby Dick or something :p

matt

6:54 PM

@Sciborg also, my house lacks a chimney

Prince North Læraðr

The Grove is always free

Sciborg

@matt my apartment also lacks a chimney :p

matt

hm

how will santa poofy deliver anything to us? hmm

Prince North Læraðr

Though a semi-random user popped in for help

Not that I mind but

matt

i made this anyway

the monologue room

for monologues about very niche topics. come on in! :)

Sciborg

6:55 PM

I wasn't in Grove yesterday, were they polite?

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah, just there from Bobble

Sciborg

Ahh, I think they've visited here before but they don't talk much. They post math puzzles sometimes

Prince North Læraðr

It's just new, because until then, only Bobble and I used the room for help

bobble

well it was supposed to be for just you, then I hijacked it

Sciborg

Operation Bobblejack

Prince North Læraðr

6:58 PM

I don't really care. Especially because I can just kick people who are being disruptive

Or mute them

Mwahaha

I can't mute mods tho

Sciborg

They seemed nice, we should encourage them to talk more in here :)

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah

I wanna test out my mute-kick powers but that'd be mean :P

Sciborg

@00xxqhxx00 Pssst, just letting you know, we think you're neat

Prince North Læraðr

WAIT I CAN KICK MUTE MODERATORS

Sciborg

You can do WHAT NOW?

bobble

7:00 PM

maybe if you try, there's an error message?

Sciborg

"Error: You have no power over us"

Prince North Læraðr

I can test it

Sciborg

NO

bobble

Error: "did you think it would be that easy?"

Sciborg

"Error: We're coming for you"

Prince North Læraðr

7:01 PM

I don't want to actually do it because it might be permanent

bobble

at least get his consent for a test before running it

Sciborg

Yeah don't actually do it

He's a good mod, we love him

Prince North Læraðr

@Deusovi Does the "mute-kick" work on mods?

bobble

he has a kitten that we kidnapped

Sciborg

We still love him

Deusovi

7:03 PM

i don't believe it does

but you can try it

Prince North Læraðr

Huh, how does that work? Especially bc Deusovi is the room owner, along with me

Alright testing

oh my god

phew

~~Rats~~

7:04 PM

all of our error messages were much better

Prince North Læraðr

"Error: MORTAL FOOL"

Can I mute users, or can I only kick?

Sciborg

"Error: Did you think us weak, mortal?"

Prince North Læraðr

Sciborg imma test it on you, hope you don't mind

Sciborg

what???

Prince North Læraðr

The kick-mute

Unless you don't want to, that's fine

Sciborg

7:06 PM

Nah it's fine, test it

Prince North Læraðr

Wait actually type something in the chat first

Sciborg

I've never been kicked/muted so I'm actually curious what it will look like

Prince North Læraðr

Ah

So you get kicked for an X amount of time and can't return

Sciborg

:(

Prince North Læraðr

Huh, I can't mute someone?

Sciborg

7:09 PM

They gave me 30 seconds to question my life choices before it let me come back

Prince North Læraðr

What did it say?

Sciborg

"You have been kicked from the Grove" and then it explained possible reasons people could have kicked me and said "you can rejoin in x seconds"

bobble

was one of the reasons "for SCIENCE"?

Prince North Læraðr

Huh

Sciborg

It said I might have strayed off topic, interrupted the middle of a conversation or been rude or offensive

I'm guessing each time you get kicked, it keeps you out longer

bobble

7:11 PM

heh, we make this room stray off topic often

Prince North Læraðr

Uh-oh

Sciborg

Yeah, we should all be kicked from this room :p

Prince North Læraðr

I didn't know you could be kicked for interrupting the middle of a conversation

Sciborg

It makes sense I guess, but it's usually an accident when people do it (and i'm sure i do it too by accident)

Prince North Læraðr

Yeah

matt

7:21 PM

@Sciborg oh nooo

msh210

7:44 PM

@matt SHADDUP!!!

(joking, of course)

Prince North Læraðr

@bobble My mom just idk

Sometimes doesn't really listen much. She always changes the subject to something about what I should be doing or basically saying "I don't really care"

matt

@msh210 geez, sorry /s

Sciborg

8:04 PM

@PrinceNorthLæraðr Seems to be a common issue with parents :(

bobble

The Sphinx's Lair: ~~General discussion for puzzling.stackexchange.com~~ Group Therapy

Sciborg

~~we all need therapy it's okay~~

Hey Mith :)

Mithical

@Sciborg 1m, 5m, 30m + you get banned from creating new rooms

matt

hey msh!

Mithical

@Sciborg \o

Sciborg

8:09 PM

I get banned from creating new rooms...?? Oh god, North please don't test it on me again :p

i promise i'll be good

matt

it's not like you've made any rooms, mick :p

Sciborg

i'm shy okay :p

msh210

@matt ¡hola!

Prince North Læraðr

@Mithical Wait so at 30+ you can't create room, ever

Mithical

Right

Prince North Læraðr

8:10 PM

Yikes

Mithical

Unless the restriction is manually lifted

Prince North Læraðr

How do you mute users?

Mithical

It might time out at some point, actually; I don't quite remember

@PrinceNorthLæraðr you press the mute button

Prince North Læraðr

It only lets me kick

Ah I forgot I can timeout the room too

Mithical

It'll prevent their messages from being shown to you, and will shrink their avatar in the sidebar

@PrinceNorthLæraðr it's called ignore

Prince North Læraðr

8:12 PM

Can only mods set specific time for "kick/mute"?

Mithical

Okay, let's clear a couple things up

Prince North Læraðr

Okay

Mithical

Time for lessons on Chat Moderation with Professor Mith

bobble

i accidentally hid 'borg once, and all their posts flew away

matt

@bobble oh nooo

Mithical

8:14 PM

First off, kicks. These are available to room owners and moderators only. Upon use, the user will be removed from the room and a banner notification will be shown to other room owners and every moderator online who has ever been in that room, with who was kicked, who kicked them, and for how long.

Sciborg

My posts!!!

Prince North Læraðr

ok

Mithical

The time for a kick goes from one minute, five minutes, and then thirty minutes, when a user is repeatedly kicked in a short amount of time. If you kick someone once, it'll kick them for a minute. If you then kick them again the next day, it'll also be for a minute because enough time passed from the first kick.

Prince North Læraðr

Ah ok

Mithical

Upon reaching the third kick in succession - the thirty minute - that user also loses the ability to create rooms.

Next up, suspensions.

bobble

8:17 PM

does this transfer across the different chat networks? (I know Stack Overflow has a separate area than regular Stack Exchange)

Mithical

@bobble No; kicks are per-room, even on the same server.

bobble

I mean the no-creating-rooms thing

Mithical

No

Sciborg

Ahh, okay

Prince North Læraðr

So 'borg can't make any rooms on Puzzling

(if kicked for the 30+ minute time)

Mithical

8:19 PM

No, that would be across all of chat.SE

Prince North Læraðr

Oh dang

Suspensions?

Mithical

Just not chat.SO or chat.Meta

Working on it

Typing is slow on my phone

Prince North Læraðr

Ah okay

Mithical

Suspensions are only available to moderators, and are issued in numbers of hours, ranging from 1 to 9999 hours. This prevents the user from chatting in any room on that server (you have to suspend on the other chat servers separately), and leaves a permanent note on the user account. Suspensions can also be automatically issued when a flag is validated on a message; automatic suspensions are thirty minutes long, but can stack if multiple messages are flagged.

Moderators cannot be suspended or kicked, even by other mods.

Sciborg

Is North's test-kick of me going to stick on a permanent record somewhere?

Mithical

8:22 PM

Yes, but not one displayed as prominently as suspensions are.

Prince North Læraðr

oh, sorry 'borg

Sciborg

...

Mithical

Suspensions and annotations are shown directly on a user's chat profile; kicks are listed in a really obscure little menu in the chat mod tools.

Prince North Læraðr

Ah okay

matt

'borg is not very happy right now

Sciborg

8:24 PM

We can explain if any mods ask me about it, I guess :p

Prince North Læraðr

Hehe. "My friend was testing out a NEW POWER"

Mithical

Rooms have several different states where messages can't be sent: Cooldown, frozen, and deleted.

Sciborg

"a tree got too power-hungry"

Mithical

Cooldowns can be issued by room owners and moderators. It's been long enough since I've had to use one that I don't remember if it's in seconds or minutes. In any case, it creates a countdown until the room can be used again; mods are immune to the cooldown.

(I'm pretty sure I've used it twice in the past six years, both in the Tavern.)

matt

(what for?)

Mithical

8:27 PM

It's for when you need to temporarily shut down the entire room and not just a couple users.

matt

hm

Mithical

Rooms are frozen after a certain amount of time without activity. When it's frozen, it's still publicly viewable, but non-mods can't send messages. A room can be frozen or unfrozen manually by moderators.

A room can also be deleted by moderators. When a room is deleted, it's only visible to users with 10k network reputation.

bobble

scifi had there main room deleted, right?

Mithical

Yes. That was a fun morning.

Sciborg

They did??

What happened?

Mithical

8:29 PM

It's... a long and sad story.

bobble

40

Q: Why did our primary chatroom get nuked?

Well, I just came to know that we have got a new primary chatroom with the same name. When I visited the old one, I saw that it was frozen (by @Shog9♦) and there were 37000+ users inside it. This certainly is a rare event and people are curious. So, I think @Shog9♦ himself should answer this. He...

also just look through the meta site's [chat] tag

Mithical

@bobble That's not even the big case...

bobble

first one I found, looking for the link to the other one

Mithical

26

Q: How come our main chat, Mos Eisley, got frozen this time?

Mos Eisley is currently frozen#, apparently indefinitely. I assume it has something to do with the users mentioned in @Shog9's banner, but is it possible that we be told - at least in concept - what happened in our room to make it get frozen again? If the rest of you want to create a new room...

discussion chat

In any case, that sums up my basic intro to chat moderation

@Sciborg nobody looks at that list

Sciborg

This seems really sad from my initial reading :(

Mithical

8:33 PM

3 mins ago, by Mithical

It's... a long and sad story.

You won't find all the context easily, as well.

bobble

if you sort the [chat] posts by votes, the lower ones have a bunch of unconstructive ranting

Sciborg

And I'm not worried or mad about the kick, I was just worried it would show up on my profile or something and that mods would be worried if they saw it. But if it's in a tiny obscure list I'm not worried :)

Mithical

@Sciborg I'd guess less than 50 people even know / remember it exists.

(less? fewer? whichever)

Sciborg

So basically, as a generalization, the chatroom got destroyed because a lot of the users got too toxic for it to continue?

Mithical

You've got to go to the chat profile, click the mod tools button, and then it's a tiny little link

@Sciborg basically

Sciborg

8:37 PM

I feel bad for the genuine users who just wanted a place to talk about sci-fi, it seems like a lot of everyday non-hostile chat users were really bummed by the toxicity of the room.

Mithical

(waves)

I was a Mos regular

I even tried moderating it at times (when I had a diamond). Didn't go so well

Sciborg

That sucks, I'm sorry it got nuked because some people ruined it for everyone :(

This chatroom is generally really nice and wholesome so I hope you always feel welcome here.

matt

> I hope you always feel welcome here.

same for all of you :)

Mithical

I think I've said this before somewhere, but I'll say it again: if I have a "home site" on SE, it's definitely Puzzling

Sciborg

Puzzling has slowly become mine too, we have a really great community and i'm glad i made the decision to speak up in chat one day and say hello. You're all wonderful.

matt

8:41 PM

aw thanks mick, you too :)

bobble

Oct 12 at 16:07, by Sciborg

This is unrelated but I am happy this chatroom exists, I never popped in until now because I was too shy so it's nice to finally talk to all the puzzle people :)

matt

anything new in the life of poofy?

Sciborg

@bobble aww, you found one of my first messages <3

bobble

my econ homework is very strongly against a minimum wage

matt

what??

Sciborg

8:44 PM

Why???

bobble

it's having me calculate that large numbers of people would be unemployed if a minimum wage was put in place

and also implying that markets work best without price controls

Sciborg

ffffsss

matt

what in the shit...

Mithical

"Ma'am? Your homework's... capitalist."

bobble

so is my econ teacher

Sciborg

8:47 PM

Who needs regulations, it's not like we used to have child labor and unpaid servitude or anything

bobble

> "Capitalism is the best system, everyone knows it, it makes markets work so much better than [insert thing he's ranting about]"

Sciborg

He sounds very, uh, passionate :p

bobble

> "Some people can't understand what makes it work well, but I'm going to teach you why"

Sciborg

I was about to make another joke but I realized we might be steering into Controversial Subject territory, so let's definitely avoid

This is a wholesome chatroom of positivity

bobble

and also puzzling - any updates on that front?

Sciborg

8:50 PM

Deus pretty much instantly solved my gay mini-Connect Wall, which made me laugh

Mithical

bobble

> (me) asked Nov 25 at 21:56
> (Deus) answered Nov 25 at 22:01

timestamps for my FTC word square

Sciborg

Sounds about right for Deus :p

Mithical

@bobble I haven't had a chance to make any puzzles for fun in a while

Sciborg

me: "okay i've got a deduction on bobble's puzzle -"
deus: "solved and here's a beautiful 10-picture summary of my deductions"

bobble

8:55 PM

(by the way, someone poke me around 1:50 in case I forget that I have to tutor someone)

Sciborg

Would that be in an hour? (It's 3:55 PM where I am)

will do

hour, yes

also, yes mick

Gotcha

9:00 PM

I have added a new section to my Puzzling profile :D

Sciborg

:D

matt

niceee

Sciborg

Honestly I think a new Tetrikabe would be fun, will you charge me an upvote for one in the future?

bobble

I'll see what I can do about that, kind gentleperson.

Sciborg

aw <3

bobble

9:02 PM

I think my price is fair, yes?

matt

yes

Sciborg

Very fair

matt

maybe i could do that with ... somethign

Sphinx

0

Q: Help With Dan Brown's Unsolved Puzzle

Dan Brown has an unsolved message on his website https://danbrown.com/ There are hidden symbols on 5 JPG images and 5 PNG images that overlay the JPGs. JPG Images: int1.bg.jpg, int2.bg.jpg, int3.bg.jpg, int4.bg.jpg, int5.bg.jpg PNG Overlays: int1.overlay.png, int2.overlay.png, int3.overlay.png, i...

riddle mathematics logical-deduction word cipher

Sciborg

Ooooooh!!! I love Dan Brown!

matt

9:04 PM

???

Sciborg

The newest Sphinx puzzle is an unsolved Dan Brown cipher.

matt

oh cool

bobble

bobble: puzzle-maker, tutor, chef, book-lover, ?

matt

future geneticist, maybe

Sciborg

monarch of the bobblies?

matt

9:06 PM

whats on the menu, Chef Bobble?

bobble

butterbeer and pumpkin pasties

I have Harry Potter on the mind today

Sciborg

When we visited Harry Potter World a few years ago with family, I got to taste official butterbeer - it was really good :p

matt

hm

bobble

One time I got butterbeer with curds in it - NOT GOOD

Sciborg

That would be very NOT GOOD

matt

9:08 PM

suddenly i am thinking abt the apple pie bread my mom made last week

Sciborg

Now I have an urge to dig in my closet boxes and find my Gryffindor scarf

matt

it's really good

bobble

I got picked for the wand show once - we went like 5 times during the visit, and then the last one we brought all the merch we had to show what good little fans we were

matt

hm

Sciborg

I may or may not have a Hermione wand from the wand shop :p

matt

9:12 PM

hmmmm

(bobble - you've 38 minutes until tutoring)

Sciborg

found my scarf :p

matt

ooh nice

Mithical

I may or may not have a cape

bobble

my mom hand-knitted me a Hufflepuff scarf, though she got the shades wrong

Sciborg

That's amazing

matt

9:14 PM

mick - Santa Poofy doodle? or did I miss it?

Sciborg

I haven't made it yet :D

matt

hm

@bobble - tutoring in 30 minutes

bobble

I meant one poke right around 1:50 - not much I can do to prepare 30 minutes in advance

matt

oh, i see

Sciborg

9:32 PM

in the meantime, I got this DM on Discord yesterday and I'm angry at how much it made me laugh

bobble

do you mind if the Tetrikabe doesn't have any New Cool Deductions?

Sciborg

That's okay by me

bobble

New Cool Deductions take longer to think of

Sciborg

I'm working on drawing Santa Poofy

How are the bunnies doing today?

bobble

they are sitting in a large box, tilted towards each other so their front paws touch

Sciborg

9:42 PM

awwww

matt

@Sciborg hm

bobble

unfortunately this large box is terrible for lighting, so no pictures are possible

Sciborg

@matt hm

matt

@Sciborg hm

bobble

hem hem

Umbridge, sorry

Sciborg

9:44 PM

Mr Potter

bobble

do you need a cough drop, Dolores?

matt

@bobble speaking of pet pictures, will send pic of doggo when i get the chance

Sciborg

Santa Poofy

matt

haha nice

updates on statyu park?

Sciborg

In progress :p

matt

9:48 PM

nice

Prince North Læraðr

@Mithical Same! Consider Lit SE to be my "work site". Not really actual work, but it's a place where I actively work to better the site (in this case, editing tags), while here I mostly hangout and chill

bobble

I work at my home site then... Bobble The Post Editor

Sciborg

The Editor Supreme

Prince North Læraðr

@Mithical The problem with the mods being immune to the room moderation tool was one of the issues with the huge urm controversy about a year ago? The one with Monica (and all the stuff before Monica)?

@Sciborg Hehe, I'm "Tag Dooku" in Lit.

bobble

I'm less than 30 edits away from breaking into the Top 10 All Time Editors

according to one metric of edit-counting

Prince North Læraðr

9:52 PM

Nice!

Sciborg

Nice :D

matt

wahooo

bobble

also, darn I have to leave for tutoring now

Sciborg

Yup, it is the Time

Prince North Læraðr

I am about 15 edits away from breaking 5th all-time editor on Literature SE :D

Sciborg

9:54 PM

:D

Sphinx

0

Q: Frog game on a dandelion graph

This puzzle was inspired by my generalization of a Numberphile puzzle, from a line to graphs. The graph given in this puzzle is special because it is the smallest counter-example to one of my old conjectures about "dandelion graphs". To create the image of the puzzle (of the given graph), I used ...

mathematics graph-theory

the monologue room

the monologue room

Transcript for