@Alex wtf, it's opensource?

Isn't there rights or something still going?

In terms of that site, it would appear to be: These books are books contributed by the community.

@Jenayah I don't know. You can also get all the other Harry Potter books here.

Side question - any reason why it'd be better for scifi.stackexchange.com/posts/191773/revisions to have a screenshot than a copy-paste of the answer? Is it just a matter of said answer being of kinda low quality?

Strange.

I know jack about rights, law and stuff, but it just seems strange that you can have those and some editors still sell epubs for these books.

I mean nothing is saying that site is legal

That I can tell

Though cos they're scans with OCR it might fall under fair use, I'm not sure

Side question - any reason why it'd be better for that to have a screenshot than a copy-paste of the answer? Is it just a matter of said answer being of kinda low quality? scifi.stackexchange.com/posts/191773/revisions

@TheLethalCarrot fishy

@Jenayah no particular reason why we'd do that

I don't mind either way but the whole none answer doesn't have a place copied into the answer in my opinion, I'd usually just link to the deleted one or something

@Jenayah Aye though I don't know much on law, I'd guess it breaks the license but I don't know

I'd quote half those lines and link to the answer.

@TheLethalCarrot I mean I understand the "no link" option since it's 10k+ but then why an image instead of a plain text?

@Jenayah In my opinion it falls under "general noise" a link with "OP accepted this in a deleted answer" seems fine enough to me

@TheLethalCarrot not that I'm especially touchy on some licenses, just curious

The whole quote is kind of... in the way

(I watch some stuff in streaming which is as much fishy)

@Alex My guess is the collection is meant to be actual open source material, but a community member submitted a pirated copy improperly. But it's also possible (considering it's JK Rowling) that the material was also released for free.

@TheLethalCarrot so it's the "hide it so it looks prettier" policy then :^)

@Jenayah Most likely, I mean if I saw it I'd probably have done something similar

'k

But I don't really have a problem with it there

@Jenayah Sometimes a screenshot conveys much more than a mere copied text.

@Alex Well in this case they are essentially identical

@TheLethalCarrot too, just asking :)

Aye

they are pretty much identical, only with the screenshot requiring readers to jump through an extra hoop

@Alex I'm with TLC on that one, unless you meant something more cryptic in which case I didn't get it :)

Yeah but that's not a bad thing

We don't need a low quality accept message taking up half an answer

@Jenayah Yeah, I meant something more cryptic, not necessarily addressing this specific case.

@Alex alright

if you wanna expand on that I'm all ears

if you don't no problem

@Jenayah I'll expand. Give me a minute.

@Alex alright, didn't want to urge you or anything :)

@Jenayah Too late for that.

@Alex sorry if you took it like that, wasn't my intention :/ no hard feelings?

@Jenayah Not at all, I'm just messing around.

@Alex meh x)

Although I am interested to know what the something more cryptic is

@TheLethalCarrot I'm in the middle of typing it.

It might not be so relevant though.

@Alex :

sorry but the quote was way too fit not to be posted :'D

( ^ and obvious spoilers for RvB)

@Jenayah I'll elaborate based on another Stack Exchange site that I have more experience with, so it won't necessarily be as applicable here. On Mi Yodeya almost every answer requires quoting a text of some sort. Many times you can just copy and paste the text. However, many of the texts that are used simply don't exist in any copy/paste form.

Typing out an entire passage can be tedious while a small image of the relevant paragraph/page takes just a few seconds. Typing out a passage often results in typos, and readers usually have no way to confirm the accuracy. Additionally, many times the texts that are being quoted have very specific formats that can't be easily replicated in a text box, or have a mixture of multiple languages or special characters that also doesn't translate very well into a text box.

Most importantly, a lot of answers are dependent on manuscript evidence for what the correct text of a certain passage actually is. Just typing the text (there's never anything to copy/paste for those) doesn't really help anything when the text itself is under dispute. By including an image of the manuscript you can show what the correct text is supposed to be, and possibly how corruptions crept in.

Some examples of my posts there where I used images because text wouldn't work: judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/94214/… judaism.stackexchange.com/a/93832/13438 judaism.stackexchange.com/a/93353/13438 judaism.stackexchange.com/a/93213/13438 judaism.stackexchange.com/a/92734/13438

Again, I don't know how much of this is applicable to other sites, but this is what I was thinking of. (I apologize if the contexts of the linked posts are obscure.)

Hmmm not entirely relevant to the case here we were discussing but in the case of transcribing image text I generally include the image and my transcription underneath in quote markdown

As you say both are helpful

not every screen renders Hebrew properly. especially the n'kudot

@Mithrandir There are Meta posts there about this.

and the ta'amei kria? forget it

Texts are generally preferred, but in certain instances images are necessary.

@TheLethalCarrot Yes, this is often a good thing to do

@Alex Sure, though I'd still try and go for both if possible

Someone commended SQB for doing it in some elses post a few weeks ago

@TheLethalCarrot I agree. In almost all my examples I had text (at least part of it) as well.

@Alex okay, I get what you mean now !

I'll admit I didn't open the examples :)

@Jenayah Was it worth the wait?

@Alex sure, solidly argued (and I had other things to do while waiting so :D )

@Mithrandir Sometimes that'a a problem even with text.

This is an example where the answer includes both the image text and the image...

(Easy to find cos I did some of the transcribing :P)

Though there are a whole load of other examples

poke @Edlothiad just use the metric system already xD

Also, English-related question:

> The robot was not huge, like being able the pick the boy up in his hand.

Can't that ever be read as "he was just huge enough to be able to pick the boy"?

yes

no, other way around - he wasn't large enough to pick the boy up

it can be read that way too

@Mithrandir most likely that way

(The robot) was not (huge, like being able the pick the boy up in his hand.)

I think it can be read both ways though with the first part I would lean towards smaller robot (combined with 10 feet)

(the robot was not huge),(like being able to pick the boy up...)

@MattE.Эллен yeah that's how I read it at first, hence the confusion :^)

in a universe where huge robots can pick up much more than a boy

I guess :D

Good ol' habit of using the commas as a separator

my bad then

:)

without like the sentence becomes very confusing

I don't know why

like being able the pick the boy up in his hand -> like being able to pick the boy up in his hand

I think it's because with like the reader knows it's an opinion

@MattE.Эллен actually, without the "like" the sentence totally flips around the meaning

@Mithrandir only if you remove the comma

oh, which menaing?

"The robot was not huge, like being able to pick the boy up in his hand" means that the robot is not huge and can't pick up the boy.

your meaning?

Didn't mean to trigger an ELL debate x)

"The robot was not huge, being able to pick the boy up in his hand." means that the robot is not huge and is able to pick up the boy, meaning that this is small for this universe.

yes, from that reading it flips the meaning

@Mithrandir I think if one was to hear it they would understand right away; but when it's written it's a bit more of a stretch

@Jenayah English is a confusing language :P

@Jenayah (and everyone else) I think the meaning becomes clear when you read the next sentence: He was more like ten feet tall. He is saying that the robot was only 10 feet tall, not big enough to hold the boy in his hand.

@Alex what if he had spatula hands? :p

rofl

Also, by "holding" we mean "contain" here then?

I assume so.

You read it correctly, @Jenayah, at least based on how it’s written, but it then says “he’s smaller then 10 feet” which means it can’t be The Iron Giant. Also the kid usually has brown hair.

Taking it out of context, I'd still interpret it as being small, because it's saying that it's not huge, and then quantifying "huge" as "being able to pick up the boy".

'cause a 3meters tall robot can have a human kid on its hand, I think

maybe not secure him like Iron Giant though, granted!

@Edlothiad there are only three hair colors: blonde, dark, redhead. :p

Oh no... let's hope that didn't trigger Ed :P

That "like" means that it's quantifying the "huge"; without the "like", it's giving a description of the abilities of the robot.

It’s not, it’s saying it wasn’t huge but an example of what it could do was pick up the boy. It should say that it is unlike a robot that could hold a boy in it’s hand. But it doesn’t. I was hesitant to edit it because the OP may infact be looking for a 10’ robot that can hold a 4’ boy in it’s hand

@Jenayah There is only one hair colour, the Great hair colour, and it is worn by Rohanne Webber

@TLC, shush you

Lol

Was right though

That’s news

@Edlothiad meh. Redhead.

CAREFUL, JENAYAH. CAREFUL NOW

which one does blue fit into

@doppelgreener i'm disappointed in you

not green?

@Edlothiad ...

Is that lady related to the Weasleys? :-D

A REDHEAD HORDE! ON AN OPEN FIELD, ED!

Pfft Potterverse...

@Mithrandir that would be the next one

but you are right, alas, i should have started out asking that one

Well my redheads of referrence probably aren't yours ahah

@TheLethalCarrot Something something stretcher

FETCH THE REDHEAD STRETCHER!

Yup doesn't really work

stretch, stretcher, stretchest

The only character in Harry Potter worth bothering with is Ginny. Dope character

Any specific reason why? ;P

@Edlothiad I'd say almost all somewhat important characters in HP are interesting, with the sole exception of Harry.

Now I feel like I'm reading a movie script. What's up with the monospace?

@Mithrandir here's your monospace:

FETCH THE SPACE STRETCHER!

Now... this needs one more VTRO: Why didn't B'Elanna Torres have her cranial ridges removed?

^ indeed it does

Please don't VTRO it yet, there is a meta and it is splitting the community, we don't need another Close/RO war

@TheLethalCarrot Meh, voting on posts that have active meta discussions is perfectly fine.

Sure but it's only gonna cause a war

Fun thing, in the Australian military a popular nickname for a redhead is "Bluey".

@Marvin that question title makes me laugh for some reason

@doppelgreener This just serves to illustrate that Aussies are strange :D

@doppelgreener man being colorblind in the Australian army must be a mindwreck

@doppelgreener I can think of other names popularised by Chris Lilley that Australians use, will have to keep those for slack though

@Edlothiad for some reason I feel like this is one of the names I don't know, but won't Google right now ahah

For us it originated around 1900 as a deliberately ironic nickname. English.SE apparently has it covered: english.stackexchange.com/a/100883/7585

"wait... Bluey? why?" "exactly"

@Jenayah well it'll help you figure out who's a redhead. :D

@Jenayah I think that new one does answer the question with an in universe answer, it isn't exactly high quality though.

@TheLethalCarrot Well the "we" made me think the guy was arguing out-of-universe...

...unless we have an actual wizard here!! :o

@Mithrandir everyone gets a two-syllable nickname. :D

Haha, the first part is the answer, the second part and the we part are his out of universe reasonings for it. That's how I read it anyway

Mithrandir would become Mithy or Mizzy or Mazza, Gandalf would probably be Gazza, and whatever way the wizard would probably be furious and confused for a while as he got used to it.

Haha well that's cheap on transitions to say the least :D

@doppelgreener Dalfo!

@MattE.Эллен Randalf sounds better

makes me think of A.L.F.

@doppelgreener ...oof.

:D

@Mithrandir big oof

@MattE.Эллен I'm lost, which one is it?

(Alien Life Form)

oh, that one

b.t.w. do not duck duck go for a.l.f. That was a lot of unexpected porn, unrelated to alien life forms

oO

exactly my response

Rule 34 when you're there...

though I guess it's a variation of said rule

Does there exist a trading card game, or a card game video game, officially released for the Starcraft franchise?

I tried to do some searches, and I found no official trading card game, and a few references to what might be a starcraft-related card game video game, but it's not clear.

@b_jonas I'd be surprised f there were none of the former.

@Jenayah Yet I can't find any.

I'm looking for ones that are officially authorized by whoever owns the Starcraft brand, or at least fan games that are done really professionally.

There are some official novelizations, but that's not what I'm looking for.

Sc is Blizzard right?

@b_jonas I'll ask some friends, they might know about it.

@Jenayah He's a comedian, very funny

@Edlothiad ok!

@TheLethalCarrot I don't know, these media properties change hands every year. But it's not the current owner that matters, but whoever had permission to authorize the use of the brand at the time the game was released, which could even be multiple organizations.

Oh sure

@b_jonas asked, I'll get back to you if anything comes up :)

If there's no such card game, that would be great! Because then I could use such a hypothetical game for quoting fictional examples of trading cards.

And since it's a space fantasy series, I can get away with basically any space fantasy mechanic, it doesn't even have to be realistic sci-fi.

It's not easy to find a big well-known Western culture sci-fi or fantasy franchise that doesn't have an officially branded trading card game yet. (Some of them only have bad games, but that's beside the point.)

There are apparently three trading card games based on Lord of the Rings. There's probably none based on the Silmarillion of course.

Perhaps these are based on the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit together, I don't really know.

They certainly aren't only based on the Hobbit.

@TheLethalCarrot Yes, Starcraft is Blizzard

@b_jonas did you check Board Game Geek?

boardgamegeek.com/…

@b_jonas Lord of the Rings is the best known franchise, I think.

So it would make sense to use that name. The Hobbit is easily rolled up into that one.

@b_jonas I have learnt from sources that there's no official star craft trading card game.

@Edlothiad well that'surprising to say the least.

Although I guess if there had been one, Google would've popped it fast.

Still.

@SQB No. I didn't know they handle trading card games.

@SQB I doubt that. Harry Potter is the best known franchise, and I'm not sure how many TCGs Harry Potter has, but it has at least one. It's possible that Pokémon and Star Wars are better known than LotR, and both of those have at least one TCG.

And yes, Pokémon has multiple card game video games.

@b_jonas I mean within Tolkien's Legendarium.

@b_jonas I think they do.

Let me check

Magic: the Gathering is on there (and higher than I would've thought).

Yes, they do. At least some of them. I don't know how complete their listing in TCGs are, but given how obsessive they are in board games, it probably is obsessive.

@SQB Why wouldn't it be high if it's in there? It's both popular and usually highly rated. Yes, there are always haters, and always people who ragequit, but still, as games go, it does pretty well.

I know it's not a perfect game, and I know many of the criticisms too.

Well, given how better games score lower...

But boardgamegeek has a lot of mediocre or downright bad games, doesn't it?

At least please tell me they don't catalog card game video games or online versions of card games or anything like that.

jesus, they actually have a videogamegeek and an rpggeek companion site

I guess they made those as trashcans to be able to tell something to anyone who complains that they should take video games or rpgs

"Pokémon Trading Figure Game" -- wow, I haven't heard of these ones yet. what the heck are these?

Ok, that's basically a set of collectible figurines in randomly distributed packages, and a game with a ruleset that doesn't even care which figurine you have. That's definitely not anything I care about here.

I don't have any problem with minifigs, but selling a board game with them misses the point. I have minifigs because I can use them for whatever game I want. It's like one of those little booklets in some sets of classic fixed card sets that tell you how to play poker or canasta or some other classic game that is possible with that set of cards.

"Pokémon Battling Coin Game" -- this is just getting worse

yes, I know, there are actually several good pokemon games

and in particular, the Pokémon TCG is good

Basically you can get a Pokémon-branded version of almost any toy or garment, and if you can squint hard at it and it has rules and can be played indoors without a computer, then it counts as a board game.

There's probably a Pokémon d6 sold in a randomized pack of five that has a randomly distributed Pokémon painted on the side that would normally display the 1, and you can play yahtzee with it, so it's a board game. There's even a simple board game you can play with just 2d6 at hand. (I don't know any that need only 1d6, but there might be one.)

I can't even read this list on boardgamegeek to figure out how many distinct Pokémon TCGs are. I think there's only one, but like four or five card game video games, maybe more.

The difficulty with boardgamegeek is that it lists each expansion pack and other separately sold products containing trading cards as a separate game. That makes sense, but makes it hard to find if there's any other TCG than the big one.

But I think there's only one Harry Potter TCG, and I guess it sucks, and it's out of print; and it doesn't look like there are any card game video games yet (there are lego video games instead).

I wonder if there's an official Lego-related trading card game. Like a Lego Star Wars TCG.

@b_jonas For Ninjago, I believe.

I think there's no Lego Star Wars TCG yet, but I think Lego has a license to make one.

The only Lego games I would be interested in, would feature building Lego.

@Mithrandir You're right, that seems to exist according to the internet.

I do have a couple.

@SQB I think there are some. Two for Lego Harry Potter apparently.

Most importantly, Creationary.

But I could be wrong, I don't really know these video games, I'm just guessing about them.

Sorry, Lego "board" games.

Why is that better than building Lego in real life? Is it cheaper? Perhaps it is, but you can't hold what you built in your hand.

@SQB Lego "board" games where you can just build Lego? Aren't all Lego sets like that, basically?

You can build Lego stuff from each of them. That's the whole point of the toys.

And for the ones I have so far, it worked.

They're pretty good quality too. Lego pieces don't easily break, even when a child plays with them a lot.

I've a the racing game, that allows you to alter the track while you race. The most important game mechanism is altering the die, though.

@SQB What does "die" mean here?

Meghal.

I can't imagine how this racing game works. Are you racing a vehicle?

(Or so Google Translate tells me).

Yes.

A micro build vehicle on a Lego track.

Roll the die to move.

boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46744/race-3000

Ah! So it's like a classic german style board game, but the game equipment is made of Lego?

Interesting.

There are Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter Lego board games as well, apparently.

boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/2909/lego-games

I have one of the Heroica ones, but it's still wrapped.

I see. These aren't games that I want to play or own or that help me here, but it's good to at least know that such games exist.

@SQB Heroica means it has a lot of pieces and is probably expensive, right?

Creationary is my youngest's favourite. Although we ignore the rules and just take turns building and guessing.

@b_jonas not sure, I got it cheap.

I see.

So you play these with family?

Yes.

Nice.

Haven't played Race 3000 or Robo Champ in a while, though.

Wow, that sounds like you have lots of lego games.

I hope you also sometimes just build from lego, without rules.

Robo Champ is basically Jumbolino, though. Roll and collect parts of robots.

Okay, going AFK.