The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

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Hakase

00:58

@Hakase - I'm pretty sure that SFF:SE would be delighted to accept your unwanted ID questions, as long as they look like they contain some element of science fiction or fantasy. I was going to suggest a formal migration path to make things easier for y'all — Richard 1 hour ago

have you had a discuttion about this on your meta?

would you like to migrate or redirect via close vote plaque text the ID requests we get to your site?

worth saying the most of them are crap and there's the famous "don't migrate crap" policy so yea

@Hakase - Since ID questions are widely accepted as on-topic on SFF, I can't imagine there will be any problem whatsoever — Richard 1 min ago

tell me what you think

wow low activity in this chat room

@Tim would you like to start a meta conversation on here about that? :p

2 hours later…

Adamant

02:49

Well, we'd be fine with that.

We require that all ID questions contain enough detail to make them uniquely identifiable, though.

@Hakase If the question body is just "Help! I can't remember this anime with robots," we'd likely close it.

nitsua60

@Mithrandir I don't have the rep to even suggest the edit, but it should be "precedent" not "precedence" in this answer.

Marvin

Q: Should we offer a migration path to Anime:SE story-ID questions with scifi (or fantasy) content?

Anime:SE have made a firm decision to reject any future Story-ID questions (regardless of the quality of the post or the information on offer) but do still get the occasional wayward soul who asks them and instantly gets shut down. Given our solid track record of solving story-ID questions and t...

Mithrandir

03:17

@nitsua60 yeah, annoying that there are no suggested edits on meta

Fixed, thanks

nitsua60

Memor-X

03:48

*drops in from the void and smashes head first into a wall*

@Adamant in other words don't migrate crap

to determine which are crap, is there guidelines on SciFi?

1 hour later…

xkcd

05:13

Every time we detect an asteroid from outside the Solar System, we should immediately launch a mission to fling one of our asteroids back in the direction it came from.

M&TV Feeds

05:42

Q: Low budget D-list movie with werewolf, emo guy, and mystical girl of his dreams

This is one for the pros. I'm trying to identify this movie, not because it was good or because I want to re-watch it, but because it was one of the most steaming piles of cinematic crud that I'd ever seen in Netflix (or possibly Amazon Prime). I'll try my best to give the bits and pieces I remem...

identify-this-movie horror fantasy

2 hours later…

Edlothiad

07:15

@Memor-X Is it uniquely identifiable? yes? not crap.

2 hours later…

Mithrandir

09:17

@Hakase yeah, it's kind of slow.

@Hakase well, there is one now.

@Hakase historically, Scifi.SE has had a better experience than most with ID questions. If they start to lower our quality, I'm sure that the migration path would be disabled.

Also, wow, the last daily floof was four days ago.

Daily floof 2017/11/22

Marvin

10:14

Q: Should we kill the [animals]?

We currently have an animals tag, with ~80 questions at the moment. It does not have any usage guidance, just this as the tag wiki: Animals in science fiction and fantasy works have vital roles in many plots, including protagonists, antagonists, plot motivators and wise mentors. 27 of these...

discussion tags

2 hours later…

Rand al'Thor

11:59

@Narusan Ah, you still think of her as Amyrlin in some sense? Don't think she'll regain her former stature just because she can channel again ;-)

@Memor-X SFF doesn't have any firm rules on which ID questions are acceptable and which should be closed (other than ones which aren't about sci-fi or fantasy, obviously). Mostly this is because we don't actually get many which are bad enough to be downvoted or closed.

The best rule of thumb is that it should be uniquely answerable, but that still permits a lot of one-liners.

We also have guidelines on how to ask a good ID question, but those are only guidelines and not rules - i.e. questions wouldn't be closed or even downvoted just for not ticking all those boxes.

Derpy

12:38

and in the meantime, somewhere else, an user was secretly plotting to open up a MLP chat room on the Sci-Fi site...

at least @Mithrandir would be happy, he would have somewhere to redirect noisy users to :P

Narusan

13:28

@Randal'Thor I was trying to be as spoiler free as I can get. With Egwene as Amyrlin, it is obvious she won’t regain her power as long as Egwene is in charge. I wonder when they find out about Elayne‘s Warder. Also, Rand Is playing a dangerous little game with the Grey Aes Sedai.

Rand al'Thor

Not just regain her power as Amyrlin - she won't even regain the respect she had as a new Aes Sedai.

And yeah, about Rand and those Aes Sedai - keep reading :-)

b_jonas

13:43

-3

Q: Is Oumuamua the vehicle from Rendezvous with Rama?

Reading about the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua, I found it really striking how similar the (scarce) description of it is to the description of Rama, the interstellar vehicle from the book Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, but so far I have not seen any comparison of the two on the inter...

space arthur-c-clarke

^ Can we reopen this? I could answer it, because there has been comparison of the two on the internet.

Specifically apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap171122.html compares them

Or maybe edit to to ask if anyone compared them.

Rand al'Thor

If it can be edited to be on-topic, I'd be happy to reopen it.

b_jonas

Dunno, might not be worth the trouble. Would still be a bad question.

I just posted a comment.

Edlothiad

Just because an answer exists doesn't mean it's not off-topic.

Skooba

@b_jonas check the edits. might make it on-topic now.

Edlothiad

@Skooba It's still asking about a real world object

Not SFF

Throw the link in a comment, cast the final delete vote and be done with the mess.

Rand al'Thor

13:59

@Edlothiad Comparisons between real-life objects and SFF ones can be on-topic.

b_jonas

"Except for the elongated shape, the interstellar origin and the very light absorbent surface," => we don't know if it has a very light absorbent surface, because all we have is location measurements and spectra. we're only guessing the size. And no, there aren't other similarities than the extra-solar origin and the elognated shape, because THOSE TWO ARE THE ONLY FUCKING DATA WE HAVE ABOUT THAT SPOT IN THE SKY.

Just what does he want from us, seriously?

Edlothiad

@Randal'Thor Well this is the exact same question.

Rand al'Thor

I keep thinking about this very well-received question comparing real technology to fictional:

212

Q: Which 2015 technologies were correctly predicted by Back to the Future II?

This year is not only the 30th anniversary of the Back to the Future franchise as a whole, but is also the year in which Back to the Future II is set. Which technologies that exist in 2015 (at least as prototypes) were correctly predicted by Back to the Future II ? To clarify, I am looking ...

back-to-the-future back-to-the-future-ii

Edlothiad

That's asking about the science fiction work.

TBF I'd have voted to close that as well.

b_jonas

I mean, what doe he want from us? How would we know if there are other similarities? We don't know anything about that extrasolar object yet.

Rand al'Thor

14:02

@Edlothiad No, it's asking about how real technology compares with the 'predictions' made in the sci-fi work.

b_jonas

The discovery of that particular stupid object isn't important because that object is special, but because now with the same tools improved we'll be able to find tens or hundreds of such objects entering the solar system in a few years,

Rand al'Thor

If the Oumuamua question was edited to be something like that ...

b_jonas

and eventually not only find statistical data about them, but hopefully find one with the right trajectory that we can send a probe to it.

@Randal'Thor As for edits, what might work is asking if anyone has likened that object to Rama. But even that isn't a very good question.

Rand al'Thor

@b_jonas "We come in peace!" aliens shoot down probe

b_jonas

@Randal'Thor That would be even better actually than just getting close to it.

Edlothiad

14:04

@Randal'Thor Which 2017 asteroids were correctly predicted by Arthur C. Clarke?

Rand al'Thor

@b_jonas Yeah, I can't really think of a constructive way to edit that question to make it a good one.

But I didn't simply delete it, on the off-chance that someone else might manage.

b_jonas

I moved all the rant into comments now.

@Randal'Thor Yes, it's not worth deleting. We can leave it for the few days until it will get auto-deleted from votes.

1 hour later…

SFF Blog

15:17

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Community Blog: Andy Weir’s Artemis: A Novel

posted on November 22, 2017 by Jack B Nimble

From the Amazon description: Propelled by its heroine’s wisecracking voice, set in a city that’s at once stunningly imagined and intimately familiar, and brimming over with clever problem-solving and heist-y fun, Artemis is another irresistible brew of science, suspense, and humor from #1 bestselling author Andy Weir. Artemis is set on the moon. And follows ... Read more

Rand al'Thor

New blog post: Andy Weir's Artemis: A Novel, by @JackBNimble

3 hours later…

M&TV Feeds

18:05

Q: Why did Warner Bros CGI out Henry Cavill's mustache?

After scrolling on Twitter loads of people have tweeted about how Warners Bros spent $25 million worth of CGI used to remove Henry Cavill's mustache in Justice League. For example: Anyway back to the point why did Warner Bros spend 25 million to remove Henry Cavill's mustache instead of askin...

production dc-extended-universe justice-league

1 hour later…

M&TV Feeds

19:07

Q: Who are the people in the newspaper?

Who are the people on left and right side of superman? The headline says Do they return to their planet? So they could be aliens, Is the first one is The Mask?? He looks like him. I am not a comic book fan, so if it is Mask, then he and Superman are in same universe? If not who is he? and the ...

reference dc-extended-universe justice-league

1 hour later…

Marvin

20:28

Q: Should we offer a migration path to Movie:SE's unwanted story-ID questions about sci-fi (and fantasy)?

Movies:SE have recently altered their policies on Story:ID to tighten their minimum requirements and close that don't meet their quality standards. They're also now deleting any closed ID that remain "unimproved" for a significant period of time (a moderator recently suggested something between 9...

discussion migration

1 hour later…

M&TV Feeds

21:44

Q: Where did the Inhumans end up on Earth?

At the end of episode 8, their Attillan is about destroyed and one of the Nasa/Government guys says "I know where you can stay" and in the final scene, they're all in this area. Do we know where they settled? Government base? Area 51? Xanadu? The Plaza Hotel? I'm curious if there's a...

marvel-cinematic-universe inhumans

Vroomfondel

22:31

Q: Was the Marvel "Punisher" title a response to Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns"?

The Dark Knight Returns was published in 1986, and, along with Watchmen, is regarded as the catalyst for the Dark Age of Comics. More violent than previous mass market titles, these works also brought more psychological depth to the characters, which is often a function of past trauma and how it...