The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

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xkcd

4:06 AM

My theory is that dark matter is actually just a thin patina of grime covering the whole universe, and we don't notice it because we haven't thoroughly cleaned the place in eons.

3 hours later…

Marvin

6:55 AM

Q: Why was my flag ("un-make this answer Community Wiki") refused?

This answer was posted a few days ago. The OP decided to make it into a Community Wiki answer because they wanted to "disown" it because they felt that their answer... "isn't worth the votes". Since this isn't what the Community Wiki button is for (CW should only be used where there is an ...

Jenayah

7:20 AM

I'm unsure - is that a spam?

-2

A: How did Harry get from Diagon Alley to Kings Cross Station?

In the films there is so much missing, I had friends that don't know the books wonder why major things happen the way they do. What is missing here is that Hagrid visits Harry on his birthday, which is July 31st. The train leaves on September 1st. So there is the whole month of August between th...

Answers the question but repeats what's been said (though that's okay) and ends the message with a "buying site" link

(some of the coffees linked seem good, though :p )

Is "just editing the link out and post a comment" okay?

Mithrandir

7:42 AM

That's spam

It's a copy paste of an earlier post with a spam link added

Ankit Sharma

gone

Jenayah

Ah yeah, I did not remember the first draft of QuestionAuthority's answer

funny to see the downvte rain ahah

Ankit Sharma

I guess my flag was final nail

Loong

@Marvin related:

A: Why is this answer a community wiki?

Community wiki policy https://literature.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/community-wiki When should I make my answers Community Wiki? When you want to enhance the "wiki" aspect of your post, so that it can be a continually evolving source of good information through repeated edi...

1 hour later…

Edlothiad

8:57 AM

All those terrible answers I want to post would definitely benefit from me being less concerned about getting downvotes. — Cahir Mawr Dyffryn æp Ceallach Feb 24 '17 at 19:32

@Loong Also related:

Jenayah

@Edlothiad If you want to post an answer which you know is terrible, don't post it as a Community Wiki, don't post it as your own. In fact, don't post it at all.

TheLethalCarrot

Exactly

Edlothiad

9:18 AM

@Jenayah That's my point. And the point of the meta above.

Jenayah

@Edlothiad wasn't scolding you :)

@TheLethalCarrot just to let you know I didn't ditch that Meta comment thread: honestly, I'm torn, both sides of this argument are right so far. If this is only going to be a "I think that"/"yeah, I hear you, well I think the other way" discussion, no need to have that in Meta ;D

I'm waiting for others to react tbh. I'm curious if someone has yet another take on the matter

TheLethalCarrot

The top answer is correct more or less, there is likely no definitive answer to apply generally. I was just writing up some options one can take and then explained my reasoning for the specific cases

Though personally I don't think that meta answer is the place to talk about other edits of mine

Jenayah

@TheLethalCarrot yeah, indeed Meta should be for general stuff not particular cases (except really really special cases, I guess)

our bad :p

TheLethalCarrot

Well no, you can talk about specific cases on meta. Just don't use a post about 1 specific case (and the general) to talk about other specific cases

Jenayah

9:38 AM

@TheLethalCarrot "don't establish policy on one case", right? If so, agreed, ya

TheLethalCarrot

Sure, though that meta is asking about the general case (I believe) they just used the specific as reasoning for why they asked

Jenayah

9:52 AM

Heh I dunno, that last one seem POB, even if we have instances of Sirius/Remus fighting Death Eaters

Also, I don't think Accio Remus/Sirius! works :p

4 hours later…

Alex

2:15 PM

Does anyone else have a problem upvoting answers (especially longer ones) because the voting buttons are at the top of the post? I read Jenayah's answer and meant to upvote it, but by the time I got to the end I couldn't see the voting buttons anymore and I got sidetracked with commenting and then forgot about it until an hour later.

TheLethalCarrot

I tend to forget to vote by the end of the post

Alex

Would it help if the voting buttons were at the bottom?

TheLethalCarrot

Don't know what would be best, top and bottom, bottom only, "sticky"

All of their drawbacks

Edlothiad

I don't have any problems with the voting buttons. They seem to work fine, they are, however, poorly placed when reading long answers.

Jenayah

@TheLethalCarrot you mean they stick at the top of the screen when you scroll down?

TheLethalCarrot

2:23 PM

Something like that aye

Jenayah

Sounds good :)

TheLethalCarrot

I generally don't like elements that are sticky but it's an option

Jenayah

@Alex out of curiosity, are you on mobile or computer right now?

Alex

@Jenayah Both.

Jenayah

@Alex 'k, it's just that I guess it's even more of an issue on smaller screens

Edlothiad

2:29 PM

Nah you can shoot up the page much quicker on mobile. Just swipe down twice and kepang!

Alex

@Jenayah Funny, I was about to say it's easier on Mobile because one flick gets me back to the top of the screen.

Jenayah

You know most keyboards have pageup/pagedown buttons right? :P

Alex

@Jenayah Not mine.

Edlothiad

People use the page up/page down buttons?

Alex

2:48 PM

It's already been discussed:

Q: Move the vote button

I think the vote button for questions is placed poorly. Let me explain how I read topics so you can understand why I think that. Every time I read a question + answers I start on the top of the page and I go down. Sometimes there is a long answer or question that might take more than my screen's...

feature-request voting

Jenayah

3:19 PM

@Alex aw, sucks :/

@Edlothiad yeah, all the time (me at least :p ) I hate using a mouse, so unless I'm gaming I only use the keyboard

Alex

@Jenayah Eh, even when my keyboards had those buttons I don't think I ever (intentionally) used them.

Jenayah

@Alex to each his own :)

Alex

@Jenayah I was probably just too stupid to realize what they did...

Edlothiad

They skip way to much content to be useful

Jenayah

@Alex skip content/switch tabs back and forth

1 hour later…

Jenayah

4:36 PM

@Alex are you okay with me editing your comment in my answer in case it ever gets deleted? (comments being supposedly temporary)

On that Umbridge thing

Alex

@Jenayah Absolutely. That's what I put it there for.

Jenayah

Neat!

Thanks :)

Done!

Alex

@Jenayah In fact you can even flag my comment as "no longer needed" and get yourself an additional helpful flag.

Jenayah

@Alex oh you can delete yourself it if you'd rather, no worries :)

Alex

@Jenayah But then you don't get the credit.

On the other hand, it creates more work for moderators.

Jenayah

4:46 PM

Meh, no need of flagging if the poster knows it's gonna be deleted anyways

@Alex yep

your choice, honestly as it stand it could also stay, it's not a big deal

Alex

@Jenayah I deleted it. No Marshal badge for you.

Jenayah

@Alex no worries, ahah

Alex

5:03 PM

@Jenayah But realize that now the link just sends you back to the beginning of your answer.

Jenayah

@Alex aw crap, indeed

I'll edit that when I'm home, editing on that phone is a pain

Alex

@Jenayah I did it for you.

Jenayah

@Alex ok, thanks!

Jenayah

5:30 PM

Me: Vulcans are wise. Wife: Yeah. Me: And they live a long time. Wife: Uh huh. Me: And they have pointy ears. Wife: So? Me: They're space elves. Wife: This is why we don't talk.

Tweeted by XplodingUnicorn on August 18, 2018 at 12:12 AM

2 hours later…

SQB

7:36 PM

@TheLethalCarrot I think using SOX makes them sticky.

Jenayah

@SQB yuk, sticky socks.

Gallifreyan

8:18 PM

in The Reading Room, 32 secs ago, by Gallifreyan

It's science fiction and fantasy week on Goodreads, if anyone's interested.

1 hour later…

Alex

9:30 PM

Perhaps another English question: How far apart are very,very, very, unlikely and almost certainly not?

SQB

If you toss in two more verys, they're exactly equal.

I'm sorry, not a native speaker.

2 hours later…

FuzzyBoots

11:11 PM

^_^ scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/193216/… I love it when answering a story-ID question gives me a new and fascinating book to read.

b_jonas

11:37 PM

You beat me again, FuzzyBoots!

I knew the answer. I was unsure at the start of the question, but "and there was an incident during a group exercise in class, where a student didn't pay enough attention and almost caused a dangerous situation had the instructor not intervened" made it clear.

But you beat me to it fair and square.

b_jonas

11:50 PM

At least I got an easy Terry Pratchett question as a consolation prize. I mean, I haven't even read Light Fantastic and it's still trivial to answer.

@FuzzyBoots I'm glad you like it, and you deserve the upvote. I hope you'll read Sam's better writings too (I'm nostalgic to the older ones, so I'm too biased to say which ones are the better ones).

@FuzzyBoots If you enjoy Sam's speculative fiction, especially Ra and Fine Structure, which take some sci-fi world concept and figure out where it would lead, then I recommend Scott Alexander's sci-fi story "…And I Show You How Deep The Rabbit Hole Goes": slatestarcodex.com/2015/06/02/…

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