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12:02 AM
How is it that there was a question about wandless magic in Harry Potter that got nine answers with a total of 135 upvotes, yet not a single answer provided any quote from the seven books relating to wandlesss magic?
62
Q: Are there any spells that a wizard/witch can cast without a wand in the Harry Potter universe?

jennyfofennyIn the beginning of the series, it's mentioned that Muggle-born wizards/witches are identified due to inadvertent spell-casting. However, it seems like later in the book, disarmed wizards/witches are completely helpless. What is the explanation for why some spells can be cast without a wand and...

 
0
Q: 80’s kids movie with with 3 orbs in a house and one is evil

MalI really don’t know if it’s from the 80s but I think so. It’s about a family that moves in a house and there is 3 orbs that are trapped there. One is evil and won’t let the other two leave. If I’m remembering right there mother and son.

 
 
2 hours later…
1:35 AM
0
Q: Anime I watched as a kid I can’t remember

ChickAround 2006 I watched an anime where this black haired boy goes to rescue this girl from a villain. I don’t remember the girl but I distinctly remember two scenes. The first is while on his quest to find a boy he stops in a village to help some women work on some form of a press where they pushed...

 
1:50 AM
0
Q: burning skeletons in the film Serenity

dominic fondeI recently rewatched the film Serenity and noticed an odd scene two thirds of the way through the film. After deciding to disguise the spaceship Serenity with skeletons, the ship is shown taking off. As it climbs out of the atmosphere the skeletons are burning. Spacecraft do not tend to experienc...

 
 
3 hours later…
SQB
4:53 AM
@Randal'Thor I think SOX does / did that, too.
 
5:23 AM
1
Q: What was the original version of this FAQ answer on JK Rowling's website?

ibidOn J.K. Rowling's old website there is an FAQ question that reads as follows Why did Colin Creevey's camera work etc? As a vast number of people have pointed out to me in the last twenty four hours (some of them related to me by ties of blood) Colin DID develop a photograph from his ca...

 
 
2 hours later…
7:10 AM
@SQB can confirm
 
 
2 hours later…
SQB
9:03 AM
Would this work as the daily floof?
This is a hornworm, probably a Manduca quinquemaculata, being eaten by larvae of a type of wasp that preys on it, possibly the Trichogramma pretiosum.
In other news: there are currently no less than three Jurassic Park / World games out or about to be released that look interesting.
Ravensburger has Jurassic Park: Danger!, which has dinosaurs controlled by one player, against characters from the movie controlled by the other player(s).
JustGames has the cooperative park builder Jurassic World: The Boardgame.
And Mondo is about to release Jurassic Park: The Chaos Gene.
The first one is hard to get since it hasn't been and will not be released in The Netherlands. It's a Target exclusive, although it seems to be available-ish through Amazon.
The second one is actually by a Dutch publisher, but the least interesting of the three.
The third one is promising to have beautiful miniatures, but will likely by about $60 (USD) excluding shipping.
Choices, choices.
And not enough money.
Oh. Mondo ships their The Thing game to US only. Probably the same for their JP game, then.
Okay, braindump over. As before, people, as before.
 
9:26 AM
0
Q: Fantasy book about a boy on a quest with the ability to create magic using stones and feathers

JaneThe boy was on a quest, he had the ability to create magic using stones and feathers that he had found. I think in the story that the boy was unaware the he created the magic to start with and in the end of the story he had to make a great sacrifice.

 
9:47 AM
@SQB I have a better idea:
 
SQB
Might be better.
 
@TheLethalCarrot Irony intended?
Could you [edit[ to clarify what you mean here? At the moment it is hard to read a difficult to understand. — TheLethalCarrot 16 mins ago
 
10:02 AM
Narp
Missed the edit period by the time I saw it
 
The accepted answer there isn't great either :-/
 
@TheLethalCarrot heh. Well, post deleted now, so no biggie
 
 
2 hours later…
11:43 AM
1
Q: Short story anthology, one story was about a leathery alien thing that had a fight with a bear

Andy KeyI'm trying to find a sci-fi anthology I owned as a child from the early 80s/late 70s. I think it was published in the UK by St Michael (Marks & Spencer), but possibly not as I can't find it under that publisher. There is a St Michael sci-fi anthology called Beyond the Stars: Tales of Adventure ...

 
11:58 AM
0
Q: Why do all wizards use Gringotts?

AJFaradayOkay, here's the thing. It seems that there's only one wizarding bank. Or only one in Britain. It seems that all the wizards use only one bank. They also don't appear to have any equivalent of electronic transfers. There doesn't seem to be an equivalent of postal orders or cheques. (needs fact...

 
Is this an actually applied policy?
9
A: How to deal with a Post which has two questions in it and one of which may be a duplicate?

ValorumWhen I spot a multi-question question where one or more parts are already duplicates, I generally do three things; 1) Vote to close as "Too Broad". Note that this is the normal action when two or more questions are posted as a single question. The fact that one part is a dupe is actually irrelev...

Related question:
0
Q: Why do all wizards use Gringotts?

AJFaradayOkay, here's the thing. It seems that there's only one wizarding bank. Or only one in Britain. It seems that all the wizards use only one bank. They also don't appear to have any equivalent of electronic transfers. There doesn't seem to be an equivalent of postal orders or cheques. (needs fact...

Question doesn't seem "too broad" per se, but all answers are given somewhere else already. Should it be closed, and if so, does it actually make sense to redirect to four (or more) duplicates?
 
Looks too broad to me, certainly asking multiple, only slightly related, questions
 
@TheLethalCarrot well, I guess I'm just nitpicking for semantics
 
 
1 hour later…
1:30 PM
0
Q: Star Trek: The "bomb" that creates life?

wayneCan anyone tell me what movie has the scene where a "bomb" of sorts is dropped on a planet - and instead of destroying - it creates life in atomic-bomb like fashion? Thanks!

 
1:45 PM
0
Q: Looking for a mecha anime I seen on a YouTube ad

Amber PaulsonIt's was about 15 mins long and started out showing a girl being choked buy a girl with white hair and yellow eyes. The girl being choked who had blue hair in a ponytail touches the girl choking her and her eyes turn blue, she throws the girl and she starts screaming and holding her head. Once he...

 
1:55 PM
scifi.stackexchange.com/q/193696/4918 "Anime where this black haired boy goes to rescue this girl from a villain" -- That title is so generic.
Oh wow, there's also a "climax the boy defeats the villain" and "He wins and there is a bright white light and then he embraces the girl."
 
@b_jonas aye agreed, might at least mention the feet-push thing, that's kind of the only "unique" thing from that post ahha
To be honest with such a generic description, that's a lucky ID if we know one :)
 
Yeah, we have people with strong anime ID skills, so that was still enough to work with.
The "watchd around 2006" is also useful information.
 
I think that was more memory than Google-Fu...
Oh hey, wouldn't be etiquette that this answer be a CW one, such as Otis does recently?
 
not necessary
 
I thought the comment guy (Steve O) posted it as an answer afterwards, but apparently it's someone else
 
1:59 PM
@Jenayah No, but it could mention the comment.
 
@b_jonas duh, yeah.
 
If the commenter didn't post an answer, it's their loss.
 
SQB
That's what Steve-O gets for not posting it as an answer.
 
Once it's a comment it is fair game for anyone else to use
 
Posting an answer two hours after it's been confirmed by the OP without even mentioning the comment is crassy.
 
2:01 PM
And there's no guarantee the answerer saw the comment
 
SQB
But yeah, I would've made it cw to consolidate the answer. But I'm sitting here comfortably at 20k+ rep.
 
@TheLethalCarrot can't be verified indeed, but there are no other answers and the question is short and has two comments, one with a link (eye-attractive). I doubt it.
 
I'm sure they have seen it but no point all assuming worst intentions
 
@SQB The general idea is that it does deserve the rep for posting an extended answer with images and descriptions, which would help the next person stumbling on search keywords. This might not apply when the question has so few useful keywords, but still.
 
SQB
2:03 PM
@b_jonas I agree. I usually let it depend on the amount of work I have to put in after knowing the answer.
 
@Jenayah The question is a bit unclear. The likely reading is that it's about in-game mechanics, in which case it's for Arquade. If it's asking for a hypothetical story that the game doesn't implement, then it can stay here.
 
@TheLethalCarrot it's not a matter of rep-farming, it's a matter of nudging to whoever got it right the first time (if answerer didn't see it, granted)
 
It doesn't matter who got it right first, it's the better quality "answer" and in this case that seems pretty obvious
 
Hey, is closing and migrating kinda the same thing for that Halo one?
 
@SQB Oh, noob error, close-voting because it's a "better fit elsewhere". ;-)
 
2:07 PM
I'd say we should first ask OP to clarify about whether he means in game.
 
Heeeey... that guy is fishy.
 
scifi.stackexchange.com/q/193679/4918 -- wow, so there's another alien creature called Endo who is marrooned on Earth?
 
Their accounts on other sites have a 404 - deletion?
FWIW their account on other site just disappeared from the profile.
 
If they've been deleted they will disappear from the list
 
Am I over-reading ?
 
2:11 PM
Besides Endo the alien from the 2007 ICFP contest I mean, johanjeuring.blogspot.com
 
@Jenayah I think they requested account deletion on other sites
From the looks of things
 
@TheLethalCarrot ok
Wait, I thought you couldn't delete only one site account? :o
Ahah sorry for pointing fingers then
 
@Jenayah Yes, you're totally over-reacting! ;-)
 
@NapoleonWilson nuuuuuuu
 
@Jenayah Sure you can.
 
2:13 PM
@NapoleonWilson good to know
 
SQB
@NapoleonWilson okay, so I worded it wrong. Still off topic, while on topic on Arqade.
 
Well, no more user :(
 
@SQB That's why I said "noob error", since I was sure you know that's not how it works but just misworded the comment. ;-)
 
SQB
Because I don't see how it would be not about gaming mechanics.
 
@Jenayah His user profile is gone from Sci Fi now too. His account was probably getting deleted everywhere, but it takes some time for that to happen on all the sides for technical reasons, and you've witnessed an intermediate state.
 
2:14 PM
Q deleted now anyway
 
@b_jonas aye what I said above
 
Well, it could very well have asked if it's actually possible to eradicate the Flood in bounds that the Halo universe set. I'm not sure you can easily construe a game-mechanics question out of that. At least it's ambiguous.
 
SQB
@NapoleonWilson I was a bit in a hurry.
 
And I note that the user profile can't just be merged with another user, because then his old user profile page would redirect to the merge target.
@NapoleonWilson Exactly. We should ask him for clarification because his question is unclear.
 
Should have. ;-)
 
2:16 PM
We can close for being unclear while that's decided.
Ah. OP deleted it.
 
@b_jonas aye
 
2 mins ago, by TheLethalCarrot
Q deleted now anyway
 
Rather deleted himself and the question with him.
 
Let's wait for the cross-post on Arqade then.
 
SQB
Rage quit?
 
2:18 PM
Despite the encouragement for assuming good intentions earlier, I'mma follow my instinct and call rage-quit. ;-)
 
@SQB No, more likely he decided to delete and post to Arquade, but it takes some time for him to do that.
 
SQB
Damn. I really should have worded that better.
 
Which...also makes an Arqade version of the question...unlikely.
 
@NapoleonWilson from four sites, though. That'd be a good fit for the Red ones
 
You don't post a new Q if you're rage quitting. Imma guess he wanted to quit some sites but not all
 
2:19 PM
@Jenayah What four sites?
Oh, you mean that user.
I'm talking about the Halo question.
 
@TheLethalCarrot He killed his accounts after posting the question, though.
 
@b_jonas their user profile was registered on 4 sites, then it was 2, and then there were none
(of the 4 sites, 2 already threw a 404)
 
@Jenayah Sorry. Two concurrent conversations: the user with deleted profile on four sites; and the user with the Halo question.
 
@NapoleonWilson Well I can't see account history so I've no idea when he decided to ask for deletion in comparison to the Q but I would have thought he requested it before posting it
 
@b_jonas that's the same user.
 
2:21 PM
@Jenayah No way. He can't have deleted the Halo question from Sci Fi after his Sci Fi account was deleted.
 
@TheLethalCarrot Then why request it for this very site, too? Before posting the question.
 
@b_jonas I guess it was done in a matter of seconds.
Question, then account.
 
Ah, ok. Sorry.
 
It's totally not SQB's fault, but the likely scenario is that he wasn't all too happy with the comments on his question. With 1-rep, deletion is pretty automatic and immediate.
 
@b_jonas no problem
 
2:23 PM
@NapoleonWilson Maybe he requested network deletion? Or messed it up when doing it. Just seems odd to ask what seemed to be a perfectly valid question minuted before your account would get nuked
 
@NapoleonWilson well, at least two other comments phrased that it was a matter of pointing towards other experts, but either they didn't see or didn't care
 
@TheLethalCarrot Exactly, that's why he probably deleted it after asking. And you'd wonder what totally innocuous comments new users can take umbrage at.
 
Oh I'm well experienced with the whole "people take offence at anything" thing
 
@Jenayah Can't help all of them, whatevs. ;-)
 
Especially when it comes to closing, that's seen as a really bad thing by a lot of people
 
2:26 PM
@NapoleonWilson on the other hand, user browsed through at least 4 sites, including beta ones. I'm surprised they didn't come across Arqade before SFF when looking for where to post their videogame question.
@TheLethalCarrot aye, which is too bad, closing is (generally) not some kind of punishment
 
Maybe they did, then made their homework and asked their in-universe question on the appropriate site. ;-)
 
That's what I thought was the case tbh
 
@SQB As has been stated before, not the purpose of the community wiki. There's nothing "community contributed" about taking a comment and using it as the basis of an answer.
Either steal their answer or don't.
 
@Gallifreyan Perhaps the blog post thesffblog.com/2018/07/mike-needs-a-new-set-of-lungs should be updated too then.
 
@NapoleonWilson if they went through all that trouble, might as well have mentioned it :p
 
2:28 PM
True.
 
@Jenayah "browsed through 4 sites" might be clicking on HNQs.
 
@b_jonas 3/4 were betas IIRC
 
@b_jonas And then explicitly logging in.
 
@NapoleonWilson Yeah. SE at least needs a confirmation for creating the account. Unlike a certain network of site that creates your account on any site you happen to visit, and then there are bots on half of those sites pinging you with welcome messages in the language of the site (which you likely don't speak) the moment your account is created, and the default setting is to send an email to you if you are pinged with a message.
I still wonder which of those three things is wrong, because taken separately each of the three seems well-intentioned and useful, but the combination is stupid.
 
SQB
@Edlothiad ehr... Yes, that is a community contribution. The tentative answer by a community member and the confirmation by the querant (who's also a member of the community) made the answer possible.
 
2:32 PM
@b_jonas I have zero idea what network that refers to, though. ;-)
 
Automatically creating an account doesn't seem bad if there's already a mandatory shared login system like on SE. Welcoming you with helpful information before you make a post that gets criticized and you ragequit seems useful. And sending you an email if you get a message seems like a reasonable default setting.
 
I guess reddit or somesuch hipster site. ;-)
 
@SQB That comment exchange may have in no way influenced the answerer
 
@NapoleonWilson Mediawiki sites. (The ones with the shared login system, which is most of them, including all wikipedias and all wiktionaries and all wikisources etc.)
 
And once a comment is down it is fair game to be used by anyone
 
2:33 PM
And a lot of cross-links.
 
Really, the brunt of the evil eyes should rather hit Steve-O for not answering properly in the first place. ;-)
 
@NapoleonWilson Nope, not reddit, afaik.
I don't use reddit, so I don't know how it works.
 
@NapoleonWilson I don't mind guesses in comments, especially on story id posts where you might not be sure it's correct. Though of course it is still ideal to post it as an answer
 
Granted, he wasn't completely sure. Still, the answer deserves to stand on its own. It's not an ongoing community contribution.
 
@TheLethalCarrot Yeah, that's what I tried the last time with scifi.stackexchange.com/a/193302/4918 . Answer was still worth.
 
2:36 PM
@NapoleonWilson Exactly, and the effort to put the information together was worthy of getting the rep anyway (though I don't know how much effort was done haha)
 
In fact, I'd rather flag the comment as "no longer needed" now.
 
Please don't
The OP accepted that answer in the comments, if they're deleted we can't actually tell what the correct answer is
 
^
 
The purpose of the community wiki, in it's most basic explanation, is for the community to contribute together on a post. That's why the free edit barrier is reduced from 2k to 100 (sans-bonus) and that's why the percentage of the top editor is listed. It's a post where the community should be able to contribute chunks of information to the answer and make it one combined answer.

Again, it wasn't intended to be used to make you feel ok with using a comment as a basis for an answer. Either you feel bad using a comment as a basis for an answer, don't answer it. Or you don't care, if so, make
2
 
And in the general case I still wouldn't flag them for removal
 
2:38 PM
@TheLethalCarrot Oh, right, forgot about that.
 
0
Q: Are there any male actors written out of a Star Trek series?

cgTagI can only think of two characters who were written out of a Star Trek series. That includes Tasha Yar of SNG, and Kes of Voyager who were both female. Wesley Crusher's role in SNG was reduced after he's popularity fell, but he continued to make appearances on the show. Question: Are there any ...

 
14 upvotes, clear enough consensus:
14
A: Answer my own question if I prefer the answers in the comments to submitted answers?

DVK-on-Ahch-To What you did was pretty much in full accordance with etiquette (not that it's codified, but it's what I try to adhere to). Encourage the commenter to produce an answer. If they explicitly deny, add some info of your own, and post an answer including a hat-tip to original commenter. BTW, from ...

 
@FuzzyBoots I can help you in scifi.stackexchange.com/a/193644/4918 because I know the story. OP mentions "a woman took the love power and made the super strong guy fall for her to do her bidding" and "the looking into the future guy decided to write ... and thus was able to view years into the future up to the heat death of the universe" and "the guy who could read minds somehow found a picture of god and then went mad or his head exploded or something",
each of which is pretty accurate and I can support them with quotes in the answer.
 
Ugh.
 
2:46 PM
@NapoleonWilson There you are!!!
That's right. You like hanging out in this room now...for whatever reason.
 
@steelershark ?_?
@steelershark There's been some interesting conversations lately.
 
Anyways, I am selling my soul for being here, but...I have no other way to get in touch with you right now.
 
@steelershark O_O
Did you smash your phone...again? ;-P
 
No big deal. I was just supposed to call you this morning and I just can't right now. That's all :)
@SQB HELLO STRANGER!!! OMG!!! How are you?
 
@FuzzyBoots Those three points are important because it shows that the OP is looking for Scott's story, not just some other answer about that pill image (originally posted on reddit).
 
2:48 PM
@NapoleonWilson Does dropping it in the water count as "smashing"? ;)
 
I guess. ;-)
Your new smartphone even? :'(
 
Those smart phones are just...slippery little suckers :P
 
Well, yeah. That's the downside of being swipable.
 
Aren't you supposed to be working right now?
 
My previous one had an awesome sandpapery backside for perfect grip.
(Which...sounds even better out of context.) ;-)
 
2:50 PM
You said "perfect grip"
Hehehehehe!!!
 
@steelershark Well, I am, largely.
 
Uhuh
I'm outta here!!!
 
Not my fault you distract me at work all the time. I was glad I didn't have to bear a phone call today and then that! ;-P
@steelershark You better!
 
OMG!!! @Edlothiad!!! What in the eff are you doing in here!! Traitor!!! :P
 
Awww, I'm just joking, come back! :'(
 
2:53 PM
@NapoleonWilson Yes. That's true. I'm always bothering you at work. Hehehehe!
 
@FuzzyBoots There.
 
Why are you still a shark anyway? Shark Week was months ago.
 
@b_jonas nitpicking: it's not "your recollection" since it's a self-answer ;)
 
Because the evil mods at M&TV wouldn't let me change back right after shark week @NapoleonWilson!!!! :P
...and I lost my squirrel ;)
 
SQB
@steelershark hey, hi there!
 
2:57 PM
@SQB HELLO STRANGER!!! I was doing my NFL fantasy picks over the weekend and I picked the Vikings defense as one of my tickets! Just sayin' ;)
 
SQB
@NapoleonWilson when is Squirrel Week anyway?
 
@SQB IT'S SQUIRREL WEEK EVERY WEEK!!!! WOOOOOOOT!!!
 
SQB
@steelershark that's... a start.
 
@SQB How are you? How are your kids?
 
SQB
Overcaffeinated squirrel?
 
2:57 PM
^^^
 
SQB
Good and good.
 
Yay!!
 
@Jenayah No, those bits in the question were there before he gave the self-answer.
 
@steelershark Heh, exactly what was I was about to say. (Well, maybe not exactly.) ;-)
 
@Jenayah Oh, you mean I shouldn't say that in a self-answer? Ok.
 
2:58 PM
@NapoleonWilson Hmmm...I thought that you were responding to the evil mod comment. Muahahahahaha!!!
 
SQB
@steelershark how are you? Crashed any vehicles lately?
 
@b_jonas yeah, it'd rather be some kind of "here's what I remembered"
 
Ok, rephrased it.
 
@SQB I'm good!!! I haven't crashed any vehicles lately!! Wooot!!!
 
@steelershark You're one to speak...
 
2:59 PM
@Jenayah I don't want to write in first person either when I edit his answer. I just made it neutral phrasing: "Quotes supporting the story bits mentioned in the question:"
 
@b_jonas sure, sure :)
it's indeed righter
 
@Edlothiad I had to find Napoleon somewhere. I have a good excuse ;)
 
@steelershark What are you talking about? The season hasn't started yet!
 
SQB
@steelershark how's ehr... Sheena, was it?
 
So do I, I'm teaching.
 
3:00 PM
He has 19 questions on StackOverflow. Why do we get a "new contributor" warning?
 
@NapoleonWilson Yeah, but you have to get your team picked before the weekend.
 
You also might find I'm not being a traitor, I'm multi-tasking
 
@b_jonas first post here
I guess
 
@steelershark But it's next weekend. o_O
 
@SQB YES!!! She's super awesome!!! She lives at my dad's now. I only drive her in the summertime
@Edlothiad Hahahaha! Don't worry, buddy. I'm just messing with you ;)
 
3:02 PM
@steelershark While Speaking the truth though
Nope that's nasty
 
@b_jonas The warning stays for a week regardless of how many posts they have.
 
@Edlothiad Wuuuut? What's nasty? <confused squirrel>
 
I did one of those faces, was nasty, removed face
 
God love ya, Ed :P
 
He sure does.
 
3:03 PM
lol
I'm outta here, people!! See you sillies later :)
 
You awoke me from my slumber, steeler. Back into the depths.
Oi don't steal my ideas!
 
@steelershark Have funsies!
 
@Alex In that case, he's been asking questions on StackOverflow since 2015.
 
@b_jonas But @Jenayah is also correct that it goes by individual site.
 
3:05 PM
@b_jonas yeah, but they don't necessarily know the tweaks and tricks of each site
 
@Jenayah Tricks?
 
@Alex "tweaks and tricks" as in "that's how we do things here, here's how to phrase a question so that it's not too broad anymore, less POB etc"
 
@Jenayah I agree. I'm just not sure I would refer to those as "tricks". (Feel free to ignore me for being overly technical.)
 
@Jenayah Fair.
 
@Alex aye the word might have a negative feel in hindsight, but that's the first translation which came to mind ;D
 
3:16 PM
@b_jonas Thanks.
 
@FuzzyBoots It's my favourite post on Scott's blog by the way.
 
Greetings, Earthlings.
 
Hmm. @user14111 deleted scifi.stackexchange.com/a/193610/4918 because another user ninjaed them by two minutes. But his deleted answer is more supported. I wonder why user14111 then didn't edit the quotes into the other answer.
 
3:34 PM
Funnily, JKR herself smokes cigarettes, or at least used to.
I never knew until I searched her interviews after that question.
 
SQB
(Sorry, AFK, life interferes)
 
@b_jonas We've had some contention about editing one's material into someone else's answer as per scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12023/…
I've personally been bit by that before.
 
@FuzzyBoots Right. Which is why in scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/193582/… I didn't edit, I commented.
So good timing.
And I've reverted part or all of edits on my posts before.
There was one revert on my own post where the edit particularly annoyed me, let me try to find it.
 
3:58 PM
Wow, this was quick. Answerer read my comment and edited that quote into question already.
 
27
Q: Man invents legalese to English translator

VBartilucciClassic sci-fi short story, can remember everything but the title. Almost certainly from the 50s or so. A guy invents a device that translates legal documents into plain English. He uses it on his next contract, realizes it's the traditional "We own your every thought" nightmare, refuses to sign...

less than one hour left :p
 
SQB
@Alex there are some tricks, though. If you want examples of X, it's too broad and thus off topic. But if you ask for "the first instance of X in science fiction", it's narrow enough to be on topic, yet you still get loads of examples.
 
@SQB aye what I was referring too, thanks for rephrasing that for me :)
 
data.stackexchange.com/scifi/query/edit/891712 still looking for that edit, I think I left an angry comment on it so I'm searching through edit comments.
 
@b_jonas what are you looking for?
One in particular?
 
4:02 PM
@Jenayah Yeah, that definitely sounds old-school. This would have been a good question for my dad.
 
@Donald.McLean old but gold!
 
I didn't realize that one of my favorite series was getting new material (graphic novel).
 
@Jenayah Yes, one particular edit that I mostly reverted and probably left an angry comment.
 
@Donald.McLean which one?
 
@SQB Yeah, I was going to write a follow-up comment that there are some specific tricks, just that the general explanations aren't really "tricks".
 
4:07 PM
@b_jonas do you remember what topic the post was about?
@Alex put that on lazy translation from my part :p
 
@Jenayah I don't. That would be easy, I could then just search for the right post. Apparently I didn't leave an angry comment.
 
@b_jonas maybe the comment was deleted?
 
@Jenayah I'm not blaming you.
 
@Jenayah The edit comment? Not likely. I tried to make it not too rude, and who'd delete an edit comment?
 
@Alex nah, don't worry
 
4:09 PM
The Peter Grant series (alternatively, the Rivers of London series or the PC Grant series) is a series of urban fantasy novels by English author Ben Aaronovitch, and comics/graphic novels by Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, illustrated by Lee Sullivan. == Plot overview == === Novels and novellas === ==== Rivers of London ==== (American Title: Midnight Riot) The novel centres around the adventures of Peter Grant, a young officer in the Metropolitan Police; who, following an unexpected encounter with a ghost, is recruited into the small branch of the Met that deals with magic and the su...
 
@b_jonas oh you mean the edit reason, I thought it was an "actual" comment
 
I don't mean a psot comment, just an edit comment. My best chance is to just look through all those edit histories, regardless the comments.
@Jenayah Yes, the edit "reason".
 
@b_jonas well, good luck with that I guess :)
 
I don't think edit reasons can be deleted.
 
@Donald.McLean rings a bell somehow...
 
4:11 PM
@Alex I don't know, but the revisions themselves can be "deleted" (hidden from ordinary users) when they have objectionable content, which is useful for bad edits into good posts.
 
@b_jonas You mean rolling back the edits or re-editing? I don't think you can change the revision history (unless, perhaps, you're a moderator).
 
@Alex Re-editing. And moderators can delete changes from the revision history, in the sense of "hiding" them.
 
@Jenayah One of my favorite modern fantasy series. The graphic novels are interesting because the reader gets to see what the characters look like.
 
I found one that sort of fits, my edit war with Edlothiad about the spelling of lightsabre.
But that's not what I was thinking of.
 
@Donald.McLean well, I'll put that next to the author you talked about yesterday :)
@b_jonas what's angry there? All I see is "added X characters in body" stuff, and a meta consensus without further comments
 
4:15 PM
@Jenayah That's the thing about being old and reading a lot - I have a long list of stuff I really like. What is your favorite genre?
 
SQB
So, how do you think the unthinkable?
With an itheberg.
Sorry, as you were.
 
@Jenayah Yes, that's the problem. I restrained myself from putting the angry thing in the reason.
How do you do group_concat in MS SQL?
 
@b_jonas What's there to be angry about and how was that an edit war in any sense of the word?
 
@Donald.McLean well, I read several genres, but I guess what I like the most is the good old trope of "character in our world discovers they have whatever power/come from parallel world" etc. Built-from-scratch fantasy I've read are of very various quality. As for SciFi, no overall preferences - ok, well, preference for K Dick and Robert J Sawyer. I just read whatever seems interesting when I pick it :)
 
@TheLethalCarrot That's a different one, and I don't remember, I could tell if I found the edit.
In the lightsaber one, it wasn't really an edit war, we did most of it as a debate in chat. The problem was that I wanted to go for "lightsabre" because that's what the bingo cards I'm quoting uses and I asked DMM about it and he said the spelling was deliberate, whereas Edlothiad says that "lightsaber" is the only correct spelling because George Lucas or something, we have a question about the correct spelling.
 
SQB
4:22 PM
@b_jonas you write a function, I think.
 
@SQB dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/… says there's a GROUP_CONCAT function
 
To be fair, I've only picked back reading recently - I have an history of reading way too much, so I forced myself to get out of it until I felt it'd be controllable again. Works so far... But then again I limited the amount of physical books in my current possession to one - recovery and all that... ahah.
 
oh wait, that's mysql
 
SQB
Oh wait, there's a trick with selecting for XML.
 
@b_jonas you do jQuery
 
4:24 PM
@Jenayah Well, which one?
 
@NapoleonWilson Orphan X
 
SQB
I'm on mobile right now, but you want to search for group_concat XML ms sql or something like that.
 
I'm also (thankfully?) limited by the fact that finding English versions is hard in France, and I'm not ordering on Amazon because it'll end as a money trap.
 
SQB
156
A: Simulating group_concat MySQL function in Microsoft SQL Server 2005?

BradCNo REAL easy way to do this. Lots of ideas out there, though. Best one I've found: SELECT table_name, LEFT(column_names , LEN(column_names )-1) AS column_names FROM information_schema.columns AS extern CROSS APPLY ( SELECT column_name + ',' FROM information_schema.columns AS intern ...

 
And time trap
 
I've started to get eBooks - so far, the most efficient tweak to decrease my reading time, since reading from the paper and from the phone is kinda different
 
@SQB Thankfully that's probably for an old version of MS SQL
 
SQB
Probably.
Good to know the function exists.
 
But I think the one I was angry about was scifi.stackexchange.com/posts/78658/revisions . He changed a long link to something closer to a "click here" link, and italicized the title of the short story. Both of those make the answer worse, although only slightly, and the link thing is a bit subjective, it's not really a clear "click here" case.
I didn't revert the link, but made the link longer by adding more information.
 
4:33 PM
If anything, he could have removed the quotes when adding the italitcs. Either or.
 
It's a web-original story, so linking the whole title makes sense.
 
Wait, the whole effin' thing was a link? Oh.
 
@NapoleonWilson No, I don't think so. Removing the quotes would be even worse. It was italicizing for emaphasis on the important part of the answer. He could have made it bold. The italics is confusing when it's just a title.
 
@b_jonas What's the purpose of a longer link?
 
@b_jonas No, you're either italicizing a title or putting it onto quotes. Doing both seems redundant, like adding quotes in a quote block.
3
 
4:36 PM
@Alex It's a link to the short story, which is what is named by the old link text "short story "Access" by Andy Weir (...)", and it's a web-original story, so the link points to the original place of publication of the story.
 
Why even put a "read it online here" into it when the whole thing already is a link? That's odd indeed.
 
@NapoleonWilson No no. I think he understood that it was a short story, and so kept the quotes. The italics was for emphasis because it's the important part of the answer. Only, italic is the wrong kind of formatting for that, bold would be right.
 
@b_jonas Yeah but what's the benefit of having more words in the link?
 
@NapoleonWilson To make it clear where the link goes.
 
@b_jonas To...the short story?
That's more meaningful than the link going "there".
 
4:38 PM
@Alex More words isn't inherently good, but linking just "read it here" instead of linking what you're supposed to read is worse. It's like "<a href=...>Click here</a> for more information about our rolex implants", rather than "<a href=...>Please read more information about our rolex implants</a>."
@NapoleonWilson It could go to an information page about the short story, such as a wikipedia article. For most short stories, it would, because most sci-fi short stories in answers aren't web original. Mind you, the question asked for a web original, but still.
 
Yeah, but linking the actual thing and "read it here" is definitely worse than just linking the thing either.
Of course you read it there, it's where the link goes.
 
@NapoleonWilson Perhaps, but something should indicate that you can read the full text online. "(full text)" might be better than "read it online"
 
@b_jonas Well, sure it could. It doesn't, though.
 
@b_jonas Maybe I'm missing something here. Isn't the actual link address the same even after the edit? The only difference is how many of the words in the post have the link attached to them. It seems non-beneficial to have more words than necessary attached to the link, and having fewer words doesn't result in any lacking information.
 
@b_jonas Well, the current version seems to have it right.
 
SQB
4:41 PM
@b_jonas which is a great story.
 
@Alex Yes, the link points to the same, they differ on which part of the text is linked. Neither my version nor Carrot's edit was perfect, but I felt like it made my post better.
@SQB Yes, that's why we have a story-id question about it.
 
@b_jonas Sorry if I'm sounding annoying, but why would you want additional words to be linked? Isn't the simplest and most clear way to do it to just link the word (or couple of words) that actually represent the destination?
 
SQB
@b_jonas do you mind if I edit a bit?
 
@SQB Probably no. It depends.
 
SQB
I'll do it; feel free to revert.
 
4:44 PM
Try and I'll revert it if I don't like it. Apparently I don't even leave angry comments in the reasons.
 
@Alex There was no destination originally, though, other than "here". The newest revision does have a destination and links to (almost) just that indeed.
 
@Alex the "(full text)" marker or similar should be part of the link, because that's how you know it is about the link, it means that the link goes to full text. I wrote "read it online" instead of "(full text)" which wasn't right, but still.
 
@NapoleonWilson But TheLethalCarrot's edit didn't change that. All he did was limit the link to "it online here" instead of the entire sentence. Which makes a lot of sense, I think.
 
@NapoleonWilson No, it was never that bad.
 
@Alex True, and it was definitely an improvement over linking the entire thing.
 
4:47 PM
@Alex It was never the entire sentence either. It was just the long subject describing the story and author.
 
@b_jonas But are you upset that TheLethalCarrot changed that?
It seems like an improvement.
 
@Jenayah or whoever was asking about turning story-ID comments into CW answers:
17
Q: CW answers for story-ID questions where the OP has found the answer?

Rand al'ThorHere's a common chain of events on SFF.SE: a new user posts a story-ID question the question gets a few comments from other users the OP finds the story they were looking for and says so in a comment the OP disappears and never returns to the site. The end result of all this is a story-ID que...

 
Was not about the OP, though. A more relevant meta was already linked.
 
SQB
@b_jonas done. How's that?
Note that the italics on "supposed" are present in the original; one should always quote the original as closely as possible.
 
@Jenayah I really liked Rollback.
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence. The Diamond Age was first published in 1995 by Bantam Books, as a Bantam Spectra hardcover edition. In 1996, it won both the Hugo and Locus Awards, and was shortlisted for the Nebula and other awards...
@Jenayah One of my favorite recent "parallel world" stories (my science fiction than fantasy) is Charles Stross "The Merchant Princes".
The Merchant Princes is a science fantasy and alternate history series by British writer Charles Stross. There are currently eight novels in the series, with another forthcoming. In the series, there exists a number of parallel worlds all of which are on the same geographical Earth, but with different societies at different points of development. Members of a certain bloodline can travel between these worlds along with their immediate possessions. The series largely follows Miriam Beckstein, a technology journalist raised in a familiar "normal" Earth, who discovers she was born in a parallel...
 
4:59 PM
@Donald.McLean that sounds like a good one too!
 
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