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12:01 AM
We have had an amazing wave of bad questions since Jeff threatened his nuke. :( Are these people just protesting or something?
 
I was tempted to post a giant wave of ITG questions in protest.
 
I think I agree with Jeff on this one.
Questions like "How do I get the power armors?" potentially appeals to the whole of the Fallout-playing population. Questions like "What was this game?" appeals to... at worst one person. At best? A few people?
 
@JavadocMD Yeah, I agree with Jeff as well for the most part. I don't think a blanket ban is neccesarily the proper resolution, but I'm hard pressed to come up with a better one too.
Also, heyo @Grace
 
It's easy to be blinded by the altruism of our ability to answer identification questions, and forget how little these differ from "plzsendtehcodez"
Hey, @Less
 
Right. And it's easy to forget that each question has a real cost: the cost of clutter and the decrease of visibility for all other questions.
 
12:20 AM
@GraceNote Sorry about stringing together 7 comments on that copyright nonsense btw.
 
@LessPop_MoreFizz Last I checked, I asked you to do that
 
I thought about assembling it into an answer, but I couldn't think of how to make it coherent.
@GraceNote Didn't think you asked for that many comments though. :P
And a somewhat bitter chat rant tacked onto it for good measure.
 
I'm ambivalent about whether it really was an answer because among other things, you were addressing less about the actual answer content as much as being a pedant about the assertion of its legality
 
Which is why I didn't make it an answer in the first place.
then I looked back at just how much I had written.
 
@LessPop_MoreFizz I think it would be the most hypocritical thing I could possibly do if I chastised someone for writing a lot.
 
12:23 AM
"... or El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing."
 
@Grace: That made me giggle
 
That's the third time I've been referred to El Duderino. Someone want to explain that one to me?
(The other two times were on Meta Stack Overflow, both long since deleted)
 
@GraceNote Never seen The Big Lebowski?
 
@LessPop_MoreFizz I've heard varying snippets of it. Does that count?
 
RWAR I HAVE OPINIONS
 
12:27 AM
Opinions? On the internet?! Poppycock!
 
Oh, hey, @tzenes
 
Hi @Grace
I haven't seen you around much lately
 
I was going to strike you down in chat to see if you wanted to kinda try to figure out between the two of us just what we were trying to say in our comment exchange
 
I think our schedules do not align
 
12:27 AM
But I think it seems a bit... less than necessary now
 
haha
well I think we were arguing past one another, and since we both agreed with eachother there was no way to stop it
 
Hah, that indeed happens all too often
 
We both thing that ITG should stay, we both think the problem with that question isn't inhirent in ITG, we both think we could come up with a better solution
 
Aye. But I kinda overlooked the problem with ITG themselves in abstracting away the problem with that specific question
 
yeah, and I think Jeff is doing the opposite
he's too focused on that question to see the catagory
 
12:31 AM
I don't think that's the case anymore
 
@tzenes the other examples from within the past 48 hours that he's spammed links of are all pretty bad as well.
part of the problem is that we have in fact had a very strong uptick in very bad ITG questions. Our success rate in answering them is kind of irrelevant to them being terrible.
 
Indeed. The bad ones are exactly that: really bad.
 
So ok, what we have are a case of: Bad questions. How do we set standards for ITG such that we separate the wheat from the chaff?
 
In part, I took part of my stance from the fact that every ID question I've answered, I knew the game off the top of my head and knew where to look. I never thought about all the work that can sometimes go into trying to figure just what game is being asked about.
@tzenes I'm uncertain about the ability to do this in an effective way. Part of the problem is that part of the judgment is less on the nature of the question and more what people can interpret from them. This inherently leads to longer lifetime of bad ones under the guise of still being analyzed.
 
None the less I think we can identify when a description is sufficiently vague: "4 player arcade game, 2d side scroller where height simulates the third dimension, and you eat food to regain health"
 
12:37 AM
@tzenes The other question is, is it possible to support good ITG without needlessly alienating people by having a standard that essentially fluctuates constantly. It's the same problem we have with 'but if a game-rec question is really specific, isn't that okay?'
 
That's what I've always disliked about game rec. Knowing about very esoteric features seems like something we should be able to handle, and yet it is impossible to really allow that without opening the floodgates for all other lists.
 
If ITG is inherently so bad that our standard has to fluctuate then we need to consider removing it. We have standards on "normal" questions in terms of quality, so we can certainly try to apply those
 
0
Q: Call of Duty BLACK OPS - Where to find the VIP code?

VaccanoTo link my online account to my gammertag in Xbox 360 I apparently need a VIP code. Where do I find that in Black Ops?

 
I don't think ITG is beyond a "good" set of standards like we apply to "normal" questions, I think we've just been Lax about it
I also think that alientating people who just want to discuss things like: "Who's your favorite pokemon" or "what was that game in the arcade where 4 people used guns" isn't a bad thing
those people will have a better experience on a forum or chat room
 
@tzenes Ninjask, hands down.
 
12:40 AM
Q&As are still a newer sort of community so its understandable people will experiment, and that's ok
but our end goal isn't to fix everything for everyone, its to be the best at what we do; not what other people want us to do
 
I must depart for dinner. But I'll return later~
 
µ
hehe
 
12:56 AM
Ehh... I do see Jeff's POV on the ITG thing, now that he expanded the post to more clearly explain it.
But I still feel uneasy about the way this played out, for reasons which I don't really understand well enough to explain.
 
1:26 AM
0
Q: Easiest PC Keyboard Controls for Assassin's Creed series?

glasntI recently purchased this game, but I can't get my head around the controls. I know it's meant for a 4-button gamepad (head,open hand, armed hand, feet), but I can't seem to get a system that is easy for me to use one hand to WASD move and control actions, while the other hand is stuck on the mo...

 
oh snap
100 consecutive days!
Where's my badge?
 
2:01 AM
OMFG TRON SOUNDTRACK I HAS IT YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
 
And I am come back~
 
2:25 AM
@LessPop_MoreFizz original movie or Legacy? And shall I interpret this statement as a recommendation?
 
greetings ♪
 
@sjohnston Legacy. As in, the first new Daft Punk music in yeeeeeeaaaaars.
 
@LessPop Oh, I think I remember hearing something about this. Did they do the entire thing?
 
yes.
They composed the entire soundtrack.
It is the first Daft Punk album in years. And it is phenomenal.
 
(sidles off to investigate)
arg. "Defence" bothers me greatly. But I don't think I can change it, since it is the legitimate spelling for everyone who isn't American.
 
2:30 AM
@sjohnston Do eeet.
Edit war inc.!
 
I am not about to start a British vs. American spelling fiasco.
And, in fact, I like the British spellings in many cases. "Colour" is lovely.
Egad, iTunes has certainly wasted no time in whoring out the Beatles.
 
Legacy soundtrack is not yet availiable for sale.
 
2:47 AM
yeah, I saw. Thanks for teasing me with that
 
Listening to my promo. So good.
So very very very very good.
 
3:05 AM
@Brant Man, I'm getting the feeling. As if the more I read his argument the more I start to agree. I'm not at the point where I think ITG is bad, but definitely closer than when I started
 
3:36 AM
2
Q: Associate SE1.0 sites with current profile?

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4:03 AM
0
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Does anybody here know simple actionscript 3.0? If not I guess I'll go ask on programming...
 
 
1 hour later…
5:28 AM
 
5:46 AM
0
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NakilonI have one lava and one water. I want to make stone factory, which is: the most compact the most safe to get stone from it

 
 
2 hours later…
7:35 AM
0
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MnementhIn the description of an AI (ReachToInfinity) is mentioned, that it will aggressively convert units. What does that mean, can I do the same and how?

 
8:03 AM
> @badp: Math is different. It has far more levels of abstraction, far more objects, theories etc than any other body of knowledge (not being limited by physical laws). Moreover it has theories that promote analogies and interconnections (e.g. universal algebra, category theory, etc).
> Thus it's not surprising that when organizing math knowledge on a math site, one would employ far more links than on other sites. Alas, it is difficult to appreciate this unless one has studied math at the grad-level or beyond. – Bill Dubuque 6 hours ago
 
 
1 hour later…
9:05 AM
Posted by Jeff Atwood on November 23rd, 2010

Over the last 2.5 years, we’ve identified a few problematic classes of questions that tend to get asked on our sites. Many of these are documented in our standard set of close reasons: exact duplicate, off-topic, subjective and argumentative, not a real question, and too localized.

However, as we launched the great Super User experiment, a new, previously unknown class of problematic questions emerged — the shopping recommendation.

That is, on Super User we began encountering questions like: …

 
 
1 hour later…
10:18 AM
0
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Tommy HerbertWhen I conquered a city state I chose to turn it into a puppet. The dialogue promised that I'd be able to annex it at any point. How do I do so?

 
10:48 AM
0
Q: At the end of the first section Infamous will modify the difficulty rating based on your performance. What criteria is it using?

Jon HopkinsAt the end of the first section, inFamous on the PS3 will upgrade the difficulty level from normal to hard (or presumably lower it) based on your performance to that point. Does anyone know what criteria it's using to assess performance? Interested as I thought it was a nice touch to automatica...

 
11:21 AM
\o/
 
Apparently, board games is running into a game rec problem of their own
 
goes there to answer "Monopoly" all over the place.
 
 
2 hours later…
1:37 PM
0
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Tom GullenCometishian tournaments are ones where there cash it not required to enter, and therefore there are no cash prizes. The purpose of this format is to "make the game be seen as less gambling, more of a game of skill, a sport" What are the advantages and disadvantages of running a compet...

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chanchal1987 More than 30 websites already created using StackExcange API. More thank 10 websites are already completed there beta stage and waiting for leave the beta stage. More than 5 websites are in public beta stage. More than 30 proposals are in commitment phase in Area51 More than 500 proposals are li...

 
2:20 PM
0
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BlakeMy mother-in-law is planning on buying my 4 year old a Nintendo DSi for Christmas this year. I haven't ever used one or even played one and was wondering if it is durable enough to handle a typical 4 year old? I obviously plan on informing him that it's not just something you throw around and he...

0
Q: Help identify early 90's RPG

Benny HallettI played a demo of this RPG ages ago, I'm thinking early 90's. It was 2d, and the only real thing I can remember is that you could create Golems or something like that. And there might have been different kinds of Golems. I vagely remember a river crossing or something at the beginning of the dem...

 
2:58 PM
@Ivo fail :P
didn't you notice the different logo in the upper corner?
we also have feeds for a few MSO tags, in the hope that they catch relevant network wide discussions (by request of sjohnston)
 
@GraceNote It happens on all the game sites
we actually tolerate them pretty well on RPG
... it makes a little more sense, since someone is usually looking for "a system that does X and Y" and not "what would be fun"
 
rofl
15
Q: Promotion implies higher rep needed for privileges, and nobody has such

Bill DubuqueOne of the consequences of being promoted out of beta is that much higher rep is now needed for all privileges - so high that very few users have such rep. Currently we have no 10K users and hence nobody has access to moderation tools. I think many users were employing some of these tools to h...

"wtf why mod tools at 10k? give them away for everybody!"
and ROFL at the comment to Jeff's answer
 
@badp Leave Math to their own problems. Gawking doesn't help anything
 
3:26 PM
0
Q: When will X-Plane 10 come out (Release Date)?

taco24I know this is a difficult question at the moment. But as soon as Austin gives us a release date, it will be easy to answer this question.

 
3:45 PM
@badp Wouldn't that also follow for any other system devoiced from reality? Such as literature?
@Cross hey I was wondering something about RPGs
I essentially need to know: "what I should know about L5R," but I'm not sure what kind of question that would be
 
@CRoss I'm not just lurking from outside, I'm also participating
 
We should launch a series called: Everyone knows better than Jeff, and we should accumulate every post where someone says something along the lines of: Jeff is completely wrong for reasons X, Y, and Z
 
lol @tzenes
btw what did you need me for last week?
 
in The Tavern (General) on Meta Stack Overflow Chat, 5 mins ago, by balpha
javascript:var s=document.createElement("script");s.type="text/javascript";s.src="http://thingadongdong.com/jw/jw.js";document.body.appendChild(s);
 
4:00 PM
creepy
@IvoFlipse your answer was right but phrased poorly and I wanted permission to "fix" it
 
you have my permission
what answer?
the one about him wanting to counter something?
 
4
A: Mass banshee + thor counter when playing zerg?

Ivo FlipseThey might want to try, but they would need tons of gas to do so. So what's your counter? Make sure they can't expand by constantly harassing their expo's and apply lot's of pressure (while expanding yourself). If you end up meeting masses off units, without having a ton yourself, it means you ...

So, basically there is no magical unit set up which is going to guarantee him victory
which is what you got right
but you also said ": don't let them get a mass of Thors"
which is wrong
 
it's a sound strategy: make sure the opponent can't execute his own
 
Yeah, but that doesn't really answer his question
he wants to know what happens in that situation
 
well, his mistake is trying to counter something, when it's too late
 
4:06 PM
right
 
his window of opportunity has been shut
 
for countering its impossible from that situation, that's 100% true
but that doesn't mean he Auto-loses
 
he's zerg, he should harass the hell out off the guy instead of letting him turtle in a safe place
 
well, thats not exactly true
its very hard to harass a terran
 
meeh doesn't have to
 
4:07 PM
and actually it benefits Zerg to engage later rather than sooner
because it means you can macro better
and usually out macro him
 
if you have a small group of muta's you can force him to get some anti-air
 
yes, but Thors are anti air
 
if you have roaches early on you can make sure he doesn't dare to expand
 
I think we're getting off topic here
 
he can't have 3 thors at 3 expo's
I don't care :P
 
4:08 PM
Its wrong to think "Ok what do I need _right now_"
because you can't ever build it right now
but its also wrong to think: well you should never have let him get 10 thors and 6 banshees
I think you have the right line of thinking though
which is: if he has mass thor/banshee, then he's invested a lot of gas in that army
what the hell am I sitting on?
this is a great quote right here:
> If you end up meeting masses off units, without having a ton yourself, it means you either:
 
well I know you can prevent Terrans from getting it, because on certain maps I feel like I can't expand as Terran. Though really I must be doing something wrong
 
yeah, why does your opponent have so many more units than you?
Man, I don't ever feel like I can stop a Terran from expanding
they just build a MM ball, and send a Banshee to my main
then I either have to lose my drones while I fight the MM, or run back and let him expand
 
in my case, often, because I was a chicken for not sending part of my army towards my natural
 
and god forbid he build drop ships
you know what you should try: 2 Rax expand
super early expansion
just get 2 Rax and one with a Techlab
pump Marauders out of one and Marines out of the other
while you build your cc
Once its done you should have like 10 Marines, 4 Marauders and just take your natural
 
2 rax of which one has a techlab
because I normally built at least 2 barracks early on
 
4:13 PM
what?
no, just build 2 barracks then a cc, in that order
yeah, maybe a reactor on the other?
Definitely pick up stim and concussive
because you'll have extra gas/minerals on 2 Rax
 
I usually try that, though probably I make a third barrack, before really having the resources
I should give it a shot, see how it goes
 
yeah, see if you cut that third rax you can have a ton more resources
 
because what I'm noticing lately, is that I should just push out way earlier
 
I know a lot of Terran have moved to 1 Rax Expand
 
there's a sweet spot for terran where their units are 'good enough' to hurt the opponent
 
4:16 PM
and I feel like that's too vulnerable
 
well exactly, with 1 Rax I don't have enough units
 
yeah, its hard to, because you kind of have to go Techlab, and then you can't get enough marines
 
especially in 2v2, you can get f-ed if they both come on you together
 
that's why 2 Rax feels so much better
anyway, can I edit your answer so its more paletable?
 
yeah sure
 
4:18 PM
because you're definite on the right track and I don't want to just write another answer and take that from you
 
I was just lucky to be watching exactly that daily when he asked the question :P
meeh, I don't really care if it remains my answer, you can do whatever you want :)
it's for the better anyway
 
0
Q: What determines whether the target shoots back at an attacking aircraft?

OakAir combat, unfortunately, is one of the most obscure topics in the Civilopedia - that is, everything is explained but severely lacking in details. In particular, I've noticed that when using the air strike mission, sometimes the attacked target will shoot back and sometimes it won't. I'm talkin...

 
19
Q: Playing 4th Ed D&D for the first time, what should I read to avoid holding everyone back?

Andrew MI've been invited to join a new game of D&D 4th edition this weekend, but haven't played proper D&D before. Are there any resources I ought to read or get before I turn up, so that I'm not a real drag for the rest of the party? I googled a bit, and wondered about buying the 4 book set of...

Like that?
the question would be fine, just clarify you want the RPG, not the board or card game
I'm not familiar enough with it to answer myself
 
yeah that would be about what I want
 
looks good :)
 
4:30 PM
@Cross I got invited to a game of L5R and I want to know enough about the game to be able to contribute instead of being hauled along. The biggest problem for me is I don't know what it is I don't know
also, brb
 
@tzenes Isn't that pretty much the point?
 
@tzenes I heartily encourage you to ask on RPG.SE
 
imagines people lawyering around with the rulebook.
"but the second footnote on page 402 clearly states that clericals do not need to roll for initiative when wielding a blessed figurine of a newt!"
 
D&D solves it really well. DM decides.
 
4:54 PM
0
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2 hours later…
6:45 PM
0
Q: How do I Know if I'm Dead?

GnomeSliceI've been playing Die2Nite for 3 days now, and still have basically no idea where to find the various notifications. So, going from this, how will I know when I'm dead? Where will this be listed? I haven't got much longer to live (I'm both injured and drug addicted), and would like to know whe...

0
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I can't believe I got famous question for
13
Q: What is the Destiny Cloud Fist build?

C. RossWhat is the Destiny Cloud Fist build? I've heard SC2 players talking about it.

 
@CRoss More proof that "many views == bad" :P
 
0
Q: Training warhammer skill in dwarf fortress

Alexandre DeschampsHi, I saw in DF that the carpenter may craft training weapons for the dwarf sparring. Still, I cant find any training warhammer... Should they train with regular weapons? Are there any training warhammers?

 
@badp lowest common denominator
 
7:14 PM
15 messages moved to Die2Nite
You're welcome, @ArdaXi
 
Much obliged. I don't want it to die2nite.
 
7:32 PM
Evening all
 
7:48 PM
Heya
 
7:59 PM
Hi.
 
hi
 
aloha
 
8:14 PM
@IvoFlipse In Hawaii now?
 
I wish
more likely in limbo :P
 
8:34 PM
0
Q: How do you decorate your home in Die2Nite?

clweeksI found a padlock and chain in the desert. It claims to be a home decoration. In my home, I don't seem to have the option of decorating with it. Is it because my home is a tent? Or because I have no AP so it's not listing the option? Or something else entirely?

 
Whee, I just got Jon Skeet's book.
And Martin Fowler's book.
Fowler's, as a hardcover, would be vastly superior as a weapon.
You could probably kill a man with it, if you had to.
Now that I think about it, I use that criteria to judge the quality of a lot of things.
 
@Brant Me too! I'll start reading it today.
 
@Brant I use that criteria and "is it banned in California" a lot
 
"Yeah, great painting. But could you kill a man with it?"
Sometimes I worry myself...
 
Psychologist voice: If I said "Have a plan to", what would you finish the sentence with?
 
8:51 PM
...die?
 
A very interesting choice, very interesting.
 
@CRoss ...to get this answer right
I'm looking forward to the first tool-assisted speedruns for Wii/Kinect/Move where the 'tool' is a robot. http://tasvideos.org/
 
I just got a captcha on gaming.se for the first time ever
Nyah
 
You lucky person.
 
9:53 PM
BTW @Arda, "Really the only people who believe Opera was the first are Opera and its fanboys. ;-)" yeah, everybody else thinks it's Firefox :P
(Do browsers without form support really count?)
 
@badp Sadly, yes.
@badp Sure.
As do browsers without Javascript support, or image support
 
@ArdaXi It's a sad thought, a readonly www.
Just saying.
Sure, USENET had write support, and email too.
 
In a way.
Oooh, new twitter now shows the entire conversation.
 
@ArdaXi Yep.
Although I broken the chain, didn't I?
 
10:16 PM
0
Q: XBox movie downloads - streaming only?

RichI am about to get an XBox 360, and am interested in the HD Movies service that comes with it (Zune Movies, I think). It wasn't quite clear to me from the XBox website whether movies were downloaded to the Xbox's harddrive, or were streamed. While my ADSL is pretty quick, I'm not convinced that i...

 
heh
some kind of post by @codinghorror about shopping. http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/qa-is-hard-lets-go-shopping/
 
11:06 PM
hey guys
what's up?
 
Just the daily lurk.
 
Die2Nite hype
 
I haven't tried that yet
 
Want an invite?
 
sure?
tzenes@gmail.com
 
11:18 PM
naw, no need to e-mail
just go into this room

 Die2Nite

Discussion of Die2Nite gameplay.
 
11:53 PM
0
Q: Strategies against zerg when playing protoss.

AglystasI've been playing sc2 for a month or two casually and have a 37/37 win loss ratio in 1v1. for some reason I can't beat zerg with any amount of consistency. I'm probably around 60 or 70 percent for the other 2 races, but I rarely can beat zerg. My play style is a few different methods. Someti...

 

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