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04:24

0

Weapons for a civilisation-destroying giant robot. [science-based][weapons] An assortment of alien adolescents accompanying adult aliens on an alcubierre-drive ship just happen to have been passing near the Sol system. Having noticed that there is lots of EM radiation coming from the third pla...

Worldbuilding Meta

07:48

0

Q: Case Study #4 - overactor

Part four of the case study series. Part 1 - Tim B Part 2 - Daaaah Whoosh Part 3 - James I submit the following for review. These are my 5 most popular questions order approximately from less to more popular. (though the last on would more likely lend on place 2 or 3, but has been put as l...

Tim B

10:24

I really need to find time to properly go through those case studies

overactor

agreed

Tim B

I've not done it because I don't want to do a half-hearted job of it

overactor

I already got mine out 1 day late :(

bilbo_pingouin

yeah... exactly what I was thinking some minutes before

the problem is the more I wait, the more I'll have to read...

Tim B

I think for the case studies to be useful rather than picking most popular we need people to pick potentially contentious ones

although some that are clearly in are helpful to have too I guess

bilbo_pingouin

10:29

well the advantage of taking the 5 most popular, is that it takes away any subjectivity of the OP in picking some questions

Tim B

true enough

bilbo_pingouin

but I agree with you, for example most of DW's questions are spot on, so hard to trigger much discussion

Tim B

yeah some examples of "on topic" are helpful but in general case studies are more interesting when they are closer to the line

overactor

@bilbo_pingouin That was my thinking mainly

I also think popular but off-topic questions are the main problem

Tim B

11:08

Yep. I'd like to keep popular questions, but we need to draw a line and say no matter how popular it's not worldbuilding any more

bilbo_pingouin

yes that's my view. Popularity isn't bad for a question, but it does not save it neither

hard to implement though...

overactor

In a way, we need to be extra hard on popular questions, they are the kost prominent examples new users will follow.

Tim B

that's one reason I submitted mine in as case studies

bilbo_pingouin

we need to be extra hard on popular questions from experienced users

Tim B

considering how many thousands of people saw the facebook one for example

oh well, a day and a half and the election is over

give the new mods a day or two to settle in and I'll start a more structured discussion on the whole on/off topic thing

overactor

11:14

@bilbo_pingouin judge the question, not the one who asked it.

Tim B

there's an innate tendency not to close questions from high rep users though...

bilbo_pingouin

well, I tend to be more lenient towards new comers. But experienced users should know better.

@TimB exactly. And that's the wrong way to be biased.

overactor

@TimB that's true, doesn't go against what I said though.

well, the tendency does, which is why it's not a good tendency

bilbo_pingouin

12:05

with the election, I completely forgot about the mythical creatures challenge... it should be stopped today... and calling leap years... or did the plan change?

Tim B

sounds like a reasonable plan

overactor

@bilbo_pingouin the challenge would be calender right?

I wonder if maybe time-keeping would be a better, more general name for that tag

Tim B

12:39

@overactor sounds plausible...maybe a meta post be worthwhile@?

overactor

@TimB I'll go for it

overactor

12:53

posted

Worldbuilding Meta

0

Q: Should the calender tag be renamed time-keeping?

In light of an upcoming topic challenge using the tag calendar I wondered if this tag would benefit from being renamed to timekeeping. Calendar might be a more common word, but it rather arbitrarily excludes some topics that would be covered by a timekeeping tag1. I'd suggest renaming calendar t...

discussion tags tag-synonyms

DaaaahWhoosh

14:50

@bilbo_pingouin It's not my fault I'm so good at this :) But seriously, for my two cents on that conversation, I think it's good to see 'good' questions, because then we can realize how useless 'bad' questions are. We need to know that not everything on WB is off-topic

James

@TimB synonymize

James

16:06

I am playing with codecademy today.

DaaaahWhoosh

what language?

James

Python

DaaaahWhoosh

ewwwwww....

jk python is apparently good for learning

over the weekend I was learning to program in Unity, it uses C#

which is like Java, only you have to pay for its IDE

James

I can spell C#, thats about it.

DaaaahWhoosh

@James The cool thing is that the 'sharp' is actually just four '+' signs

C++++

James

16:10

nevermind I spelled it wrong

DaaaahWhoosh

lol

James

so if I just want to type python in notepad++ whats the easiest way to run the scripts i write up?

DaaaahWhoosh

since python is interpreted, you need a python interpreter

bowlturner

@DaaaahWhoosh actually there is VS Code which is free, for C#

DaaaahWhoosh

@bowlturner WHAAAAaatt? Oh, I need to find that. But the other problem is that Unity opens all cs files in Visual Studio even though I don't have a license, so I still need to figure that one out

I can't tell if it's an OS thing or not, I have cs files set to open in Sublime but there doesn't seem to be an options menu in Unity

bowlturner

16:22

You can always set files to open with a specific program by extension in windows

right-click open with... and then 'always use this program' check box

DaaaahWhoosh

yeah, so I did that, but if I open a cs file in Unity, it opens Visual Studio. So I think Unity is just assuming I want to open Visual Studio, and I haven't figured out how to set it straight.

bowlturner

ah, yeah that's a different problem

so don't open .cs files in Unity...

;)

DaaaahWhoosh

@bowlturner That's what I've been doing, but with the editor, the tutorial, Sublime, and a folder window open all at once, I'm running a bit short on real estate

bowlturner

need more monitors!

DaaaahWhoosh

yeah, I have been wondering how hard it would be to set up a third...

I mean, going from one to two was great, two to three must be incredible!

bowlturner

16:27

not bad, it depends partly on if you need another video card or not

I'm enjoying 3

But what I thinkwould be better would be just one 50" monitor!

Tim B

I think eclipse supports C#. Just google for C# IDE. If you're doing any serious work in it you'll probably need the microsoft tools though

DaaaahWhoosh

I'm running off a laptop, I assume it's not built even for two monitors. Especially since with three I'd probably try running Minecraft, GIMP, and Netflix all at once

Tim B

one reason I prefer Java :)

James

ok why does python treat 15 / 100 differently than 15.0 / 100?

or is that just a codecademy-ism

DaaaahWhoosh

@James implicit type conversion

James

16:29

@DaaaahWhoosh wha?

DaaaahWhoosh

if you divide integers, it does floor division to give you integers back

Tim B

in other words 15/100 = 0 because it's all done with integers. 15.0/100 is done in doubles since it converts the 100 to 100.0

@DaaaahWhoosh My laptop runs 2 monitors + the laptop screen, tis very nice....not a cheap laptop though

James

@TimB I get what you guys are saying but it doesn't make sense to me...at least at this point...I am sure there is a reason it is necessary

DaaaahWhoosh

@James You don't want to divide integers into a non-integer answer, but if your 10.0 is already not an integer, there's no worries

@TimB My laptop isn't cheap, but it's not gonna run Crysis any time soon. I got it when my old laptop's cooling fan broke

Tim B

@James What's the difference between an Integer and a Float (Double being a type of Float) ?

James

16:42

All I know is integers = whole numbers, not familiar with the term float for numbers, keep in mind I haven't taken a math course in..12 years.

DaaaahWhoosh

float = floating point number, it basically means it's not a whole number

Tim B

float is a computing term not a mathematical one

James

that i would refer to as a decimal...

@TimB that would explain why I am not familiar.

Tim B

decimals are different from floats. Decimals can store any value exactly but they use more memory and are a lot slower to work with

a float can store a number in 32 bits (64 bits for a double)

but it can't store it exactly

DaaaahWhoosh

@TimB it can if it's in binary

Tim B

16:46

a certain very select range of numbers can be stored exactly

that's a very limited set though

ask python whether 1.0 == 0.8+0.2

that's not the example I usually use, I expect it will say not equal though

DaaaahWhoosh

there's an SMBC comic about this...

Tim B

anyhow we're off topic....basically computers are either working in integers (whole numbers only) or floating point (can handle fiddly stuff that isn't whole)

if any part of a calculation is a float (i.e. 15.0 is a float) then both sides are converted to float and it's done in float...so 15.0/100 = 15.0/100.0 = 0.15

but if both sides are integer the whole thing is done in integer 15/100 = 15/100 = 0

note that 99/100 will also = 0 in integer as it always truncates

DaaaahWhoosh

I wish they'd taught integer division in school

who cares about remainders, we only use them when computing mod!

James

@DaaaahWhoosh lol

Thank you guys for the explanation

Tim B

hope it made sense :)

James

16:55

@TimB Alot more than it did lol

Tim B

Yeah. Just remember that computers have no common sense. They do exactly what you tell them to, no more and no less.

a human sees 15/100 and automatically switches to float. A computer is happy with zero.

James

you'd think, as human creations they would think like us...

bowlturner

I'm glad they don't!

James

If there is a God/gods/god I am sure he/she/it has uttered the exact same phrase

DaaaahWhoosh

I sometimes wonder if God is more like a computer, and created us because the universe needed more spontaneity

either way, the universe can be seen as a sort of algorithm

we have a bunch of rules and an initial condition, and it's been running ever since

humans are just so complex that we can't comprehend our own algorithms

James

17:04

@DaaaahWhoosh Error logging and a cache clearing are in order

DaaaahWhoosh

turns out black holes are just the universe's garbage collectors

InterstellarFascist

17:22

So they don't make new universes? But we haven't even sent a probe or astronaut in to see if that's not true yet! Not surprising that we know jack all about how the universe actually functions. Why would we? Humans have only been industrial for like, two centuries and only had science for five. We don't even know what life outside earth is like for that matter.

HDE 226868

5

Q: Would a dragon be useful in a space program?

NASA has received a new employee: a dragon! His name is Firewing and he's there to help NASA with its missions. He's not an astronaut himself, mainly because of the logistical issues of launching a dragon into space (and because NASA knows that if they did that they might as well close up shop be...

space dragons

What do people think of ^?

bowlturner

It seems idea generation for a plot.

But I didn't vote one way or the other on the VtC

Hohmannfan

"It is too popular to close" was the first I thought. Then I realized that was no a good reason. Not sure.

HDE 226868

@Hohmannfan Yep, popularity didn't stop us here.

Shalvenay

17:38

@HDE226868 -- LOL -- apparently whoever wrote it forgot that NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration

...they'd be all over a specimen like that like white on rice anyway!

Hohmannfan

@HDE226868 I have to read through that one

bowlturner

I passed on answers when a smaug sized dragon can fly as fast as the space shuttle....

DaaaahWhoosh

17:54

@bowlturner I wonder not only if that's possible with wing power, but also if it is, what kind of wind it would cause

bowlturner

@DaaaahWhoosh the turbulence would be incredible, on top of the huge sonic boom.

DaaaahWhoosh

the wings would probably create sonic booms every time they flapped

bowlturner

@DaaaahWhoosh they would almost have to by default

DaaaahWhoosh

and at that point there'd be no material strong enough to build them out of

but, of course, the dragon may not get by on wing power alone. Perhaps the fire breath doesn't come out the front...

for that recent 'Moon occasionally appears much larger in the sky' question, I want to say that the moon is part of some sort of binary moon system, but I don't know the math, and it feels kinda like idea generation

not that the question is idea generation, it may just be too broad, but the answer seems to be generating an idea

HDE 226868

18:10

@DaaaahWhoosh Regarding the math: It's not too bad. The formula for angular diameter isn't bad, and if you use a binary moon system of approximately equal masses, then the distance to Earth can be easily found. The tides would be messed up because of the extra mass, but maybe you could fudge the density a little so the moons are each the same size as the Moon, but only each have half the mass.

Also, it sounds a lot like this question, so that would be a good broadness comparison.

DaaaahWhoosh

I was mostly saying it'd be hard to find a way the moons could be orbiting each other and the planet in such a way that one of them appeared larger at some times but not at others

especially if you wanted to completely hide the second moon somehow, that would be a tough one

Hohmannfan

What do you mean by "difficult to hide the second moon"? Nobody has found that one I hid yet.

DaaaahWhoosh

@Hohmannfan Well, no one was looking for it... until now

Now that I'm thinking about it, though, shouldn't the atmosphere act as a sort of concave lens, magnifying our view of space?

or does that only work for solids?

Hohmannfan

18:32

Does a gas lens work? I guess yes. (atmospheric refraction and stuff)

...Especially "stuff"

DaaaahWhoosh

so, then... the moon would appear bigger with a bigger/denser atmosphere?...?

Hohmannfan

@DaaaahWhoosh You speak optics? Me not want participate. Me thinks optics scary.

DaaaahWhoosh

covers eyes with hands Yeah, me no want to see more optics

Hohmannfan

seriously though, optics are complicated and counter intuitive. This what if shows how you have been wrong about optics for you whole life: what-if.xkcd.com/145

DaaaahWhoosh

18:47

my mind has already been blown three times

Hohmannfan

I say it again: Me thinks optics scary

2

James

19:03

ok someone doesn't like me today, I have gotten downvotes on my lemming question and on my answer to "The perfect zombie apocalypse refuge" answer...

no comments...

DaaaahWhoosh

I've been getting some random upvotes recently, I assume because of the election and the case study

which reminds me, @Green, you should be doing your case study tomorrow

HDE 226868

@James You got an upvote at about the same time, though. A net gain.

Oh, also, I'm working on trying to explicitly prove that your moons configuration is stable. No promises, though.

DaaaahWhoosh

my moons configuration? Or does someone else have one too?

HDE 226868

@DaaaahWhoosh I meant @James's setup.

DaaaahWhoosh

ah, interesting

James

19:17

What I was trying to get to with those questions was enough mass between two moons that when they line up right it causes...problems on earth.

This was the follow on:

10

Q: Making doomsayers right - a moon(s), planet alignment that matters

Considering our topic challenge, and the fantastic eclipse last Sunday a question came to me. Could there be a stable (relatively speaking) planetary system where a(n) eclipse/alignment would actually make a noticeable difference on an earth like planet? The eclipse/alignment should cause one o...

hard-science moons natural-disasters

Universe Factory

Universe Factory — Medium: Meeting the Worldbuilders — TrEs-2b

posted on February 15, 2016 by Tim Boura

This is one out of a series here on Universe Factory, where we look at the people behind the Worldbuilding. We present a number of short… Continue reading on Medium »

2

DaaaahWhoosh

20:50

@bowlturner Did you read my suggestion for that moon question, or are you really just me from the future?

bowlturner

@DaaaahWhoosh um, which?

DaaaahWhoosh

which question, or which suggestion?

bowlturner

both! :)

DaaaahWhoosh

or which future?

bowlturner

that might be better

DaaaahWhoosh

20:53

I think there's some future where I'm using a computer in a rainstorm, and get struck by lightning, and suddenly get smarter and better at answering questions. And make bowls, apparently

but earlier, I was talking about how the curve of the Earth's atmosphere may act like a magnifying glass, making the moon appear larger

Hohmannfan scared me off of optics, but I think your answer poses the same possibility

bowlturner

Well, if I'm your future you, I'd make some wiser choices in your life!

DaaaahWhoosh

@bowlturner Yeah, tell that to teenage me.

bowlturner

Well as I said in the answer, I actually experienced an illusion like that, it was kind of freaky actually, I was in Middle school.

DaaaahWhoosh

I guess that's proof we're not the same person then, I have no such memories

bowlturner

Well I do forget large parts of my past for years at a time, so you still never know...

DaaaahWhoosh

20:59

yeah, as long as you remember stepping into a time machine I think there's still a chance

bowlturner

I must have! I could have sworn I just graduated from college last year!

Hohmannfan

21:14

Sampling from the user pages, worldbuilders are not very old. Here are active participants in chat I could find numbers on:

A few of the high-profile users are missing though

DaaaahWhoosh

that's actually a lot older than I was expecting

Hohmannfan

I have no numbers on @Samuel or @MonicaCellio

bilbo_pingouin

@Hohmannfan what is it showing? you found the profile of 9 users and those are their age?

Hohmannfan

@bilbo_pingouin Yes.

I think I have figured out the age of Samuel too

Nine users recently active in chat

small sample analysis

bilbo_pingouin

fair enough...

but it is usually presented in histograms... with age in x-axis, and frequency in y-axis :)

Hohmannfan

21:25

Is it OK to post the age of someone that has not written it in their userprofile, but provided enough information anyway?

DaaaahWhoosh

wow, I just realized I'm on the low end of that graph... that hasn't happened in a while

bilbo_pingouin

I'd say as long as you haven't written any name... it should be fine

Hohmannfan

@bilbo_pingouin A histogram? really with a so small sampling size

bilbo_pingouin

if you intend to write names, you should ask the authorisation

I like histograms :-)

but also it's more readable that your plot, IMO

you can play with the binning to make the plot not appear too empty

Hohmannfan

If you want to keep your age secret, do not mention your identical twin. Just saying :P

bilbo_pingouin

21:27

and also you don't need to start from 0... as I see it, your younger users are 16...

Hohmannfan

I can not find any chat-active user younger than that

bilbo_pingouin

he probably don't have a problem with it, but nevertheless better to ask if you intend to name him

HDE 226868

@bilbo_pingouin Yeah, but starting at ~10 or ~15 on the graph makes the differences look greater than they actually are.

DaaaahWhoosh

and it makes the younglings feel bad

bilbo_pingouin

true, but I doubt you'll find many 1 year old around SE

Hohmannfan

21:29

start from -10 then?

HDE 226868

@DaaaahWhoosh I prefer "worldbuilderlings".

2

Hohmannfan

@bilbo_pingouin Your age is not available. Do you mind telling it? No pressure.

bilbo_pingouin

35 :)

it's not like if someone really wanted they couldn't find it on the web :-)

DaaaahWhoosh

I can't tell if it's a complement or an insult to tell someone you thought they were younger

I guess it depends on what age they actually are...

bilbo_pingouin

it usually depends...

the further you are past from 20-25, the better it is taken ;-)

for younger ones, it usually goes the other way around

unless you thought I was like 10... ^^"

Hohmannfan

21:37

I think that it is OK to show data about persons if it is purely collected from information on SE. Protest quickly if it is not OK.

DaaaahWhoosh

@bilbo_pingouin No, I think I just assumed you were the same age as me. Or, like two years older, I think that's my default assumption

bowlturner

@DaaaahWhoosh so how old do/did you think I am?

Hohmannfan

The moment of truth in 30 seconds unless somebody says NO:

Pavel Janicek

Yes

Hohmannfan

wait, I miss information on you @PavelJanicek

Pavel Janicek

21:42

Wait, why?

Hohmannfan

no is OK.

Pavel Janicek

Uffff

Hohmannfan

Publishing the rest then

Pavel Janicek

What is on x axis?

Hohmannfan

age

users sampled from active in chat

bilbo_pingouin

21:44

it should be written ;)

DaaaahWhoosh

@bowlturner It depends on if you're me from the future or not. I'd say you're older than pingouin, but the data is showing that's unlikely

bowlturner

@DaaaahWhoosh what's unlikely?

Pavel Janicek

But if you want, my column should be as long as bilbo's

Hohmannfan

most worldbuilders are in their 30's

DaaaahWhoosh

@bowlturner nevermind, I just saw that the bars were labeled

I was right!

bowlturner

21:48

yep I'm one of the old guys.

Hohmannfan

Does flagging only call local mods? We may not want to have it permanently transcripted.

bilbo_pingouin

@Hohmannfan depends on the flag

it may send the post to the review queues

HDE 226868

@Hohmannfan Do you mean a chat message?

bilbo_pingouin

@Hohmannfan there's a gap between overactor and Serban

Hohmannfan

@HDE226868 Some users may not like the data sampling

bilbo_pingouin

21:50

@Hohmannfan see, that was the idea of asking them before... ;)

but for those who have it in their profile they are probably ok with it.

HDE 226868

@Hohmannfan I know; were you asking about a chat flag or a flag on the main site?

Hohmannfan

Chat flag, but it is probably OK

bilbo_pingouin

and those who wrote it directly in a public chat or posts (election, for HDE), they are also probably ok with that

HDE 226868

@Hohmannfan Ah, then yeah, every mod in chat sees it (and 10k users, too, I believe). This sometimes leads to a flood of mods into a chat room, if things are interesting/funny/important/etc. enough. Although some of us just check the transcript, so we don't actually enter. Entering tends to make bad situations worse, and okay situations awkward.

Hohmannfan

@bilbo_pingouin Then, there are nobody left

Pavel Janicek

21:54

The graph should maybe start on 13, because it is lowest possible age to join AFAIK

bowlturner

I'm also pretty sure there have been a couple users of that age on WB

Pavel Janicek

Me too

bilbo_pingouin

yep, and I think some might still be around

Hohmannfan

Not if it has gone more than a year :D

Pavel Janicek

New users can join :D

Did I mention that I work as software tester? :)

bowlturner

21:58

Gah! The dreaded QA!

DaaaahWhoosh

@bowlturner Dreaded? I love QA! I never have to test my own programs!

2

though that did actually come back to bite me recently, we had a production issue because we didn't allocate QA resources for a part of the project I'd worked on

Pavel Janicek

No QA, no bugs. No bugs, quality software. Quality software, happy customers. Happy customers, bonuses. Get rid of QA and you get bonuses ;)

bowlturner

Actually, I've never had a QA on any of my projects. In truth I'd prefer someone else doing the testing. But they do have a reputaion

I don't write bugs, just undocumented features!

Pavel Janicek

Lol, exactly

Hohmannfan

The terminal has humor!:

Pavel Janicek

22:03

One my friend told me that he was required to call every bug "undocumented feature"

bowlturner

I use it as a joke, it's sad if someone is serious!

Pavel Janicek

And one day they managed to release something that didn't work. Like if you ship email client that cannot receive emails

bowlturner

I suppose the 'feature' was it kept your inbox clean! :)

Hohmannfan

"tired of spam? Try our client!"

Pavel Janicek

So the communication apparently was: This feature will be removed in next release ;)

bowlturner

22:05

OH MY

Pavel Janicek

Obviously everything is gossips

And urban legends

But I believe it

bowlturner

Ha, I've seen to many odd things not to believe it's possible.

I found a piece of code that used a random number generator to make up numbers for error codes

2

Pavel Janicek

Yay

bowlturner

That is hard to find when you search the code base for that string! I tell you

Ha, once again I have an answer that has a comment with more upvotes than my answer!

Pavel Janicek

Recently we promised to compile list of possible error messages to get from the app

And realized that most errors are hardcoded deep in the codebase

Best. Refactoring. Job. Ever

bowlturner

22:11

yep, that's been pretty common until fairly recently (last 5-10 years)

Pavel Janicek

Including the retests of whole app to see if something didn't get broken

bowlturner

That could be fun, depending on the code base you start with.

Pavel Janicek

Pretty huge. With lots of business rules

$>repeat 5 fun

Ha! Kids are asleep. Time to good night

bowlturner

later!

Monica Cellio

22:39

@Hohmannfan are you just collecting chat users, or all users (who provide an age) on the site? You could get the latter from SEDE.

I haven't published an age. But you would have to expand your X-axis. :-)

bowlturner

ohh! someone older than me!

Hohmannfan

There are lot of good stuff at the SEDE, I did not think of the possibility that an age query existed

It seems like the average worldbuilder is 24

bilbo_pingouin

from the SEDE or from your samples?

Hohmannfan

SEDE

24-26 seems to be universal for all sites

Monica Cellio

@Hohmannfan well, you might have to write the query yourself, but the data is there. Looks like you either found it or wrote it.

@Hohmannfan what's N? (That is, how many worldbuilders give an age?)

Hohmannfan

22:49

Wait, I am slow at writing queries.

There are 9012 users that have not provided an age

(on WB)

out of 12825...

N of 3813

now to check out my biases, what SEs do I think have very young or old users?

Monica Cellio

@Hohmannfan wow, we are a secretive lot. :-)

Hohmannfan

Meh. Most people just do not care about providing it

I mean, we have more registered users than the total number of Q&A

HDE 226868

I put Douglas Adams' birthday into the field when I first joined SE, but then I looked at the results and it was just weird.

@Hohmannfan Not surprising. Many will never post.

Hohmannfan

SO has one user that is -973 years old

Monica Cellio

@HDE226868 true. A more-interesting query might be ages among those who have at least one post (question or answer).

@Hohmannfan I wonder how that happened.

You have to enter a birth date (not age), and if you try to enter an age that would put you under 13 I think you get blocked.

Tim B

23:03

@DaaaahWhoosh Any guess that moves towards 20 from their current age is generally taken as a compliment...rough rule of thumb :)

@MonicaCellio Could be a test user.

Monica Cellio

@TimB maybe, though I'd be surprised to see one on the production server when I know they've got dev servers to experiment on.

Tim B

Sometimes you need to test in prod - even if just to reproduce problems there to then take back to the dev servers

Hohmannfan

It should be pretty simple to get the age of all users with a number of answers > 0, but I am just messing up the syntax

Worldbuilding Meta

2

Q: Number of Voters Betting Pool

We can see how many people have voted in the Worldbuilding election by looking at the number of Constituent badges awarded. This is a little friendly contest for no prize at all. Lets see who can post the number closest to the final number of constituents we have. The rules are simple, post an ...

discussion

Hohmannfan

@TimB I love my yellow!

Monica Cellio

23:16

@TimB that's true. And we don't always remember to clean up the stuff we test in prod. :-)

Tim B

@Hohmannfan Muhahahaha. If you get the answer right your prize can be yellow back.

Monica Cellio

23:33

@Hohmannfan this isn't that, but has similar intent: data.stackexchange.com/worldbuilding/query/117103/…

I would ditch the age ranges from that; why limit it to 10-70?

(I started to write it, but reduced to a previously-solved problem. :-) )

Hohmannfan

as long as it is not null, it is fine

That query pretty much covers it

Monica Cellio

Right, and this query checks for that.

Yeah. That query is looking for users with 10 posts, it looks like, but you could tweak that.

In fact, for bonus points, you could parameterize it.

Hohmannfan

ages/users.

post floor 3, rep floor 2, age floor 1

Monica Cellio

Somehow I don't believe that far-right data point. I mean, I believe it's in the data; I just don't believe it's truthful. :-)

Hohmannfan

5 users are 96 years... possible but unlikely

Monica Cellio

23:40

The earliest birthdate you can give on SE is 1920-01-01. There are people who do that just to fill in the field without revealing their actual ages. meta.stackexchange.com/q/2307/162102

Hohmannfan

That explains it

Monica Cellio

Also meta.stackexchange.com/q/63497/162102

Hohmannfan

And the comments on this answer :D meta.stackexchange.com/a/2345/312068

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