The Sphinx's Lair

Joe Z.

00:40

you should know I'm not here that often anymore :P

d'alar'cop

15:50

@Emrakul hi there

user61230

@d'alar'cop Heya.

d'alar'cop

well...

why was that question deleted, sir?

user61230

I can't really share the details because it has to do with moderation tools, but I left a comment on the question explaining what was indicated by what I saw.

rand al'thor

@Emrakul Could you set up one of those private chatrooms so we can discuss it?

user61230

I'm not going to do that for this.

d'alar'cop

16:03

where are the rules specifically about this "self-promotion"?

we checked the T&C

user61230

puzzling.stackexchange.com/help/promotion

d'alar'cop

If @JoeZ. can post questions from the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, why can't @MinderDaemon post questions from the Riddler's Den?

yep we read that

user61230

Those were never brought to my attention, so I haven't reviewed them.

d'alar'cop

we feel that we were clear of wrong-doing

I guess you feel that we fall foul of "Don't talk about your product / website / book / job too much. "

user61230

That's okay. This is just a warning that it isn't clear of wrongdoing.

rand al'thor

16:05

The SE definition of spam is "Exists only to promote a product or service, does not disclose the author's affiliation." @MinderDaemon did disclose affiliation, so how can it be spam?

user61230

@randal'thor I'm not going to argue about this in chat. If you want to discuss it, let's do it on Meta.

rand al'thor

@Emrakul OK OK ... give me a while to compose a Meta post then

user61230

Mkay. I'll be in and out for a while.

rand al'thor

17:04

@JoeZ. this might concern you ... if MD's questions get deleted, yours could be next!

Joe Z.

with respect to the Temple of Quetzalcoatl thing, I posted questions from an old site that were no longer applicable, not puzzles from the current version specifically for promotion. If you want to delete those, though, I'd be okay with it.

I've learned to be okay with people deleting things. It's better than the alternative of refusing to delete them.

Puzzling Meta

2

Q: Publishing puzzles both on Puzzling.SE and elsewhere

A riddle was recently posted, but it seems to have been mistakenly deleted as "spam". As with many puzzles on Puzzling.SE, it was an original creation, posted by the person who wrote the puzzle. In this case, the same person had also published the riddle elsewhere; however, a link was clearly dis...

rand al'thor

17:32

@Emrakul Well, that was a funny discussion :-) We won the argument, so you ran away. See you around!

Geobits

17:57

You know, I really do like this site. But I hate the meta side. How hard is it to just enjoy the site without constantly looking for ways to snipe at the mods?

8

Bailey M

18:53

@Geobits WELL, if you're looking for a Puzzling site with no meta side (which means no mod-sniping!), why don't you check out MY puzzling website? It's - no, no, I kid. :D

2

@Emrakul, when you get a chance, can I get a few clarifications on the plagiarism/self-promotion rule?

user61230

@BaileyM Ehehehe. And sure! What's up?

Bailey M

Okay. So if I post a puzzle I find on another site WITHOUT linking to it, that's plagiarism, right?

user61230

Generally, yeah, if that site is a definitively verifiable source. You can't plagiarize yourself, though.

Bailey M

Right, right. If I do link to that site, though, is it still plagiarism?

user61230

Once it's attributed to a source, it's no longer plagiarism (though it could still be low quality if it's literally just copy/pasted :P)

Bailey M

19:01

Haha fair enough

So if I write a riddle, then post it somewhere else, I can just post it here with no repercussions, right?

user61230

Yeah, you're the content owner.

user61230

I don't think that'd be a problem by itself.

Bailey M

And I can't link to the place where I posted it in the question?

user61230

Well... yes and no. It depends on a couple things. The first one is your affiliation with the other place you posted it on, and the second is whether the link is actually relevant to your question.

user61230

If you're not affiliated with the other site, and it's relevant to the question, then there's not really an issue unless you're intentionally trying to promote that site.

Bailey M

19:04

So the problem is just if I tack on something like, "Hey, check out my puzzling site! This question is on it here: <link>"

user61230

Yeah, pretty much.

user61230

It's more about the spirit of it than anything else, which boils down to "don't use Stack Exchange to promote your things."

3

Bailey M

Am I allowed to link to my own website in my personal profile?

user61230

Yeah, definitely.

user61230

Personal profiles are for, well, personal things, and as long as it's not highly offensive or obscene, they get a pass. It's a place for you to blurb about yourself.

Bailey M

19:09

Awesome. Now, final question (for now) - I saw awhile back you purged a bunch of links to mindpuzzle.me or something like that, but left the questions open. Why didn't you just leave this question open and remove the self-promotion link?

user61230

That's a solid question.

user61230

It has to do primarily with the lowest disruption to the community.

user61230

If I'd deleted all the questions linking back to mindpuzzle.me, somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000ish reputation would have left the site. (I did a little estimation, but it was a while ago.)

user61230

Deleting those questions also wasn't the only thing I did, but the rest is more private.

user61230

In the case of one three-hour-old question, marking it as spam was the way to go.

Bailey M

19:13

If they/he/she/whoever it is that posted it rolled back your edit and removed their link, would it be okay to undelete?

user61230

I'm not sure I understand the hypothetical.

Bailey M

Basically what I'm asking is would the question be fine if the link wasn't there

user61230

Yeah, I guess. It's a little uncomfortable, but it'd probably pass.

Bailey M

What makes it uncomfortable?

As far as I can tell, it's a pretty normal riddle

user61230

I'm not sure. I'm trying to figure out why; it just feels like there's something off about that course of action.

user61230

19:21

Hmhmhm. Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

Bailey M

Hi, @JoeZ.!

user61230

[wave]

Joe Z.

hey

Bailey M

We're discussing why every question you've ever asked should be deleted

no just kidding

user61230

It's weird because it just... feels odd to call spam posts salvageable.

user61230

19:23

We can try doing it here, though, and seeing how it goes.

Joe Z.

@BaileyM ha, I read it before that; people were hinting something like that

I wouldn't mind, really

it would free me up to post those puzzles elsewhere (e.g. on my own website) without feeling like I'm plagiarizing myself

user61230

@BaileyM Alright, let's see how it goes?

Joe Z.

it wouldn't even make that big of a dent in my reputation; about 80% of it comes from answers, not questions

Bailey M

lol @ the "it's in the source code" answer

that's one reason not to link to your own site, I guess...

Joe Z.

you can Google it too

most people who've played it at this point have played it on mobile, where source code viewers aren't exactly handy

oh, wait, you were talking about the linked question

Bailey M

19:28

oh yeah haha

Joe Z.

the first level of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl does that too

Bailey M

I'm not really familiar enough with Quetzalcoatl to be able to pass judgment on solving it

right, that I knew

Joe Z.

maybe you should play it then :>

Bailey M

I've played a few levels of it!

Joe Z.

oops, I'm promoting :x

user61230

19:29

@JoeZ. how dare you!

user61230

@BaileyM thanks for the suggestion, by the way

Joe Z.

lol

Bailey M

It felt wrong to rob Samthere of that rep

Bailey M

19:42

(boy, is it quiet on the home front right now.)

user61230

'tis a quiet day indeed

user61230

Although things have been picking up a lot again recently

rand al'thor

22:46

@Geobits Who was "looking for ways to snipe at the mods"? Posting a riddle, seeking clarification in chat and meta ... are these aggressive acts?

The worst thing is that such an offensive suggestion gets 4 stars.

Geobits

If that's all you were doing, then I wouldn't say you were sniping.

rand al'thor

(If that 'sniping' comment wasn't directed at me, then I apologise. But it sounded like it was.)

Geobits

It was directed at you, yes. How exactly would you expect something like this comment to be constructive in any way? The only reason for it that I see is pure antagonization.

6

Give us some credit here. Most of us aren't stupid enough to fall for the "what, innocent ol' me?" act.

5

rand al'thor

Commenting on the way someone else handled a disagreement isn't "looking for ways to snipe at them".

Geobits

Depending on how you do it, yes it is.

rand al'thor

22:51

I didn't start the antagonism. But if you're just in this chatroom to insult me, I'd rather get back to my conversation in another chatroom.

Geobits

Have fun then.

rand al'thor

23:07

Hmm ... someone's going crazy starring everything that's insulting towards me.

Jon Ericson

23:46

@randal'thor I don't think the items on the star wall are insulting. There're merely expressing disagreement.

user61230

Heh, only one more vote needed to delete this post.

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