The Bridge

Sterno

17:00

(if I were a complete dick)

fbueckert

@RilgonArcsinh How many questions do we get from new users where they DO ask a corner case?

James

@Sterno wait wait wait, I can get banned for casting a reopen vote on a closed question?

fbueckert

In my experience, new users aren't asking about specific, nitpicky variants. They're asking general case, in which case it's easy to close as dupe (if it's already been asked), or upvoted if it's not.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@fbueckert I think this is an untenable conflict, because I'm of the opinion that even one corner case brought up by a newbie (who then is turned away due to the hostility towards dupes) is one too many

pixel

@MarkTrapp jumps in with a potential resolution to the Minecraft LAN questions

James

17:01

.. I have had very little sleep.. I think I missed something in the discussion despite taking the last 10min to try and get up to speed on it :D

user2334

@pixel yes'm: working on an answer that explains my rationale

pixel

@James its ok, I misread that as 'very little sheep'

-.-

user2334

But sneak preview: we're expecting too much of new users and too little of regular users with gobs of rep like me

James

@pixel The latest one actually had nothing to do with LAN really.. Just apparently a permissions bug that mojang should fix.

Rilgon Arcsinh

Like, I wouldn't blame Hackworth for not coming back again.

pixel

17:02

@James I was more referring to the +500 bounty Mark just put onto a Minecraft question

Rilgon Arcsinh

And that's a problem (IMO).

Sterno

@James I just said exactly the opposite of that.

fbueckert

@RilgonArcsinh Hackworth has 1K+ rep. His first comment was pretty hostile about it, too.

pixel

@RilgonArcsinh yes that's a big problem, but I've sang this particular song before

James

@Sterno I think I was focusing too much of the 'On meta' part.. God I need caffiene today

Rilgon Arcsinh

17:04

@fbueckert If I had a narrow question based off of a brand new change to the game VtC'd without any prior reasoning in comments, I'd be pretty peeved too.

I don't blame his initial hostility one bit.

njallam

I'm a Necromancer! :D

gaming.stackexchange.com/badges/17/necromancer?userid=29478

David B

kinda wish "close" was called "pause" or something less hostile

Rilgon Arcsinh

Especially if the cited dupe had no answer to my narrow question as it was asked before the narrow case was a possibility in the first place.

fbueckert

@RilgonArcsinh Mostly, this could have been explained in the question itself; he's making the assumption that everyone knows what's going on, what the patch did, and whether this old rule that's been here forever applies to it.

pixel

@DavidB the wording of close is another thing I've "whined" about

Rilgon Arcsinh

17:06

@fbueckert Okay, which is why someone familiar with the game should have done that, instead of a VtC which included known people that have "worked" the league tag.

David B

@pixel guess I'll do the right thing and feature request it.

pixel

in that we know closed questions can be easily reopened, whilst new users don't

Rilgon Arcsinh

I think the issue is that Hackworth worked off the presumption that (as we state) someone familiar with $SUBJECT would be answering.

fbueckert

@RilgonArcsinh The comment is basically assuming that whoever's VtCing plays LoL. It's usually much better to be polite, and explain that what you're asking about is a new mechanic, rather than going, "Can you read?"

Rilgon Arcsinh

And someone familiar with $SUBJECT (in this case, LoL) would know about the change that caused the question to even be a question.

pixel

17:08

@fbueckert sorry, while "Can you read?" is out of line, in this instance it was perfectly valid, even though it should have been re-worded?

Rilgon Arcsinh

@fbueckert When my question goes from "open to answers" to "closed by this cabal of 5" without even so much as a "hey, I think this is a duplicate of $LINK, so I'm casting a vote to close, but feel free to edit the question to differentiate it or explain why it's not", I'd feel the exact same way.

murgatroid99

@RilgonArcsinh when you cast the vote, I'm pretty sure it auto comments, and it appears at the top of the question. Saying it again should not be necessary

fbueckert

@RilgonArcsinh The explanation by @FAE tries to address why it was closed.

Rilgon Arcsinh

@fbueckert After the fact.

fbueckert

Yes, that came AFTER the closure. But regardless, hostility is not the answer.

Rilgon Arcsinh

17:10

That is far too late to explain why.

If you can't make a convincing and succinct reason why X is a dupe of Y before you VtC, I don't think you should.

That is, of course, strictly my opinion.

FAE

@RilgonArcsinh It was not after the closure.

"closed as exact duplicate by Fluttershy, Ben Brocka, Ashley Nunn, FAE, Wipqozn Jul 29 at 20:40"

fbueckert

I'm going to stray from this example, as we've beat it to death.

FAE

" FAE Jul 29 at 20:37"

Rilgon Arcsinh

Okay, then apparently there is some indication to the user that it's being VtC'd. Fair enough.

FAE

I try to always leave comments on the questions I VTC.

fbueckert

17:12

Also, this isn't something from a new user, so that's an entirely different scenario.

Rilgon Arcsinh

I think the comment should've been left prior to any VtCs, though.

FAE

@RilgonArcsinh I did.

Rilgon Arcsinh

I dunno, the whole thing just seems unnecessarily punitive, basically saying "participate in these secondary functions or deal with it".

i.e. pleading your case in Meta/chat, etc.

fbueckert

This is why this is garnering so much debate; we have people who want broad, overarching, complete answers. I'm in that one. We also have people who want each question about each variant being separate questions.

Rilgon Arcsinh

No one should feel under attack for asking a question.

Ender

17:14

@fbueckert I dont mind either situation, but right now neither excists

Sterno

@RilgonArcsinh It's not meant to be punative. But what's the alternative? Allow everything, because that way they wouldn't need to discuss close reasons in chat/meta?

David B

@fbueckert yes, thanks for saying it clearly

murgatroid99

@RilgonArcsinh If the question deserves to be closed, it shouldn't stay open just to have good feelings

fbueckert

@RilgonArcsinh One of my first questions garnered close votes. My first thought was not, "Are these guys idiots?". It was, "Huh. Really? I wonder why."

Rilgon Arcsinh

@murgatroid99 The original question didn't deserve to be closed, though.

FAE

17:15

@RilgonArcsinh Of course not, but I'm currently unsure what else I could have done in this situation, as I was acting on the current policy.

pixel

@fbueckert congratulations on being you, many many many people are not like that.

Ender

@Agent86 are you following me man? I'm starting to think you might have missed an important fact here, cause you dont seem to be on the same page as I am about what my meta post is actually about.

I propose we change this websites entire premises. This is clearly not a website that answers questions about gaming. This is a website that debates about how to answer questions about gaming. ;-)

murgatroid99

@Ender that's actually called meta.gaming.stackexchange.com

Ender

Bah! Foiled again!

lol

fbueckert

@pixel So, it's alright for someone to make snap judgements about my actions because they don't think like me? I don't think so.

Ender

17:20

@fbueckert so your saying that BECAUSE of our 'googability' we are more succeptible to bots?

fbueckert

@Ender Yup

Ender

@fbueckert understood.

fbueckert

Why do you think we get so many random spam messages?

Rilgon Arcsinh

Anyways, I need to head to bed, I should've been there over a half hour ago. Sorry for being contentious, I guess.

Ender

I dont feel we get that many to be honest

murgatroid99

17:21

@Ender I've been reading the comment thread on that post and I disagree. You asked what users with little rep should do when their question has been asked but not answered. He described actions people should take that don't require much rep. I don't see the problem

Ender

Ive seen about 6 total, and I've been a member for some time now.

pixel

@fbueckert is it ok to judge everybody by your standards without giving them the benefit of the doubt that maybe they don't have a programmers mind or analytical problem solving skills?

murgatroid99

@Ender they get deleted pretty fast

fbueckert

@pixel I don't judge. That's why I ask.

Ender

@murgatroid99 this isnt about 'not much rep' this is about 'not ANY rep' which is specifically mentionedi n my post

fbueckert

17:22

@Ender 1-rep users can propose edits.

If a user suggests an edit to a question to add their own details, I'd approve it.

FAE

@Ender Once you hit 10k, you'll get to see the many, many spam answers/questions that have been deleted.

pixel

@fbueckert well some people get stuck in their own little world, side tracked, etc

Ender

@Fbueckert I'm a bit of a fail then, because I was unaware you could suggest edits at rep 1.

murgatroid99

@Ender you can even do it anonymously

fbueckert

@pixel That means they can judge me? No. Being hostile to me because you made a judgement about my actions means I get to classify them as idiots.

Ender

17:24

We should mention something about this in the FAQ then, cause I highly doubt new users will be aware of their ability to do this, or what that means for them.

Tim Stone

@fbueckert At least this site (I think) doesn't get bulk erotic spam like EL&U does. >_>

fbueckert

@TimStone I hope not. Most of it is gaming related, but damn, we get crap.

FAE

@TimStone ...whaaaat

pixel

@fbueckert did you read @agent86's post on my meta question - the "administrators" vs "users" bit?

@fbueckert in this instance - you're an "administrator", it's not your place to call them idiots, and they're "users", thus less informed in the workings of Arqade so are allowed to make a couple of mistakes

fbueckert

@pixel Yeah, I did.

Tim Stone

17:26

@FAE Yeaaaaah. They had a bit of a problem with that a week or two ago, at least.

pixel

the fact that you're still allowed to make mistakes means the users are allowed to make even more mistakes

fbueckert

@pixel I said I'd classify them as idiots. I'd still make the attempt to explain how the site works to them.

Nowhere am I going to overtly hostile to them. And I never said I would be. We've all been new users at one point. I make the attempt to help. If they decide they don't want it, then fine. Rules hammer incoming.

pixel

no, but they are to you, chances are its because you did something they didn't expect

like vote to close their incredibly valid and well researched one line question that has already been answered 30 times

but its still their question, so of course they will get whiny if you close it - even more so without a friendly message telling them where they can find their answer

fbueckert

@pixel In cases like that, I not only try to explain why I'm voting to close it, I'm also going to explain how they can get it re-opened.

If it's not a straight up dupe.

In cases like that, then no. It's closed, and it stays there.

Jim G.

Hi Everyone. I'm not a regular user here, but I just wanted to say that I think the skin of the site is AWESOME! Kudos to the graphic designer!

FAE

17:29

@JimG. Welcome to the chat. :) And that would be @Jin.

Lazers

0

Q: Is there a way to change an existing map (already has rendered chunks) from DEFAULT to LARGE BIOMES?

I'm OK with there being 'unnatural' stuff at the borders of the 1.2.5 map and the 1.3.1 map, but I'd like all the newly generated areas to be LARGE BIOME. I am using Bukkit, is it as simple as changing the server.properties file or is there more going on here?

-1

Q: Can we change the term "close" to something more friendly?

I have been told many times "close is not a permanent state, it's just where questions go to be either editted/reopened or else deleted". However the dictionary says: "to bring to an end", "to conclude". Well, why use the word "close" to mean something it doesn't in our language? Wouldn't a mor...

feature-request closing

fbueckert

Pinging @Jin. You are being praised!

Out of curiosity, have I actually voted to close a question without there being an explanation as to why I'm voting that way? Short of extremely obvious dupes.

Jim G.

@Jin: AWESOME WORK!!!

Anna Lear

Super-pinging @jin so that he gets notified. :)

fbueckert

Troll pinging @Jin.

pixel

17:30

@fbueckert everybody is guilty of it at some point I feel

@jin ping

Fluttershy

Pinging @Jin so I can fit in. >_>

Yay! I'm a part of something!

Jin

someone... pinged me..

Tim Stone

Pinging @AnnaLear to give her bonus points for superping-harassing @Jin

Jin

so many times... and broke my batsignal

Tim Stone

PraisePing attack is a go!

Jin

17:32

@JimG. oh thank you my dear sir. your praise sustains me.

pixel

@Jin I'm innocent, just saying

James

@Jin Wait wait wait, You have a batsignal and you have not been sharing!?

Jin

@James oops... perhaps i talked too much.

James

@Jin I can bring cookies

Jin

@James it's really a cheap Radio Shack stun lazer belt. when you ping me, it burns me a lil.

fbueckert

17:33

@James Eh. It's broken, anyways.

Tim Stone

also has a bat signal

James

@Jin Ah, well technically I am not pinging you.. the site simply will not let me reply with out putting your name in there :)

Jin

btw, Arqade top user swag will be mailed out very soon. Sorry about the delay. there were some issues with the proofs with the printshop. I've been battling 'em

4

Tim Stone

Yay, swag!

James

Well Ill be damned.

pixel

17:35

@Jin I hope you told them how dangerous it is to keep swap from gamers

Jin

man... there's this really funny web comic about batman and batsignal... i can't find it anymore

pixel

Elite group of snipers, tacticians, pilots, puzzle solvers, drivers, etc

fbueckert

@Jin Awesome. Another month until I get it!

Jin

nm. found it

James

@Jin The one where he is watching a game or something and flips off the signal?

Jin

17:35

Wipqozn

18

Q: What does "you will want to" mean?

I often find people (mostly American people) telling to me "you will want to do this" or "you will not want to do this". Does it mean they are telling me that I should do something (in the sense of being authoritative) or are they just requesting that I do something?

meaning meaning-in-context

James

Oh, I liked mine better :D

Wipqozn

Some of the things that make it to the hot questions lists baffle me.

Is this phrase really unusual outside of North America?

Ender

hey

Why do we close dupes? Why not just delete them

Wipqozn

It seems like a fairly straight forward statement.

fbueckert

17:36

@Ender SEO

Jin

fbueckert

Usually, the duplicate is using different wording to ask the same thing.

By keeping it, we get more of that sweet Google action for the same question.

James

Jin

Fluttershy

@Jin I'm tempted to ask "What would happen if the Bat Signal went off as Batman was taking a poo?" on Sci-Fi... <_<

James

17:37

Not what i was looking for but good enough to resolve upon it :)

Ender

@Jin that last one had me LawL for real

fbueckert

@Jin I like this one.

Wipqozn

@Ender To add a bit more to it beyond "SEO", is that the idea is that the only reason someone asked a duplicate is that they were unable to find the original question. Therefore keeping the duplicate allows users to more easily find the question.

@fbueckert FINE, JEEZ

BE THAT WAY

fbueckert

@Wipqozn I WILL.

James

►

Wipqozn

17:39

tortoise grumble

Ender

@wipqozn that makes pretty good sense. I understan.d

Tim Stone

@Wipqozn Not a tortoise tantrum?

agent86

screaming baby, apologies

fbueckert

@Fluttershy That dragonvale question isn't a dupe?

Wipqozn

@agent86 You're a baby.

agent86

17:41

@Wipqozn nour

Fluttershy

@fbueckert Not that I am aware. We usually don't get questions about normal dragon pairings.

fbueckert

@Fluttershy Okie dokie.

Also: Three days until Legends of Pegasus!

Ender

gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/79868/minecraft-lan-problem Is this even a lan question? Or more of a general multiplayer minecraft question?

Fluttershy

@fbueckert This would be the closest to a dupe... But.... Actually, now that I read it... It kinda seems like a dupe. <_<

Ender

@Jin Speaking of swag and the like....I still havent received my video card, should I try and track it or something?

fbueckert

17:45

@Fluttershy Heh. @EBongo specifically created it for those questions.

user2334

@Ender I'm not really sure what it's asking other than "it doesn't work", but I'm fairly certain that's not the same question as the dupe-a-palooza one. The LAN part does seem to be accidental to whatever the problem is

Ender

im gonna nuke the lan tag

fbueckert

@Ender Yeah, that's not really a LAN question, other than, I'm in a LAN game.

Ender

that being said, its a question about being unable to break blocks, and i'm pretty sure thats a dupe. --searches--

yup

fbueckert

@Ender And this is another reason why we close dupes; for the most part, they have already been answered. And we help new users faster by just linking them to the original question.

Ender

17:48

VTC it please.

Don't worry guys, one day I'll be as SE savvy as the rest of you. Maybe.

fbueckert

@Ender Eh. Don't worry about it too much. It's a learning process.

pixel

@Ender No you won't! They change the rules on purpose just as we come to grips with them!

Ender

@Pixel I KNEW IT!

pixel

I blame @Wipqozn personally

fbueckert

@pixel They should be changing the rules on me daily, then. :P

user2334

17:50

New rule, now that pixel is onto us: pixel must sing "I'm a little teapot" after every 14th chat message.

pixel

@fbueckert you're in on it some how

I am not a little tea pot

my actual job title is marijuana disposal expert

user2334

so you're a narc?

pixel

lol no

Although holding that job title in an official capacity would invariably result in me being fired after the first blood test

Jin

@Ender which contest is that from?

user2334

@pixel oh, not disposal. "disposal". I got it wink wink nudge nudge saynomore saynomore

pixel

17:53

@MarkTrapp yes! wait... Noooooo... ^_-

Mana

??

Ender

@Jin the Diablo 3 release one. Where you got gems and such. I've receive my Tshirt, but not my V-card

Jin

@Ender ok. i told Lauren about this. she'll look into it

Ender

@Jin thanks

Lauren

@Ender hey, can you shoot me an email with the details of your order?

StrixVaria

17:56

@FAE The thing is, however much you tried to soften the blow or educate the user, you didn't help the user. You didn't give him an answer, and you didn't provide him a reasonable means to get his answer.

I'm not saying what you did was wrong; it was correct policy at the time that it was done.

I am just trying to change our perspective on what should be done in those cases.

fbueckert

@StrixVaria I think @agent86 is on to something; they should suggest an edit to the original question that includes their details.

StrixVaria

@fbueckert I didn't see his suggestion because I was out for lunch.

That kind of half-way solves the problem, but there's still no real incentive for new answers if the question is already established and one is accepted.

FAE

@StrixVaria I see. I guess what I was mostly wondering is that everyone's having contention with how this was handled, and seeing as I was the one that did most of the handling in this particular case, I'd really like to know if I did something wrong here and what I could do to improve it.

fbueckert

1

A: What are new users supposed to do when their question has already been asked but not answered?

In the case where the original question didn't get (working) answers, the solution is not to ask the question again. This just fragments the discussion, and makes relevant detail hard to find. If a solution didn't work, the asker needs to edit their question to add the things they've tried. ...

StrixVaria

The new user still can't accept the answer that solved his own problem.

Lauren

17:59

@Ender my email is lauren[at]stackexchange[dot]com, i'll look for your message and see what i can find out

StrixVaria

@FAE I'm not really concerned with this specific case over the more general problem of things getting closed as dupes that I believe shouldn't be.

Lazers

0

Q: How do I breed a blue fire dragon in Dragonvale?

In Dragonvale, ice and fire are the required elements for the blue fire dragon. Unfortunately, you cannot directly breed the two together; it says to try with different hybrids. I would just like to know if there are any combinations that have gotten the blue fire dragon for anybody else

dragonvale

Ender

@lauren thanks much

FAE

@StrixVaria Gotcha.

Ender

@FAE What STrix said. Again.

fbueckert

18:02

@MarkTrapp dumped an answer on the meta about that.

Fluttershy

@FAE For what it's worth, I do not feel you did anything wrong. You explained yourself well, and your post on meta reflects a decision that was (for the most part) agreed to in chat if I recall correctly. Then again, my opinion is biased, as I was the one who was accused of being unable to read when I originally proposed the duplicate.

Jin

@Lauren I still haven't received my Lamborghini FYI.

fbueckert

I think it's a good idea; expect less of the new user, and expect more from ourselves.

Still close the duplicates, but put the onus on one of us to help him out, by either editing his details into the original question, or dumping a bounty on the question to provide incentive for another answer.

Or both.

Blem

I still have not received my Diablo 3 T-shirt :/

Fluttershy

18 hours ago, by ayckoster

is it considered normal that i still do not have my mouse from the diablo 3 competition?

Jin

18:09

@Blem really? where do you live?

@Blem email lauren[at]stackexchange[dot]com

Blem

Denmark, I moved so my address changed but I reported it to the post office so it should be send to my new address, but nothing so far

Lazers

18:32

0

Q: How can I deal with monster spawns in Sokoban?

A few times recently in Sokoban, I've been having issues with inconvenient monster spawns that end up blocking my boulders. I most frequently run into this trouble when I'm nearing the completion of a level, when the level's long "pit corridor" is almost entirely filled in. Although I've verified...

nethack

David B

@fbueckert I see what you mean from a long term perspective, but isn't the asker the one that knows whether his problem is solved by the linked question (when dupe closed)? Shouldn't the asker's needs be the most important thing in the first 5 minutes?

fbueckert

@DavidB If they're asking a question that's an exact dupe, it takes less time to link the dupe than it does to re-write an answer.

David B

@fbueckert agreed, but if they're asking a question that you want to merge into another question because it isn't covered - that isn't an exact dupe

StrixVaria

@fbueckert This I agree with. If the new question is already covered in an answer then close it post haste.

fbueckert

@DavidB Like @agent86 was saying: By not closing the dupes, we're fragmenting the discussion. By leaving two questions asking the same thing open, we're not really helping either asker.

That applies even if there's no answer.

Just closing as dupe shouldn't be our only action, though.

We should be A) Adding details to the original question to take the dupe's details into account, and/or B) Posting a bounty ourselves on the original to draw more attention to it.

David B

18:42

can you consider the scenario I proposed, where the merging the questions just makes you happy and not either asker?

and just ackno that neither question should be closed in that case?

at least, not right away

fbueckert

@DavidB See, that, I don't agree with.

StrixVaria

@fbueckert Ugh I keep cringing at this "post a bounty" stuff to get answers to new questions.

David B

I know, which is why we're talking about it I guess

StrixVaria

That's really not what bounties are meant for.

James

WOw

First time I have ever had my laptop whitescreen on me

fbueckert

18:44

If the question's been asked already, then leaving both open is giving tacit approval that it's alright to ask duplicates. Which it's not.

FAE

@James Looks weird, doesn't it?

James

@FAE Very very

I had the turtle slap desktop showing, went and set down a paper i nthe other room, came back.. Whiteness!!! Threw me for a loop :D

David B

@fbueckert you're talking about an exact dupe, I'm not.

fbueckert

@DavidB Corner cases?

David B

I'm talking about a merge opportunity, two questions about the same topic - not exact dupes

can't both askers get their answers first, then merge?

fbueckert

18:46

@DavidB It would depend on how much of a dupe it is; if it hits the community filter and gets closed, I'd argue they're too similar.

David B

@fbueckert if it depended on how much of a dupe, then why is the wording "exact dupe"?

fbueckert

@DavidB The close reason is exact dupe. The autogenerated comment and system text say possible duplicate.

David B

I think the community filter is tuned too high still

fbueckert

@DavidB Doing this duplicates the effort.

David B

so, link em

fbueckert

18:48

@DavidB That's literally what duplicate closing is for.

If two questions are close enough to be seen as duplicates, the close reason throws a link in there for exactly that reason.

David B

17

A: Does raising smithing over 100 do anything?

Yes, smithing over 100 has an affect on upgrading. In this answer I raised smithing to 130 via two items. That allowed me to increase the armor rating from 528 (@100 smithing) to 610 (@130 smithing).

is that a dupe?

fbueckert

@DavidB Not a clue; don't pay much attention to skyrim.

David B

why don't we merge up all my answers about armor rating and make a wiki article about it?

because I have a half dozen or so

and it's fragmented conversation

some of it is low quality

fbueckert

@DavidB Yes, I'm a fan of huge, complete answers. I'll be the first to admit that.

David B

I think some questions benefit greatly from huge complete answers. Some problems don't need that though - they can just be "Yes - because x"

fbueckert

18:54

@DavidB Like @Sterno was saying, it's a judgement call. If someone asks a question very similar to the one you linked, and it's already been answered by your (or another person's) answer, then yeah, the community filter says close.

David B

When the asker comes back and says "the linked article didn't help my problem", then what?

fbueckert

@DavidB Then he needs to add more detail to his question.

Because if something similar has already been asked, chances are extremely good it will help him.

It might be similar, but the variation itself might change the question dramatically.

In which case, the variation itself should be the question, and it was probably very badly worded.

One of my comments on this whole thing:

Also, if we allow questions on minor variations of already asked questions, we're opening the door to asking lots of questions that are about the very same thing. Such as, "How does skill A work with Mechanic X?" and, "How does skill B work with Mechanic X?" are, by themselves, fine. As soon as you get more than one, unless the answers vary dramatically, the correct question is, "How does Mechanic X work?". An answer that adds two sentences to an existing answer does not require an entirely new question, I feel. — fbueckert Jul 29 at 22:23

I might be changing my mind on the last sentence, but otherwise, I still hold to that.

David B

you played magic the gathering?

fbueckert

@DavidB Quite a bit, in college.

David B

How does Mechanic X work in the light of contradictory wording Y is the main reason one would want to ask a question in that game

totally worthwhile questions

fbueckert

19:01

@DavidB Yes, those are worthwhile questions. That's why I put "unless the answers vary dramatically" in there.

David B

granted, that could be grouped as "how does mechanic X work when contradicted (list those contradictions)"

fbueckert

Exactly

David B

how about StackOverflow, you go on there?

so much duplication... so many questions that can be answered "use Enumerable.SelectMany"

fbueckert

@DavidB Little bit. Not a whole lot.

David B

that place is a bit too far to the other extreme

fbueckert

19:05

Either way, SO is a different site in the network; we follow the same general rules, but we each make our own policies on how to apply them.

So, using SO as an example doesn't work so well.

murgatroid99

@DavidB SO gets too much question volume to find duplicates effectively. With the terrible search, questions are often answered a couple of times before anyone finds a dupe, and by that time nobody cares

David B

@murgatroid99 yup, and that's part of the "shock" that I have switching between the sites

murgatroid99

@DavidB Most questions on SO are faster to answer than to search for dupes for. It's not that the policy is different but that it's basically unenforceable there

David B

On SO - people camp the newest questions button to answer. On ArQ, it seems instead for purpose of closing

4

I know it's with good intent

fbueckert

@DavidB Most of it is to limit the chaos that comes with dupes. Some still invariably slip through.

And in those cases, it's not always the newest one that gets closed; we try to keep the one with the best answer. And eventually merge them.

njallam

19:08

I'm at it with the Minecraft answers again...

0

A: Is there a way to change an existing map (already has rendered chunks) from DEFAULT to LARGE BIOMES?

First a quick note, This will not affect any chunks that are already generated. Only the ones generated after changing to LARGE BIOMES. Download NBTedit and then extract and run it. Click "Open" and navigate to your server directory. Find your world folder and open the file "level.dat" insid...

murgatroid99

@DavidB The main difference it's faster/easier on SO to answer than to decide whether a question should be closed, not that more questions belong open

@DavidB plus, SO doesn't have an active chat like we do that can actually keep up with question volume

fbueckert

@njallam Your answer sounds like it doesn't address the main issue. Is there a difference between rendered chunks and generated chunks?

njallam

@fbueckert The setting affects only chunks generated after the setting was changed. The pre-existing ones are already saved

If they were to change it could remove some of the player's stuff

murgatroid99

@fbueckert the question did ask only for a change to "newly generated areas".

David B

(I don't know minecraft, but it's possible that solution (only new chunks) is the best option)

fbueckert

19:11

@murgatroid99 And there you go. Hence why I didn't do anything about the answer; I don't play minecraft at all.

Tried to get my roommate to answer the LAN question, but he's remarkably apathetic about garnering rep.

StrixVaria

@fbueckert Did you explain to him that he can have points on the Internet?

fbueckert

4

A: Are there gremlins in my nether portals?

Portal generation is a little odd compared to what many people assume it is. Portals are not assigned ID's where portal001o will always connect to the resulting generated portal001n. They connect to each other purely on the coordinate system. Build, activate, and walk through a nether portal at ...

This is his single answer on the site.

He's crazy apathetic to more or less everything.

StrixVaria

@fbueckert I have a friend like that who asked/answered a bunch of questions about Frozen Synapse then disappeared from the site.

He was a really good contributor for Frozen Synapse, though.

fbueckert

@StrixVaria It's rare to find people who want to help beyond their initial question or game.

Alok

19:27

@RavenDreamer: Not convinced gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/79830/… is a dup; just because your answer happens to mention a couple of caps

GnomeSlice

What's the point of Q.U.B.E. supporting a gamepad if you can't actually play with one. You can move and jump, but you can't interact with any of the blocks, the left and right mouse clicks aren't mapped anywhere...

murgatroid99

@GnomeSlice I'm not sure this is a general problem

►

That's a video that says it was played with a 360 controller, so it looks like someone was able to do it

GnomeSlice

@murgatroid99 I can guarantee you, that there is no simple button press for the left and right click operations. I'd watch that video if I had internet, but I just used Joy2Key and mapped them to the bumpers anyway.

Lazers

0

Q: Do things like Lifesteal and Knockback stack?

If I have 2 pieces of gear which both have knockback at 2.0%, do I get a 4% total? What about if I have a gear with lifestyle and use a passive skill (like Bloodthirst for the Barbarian) to increase my lifesteal? Do they stack? Thanks!

diablo-3

0

Q: Cannot get Shen's "God or Man" conversation

Having troubles getting the "God or Man" conversation from Covetous Shen, our beloved jeweler. Other post on this site (like ALL other sites of the internet) state the conversation should appear between the start of "Beneath the spire" up to the "Prime evil" quest. This link says : Beneath the S...

diablo-3 achievements

murgatroid99

@GnomeSlice It looks like this is the same problem: forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2811711 You might have to unmap mouse buttons to get it to work

GnomeSlice

19:34

@murgatroid99 I appreciate it, but I wasn't asking for a fix, Joy2Key solved my problem.

Transcript for