The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

8:10 PM

@Mithrandir Incorrect (kinda). You can hunt out Late Answers after having done the First Posts, but you need to wait for the questions to be ~18 minutes old, and find it by specific link

LQP are not reviewable if you have already reviewed them, I believe.

amflare

@Edlothiad That's an oddly specific number of minutes

Edlothiad

Well it takes 15 minutes to be considered

Mithrandir

Hmm, I don't believe I've ever seen that before.

Edlothiad

and the queues are usually around 2-3 minutes slow

Seen what before?

I do it all the time.

Rand al'Thor

@Edlothiad If you've raised a VLQ/NAA flag on a post, you can't review it as a Low Quality Post, even if you have the link to the review item. It'll say "this item is not reviewable".

You can review it there after already having reviewed it as a First Post or Late Answer, if you haven't flagged it.

Edlothiad

8:13 PM

Oh I'm not talking about that

Rand al'Thor

You can also come across it in the LQP review queue, open the question in a new tab to flag it, and then complete your review.

Edlothiad

I'm not talking about flagging and then doing the LQP

Mithrandir

@Randal'Thor oh yeah, I do that (or something like that) all the time.

Edlothiad

@Randal'Thor Are you sure this is true? I've tried before and it's said the Item is not reviewable, maybe cuz I had flagged it though.

@Mithrandir What was this talking about?

Mithrandir

Are you sure it is not arround 3,253.02 characters? ;c) — BmyGuest Jul 21 '16 at 12:15

@Edlothiad reviewing Late Answers after First Posts without opening them simultaneously

Rand al'Thor

8:16 PM

@Mithrandir You can do it, but only if you have the link - they won't show up for you if you're just reviewing normally.

Mithrandir

Ah, so like from the mod menu thing. I see... I think.

Rand al'Thor

In other words, nobody does it unless they're really hungry to review as much as possible ;-) coughs, looks at @Edlothiad

amflare

@Mithrandir I did this, but the other way around about an hour ago

Which prompted my original question

Edlothiad

Look at the time stamps here and here

@Mithrandir No you just have to find the right link /late-answers/xyzabc etc

I'm giving away too many trade secrets

Rand al'Thor

@Edlothiad Which you can get from a mod menu thing.

Edlothiad

8:19 PM

Stay away from my precious!

@Randal'Thor The mod menu thing lets you click it, non-mods have to type in and try different numbers.

@Randal'Thor You don't get 17 first posts in one day by being lazy my friend.

Mithrandir

There's probably a script for it somewhere :P

Rand al'Thor

@Edlothiad You could let someone else have a go, you know :-)

Mithrandir

@Edlothiad no, you'd have to create 17 accounts to post for the first time that many times in one day

Edlothiad

In 1204 First post reviews maybe

@Mithrandir reviews* Well met.

Bellatrix

@Mithrandir Ok thanks! :) I'm still learning how to review, though I think I'm improving.

Mithrandir

8:24 PM

@Bellatrix this may be useful: meta.stackexchange.com/q/161390

But you probably know all that already.

Rand al'Thor

@Mithrandir I also wrote at least one similar review guide on SFF meta.

Edlothiad

@Randal'Thor I much prefer yours. It's far more specific, completely changed the way I review, and made me far more obsessed with the review queues (haha you only have yourself to blame!)

amflare

@Mithrandir Slightly related to this, does anyone know where that VLQ meta breakdown post is? I think posted by Shog9. I've been trying to find it for a couple weeks now, to no avail.

Mithrandir

11

A: Remove VLQ as a flag option

Couple of quick notes here since I'm sick and probably can't write a coherent essay on this: Flag types exist to direct and differentiate folks' desire to see problems addressed You look at a post and say to yourself, "there's a problem here". Maybe it's a problem you can fix; if so, there's an...

?

amflare

No, the one I'm looking for had apples in it

as an illustration

Mithrandir

8:31 PM

Oh, that's the NAA post

Rand al'Thor

471

Q: Your answer is in another castle: when is an answer not an answer?

I think we can all agree, this sucks: If you've been around a little while, you've probably encountered hundreds of answers like this in various forums, some of them even marked as "The Answer" by well-meaning1 forum admins looking to close a thread. We could try to enumerate the commonly-obse...

Edlothiad

does it mention the word apples

amflare

@Randal'Thor Wonderful! Thanks.

Mithrandir

I was ninja'd.

Rand al'Thor

@Edlothiad Well, thank you :-) Also thanks to Emrakul, who in turn taught me about good reviewing, back in the day on Puzzling.

@Mithrandir You were probably searching meta. I just typed "your answer is in another castle" into Google.

Mithrandir

8:32 PM

@Randal'Thor no, I went to my favorites tab

Also, I'm on mobile :P

I use favorites as a bookmark on Meta.SE.

Rand al'Thor

I use my memory.

And search-fu.

Edlothiad

@Randal'Thor No you're supposed to blame yourself

Rand al'Thor

Speaking of which, I've also written a guide to SE search:

16

A: How do I search for questions on the site?

First of all, go to the search box in the top right corner of your window: You can type any word or collection of words into there to get a list of all posts on the SFF site containing all of those words. Putting - before a word will exclude posts containing that word, so e.g. voldemort -dumbl...

There you go, @Edlothiad - something else to get addicted to? :-P

Edlothiad

Searching?

I'll stick to the review queues and tag wiki edits, thank you

amflare

@Randal'Thor it has free hand circles. definitely a legitimate guide.

Edlothiad

8:36 PM

Is there a free-hand circles script?

Bellatrix

@Mithrandir Thanks! :) I do know the basics of reviewing, now it's just to actually get good at it. ;)

Rand al'Thor

23

A: Why does the community like hand-drawn red circles?

It's a Stack Exchange-wide meme. The fourth highest-voted answer in the Many Memes of Meta thread (main meta version) says: See also Is there a joke about "Freehand Circles" that I'm oblivious to? (also on main meta).

Edlothiad

That doesn't lead me to a script?

Rand al'Thor

No, I'm just linking you relevant SFF meta answers of mine, to get you addicted to stuff.

Bellatrix

@Randal'Thor Oh neat! :) I didn't know all those different ways to search! :)

Edlothiad

8:44 PM

yes I will draw free hand red circles

Catija

I must be different. I tend to use green rounded squares.

HDE 226868

9:07 PM

This is asked just out of curiosity, but has anyone heard of or read the Everness series by Ian McDonald?

Rand al'Thor

@HDE226868 Nope. Is it good?

HDE 226868

@Randal'Thor I thought it was quite good, yes. I keep meaning to read the last book.

It's got a nice mix of science-derived handwavium.

Bellatrix

Nope, I haven't read it, or heard of it, either.

HDE 226868

AFAIK, it's never been mentioned in an SFF post.

I assume it's not that well-known.

Rand al'Thor

The series doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.

amflare

9:12 PM

Never read it, but then again, I'm not a fan of the "s/he was just an ordinary girl/boy" genre

Rand al'Thor

Although the author does.

Bellatrix

Well, I haven't heard of a lot of book series. :P But it does seem pretty obscure.

There's a festival called Everness though, that's what you get when you type the name into Google. :P

Babelfish

0

Q: Science fiction book early 2000 cyborg girl and jupiter dirigibles

Looking for the title of a sci-fi book with a character who is a girls who was manipulated genetically or technologically to be able to communicate whit a alien species from jupiter with her intestines replaced by the communications device, which are later remover by doctor who thought it was a k...

story-identification

amflare

@Babelfish Thats a rollercoaster of a synopsis if I ever saw one.

Bellatrix

I generally tend to like more F than SF, though I like Doctor Who and Star Trek.

Babelfish

9:48 PM

0

Q: science fiction/mystery, time-travel, set in 1950s era Los Angeles

I read this book in paperback in 1980. It was yellowed so it must have been at least 15-20 years old if not more. I'm guessing it was written in the late 40s or 50s. Setting is Los Angeles. Here's what I remember about the plot: Hero wakes up in a bed next to a sleeping woman he doesn't recognize...

story-identification novel

Mazura

10:00 PM

How do you search an entire chat transcript?

Catija

Click on "info" under the room description, use the search bar?

Mazura

Now it's showing up as a button at the top. NMD. TX

Mazura

10:35 PM

"both on and off topic" So... I missed the big show down. Can we talk about fight club here? ;)

Babelfish

10:49 PM

0

Q: Who owned Tyraxes?

I'm currently reading The World of Ice and Fire, essentially a "behind the scenes" for ASOIAF, and while reading the section on the Dance of Dragons, I noticed something that confused me. On page 81, when detailing the dragons involved in the Dance, the book says Vermax (Prince Jacaerys): Yo...

a-song-of-ice-and-fire dragons

Catija

11:01 PM

@Mazura Pretty sure the rules cover that.

Mazura

Where are these 'rules' ? ;)

Babelfish

0

Q: What technologies did the cybersuit in Star Kid have?

I lost my VHS copy of the movie Star Kid, but I remember the Cybersuit being awesome. Does anybody know what kinda of technology it had? I know it had some kind of scanning device, something to replay the users memories and a laser type weapon, but does anyone know what the exact names the featur...