The Water Cooler

4:49 AM

@Lilienthal IMHO it makes more sense to keep the post featured for the full duration, because then the exemplary answer is likely to gain more upvotes in addition to the bounty amount. For example, I recently awarded a bounty to an existing answer. When I started the bounty, it was at +4/0, when I eventually awarded the bounty after the bounty period expired, it was at +17/-1. So that answer gained +128 reputation in addition to the +500 bounty.

Nofel

7:33 AM

Morning all

Snow

Good morning. Just booked my ticket for The Last Jedi. Now I need to book the day off.

How are you feeling the day after you handed your notice in? Are you more relaxed now that you have that done?

Nofel

Kind of but at the same time panic too as I cannot find time to study.

And it’s crucial for me

What’s working time regulation opt out form?

Snow

I have no idea. I've never heard of it before. You might need to google that one.

Nofel

It says “u agree that the 48 hrs weekly time limit in the working regulation 1998 shall not apply to your employment. You may withdraw your agreement to this exclusion by signing the WTD opt out form”

Lilienthal

@MaskedMan Oh, true. On the whole it makes sense to keep the delay in place to grant some extra exposure. I just get easily annoyed by impediments to my workflow. :)

Snow

7:46 AM

@Nofel This might be covering the business in case you need to do some overtime and you refuse based on this act. I don't think it'll cause any problems in day-to-day work. 48 hours over 5 days would mean you working 10 hour days.

Nofel

Should I sign it or not

Snow

I wouldn't. But then I'm ok with working longer hours to get things done if and when I need to and I like the company I'm working for.

Snow

8:03 AM

@Lilienthal Can you take a look at this suggested edit someone is trying to edit spam into other people's posts (I guess this is nothing new)

I'm not sure how to flag this kind of thing. I can reject the edit, but that won't flag it.

@Lilienthal Ok. found out that I can reject the edit and use the "spam link" as the reject reason.

Wow. It's good to see a question about someone who's happy in their work and is concerned that they don't have anything to complain about...

Masked Man

8:20 AM

@Snow @Lilienthal This user has been spamming across the network. If the mods haven't already with this, might be worth taking a look.

-5

A: What technology factors drove the rise of "high-speed" modems in the early 1990s?

Technology wise we are collected information so important in the website click here view app

Snow

Yeah, I rejected the edit as spam. Hopefully, it'll get picked up.

Probably a bot.

Feeds

-1

Q: Career development questions

AFAIK questions searching for an adivice are off-topic. Opinion based questions anyway. But, is it possible to ask for an example from a career matching specific example? Or maybe all the above explanation is useless and there will be another, better place to ask. Please tell me. Example ques...

Snow

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Nofel

8:49 AM

u too snow.

motosubatsu

morning people

Nofel

Sunny morning @motosubatsu

or is it me feeling the breakfree

tonight my manager taking us to dinner for project completion and farewell to me

motosubatsu

not just you.. it's pretty sunny, which is a nice change after yesterdays massive amount of rain

Nofel

it was crazy

Snow

I had wind.

Nofel

8:52 AM

I am having shit load of problem with sky internet

I had both

0.16Mbps speed

500-600 ping time

like wht

Snow

Phone line is probably affected.

Or the router has crashed.

Nofel

Did reset and everything, today I am onto sky for making it right or compensate me

even this morning it was like that

@motosubatsu the deal ended for sony headphone when I wanted to order

Snow

Just call sky and report a problem with your broadband. They'll run some tests and then escalate to BT if it's a problem with the phone line. I've had this happen to me in the past and it's been sorted out fairly quickly.

Nofel

they sent me new microfilter and cable but it didn't solve the problem

motosubatsu

@Nofel definitely.. I was driving back home around 10-ish and when I got onto the M55 it was like driving into a wall of rain

Nofel

8:58 AM

time like this I feel nature isn't in my favour

motosubatsu

@Nofel Sky's customer service is patchy at best.. Used to have Sky broadband at a shared house I lived in and it was awful

Morning

Morning kaz

Morning chap

57

A: Can we get a lock on this suggested spam edit magnet answer please?

We have introduced a recent measure to help against suggested edit spam. We were wondering why even spam via suggested edits, given they get rejected and it occurred to Jon Ericson that what spammers need is a place to point their clients to in order to show that the paid for spam is on a public...

^^^ use "vandalism" rejection reason - this way anti-spam system will work as intended

Snow

9:15 AM

@gnat I used the "inserted spam link" reject reason as it seemed the most applicable.

Nofel

I hate myself from overcomitting

yet I do it again and again

the fear of hearing "Oh it is basic for u, it shouldn't take so long"

Snow

9:30 AM

I get that a lot from project managers. I usually reply with "Well, yeah, it's not quite that simple..."

motosubatsu

@Snow yeah this.. although in particularly egregious examples I've been known to laugh

there was the sales director who thought we could implement a new heavily customized deployment of Dynamics CRM, from scratch, without a spec, infrastructure or well anything in 20 mins. He actually said that with a straight face to one of the senior directors.

laughing might not have been the most professional response but it was either that or go postal so I think I made the right call

Snow

Install->Next->Next->Next->Finish. Something like that?

motosubatsu

@Snow yeah totes.. add in a click on that magic button that says "make it exactly like Mr Sales-Douche wants it to be like in his head" and you're done

Snow

Uhuh. I've been working on CRM implementations (not Dynamics though) for the past 15 years or so. OOTB is never fit for purpose.

motosubatsu

this guy came out with some classics..in another incident he referred to a major retool of a heavily bastardized system as "monkey work" and saying "I could do that in 5 mins", given this guy could barely check his email without help it was especially hilarious

@Snow indeed.. which is sort of the point - the CRM vendors generally know that each business is unique which is why they make them so customizable in the first place. This company took it to extremes though - their main CRM system appeared to have been "developed" by flicking through the MS customization guide for all the warning notices that say "don't EVER do this" and implementing them all

every custom field was duplicated in multiple places in the DB and regardless of what it was for they used a varchar and then wondered why they ended up with crap data and the sort of DB performance you'd expect from running it on an etch-a-sketch

Snow

9:44 AM

lol. There's no harm in stretching the limits of the platform and even stepping outside for some purposes, but steamrollering? Nope, that's not going to end well.

motosubatsu

@Snow yeah.. they never quite seemed to realize that though. It took every drop of skill/luck I had in the SQL region just to get it through the day most days. Keeping it running was practically my full time job. Of course when the time came to try and migrate to a new platform the crappy data made it a nightmare - which of course was somehow Development's fault

Snow

And when you call for platform support: "I'm sorry, you've done what? Oh. No. Sorry, were not supporting you if you've done that - you're on your own there. Goodbye, please fill out this feedback survey."

motosubatsu

@Snow yep... I had to colour outside the lines a bit when doing a custom integration to Dynamic RMS once but I made the client fully aware that it would impact on any future support from MS and they were ok about that.

Snow

I guess there's a point at which you know so much about the platform and implementation that you no longer need support.

motosubatsu

@Snow yeah..and if you're at that point you can generally make an informed choice about whatever you're doing

Snow

9:56 AM

Having said that, whenever we've asked support for help on something, we've had to ask twice as the first time they invariably misunderstand the request. The second time, we really have to convince them there's a problem.

Or we solve it ourselves while support are trying to work things out.

motosubatsu

yeah.. don't know about your experiences but I've always found getting Exchange support for be a futile exercise, you generally spend so long trying to get them to understand what you are asking that you've resolved it before they do. At one job I used to raise the ticket with them for no reason other than to stop the "have you raised a ticket yet?" harassment by senior management .

Snow

Been there, done that, the t-shirt has long faded.

motosubatsu

@Snow amen brother

Snow

No matter how well you hand-craft a support request and make it as non-ambiguous as possible and include all of your repro steps, support will always find a way to misunderstand it. Once or twice, I've had to say "read the request again, the information is there".

Nofel

people don't read in between lines

Snow

10:03 AM

Reading the actual lines really does help....

motosubatsu

@Snow yep

Snow

It's real pity that I can fit a whole Wagon Wheel into my mouth. Hate when things get smaller.

motosubatsu

@Snow I love Wagon Wheels.. usually about once a year or so I buy a couple of packs and scoff them in a depressingly short amount of time

Snow

Back when I was single, I could run through an entire packet of Maryland cookies in one go.

Dunking them soaked up pretty much a whole mug of coffee.

Nofel

10:18 AM

damn

motosubatsu

@Snow that's impressive :)

Snow

the ultimate comfort food....

We're just trying find a place to have a post-project lunch.

motosubatsu

10:45 AM

@Snow pizza is always a good safe option - usually something for everyone

Nofel

we r having it today

combined with my farewell

Snow

We're going for gastro-pub.

Nofel

apprently we arent going where I suggested

lol

Snow

somewhere better?

Nzall

I'm wondering if I could have some advice on a topic that might be off-topic on the site as a question. The company I work for has lost over 50% of their employees over the past 6 months or so (on a total of about a dozen), a release planned for around that period had to be pushed back to the end of the year because we underestimated the needed work, and we're struggling to find new customers. Should I be worried?

Masked Man

10:53 AM

@Nzall Sounds like you shouldn't be worried, you should be looking for a new job.

Nofel

@Snow not somewhere better, I recommended somewhere top food wise

Snow

@Nzall Yes. Start looking for another job. It's never too early to start looking, but it's possible to be too late. Don't forget that your colleagues will also be looking for the same roles.

Nofel

@Nzall worry won't do anything more than bring u sleepless nights, better option is knowing that the company isn't doing well and u need to look for stable company which promises growth. In other words don't worry for something isn't yours, look forward to new ventures.

yes like @Snow said, everyone will be trying to save themself

Snow

@Nzall Good luck, whatever happens.

motosubatsu

@Nzall yeah as @MaskedMan and @Snow said I'd be looking for a new job ASAP, most small companies can't take losing 50% of their established workforce in such a short space of time without substantial impacts to their viability - and you've already seen the signs of that with the delay to the release. Assuming the company is healthy enough to survive this there's going to be a lengthy rebuilding period during which time things like raises are going to be thin on the ground

also you have to ask yourself why did so many leave so close together? were their red flags that you may have missed that caused them to jump ship?

what @Nofel says about being proactive is good advice - doing something about bad situations is always a better plan then sitting around worrying about them

Nzall

11:06 AM

@motosubatsu Most of them were already on economic leave because of the delayed release, and were recommended to look to new opportunities. Only one of them was a developer, but not on the product I was working on

I realize I should probably be looking for new opportunities myself, but it's not that easy for someone with a disability

Because I don't have a driver's license, I can't really do consultancy, which eliminates a substantial fraction of prospective employers, and it eliminates even more simply due to unreachability

and I've found that I absolutely need proper project management, because my first job was without and pretty much a nightmare

motosubatsu

ouch.. so the delayed release was the cause of the departures rather than the consequence.. that's a red flag big enough to cover Texas. I can sympathize about the difficulties in the job search because of your disabilities but IMO that makes it all the more important to start searching sooner rather than later.

Nofel

@Nzall I would recommend start searching and submitting your CV is ur free time so you have ample time to get to the next step,

motosubatsu

From what you've told us this company is toast

Nzall

Even if I start searching now, my last 2 searches were well over a year each, and I was lucky to be covered by unemployment benefits during that period.

Nofel

but don't panic, as in panic you make wrong decision and u need to make a well projjected management company where ur needs meet, so in hurry people make quick hasty decision which make them a nightmare, so start now and go easy but make sure ur happy with what ur signing for and company growth is stable.

Nzall

11:13 AM

I also had a lot of help from a job coaching company specialized in my disability, but if I want to use them again, I effectively need to be unemployed first because I need a referral from the unemployment bureau

Snow

Yes. Start looking now, but seek to keep your current job as long as you can. you have some level of protection being disabled, but that won't prevent the company from winding up, if that's going to happen.

motosubatsu

@Nzall I would still say looking now is a good plan - you can do that while remaining at your current role in the meantime and if the worst happens you can go through the job coaching company again.

Nzall

That job coaching company did tell me when I got hired that they also provide aftercare, and if I had a question, I could contact them

Snow

So do that. Use whatever assistance that you're entitled to.

motosubatsu

@Nzall can I ask what the disability is? I don't mean to pry into personal matters but it might help guide suggestions on how best to proceed

Nofel

11:15 AM

@Nzall can't u go to that coaching company and say, I need to move out of this company but still need to have my job whilist I am looking because ur afarid there will be redundancy

Nzall

@motosubatsu autism

motosubatsu

@Nzall Snap!

Nzall

or rather, asperger's was the original diagnosis, but the DSM has recently included that into the larger autism spectrum disorder group

motosubatsu

@Nzall yeah I'm HFA myself - despite what the DSM may or may not say I still think of myself as an "Aspie"

Snow

11:32 AM

Shees. Self-Appraisals.. Why do I always forget what I've done in the last appraisal period...?

Masked Man

@Nzall You have my sympathies as well. However, unfortunately, you seem to have only 2 choices here: sink with the rest of the current ship, or start looking for a new ship. I understand it will be harder due to disabilities, but it could get even worse if you lose this job. Moreover, if it usually takes you a year to find a new job, that is all the more reason to start earlier.

I suppose @TheSnarkKnight is the most qualified person around here to give you advice.

@Snow Doesn't matter anyway, I just write overly exaggarated stories of my achievements, which get tossed in garbage right away. :P

Snow

@MaskedMan We have to enter stuff into a HR system, so never really know if it'll be reported against or not. So I edge toward saying what I've actually done. My manager doesn't really care what I write about. We have a good 1-1 session and carry on with our work.

Nofel

the only 1-1 I had with my manager was yesterday

and he was sorry for not being expressive abt my gr8 work

and that everyone loved me here

I replied, I know my work is good when I see people using it without any problem

Snow

That's something good to hear. I never really had 1-1 when I was contracting, there was no real need.

Nofel

11:53 AM

I saw snow in my dream last night

trying to figure out what it means

thedreamwell.com/2013/12/02/meaning-of-snow-in-a-dream

Moving boxes r so expensive

damn

with bubble wrap

Nofel

12:56 PM

@TheSnarkKnight hw was Thanksgiving

Nofel

1:48 PM

yo

whats up guys

Snow

SE app looks like junk on the iPhone X.

Nofel

oh yea ur X

congrats

where r cookies

how is i

motosubatsu

@Snow that's because it is junk, the mighty iPhone is merely showing you The Truth all other phones are clearly inferior since they don't reveal this junkiness to you.

Nofel

Apple died with jobs

I had been apple fanatic but nw Its crap but so is andiod

but I love s8

@motosubatsu If I can get a way out of my car n mobile. I will be free of major finance burden

though attrative pay monthly but it suck happiness

motosubatsu

@Nofel the car is worth having a look at - depending on the agreement some have an exit clause if you've made more than half the payments where you can hand the car back and walk away

Nofel

2:01 PM

on HP?

motosubatsu

Phone-wise you are probably stuck if you are still in the initial contract term - if you are past the initial term and don't want to upgrade you can probably negotiate a lower rate on a "new" contract

@Nofel yeah sometimes

it would leave you car-less obviously but presumably the plan would be to pick up something cheaper to replace it

see here

Nofel

I was thinking of going to Toyota and telling them I want a basic car

so they might exchange

Masked Man

@Snow You actually use that SE app? :o

Snow

2:21 PM

@MaskedMan Yeah, I flip through when I'm at home. It's not very usable.

Nofel

2:34 PM

so tempted to buy this amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06Y2FCCWC/…

coz some arse banged my car while it was in car park

motosubatsu

2:52 PM

@Nofel is your current car a toyota?

Nofel

yea

motosubatsu

there might be some options there then.. worth a conversation at least

Nofel

will do, I am due for my electric alignment next month. So will sit down

I wanna DM to show u my expense coz I cannot figure out hw to budget

motosubatsu

@Nofel dashcams can be great but for things like car park prangs they aren't as effective - you'll only be covering one end of the car and having enough battery life in the camera to keep it going while you're parked can be a problem

Nofel

:(

motosubatsu

2:56 PM

@Nofel not sure if that's something I can really help with much beyond the advice I gave in the answer over on Money.SE - getting into the specifics is going to need much more knowledge of your personal circumstances

Nofel

3:07 PM

point

so today my manager wanna drop me off after dinner

motosubatsu

@Nofel like, home?

Nofel

yep

DarkCygnus

mooorning

It's Thanksgiving in the US Right?

Happy Thanksgiving people :)

Nofel

@DarkCygnus morning, where u from?

DarkCygnus

@Nofel a quick stalk of my profile could answer you that :) but given that you ask, I am from a country named Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala ( ( listen) GWAHT-ə-MAH-lə, GWAT-, GAHT-; Spanish: [gwateˈmala]), officially the Republic of Guatemala (Spanish: República de Guatemala), is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, Honduras to the east and El Salvador to the southeast. With an estimated population of around 16.6 million, it is the most populated state in Central America. Guatemala is a representative democracy; its capital and largest city is Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción, also known as Guatemala City...

Snow

3:20 PM

Is that where guacamole comes from?

DarkCygnus

xD

No, but we DO have lots of guacamole and avocados all year round

Snow

You're the first person I've ever met that comes from there.

DarkCygnus

For example, yesterday I had a avocado gelato

@Snow thanks I guess :)

We are known for the Mayan culture, our high biodiversity,

umm Belize was ours also, in the past, but UK pushed for its independence

mostly agricultural country, but with emerging tech in several areas

Snow

I guess I have to thank you for the colour of my bathroom suite. Which is "avocado" in colour.

DarkCygnus

I have an aunt that has a farm here

and has avocado trees in it

one year, she got about 1000 avocados per each tree.... she has like 30 trees

what else... we had a nasty civil war, as a result of the Cold war and Uncle Sam wanting to use our country as a place to land troops due to us being near cuba (the missile crisis era)

30 years lasted the war, officially ended in 1996

We have tons of place to visit as a tourist (local or international)

etc. :)

GREAT social gap... I mean we have extreme poverty here, but we also have filthy rich people

even more evident due to our small population compared to other countries with social gaps

1st (or 2nd?) most beautiful lake in the world

like 30 volcanoes, of which about at least 10 are active

Official language: Spanish, but we have other 26 languages and dialects

28*

Nofel

3:29 PM

wow

I even donno that depth abt my country

DarkCygnus

If you don't learn about History... you are doomed to repeat it

We surely don't want another 30 year war, for sure

(Is it me or Joe actually is starting to strongly dislike the Meme post I made? Funny, cause he is the only one complaining that I see... not to be rude or anything)

@Nofel where are you from? You said you were in UK, is that your birth country?

Nofel

Pakistan

I came here after marriage, my mrs was born on this side (originally she is pakistani too)

been here for 2.8 yrs

History has so many faces mic.com/articles/186307/…

DarkCygnus

yeah, I read that Black Friday was because slaves were in sale back then :v

Guess we are the slaves of consumerism now....

Joe Strazzere

@DarkCygnus Please don't take it personally. I don't like the idea of Memes in the main forum. But that's just me. I've tried to express my feelings about it and why I think it's a bad idea. But if the community decides that they want memes, then so be it. It's not about you, it's just a red flag for me based on prior moderator experience in other forums.

Snow

@DarkCygnus I heard that story too. I'm not sure that it's complete fact.

Joe Strazzere

3:45 PM

In the US, the term "Black Friday" is used as a reference to the accounting concept of going from being "in the red" to being "in the black".

DarkCygnus

@JoeStrazzere I see. Believe me, I did not take this lightly. I spend about a week thinking if it was worth the shot (even thought of including a fun in the post, but realized it could be something people could abuse in the future, so just added the discussion one)

. Seems that in other SE sites the idea at first was not well received, but after that the community shaped the post and answers in the right way.... this is what I hope we can achieve... I also thank and respect your worrying about our community

Joe Strazzere

Back when I used to work in a supermarket chain, the Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping times were make or break for most chains. In the US at least supermarkets have an extremely thin profit margin.

Nofel

@JoeStrazzere wht u mean in the red or in the black

Joe Strazzere

In accounting, your are "in the red" if you are losing money, and "in the black" if you are profitable.

Nofel

nice

I wanna be in the black, but due to me shifting house, I need each penny

DarkCygnus

3:49 PM

@JoeStrazzere I edited the Post again, I included the part about memifying users,

Nofel

yet I need things as well

DarkCygnus

to avoid it, I mean

and warned not to take this as the absolute truth

@JoeStrazzere but yeah, thank you for expressing your thoughts in a respectful way, and not enforcing your Lobbying and reputation powers to sink that post down :) I am sure it has great potential (The Acronyms you mentioned for example, or other not so negative Memes like the Hit by a Bus)

Joe Strazzere

I'm going to let that Meta question sit for a while, unless someone asks me for a clarification of my comments or something, or a new meme is posted as an answer that I think needs discussion. Good luck with the concept, I don't want to overly influence the community as others consider it.

DarkCygnus

I will trim some of my comments on the Question FYI (if you want to trim yours as well so they don't confuse the thread)

Joe Strazzere

I may leave most of my comments, and would suggest you leave yours. I think it was a pretty good discussion.

DarkCygnus

3:54 PM

Lol Just realized that, I trimmed only one

cheers

also rephrased the Title, and removed the Handbook part (too absolute and assuming its the truth)

I see we already are removing those "memes" that are out of place :)

The IT workplaces are special I don't like or agree with...

@JoeStrazzere awww why did they closed your Thanksgiving Meta Post?

Joe Strazzere

4:13 PM

@DarkCygnus - it was off-topic

DarkCygnus

True

Hope you do well with your treatment :) also hope it is nothing to serious

I have been lucky lately, with the weather getting cooler, my office is filled with people with the flu... even some family members have them. I have somewhat managed to escape falling sick

Masked Man

@DarkCygnus I am making a Face-Heel Turn (or Heel-Face Turn, depending on one's perspective) on the meme post.

DarkCygnus

Why hasn't anyone added tvtropes as a Meme. I have seen some posts where people reference those and are actually sound advise in the ones I have seen. Also the case for xkcd

@MaskedMan why is that? I see someone reversed their vote :)

Joe Strazzere

@DarkCygnus Thanks. It's lymphoma, but we are very optimistic. With a little luck, it will be in the past by the end of the year.

DarkCygnus

Oh.. I see. See, my Mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer about 4-5 months ago. good thing it was detected early, and now she is over with the chemos and already got the tests that say she is free of it :D

(Breast cancer with metastases to right lung, so no minor thing though...)

Joe Strazzere

4:25 PM

@DarkCygnus - glad to hear your mom is okay now.

Masked Man

@DarkCygnus I kinda feel that the "handbook" and "meme" getting bundled together will cause more problems. The "meme" part can probably not stand on its own in meta, though it seems perfect for chat room. The "handbook" part is likely more useful.

DarkCygnus

@JoeStrazzere thanks. A big hug and cheers for you, I am sure you will get over this :)

@MaskedMan so what, no Meme and handbook is better?

Masked Man

For example, I absolutely detest this answer getting 3 downvotes. It makes no sense to me. ...

-2

A: Practical Concepts for navigating The Workplace (and some Memes)

Idea: IT/Dev workplaces are special Origin: Common thread for a large portion of our population Cultural Height: Ongoing Background: Due to the large number of folks here in IT and software development, questions focusing on those domains are held to a different standard than other domains. M...

I mean, what is it supposed to mean when people downvote this absolutely valid point? That we don't want to welcome non-IT people here?

DarkCygnus

I agree with you in that part, if it is a reality good thing its being brought to light here... and as you say, we should use that knowledge to try work to prevent that from happening

Masked Man

Or perhaps, what the downvote means is, we don't want this to happen? It just gets too confusing when you activate Sarcasm Mode on meta.

DarkCygnus

4:31 PM

Like someone said to me repeated times now, Votes in meta are more agree-disagree than "quality post"

I suppose that is the case

Dukeling

Any interviewing gold badge holder or mod want to change the duplicate targets of the questions closed as duplicates of workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/1391/… (which had a misleading title which was recently fixed) to workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/19544/… ?

DarkCygnus

Only Joe has that gold tag badge

Joe Strazzere

@MaskedMan - I downvoted because I think it would make a bad meme.

DarkCygnus

And haven't seen any mods today over here..

Masked Man

@DarkCygnus The thing is, it is not clear what they agree/disagree with. Do they agree/disagree that this situation is acceptable? Or do they agree/disagree that the situation exists?

Joe Strazzere

4:33 PM

@Dukeling Which questions were closed incorrectly?

DarkCygnus

@MaskedMan Maybe thats a dead end. As you will unlikely get any feedback on why the DV (as I have been told repeated times also). Good thing one can delete, or edit, or even rethink your post and then rewrite it

Masked Man

@DarkCygnus That is the issue here. Myles' "meme" as well as my "Keep Calm and Vote to Close" were blatantly sarcastic, but people downvote them thinking that we are "encouraging" such behaviour.

DarkCygnus

I just refrained from voting... you can't control what others do. Maybe when the post converges to its optimum value the dynamics will be more established. What you can do is reword your meme to warn users about its fun, or sarcastic nature...... Maybe adding some disclaimer on the top to differentiate it from other conceptual and more "useful" memes

Masked Man

@DarkCygnus That is why we should either make it a "handbook" or a "meme". People will, of course, use sarcasm, snark, and other forms of humour in a "meme". But since the post is also supposed to be "handbook", it leads to confusion, as to whether the behaviour is encouraged or discouraged, or just stating the fact.

DarkCygnus

Read the title now, no Meme in it

Just "Concept Handbook"

Masked Man

4:39 PM

@DarkCygnus I got 2 more downvotes after writing in bold that "Keep Calm and Vote to Close" is discouraged and also posting what to do instead, so clearly that doesn't work.

DarkCygnus

(Memes are concepts but. shhhh... they don't have to know) It is just that the word meme seems to be not well received here

Dukeling

@JoeStrazzere Well, all of them, but the ones that should have their duplicates changed are workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/62080/… workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/47600/… workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/95272/… and workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/92478/…

DarkCygnus

@MaskedMan sorry for that :/

Like I said, the post seems controversial so far, and its full use is yet to be tested and collectively determined

Masked Man

@DarkCygnus Nah, no worries, I just got rid of the whole thing. If people want to keep close voting on their whims, let them do so.

DarkCygnus

The "Wait at Least a Week" is another meme you could post :) that is actually true and sound advise, and we constantly have to drop those on answers

Seems that its originator was Mknz

Masked Man

4:42 PM

I made the meme hoping to draw people's attention to the problem and hopefully make them think about it, but it looks like people are ok with just complaining about the problem, so be it.

DarkCygnus

72

Q: How do I properly follow-up with a hiring manager, to check on the status of a position?

I had an interview on Monday, which I think went fairly well. I was told that I was the last to interview for the position, and that they were expecting to make their decision by that Friday. I also sent a thank-you note via e-mail to the hiring manager, CC to the other interviewers, on the Tue...

interviewing hiring-process follow-up

@MaskedMan sometimes people don't like to think about things that could be improved or changed.... we could probe those ideas here in chat to avoid them from sinking into oblivion

so, want to add that one? If not I surely will

Masked Man

Anyway, I don't care about the downvotes even on the main site, so the downvotes on meta certainly don't bother me. I am more concerned about people's attitude to the problem expressed on meta.

Nofel

Alright guys, c u tomorrow. Gotta go with my team for dinner

DarkCygnus

If you find a way to change people's attitude towards problems please let me know... I'll buy you a Beer and send it all the way to India if you do

see ya Nofel

Masked Man

Note: This meme is a sarcastic jibe at the regular users who vote to close aggressively (the author of this meme included). This practice is strongly discouraged. You are encouraged to do one or more of the following instead:

Ask the asker for clarification via comments.
Edit the question to make it on-topic and/or remove any controversial elements (which would otherwise attract further close votes).
If a post is already closed, cast a reopen vote and encourage others to do the same in the comments or via meta.

^ seems clear enough to me, not sure what the issue was.

DarkCygnus

4:46 PM

it also baffles me

> so, want to add that one? If not I surely will

so...? ^

Masked Man

@DarkCygnus It already got downvoted so clearly people don't want to do it.

Besides, that has already been covered in meta.

DarkCygnus

(I mean the Week meme... but nvmd Ill go ahead and include that one)

Masked Man

@DarkCygnus Go ahead, I won't be contributing any more to the "meme"/"handbook" post, on account of my Face Heel Turn.

DarkCygnus

:(

"And that night... the Grich's small heart grew by 3 sizes"

Dukeling

I think Workplace could benefit from one or a few FAQ posts that just summarises other posts (like job search 101, linking to questions about how to ask for leave for interviews, the basics of interviewing, negotiating an offer, etc.). I suppose it's more common on Meta, but I think Stack Overflow has a few of them.

DarkCygnus

4:57 PM

@Dukeling actually ... the Meme post on Meta SE is part of the FAQs

not sure why but...

Dukeling

I suppose that's what sorting tagged questions by votes is roughly supposed to give you, but that's mostly a disorganised mess with a lot of really specific questions that probably aren't applicable to most people.

DarkCygnus

That mostly why I wrote the Meme posts... I felt that we were repeating ourselves in several aspects, and having a compendium of such things could serve as a valuable reference or "Handbook"....

along with some fun memes perhaps (or perhaps not as we are seeing now...)

Dukeling

5:38 PM

For reference, I'm thinking something like this (but shorter, probably):

1653

Q: FAQ for Stack Exchange sites

Community FAQ For sites in the Stack Exchange 2.0 network To see a list of commonly used words and phrases, see the glossary. For official guidance from Stack Exchange, visit the Help Center. Asking questions How do I write a good title? How can I get answers fast? Where can I ask a ques...

support faq

DarkCygnus

5:51 PM

5

Q: Collective knowledge from Workplace?

Would anyone be interested in helping create a structure for gathering and organizing the collective knowledge of this community into a reference source that's more like a bunch of how-tos or tips/tricks, rather than just questions and answers. For many of the common questions, a wiki that answe...

discussion meta

@Dukeling fyi

Dukeling

Yes, I suppose tag wiki's can be a decent place for that information (although I'd still prefer a Q&A, for visibility).

DarkCygnus

But peole dont read tag wikis to be hones

Hell, people don't even thoroughly read answers before voting them

Dukeling

Well, if it's somewhere, at least advanced users can use it to easily find FAQ's for referencing purposes.

If we spread this practice to all of SE, maybe we can convince them to give tag wiki's more visibility.

DarkCygnus

... I am still sore about helping or suggesting to the Meta Se guys... it is hard to provide well-intentioned changes without being closed or downvoted to hell (while getting some rude comments).... but yes, maybe that can be done

Dukeling

What's a whole lot harder is to actually get an official response...

DarkCygnus

6:09 PM

yep

It's been a slow day on TWP huh... Thanksgiving I guess?

Nofel

So turn out they wanna know where I m going to work stuff like what kind of work

DarkCygnus

@Nofel about the new contract you got?

Dukeling

Has anyone else thought that it's hard to keep track of all the things going on in most chat interfaces? Wondering if there's any value in creating something that fixes that.

DarkCygnus

We depend on stars to do so... probably why its hard to audit chat rooms

I think that Chat is a Wild Wasteland of snark attacks

Nofel

@DarkCygnus yes new job.

DarkCygnus

6:19 PM

why would one want to keep track of chats you say? @Dukeling

@Nofel is it telecommute work? from home or similar?

Nofel

6:34 PM

@DarkCygnus what u mean

DarkCygnus

@Nofel I mean, what do they mean with those questions?

DarkCygnus

8:02 PM

aww missed that spam :(

DarkCygnus

9:00 PM

Oh, we also have Great Coffee here in Guatemala, top quality worldwide. Comparable to Ethiopian and Colombian (same tier or better some of them)

DarkCygnus

10:13 PM

I've noticed lately people dropping the Kosher term

In this context, is in interchangeable with Ethical?

Nofel

10:33 PM

@DarkCygnus asking about new company where I was going , what position and stuff

DarkCygnus

Damn, I think I am more retarded today than other days.

@Nofel can you rephrase that again? Lost track of what you wanted to say there

BTW

Are you OK with the Kettle "Meme"? Monica asked if you were humiliated by it.... I recall you aren't and even take it lightly :)

(here workplace.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4937/73791)

Perhaps if you comment and clear this out, so we know if it is ok or motosubatsu should remove that

Nofel

10:59 PM

@DarkCygnus so basically I announced my notice yesterday and manager took us on post launch meal. So at that time he was asking question about my work I will be doing, name of company and many other things as I said to name of company, I will let u know once I am there

DarkCygnus

Oh, I get it now..

Probably wanting to know why you are leaving

Maybe planning some counter offer?

Nofel

Ah. They can but if I tell them it will no fun and they might do something nasty

Dukeling

11:49 PM

@Nofel Relevant:

52

Q: How much should I reveal about a new job after resigning from my current job

I recently got a new job at a firm that is paying me only slightly higher, but the work is going to be much better. As such, I have resigned from my current job and the exit process has started. I am now being asked all sorts of questions by Senior Management and HR about my new job, such as: ...

job-change resignation exit-interview

DarkCygnus

You got to love @Dukeling for that tremendous memory to recall relevant posts. Maybe SE should hire him as a Duplicate Bot... probably better than any AI they can create now and in the future.

Seriously, do you have Eidetic Memory or something Mr. @Dukeling ?

Dukeling

@DarkCygnus :) I mostly just have strong Google foo. I do vaguely recall some of the more common questions, but I go through roughly the same process to find them whether I remember them or not.

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