The Water Cooler

12:24 AM

I do not think this is a duplicate. Degrees are different than certifications. The other question focuses exclusively on certifications and does not address academic degrees, which is what this question is asking. Voting to reopen. — enderland 3 hours ago

^^^ Thanks @enderland, but comments really aren't the place for arguing about the topicality of a question. The Meta Site is. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask a moderator. Hope this helps!

10

A: What "comments" are not . . .

Comments are not for Meta discussions Meta is were we should be discussing whether a question (and its core topic) is on or off topic, whether it would be more suitable for another site, etc. I saw a couple of Meta discussions going on in comments, and that's not really a good thing: Comments ...

^^^ @enderland, please read this post by @Yannis. He's been a moderator for years.

jmac

1:08 AM

@gnat My idea was to make any question clicked-through from the hot list a dummy read-only question that you couldn't immediately take action on. So reading through the hot questions would be equally easy, but if you wanted to vote or answer, you'd have to make another click (maybe make the title redirect to the 'real' question). I think this would restrict a lot of casual passersby from making rash actions.

jmort253

5:11 AM

@JimG. Hello, I'm not going to remove that comment, at least not at this time. A single comment making an announcement isn't necessarily noise and may have value.

I think of comment cleanups on a sliding scale. A single comment can be overlooked, two comments are still probably okay as long as they add value. If a few comments turn into debate or extended discussion, then it's time to consider cleaning things up.

In short, these are judgement calls and sometimes there's no right answer, but I wanted to give you some flagging feedback to clarify.

Jim G.

5:58 AM

@jmort253: OK cool. So it seems like if you have a Meta-like comment and nobody else has voiced an opinion yet, then it's fine to add your comment. Otherwise, you're just adding to the noise and it's not. That's fine and I'll keep this in mind in the future. Obviously I was jus trying to comply with @Yannis guidance.

4

Q: Why was this comment flag declined?

I flagged this comment as 'Not Constructive' but it was declined. Was it wrong to flag it? Is this a constructive comment? Should I "relax" and understand that heavily upvoted and humorous content is welcome and is not vulnerable for deletion? I'm being totally serious. I want to flag materia...

^^^ @jmort253: I've been confused about comments in the past. :/

@jmort253: Nobody even really bothered to answer my Meta post on the subject. :/

gnat

6:36 AM

@jmac yeah I fell in love with read-only idea the very moment I first saw it in your MSO post, it makes so much sense. I even thought of "extracting" it into dedicated feature request but figured that SO suckers will probably vote it down and sweep it under the carpet (oh so much work for a feature of that little importance, it doesn't matter to us). They are not (yet) sufficiently educated about the damage voting does

3

A: Prevent specific sites from being overrepresented in the hot questions list

It was bad Old system was designed so that it tended to inaccurately favor questions from sites that differ much from Stack Overflow, particularly smaller and ones of conceptual / subjective-ish nature (for example, Programmers and Workplace). Compared to SO, smaller sites have much less power ...

while we're at it, another feature I am pondering about recently is make aging factor depend on the amount of answers. It's not as elegant as your, but may be easier to implement. And... I also hesitate to make it a separate request for the same reasons - uneducated SO guys will shut it down because they believe it doesn't matter

@gnat I won't hash this out in the comments with you (I recommend bringing up a meta question to talk about this specific logical flaw you mention), but my answer does not change: We're not worried about needing to auto-protect hot questions because we haven't seen a reason to have to need to do that yet. Random google questions that the spammers go after are much more of a problem than the hot questions -- and there's no way to simply protect a question in advance because we won't know the spammers have hit it until there are already a few spam answers on it. — George Stocker 14 hours ago

whenever I read what these guys write it just screams: educate me

gnat

8:48 AM

@Shog9 I feel fine about having regular 3-4 SO questions there, as long as these are close enough to top to relieve smaller sites of carrying that crappy weight alone — gnat 16 hours ago

CMW

9:05 AM

I'm afraid there's no "right" answer to this. Some opinions may be more on the side of behaving ethically, others more opportunistic. All in all it will elicit lots of different opinions, making it a rather bad fit, for this type of Q'n'A site. — CMW 1 min ago

RhysW

10:28 AM

@enderland Yeah i moved mine the other way, come in earlier, leave earlier, but i find im more productive in the mornings

enderland

11:57 AM

@JimG. thanks, I wasn't sure how comments worked here.

@JimG. Would you like me to point out your meta comments as well? I just couldn't help but notice this comment of yours on the first post in the flag queue I looked at this morning, you probably will want to delete it and create a post on meta.Workplace regarding that answer instead of using a comment - hope this helps!

@jmac is there a meta proposal about custom flag reasons? I think we would benefit greatly here from custom flags

CC @gnat

0

Q: Is it worth creating a meta.SO proposal for custom flags?

We use flags here in a way which is good given the nature of our site. However, these are different than what other less "subjective" sites use. I would love to see a flag for the following: Does not add anything unique. We get lots of answers which are effectively smaller versions of other an...

discussion flagging

-1

Q: "Client, boss, team triangle" interview question

I was asked in an interview; Where am I on this (equilateral)triangle? Client /\ / \ / \ / \ Boss /________\ Team I said I was in-between Boss and Team but further up towards the client because the client is who pays the bills ...

interviewing hiring-process

sigh

@enderland An opinion is a valid answer to my question. I am asking what the interviewer wished to learn about me. — Sam Leach 2 mins ago

oh man.

gnat

12:46 PM

not yet probably. I'd rather wait for a month or two for just in case if MSO-MSE split (originally promised for Jan or Feb) maybe occurs. As of now, MSO is too much occupied by brainwashed SO types who don't give a shit. And, even if you still decide to go for it earlier, consider making it extremely clear that your request has everything to do with subjective-ish sites and absolutely nothjing to do to SO — gnat 10 mins ago

by the way, me-too flag ("Does not add anything unique") could make sense at SO as well, but they don't worry... and why would they, having so little upvotes on questions like this: stackoverflow.com/questions/22091696/…

@enderland Why do interview questions make poor Programmers.SE questions?

you'd benefit of something like this at Workplace meta :)

Ajaxkevi

1:08 PM

Hey guys, I am discussing my contract in 20 minutes

any tips?

First contract after internship

post-grad

Hugo Rocha

Stay cool.

Don't be nervous. Try to think very well before answering anything.

Read everything. Be open minded, but do not agree with anything that could put you in a bad position.

And most of all, be sincere with yourself, I guess? Don't try to be something you are not

enderland

@Ajaxkevi one perspective to keep in mind is the person is not your enemy either

CMW

Be prepared to walk away, if you aren't satisfied. Provided you have come up with a set of requirements beforehand

Hugo Rocha

What CMW said also.

workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/3492/…

reminds me of that

CMW

Lots of people feel they come up short from an interview (or date, relationship, purchase, whatever) because they didn't prepare to walk away if unsatisfied. Even if the result is the same, the sole feeling of accepting without pressure because walking away would also be cool make a huge difference

Hugo Rocha

1:25 PM

And cool guys don't look at explosions

If you walk away, don't look back

enderland

@HugoRocha LOL. there's a good youtube video about this

Hugo Rocha

If you get hired, say "I'll be back", after you put your sunglasses

@enderland It was a reference to it :P

CMW

@HugoRocha cool guys cause them?

("data a physicist - have a blast")

Ajaxkevi

Thanks guys

I got what I wanted

2

Hugo Rocha

2:13 PM

@Ajaxkevi Good one. Buy @enderland a beer. He deserves one

@CMW Cool guys cool the system itself, preventing the bomb

:D

CMW

I see

:)

enderland

2:25 PM

@Ajaxkevi great!

Tiago César Oliveira

3:46 PM

Hello guys

Me again

:P

Hugo Rocha

4:28 PM

Hello Tiago

enderland

4:42 PM

-1

A: How do I politely decline providing a reference/recommendation?

You can't make everybody happy. At some point you have to say 'no'. Make your mindset clear, so that you will not feel guilty in your next move. The workplace is a time for professionalism. You can't be all showy and affectionate to everyone in the office.