The Greenhouse

Zanna

05:15

:( hmm in that case I really have no choice but to downvote your answer for appearing to give dangerous advice. My edit actually made the sentence give no advice "one way or the other", while at present it appears to assert something both wrong and harmful about which you say you are not sure and about which I am very sure indeed. Fwiw "body" is ungrammatical in that sentence and more importantly yeah you may not know, but people who are not women can indeed be pregnant. — Zanna 21 mins ago

Sree Charan

08:58

2

Q: Vegetarian foods in East Asian culture?

I'm a strict vegetarian travelling to Asia (mostly Japan). Which traditionally Japanese foods are strictly vegetarian or easy to substitute to be so? What are common non-vegetarian ingredients to look out for?

Are questions like below on-topic?

Zanna

09:09

I would say it's way too broad

but shrug

I added "East" to the title

because they said "mainly Japan"

if they mean literally all of Asia, from Turkey to Okinawa, then they may as well ask "please give me some advice about vegetarian food"

but the person who answered said something about India so my edit kind of harms their answer

I VTC as too broad

just now

Sree Charan

But is it on-topic?

BTW o/ @Zanna and belated congrats on 1k.

Zanna

o/ and good afternoon (making assumptions about your time zone) and thanks a lot!

it's off-topic or wrong for SE format in my opinion, relating to the meta post about local/travel advice

I think they could get a good question out of it like "what non-vegetarian foods are commonly used in Japanese cooking, and how can I avoid them?"

I've voted to close this question as too broad. Asia is really really really big and you are asking for very general advice. I think it could be a good question if it were narrowed down to "what non-vegetarian foods are commonly used in Japanese cooking, and how can I avoid them as a tourist?" — Zanna 15 secs ago

Sree Charan

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it looks like a traveling advice question. See related meta post for more details. — SS. 40 secs ago

Zanna

hmm thinking about it though, I don't think this really counts as local travel advice if it's about a country's traditional cuisine etc

it's not like "what are the best veg restaurants in Tokyo"

that would be off topic

according to the meta post

hmmm this is difficult!

Turion

@Zanna,on the Vitamin A question, there is one good point they are making in the comments: Rather than trying to salvage an answer with flaws, write a better answer.

If it's better, it can be upvoted and their answer downvoted

Sree Charan

09:22

Add that reason as off-topic as an answer to my meta question @Zanna.

You may find many similar questions replacing east asia in the questions if this question is allowed.

Zanna

@Turion but the question asks whether absorption of vitamin A is better from cooked or raw food. I don't have an answer to that. And I'd much rather have one good answer than one good and one bad, assuming I could write a good one

@SreeCharan which meta question? :)

Sree Charan

7

Q: Define on-topic and off-topic reasons in the help center

One of the reasons on which many users are confused is on-topic and off-topic. If you once look at our meta home page, you will see that many questions are like Are questions about X on-topic here? Are essential oil topic questions on-topic here? Are recipes related questions on topic or ...

discussion feature-request scope

@SS Indeed I've participated in the meta discussion and suggested broader questions such as this as a counter-example. How is this more broad than some of the very general questions on "main concerns" for health? I see it as more appropriate to discuss a culture or country context than a specific city. — Tom Kelly 3 mins ago

@Zanna ^^^

OK. close vote retracted.

Zanna

09:42

are you SS. on this site?

Sree Charan

@Zanna Yes.

Zanna

ah sorry I didn't realise :)

seems everyone except me has a different name in chat!

sorry for causing confusion around that post

Sree Charan

No problem. :)

Zanna

Thanks for your support :)

I added an answer to your meta question, thank you for suggesting that I do that

Sree Charan

What is your off-topic reason? Highlight that part. See the answer of @Superbiasedman

Turion

09:57

@Zanna, that's right, I'd also rather have this answer improved. But it seems like this is not an option currently. (I can try and just improve grammar)

Zanna

I honestly think at this point they just don't have a way to climb down. I'm going to leave it for a long time (I always review my old comments a few months after making them) and see if they do anything to fix it. The comments are there for folks to read. If you want to try editing, that's up to you :)

Turion

@Zanna, I'm going to write a short and (hopefully) good answer now.

Zanna

excellent :)

Turion

11:19

There we go... learned a lot about carotene in the process. Not sure whether my answer addresses the question better, but I'm hoping that it's more helpful in itself.

Zanna

awesome thanks :) upvoted

Sree Charan

17:18

@Zanna Maalai Vanakkam

Zanna

17:28

மாலை வணக்கம்! :D

Stack Exchange

1

Q: Are questions relating to the debate of whether people should go veg*n (e.g. about animal suffering) on-topic?

Many veg*ns are interested in advocating veg*nism effectively, and almost all are at least interested in being able to defend their choice from critical meat-eaters. Therefore questions which will help readers in such discussions are probably of great interest to many members of this community, a...

discussion

Ramon Melo

18:01

Hey everyone

How are you doing today?

Zanna

tranquilo :)

Ramon Melo

:D

Zanna

tudo bem?

Ramon Melo

Not really :/

I mean, you just made me chuckle, that was fantastic

But I'm upset

Riker

@Zanna portugese?

Zanna

18:05

:O what happened?

Ramon Melo

Among other things, I'm really concerned about that answer (you know which one)

Zanna

oh yeah :( that really upset me

Ramon Melo

The most common hypervitaminosis is caused by vitamin A

Zanna

actually I've been really down today, but @SreeCharan greeting me in Tamil cheered me up a lot :)

Ramon Melo

It feels, I don't know, irresponsible to let that stay

Zanna

18:06

yeah :(

Ramon Melo

@Riker sim :)

I also run an educational project here

Kinda like a charity, but I hate this term

I'll be meeting 6 teachers tonight to fire them

Assuming they show up

Zanna

ugh that's awful!

Ramon Melo

Yes :(

Zanna

compaixao

Ramon Melo

I tried my best but they just don't mesh well with the rest of the staff

Zanna

18:10

all the power to you to deal with it and keep yourself safe

Ramon Melo

They have way too many unjustified absences, way too many delays, way too many complaints

Zanna

@Riker I spent a few months in Brazil many years ago

Riker

ah

@RamonMelo ah

no sé portugués, pero soy bastante fluido en español

Ramon Melo

@Zanna oh nice, where did you stay?

Riker

@RamonMelo which one?

Zanna

18:12

I travelled around, from Rio to Ouro Preto, back to Rio, to Salvador where I stayed for a month, to Brasilia and Sao Paulo, back to Rio and then back to London

Salvador was the best

Riker

where are you from originally?

Zanna

I'm from Lincolnshire in the East Midlands of the UK

Ramon Melo

@Riker ótimo, necesito practicar con alguien, no conozco a nadie que sea fluente

@Riker The one about vitamin A

Zanna

I am glad I am not the only one who is upset

Riker

@RamonMelo ¡estaria feliz ayudar!

@RamonMelo oh, that one

@Zanna yeah I think he's lashing out in retaliation at my meta post :/

it needed to be said though

Ramon Melo

18:16

sin embargo, mi pronuncia es terrible, necesito decirte jaja

Riker

lol

my pronouncia no es bueno pero no es mal

Zanna

Brazilian Portuguese has the most beautiful pronunciation

Riker

spanish singing can be almost as good if not better

Ramon Melo

@Riker I'd usually let it go, but it's spreading harmful disinformation

Riker

ye

vivo cerca de mexico, asi que hablo mexican espanol

Ramon Melo

18:18

@Zanna I agree, I'm not a big fan of the language itself, but it sounds so easy to understand (of course I'm biased, but still...)

Riker

probably similar to brazilian portugese though

lol I hit 1k exactly

Ramon Melo

It's weird: we can understand them just fine, but they can't understand us

Riker

yeah, portugese is cool like that

I was actually taught spanish by a native portugese speaker, so my prounounciation is a bit off also

it's quite interesting, because he's a native speaker from portugal, but speaks mexican spanish, so I got a bit of both accents

Ramon Melo

European Portuguese is harder for us to understand than Latin American Spanish, I kid you not haha

Riker

lol

"tudo bem" translates to "todo bien", right?

"all good"?

Zanna

18:22

idk, I have zero Spanish, I don't know a word of it XD

Ramon Melo

Literally, yes. But it's a different application

"tudo bem" is more like "how's it doing"

Riker

ah

@Zanna it's pretty similar

and many people in southern mexico actually speak portuguese also, due to tourists who don't get the difference

english / latin american spanish / central american portuguese

also @Zanna @RamonMelo regarding that answer: it should probably be flagged as NAA. It's absolutely wrong, and shouldn't even exist.

once we get 2k rep, 3 votes should delete it

Zanna

@RamonMelo I used to work on a cruise ship with one Portunguese woman and one Brasileira... they could talk to each other fine, but I could only understand the Brazilian Portuguese, I couldn't understand a word the other woman said hahaha

yes we can vote to delete with 2k

but it shouldn't be flagged as NAA I think because you're not meant to flag things just for being incorrect

the post also has to have a negative score to be delete voted

Riker

dangerously wrong though?

@Zanna it's at -3 :P

Zanna

dangerously wrong you should flag for mod attention, not as NAA

Riker

18:29

yeah, I already did

Ramon Melo

@Riker It is an answer. It is just a dangerous answer.

Riker

nvm, not about that kind of dangerious

Zanna

@Riker that's good :)

Ramon Melo

@Zanna After a while, we get used to it and we can talk just fine. But, at first, it sounds really harsh to our ears.

About the answer, it's been greyed out, I think it's okay now.

Zanna

yeah :)

@RamonMelo wow it reached -3?

Ramon Melo

18:32

I mean, not okay, but I'm at peace with it.

Zanna

we can delete vote it in future then

yeah :)

Ramon Melo

Yes, I had to spend a precious downvote on it.

I feel bad downvoting

Riker

> In general, feel free to correct misinformation when you see it. In particular, if it appears that the author just made an inadvertent mistake, go ahead and edit to correct the error (include sources to back up your correction).

If it appears that the author intended to convey the misinformation that they did, then write an alternate answer that calls out the error and corrects it. Then downvote the misinformed answer.

TL;DR: edit, if he resists downvote it

Moderators will rarely if ever delete an answer simply because it is incorrect, @J.R. - that's something the community is expected (and empowered) to handle. — Shog9 ♦ Jan 6 '15 at 16:42

in comments shog says to delete it though

Zanna

I did the correct thing according to Shog - good to know!

Ramon Melo

I agree, we can wait to delete vote

Zanna

18:37

@Riker I appreciate you bringing this

Riker

thanks

Zanna

because it's the first thing I've seen that directly says delete votes should be used on incorrect answers

I do that on AU, and it's hard to get support

There's only one other person who regularly checks the delete vote page

so unless another user initiates the voting, stuff doesn't get deleted unless it's been flagged

it's very frustrating

Riker

:(

Zanna

but if I get elected mod then I guess I shouldn't be deleting it either :S

on AU I mean

Riker

the three of us should run for mod on this site

you, me, and @RamonMelo

Ramon Melo

18:46

hahaha

I appreciate it, @Riker, but I'm not ready yet

Riker

ah okay

Ramon Melo

Maybe I will someday, but definitely not today

Zanna

@RamonMelo I haven't looked at your network profile yet, I don't know anything about your background on SE; I guess I'd better have a look

Ramon Melo

I'm a nobody haha

Riker

@RamonMelo I didn't hit 10k until a week ago, and my max rep on any site is 4.5k

as far as things go I pretty much am also

Zanna

18:50

oh I didn't mean count your points @RamonMelo :( I just meant see which sites you came from

Ramon Melo

I think I have less than 2k in all sites combined

@Zanna I don't mind, it's ok

Zanna

that stuff is just a number

Ramon Melo

I only use for real 5 sites: SO, AU, Portuguese SE, Spanish SE, and this one

Zanna

it doesn't measure anything very important about the person hehe

I must have seen you on AU...

Ramon Melo

I don't post often on SO or AU, though, because I always find everything in the search

Zanna

18:52

thats awesome :D

great to hear

Riker

@RamonMelo ah, nice

I've never used AU because I don't use ubuntu :P

OS X ftw

Ramon Melo

@Zanna I had a heroku app that did some automation for my social project tasks. I was spending $16/month there. Thanks to AU, I moved it to an Ubuntu VPS, am now paying $5/month

You're the ones who are awesome

@Riker I'm a Windows user myself, but it's great for cloud apps

Riker

ah, okay

Zanna

@RamonMelo that's fantastic!

I think I only use Ubuntu now so I can answer questions on AU. I'd use Arch Linux and play around with other distros :) But I only have one computer, so I have to stay on Ubuntu hahaha

Ramon Melo

Why?

I see so many people saying that, but I can't see the advantages

Zanna

19:04

saying what?

Riker

@Zanna mint is also nice

it's the only linux distro I've used extensively

Zanna

my dad uses it and he loves it

I do tech support for him haha

Riker

ah nice

how old is he? my dad is late 50s and can't figure out anything about computers

Zanna

it's really very similar - I mainly know command line stuff rather than DE stuff (I just want the DE to look pretty and leave me alone - the only thing I ever click on the Desktop (unless I'm trying to fix someone's problem on AU) is the tiny firefox button (I use Ubuntu MATE, not vanilla Ubuntu with Unity - I don't like Unity DE) - I open a terminal with a keyboard shortcut and that's it, I do everything with that)

Riker

ah, nice

Zanna

19:10

and mint is mostly Ubuntu under the hood - same commands

Riker

ye

Zanna

my Dad is 53

Riker

lol, younger than mine, and I'm certain I'm younger than you

I'm 14 :P

Zanna

but he's quite techy, he even wrote an app in C++

Riker

oh cool

Zanna

19:11

I'm 32

Riker

lol figured around there

Zanna

hah really?

Riker

you're nice, but you don't talk like a college student

and you don't seem old

huh I still have the only convention badge, "10 posts with score of 2 on meta."

Zanna

haha I'm impressed you could approximate my age

Riker

lol

Zanna

19:16

@Riker nice one :)

Riker

it's just somewhat suprising

I'm somewhat happy I got the taxonomist one, create a tag later used by 50 questions

helps that I posted the first question on the site ;)

Zanna

we don't have that many meta posts so not really surprising

Riker

true

Zanna

probably I should have another look and see if there are any more I haven't read

Riker

19:37

0

A: Are questions relating to the debate of whether people should go veg*n (e.g. about animal suffering) on-topic?

TL;DR: yes they are on-topic, though we should probably consider some guidelines for answers and require reputable sources. To add to Zanna's answer (though I completely agree with it): These are absolutely about veganism, and thus are on-topic by that count. However, in answering these we nee...

@Zanna I wrote an answer elaborating on your answer, feedback?

plus you're the most active member of teh community so your opinion would be nice

Zanna

19:52

I was writing a comment on your post... I will put it here instead

I think you make good points here about what answers should be like (I'm especially glad to see you agree that personal experience is an important and valid source of knowledge) but, I am not sure that we need to pre-police answers, since we have editing and votes and flags to deal with them? This question is about questions, so here I think it may be more important to think about how to ensure questions are phrased in a way that encourages good quality responses.

Riker

hm, I see what you mean

Zanna

but you may be right

if you want to stand by that view, I'll put my comment on the post

Riker

I am, feel free

Ramon Melo

20:21

@Zanna They wouldn't use Ubuntu unless reasons

But they never seem to explain why they wouldn't, and I feel dumb because this is somehow something that most people around me is supposed to know

Zanna

oh hahaha

well for me it's so that I can help people on AU

But Ubuntu is good, don't get me wrong

It's just that I like experimenting

I think actually it's a kind of Linux snobbery

because Ubuntu is very easy to use

gerrit

This is a very active chatroom.

Zanna

you don't need any special Linuxy knowledge to install and run it

gerrit

Ubuntu should be compatible with vegetarianism and veganism ;-)

Zanna

and so it's looked down on by people who think it's a badge of honour that it's actually hard to install your system and run it

@gerrit yeah I came into the Linux world because I love the concept of ubuntu (the actual real word)

it definitely informs my vegan-ness, like ahimsa

@gerrit sarcasm?

gerrit

20:38

No sarcasm intended.

Zanna

The other place where I chat is AU chat, and there are usually about 100 people (though most of them are often just lurking)

So I thought maybe you meant this room is very inactive

but the room is nice at the moment I think, active but not so active you can't keep up

you are a mod :)

it takes a long time for me to register the blue username

ah I didn't even know there was an Earth Science SE. That's awesome, I love that topic. I teach science in my offline life

Ramon Melo

@Zanna But even on the terminal? I thought most distros were the same

I used Ubuntu Notebook Remix a lot when it came out

But now I use mostly for web apps

Zanna

hmm sure the commands are the same more or less... on Ubuntu we have update-grub which is a stub for the real command grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg but there are not many things like that

the point is, lots of Ubuntu users never open a terminal at all

and Ubuntu allows you to do that

it has a GUI for everything

3

@Riker congrats on 1k!

Riker

20:56

oh thanks

Ramon Melo

I find it a lot easier than the others, but not because its GUI (my machines don't have GUIs)

More because the community has a tutorial for everything

I found AU searching for "how to migrate from heroku to linux"

Zanna

that's another reason it's easy yeah :)

there's nothing wrong with easy - easy is awesome

Ramon Melo

Then I learnt that searching for "how to migrate from heroku to ubuntu" yielded far better results

Zanna

if you don't actually want to spend your time figuring out how your system works and instead want to spend your time doing things, then easy totally rocks, right?

haha that must be why we get so many questions from people not using Ubuntu

Ramon Melo

@Zanna I actually wanted to learn, but I needed a place to begin. Writing apps for Heroku is like writing an offline app, it does everything else for you. I needed to know what else was under the hood and how to get a similar result in Linux. There is an answer on AU that describes Heroku's infrastructure and how to get the very same environment on Ubuntu.

Zanna

21:08

:)

Ramon Melo

I eventually learnt how to prepare other distros to do the same thing, but I usually refrain from using them because I fear I might not find out how to do something and screw it up.

Plus, the increase in performance is negligible

Not going to risk it for just 1-2% less peak CPU usage

Zanna

sure, why bother?

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