The Bridge

Emergence is a science fiction novel written by David R. Palmer. It first appeared as a novella published in Analog Science Fiction in 1981. Analog also published Part II, 'Seeking,' in 1983. The completed novel then was published by Bantam in 1984. The plot follows a precocious 11-year-old orphan girl, living in a post-apocalyptic United States. It had three printings through July 1985, and was republished in 1990 as a "Signature Special Edition" with a few minor edits and a new afterword by the author. Emergence was Palmer's first published novel. It was developed from a pair of Hug...

I didn't realize it was that old.

user15026

@fbueckert Hey, if it is old, the library might have it!

fbueckert

@AshleyNunn It won't take long for you to get through.

user15026

Annnnd...nope.

user15026

7:17 PM

Dear library, you suck. I want you to be awesome. Please, lets get on with teh awesome

Wipqozn

@AshleyNunn Protip: Most Modern Libraries suck.

user15026

@Wipqozn Yeah, but they are my passion and I wish they didnt suck because there is so much potential for non-suckage

Wipqozn

Furthermore, any library that stocks Twilight should be burned to the ground. Same with any music stores that stick <insert band I hate here>.

Also, I hate FAmily Guy. And puppies. And sunshine.

fbueckert

@Wipqozn You go ahead and tell the sun to stop shining.

Wipqozn

Why did that need to be the first google result for that image.

@fbueckert It gets in your eyes and everything.

Brian

7:22 PM

I can always tell when a this chat gets giffed, erything so slow

Wipqozn

And don't get me started about puppies. Being all energetic and stuff.

Lazers

1

Q: How do I get a bigger bag?

I love picking stuff up in the forest and the like, but now that I have a cow and fish traps and all of that sort of thing, I find that I often run out of space in my bag pretty fast. I know I can just make trips back to my house to store things or go and ship things, but it takes time to go ba...

harvest-moon-anb

0

Q: The yearling badge

I got the yearling badge today, yet on my profile it says I've been a member for a year and a half. I initially thought the hear and a half was my global profile or something but I've checked and my SO account has 1 year 9 months, so I don't think that's the case. Why have I only just got the b...

support badges

fbueckert

@AshleyNunn ...My city library doesn't have it either. :(

user15026

@fbueckert Man. That's crap ;(

fbueckert

@AshleyNunn I am honestly surprised at that.

Wipqozn

7:23 PM

To the internet!

user15026

@Wipqozn Oh, that's just terrible. Right up there with rainbows and kittens.

fbueckert

I'm thinking I'm going to go have to do some used book browsing!

user15026

@fbueckert I was surprised at mine as well, they do have a bunch of older scifi

Wipqozn

@AshleyNunn DON'T YOU FUCKING BASH KITTENS! KITTENS ARE THE BEST THING EVER! I LOVE KITTENS!

user15026

@Wipqozn Fine, fine, we will leave kittens out of it. What about ducklings?

Wipqozn

7:24 PM

@AshleyNunn Ducklings are fine.

fbueckert

@AshleyNunn Piers Anthony wrote wonderful young adult fantasy.

user15026

@Wipqozn Okay, then ducklings

user15026

@fbueckert Have you read I Pay Thee Not in Gold? That was how I started reading his stuff.

Wipqozn

You guys should all read A Song of Ice and Fire.

fbueckert

@AshleyNunn I haven't read any of his stuff in a while.

GnomeSlice

7:25 PM

Plink is a chrome app now!!!

fbueckert

@Wipqozn Oh, HELL no.

user15026

@fbueckert Why not? They're good!

user15026

@Wipqozn Working on the last book now, actually, which is why my book backlog is so huge

Wipqozn

@AshleyNunn He must hate quality writing. He probably reads Twilight or something.

@AshleyNunn I just finished it yesterday.

user15026

@Wipqozn Nice. I am....65% done? Something like that. I keep having to read stuff for my Lit classes, so it is slower going than I like.

GnomeSlice

7:27 PM

Oh wait, it's always been a chrome app, what am I talking about.

Wipqozn

@AshleyNunn Solution: Burn down you school.

fbueckert

@AshleyNunn Because they're now a cult hit and nobody can take any criticism about them?

Same as Twilight.

Wipqozn

@fbueckert I FUCKING HATE TWILIGHT

user15026

@Wipqozn But then I would not be able to get my degree!

user15026

@fbueckert Fair. I love picking apart books and seeing what people dont like about them, but I am weird like that I guess

Wipqozn

7:28 PM

Also, I'd hardly call them a cult hit.

Brian

@GnomeSlice loved that thing!

Wipqozn

They're really popular.

fbueckert

@Wipqozn Really? It has it's own TV show. That meets the definition of cult, in my mind.

Wipqozn

> A film, book, musical artist, television series, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base.

Cult following

A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of culture. A film, book, musical artist, television series, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base. A common component of cult followings is the emotional attachment fans have with the object of the cult following, often identifying themselves and other fans as members of a community. Cult followings are also commonly associated with niche markets. Cult media are often associated with underground culture, and are considered to...

Brian

haha im tan @GnomeSlice

fbueckert

7:29 PM

@Wipqozn A common component of cult followings is the emotional attachment fans have with the object of the cult following,

...And we got another crappy ITG.

user15026

@fbueckert I love being the last close vote.

2

Wipqozn

@AshleyNunn IT's the favourite part of my day.

Brian

That was a fun waste of 5mins thanks

user15026

Also, the answers to my questions about HM make hte game seem so complicated :P

fbueckert

@AshleyNunn Someone should really do an analysis on the number of ITGs we've gotten since we made the exception of, "Screenshot or GTFO"

Because honestly, three out of however many we've had is not a good metric at all.

user15026

7:33 PM

@fbueckert That would be interesting, yeah.

Wipqozn

in The Comms Room, 1 min ago, by RobM

user15026

@Wipqozn Oh man that reminds me I haven't finished the new ep yet

Wipqozn

@AshleyNunn holy fuck I forgot about the new episode

fbueckert

Keeping a tag people are going to misuse because nobody ever reads the tag summary doesn't seem like a good idea.

Wipqozn

DAMN IT @GnomeSlice! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO REMIND ME!

fbueckert

7:34 PM

Even the couple questions we have that aren't closed aren't all that awesome.

GnomeSlice

@Brian Are you still there?

Brian

@GnomeSlice just left

Wipqozn

@fbueckert That's because ITG is stupid.

Providing a screenshot doesn't make it any less stupid, it just solves some of the problems.

GnomeSlice

@Brian Sorry, didn't notice, were you actually trying to make music? Most of these people aren't...

fbueckert

@Wipqozn Really, if someone spends the time to find a screenshot, the chances of not figuring out the name of it is vanishingly small.

Brian

7:37 PM

@gnomeslice i was the sweet melody when you were doing the bass

fbueckert

And the whole point of the SE network is, "Do your homework".

GnomeSlice

@Brian Heh

fbueckert

So if you can't be bothered to dump the pic into Google, why should we allow your question?

Wipqozn

@fbueckert In most situations it's the user stumbled upon the screenshot first, and then couldn't find the game it was from.

@fbueckert Because lack of research is not a close reason, it's a down vote.

fbueckert

@Wipqozn How often are pics going to be provided without the associated name?

Wipqozn

7:38 PM

@fbueckert Rarely, but it happens.

We don't disallow questions because your problem is rare.

Despite what some people think, Too Localized doesn't mean "Sorry, but not enough people have this problem, so fuck you."

fbueckert

@Wipqozn And rather than contacting wherever you found the pic, you go to a completely separate and unrelated site to find out?

Wipqozn

@fbueckert It's a lot easier than contacting site admins, and probably not even getting a response.

fbueckert

@Wipqozn To me, lack of research means I lose most of my respect for you, because you've just demonstrated you care little for everyone else.

Wipqozn

@fbueckert Then down vote and don't answer.

fbueckert

@Wipqozn I do. They're ALL stupid.

Wipqozn

7:40 PM

@fbueckert As do, but that doesn't mean we can close them.

GnomeSlice

@Brian I love Plink

Brian

@GnomeSlice if you can get a room all participating its pretty awesome

Wipqozn

I'd like to see them burn forever because as far I'm concerned they're not a real problem, but that's not an opinion the community shares.

fbueckert

@Wipqozn It's hard to tell when something garners consensus; there's no real metric that goes, once it hits X net votes, it's part of the way the site works.

It's more, "This is the way I want things to work, and I'm going to hammer everybody until I convince enough people to see it my way."

James

Uh oh, 340 messages.. are we discussing another tag again?

tiddy

7:45 PM

rabble rabble rabble

Brian

nothing to see here, @fbueckert just causing controversy again

fbueckert

Or, "I've got five upvotes on my opinion, that's enough to go ahead on".

@Brian If I don't question, all we have are sheep!

Wipqozn

21

Q: "Here is a thing. Look at the thing. Do you see the thing? I would like to know what this Thing is Called." A plea for sanity

identify-this-game was a Bad Tag. It was applied to Bad Questions. It is gone forever, and I could not be happier. But it appears, that we have been throwing some babies out with our admittedly filthy bathwater. So, before I move on, I want to talk for a second about why identify-this-game is b...

discussion allowed-questions identify-this-game

Brian

@fbueckert yep, normally i agree with you, but i haven't been paying attn

James

@Wipqozn Seriously? You guys are talking about ITG again?

fbueckert

7:47 PM

19

Q: How do I know if I should move forward with something that was discussed on meta?

About a month ago I asked How should we handle questions about game completion time?. There were two answers, which had fairly different approaches. One, which I proposed myself, was to close a lot of these questions as dupes of a more general "How can I find out how long a game is?" question wh...

discussion site-policies

Wipqozn

@fbueckert The two questions at the top have considerably more up votes than down votes, and have far more up votes than any other questions. That's a consensus.

@James No. We're arguing about meta.

SO META

fbueckert

The highest voted answer is, "Mods step up and tell us which way we're going."

James

@Wipqozn /facepalm

Arda Xi

Is it just me or did DF get easier?

Wipqozn

@fbueckert The idea is that mods step in when they need. An exception handler.

James

7:49 PM

@ArdaXi Is the UI still confusing as hell and nonsensical? Then no, no it did not.

Wipqozn

If there's an obviously clear consensus there isn't a problem. It's when you have a consensus and people refuse to follow it that mods stop in and tell you to stop (and open a meta).

Arda Xi

@James It's never been confusing or nonsensical since I started playing two years ago, so I don't know how to answer.

James

►

Brian

try{ meta(); }catch(Exception e){ modsPlzHandle();}

fbueckert

@Wipqozn What's an "obviously clear consensus"?

+10? +15?

Wipqozn

7:50 PM

4 mins ago, by Wipqozn

21

Q: "Here is a thing. Look at the thing. Do you see the thing? I would like to know what this Thing is Called." A plea for sanity

identify-this-game was a Bad Tag. It was applied to Bad Questions. It is gone forever, and I could not be happier. But it appears, that we have been throwing some babies out with our admittedly filthy bathwater. So, before I move on, I want to talk for a second about why identify-this-game is b...

discussion allowed-questions identify-this-game

Arda Xi

@fbueckert Not a quantity.

Wipqozn

@fbueckert It has nothing to do with numbers.

Although numbers can usually indicate it.

user2334

Consensus occurs when a position is raised and any reasonable objection to that position is addressed satisfactorily; it's not a vote tally or a score. For example, if you think ITG should be banned because poop, your opinion doesn't count.

Wipqozn

In that case the discussion has died, and the only arguments against lesspops stance have barely any up votes, and the ones in favourite have a lot of support.

@MarkTrapp MarkTrapp says it better.

fbueckert

@MarkTrapp THAT is what I was looking for.

GnomeSlice

7:52 PM

Whoa lag

@Brian If you start a solid bassline, most people will join in with you.

Brian

@GnomeSlice that makes sense enough i'll try it next time the room is not being very musical hah

GnomeSlice

@Brian What was your name in the plink room?

fbueckert

None of my objections to the ITG exception got addressed. All I got was, "Eh. We want to be at the top of Google for everything."

Wipqozn

@fbueckert Well, those people are stupid.

fbueckert

@Wipqozn You just called @badp stupid. :P

Wipqozn

7:54 PM

We don't allow questions based on being the top google result.

We're not fucking yahoo answers.

user2334

@fbueckert I don't see your answer on that question.

Brian

i was the default one :( but i stuck with higher lines, where the other default went lower

Wipqozn

@fbueckert Probably, although I'm sure you're paraphrasing.

fbueckert

2

A: Revisiting the Identify-this-game ban

Due to a discussion in chat today, I don't believe that this exception will do much of anything beyond turn us into a glorified Google-bot for these questions. We're going to get two types of game-identification questions: A game screenshot a user has pulled off of the web somewhere. A referen...

@Wipqozn Undoubtedly.

Grace Note

...it's like a weekly event here, isn't it?

GnomeSlice

7:55 PM

@GraceNote Writing.SE

user15026

@GraceNote Seems to be.

GnomeSlice

Unless you're not talking about today, specifically.

...Nevermind.

@Brian There's a ton of defaults... lol

Wipqozn

@GnomeSlice Don't worry, it just went completely over your head.

Grace Note

I'm again talking again about the again talking about again of ITG again.

3

GnomeSlice

Oh. I thought you just showed up and were like 'is today a weekly event here?'

fbueckert

7:56 PM

@GraceNote ITG isn't a weekly topic. More like monthly.

Or whenever we get yet another crappy ITG.

Wipqozn

@GraceNote Oh, that conversation died off a while ago. We're arguing about meta now.

tiddy

@GraceNote People here are bored and like to type up some walls in meta

user2334

@fbueckert So your first scenario is "I can find it using GIS or Tineye, therefore ban?" This is already addressed in the SE system: Arqade does not bar questions for being too easily googled. Your second scenario is nonsensical: because the game hadn't been released at the time of airing (nevermind the question was easily answerable), it should be barred? There's no basis or precedent for accepting that as a rationale for banning questions

Wipqozn

Okay, now we're back onto ITG.

fbueckert

@MarkTrapp The basic point is the asker is offloading their research effort onto us, rather than doing it themselves.

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