The Factory Floor

>_>

what election?

ah! you guys have an election! Condolences! Congradulations!

2:57 AM

0

Q: How is this POB?

My question Why would a colony need to relocate? got a lot of flak along the lines of “what would determine which answer is best?” But how is this different from any other question, like What kind of apocalypse could reset the world to middle age technology? What would a civilization living i...

Zxyrra

3:35 AM

Could someone with sufficient rep synonymise (is that a word) the electricity and magnetism tags with electromagnetism?

Apparently I don't have enough rep but it seems like an obvious remap so it's bugging me

worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/tags/electromagnetism/synonyms

5:56 AM

@Zxyrra does not make much sense to me. Electricity and magnetism are in a causal relationship but not the same

Mithrandir24601

7:34 AM

@dot_Sp0T They're kind of the same thing - I think of magnetism as a result of electricity + special relativity (+ quantum physics in the case of magnets)

8:27 AM

@Mithrandir24601 but they are not the same. Magneticism is a field that can be generated by electricity

Mithrandir24601

@dot_Sp0T Mmmm... They're two sides of the same coin...

Q: Let's talk about big space rocks

1

There are currently no tag wikis for meteor and asteroids, but several questions have those tags. Additionally, comets, meteorites, and meteoroids are related phenomena with their own definitions, but they aren't used as tags at all. These are notorious for misuse - few people know and remember...

discussion specific-tag tags

1

Q: Consolidate tags "vehicles" and "transportation"?

"Vehicles" is a tag without definition. When I tried to fill it in, I found that the description I wanted to use was basically already used by "transportation". So I looked at the questions. The thorium-powered steam car is under "transportation". Could a photonic engine actually work? is unde...

discussion specific-tag

0

Q: Redefining what constitutes closure at this time

Following a recent surge in suggested close votes, it's important that users understand what constitutes a reason to close a question. However, there have been some clear and direct inconsistencies with what we decide is fit for the site, and it's important that there is little to no ambiguity he...

discussion voting vote-to-close

Mithrandir24601

It's not just that (one generating the other) - the relationship is a bit more fundamental - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_tensor - but I do get what you're saying

8:45 AM

If you work with electricity you have to understand that there can be magnetic forces but usually do not nee be concerned with them.

Also magnetism can also be natural thus no electricity is involved

And electromagnetism can further be thought of as electromagnetic-waves -> aka light, radio, everything

Thus you'd have to make everything regarding physics a synonym at that point

Q: Migrating off-topic questions to their own SE

10:02 AM

1

I realize that this topic might not carry as much weight as when it would have been asked by someone who has been here for a while, as opposed to me, who has been here for about two weeks. But bear with me. I discovered this site, like probably many others, by pure accident when I was looking fo...

Zxyrra

1:14 PM

@dot_Sp0T Nonsense. Physics is much broader - if you want to lump all the fundamental forces, and the related equations and laws together, go ahead, but that is way beyond scope here. Electricity is a form of the electromagnetic force is, and magnetism is a form of it.

They do not need to map to each other but they are both examples of electromagnetism.

2:01 PM

Best of luck in the elections for anyone who chooses to take part :)

@Zxyrra here, have an example from another QA site: answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130923071432AA0Cxx3

And another try: If I ask a question about electricity I am not asking about magnetism; same for the other way around - if you want to set these as synonyms of the same then you can as well say everything is a synonym for physics

magnetism and electricty are linked but not the same thing

questions about being struck by lightning are unlikely to care about magnetic fields. Questions about fridge magnets would be confused if someone tried to bring electricity into it.

Also electromagnetism, although displaying similar properties, is different from ferromagnetism in a number of ways

Howdy people.

the important thing with tags isn't defining a scientifically accurate hierarchy of fields. It's about organizing questions in a way that is useful for both lay people and experts to find the questions and answers they are interested in.

hi Pat

2:05 PM

About fridge magnet, remember the fridge works on electricity.

That's how much I can tell from my competence in physics.

the magnet doesn't fall off when you turn the fridge off though :p

@TimB That would be awesome

@TimB that's what I was trying to say, but then I also assumed that to be common understanding

:)

so anyone standing in the mod election? It was pretty lively last year

Should I?

2:12 PM

Everyone is welcome to stand if they meet the minimum requirements (I expect you do although I've not checked exactly what they are)

Where do you find them?

I don't think it would be appropriate for me to comment specifically about any candidate beyond that... although if it is anything like last time expect a tough race :)

:/

I'd certainly like to see many of last year's candidates stand again, as well as folks that have been a lot more active in recent times than before, like @dot_Sp0T.

Last time we had 19 candidates for 4 slots. There will definitely be less than 4 slots this time, obviously we won't know how many candidates until they put their names in

2:14 PM

I def am not going to candidate. But I'll keep on doing reviews until the semester starts again

the existing mods are all staying on last I heard so this is addition to the team rather than replacing anyone

The requirements are 300 rep.

worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/election/2

In the nomination phase, any community member in good standing with more than 300 reputation may nominate themselves to be a community moderator.

just found it myself :)

And, as @TimB said, there is just one position available.

yeah, that's what I was expecting

2:17 PM

Though I'm not sure a 300 rep guy would get much votes.

Yeah, reputation definitely counts

When voting, I look a lot at the badges usually.

Monica made it back in with around 8k rep and that was highly unusual. Everyone else in the running was much higher.

I encourage everyone who's interested to make a run for it though...after all it costs nothing to try and you might turn out to be just what everyone never knew they needed :D

Well, I don't feel like I contribute regularly enough. (also, I have a PhD to write). But hopefully, this will be solved for the next big election.

@dot_Sp0T No, Sadly haven't had that opportunity yet. I was going to mention Paris instead of Boston, but when I did a search of the cities with the worst street layouts Paris wasn't in the top 10. Boston is.

And I figured I'd point out our bad streets, instead of criticizing someone elses...

2:29 PM

@PatJ it depends I suppose.

but yeah, a lot of the time, rep is a thing, but its to keep people who just created an account just to stand out.

That said, least for me as an educated voter I recommend looking at meta participation, and noteworthy badges as well

For example I wouldn't vote for myself on WB since my meta participation is horrible

I guess this is going to be a sort of interesting election for me, I'm much less active on WB now than I used to be

there are definitely some people I don't recognize who've been doing a lot in the last year or so

If people tend to vote for a cool avatar, I'm in for nomination. If it's based on other criteria, then I'm out...

well, I didn't win last year, so obviously people around here don't have good taste when it comes to avatars

@Pᴇᴛᴇ It's been suggested I might have won a election for my ~~rogueishly~~ doggishly cute ava.

@JourneymanGeek - It's very good, I have to say. We have a Schnauzer and a black Labrador. Neither of them photograph very well. Neither of them wear hats either, so you're on a double winner there.

If I get elected, I'll build a wall and SF&F will pay for it...

3

2:45 PM

@Pᴇᴛᴇ oddly enough...

@Pᴇᴛᴇ I just nearly choked on a crisp...

Someone tried something simlar on SU

and lost

check out hopelessnoob's nomination elections.stackexchange.com/#superuser

@TimB - Well that's one more place just opened up...

@Pᴇᴛᴇ took me a LOT of attempts to do that

0

Q: Multi question scenario

Beeing a webdeveloper just starting out with this awesome stack exchange site I wanted to ask if there is a way/feature to organize multiple questions regarding the same "parent topic". To keep things easy I would like to introduce you to a project concept I work on in my spare time: I'm planni...

feature-request

2:46 PM

I eventually managed to get him tired out and tah dah!

I'm currently re-reading Neuromancer. I'd forgotten what a terrible book it is to read, I think Gibson must have been spending his advance fee quite heavily while writing it...

eh. a lot of gibson's stuff is dense

It is. I remember reading this back in the 80's and enjoying it. Then again I did have a freakishly geeky job back then.

What was new, now seems old.

Very true. I was also reading Alan Dean Foster and Piers Anthony. And that stuff is still very approachable these days.

I think I just liked Neuromancer because of the smut.

3:16 PM

Huh. I just had an "offensive post" flag pop up. I thought it was something I said, but no - it was a post made by someone in a Spanish chatroom. Odd.

portugese I think

happens a lot

or russians

@Pᴇᴛᴇ you mean the little blue (or purple?) thing that pops up on your avatar? Those are chat-wide flags, people with enough rep are notified so they can descend on the problem and tear it apart

with great and furious vengeance the flag summons the denizens of all stack overflow chats that they may smite the wrongdoer

2

Yep. It was blue/purple. I might be one of those colours like puce or mauve that only women seem to understand.

3:36 PM

@Pᴇᴛᴇ That's because women's eyes have more cones than rods, men have more rods than cones. Cones see color, rods see more low light. Women see more colors, men see better in low light.

3:59 PM

I have returned.

@James we don't serve your kind here

That doesn't look like anything to me.

4:17 PM

@TimB Their black masses descend to feed upon the flesh of the flagged one, only to see "No messages have been flagged here, move along" and with a cry of hunger they return to their normal haunts in Chatrealm.

4:38 PM

@AndyD273 It's a Starcraft reference. That unit says "I have returned" when you finish summoning it.

@Pᴇᴛᴇ it was not that bad

What hath I misseth?

thou hast missed little

boy am I being glad 'bout that

the way the world's going at the moment I'm starting to want to miss everything

@AndyD273 seems they now closed it down as OpinionBased. And just after I answered with an answer not going psych

4:55 PM

@TimB awwww

@DaaaahWhoosh I just read your moderator election "vote for me" blurb and I actually laughed at it.

@dot_Sp0T As I've said many times "VTC: Opinion Based" is code for "I don't have an imagination, please stop making me feel bad by answering these kinds questions when I can't think of anything." This entire site is about opinion. This isn't SE Physics.

@NexTerren you mean my old one? Or has someone signed me up again?

I also just learned that the history of my country's a big fake. The old document that poses as the apparent origin ready for my country is nothing more than a simple standard peace treaty as they were normal at that time. Sure it still is some 700 years old... but all I thought to know might be fake now.

in either case, whatever I say from here on out, don't vote for me

4:58 PM

@AndyD273 The Opinion-Based rules are this odd thing for me. I feel like it's my responsibility to abide by them, but too often they rub me the wrong way. Which makes me feel like a metaphoric Kim Davis of WB.SE

@DaaaahWhoosh Old one. I wasn't a member 'round these parts back when it happened.

Or I think I was, I just wasn't active back then.

huh. really

that makes me feel Internet-old

@AndyD273 well the reasons are valid. there really is no clear definition on how to rate the answers

@DaaaahWhoosh I joined NeoPets back when they had exactly four point-and-click games, and Lenny was a black and white photo of a guy in a tux, and not a penguin! That's how Internet old I am!

...If people still know what NeoPets is.

as with the last election on here I feel that I should candidate just for the sake of it but at the same time am scared of what I'd do if I were elected.... similar to that incident in the US I guess

@NexTerren I want to go back to NeoPets, but I'm afraid all my pets are dead

plus, all the games got really product-placement-y

5:02 PM

@dot_Sp0T Only run if you both A) Want to run B) Feel like it's reasonable to say you'd do a better job than most in the position.

@DaaaahWhoosh Can't die. I think mine have been starving for nearly 10 years.

@NexTerren you monster

@NexTerren I think the people doing the job are doing it great. But there could be more quicker action sometimes

This election isn't replacing anyone

@DaaaahWhoosh They used to let you look up by username so I'd show off my account. Now I think accounts are hidden by default, and I'm too lazy to reactivate my old email for account recovery.

all existing mods are staying on (although I'm reducing activity levels), we're getting +1

5:03 PM

@TimB Sorry, that was terrible phrasing on my part. "Do a better job than most other (active) users would do if placed into the position."

"Better than most" and "in the position" were independent phrases.

it's ok, I wasn't offended or anything. Just making sure there wasn't any confusion :)

@NexTerren i certainly couldnt claim that

@dot_Sp0T Usually if something stays longish term it's because it's in the community queues and we prefer to let those be dealt with by the community (i.e. VLQ comes to us and to the queue but we normally leave it)

@dot_Sp0T That's my point; it doesn't matter. The only person who needs to decide that is the person who asked the question. If you ask a question, my opinion on what makes a good answer doesn't matter. I can vote up the answers that I like, but you are the only one who can decide if the answer works for you and the problem you are trying to solve.

As in, if DW looks at James and Green and I and says "...Yeah, I'd probably be a better mod than them" then it'd be a positive thing if he ran (assuming, still, that it's a desire/passion of his).

5:06 PM

"better" is such a loaded term

Green is a Mod? I'd certainly do better than that colour-irritated bloke

2

In physics there is usually only one good answer, the one that is correct within the laws of physics. In the imaginary world that I made up in my head there could be 100 good answers, and I'm the only one that can decide what will make my story work.

@dot_Sp0T None of the three of us are mods. I was using us as examples as possible candidates. :P

really you want a mixture of different skills/viewpoints/etc on the mod team to keep down groupthink

@AndyD273 BUT (big but) you can write down what you value in an answer and why, thus answers that better cater to your needs can be written

5:07 PM

@AndyD273 Considering running for mod with a platform like that? :P

@AndyD273 Yep - which is exactly the problem. If I see a question with 5 answers already and vague criteria I might have an awesome idea that's perfect for the OP - but I'm not going to post it because I have no way to think that my idea is actually preferable to the existing ones. Likewise if my idea is worse I also don't know that so I might waste my time writing it up.

@dot_Sp0T Yes, and those do make much better questions. But even a "bad" question can spark someones imagination enough to come up with an answer, even if that someone isn't me.

@AndyD273 i might b biased due to the bad outcome of my question on dragonmeat..

@TimB And that's the way it should be. Each user decides if the question is worth answering, and if not passes. If so, then great. It only costs time, and the only reward is imaginary points.

@AndyD273 Time that could be spent writing an awesome actually useful answer to another question. You may not value your time but I value mine.

5:10 PM

@NexTerren I dunno. Maybe.

and that's only the second half of my objection - you haven't responded on the first part

@TimB ...That's a bit narrow-minded to say that such a view implies not valuing one's time.

@TimB Yup, and so you should move on and answer those amazing better questions, not waste more of it trying to "protect others" from this "bad one"

"it only costs time" implies a low value for time

@TimB you narcissist

5:11 PM

time is all any of us have

everything else is just ways to spend it

@TimB I lost track of the first part

@TimB I beg to differ. A lot of very valuable things only cost time.

@AndyD273 I might have the perfect answer. It never gets posted because I don't know it's better than what's already there.

there have been cases of...over eager close votes

I'm not trying to defend those

Time's the only dimension we cannot navigate deliberately. Thus it becomes our most valuable asset - because it is limited

@TimB I remember disagreeing with you on this topic in the past, but you are making sense now

5:14 PM

@DaaaahWhoosh I am not a droid.

@James That's what a synth would say.

@TimB And that's your choice to make. You see the posted answers, you think "my answer is better. It'll take 10 minutes to type out. Do I want to spend 10 minutes of my time typing this out, or move on?"

I'm a droid and so's my prime minister

@AndyD273 Ahh. wait. My answer is "better". based on what?

that's the whole crux of the problem

is my answer "better". how do I know?

So whats been going on the last few days...my access at work was all jacked up

Based solely on your opinion and how you read the question. And thats all you have. I've seen tons of questions where the accepted answer was, in my opinion, worse than some of the other answers, and it doesn't matter because it's the one that OP thought was best.

5:16 PM

@James we're having an election

If I understand it right, @TimB is wanting a science, not an art, means of determining quality of answer, and @AndyD273 is saying that sometimes it's fair to say that determining a better answer is an art, not a science; there's not an objective scale one can measure it against.

the original asker is free to accept whichever was most helpful to them or none at all. Equally people are free to upvote according to their preferences

but the entire process is much more helpful and efficient if focussed in the first place

A science based method for determining would be great, and where possible I go with that. But in many cases on WB that just doesn't seem to be possible.

This isn't math. This isn't science. This isn't even SF&F where you can base it on existing works. This is making world from whole cloth, and the only rules are the ones that the question lays out

and the rules you sign up to on this site

5:17 PM

well the format is meant for objectifying things... so asking people to answer your question without telling them what would be most useful to you is...bad

@NexTerren the way I see it, Tim wants a way to see what the best answer is without waiting on the OP to pull back the curtain.

@DaaaahWhoosh Bingo

I hate it when I give a good answer and the OP says "no, that's not what I was imagining"

if you can't judge the best - or at least the better - answer from the question and the answer then the question is not sufficiently specified

2

@DaaaahWhoosh I think TimB is further arguing that "if I can't reach this ideal, it's not fit for WB.SE." (Tim, correct me if I'm wrong.)

5:19 PM

@TimB Agreed

@NexTerren eh, I think TimB is mostly just saying that I'm really smart and always right

@NexTerren Yes...with the proviso that the criteria can be "reasonably" subjective

@DaaaahWhoosh Well, you're at least really funny.

@DaaaahWhoosh Thats some impressive delusion right there

@James Star.

5:19 PM

:D

@James it's called alternative facts. I learned it from the President

...oh God, I just realized how terrifying that is to say

@DaaaahWhoosh Yeah, that sucks, but that's how THIS site works. It's different than any of the others that I've seen. If the question is, "What is 2+2?" and the then OP chooses the answer that says 7, there is no way for me to go in and change the accepted answer to the one that says 4.

I love how they act like alternative facts aren't what logic dictates they are...lies

I'll say one thing for trump, some of the memes flying around have made me genuinely laugh out loud. The "no longer craziest leader" one had me laughing in the office earlier today when it popped up on my phone

@TimB Ok now you have to share.

Personally I was enjoying the Obama-Biden memes

5:22 PM

google no longer craziest leader - firewalls in the way here

@AndyD273 right, but the problem with that is that it puts so much more of a burden on answerers. The ones asking the questions should put in enough work that answerers can be reasonably certain that they're not wasting their time

I enjoyed the first... three Obama-Biden memes, and after that they just seemed like the same half-dozen jokes over and over and over. Which I suppose is par-for-the-course for most memes.

@AndyD273 This is a Q&A site not a discussion board or similar. It aims to build up an archive on specific questions with specific answers for use both by the asker and by anyone in future with similar questions. The asker's tick is just saying "this answer was most helpful for me". It's only worth 1.5 upvotes for a reason - the upvotes are everyone else saying which answer they agree with or found most helpful for them

@NexTerren I think my personal favorite was the one about hiding a koran and prayer rug in the white house

@DaaaahWhoosh Agreed. But if they don't, I'm not forced to answer. And what if I'm bored and have the time to waste? Then more power to me. Maybe I'll get some up votes, maybe I'll even get the selected answer. I've had so many questions where the OP didn't even pick an answer

5:24 PM

@AndyD273 Signal to noise ratio.

I don't want to hunt through lots of subjective, opinion based, brainstorming questions to find one I actually want to answer. The only way to stop that happening is to make sure htey don't happen

@TimB Question for you. What happens when moderators on WB.SE don't agree about a rule? Like fundamentally don't agree, and can't resolve that one or the other (or a third option) is correct? Do you guys just vote?

there are plenty of discussion boards and reddits and whatnot. We aren't trying to compete with them

@TimB I think a wet paper towel could compete with the world-building subreddit.

@NexTerren Generally we talk it out like adults. In the unlikely event that didn't happen we'd either escalate to a Community Moderator (SO employee) or bring it to an open discussion on meta

@TimB Sure, and that's why having 10 answers that are all different from each other is so valuable, because if I come to WB to find an existing answer to my question, the highest voted one might not be one that works for my world.

5:26 PM

@TimB Oh, I'm not saying you wouldn't be adultish, but there are still topics where two people won't agree on something and remain civil.

So I go to a question that is similar to the one I was going to ask, read down the answers, and pick one that I like.

IF there was only one answer, the site is less useful

Because how many ways are there to kill a vampire

@NexTerren It's amazing what compromise and open minds can achieve.

ugh, @AndyD273 I think you just broke my argument...

I may be experiencing a paradigm shift

In what universe? Mary Shelly vampires? Stephanie meyer vampires?

The ones from I am legend?

or alternatively you have three more tightly constrained questions and only need to read 3 answers to find the answer you need

5:28 PM

ah right, there we are, I am back to disagreeing

@DaaaahWhoosh Like a leaf in the wind...

better than a stick in the mud :D

@TimB Oh, snap!

well I still think TimB is on the right track here

TBH I'm happy to explain the policy, even debate elements of it that we can change

5:29 PM

so, I think the main issue is the line between a few general-use questions with tons of answers, and a ton of specific questions with one good answer each

the core policy is fundamental to all stack exchange sites and unlikely to change. It's been tried and tested over millions of questions

yes, the trick is finding the right balance

yep, balance is key

Essentially every question is asking the people on here to lend their creativity and knowledge to the person asking. Thus the question should at least make an effort to say how it judges an answer (which mostly are not classical answers but rather ideas)

@TimB I vote that we change policy to have answers posted before the questions. That way we can enforce better quality by crafting questions that ensure that the posted answer is the only objective pick. It's a flawless plan!

Would it really make the site better if only the chosen answer to each question was kept and all the others were disposed of?

5:30 PM

@NexTerren Post it to meta see if people agree :p

@TimB The thought of actually doing that makes me feel dirty. :(

@AndyD273 no. and noone is proposing that

@AndyD273 Of course not, often times different answers contribute different things. In some cases the final answer even incorporates elements of them

@AndyD273 I think it's back to balance again, alternate answers are good, and yet Stack Exchange lets you mark the 'right' answer

no

at no point does it do that

5:32 PM

oh?

@TimB My attitude has drifted a bit on questions, I used to just write up some random answer for a lot of poorly defined questions... /shame but anymore I just VTC them...

@TimB He means the green check mark

Which is totally there to pick the "right answer"

Or the one that is right for the person asking it

it shows the accepted answer - the one the asker thought was best for them

@James now that you've accumulated enough blood-rep

that's different from "right" because "the right answer" implies the other answers were wrong

5:34 PM

@TimB oh, I wasn't trying to imply that, but I guess I see what you mean

@TimB So other answers are valid, even if they aren't the "best ones"?

exactly

but the fact remains that the accepted answer is always the first one one the list, and many people don't read past it

@TimB not necessarily. Right just implies the best fit, from a pov regarding words and their meanings

@TimB So It's OK to have answers that are inferior to the "best one"?

5:35 PM

it's a loaded term "the right answer" implies singular correctness

Okay, discussion point.

I need to go in a second

@TimB Which is where we struggle on WB

@DaaaahWhoosh but that's the same (almost) issue as with person being to thick of themselves to read past the title before spam-answering bs

Take my question here, that was pretty well received by the community: worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/62572/…

5:36 PM

@TimB run away from the truth

It's like you're making my point for me...

I feel like it entirely fails TimB's various tests/rules mentioned here, but it still doesn't have a single VTC.

holy crap that is a popular question

Should it have been VTC'd instead of getting however-many upvotes? Because as it stands it's hard to argue that it has an objective answer (as I feel the variety of answers tend to show).

I see a question that has lots of answers as a better question than one that only has one answer

Q: Is this question "too opinion based"?

5:37 PM

some previous discussions for you:

6

This question is on topic and has been narrowed a bit so is manageably broad: Elves in a Modern Society However I think it may be too opinion based and the fact that the answers start with: I believe if and I think the and I tend to agree that All reinforce that thought. D...

Q: Putting opinion based questions on hold, too fast

2

Let us compare 2 questions How long would it take to transform a human into a space-ship and back? Building capabilities of a realistic nanobot swarm Are people too fast in putting on hold things they do not like or/and do not understand or are they too positive about things they like and no o...

@NexTerren it feels to me like it's objectively answerable, but I don't have time to read the answers

Q: What exactly is "Opinion Based" and why do we shun it?

this one specifically talks about acceptance :

3

The Context I have seen many questions being voted for closure as being primarily opinion based. Now, if you think about it for a moment, aren't all questions opinion based (except the hard science questions of course)? If there was one and only one correct (and legitimate) answer to a question...

discussion feature-request

there has been a lot of discussion about this on meta, both here on worldbuilding and site wide

you should also read the blog post that last one has a link to

@DaaaahWhoosh Basically it says "if this magic item was injected into the legal system, how would it force the legal system to evolve?" The top voted answer (best received answer) basically says "Don't inject it into the legal system, do this instead!" which was done by a moderator. By the test of objectively the best answer it should automatically fail. Yet in actuality it's a very well thought out, good answer.

I really think that it's a mistake to treat worldbuilding like the rest of the exchange. The only one that would be close is if that "what if" site proposal worked out.

@NexTerren not anymore

5:41 PM

@dot_Sp0T Oh snap.

Brought it upon yourself

@dot_Sp0T Well "organically it lacked a single VTC until I explicitiy brought this into question in our discussion" still works. :P

@AndyD273 I think that's its own problem. We don't own the site, SE could come by and change things if they wanted to and we'd be powerless to stop them

@dot_Sp0T I did at that. In fact, I seem to do that all too often...

@NexTerren no. it went under my radar for some reason

@NexTerren have to check your other questions

5:43 PM

@NexTerren it sounds like the right answer. The system would not evolve because the new thing would be rejected

@NexTerren Also some jerk did a drive by VTC without a reason in the comments, which invalidates it so far as I'm concerned.

@dot_Sp0T ...That's not a contradiction to my statement, though!

@AndyD273 Hahaha

@DaaaahWhoosh They could come by and change things, but until some proclimation from on high saying "YOU'RE ASKING QUESTIONS WRONG!"...

Lunch for me. I'm out. Take care gentlemen and gentlewomen!

@AndyD273 I feel this is fair. SE owns the site, but they intend it to be run by the community. We, the community, are discussing policy, which (ignoring legal and ethical concerns) is the intended format by the owners.

@AndyD273 I guess my problem is that there are people like you who don't want WB to be a SE-like site, and other people who do. We should prioritize the latter, because they seem more likely to be in the right place

2

I would like there to be a place like you are describing, but I don't know if this is that place

5:48 PM

Heh, I'm really really glad that part of the EULA for joining WB didn't specify that the highest rated answer had to be the accepted one. "Well, I guess my story has squid now. I really didn't see that one coming"

@AndyD273 that is rather harsh. I didn't just drive-by-VTC it :/

Can someone give me a 20-second summary of what just happened? I appear to have come in a bit late.

@dot_Sp0T Hey, don't out yourself. VTC's aren't disclosed for a reason.

@dot_Sp0T I think it was a joke. But seriously to Andy's comment I am strongly of the camp that there should be a comment explaining to the asker why you VTC'd it (or a comment by another user who expresses your reason for VTC). VTCing without it is metaphorically giving a fish instead of teaching how to fish.

@HDE226868 it's the standard 'too-broad/opinion-based: good or bad?' debate

5:49 PM

@HDE226868 we talked about mod-elections, someone promised to build a wall and make sff pay for it, then it switched to opinion based, Andy and TimB discussed their sites and then you chipped in. Oh and I vtc'd a question of Nex

A VTC without a comment is useless, because I can't fix my question if I don't know whats wrong with it.

@DaaaahWhoosh Oh, lovely. Any consensus on that today?

@HDE226868 I think we can all agree that we still disagree

@HDE226868 The usual

@AndyD273 the VTC is always given with a reason annotated to it, if there is no comment then you can assume that the person issuing the VTC thought the reason to be descriptive and clear enough

5:50 PM

@HDE226868 Mostly a discussion about if we sometimes follow "no opinion based" too pedantically and, if so, is quality lost because of it. There's the two obvious camps, and DW who's dancing between them.

Yeah...thats why I added the scope question to the mod questionnaire deal

@AndyD273 a downvote on the other hand is something that only hurts the question if there's no comments discussing it

@NexTerren Which would be fine if he wasn't naked.

2

@DaaaahWhoosh I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

@James Stop making me star your comments.

But I'm seriously out now.

5:51 PM

But stars are so pretty!

@NexTerren WAIT! One more thing!

Also, while on that topic, voting to close a month or more after a question has already accepted an answer is both pointless and silly.

@James ...A thousand poxes upon you.

Ok so...what if we re-frame this question: Are we at least following our own standards as outlined on the Help/Guide?

@NexTerren there might be a need for a comment, but as the VTC as opposed to a typical downvote is accompanied by a rather elaborate reason (unless you choose to VTC it with your own reason (that you have to add as a comment explicitely)) there is just no need for it in most cases; as in this case, the reason for a VTC as too-broad already clearly defines the issue

@James I think the standards are exactly what we're debating, though.

5:54 PM

@dot_Sp0T But it doesn't say why you think it's too broad. By it's self Too Broad is pretty broad, and so is useless as a reason

@dot_Sp0T I disagree. "Too broad" and "Not On Topic" are two examples. Both are very opiniony, and the asker might not get why his question is considered not on-topic but the question above his is.

@AndyD273 I beg to differ! Only because a user accepted an answer and went forth does not mean the question should be ignored henceforth. If there is a reason for a VTC there should be a VTC. After all the idea of this site is not to give you answers in the moment but to build a repository of knowledge for everyone

@DaaaahWhoosh Ba-boom. Those were my recent thoughts on the unbeatable meta question. There's good subjective, and there's bad subjective. Sometimes we lean too far to the bad side.

@dot_Sp0T Disagree extremely with that last statement. The purpose of the site is both, and to be frank, the first purpose is far more used than the second.

@dot_Sp0T And VTC doesn't make the question go away. It just puts a label on it and makes it so no one else can contribute

5:55 PM

@HDE226868 Yeah I feel like we are leaning too far to the bad lately...or at least things need more constraining.

But NOW I'm going for real, and @James won't stop me!

@NexTerren Bwahahaha

@NexTerren That hasn't really happened since the last election, though we've disagreed on certain flags in particular. But it's not hard to resolve.

So how about we try a case study:

@AndyD273 Is that how we want it to work, though.

Q: Why would a colony need to relocate?

5:56 PM

9

In this Answer I came up a scenareo under which Eriek’s concept makes sense. I rather like this idea: an expedition or colony on another world has to, for some reason, pull up stakes and move. They can’t build large-scale high-tech machines from scratch, so they go all steam punk. They make si...

science-based near-future space-colonization

@AndyD273 that should not really bother you when a question has an accepted answer, right? I mean, if you argue that VTCing a question with an accepted answer is pointless, then arguing for there to be no chance to contribute when it gets closed is even more pointless by definition

For the record, I recently wrote a post on Literature meta on why Worldbuilding has problems and how new sites may be able to avoid them.

"Armchair expertise" summed up the general mood.

In this one it was way unconstrained. The simple addition of make it physical/geological/science based in the edit. Makes it a far better question in my opinion because it gives us an idea of what the asker is looking for.

Q: I don't know if my question belongs to worldbuilding or writers SE

0

Exactly as the title says. The question is: "Could creating my own flora/fauna impact the popularity of my work by distancing readers?". As the question adresses both worldbuilding and writing technique I'm not sure where it belongs to. Also, if I have this kind of doubt in the future can I sim...

support

@NexTerren but the building a repository of knowledge is the idea behind the whole network and hence the site; if you just need ideas of others for how to handle your issue you could just use reddit, or ask on the streets for all I know - if you're not willing to put effort into making your question catalogable, why even ask it on here?

5:59 PM

@dot_Sp0T I suddenly have the urge to walk up to a stranger and ask them what they think the impact of sentient squirrels would be on the world.

@dot_Sp0T and that's why I said pointless and silly. The question won't go away, it just gets a little label showing the names of people so locked into some legal mindset when they could be using their valuable time to do something productive. This is not aimed at you in this case, since it was part of an ongoing discussion and a way to mess with Nex.