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1:00 AM
0
Q: Is there any way to make sense out of the scheduling for electives at Hogwarts? How?

AlexThe Question The actual question is as follows: The scheduling system for elective classes at Hogwarts, as presented in the books (particularly Prisoner of Azkaban) does not seem to make sense. I am seeking an explanation as to how it can actually make sense. The rest of this post will consist o...

 
@Marvin Dupe
 
1:17 AM
Because it's a stupid question
The artist made it. They're asking a question they know the answer to
 
You're allowed to ask questions you know the answer to. There's even a feature for answering your own question.
 
0
Q: Why did the Protector remove the shirt?

AdamantIn the Turkish Netflix series The Protector, the titular character and his predecessors have a magical shirt that grants invincibility. As we see from when Hakan first puts the shirt on, it merges with his body and appears in the form of a raised brand or perhaps a tattoo. As such, there would se...

0
Q: How did they conclude the identity of the Immortal?

AdamantIn the series The Protector, Kemal, Zeynep, and Hakan quickly conclude that Mazhar is the Immortal. However, how did they reach this conclusion? Obviously, he's been involved in suspicious actions related to the Loyal Ones. But then,this only suggests that he's working for or with the Immortal, ...

 
Hey @alex if I retract an off-topic flag can I change it to spam?
 
A flag, or a close vote?
 
That question is basically an ad, even if the user discloses their affiliation; they get publicity, but they don't have a question they actually care if it is answered as they already know the answer
@Alex Close vote
 
1:23 AM
There is no close vote for Spam.
 
You can retract the close vote and flag it as spam, or vote to delete it as spam.
 
Eh, I did a mod flag
 
0
Q: Mass editing: Still a policy, or not?

KevinIt was my understanding that, in general, there was a community agreement not to edit too many older posts in a short period of time, to avoid cluttering the front page with too many older questions at once. However, particularly on Meta, but also on the main site, I've noticed an increased rate ...

 
0
Q: How does Captain America return the stones when some of them are not even in their original forms?

Dekus DenialThe space stone in the Tesseract, reality stone in Aether, which is fluid-like, e.g. I assume the Avengers broke all the stones' containers when they assembled their gauntlet. Some people said Cap learns how to use the time stone to reverse time on the stones back to their previous state in thei...

 
2:07 AM
@Stormblessed Boggles the mind that they wouldn't use the domain specifically mandated by RFC for that purpose!
 
0
Q: In what order did Thanos destroy the infinity stones early on in the Avengers: Endgame

Dekus DenialWhat stone would he destroy last? Or could he use two stones at the same time and have them destroy one another?

 
2:53 AM
@Stormblessed Should I pull a Jenayah and tell you that you left out a bunch of edits?
 
We have character identification posts before. Askers can also answer their own posts so OP creating the image is irrelevant in my opinion. If this question closes because of this, I will reupload the images and ask the same question myself and since I am not the creator, it shouldn't be a problem. — C.Koca 48 mins ago
@Alex I’m on mobile
(Stupid excuse)
@Stormblessed would that be closed as a dupe?
 
@Stormblessed Hopefully not.
 
0
Q: i need to find this book

alyssai was in like 4th or 5th grade and i remember reading these books, they were like scary stories and each book had 2 or three plots. one was about this boy that stole an apple from his neighbors backyard and turned into a tree. another where this girls friends were throwing rocks at this old lady’...

 
@Stormblessed I totally agree that it should be closed.. One of the very first items in the 'What type of questions should you not ask' is "You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page" -- He made it; he knows the answer -- this is just self-promotion.
 
@K-H-W Yup
 
3:03 AM
VTC'ed it, and added a comment about it.
 
It's not any less useful than any of the other poster identification questions.
 
@Alex but it's essentially spam; it's self-promotion
 
That may be, but they are at least attempting to answer a question -- he knows the answer and is just self-promoting.
 
But self-answers are allowed, even encouraged.
 
Sure; but that's not what he was doing.
He posted it, knowing the entire answer, and left it for us to answer.. to garner interest. He could have self-answered immediately.
But what he wanted was the visibility and interest. SE is not a forum for self-advertisement, unless I totally misunderstand things.
 
3:07 AM
0
A: Books of scary stories with two or three plots each

StormblessedThese are from the Midnight Library series by Damien Graves. I'll edit in more details in a sec. Googled boy turns into "tree" scary "apple" book and found this answer.

What a detailed answer...
 
The question's been up for seven months without a problem. 37 people contributed to the answer and judging by the entire chatroom dedicated to it, they seemed to have a good time. I count that as a net gain for the site, just like any other such question. If the author would have posted the answer right away that would kind of defeat the whole purpose.
 
Writing a book and then asking lots of interesting questions about it to try to draw attention to your good writing would be similar. The fact that he did not disclose his ownership of it at the beginning is particularly damning and indicative of his intent, from my perspective. That said, I'm in a bad mood, so possibly just feeling bitchy.
Alex -- I understand your point, but I think it is a very bad precedent; not deleting it will encourage others to try to find a way to use SciFi.SE as a way to advertise.
And I refer back to my quote from the help files "You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face." This doesn't fit. In point of fact, it actually comes a lot closer to "If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about ______”, then you should not be asking here."
 
@K-H-W You might be right.
 
The fact that it resulted in a lot of conversation it good.. But a good result from a fraudulent source is a risky thing to encourage..
Thanks.. But, again.. I'm in a foul mood tonight, so take me with a grain of salt :)
 
@K-H-W Maybe that should make all these types of questions off-topic.
I think I've exceeded my daily intake of salt.
2
 
3:14 AM
I don't know... They are kind of borderline.. but the real issue here is that it wasn't someone genuinely curious and hoping other people could answer.. it was that it was someone trying to self-promote.. The first option seems legitimate; not really that different than someone asking about the source of various parts of a 70s B movie poster. But self-promotion.. it's just a REALLY risky thing to allow without full disclosure, right from the beginning..
We risk becoming a version of DeviantArt or something.
Well, I'll spare you any more of me being salty, then -- I should be heading to sleep anyway :)
 
I actually joked about writing a fanfiction and then asking a question about it here:
Dec 23 '18 at 21:12, by Alex
Nov 2 at 17:31, by Alex
Imagine: My fanfiction: Snape saw Harry in a deserted corridor and said, "Harry, I love you". The next day Ron said to Hermione, "did you hear? Snape professed his love for Harry." My question: How did Ron know that Snape professed his love for Harry if the corridor was deserted?
@K-H-W Good night.
 
@Alex Yep; that's the kind of thing I would be afraid of.. in chat it's one thing.. but on the main site? Ugh. Anyway, nite!
 
Hello? Any longtimers active or should I ping someone?
 
Hi, @MikeC
0
A: Books of scary stories with two or three plots each

StormblessedThese are from the Midnight Library series by Damien Graves. "One was about this boy that stole an apple from his neighbors backyard and turned into a tree." This is "An Apple a Day" from Voices (2007). A summary from a review (spelling/style corrected, emphasis mine): The last story, "An...

I made my answer pretty good
Is it a dupe (if it were accepted)? Two of the three stories are in the other answer I linked
@MikeC What's up?
Oh, yeah your question
I looked for it but haven't found the answer
 
3:36 AM
0
Q: Book about a prince on an Ice Planet

Loudermilk Sr.I read a book back in the 90's most likely from a school library. The main character was some lost prince who travels to an ice planet for some reason. The cover had him on the ice planet with some alien rifle. I believe he may have looked like an elf with his facial features.

0
Q: Did Bran Stark actually do anything as a warg in the final battle with the White Walkers?

Joe CBran told Theon he'd be going then warged into a few crows. What did he accomplish as the crow? It didn't look like he posed any threat to the Night's King. And if it was reconnaissance he didn't debrief with anyone about what he saw. What was the strategy there?

 
3:49 AM
How could I improve my answer?
 
4:37 AM
1
Q: How many days have elapsed since the Battle of Winterfell?

KharoBangdoIn Game of Thrones S08E04, we see the aftereffect of the Battle of Winterfell. The fallen heroes are laid to rest, then a big feast to celebrate life, then the battle plan to defeat Cersei & then they depart from Winterfell. Exactly how many days have elapsed since the battle till the time Da...

0
Q: Why didn't she end the war during the meeting of hands?

KemilioIt's obvious that could have killed with the Are there any legitimate in-universe reasons why she didn't? Seems like the writers just don't care anymore to me.

 
5:16 AM
2
Q: What (short?) story had an alien who mistakes autumn/winter for Earth dying?

Nick WestgateI think he was sending a report home or communicating with another alien, and I'm pretty sure it was a short story. The leaves falling from trees etc convinced him the Earth was dying. Likely written before 2000.

 
@K-H-W As long as there's disclosure, self promotion isn't an issue. We allow people to ask questions that they know the answer to; see self-answered questions. If the question would be on topic written by anyone else, it's on topic when written by the creator.
 
@Stormblessed it's pretty fine as is. Well the best thing is always to have quotes from the actual thing, but your current answer is great
@MikeC oi! You're wrecking my Google searches with that book of yours y'know that? :P
Mh. Got a Reversal badge for an actually decent question.
 
5:35 AM
0
Q: Trying to find title of a book but the only thing I can remember is it had solar sail technology

Lynand gorilla like aliens with one strong muscular arm and one weak arm??? Help?

 
5:55 AM
0
Q: Why did Missandei say Dracarys?

KharoBangdoIn Game of Thrones S08E04 The Last of the Starks, Euron When Dany agrees to a parlay with Cersei, she demands Dany's surrender in exchange for Upon refusal, she decides to Missandei says Dracarys. Dany has uttered it many times & I am assuming it means "Breath Fire". But why ...

0
Q: How Many guys think first two hours of avengers endgame was boring?

rajI found first two hours a bit boring, So I Just wanted to know How many people think the same

 
6:14 AM
0
Q: Childrens books about a ghostly or magical world that intermingles with our own - not Harry Potter

MooI read these books in the late 1980s, no earlier than 1987 and no later than 1988. The setting of the books is the modern world, but with a ghostly or hidden world intermingled with it - in a similar vein to the wizarding world in Harry Potter and London Below in Neil Gaimans Neverwhere, the hid...

 
6:34 AM
0
Q: Which story featured a human woman who had a relationship with a short lived alien?

Nick WestgateThe protagonist was working on an alien world where the natives lived only a matter of days, but despite the inevitable tragedy she allowed herself to enter into a relationship with one. Likely a short story written before 2000.

0
Q: Why did Gendry call himself Gendry Rivers?

DuskGendry was born in the Crownlands and should therefore be referred to as Gendry Waters. However, he refers to himself as Gendry Rivers. Did showrunners forget or is Gendry retarded?

 
6:53 AM
1
Q: Where was Gendry born?

KharoBangdoIn Game of Thrones S08E04 The Last of the Starks, Gendry is When Gendry finds Arya, he tells him that his earlier name was Gendry Rivers. As far as I know, Gendry was born in Kings Landing. Bastards of Kings Landing are named Waters. Bastards of Riverrun are named Rivers & Bastard...

1
Q: Why didn't Missandei just yeet Cersei off the platform?

QwanearWhen Cersei leaned in for the talk Missandei could have easily thrown her off the platform to her death. Instead she decided to be dramatic and feed into Daenerys's worst impulses. There were no restraints on her arm or legs. She was not even kneeling. It was the easiest thing to do but she did...

0
Q: What happened to the Horn of Winter?

StarseekerDoes anyone know what happened to the horn? Since if I remember correctly it was shown in the tv show, found by Sam and I think he took it with him when he left south, or Idk if it was just in the books that he took the horn south, especially since from my understanding it should have been import...

 
7:13 AM
0
Q: Why did Starchy kill a grass lard to remove princess bubblegums tracker?

sweaty clitoris princessWhy did Starchy kill a grass lard to remove princess bubblegums tracker? Then leave it to suffer for thousands of years

 
 
2 hours later…
9:29 AM
1
Q: Is this really a Starbucks cup?

DunAm I going insane or did someone really leave a coffee cup in a scene?

 
@Jenayah @Stormblessed Thank you so much! I just wanted to make sure I did the bounty right, and knew you guys were the ones to ask. Looks like I did.
@Jenayah yeah, this is the question I've been sitting on for the better part of a year, knowing it's almost impossible.
 
9:44 AM
@Jenayah the last time you helped me led me to four books read so far, and more in the future :)
 
9:56 AM
Spam! But a clever one. Better than the GOT one (@TheLethalCarrot) scifi.stackexchange.com/a/211798/98028
 
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Manually reported answer (94): Was Remus Lupin actually poor? by Mary G. Ball on scifi.SE
 
Actually this user seems clueless as duck. I'm not even sure it is spam. Either they're very clever or they're utterly offtrack.
@MikeC maybe yours will become the new "white whale" of story-id :-)
This seemed impossible as well, and while it took its time, it got solved. Never give up!
304
Q: Story where the number 3 is the monster?

zompzI remember as a child (in the nineties) reading a story where the narrator was a little boy and how he was scared only twice a day – when the clock read 3:33. The 3's would be powerful enough (there were three of them at 3:33) to leave the clock in the boy's room for one minute and do what they w...

@MikeC always happy to help :D
 
10:27 AM
0
Q: Why only seven Immortals?

AdamantWhen Kemal tells the story about the origins of the Protector, he implies that there have been seven immortals since the time that the Protector was made, hundreds of years previously. One of the other Immortals even says that "an ordinary mortal" has never joined them before. But why not? We c...

 
10:37 AM
@Jenayah I think they are a sophisticated bit.
Bot
Look at this exchange:
 
-1
Q: Is all of the 3 Game of Thrones twists have been revealed?

Kesavan MaharajanIn the long night episode the night king is killed, does this mean all 3 twists has been revealed?

 
Sorry, I did not understand you. Version of your children book - The Talisman (1984) by Stephen King and Peter Straub. — Mary G. Ball 15 mins ago
 
11:24 AM
 
@Adamant the book would kind of be a match from a very fast skim of Wikipedia
But true, it's botty
 
11:52 AM
@Alex You online?
Harrumph. I'm a little iffy about your decision to re-ask essentially the same post (with some reformatting which doesn't change the thrust of the question) as a new question rather than editing the old one. Reposting in order to 'cancel' downvotes/close-votes is heavily frowned upon, and I'm not sure if the differences are really enough to excuse it in this case.
I'm thinking to undelete and edit the old post, cast the 5th reopen vote, and dupe-close/merge the new post into it.
 
That was a new question?
Dang. Stumbled upon it in close queue, chuckled 'cause I thought Alex went out of their way to format accordingly with a big edit, and VTLOed. Never saw it wasn't an edit ahah
 
Yeah, saw that just now.
 
12:16 PM
1
Q: Why is the episode called "The Last of the Starks"?

Anu7The latest episode of Game of Thrones Season 8, episode 4 has been named "The Last of the Starks". Why was it named so? I couldn't fathom the reason behind this intriguing episode title.

 
I challenge all Marvel fans to watch this video from start to end: youtu.be/aW7f36mjU8A
 
0
Q: When did the Death Star 2 construction start?

SeamusthedogI think it's safe to assume (although probably well known to everyone except me) that the DS2 construction was started long before the DS1 was blown up. As it took nearly 20 years for the DS1 to be completed, when did the construction of DS2 begin?

 
1:08 PM
DS2 why my stupid question but don't worry, I've got f.tons more stupid questions to follow!
 
-2
Q: how did these things end in their climactic location?

Michael SternIn the final battle of Avengers: Endgame, Tony Stark manages to steal the Infinity Stones from Thanos’s gauntlet and insert them in his own glove. We don’t see how he pries them loose from Thanos’s gauntlet, but it was done so smoothly that Thanos himself does not see or feel it happening. We th...

 
6
Q: Can we identify all the characters in this "Ultimate Space Battle" poster?

Egor KlyuchnykDisclosure: I am the creator of this poster. Click for higher resolution image Can we identify which properties they come from and who they are?

Hey @Randal'Thor did the mods do something to this? The close votes all disappeared?
 
@Stormblessed It was closed and then reopened.
 
What the duck
Hi @Seamusthedog
 
Hi @Stormblessed I take it we keep it clean here?! Trying to avoid GoT ep4 stuff as wasn't getting up at 2am for. One word answer, good yes or no?
 
1:23 PM
@Seamusthedog Oh, I've never read a single one of those books or seen the show so nothing to worry about :-)
Spoilers are gonna be in that other chatroom, not here most likely
Apr 15 at 12:38, by Skooba
In case people come looking, we are discussing Game of Thrones with spoilers over in The Quill and Tankard
So yeah, probably no spoilers here
 
@Stormblessed I'm new to TV show but the misses is mad on it, she was up at 2 am.
 
@Randal'Thor Is it really so frowned upon? Regarding deleted posts Shog suggested simply reposting them because it's easier than fixing the original and getting people to do something about it. I applied the same logic here. (And the question already had a delete vote and was on the way to being automatically deleted since it was closed with a negative score, so I merely sped up the process.)
Especially considering that I already used up my options to send it to the reopen queue and the question wouldn't appear on the homepage even with an edit and the length would discourage potential reopen voters from reading it, reposting it seemed like a better option. (Also, we can't really say that I reposted the same question, because we don't really know what the first question was.)
@Randal'Thor That works fine for me. I don't care about the downvotes anyway.
 
I did that
0
Q: What should be done about animation media tags?

StormblessedShould animated-series be retired? animation's guidance is inconsistent with its use; it says that it should be on question about animation techniques, but forty-five of the forty-six questions on it are mistagged according to that (they use it as a media tag for story identification.) Effective...

 
Your question wasn't closed though.
 
Oh
Hey why don't we have cross-site duplicates?
 
1:29 PM
For what purpose?
 
Hi @Seamusthedog!
 
4
A: Short sci-fi story called "Blood and Lust"

StormblessedThis is "The Game of Blood and Dust" (1975)1 by Roger Zelazny. It is about two characters, Blood and Dust, altering history through time travel. They have the power to go to any time. Apparently, they fail to prevent Lincoln's death (emphasis mine): Blood entered Chewy's Theater on the even...

24
A: Time-spanning alien intelligences gamble with the fate of Earth

Mark OlsonThis is Roger Zelazny's "The Game of Blood and Dust". It seems like a good match. There are two intelligences, Blood and Dust, and they take turns making changes to history. They are alien, I guess. To my surprise, I found the text of the story online. The story begins: They drifted towa...

IDK
There are a few on Literature
 
Gee if we had those it'd be a mess between M&TV and SFF
With all the dupes in MCU and GOT stuff lately
 
Now Adamant has bountied the number 3 question.
 
@Jenayah At least between those two the answers will probably be relatively the same. But there could be a question that is on-topic on Biblical Hermeneutics, Christianity, and Mi Yodeya, and you'd likely get a very different answer on each site.
 
1:33 PM
@Stormblessed We sure have some. Including one that I've posted.
 
But not as many as on some other sites.
 
@Randal'Thor Yes.
 
Weird
Four of my story ID answers are at exactly ten score
It's like they just get stuck there
 
Because there are exactly 10 users who care about
 
1:39 PM
1 is at 1, 2 of them are at 2, 2 are at 3, 2 are at 4, then for some reason 4 are at ten
(And one is at 13, which is funny because it was a horror book)
 
9
Q: Seeking sci fi book of short stories

Alexandra BergI remember a few of the stories, not in great detail, and somewhat strange to explain in detail. The book was missing the protective cover, which left it burgundy or navy blue. It was a book the size of a good dictionary. Said it had short stories. So I read them. Its name did prepare my mind to ...

 
@Alex Probably
 
^ Wow, this is an unusual story-id question.
 
@Stormblessed No, the community did.
@Alex Shog suggested that?! My understanding is that deleting-and-reposting is abuse because it essentially cancels the community's votes. It could be OK if the post is sufficiently different (maybe that's what Shog was saying in whatever post you saw), but in this case the changes seemed to be mainly stylistic rather than major.
 
@Randal'Thor Shog wasn't talking about deleting the post. That was my own application. He was talking about where your post got deleted and you want to fix it.
9
A: What should I do if I find the answer to an old question of mine that was automatically deleted as abandoned?

Shog9Monica's advice on fixing the question is solid - anything you can do to correct whatever caused it to not get the necessary attention the first time around is worth doing. In particular, take this opportunity to add what you've learned in the time since you first asked. But then... Just re-as...

 
1:44 PM
@Stormblessed The boring answer might be simply because it'd be a pain to set up from the technical perspective. In practice, it might also be undesirable because different sites might have different communities, different points of view, different ways of answering a question. You wouldn't always get the same answer on two different sites.
 
Hi @Jenayah
 
@Randal'Thor The changes weren't major because I didn't think major changes were necessary. Given that the question was only closed as Unclear, as long as I made it absolutely clear what the question was then the problem should be solved.
 
Just consider SFF, M&TV, and Lit. If someone asked the same question about a book on two sites, SFF might give them "here's what the author said in an interview" while Lit might provide a deeper analysis including from the book itself and whether or not that fits with what the author said. Or if someone asked the same question about a film on two sites, M&TV might give them a Wikia quote while SFF might find canon sources or a more detailed answer from multiple sources.
 
So Literature is the best of the three sites.
 
@Alex Yeah, that's a very different situation. If your question has already been auto-deleted by the system, it might be OK to re-ask it instead of going through the palaver of getting it undeleted for you. But if your question is still alive and kicking just got some downvotes and close-votes, you can't just re-ask it to cancel those votes.
@Alex Sure. But if major changes aren't necessary, then neither is deleting and reposting the question.
 
1:50 PM
@Randal'Thor In theory it shouldn't be necessary. But in practice... as I said I couldn't send it to the reopen queue, the question wouldn't display on the homepage, the question was long enough to discourage potential voters from reading it, etc.
 
It was only one vote away from being reopened anyway.
And after the edits I was happy to cast the 5th vote.
Meta effect probably would've guaranteed it anyway.
 
@Randal'Thor Of course if it's a HP question, @Alex will do all of the above regardless of where it's posted.
 
And it was only two votes away from being deleted.
@Randal'Thor Perhaps I should have had more faith in you.
@DavidW As far as I know I've never posted an answer based on a Wikia quote or an author's interview.
Unfortunately I have answered based on Pottermore once or twice.
Twice to be precise.
@Alex As someone wise recently said:
> Sometimes you have to deal with the internet as it is rather than as it should be.
 
@Alex It was a joke.
 
@DavidW Still, I have to defend my reputation.
 
2:08 PM
@Alex All 20927 of it?
 
That reputation is not so important.
 
@Alex If it doesn't have a number, you can't measure it?
 
@DavidW Perhaps you can't give a precise value, but you can very surely assign a negative reputation to someone who posts answers based on Wikia quotes and author interviews.
 
Wikia quotes, agreed. Author interviews, disagreed.
Author interviews, even if the statements suck, at a far better source than a crappy Wikia or quoting what some guy posted to answer the same question on Reddit.
 
@Jenayah So you can interview me in order to answer this question:
11 hours ago, by Alex
Dec 23 '18 at 21:12, by Alex
Nov 2 at 17:31, by Alex
Imagine: My fanfiction: Snape saw Harry in a deserted corridor and said, "Harry, I love you". The next day Ron said to Hermione, "did you hear? Snape professed his love for Harry." My question: How did Ron know that Snape professed his love for Harry if the corridor was deserted?
 
2:20 PM
1
Q: Ecological tale of a world covered by a forest that is all one organism

Invisible TrihedronInterstellar explorers have discovered what looks like a very suitable planet for human colonization. The climate is good, there are no pathogens, and a beautiful forest grows abundantly. A charming aspect of the flora is that leaves can detach themselves and fly off like flocks of multicolored b...

0
Q: Forgotton Series Title

Kei KurotamaI watched a cartoon show last year and i can not remember it, it has been bugging me. It's about a teenage girl and her friends, i think part of a team. I remember something about team A or team B, daily combating magic and fantasy/magical creatures. If i remember correctly she is studying magic...

-3
Q: Would a legitimized Baratheon have the best claim for the Iron Throne?

starseeker29In S8E4 of Game of Thrones, Doesn't that indirectly mean that outside of having the best claim for Storm's End, he also has right now the best claim for the Iron Throne since he is now the legitimate heir of Robert who was the last king, and could create a lot more problems than solve, so in t...

 
I don't interview HP fanfic authors. Matter of principle.
2
 
@K-H-W @Stormblessed I missed that the "self-made object-ID" question was discussed here in chat ... relevant meta:
12
Q: Can a user ask something they already know?

RedCaioLet's say the guy who made all the wands for the Harry Potter films is secretly a SFF.se user and wants to test our knowledge / research skills, so he posts a picture of a bunch of wands and asks "To whom do each of these wands belong?" For example: To whom do each of these wands belong? ...

 
Okay, so I'll interview myself.

Alex: Hi Alex, you know that epic fanfiction you wrote about Snape and Harry in the deserted corridor?

Alex: I remember it well.

Alex: Well, someone had a question about it on a Stack Exchange site and I was wondering if you could help us out.

Alex: What's the question?

Alex: Well, it says in the story that the corridor was deserted. If it was deserted, how did Ron know what happened? One person suggested that Ron did a Disillusionment Charm on himself, but come on, we all know that Ron would never be capable of that kind of magic.
2
 
You're a nutter Alex :-)
3
 
Indeed.
 
2:29 PM
@Randal'Thor but unlike that, this guy is asking a question that won’t help make a Q&A in any way
It’s an advertisement
 
@Stormblessed Isn't the question you want closed exactly analogous to the hypothetical one discussed on meta?
 
It’s abuse of the asking a question you know thing because it’s your weird poster you’re trying to sell
 
"here's a thing I made, identify these things"
 
@Randal'Thor unlike that, it’s about some work that nobody cares about
 
@Stormblessed [citation-needed]
 
2:30 PM
@Alex ahahahahahahahah
 
It’s just a random poster, not a movie that some people like
 
Hm... I liked that poster, I think it's kinda amazing actually
 
@Stormblessed It's a poster with a lot of objects from many different sci-fi franchises that many people like.
 
No need to be snotty about it just because it's not one of the top 2 tags on the site.
3
 
2:32 PM
More than Half of the questions I see on the site can already be answered by the OP (considering the level of answers they give on other posts).. — prakhar londhe Feb 10 '16 at 14:08
Is that true?
 
@Alex Mu.
Impossible to verify one way or the other, and pointless to discuss.
 
@Alex I'm going to stop trying to be funny now. :-P
 
@DavidW Don't let my responses curtail your humor.
 
@Alex You'll find the curtail in the upper left quarter of his avatar.
 
And it’s actually easier to see on mobile.
 
2:49 PM
@Randal'Thor To be honest, although I understand your opinion, I agree with Wad Cheber's response -- perhaps it should be permissible, but it very quickly becomes a slipper slope between contributing useful info and advertising.
@Randal'Thor b_jonas also made a good point about the question in question -- he suggests its ok to post and answer your own question as long as you do that -- answer it. Then you may be doing what is suggested; adding valuable info to the site. But the question we're looking at the OP didn't answer it (nor identify himself as the author); instead the site tried to for quite a while. That seems to violate both the letter and intent. Hence the VTC which looks like it has now been purged.
 
Not purged, reversed. The post was closed and then reopened again by the community. No mod intervention involved.
 
Personally, I think it should have been locked closed. But if the community disagrees there is little I can do, and I won't try to fight the tide -- I just think it is a very bad (dangerous) precedent -- had it been self-identified from the beginning I would have no problem.. But I can easily see movie makers / authors / etc., trying to start using the site as a form of Viral Marketing with a similar tactic- and that could kill the site in its current form.
 
@K-H-W Hmm, I hadn't realised that it didn't initially include the disclosure. That's a bad mark against the OP, but not against the post in its current form. We don't close questions because of what's in their revision histories.
 
3:06 PM
@Randal'Thor Yeah, and I can see that.. but you see the precedent I worry about -- after recognizing it breaks the rules, it still stays open because it provoked good conversation.. That just encourages others to try similar ploys; in other environments I've been in, I like to administratively smash such things, explain why, and let the user redo it with attribution, so we basically undo the original post. That said, I'm also doing it in a corporate environment, so I recognize it is different..
@Randal'Thor Without having identified the OP as having created it early, that's would have been awfully hard to do.. I'm just wracking my brain for a better idea.. Leaving it open just worries me.
 
I don't recall the circumstances around this one (maybe @Null does, as he was the one who edited it), but it might be that by the time we realised the poster was made by the OP, the community had already put a lot of time and effort into answering it and we didn't want to destroy that fun by spam-killing the question.
Certainly the answer came well before Null's editing in the disclosure.
Given that OP is evidently the creator of this (commercially available) image and has failed to disclose their affiliation on the original question, I've flagged this as spam; artstation.com/chekavoValorum Sep 28 '18 at 0:43
 
@Randal'Thor No, you've got it exactly. And I understand the rationale. I just worry about the long-term impact on the site. But, possibly I'm being a worry-wart.
 
in Discussion on answer by Web Head: Can we identify all the characters in this "Ultimate Space Battle" poster?, Sep 27 '18 at 21:24, by RDFozz
@EgorKlyuchnyk - Hey - if you're the same Egor Klyuchnyk, isn't that kind of cheating?
That seems to be when people realised what was going on, but the initial reaction was more "that's awesome" than "damn, this is spammy".
@K-H-W If we get lots of these posts in the future, feel free to say "I told you so" :-P
 
@Randal'Thor Again -- I don't disagree with you, and I understand the rationale.. It just worries me. :)
 
In all fairness, I see your point, and you're right that it could become a problem some day. But a meta discussion (either about the general issue or about that specific question) would probably bring out the various perspectives better than chat/comments.
 
3:13 PM
Probably. But I like to make sure I'm not just being a nut-job before asking such things.. Chat is great for that. Most of the time it confirms that I am a nutjob, but should ask the question anyway.
 
@Randal'Thor My rationale was simply that the easiest way to fix the problem with the post was to add attribution -- deleting the post wouldn't prevent someone else or the OP from re-asking it with attribution. While the OP wouldn't be penalized by a spam flag, the post would be somewhat penalized in that it would more likely be downvoted by users who saw the post as spammy.
My rationale was definitely not because "the community had already put a lot of time and effort into answering it and we didn't want to destroy that fun by spam-killing the question". I detest such identify-these-million-and-one-objects questions -- whether asked by the creator or not -- and see no fun in them. I think they should be closed as too broad, but the community seems to like them so I content myself with downvoting every one of them I come across.
3
 
3:28 PM
@Randal'Thor they didn’t originally disclose. Why isn’t it spam? In its original form it was and the OP didn’t add the disclosure
 
@Stormblessed The OP didn't add the disclosure because I didn't wait and give him a chance to add it, I just added it myself.
 
@Stormblessed strictly speaking, while it was indeed spam by SE definition, not everybody knows what the rules about self-promotion. It could have been an honest mistake, that's not something well know for sure
It's less of an obvious spam than the "Keto diet thing burn calories best diet lose weight" shit on other sites. Meta, notably
Those know they're spamming, no doubt about that.
 
The author did in fact claim it was an honest mistake.
Hello @Null . Sorry about that, I'm new on this site so I could missed some rules. Thank you for edition post. I just did not want to appear here like "Hey, check out my art". I thought that ask a question will be more interesting. — Egor Klyuchnyk Sep 28 '18 at 10:04
 
3:45 PM
Quote formatting doesn't show in the sidebar ... @Alex you're new? :-)
 
@Alex You'd think, eh? ;-)
 
@Randal'Thor In light of the earlier conversation, would it be frowned upon to delete my account and start over? Then I’d be new.
 
@Randal'Thor ahah
 
@NapoleonWilson Of course.
 
@Alex well, while I want to believe it we have no way to be sure, have we?
 
3:54 PM
@Jenayah Correct. I’m just pointing out the possibility.
 
I know, as did I
 
I am super-tempted to post an answer like: *"The name Almanzo is probably a corruption of the name Alonso, which in turn is from the German 'Adalfuns', meaning 'noble-ready'. Of course, Hydra is German in origin, so this is a reference to Howard Stark's knowledge of Hydra involvement in SHIELD. Furthermore, 'Alonso' is Portuguese, and in Agents of SHIELD there is a whole mission set in Lisbon, so the movie is clearly telling us that in an alternate universe Iron Man gets involved in that instead of Lady Sif."*
 
@mattdm Well, now that you've said this in here, if you did post such an answer, it would be quite clearly a passive-aggressive response to another answer which you disagree with, and as such would likely be poorly received.
 
Yeah I'm posting here rather than actually trolling, despite the temptation :)
 
Good then.
 
4:08 PM
This is in reference to scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/211662/…, of course
 
0
Q: Why does Bran continue to do this (8.04)?

Darth LockeIn episode 8.04 (The Last of the Starks) of Games of Thrones, the story continues to march along with the characters continuing to prepare for the future by playing 'The Game of Thrones', But Bran mentions to Tyrion that he But if this was really the case, then why is Bran Besides ...

 
I don't really mind that the Little House speculative answer got so many upvotes for no really good reason. But that mine is in the negatives and was even temporarily deleted makes me question the sanity of the entire readership of this site
 
Well, neither answer has much in the way of proof. (Admittedly it's harder to prove a negative, so you're at a disadvantage there.)
I guess people generally prefer "here's a cool explanation" to "there is no cool explanation", regardless of the relative likelihood of the two.
 
Mh. For what it's worth, until someone gets a tweet from a writer or something, my downvote on the Little House answer stays...
 
It's not even that cool of an explanation. But, yeah.
 
4:16 PM
Well... It's hard to make anything cool when your source material is Little House on the Prairie ;)
Except looping videos of the brat falling down in the TV show intro.
 
Hey, I read those as a kid, and I'm not even American.
 
So? You can read stuff and not like it ;)
 
Especially when it's assigned reading from school.
 
@mattdm "question the sanity..." That's something we do every day.
 
@Alex heh, fair.
 
4:19 PM
Anecdote time, the first work I was ever spoiled was the only assigned reading I was actually looking forward to read.
 
@Jenayah What do you have against Little House on the Prairie?
 
I asked whether I could use Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for a book study, because I was interested in it.
 
Dr Jenayakyll and Mr Alex Hyde.
Now it all makes sense.
 
@Randal'Thor Of course she gets to be the normal half.
 
Teacher's answer: "oh, certainly. That has some very interesting analysis parts, especially​ the ending, when Jekyll is revealed to be Hyde, and it's unclear whether he committed suicide after his downfall".
Spoken reply: "hey... I told you I hadn't read it :/ "
 
4:23 PM
Jenayah, a respected doctor and answerer of story-ID questions, sometimes takes a potion that causes her to go crazy and write long rambling Harry Potter questions and meta posts about POB/dupe closures.
2
 
Wow.
 
Thought reply: "Fuck. You."
@Randal'Thor ahahah
 
@Jenayah I guess they assumed that this is so much "common knowledge" that you'd surely already know it.
You should bring out this anecdote each time people are discussing whether spoilers can go out of date :-)
 
Though there is a difference. If you're browsing a site dedicated to talking about what happened in movies/shows/books/comics/whatever then you should expect that ten years after the fact it will be loaded with spoilers. If you're asking your teacher if you can read a book, you don't expect the teacher to spoil it for you.
 
@Randal'Thor I had just told her I hadn't read it
Also, what Alex said
 
4:36 PM
@Jenayah I haven't read it either, but I know the general idea.
 
I read it and have forgotten all but the general idea. ;-)
 
But yeah, that sucks. I'm just playing devil's teacher's advocate.
 
@Jenayah It's even more common to read something, enjoy it, and then look back askance at your younger self and ask "how did you ever stomach that?"
 
adds to the "things Napoleon has read and Rand hasn't" list
aka "my hall of shame" :-P
 
When I was in my mid-20s I took a look at my shelf and simply dumped all the Piers Anthony books in a bag and dropped them in a donation bin.
 
4:38 PM
@Randal'Thor your strike through is on the wrong word.
That teacher was a pain to have.
@DavidW never read those
I take it you don't recommend it now :p
 
You have missed precisely nothing, and gained dozens of irreplaceable hours of your life.
Hours that you could spend usefully, like hanging out here, or arguing with @Alex.
 
@DavidW And that's extra beneficial because then it's not only useful to her, it's also useful to me.
 
@DavidW Sure. I think the reading time of all the cringe-worthy books in this world would still be shorter than reaching the end of an argument with Alex anyway. :)
 
@Jenayah Are there that few cringe-worthy books in the world?
 
Oooh boy.
 
4:44 PM
Unless you're trying to insinuate something...
 
Apr 24 at 19:46, by Jenayah
@DavidW oh no, irony and snark aren't something we know of in these lands... :-)
 
@Jenayah The French don't have irony and snark?
I guess you leave that to your northern and eastern neighbours.
 
"these lands" meant TREU
 
Is there a general programming chat room here?
 
4:52 PM
There's probably about 50,000 different ones, but on the chat.so domain.
Which makes sense, since you usually want to discuss the specific intricacies of a specific language.
If it's more theretical/algorithmic considerations, maybe the Computer Science people can help, too, though.
 
@Randal'Thor I've been looking through this list, but there are so many. Didn't know if I missed one.
 
5:06 PM
@Jenayah At least you inspired me to ask a Jekyll & Hyde question on Literature :-)
@TheLethalCarrot Speedy dupe-close there, Gonzales.
 
I don’t want to say I’m amazing but...
 
0
Q: Why didn't Cersei kill Dany, Tyrion and rest of others?

Govinda SakhareIn S08E04 we see a face-off between Cersei and Dany. She could have could Dany during the first meet before the great war also but possibly didn't because she was terrified of dragons. But now as we know she has a weapon to kill the dragons also she has the backing of people of the kings landing...

 
@Randal'Thor Someone seems to have a Scotland fixation...
 
@Alex Stevenson, you mean?
 
@Randal'Thor You.
 
5:10 PM
!
 
Naturally.
 
Your last two literature questions.
 
There's even more!
 
@Randal'Thor There actually does not appear to be a question in that post.
 
@Alex Oh, OK, that's quite funny.
I'd forgotten the penultimate one was that one.
 
5:13 PM
@DavidW You have an interesting idea of "useful".
 
2
Q: girl who can shapeshift and at one point turns into a drop of water

LauraI read this book years ago, and it was about a girl who is taken through a portal I think, she is holding onto her dad's hand but she lets go for a second and gets taken away, and I think she can shapeshift into anything. She is being trained for something but I can't remember, and at one point s...

1
Q: Technological Advance in the Game of Thrones

dano-akiliIt seems as if technological advancements in the GOT is unduly slow if it occurs at all. Humans appear to have the same level of weapon and transportation technology etc. in the current timeline (Jon Snow/Aegon Targaryean as King of the North) as they did prior to the original Long Night which o...

 
I thought that was the point of the joke.
 
It was a joke?
 
@Mithrandir It's a relative thing. I was trying to come up with the least useful thing everyone could related to, that is nonetheless still more useful than reading Piers Anthony.
 
So it was an insult.
 
5:20 PM
Well, note that I said "arguing" with you, which seems not to have much point, as opposed to general discussion, which has value.
Arguing in general having limited utility in most circumstances, so it's not even that much of a dig at you in particular.
 
All my arguments are general discussion.
 
I'm not going to argue with you. :)
 
Fine, let’s discuss it.
 
Plus, that comment was scoped to the broader context of hanging out in chat, which also, in the grand scheme of things, is of dubious value. :)
 
You don’t have to justify it; I’m not actually insulted.
 
5:27 PM
0
Q: Where and what is Storm's End?

StackOneIn Game of Thrones S08E04 Gendry was named the Lord of Storm's End. Where is this place? In Westeros? In the northen part or the southern part? Does this place have any history behind it? I don't think I have seen this place on the opening credits or in the show.

0
Q: How does the past Nebula come to know about present Nebula?

Amruth AHow does the timestamp of future Nebula in Avengers: Endgame can come into past Nebula? How is this possible? Why does past Nebula get visions of it? It makes completely no sense to me. How are the two Nebula's connected?

1
Q: What is in the package delivered to Hank Pym?

Peregrine LennertIn Endgame, Captain America gets Hank Pym out of his lab by pretending to be a delivery man. He mentions that the package is glowing, prompting Hank to ask if anybody had opened it, and then to rush off when he finds out that someone supposedly had opened it. Was there any specific reference, or...

0
Q: What is the significance of the scene of Soul Stone Pocket Dimension with young Gamora?

enorl76In Avengers Infinity War, Thanos snaps his fingers and causes the Snapocalypse. Next scene is Thanos and a young Gamora within an odd place, devoid of many features beyond an asian style gazebo or similar. What is the significance of this scene? Much speculation before Endgame was that this ...

 
0
Q: Why did Dr. Strange keep looking into the future after the snap?

MocasEndgame spoiler Dr Strange seeing the one winning scenario, meant he kept looking into the future for 5 years after the snap where nothing was happening, until a rat presses the button to get Ant-Man out. Where is the logic in that? The chances of that is way smaller than 1 in 14m. Also, doing t...

 
@Alex Should I change the room description to "Arguments for scifi.stackexchange.com — both on-topic and off-topic, but please be nice"?
 
@Randal'Thor suggested improvement: "Arguments with @Alex for scifi.stackexchange.com — both on-topic and off-topic, but please be nice"?
 
@Randal'Thor No, because the term "arguments for" has an implication of arguing on behalf of something, or in favor of something. If the room was to justify the site's existence, then perhaps. But you can change it to "Arguments about..."
 
Indeed.
 
5:38 PM
@DavidW I steadfastly maintain that chat has value. Otherwise, I've wasted four years of my life :P
 
Slartibartfastly?
 
@Mithrandir So be happy he informed you so now you don't waste the next four years as well.
 
Eh, it actually wasn't a waste. I can pinpoint specific things that chat has helped me with. Such as learning how to talk to people... sort of.
 
@Randal'Thor suggested improvement: "Arguments with @Alex about scifi.stackexchange.com and other stuff. Engage at the risk of your own sanity. Please be nice and don't say we didn't warn you"
 
@Jenayah I am now very tempted to change the description to this
 
5:42 PM
Go for it!
 
:D
 
But have we had many arguments about "other stuff"?
 
I'd be tempted ro review the topic of each argument we ever had, but I've got to be at work in 13 hours.
 
room topic changed to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: General discussion for scifi.stackexchange.com, both on-topic and off-topic. Engage at the risk of your own sanity, but please be nice and don't say we didn't warn you. [fantasy] [floofs] [off-topic] [reviews] [sci-fi]
 
ahahah you freaking did it
 
5:47 PM
;)
 
@Jenayah Well we kind of argued about whether it is better to be a "sinai" or a "charif".
 
oh right :D
The thing about knowing lots of stuff but not being very fast to proceed it, and not having the information always at the ready but being able to draw accurate conclusions fast
I don't remember which is which, though.
 
@Jenayah Close enough.
 
it wasn't that?
 
Oct 17 '18 at 23:23, by Alex
@Jenayah The background was the Talmudic discussion about whether someone who has a broad mastery of, and remembers, all the information is superior to someone who does not know as much, or remember as much, but has a sharper intellect. The former person is referred to as sinai and the latter person is referred as charif, and the Talmud's conclusion was that sinai is superior because you can't do anything with the sharp intellect if you don't have the broad knowledge base to apply it to.
 
5:53 PM
Personally, I like spicy food.
 
If you make a pun in another language you have to explain it to the crowd.
 
@Mithrandir ?
 
3 mins ago, by Alex
If you make a pun in another language you have to explain it to the crowd.
 
meh
 
Basically, the word "charif" also means spicy.
 
5:58 PM
oh
 
Gives a whole new meaning to the discussion.
 
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