The Heap™ – Consultancy ©®

Tom V - Team Monica

7:00 AM

WTF (re Shog)

John aka hot2use

Morning

Now I get it

McNets

7:56 AM

Morning

Andriy M

8:46 AM

Morning

Paul White Reinstate Monica

33

Q: What does "Should we add technical Q&A sites like Server Fault, Super User, and DevOps to Stack Overflow?" mean?

The site satisfaction survey has the question: Should we add technical Q&A sites like Server Fault, Super User, and DevOps to Stack Overflow? I find it very unclear what this means. It could be: Should we merge technical Q&A sites like Server Fault, Super User, and DevOps into Stack Overf...

Vérace

9:09 AM

Morning all...

Tom V - Team Monica

Morning

@PaulWhiteReinstateMonica I didn't see any survey

Not that I mind, I wouldn't have participated anyway

Paul White Reinstate Monica

@TomV-TeamMonica Me either. Perhaps it was SO only.

Tom V - Team Monica

@PaulWhiteReinstateMonica I certainly saw questions on SO in the last days, I've been struggling with Javascript

Paul White Reinstate Monica

I wonder if the CM reductions are pure cost-cutting. Making the numbers look better before an IPO or sale.

Other obvious cost-cutting could involve merging successful technical sites into SO and abandoning the others.

Tom V - Team Monica

I could think of better people to fire

Paul White Reinstate Monica

9:17 AM

Yes indeed but better != useful

In the company's eyes I mean

Seems to me like SO don't have the resources to run all the SE sites successfully.
They must represent a net loss.

Tom V - Team Monica

-225

A: Firing Community Managers: StackExchange is not interested in cooperating with the community, is it?

You all should know that this is very hard for us. This is what I am able to share: As you have seen, today there were some changes on the Community Team. Out of respect for their privacy, we aren’t able to comment on any specific current or former employees. We’re seeking to align the company...

Paul White Reinstate Monica

> align the company so that it can continue growing in 2020

firesale

Tom V - Team Monica

Probably

Maybe the original venture capital providers see a top in growth and want out

Paul White Reinstate Monica

Merging other tech sites into SO is one way to grow the numbers on a spreadsheet

And SO is the only place that has Teams and Jobs

Things that generate income

Tom V - Team Monica

Good point

If they merge dba into SO I'm out

Paul White Reinstate Monica

9:27 AM

Well the quality on dba is already heading in the SO direction and some users want all SO db questions here so there's one way to achieve that

Of course one could put that proposal in finer words
Perhaps on a blog somewhere

Tom V - Team Monica

Quality has been abysmal recently

Paul White Reinstate Monica

Yep

That happens when poor questions get answers and votes

And some nice chat in comments

Very welcoming and inclusive

Tom V - Team Monica

Like this

-2

Q: select count(*), col2 with specified clauses

i have an application that allows to run only some of old versions on application start my code check the user's current version if that version exists on activeversions table in database it returns 1 (true) and application runs promptly, if the user's version is not exists in activeversion tab...

sql-server

screw it, down-vote and vtc

Paul White Reinstate Monica

The usual suspects will already be working on answers

Tom V - Team Monica

But that would make the user feel unwelcomed

Paul White Reinstate Monica

9:32 AM

Yeah we they should fire you Tom for even suggesting that

Tom V - Team Monica

Ban me for a year /jk

Paul White Reinstate Monica

heh

if that was a meta reference I got it

Tom V - Team Monica

it was

Paul White Reinstate Monica

robert harvey was it?

one of the ex-mods anyway

Tom V - Team Monica

Yes, in a discussion about deleting comments

Paul White Reinstate Monica

9:36 AM

right

Tom V - Team Monica

The front page is depressing

Michael Green

9:55 AM

Morning all.

ypercubeᵀᴹ

10:12 AM

Jan 6 at 15:29, by Taryn

Suspend my account. We'll try this again in a year. — Robert Harvey yesterday

Paul White Reinstate Monica

@ypercubeᵀᴹ thanks

I think I heard he asked for his diamond back on SO but that was declined due to the meta suspension

Tom V - Team Monica

@PaulWhiteReinstateMonica Well technically he has been suspended (facepalm)

Tom V - Team Monica

2:23 PM

-1

Q: how to get all the table existing in a database

import pandas as pd import sqlite3 conn = sqlite3.connect('Db-IMDB.db') imdb = pd.read_sql_query('''SELECT table_name FROM information_schema.tables LIMIT 20 ''',conn) but it is giving error: DatabaseError: Execution failed on sql 'SELECT table_name FROM information_schema.tables LIMIT 20 ': n...

sqlite python

That's just too crappy to answer

It's literally the first result if you google "get list of tables in sqlite"

Hmm since I linked it here Verace answered and somebody immediately down-voted his answer (which I think wasn't bad in itself)

James

2:46 PM

I didn't know you could use limit in t-sql

ive always used top

Tom V - Team Monica

@James you can't

Paul White Reinstate Monica

Well sort of. OFFSET was added to the ORDER BY clause in SQL Server 2012.

Tom V - Team Monica

I wonder if you could do an OFFSET 0 ROWS FETCH NEXT 25 ROWS ONLY; to accomplish a TOP 25

Paul White Reinstate Monica

@TomV-TeamMonica yes I do it quite often

Tom V - Team Monica

Ah ok, thanks

I was just about to test it on db<>fiddle

Paul White Reinstate Monica

2:58 PM

Well "quite often" = when I have a good reason and can be bothered with the extra typing

Tom V - Team Monica

What would be a good reason?

If anything I would expect offset fetch to do more work than TOP

Paul White Reinstate Monica

Answering a question about how to use OFFSET would be one example

Tom V - Team Monica

3:28 PM

I'm going to stay away from main for a while, it's hurting my mood

James

so, why was that shog fellow fired? I'd look on meta, but we all know that the real story will be censored

ypercubeᵀᴹ

@TomV-TeamMonica I don't expect more work but they are likely implemented slightly differently. OFFSET / FETCH does not allow WITH TIES for example.

Tom V - Team Monica

@James We don't know more than what they posted on Meta

James

aww. I have become accustomed to a certain level of drama

I want more

Andriy M

@TomV-TeamMonica So they probably googled "get list of tables in mysql" and got an answer using information_schema, duh. I mean, they did tag the question as mysql initially.

Paul White Reinstate Monica

3:42 PM

@TomV-TeamMonica Some people regard answering poor/off-topic questions as bad form.

It certainly makes the question harder to delete if there are multiple answers or one with a positive score.

Harder for people without a diamond that is.

Which, to a first approximation, is everyone.

Tom V - Team Monica

@AndriyM sobs

Paul White Reinstate Monica

We’re making it easier to try Stack Overflow for Teams

Lori Colston on January 14, 2020

Building something is rewarding. Building something that works and solves headaches and hassles for people is especially rewarding.

We built Stack Overflow for Teams because people had a real need for a new knowledge management tool that helped them spend less time searching for information and more time building great stuff.

Over the last four years, hundreds of thousands of people started using Teams. They told us how it solved their headaches and hassles, they suggested new features and functionality, and they gave us feedback. We listened and built, creating a solid virtuous cycle for ourselves and our customers. …

hooray!

Peter Vandivier

@PaulWhiteReinstateMonica that's rather why i ended up asking this old chestnut 🤷‍♂️

> It makes it easier to delete the question in the future if it's deemed to be clutter.

sadly downvoted into oblivion

vox meta vox dei

ypercubeᵀᴹ

I see +8 ;)

Tom V - Team Monica

@ypercubeᵀᴹ Not on the answer with that quote :)

Peter Vandivier

3:55 PM

@ypercubeᵀᴹ ah, sry, should've linked to the "Yes" answer

Paul White Reinstate Monica

Well the No answer was v popular

Tom V - Team Monica

@PaulWhiteReinstateMonica Back then we still believed we could salvage most of the questions

Paul White Reinstate Monica

Anyway it's a good example. Answer poor questions and get rewarded with more poor questions. Yay?

Peter Vandivier

@PaulWhiteReinstateMonica how do you figure? looks to me more like that user was run off the farm dba.stackexchange.com/users/156603/csveriu

Paul White Reinstate Monica

@PeterVandivier General remark

Tom V - Team Monica

3:58 PM

@PeterVandivier Just check the home page from time to time

Peter Vandivier

@TomV-TeamMonica :p i don't necessarily know that there's a strong causal relationship is my point

Paul White Reinstate Monica

See you in 30 minutes Evan

@PeterVandivier Broken windows

Peter Vandivier

@PaulWhiteReinstateMonica rather an amusing choice of imagery. my hippie dippie leftie education rather left me with the conclusion that the broken window argument is more of a tool of oppression and less of an effective deterrent to hooliganism

Paul White Reinstate Monica

I always know I'm on the right track when Peter's arguing the opposite side

Peter Vandivier

i know we don't see eye to eye on much

🤷‍♂️

James

4:03 PM

why not leave them for someone else to answer? The road to expertise is paved with stupid questions.

Paul White Reinstate Monica

@James That's exactly what is happening right now and the site looks like crap

I suppose it could make things easier when SO Inc decides to merge dba into SO

But it's not so much about stupid questions as it is about poorly asked questions

James

what?! dba feels like a private club for smrt people. I don't want to be lumped in with those javascript peasants on SO

Paul White Reinstate Monica

heh

James

but you're right, by the time you know enough to formulate a good question, you're already pretty far along the learning curve

Paul White Reinstate Monica

I suppose there is some correlation there, but I think if I were learning something new I could at least formulate my questions half-decently

I asked a question outside my expertise on SO once and escaped with -1 net score I think so there's that

If I'm making a point, I guess it would be that back in the days when we had a large number of engaged expert users, sub-optimal questions were rapidly improved or placed on hold.

Hence the apparent average quality of the site was pretty high. Especially compared with the alternatives.

Andriy M

4:29 PM

There are fundamentally two ways to lower the average. And it seems to me both are in play at the moment.

3

Tom V - Team Monica

5:26 PM

I don't have a problem with a stupid question. I do with lack of effort

Peter Vandivier

5:42 PM

-1

Q: How to add text[] data type entry with pgAdmin 4?

Specific to using the GUI pgAdmin with postgreSQL, one of the tables has a column named "model" that is of text[] data type. Using pgAdmin, when entering a new row, how to add such a value under the text[] column? Example: Tried entering {"ModelX","ModelY"}, but when I go to save data, I get th...