The Factory Floor

12:00 AM

merge done

@Vincent Thank you for that.

Four downvotes also done (with a comment on each, of course).

I should probably work on a standard comment for that sort of thing. I did copy-and-paste one for that, but it's possibly not the best.

Vincent

@HDE226868 Hey, I protected your question but 1 user with 0 rep managed to post a comment anyway (not a useful one). They count the association bonus?

HDE 226868

@Vincent I thought protection only applied to answers.

Oh, I remember seeing a non-useful comment or two (or three or more) on there.

Vincent

@HDE226868 I though it applied to comments too. Apparently not. Well, very popular questions attract a lot of people...

@HDE226868 it's not too bad. I would just go with : "'This answer does not satisfy the requirements of the hard-science tag" With the links but without the hesitation.

HDE 226868

12:20 AM

@Vincent Sounds good.

Vincent

@HDE226868 Do you have a lot of trolls on History of Science and Mathematics or Mythology SE?

HDE 226868

@Vincent Exactly one.

Although "had" would be better than "have".

I got rid of him rather quickly.

That was on HSM.

On Mythology, we haven't had any (yet).

I assume that there are more on Worldbuilding, simply from its larger size.

Vincent

@HDE226868 I already got several: "Your question is stupid, bye, bye!" kind of answer.

I admit we have more traffic. I was wondering if we attracted other kind of people

HDE 226868

You must have dealt with them quickly. I haven't seen any (deleted) answers along those lines.

I would take trolls any day if it meant more traffic. HSM and Mythology are both rather quiet.

Mythology even more than HSM.

I went so far as to ask a question on Community Building to try to get some ideas to help that.

Vincent

@HDE226868 I don't know about HSM but is it unique enough to have it's own site apart form History SE? Stat wise, it would be a good thing since neither are doing very well.

Mythology stats seems problematic.

HDE 226868

12:33 AM

@Vincent I've always felt that the questions asked on HSM are asked and answered differently than the ones on History - and we have an enormous emphasis on sources, more so than History - but that could just be bias.

Vincent

@HDE226868 Maybe it's because it attract different kind of people or maybe your claim is false. Historians also use tons of references, I mean real historians.

HDE 226868

@Vincent Case in point here, the most upvoted question on History. Most answer use 5 sources. Maximum. There's a lot of interpretation there.

Working down the list, this has 57 votes for an unsourced answer.

We have an answer here with 20 votes and no sources, admittedly. Same here. But those were extremely early on, when we were still figuring this kind of thing out.

Answers on questions from mid-November onwards had better references.

In late October, we were only days in and had no idea what to do.

Vincent

@HDE226868 Upvotes are not always good indicator. See the most upvoted answer here: worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/12348/…

HDE 226868

Here's a better one.

@Vincent Oh, I know. The community at large doesn't necessarily endorse the lack of references; high votes can skew things.

I was just randomly grabbing some answers to demonstrate. I've based that claim off of a larger sample.

There's almost certainly some bias in there, but I'm not trying to say that History's answers are worse. They simply go for more interpretation and trust of the knowledge of users, which can be excellent in some cases and detrimental in others.

I'm most likely looking at things the wrong way, somewhere. There must be some bias.

Anyway, I have to go. G'night.

Vincent

12:49 AM

@HDE226868 Oh maybe, I know they have high quality answers and bad ones too.

See you later

Monica Cellio

2:55 AM

If somebody is wondering about a declined comment flag: the flag was helpful, but for comments our choices are to delete the comment or to dismiss the flag. (Belatedly I realized I could have deleted and then undeleted the comment so you wouldn't see confusing results.) I did appreciate the flag.

Green

3:24 AM

So I don't think my alien bomb question will get a lot of upvotes but I sure enjoyed answering it.

0

A: How would you make an alien bomb to level a city?

Assumptions Chemical explosives probably aren't going to deliver the energy density to achieve ghosting on walls. Perhaps a very large fuel-air explosion may satisfy the energy requirements but this would need to be a controlled detonation, not an accident. And if controlled, why follow up with...

Serban Tanasa

3:41 AM

@ArtOfCode Help youself Art!

bilbo_pingouin

5:30 AM

@HDE226868 ... and inaccuracies. Actually the French have a military base in Djibouti, so the first part of the plan is flawed. As for the French surrendering, I understand it's a stereotype that was promoted, especially in 2003, but it does not, IMHO, reflect on the whole the French history. Heck against Syria, it was the US that backed away ;-)

Worldbuilding Meta

8:38 AM

0

Q: Medium Blog - Best of Worldbuilding

So I'm going to be writing this type of post for the blog each month - "The Best of Worldbuilding". It'll have a look at some questions and answers from the last month, and make a few awards of "badges". What should those badges be? We can't actually award them on-site, because custom badges are...

HDE 226868

11:41 AM

@MonicaCellio Was that my flag? I'm fine with it being declined, so long as your comment helps, which I think it will.

Worldbuilding Meta

12:27 PM

0

Q: How to improve my question before it's closed?

A question I asked has 3 close votes, what should I change about it before it's closed? The question is Cargo of a supernatural smuggler Is removing the "Bonus question" enough to prevent it from being closed? If not should I add other information about the settings or the question itself? P...

discussion specific-question close-reasons

Monica Cellio

12:47 PM

@HDE226868 beats me; mods don't see who flags comments. But if you had a recent comment flag declined, it was probably that one. If so, thanks for the help.

James

2:05 PM

Happy Thursday everyone

bilbo_pingouin

@James Happy Thursday yourself

Worldbuilding Meta

0

Q: Re-posting an answer in a duplicate?

I put up this answer yesterday: Is it a foregone conclusion that religion will always be a product of developing a civilisation? However, the question was then marked duplicate. Would it be kosher to re-post that answer in the original, still open question? Can civilization development occur co...

discussion

HDE 226868

3:20 PM

@Samuel I hit the rep cap, so I'm putting the bounty plan into effect, targeting this question:

4

Q: Habitability of an icy volcano planet

Suppose we have a rocky planet (somewhere between Earth- and Super-Earth- sized) orbiting a star far enough away that it would be around Pluto's temperature if sunlight was the only heat source. If we give it a thick molten core and large amounts of volcanic activity that bring its surface temper...

planets hard-science habitability volcanoes

~~It shouldn't be too hard to recoup the 50 rep points.~~ Actually, that's impossible; see this. Dang.

@James Happy Thursday!

HDE 226868

3:43 PM

Have we had a question about the feasibility of galactic empires yet?

There's this, of course:

9

Q: How big can a space empire get?

In a world where travel is limited to the speed of light, reaching a different star, while not necessarily impossible, would be very time consuming. For an empire stretching across several solar systems, which has a centralized source of political power, this would pose a huge problem. So here i...

reality-check space politics

I was going to ask, "How can a galactic empire work?"

@ArtOfCode Hi. How are things?

ArtOfCode

4:01 PM

@HDE226868 Things are good :)

HDE 226868

Open Source is working out well?

ArtOfCode

Open Source is small so far

I'm reckoning our beta is going to be a long time.

Monica Cellio

Hey all, I just posted this "meta-answer" on the birthday post, trying to round up all the relevant links:

0

A: How shall we celebrate our birthday?

Relaunch the blog This answer is a compendium of other answers. Let a thousand flowers bloom. To celebrate our first year, we will re-launch the blog and make several posts during the month of September to kick it off. We'd like to see posts from lots of people. The new blog site should make...

(I didn't link every single post about the blog, e.g. I didn't include the one about the name. The focus here is on content.)

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio is it a good idea to have a line that says find and ping me if I'm ignoring you?

HDE 226868

@ArtOfCode It doesn't seem to be doing so bad in comparison to others.

ArtOfCode

4:13 PM

@HDE226868 True, we've got it off the ground - but I've only got WB to compare it to (being the only other beta I've really been active on), so it seems very slow

I see about a flag a week

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode feel free to add that in; I didn't want to "voluntell" you. :-)

@ArtOfCode think about how (or whether) you want to track the initial round of articles. Do you want to just post everything as it comes in, or try to stage it somehow, or what?

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio That sort of depends what quantity we get

Monica Cellio

We should not assume that we're going to have huge participation, so I'm a fan of just rolling with it for now.

But I don't want to dictate to you, which is why I brought it up.

ArtOfCode

I think we shouldn't post more than about 3-4 times a week, so if we get masses then I'll stack them back

@MonicaCellio Ideas always welcome. Let's remember this isn't my blog, it's a community blog, and I though I have the admin access to it I want to run it as the community wants it run.

Green

Curators can also prioritize what kinds of posts to put up.

If we get lots of maps in the queue then we could prioritize for stories for a while.

Monica Cellio

4:17 PM

@ArtOfCode right, one of the things I like about Medium is that it's much easier (AFAIK) for it to be a community blog -- any editor can invite/approve submissions, etc.

ArtOfCode

Yep, that's the other point. If you've got access rights, use them - don't feel you have to ask me about things just because I run the thing.

Monica Cellio

@Green I'm hoping that some people will think about writing serieses of posts, so they can kick off now and follow with more later, over the course of the next year or whatever.

@ArtOfCode agreed. Let's get it up, open the doors, see what happens early, and if we need to make any adjustments we can.

ArtOfCode

Aye. The other point I'd like to bring up (but that doesn't quite warrant a meta post) is how many curators we should have.

Monica Cellio

You're going to need email addresses to set up contributors and editors, right? Feel free to experiment on me.

ArtOfCode

Not masses, but we need enough

@MonicaCellio I actually have no idea

Monica Cellio

4:21 PM

Yeah, we want a few curators but not a ton, at least to start.

@ArtOfCode I think I read that in the documentation. ("Documentation? What's that? Oh." :-) )

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio Rule #1 of websites: I don't read documentation, or help centers, unless it's absolutely necessary :)

@MonicaCellio Turns out I need Medium usernames, which is good

People are wary of giving out emails, even if I can delete messages and history

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode fair enough. I've got a meeting now but I'll try to create one later today and send it to you.

ArtOfCode

Cool :)

HDE 226868

@ArtOfCode/@MonicaCellio What should those of us interested in helping out do at the moment? The launch won't be for a while, but is there any prep we could do?

ArtOfCode

@HDE226868 Start writing articles, make a Medium account and send me the username

HDE 226868

4:29 PM

Ooh, I like their ToS already:

> You own the rights to the content you post on Medium.

That said,

> However, by posting or transferring content to Medium, you give us permission to use your content solely to do the things we need to do to provide Medium Services, including, without limitation, storing, displaying, reproducing, and distributing your content.

@ArtOfCode Okay, the latter two are done. I'm "HDE226868" for consistency (no space allowed, apparently).

ArtOfCode

And you're now a writer and curator

HDE 226868

@ArtOfCode Thanks.

The name is "Universe Factory"?

ArtOfCode

Currently, yes

HDE 226868

Cool.

Monica Cellio

5:10 PM

> You’re doing great, Dear Reader of these Terms. Let’s rest a moment, shall we? You’ve earned it. So far, so good, right? Everything pretty clear? Well, don’t get too comfortable. Now’s the time to activate the full Galactic Armada of your legal vocabulary comprehension and ALL CAPS READING SKILLS.

I like these guys already. :-)

HDE 226868

@MonicaCellio Those ALL CAPS just hurt my eyes. I was doing fine until then.

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode user name cellio.

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio cellio added as curator and writer

HDE 226868

Aw, the profile pic box cut off part of my picture. . .

Dang circles.

Monica Cellio

Yeah, I don't know when circles became the Next New Thing in profile pictures. Google was the first site to do it to me.

My gravatar here looks lousy in a circle.

ArtOfCode

5:22 PM

Mine works pretty well in a circle, fortunately

Green

I'm very pleased with myself for finding a way to work a Balrog into a science-y answer.

Good <appropriate time of day> everybody!

HDE 226868

@Green That's a first.

Green

@HDE226868 I think it was a pretty good joke. :)

HDE 226868

It's interesting how everyone has focused on water on that one.

bowlturner

because most things that live in caves actually leave the cave to get more food. (unless they live in water in caves...

The problem of course with that question is that it IS impossible situation with out saying 'it just is'

Worldbuilding Meta

6:11 PM

0

Q: Solicitation for blog posts

This is a proposal for solicitation for entries for the WB blog: Worldbuilding has been home to your questions and answers for a year now. However, what we don't ever see are the results of these questions, the stories, art, and games that you create. The Magrathean Forges is a place to displa...

discussion

ArtOfCode

6:28 PM

@Green good point on copyright. @ALL - @HDE226868, @MonicaCellio - ideas for licensing? Obviously the license to Medium is non-negotiable. I'd suggest we leave it up for negotiation between the author and the publisher (i.e. any blog admin) and simply note it at the bottom of each post.

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode I don't think we need to do anything at all. Contributors own their content, Medium makes that clear, we're just a "distributor" with no particular claim... why get involved?

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio They need to license us to distribute. Also, however it's licensed (and I do appreciate that point, it removes a lot of effort) it's worth putting a license note at the bottom (i.e. (c) all rights reserved [author]).

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode the content only gets to the blog if the writer submits it. Isn't that an implicit license-grant? Is there something in the Medium setup that's telling us to deal with this? For that matter, the Medium TOS grant Medium a license and we're just a collection of posts on Medium. Our blog doesn't have independent legal identity AFAIK.

ArtOfCode

6:45 PM

@MonicaCellio You forget which site I mod :) Implicit licenses are legally iffy. It's true we're just a collection of posts on Medium, but we're also all separate individual entities and if a writer decided they wanted to sue for copyright infringement, they could win.

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode who could they sue? They granted Medium a license. Are you positing that they can sue you individually?

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio I am indeed. The writer could sue whoever pressed the "publish" button

Monica Cellio

Have you found any other collection on Medium that says anything about licensing? If so, that'd be something to base an approach on. If not...that seems like signal to me.

ArtOfCode

Lemme take a look

Monica Cellio

@ArtOfCode I can sue you because the purple in your gravatar offends my sense of aesthetics. Doesn't mean I'd win. (Also, for the record, that's a counterfactual.)

HDE 226868

6:47 PM

I've been through the ToS and related pages a couple times, and there doesn't seem to be anything on the licensing issue.

ArtOfCode

Anyone can sue anyone, but an implicit license gives them ground to stand on

HDE 226868

Nor on the FAQ.

ArtOfCode

Tell you what... I'm tempted to ask a question over on Open Source about this :)

Hmm.. actually, maybe not. It'd get shot down as off-topic

Monica Cellio

Sure, if it's on-topic there, go for it.

HDE 226868

@ArtOfCode I was tempted to suggest Law. . .

But that would be legal advice, I think.

ArtOfCode

6:49 PM

No, wouldn't be. It's not about anything open, we're specifically dealing in copyrights. Law could work?

Monica Cellio

> However, by posting or transferring content to Medium, you give us permission to use your content solely to do the things we need to do to provide Medium Services, including, without limitation, storing, displaying, reproducing, and distributing your content.

Source: medium.com/policy/medium-terms-of-service-9db0094a1e0f

HDE 226868

@ArtOfCode It could be construed as legal advice, if you asked for which license would be appropriate.

ArtOfCode

@HDE226868 Isn't the legal advice thing fairly easy to subvert, if you phrase generally instead of to a specific situation?

HDE 226868

@ArtOfCode It depends. You need to be careful with the phrasing.

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio Aye, Medium are protected. However, I don't think the button-presser is - if a writer gets annoyed and tries to sue, they can quite happily say the button-presser copied their original work without license

Oh, legalities.

Monica Cellio

6:52 PM

@ArtOfCode which the transmission logs on Medium will easily debunk. As I said, the author had to open up a textbox on Medium (or some equivalent) and submit that content to this blog. I really don't see the problem, and I'm pretty cautious about IP.

I can't sue you, as moderator, over something I post on Open Source. Or if i can, you should be way more worried about disgruntled SE users than blog contributors.

(For "I can't sue" read "I can't stand a snowball's chance in hell of successfully suing", of course.)

ArtOfCode

Ah, I see. It depends on the submission mechanism.

If they have to put the content in themselves and send it to us as part of their account on Medium, we're fine. If they send us the content outside of Medium and we put it in the box and publish, we're not.

Monica Cellio

This is the part where reading the documentation might help. :-) But no, you can't take their content and post it; they have to submit it.

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio I really should read docs. I just don't :)

Good, so we're covered. No more license-writing for me :D

Monica Cellio

Good -- glad that's settled. :-)

Got any thoughts on artwork for the blog's main page? They have some recommendations about sizes in the (wait for it) documentation. Maybe you can reuse from the other blog?

ArtOfCode

@MonicaCellio No can do. Well, possibly can do. The art from the other blog came as part of a Wordpress theme, which while free is probably still copyrighted

It'll be a google search for some free (gratis AND libre, hopefully) images I can use.

Monica Cellio

7:08 PM

@ArtOfCode oh, I hadn't realized. Never mind, then.

@ArtOfCode sounds good. Find something that works now (that's available, etc) to fill up that big blank space, and then later you (or someone else, if you ask for help) can try to improve it. I'm all about the incremental approach here.

ArtOfCode

Sounds good

James

7:31 PM

@MonicaCellio @ArtOfCode Rather than artwork is anyone interested in a logo? Something simple and clean?

ArtOfCode

@James We need both, so yes

James

Course...we need to lock down the name to do that...

ArtOfCode

I made the current logo, which is... sub-par.

I'll pick it soon enough

Do what mockups you can :)

James

I unfortunately...or fortunately for my productivity cannot get to the blog from work...

Monica Cellio

Ooh, this one looks like it could be interesting: medium.com/starts-with-a-bang

HDE 226868

7:34 PM

@MonicaCellio Oooooh. . .

> Mostly Mute Monday: A GLIMPSE of the Galaxy

> Astroquizzical: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?

> Does the Scientific Method need Revision?

They used a picture from Abstruse Goose, too:

@MonicaCellio Awesome find.

bilbo_pingouin

I created an account on medium... they don't have any password policy?

by that, I mean they never asked me for a password, and I cannot seem to be able to set one... only relying on emails?

HDE 226868

7:51 PM

@bilbo_pingouin Nope. No passwords, it seems.

bilbo_pingouin

@HDE226868 that's surprising

anyway, @ArtOfCode, bilbo_pingouin is my username :-)

Monica Cellio

@HDE226868 so true!

(Well, I didn't check individual equations; I'm only commenting on the concept.)

@bilbo_pingouin like with Stack Exchange, you use an account somewhere else to sign in. You probably used a Google account?

(You don't have to answer that, but since you said "email" I'm guessing.)

bilbo_pingouin

on medium, I used a sign in with email

on SE, I have my email and a password

and yes, it was a gmail address :p

@MonicaCellio the equations are correct as far as I can see right now

ArtOfCode

@bilbo_pingouin You're volunteering to curate, am I right?

bilbo_pingouin

@ArtOfCode yes

ArtOfCode

7:57 PM

Cool, one mo

Added as curator.

HDE 226868

@MonicaCellio Well, they got in Maxwell's equations (light), the Einstein field equation(s) (general relativistic theory of gravity) and Newton's law of universal gravitation (classical/Newtonian theory of gravity), Bernoulli's equation (lift),

the Schrödinger equation (quantum mechanics), what appears to be a form of the Navier-Stokes equations (fluid mechanics), nuclear fusion, photosynthesis, respiration, the general formula for a Fourier series, particle interactions, and some odd math at the lower right.

Yes, that is a form of the Navier-Stokes equations on the river. I wasn't sure for a second.

Monica Cellio

And you just recognized all those on site. It's great to have you participating here!

HDE 226868

@MonicaCellio As did @bilbo_pingouin, I think.

bilbo_pingouin

you also have some particle decay schemes

HDE 226868

Thanks.

bilbo_pingouin

8:00 PM

well mostly pions and electrons/positrons

Monica Cellio

@HDE226868 then kudos to @bilbo_pingouin too.

HDE 226868

@bilbo_pingouin I thought I wrote that in the message somewhere. Particle physics is not my thing.

bilbo_pingouin

well as for you I was a bit puzzled by the matrix on the lower-right

HDE 226868

@bilbo_pingouin Mostly, yes, though I see a muon at the right-hand corner (is that it?).

bilbo_pingouin

I was terrible in particle physics

HDE 226868

8:02 PM

@bilbo_pingouin It's not supposed to be Gauss-Jordan elimination, is it?

bilbo_pingouin

well theory was fine, it was just math

yes there's a muon hidden

HDE 226868

Oh, they simplified the formula for the Fourier series a bit too much. At least, it's not the general form.

bilbo_pingouin

decay of a Zeta baryon...?

HDE 226868

They had $x$ instead of $\frac{2\pi nx}{P}$.

bilbo_pingouin

that's exactly why I did not like particle physics, just too many different particles ;)

HDE 226868

8:03 PM

Assuming that's a Fourier series, which I think it is.

bilbo_pingouin

@MonicaCellio thanks also, btw :)

@HDE226868 pretty sure it is... it describes the mountain shape, which looks like a sine-wave

HDE 226868

Oh, and the ferns are fractals!

Awesome!

bilbo_pingouin

the matrix thing ?

HDE 226868

@bilbo_pingouin I have no idea what that is.

The fractal thing is purely geometric.

bilbo_pingouin

dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2010/09/25/matlab-vs-excel

the $f(x,y)=[0.085 0.04; -0.04 0.85][x;y]$ is a fractal equation

HDE 226868

8:12 PM

@bilbo_pingouin Yep, I went to The h Bar and found that out:

in The h Bar, 1 min ago, by Chris White

Barnsley fern

The Barnsley Fern is a fractal named after the British mathematician Michael Barnsley who first described it in his book Fractals Everywhere. He made it to resemble the Black Spleenwort, Asplenium adiantum-nigrum. == History == The fern is one of the basic examples of self-similar sets, i.e. it is a mathematically generated pattern that can be reproducible at any magnification or reduction. Like the Sierpinski triangle, the Barnsley fern shows how graphically beautiful structures can be built from repetitive uses of mathematical formulas with computers. Barnsley's book about fractals is based on...

bilbo_pingouin

fair enough

fractals are things that are really missing in my education :-/

HDE 226868

Nice research.

bilbo_pingouin

well the numbers helped ;-)

HDE 226868

Here's an open question that might interest folks. Do we want a question like this one, about books that are good for worldbuilding? I meant more of a list of books, though, not of links to other questions.

169

Q: Book recommendations

Every once in a while, we get a question asking for a book or other educational reference on a particular topic at a particular level. This is a meta-question that collects all those links together. If you're looking for book recommendations, this is probably the place to start. All the question...

resource-recommendations faq

bilbo_pingouin

@HDE226868 To be honest, any book of fiction, history, physics, etc. is to some extend useful

@ArtOfCode should I get any notification that I was added as curator?

ArtOfCode

8:23 PM

@bilbo_pingouin shrug Never happened to me. Ask @HDE

bilbo_pingouin

@HDE226868 ?

HDE 226868

@bilbo_pingouin I was notified via email.

bilbo_pingouin

ok... got none...

@ArtOfCode did you get confirmation that the user exist?

HDE 226868

@bilbo_pingouin You're on there. I can see you.

ArtOfCode

You definitely exist, you came up in search

HDE 226868

8:26 PM

. . . Sorry, my message came out creepier than intended.

bilbo_pingouin

ok... so it may just be a question of time

@HDE226868 should I start waving my hand? :D

James

@ArtOfCode Existential brilliance.

3

Vincent

@HDE226868 We have one tag for worldbuilding-resources and another for software-recommendations. Therefore, i don't see a problem with book recommendation.

I missed something or is the blog opened already ?

There is a myriad of threads about it on meta.

ArtOfCode

@Vincent We're opening the blog. I just need input from people here to get it opened with the right stuff

bilbo_pingouin

Medium: "Iceweasel is not supported" of course... anyway, I could test signing in from another browser: they send another mail

Vincent

8:31 PM

@ArtOfCode I've found this, i don't know if it's a problem since they have the same name medium.com/search?q=Universe%20Factory

ArtOfCode

@Vincent There's only one publication called Universe Factory, and it's ours

bilbo_pingouin

(just to conclude on that... I did not receive anything, but it seems I can edit the blog... good to know)

Vincent

@ArtOfCode Ha, I figured it out. It shows a mix of different blogs, our is empty. Never mind.

ArtOfCode

Yep, we're the only blog with that name so all good

Vincent

Seems so.

We should put the link somewhere.

ArtOfCode

8:37 PM

Worldbuilding Blog: medium.com/universe-factory

7

How's that? -->

HDE 226868

$$\text {Worldbuilding's blog is here!}$$

Vincent

@ArtOfCode Yes, but somewhere everyone can see it. I want them to be able to see it from the Moon!

HDE 226868

@Vincent No can do.

Vincent

@HDE226868 What's the name of the plug-in your using to show the text correctly?

bilbo_pingouin

maybe it would be good to have some content in before we start shipping painting on the moon

ArtOfCode

8:39 PM

@Vincent Likely I'll put an announcement on meta when the blog is up, ready, and functioning - hopefully on our birthday

HDE 226868

Whoah, the LateX text linked to the blog. How did it do that??

@Vincent I've got the link here somewhere.

ArtOfCode

@bilbo_pingouin Yes please. Anyone who wants to write stuff can start now, and we'll populate before we launch.

@HDE226868 Moderator magic.

HDE 226868

Aug 21 at 22:31, by HDE 226868

http://meta.math.stackexchange.com/a/3297#3297

@Vincent ^

Vincent

@HDE226868 Thanks

HDE 226868

@ArtOfCode Ah, of course it's you.

ArtOfCode

8:41 PM

Silent edits :)

HDE 226868

@Vincent Well, I had meant a full question - a step above having tags.

That's a bigger issue.

James

@ArtOfCode Whats the target date again?

ArtOfCode

Birthday, so... err...

HDE 226868

September 16th.

ArtOfCode

Sep 16

James

8:50 PM

@ArtOfCode @HDE226868 lol thanks

I spent the last 90 minutes working on a letter to the US congress...

HDE 226868

@James Sounds unconstructive, unless you're President Obama.

James

@HDE226868 it would be extra non-constructive coming from him hahaha...

The rhetoric coming out of washington over the Iran deal is driving me insane...especially when you consider the majority of scientific evaluations I have seen say this is a good deal.

bilbo_pingouin

@MonicaCellio, is there an official chat for writers?

James

@bilbo_pingouin Here you go. chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/168/the-overlook-hotel

bilbo_pingouin

@James which rhetoric?

@James they don't specifically say that it was the official one, so I was unsure... thanks

James

8:56 PM

"No deal is better than a bad deal" (which ignores that fact that European allies are tired of the sanctions as they are more directly impacted and have implied a failure to negotiate would see the sanctions regime start to fall apart)

bilbo_pingouin

by the way, on the topic, have you seen...

3

Q: Why are some politicians saying the Iran Nuclear deal is bad?

I've been hearing about this nuclear deal that was reached with Iran today. It seems to restrict what Iran can do with a nuclear program, and allows international inspectors to perform inspections when there is a suspicion that Iran is doing something against the deal. President Obama has said "E...

united-states international-relations nuclear-weapons iran

James

what else, oh yeah "It paves the way to the bomb" which is only true if you are an Israeli that wandered in a desert for 40 years...except in this case its about a 20 year paved road instead...which is still way better than a few months

bilbo_pingouin

I thought that was a typical result of the bipartism of the US... isn't that the usual?

I say the US, most countries have similar approach, the US are just usually a bit more extreme on it

ArtOfCode

What's a good name for a badge about getting lots of votes?

HDE 226868

@ArtOfCode "Popular"

ArtOfCode

9:01 PM

@HDE226868 What about for the silver and gold?

James

@bilbo_pingouin I have now, much appreciated, good to know my info is consistent.

@bilbo_pingouin This has particularly bothered me for some reason I haven't quite nailed down yet...

HDE 226868

@ArtOfCode Oh, a three-tier badge?

ArtOfCode

Aye

Monica Cellio

@bilbo_pingouin what James said. (Man, you step away for just a few minutes... :-) )

bilbo_pingouin

@MonicaCellio thanks anyway. Now you can answer my question, there ;-)

Monica Cellio

9:05 PM

On the launch: I think we should definitely do something special on our actual birthday, but if we have material queued up before then, we don't necessarily need to wait to launch. Maybe we can aim for some posts about the site on the birthday (favorite questions, retrospectives, what I learned from WB, etc)? Starting the blog earlier means more chance of an audience for those posts on that day, right?

bilbo_pingouin

@James ridiculous and unproductive?

James

@MonicaCellio Yes, listen to Monica, this is a good idea.

@bilbo_pingouin no...if that were the case I'd be angry all the time...its the reason I don't go on politics.se

@ArtOfCode Ill try to set up my medium account tonight from home.

ArtOfCode

Cool, we launch soon then :)

Green

Agreed. Stuff before launch is a good idea.

bilbo_pingouin

So, I wish you a good day/evening/night to you all. Talk to you tomorrow.

HDE 226868

9:10 PM

@bilbo_pingouin Bye.

Green

'night!

Monica Cellio

The very first blog post should be an introduction. Somebody should write that. :-)

(Who we are, what's this "stack exchange" thing, etc.)

ArtOfCode

I'm happy to write that one up.

Monica Cellio

Great. I'd treat the blog intro as outward-facing -- readers from elsewhere on Medium, people on the Internet in general, etc. You can use a meta post to introduce it to the community; write the blog as if people haven't already been active here.

HDE 226868

@ArtOfCode Great.

HDE 226868

9:33 PM

Google has robots, self-driving cars, email, and more. What next?

@HDE226868 Well, if they took down or severely censored the internet in US (think China's great firewall.) (I would join Larry Page in the Google militia.) — PyRulez 1 min ago

An army.

ArtOfCode

9:47 PM

medium.com/universe-factory/…

3

^ one introduction to WB

HDE 226868

@ArtOfCode Nice. I especially like the

> You come from whatty?

ArtOfCode

I figure that's the reaction most people will have xD

HDE 226868