The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Jenayah

10:05 PM

Doomsday Clock #11 Will Reveal the Truth About DC Rebirth. May seems even more far.

Stormblessed

10:22 PM

@b_jonas The first one is incredible

(I haven't started the second one yet, reading other things currently)

Napoleon Wilson

They're quite nice. I just recently listened to the first trilogy. I can't judge how detailed the magic system is, but I guess it makes sense. It's not particularly complex, though, it's simply just reasonably structured.

As if...someone made it up deliberately. ;-)

Jenayah

:o !

Napoleon Wilson

But it's not like it solves basically all the world's problems with the right pig-Latin phrase said by a dude with a stick in his hand. It's...coherent?

Stormblessed

So there's no way to destroy the dan-brown tag?

Napoleon Wilson

Above all, it's a nice story, though, with neat characters. The love story is nice and Vin is both cute and super cool.

Jenayah

10:30 PM

@Stormblessed not as long as a question still uses it, unless someone removes it. But it might be helpful in other questions - did that author write any SF?

Marvin

0

Q: Why didn't Tom Riddle take the presence of Fawkes and the Sorting Hat as more of a threat?

In Chamber of Secrets, Tom Riddle mocks the assistance Harry receives at the start of their final confrontation - Fawkes and the Sorting Hat arriving - as pathetic. So this is what Dumbledore sends his great defender. A songbird and an old hat. It's established elsewhere in the series, ho...

harry-potter

Napoleon Wilson

(Even if her mistrust might be written a little too much in your face at the beginning.)

Stormblessed

@Jenayah We determined he is off-topic

Jenayah

All his works?

Or just Inferno?

Stormblessed

Digital Fortress is apparently sci-fi, actually

(Never heard of it, never read anything by him)

Napoleon Wilson

10:32 PM

@Stormblessed Not until someone finally deletes the single only but entirely off-topic question that uses it.

Guess that won't happen, though.

Stormblessed

But won't this tag existing just make it easier for new users to ask questions about non-SF books by him? I don't think we need that question, we could just make a meta about it

8

Q: How can this question about Inferno be asked on this site?

The novel Inferno written by Dan Brown isn't a science fiction or fantasy novel. So how can anyone ask question about this novel in the Science fiction & Fantasy site? Why was the ending reversed in the movie "Inferno"

discussion questions asking-questions

There's already one, actually

Jenayah

2

Q: Shall we delete this old, off-topic but highly viewed, question?

This question was recently bumped by edits: In what order should I read the Robert Langdon books? At first I was going to delete it because it's off-topic for our site, but then I saw the incredibly high view count, meaning that (like many suggested-order questions) it's being useful to drive-by ...

discussion specific-question deleted-questions

@Stormblessed just because a tag exists doesn't make stuff easier for off-topic askers

Stormblessed

@Jenayah But if it recommends [dan-brown] they might think "oh, I can ask about that here"

Jenayah

Take M&TV... They get an ID question every two days, and they're tagged with various tags

(main ID tag is blacklisted though)

Stormblessed

Couldn't the question just be migrated to Literature or something, anyway?

Jenayah

10:37 PM

@Stormblessed they'd have to search for such a tag though, it's pretty much hidden

@Stormblessed nope, too old

Napoleon Wilson

@Jenayah They just need to type danb... into the tag line.

Stormblessed

3

Q: What is the title of this children's book?

This is a children's book that I read as a child in the UK, which would have been mid to late 1980s. Unfortunately I cannot remember much about it. The details that stick in my mind are: It was very visual, so mostly pictures On each (or most) page there were details hidden. The one that stic...

story-identification

Jenayah

@NapoleonWilson If they're typing Dan Brown, then chances are they're likely already asking an off-topic Q

Stormblessed

Shouldn't we be able to migrate old stuff like this?

Napoleon Wilson

@Jenayah Indeed. They just don't know it, because dam-brown is freely offered as a tag.

Stormblessed

10:40 PM

3

Q: In search of teeny tiny stopwatches for mice

In my memory of The Demolished Man, the idea of 'tensor said the tensor' is accompanied by another jingle that involves, I thought, 'teeny-tiny stopwatches for mice.' Now, maybe it's in there, but not mentioned on the internet, or maybe it's somewhere else and I've made a bad connection, or maybe...

story-identification

How did this get three votes

Jenayah

@Stormblessed by design, we can't :/ probably a coulple of feature request s on main meta, I guess.

Napoleon Wilson

@Stormblessed Happens. You wonder why people vote up weird ID questions? Keep...wondering.

Jenayah

^

Stormblessed

-3

Q: My first Sci Fi book

My first Sci Fi book was in the 60s. it was called to my best recollection The Purple Planet. Any ideas what is was. Would love to read again.

story-identification

This is closed for the wrong reason

Jenayah

@NapoleonWilson meh. If the DB tag wasn't showing up, they'd just take another and click "ask question". As a M&TV mod havingto deal with the odd ID question tagged american-cinema or any other irrelevant tag, I'm surprised you'd think otherwise :D

Napoleon Wilson

10:43 PM

Also, stop dragging my voting record down! Can't you link to some engaging question about Mistborn (no, not the 500th useless allomancy rule-lawyering question), The Dark Tower, or The Witcher? ;-)

@Jenayah Well, people asked wrongly tagged shit all day long even before the tag was banned.

Jenayah

:p

Napoleon Wilson

My guess is rather that a significant number of people do see and heed the error, or we'd have a ton more of these asked.

But...I'm not really making a case for banning dan-brown or anything here. I agree it likely won't make a difference.

Jenayah

but the thing is that to see the DB tag, you gotta be willing to ask a DB question first.

Buzz

Can I rant for a second? (I used to be a moderator on rantforum.net, although that site was mostly a joke, and I never used my mod abilities.)

Jenayah

unlike the ID this movie tag which is still the top 5-6 tag used, even if there's a bigass "DON't DUCKING USE IT DUMMY" warning

Buzz

10:47 PM

Every few months, I get banned from reviewing because I leave too many bad answers undeleted.

Jenayah

@Buzz eh? How does that work?

Napoleon Wilson

On this site? o_O

Buzz

This ticks me off, because I try vote for deletion or not based on whether things are attempts at being answers, without regard to whether they are good answers or not.

Napoleon Wilson

Are automatic review bans even enabled on a site without audits?

Buzz

It's not automatic banning; I always get a personalized message about it.

Jenayah

10:48 PM

do you leave comments under the posts you review as "Looks OK"?

Napoleon Wilson

Oh, well, then I guess you're...doing it wrong. ;-)

Buzz

My view is that leaving bad, or wrong, answers is appropriate. They can be downvoted, but attempts to answer should not be deleted outright, however speculative or poorly thought out they are.

Napoleon Wilson

Guess you and the moderators disagree about the line between wrong and invalid then. But...they would probably be better targets to enquire about that.

Jenayah

I guess that depends on how much eye-squinting is required to spot the answer. Maybe not all reviewers see the same thing as you?

Hence my earlier:

Buzz

Well, that's why I said this is a rant. I am also posting in meta.

Jenayah

10:50 PM

1 min ago, by Jenayah

do you leave comments under the posts you review as "Looks OK"?

Buzz

@Jenayah Usually, I don't. I tried leaving comments routinely on posts I reviewed and got criticized for that too (although probably with respect to different posts). Anyway, whether I leave comments or not should not be directly relevant to whether my votes are legitimate or not.

Jenayah

> whether I leave comments or not should not be directly relevant to whether my votes are legitimate or not.

Agreed, but it might get other people to think they're actually somewhat answers, and pressing the Looks OK button, or understanding why you thought it was OK prior to banning you from review

> I tried leaving comments routinely on posts I reviewed and got criticized for that too

Wait how?

Isn't this precisely what review is for?

FP/LA at least

Napoleon Wilson

I'd bet on it not being the full story...and wait for said meta post.

Buzz

As I said, it wasn't the same kind of posts. I got railed against for posting encouraging comments (suggesting improvement to the post was in order, but not specifying what ought to be changed), because that was considered inappropriate natter.

Part of what irks me is that my reviews on this site are not really any different from what I do on other Stack Exchange sites, and SF&F is not, by any means, overrun with low-quality content. Compared to Academia or (especially) Physics, there are few bad posts here, which means that the harsh policing or reviews is completely unnecessary.

Jenayah

FWIW I think this meta could use some screenshots for <10k users

I mean I could do it but... I'm lazy :P

Buzz

11:01 PM

I thought I had taken enough space already. Maybe when I simmer down, I will post screenshots too.

Jenayah

You can just link to them without including them in the post

Link to post, brief explanation, link to screenshot

Mh. Someone's fond of my IDs...

My latest four have all been UVed in ~5 minutes

Napoleon Wilson

If anything, it could probably use a better title. (Not that I've read anything else but the title yet.) ;-)

Maybe keep in mind that chat might be more lenient to rants, but meta...really isn't, never was, and never will be.

Buzz

Yeah, that's why I came to chat to rant separately from the post.

Napoleon Wilson

Well, apparently not, judging from your question's title.

Jenayah

-2

Q: I am sick and tired of being blocked from reviewing

I am getting sick of repeatedly being blocked from reviewing. I evidently disagree with many other users, including the moderators, about where the cutoff should be drawn for whether response posts are actual answers or not. Every few months, I get a notification that I am leaving too many bad ...

discussion

feed's taking too long.

Napoleon Wilson

11:13 PM

If anything though, this thing might get interesting, for better or worse.

Buzz

Ugh. "Interesting" is not what I wanted, but it may be inevitable.

Napoleon Wilson

2 mins ago, by Napoleon Wilson

Well, apparently not, judging from your question's title.

Slartibartfast

-2

Q: I am sick and tired of being blocked from reviewing

I am getting sick of repeatedly being blocked from reviewing. I evidently disagree with many other users, including the moderators, about where the cutoff should be drawn for whether response posts are actual answers or not. Every few months, I get a notification that I am leaving too many bad ...

discussion

Stormblessed

What are the migration targets available here?

I can't vote to migrate, I think

Jenayah

by default (ie by normal users), only Meta

and then mods can migrate to anywhere if the target site's mods are okay with it, I think.

Stormblessed

11:23 PM

125

A: What is migration and how does it work?

What is migration? Migration allows an off-topic question to be gracefully moved to another site in the Stack Exchange network. It preserves the current revision of the question, all its answers, any comments on any post, as well as most of the votes. When a question is migrated, a new copy of ...

@Jenayah this says there are five sites 3,000 rep users can vote to migrate to

Why is it different here?

Literature should be a target

Worldbuilding, too, maybe

Napoleon Wilson

Depends.

Stormblessed

Movies&TV (occasionally)

Jenayah

I think what that means is that a site can have up to five target sites, but doesn't need to have them all

Napoleon Wilson

A question is also if the community at large is ready to be handed that responsibility.

What you don't want is a bunch of clueless plebs voting to close stuff because it "fits better elsewhere".

2

Stormblessed

We should have more options than Meta to save Mods' time

Jenayah

11:25 PM

that's what I see.

Napoleon Wilson

Migrations happen so rarely that usually the moderators can very well take care of them.

Stormblessed

@Jenayah Same for me

Jenayah

@Stormblessed no, no, no, certainly not. SFF users might not be aware of the target site's policies.

Sometimes I think a question should better be asked on WB, but it'd get thrashed there.

Stormblessed

@Jenayah But Literature applies to quite a few off-topic story-IDs

Jenayah

Sure, but it's still better to ask the poster to re-ask there, and provide the guidelines, rather than dumping a potentially crappy question into Lit's hands

Stormblessed

11:28 PM

@Jenayah But some are good

Jenayah

Some are, I totally agree. But prevention is better than cure, if a way is given to migrate stuff to Lit by normal users, with the warning that "please! make sure it's an OK questinon first! smiley face" I bet you a good bunch of money that crappy stuff will get migrated.

There's no way to automate "is it a good question?", so better to dump it into mods' hands. As Napoleon said, it's rare enough so that it doesn't take too much time.

Stormblessed

3

Q: Do you know the authors of these 2 stories?

I'm trying to locate the name/author of 2 stories I read many years ago as a teenager. If the following (hazy) summaries ring any bells I'd be really grateful if you could help me. The first is set in an overpopulated near future. A man and his pregnant wife are at home in their small apartment....

story-identification

Is this too broad because it's two questions?

@Jenayah Actually, I can't find any good ones with this query...

Jenayah

yep, but there's a good bunch of detail in the first one. It's salvageable. If you wanna do the honors, knock yourself out

(with a trimming edit, I meant)

Marvin

11:49 PM

0

Q: Why did Chancellor Palpatine reveal to Obi-Wan that Dount Dooku was a Sith Lord?

When Count Dooku enters the room in The Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine tries to dissuade his rescuers, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker by revealing Count Dooku's true allegiance. Chancellor Sheev Palpatine: Get help. You're no match for him. He's a Sith Lord. ...

star-wars sith revenge-of-the-sith darth-sidious darth-tyranus

0

Q: Was The Machine ever the perpetrator?

I am rewatching Person of Interest (still a long way to go). On the many occasions where The Machine went haywire or was in grave danger, did she ever become the perpetrator, and still gave the victim's number to Harold? If not, what anti-self-preservation mechanism prevented her from becoming ...

person-of-interest

Jenayah

Hmmm.

Same posts from 40 minutes ago got upvoted again.

Iffy.

Napoleon Wilson

@Marvin The anti-self-preservation mechanisms (or rather the anti-haywire mechanisms) of the machine are...a reoccuring theme really. But no, I don't think she ever was responsible for directly endagering a number.

Yet, there's a ton of analysis waiting on how far the machine endagered people indirectly for the greater good, even if not actually numbers, and using her human, well they're called "assets", to do so.

But it's also a little fuzzy at what point throughout her development she really becomes a motivation of her own, rather than following the insignificant numbers protocol.

Stormblessed

Not too broad anymore

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The Restaurant at the End of the Univ…