The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

7:48 AM

@SQB Added some basic usage guidance with what I believe is correct

8:04 AM

Do we really need to create a tag for one question? Can we not just create an original series tag for the original 5+ films?

TheLethalCarrot

There's only 26 tagged [planet-of-the-apes], I doubt it requires much thought really

TheLethalCarrot

8:51 AM

@Jenayah You could remove the :) at the end of the post too

Mithrandir

some people just hate fun :P

TheLethalCarrot

raises hand

But I like fun but random smilies and stuff have no place here really

Jenayah

Alright

done

TheLethalCarrot

Hello @ava what brings you here?

avazula

Hi there!

It's my first time here, just wandering around :)

Mithrandir

8:56 AM

mind the depressed robot in the corner

avazula

Oh, there's nowhere in the SE universe where I can flee you @Mith haha

Mithrandir

nope :D I call myself a network user for a reason :P

Jenayah

You can run, but you can't hide...

avazula

Oh, jeez, Rick...

Jenayah

(thunder strike)

TheLethalCarrot

9:02 AM

Got a cuppa now, my mind can function again

avazula

powered by coffee

TheLethalCarrot

I'm British so it's definitely tea over coffee

doppelgreener

I'm British/Australian. This makes matters of caffeination a bit conflicted for me.

TheLethalCarrot

I used to work at Starbucks, does that add any conflict in? :P

Jenayah

@doppelgreener oh, you are? So what's your take on the discussion starting here? :p

doppelgreener

9:08 AM

@TheLethalCarrot It does

I mean in Australia Starbucks isn't liked and didn't do well: when they arrived in Australia they opened up several hundred shops, then had to shut almost all of them down to a few dozen because nobody wanted their coffee.

But on the other hand, people need jobs and we're not going to fault a person for working at Starbucks. :P

TheLethalCarrot

Well technically I worked at Centre Parcs, it just so happened I worked at Starbucks there

doppelgreener

Maybe for voluntarily drinking Starbucks during their spare time.... which makes me very conflicted over my only coffee shop near my house being a starbucks.......

TheLethalCarrot

Their coffee isn't too bad though

Mithrandir

*slurping an ice vanilla*

TheLethalCarrot

The main problem is it's a mix between "proper" coffee chains where they do all the work themselves cos the machines grind the beans and ones where you just push a button and it does all the work

Jenayah

9:12 AM

@TheLethalCarrot caffè mocha for the win

doppelgreener

@Jenayah Australians do call the Brits poms or pommies. I don't think we generally use it in a disparaging sense. Also, it's 'Strayan. ;D

Jenayah

@doppelgreener Well that's good to know then. @SQB tagging you, you might be interested ;)

TheLethalCarrot

Ah just read somewhere it's not meant to be an insult and that's a common misconception, though if it is indeed a common misconception probably still be wary of using it

Jenayah

I'll stick with "rosbifs" or "bloody Brits" :p

SQB

@doppelgreener ah, I've only seen it written as 'Strine.

@doppelgreener in The Netherlands, they quickly started giving everyone a free extra shot until they adjusted and made their coffee stronger.

Jenayah

9:26 AM

@SQB Wait, Starbucks hands out free stuff in the Netherlands?!

And I only learn about that now? :(

SQB

@Edlothiad we decided on meta to always create a tag for the specific work. I'm on mobile, can't be arsed to look, but it's the same one where we decided against always tagging with the author.

@Jenayah not anymore. But when they just got here, they had their settings to "bland American black water" instead of "coffee". So they offered one free shot (of espresso) on every order to compensate.

Jenayah

@SQB Oh

Is American coffee that bad? (never tasted one, I think)

doppelgreener

@SQB this is acceptable :D

Australians say strayan and straya though when we're doing it for a joke

TheLethalCarrot

@Jenayah Might just be Starbucks though, the machine handles all the beans for you and the barista just does the milk and what not so chances are the machine dilutes the beans quite heavily

Jenayah

Alright

doppelgreener

9:34 AM

@Jenayah American coffee is not great. Starbucks there is fine in quality compared to Starbucks elsewhere... but Starbucks isn't as good as coffee can be. Outside of Starbucks, there's a preoccupation with dripolators (one of the worst ways to generate coffee) or with loads of flavours and syrups and creams and stuff.

Part of the reason Starbucks bombed in Australia was it arrived in a culture that already had well-established coffee culture directly inherited from the Italians, and we have tons of extremely high-quality indie boutique coffee shops.

In one city block that held the office building I worked in, there were about a dozen coffee shops. On just that block. And every one of them was independent or part of a very small chain. There were more across the road in the large mall, which is where the larger chain shops were found.

(not physically larger coffee shops, just large franchise chains)

TheLethalCarrot

I quite like the syrups, though I generally had a small amount of caramel instead of sugar cos when I worked there I didn't really like coffee, but y'know it was free

doppelgreener

American quality is okay, but it isn't great. And when you have access to great at the same price, you're not likely to settle for okay.

SQB

Starbucks strategy used to be / still is to flood a block with Starbucks, all losing money but driving out the other coffee shops.

Jenayah

@SQB That's the American way for you ;D

TheLethalCarrot

10:38 AM

mmmhm weird @doppel s first post never showed up for me in the review

Jenayah

It did for me

TheLethalCarrot

That's how I realised it was a FP haha

SQB

@Edlothiad as it turns out, I could be arsed.

18

A: What is the correct usage of individual works tags vs. author tags vs. franchise tags?

We should be pretty liberal with creating tags for specific works of science fiction, and here's why I think so (if you don't care, skip down a bit :) ) In my opinion, a "work of fiction" is the core element of "expertise" that exists for the people supplying answers on this site. In other words...

Jenayah

@TheLethalCarrot Never really paid attention, but I was surprised to see it was hehe

TheLethalCarrot

Me too, I generally check rep and the name to see if a FP will be on the way

And then I reviewed the new story id and it didn't show doppels still, oh well

doppelgreener

10:44 AM

:D

Jenayah

I'm still a bit taken aback by how you end up on a SciFi website to ask about something you know isn't SciFi (not necessarily the latest one, but in general)

But well

doppelgreener

i'm happy to have finally found a spot I could contribute an answer XD

TheLethalCarrot

It was a nice find :)

The latest one makes some sense seeing as anime.SE have stopped story ids as far as I'm aware

doppelgreener

They have, it's in their on-topic help

Jenayah

@doppelgreener I'm sure there are tons of those that you could answer, no?

doppelgreener

10:48 AM

Might be! I haven't gone seriously looking before, and came across that one while updating my followed tags.

Jenayah

@TheLethalCarrot yeah but even if it's recommended to go there (never went to Anime.SE), you're still going to a website named SciFi. This is like going to a Ben & Jerry's and ask for a Big Mac because "McDonald's told me their ice cream machine is broken and I could get one there"

I suck at comparisons but you get my point

@doppelgreener out of curiosity, what are they?

@doppelgreener out of curiosity, what are they? :)

Crap sorry for double sending, mobile chat behaves funny sometimes

TheLethalCarrot

@Jenayah Oh sure but for some people it's easier just to ask where they can and be told where they can ask it than search properly in the first place. They may have even asked on anime.SE and got told "we no longer accept id Qs, if it's SFF-nal SFF does" and just put it here in the hopes it was on topic without thinking

Don't know if that happened though

Jenayah

I get that some people just won't even try, but it's plain rude

TheLethalCarrot

Sure it is

Jenayah

(then again not pointing fingers)

TheLethalCarrot

10:53 AM

Same as Give me teh codez Q's on SO

Jenayah

I'm not on SO, but SO have it even worse

(from what I see upon lurking/searching for answers to issues I encounter)

TheLethalCarrot

They do, it's the main reason I gave up participating there

Jenayah

Yeah, I browse through the meta sometimes and man everyone just seems so tired of this crap

SQB

@TheLethalCarrot because there's always someone who gives them teh codez.

Jenayah

I get why, mind you

doppelgreener

10:55 AM

@Jenayah Currently: anime, avatar-the-last-airbender, evangelion, harry-potter, nnedi-okorafor, stargate, the-legend-of-korra, broken-earth

(I'm being a bit picky otherwise too much of the site would be showing up highlighted. :P)

Jenayah

@SQB gotta admit that as much as I don't like this, well, always nice to get an answer that works when I had the same question and it popped on Google...

Didn't we have an Avatar question like two days ago?

Mithrandir

@doppelgreener Some of us do have extraordinarily long lists *cough*

Jenayah

@Mithrandir is there even any post that doesn't show up yellow on the front page? Ahah

doppelgreener

@Jenayah one of the LoK questions was active a couple of weeks ago

Mithrandir

....I was trying to take a screenshot, but the wifi here on the third floor of the museum is kinda bad

doppelgreener

10:59 AM

part of my pickiness is that there's some series I do enjoy (like Star Wars) but answers dive very deep into all kinds of EU material I don't have the energy to learn about let alone research myself for answering purposes.

Jenayah

@doppelgreener no, I remembered - it was an off-topic actually

@Mithrandir oh, what kind of museum?

doppelgreener

So I've picked some I might be most likely to be able to answer or would most like to see.

Jenayah

Ask questions then ;D

doppelgreener

I'll do so. \o/

Mithrandir

@Jenayah ...a small one

Jenayah

11:02 AM

@Mithrandir I meant, arts? History? :) ('course if you don't want to answer that's fine)

Wait, we have The Host questions here?

Mithrandir

@Jenayah about a single person. Not gonna say more 'cause that's too much info :P

Jenayah

Oh man that movie is sooo stupid it was funny :'D

TheLethalCarrot

Just from having story id and HP watched most Q's will show up yellow haha

Jenayah

@Mithrandir ok!

Mithrandir

@Jenayah Movie? tag's for the book :S

Jenayah

11:04 AM

@TheLethalCarrot following story-identification and DC, I can confirm

@Mithrandir there's a book?

I feel a lost in translation coming up.

We're not talking about the Korean monster movie, then?

Mithrandir

The Host (novel)

The Host is a romance novel by Stephenie Meyer. The book is about Earth, in a post apocalyptic time, being invaded by a parasitic alien race, known as "Souls", and follows one Soul's predicament when the consciousness of her human host refuses to co-operate with the takeover of her body. The Host was released on May 6, 2008, with an initial print run of 750,000 copies. An international version of the novel was released on April 2, 2009, in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia and Hong Kong by the UK publishing division. It was translated into many languages. ��2�...

although the Wikipedia thing can't be very accurate if the very first sentence of the plot summary is incorrect

> A species of parasitic aliens called "Souls" have invaded Earth, deeming the humans too violent to deserve the planet.

It's not that the Souls decides that the humans were too violent, it's that this is what the Souls do. They take over other species' bodies and use them. It has nothing to do with humanity specifically.

Jenayah

Oh so yeah, it was a lost in translation ahah

I was talking about this ^

Which is as stupid as you can imagine it to be

Mithrandir

heh. funny thing is the novel i was talking about was also adapted into a movie, i think

SQB

@Mithrandir which has got me guessing, since I'm curious like that.

Jenayah

@Mithrandir Indeed. Just checked and the French translation's got nothing to do with it

Les Âmes Vagabondes, which is roughly translated into Wandering Souls

I can see the "host" theme underlying though

xkcd

12:07 PM

$The index of radio refraction does have a lot of variation, which might throw off your calculations, so you can also look at the difference in brightness between the visible flash and more-attenuated UV and x-rays.$

TheLethalCarrot

@SQB Isn't your new meta just the same as your old one? But with a different solution

SQB

Well yes, in so far that I'm still having the same problem. Tagging with ray-bradbury goes against our policy, and as demonstrated, I can't convince people to change that policy. So I'm offering a new solution.

One that is acceptable to everyone, hopefully.

TheLethalCarrot

Well the policy appears to be where authors have low questions counts using the author as a "franchise" tag seems fine

SQB

My old question was an argument to just use the author tag.

TheLethalCarrot

To be honest I don't like the aspect of grouping together unrelated works just because of the same author anyway and [works-by-author] tags don't seem like a good solution, it's essentially the author tag

SQB

12:22 PM

@TheLethalCarrot and what if the author doesn't have a low question count? Asimov comes to mind, and not all his works tie into "robots and empire" (even if he retconned quite a bit of that together in later works).

@TheLethalCarrot well, please consider this: I want to follow all questions about works by Ray Bradbury. How do I do that?

Because that's the problem I'm trying to solve.

TheLethalCarrot

If they're unrelated why would you need to group them? If it's only for watched tags well that's easily fixed, just watch all the works. Is it a pain? Yes. Does it work? Yes.

Well it's not a problem though, following works tags is easily done

SQB

@TheLethalCarrot no, it does not work, since I can't follow nonexistent tags.

And they're not unrelated, they're all by the same author. I wouldn't call that "unrelated".

TheLethalCarrot

Unrelated in universe is what I meant

@SQB If there are no questions on the work there's no problem yet though and if and when there is a question, just add it. Will you potentially miss 1 or 2 questions? Maybe but I don't see it as a bad thing. Questions are incorrectly tagged all the time and people miss them anyway

SQB

The fact that questions aren't always tagged correctly doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

TheLethalCarrot

Of course but I don't see the need to tag "incorrectly" just to group works together because they are by the same author

On a side note are you actually interested in following every work by that author?

Marvin

12:42 PM

3

Q: How can I easily follow all works by an author?

The Problem I'd like to follow all questions on works of one of my favourite authors, Ray Bradbury, but there's currently no way for me to do so. Constraints Our policy is to not put an author tag on questions about one of their works, so following ray-bradbury doesn't work. I could follow ta...

SQB

@TheLethalCarrot yes, very much so. I'm not trolling; this is actually something I want to be able to do.

TheLethalCarrot

I'm not saying you are just interested

For example, I'm interested in GRRMs ASOIAF but not his Thousand Worlds/Wildcards series

Matt E. Эллен

12:59 PM

If you ignore a tag and that tag appears with a tag you are watching then both effects are applied. So if you want to follow an author tag (in the hypothetical situation where SQB's policy is enacted) but ignore one of their books, you can and would get the desired result.

TheLethalCarrot

I'll be honest I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at

Matt E. Эллен

@TheLethalCarrot I assumed that was a reason you don't want SQB's tag policy enacted: because it would mean things you don't want highlighted would be highlighted

TheLethalCarrot

It's a good point to think about actually, I see what you mean now

Added it into my meta answer as it is something worth thinking about

Jenayah

It might be a long shot and I know I'm always throwing the same idea (^^), but can't you set up your own chatroom with a feed pushing up posts containing "Jules Verne", "Ray Bradbury", etc?

Some might not include the author, true, but well

(I also have no idea if it's actually doable)

TheLethalCarrot

The only thing with the chatroom idea is it just works the same as Watched Tags but the potential to "break" if the room is frozen

Jenayah

1:13 PM

Then we're back with the ThawBot2000

TheLethalCarrot

Aye

Jenayah

(I'm patenting the name ^)

TheLethalCarrot

And I will in turn forget you have done so

Jenayah

D:

TheLethalCarrot

That new post looks to be spam so flag accordingly if you think it is

Jenayah

1:15 PM

did so

I had to read it again though ahah

TheLethalCarrot

I double checked the link in a "safe" browser haha

@Mithrandir nudge See above

Jenayah

I mean, apart from the link (which is spam), the guy isn't even talking about the product

Botty if you ask me

:p

TheLethalCarrot

Oh most likely

Jenayah

Targeted the "armband" keyword I guess

TheLethalCarrot

Aye

The mods beat me to the account flag on that one too, boo :P

Jenayah

1:18 PM

10k+ flag?

TheLethalCarrot

No just a mod flag, but about the account haha

Jenayah

Yeah but I mean

You raise it after the post is deleted right?

TheLethalCarrot

Right

Jenayah

So 10k+ is needed :p

TheLethalCarrot

Well you can flag anywhere and link the account

Jenayah

1:21 PM

Wait what?

You mean flagging a random other post?

TheLethalCarrot

Well it's an option if you think something should be done, the best bet is to flag on the question if it's a spam/R/A/troll answer though

Jenayah

Can't do that if I can't see the post anymore though

TheLethalCarrot

If it's a question best bet is generally just to flag anywhere else, I usually pick one of my own older posts

Jenayah

(that's not a rant by the way, if it ever sounds like one)

TheLethalCarrot

T'is fine

True but if you haven't refreshed the homepage, the user profile is on there or just link the main post and reference the "now deleted answer"

Mithrandir

1:25 PM

@TheLethalCarrot thanks, watched the keyword so that it'll pick it up if they post again. The domain is to Amazon, though, so that's a little harder to track, given that SE automatically transforms those links.

Jenayah

@TheLethalCarrot oke

@TheLethalCarrot okep

Editing on mobile does that ^

TheLethalCarrot

@Mithrandir Aye

@Jenayah Yeah mobile chat is a bit awkward

Jenayah

2:18 PM

Oh now I want to read this Blackout novel. :)

TheLethalCarrot

It does sound like it would be quite good

Aww if I wasn't such a generous SOB I'd be on 30k rep now

Jenayah

SOB?

Someone Offering Bounties?

TheLethalCarrot

I'll go with that

Jenayah

Yeay, I'm good with acronyms

TheLethalCarrot

We could upgrade to SciFier Offering Bounties

Jenayah

2:32 PM

What was your first acronym thingy?

SQB

@TheLethalCarrot I agree with your answer, except the point where you state that this is current policy. I've been told time and again that author tags should be removed if there's a work tag, and that's exactly what I've seen happening too — fahrenheit-451 being a prime example of that.

TheLethalCarrot

Do you mean current practice?

SQB

Ehr... hm, scratch that. Because I'm empathically not advocating to put an author tag on if there already is a perfectly valid franchise tag, as with JKR and GRRM.

TheLethalCarrot

@Jenayah Son of a bitch haha

Jenayah

Just to clarify - that's not limited to books authors right? Directors are included, right? (there's a Steven Spielberg tag for instance)

@TheLethalCarrot ahahah :')

guess I'm not that good with acronyms after all

TheLethalCarrot

2:41 PM

Sure though we're mainly talking about authors in this case

SQB

@TheLethalCarrot I don't know about current practice, but current policy is to use authors tags for questions about the author themselves, for questions cutting across different works and franchises by the author, and for short stories in lieu of another tag.

Jenayah

@TheLethalCarrot sure

SQB

And that's what I've been running into when trying to follow all of an author's works.

TheLethalCarrot

@SQB "for questions cutting across different works and franchises by the author": is current practice (for small number of questions) not current policy at the moment

Unless I've missed a meta post somewhere

Jenayah

Silly question, but what's Literature's stand on that topic?

TheLethalCarrot

2:44 PM

On how they use author tags?

Jenayah

'cause I mean if they encountered the same issue, maybe someone came up with a solution, may it be about tags or technical workaround

On how to follow an author's works

TheLethalCarrot

I think they use author tags on all questions about authors works, as in SQBs initial proposal and how he intends for [works-by-author] tags to work

@Mithrandir Will be able to explain it better though cos I know next to nothing about lit.se

I think he explained it the other day too but I can't find the message

Jenayah

ok

was mainly looking for a technical workaround tbh :)

And there Mith comes :p

Mithrandir

I HAVE BEEN WOKEN FROM MY SLUMBER

TheLethalCarrot

Now we just need the other mith to pop in so I can make a bus joke

Jenayah

2:48 PM

@Mithrandir SQB already did that one yesterday ;D

Mithrandir

Literature.SE tags all questions with the author and title of the work.

TheLethalCarrot

Aye that's what I thought

Mithrandir

@Jenayah this time literally though, my phone buzzed and woke me up

sitting in the back seat in traffic

TheLethalCarrot

I can't sleep in cars

Though I am usually the driver :P

Mithrandir

Generally not advised to sleep while behind the wheel, no matter if the wheel is on the right or left.

TheLethalCarrot

2:51 PM

I have found that

Jenayah

Works with airplane joysticks too...

SQB

If we just used author tags the way my proposed works-by-author tags would be used, I would be happy. But I've gotten enough pushback to not even hope for that happening.

@Jenayah well, there's autopilot.

Jenayah

@SQB take-off and landings might be a little bumpy though

Oh hey @b_jonas

b_jonas

@Jenayah Hello.

Jenayah

And hey @Alex

TheLethalCarrot

2:54 PM

@SQB Well I personally don't see the need for unrelated in universe works to be grouped together, though if you are wanting a [works-by-author] tag you might as well just use the author tag.

I see the want for the tag, don't get me wrong

SQB

41

A: Has there ever been a fully automated takeoff, cruise, and landing of a large aircraft similar to commercial airliners?

The book The Glass Cage describes a fully autopilot-controlled military test flight in 1947. The plane was a C-54 Skymaster with seven men aboard. According to this source, the pilot aligned the plane on the runway for takeoff, but the takeoff, course control, and landing were performed by autopi...

TheLethalCarrot

Or rather why you want this to happen

Alex

@Jenayah Hey.

b_jonas

@TheLethalCarrot It really depends on which author, or which group of works. Some works by the same author are so different that they have an entirely different readership. Sometimes authors even use different pennames for those.

Jenayah

@SQB alright, thanks for the link

b_jonas

2:55 PM

But for some authors, it is worth to group together all the miscellaneous small pieces of writing.

SQB

Not just me, I think it was @b_jonas who expressed the desire for a works-by-jules-verne tag.

TheLethalCarrot

Well in the case of Jules Verne we came to the conclusion that the author as franchise tag was fine

SQB

@b_jonas see my new proposal for such.

-1

A: How can I easily follow all works by an author?

Solution In absence of another franchise tag, we tag questions with works-by-author. Explanation An author's works can be said to form a franchise. In absence of another franchise, we can use that. That should show up among the suggested tags when typing the author's name, and its use should b...

@TheLethalCarrot we did?

TheLethalCarrot

That was a mistake on my part after Mith edited some of the author tags out and b_jonas edited one back in and I asked in here

b_jonas

So I can accept that there's a foundation tag besides the isaac-asimov tag, but then we have to make damn sure that every new question with the-end-of-eternity is tagged with isaac-asimov, because we don't want five other franchise tags for Asimov's sci fi besides Foundation.

SQB

2:57 PM

I'm honestly (and I'm well aware that "honestly" can be used dishonestly, but I really mean it honestly) surprised.

Jenayah

@SQB well, not as bumpy as I'd thought :)

TheLethalCarrot

@b_jonas Well if there's a franchise/universe you want a tag for it

Jenayah

(though I actually have no idea how bumpy a landing can be)

TheLethalCarrot

@SQB Let me see if I can find the messages where me and Ed summarise it

b_jonas

And we also have to make sure that the Foundation's Fear trilogy, written by other authors but with a clear permission from Asimov and in his universe, does get tagged with foundation.

Jenayah

2:59 PM

@SQB I think you meant that you "honestly meant it honestly".

TheLethalCarrot

@b_jonas Well that's the same with everything, things outside of this discussion are improperly tagged on a daily basis

b_jonas

And it will be even worse with Lem, mind you.

He has like four different franchises with multiple novels in them.

TheLethalCarrot

So create four franchise tags, if they don't exist already

SQB

Well, that's fine. The franchise tag should be enough, then.

Jenayah

Mobile user spotted ^ :)

b_jonas

3:00 PM

Verne only has two triplets of losely connected novels I think, plus re-uses the idea of technical superheroes hidden from the world and operating in electric submarines in one of those triplets and two other works (it's getting boring, frankly).

@TheLethalCarrot Yes, but he also has a lot of miscellaneous works and very few questions.

SQB

@Jenayah yup.

Jenayah

@SQB I complained about that issue like 30 minutes ago, so I feel ya

TheLethalCarrot

@b_jonas Well if there's very few questions author as franchise (as a whole) tag is fine, in line with current practice and what my answer to SQBs meta is trying to make policy

b_jonas

Oh wait, no. Verne has an actual strongly connected trilogy from Journey to the Moon, plus I think two novels about Robur or something, I don't follow how that works.

Let's see.

TheLethalCarrot

Jul 25 at 11:37, by TheLethalCarrot

@Edlothiad TL;DR: Appears to be author tags only for questions about the authors but for small volume questions on an authors work you can use the author tag to group them. Though I only skim read it

That was the summary after Verne (though talking about general policy/practice at that point)

b_jonas

3:06 PM

So the most famous one is, L'Île mystérieuse slightly references two previous unconnected novels, Les Enfants du capitaine Grant and Vingt mille lieues sous les mers. De la Terre à la Lune has two actual sequels written later, Autour de la Lune et Sans dessus dessous. The first two are so short that they would have been published in a single volume if they had been written at the same time, but Verne ran out of stupid moon facts to quote and had to take a long break.

Meanwhile, Vingt mille lieues sous les mers presents Nemo's submarine which returns in L'Île mystérieuse; while in a totally unconnected story, Face au drapeau has a very similar submarine and a villain hiding in it and inside a secret hollow volcano island; and in Mathias Sandorf lives on a non-hollow private island and has a secret fleet of more than one very similar electric submarines.

heather

are we talking about Jules Verne?

b_jonas

And Robur le Conquérant has a sequel.

Jenayah

@heather Indeed we are

heather

@Jenayah aw yeah! Verne is the best =D

b_jonas

@heather Yes. So that gives, I think, only two actual "franchises" that comprise of more than one novel, and neither is worth a tag.

Jenayah

3:10 PM

@heather Oh right, you were the one who brought up Verne some days ago, right?

heather

@Jenayah yup =)

Jenayah

You might be interested to take part in this discussion then ;D

TheLethalCarrot

@b_jonas Policy is to use tags liberally so I'd say they are worth a tag

heather

I own a bunch of his books and I'm a big fan. What specifically is being discussed? Tagging?

TheLethalCarrot

How to use author tags/how to group works by authors

heather

3:13 PM

ah...perhaps I'll just skim the transcript real quick.

b_jonas

And, to make it better, a few of his works don't count because they are off-topic for our site, namely probably, of the ones I know, Les Enfants du capitaine Grant; Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours; Michel Strogoff except its last chapter when Verne does an ass-pull to bring sci-fi in a novel that you previously thought was non-sci-fi so it seems like cheating, but it's such a good story overall that we can accept that one problem; La Jangada; Kéraban-le-Têtu; César Cascabel.

But I'm not entirely sure which novel counts as sci-fi/fantasy and which doesn't, so we can discuss that.

@heather Tagging. Someone removed the jules-verne tag from a lot of his questions, but since then they've added it back, I believe.

At that point I recommended that you just take your future Jules Verne questions to Literature SE, then there's the bonus that we don't have to figure out which of his works are sci-fi and which aren't.

heather

okay i'm kinda shocked you'd suggest that

b_jonas

I have questions on both sites about Jules Verne, although probably not enough questions.

heather

verne is literally the father of sci-fi!

i mean, i like lit.se and hang out there; that's not what i'm objecting to.

b_jonas

@heather Yes, but he also has good non-sci-fi books.

Jenayah

3:17 PM

@b_jonas I see no mention of Deux ans de vacances or Le château des Carpathes in all this and I have to say it's a shame :)

heather

@b_jonas sure, but i'm surprised you'd suggest i not ask sci-fi questions here. i dunno.

b_jonas

On the other hand, I do occasionally suggest in chat that they should ask sci-fi questions here instead of lit for other franchises.

heather

anyway, i can tell you that i know of two "series" of his, first, the 20k leagues under the sea sequel, which is the mysterious island, and covers more of capt. nemo's past on a...uh...mysterious island. then there's the "from the earth to the moon" trilogy which is actually basically like one giant book because the first book in particular just kinda ends in media res.

b_jonas

@Jenayah Le château des carpathes is defnitely sci-fi or fantasy. Its villain is using some sci-fi trick to frighten the locals so they believe demons are near.

Deux ans de vacances is more debatable, but I think I would count it as sci-fi.

Jenayah

@b_jonas I know that. I just thought that you not mentioning it meant you hadn't read them :)

b_jonas

3:20 PM

@heather It's not one giant book because there were years between their publications; and I don't think it really counts as a sequel just because Nemo's story is finished, the rest of the story is totally different.

@Jenayah What? I was listing the ones that are connected, and the ones that I think aren't sci-fi.

There are other books he has that I like but haven't mentioned.

heather

@b_jonas I know there were years between the publishings; i was talking about how they were connected. also, i don't understand your definition of sequel, then.

SQB

Not to disrupt your discussion about Verne too much, but Neil Gaiman is another example of an author whose work can't be grouped under a single franchise.

TheLethalCarrot

@b_jonas I don't think they've all been edited back yet but I may be wrong, also suggesting to ask all of his works on lit.se wasn't the best idea in my opinion but oh well

heather

in general, though, most of his books are set in standard "modern" (at least what it was back then) times, so in the same sort of "universe", but the stories don't really cross. (i'm talking here about most of the classic books he's written - journey to the center of the earth, around the world in 80 days, 5 weeks in a balloon, 20,000 leagues under the sea, etc)

SQB

Except Sandman.

b_jonas

3:21 PM

And I don't even like Le château des Carpathes. Les Indes noires is much better and includes a somewhat similar theme and more.

Jenayah

@b_jonas alright, I just read that too quickly. :) I wasn't judging or anything :)

heather

my personal favorite is his journey to the center of the earth.

b_jonas

@heather The moon ones are sequels, they're just not "one big book".

heather

read that a lot when i was younger and i still reread every now and then.

b_jonas

@heather Yes, that is probably my favourite too. There's a question with self-answer that I should ask one day, but it's compliacted.

heather

3:23 PM

@b_jonas I said like one big book, not that they are.

b_jonas

And there's a lot of books he has that might be good but I haven't read them yet, and more that I have to re-read.

heather

yep, same for me. i have such a long to-read list =)

b_jonas

I'm not particularly worried. I've read most of the good ones I think. I just have to read some of the rest which have a small chance of being good.

Re-reading the known good ones is more important.

heather

from what you're saying, i don't think i've read near as many of his works as you have.

b_jonas

I'll have to leave now, bye everyone.

TheLethalCarrot

3:25 PM

Ciao

SQB

Bye!

heather

see ya @b_jonas have a good day =)

Jenayah

@b_jonas @heather just dropping that here, it's not as good as Verne, but you might want to check some of Prosper Mérimée's works if you don't know them yet :)

TheLethalCarrot

@heather I hope you didn't mind my edit to your latest answer, seemed appropriate; especially with how memorable they look

heather

oh, just noticed that @TheLethalCarrot - thank you very much!

yeah, the cover of the first book is especially memorable.

TheLethalCarrot

3:29 PM

Aye, I assume that would be the "one of them can fly and drop orb like bombs"

Jenayah

And of course that guy had to write seven books, the covers of which can't be formatted in a pretty way.

heather

@TheLethalCarrot that'd be simber, yeah.

TheLethalCarrot

Yeah annoyingly, though making the images m and click through to full size makes it a bit better, I tried making them s but that crops too much

@heather Gotcha

heather

i think the "orb like bombs" bit is confusing simber with the guy riding simber, but.

i added a note that points to simber as the dude on the first cover.

TheLethalCarrot

Seen

heather

3:30 PM

aw phooey, i've rep-capped.

TheLethalCarrot

FWIW does anyone know a quicker way to do the small inline image and larger click through image or is the drawn out process the quickest way?

@heather That's, sort of, a good thing, well done!

heather

@TheLethalCarrot i've found i enjoy story-identification questions, which rather dramatically increases the percentage of stuff i can answer, which helps.

TheLethalCarrot

Oh yeah, they are by and far our largest tag

Jenayah

Who doesn't like a good hunt?

TheLethalCarrot

I just don't know enough works to answer them and for Google-Fu ones it just comes down to FGITW

heather

3:34 PM

what is "FGITW"?

Jenayah

Well, that's sort of my problem too ^

Fastest Gun in the West

TheLethalCarrot

Fastest gun in the west

heather

ah.

TheLethalCarrot

Damn I am not that

heather

i am so slow relative to all the lotr people.

Jenayah

3:35 PM

@TheLethalCarrot So I'm both Fastest Laugher AND Gun in the West (of TREU) :p

heather

i don't know if they just upload information from their brain, or what, but they're fast

TheLethalCarrot

Would appear so

@heather Ed's fast and very knowledgeable on TL stuff

Well fast when he's around that is

Jenayah

@heather related:

1254

Q: Fastest Gun in the West Problem

I feel like there's a problem with Stack Overflow, as the number of people prowling it increases. Each question's answers are sorted by descending score and then by descending time of posting. This means that if a person sits down and answers a question in a long, thorough way, going through eve...

discussion questions answers fastest-gun

TheLethalCarrot

I think he has eBook copies of practically all TL works as well so quick to get quotes

I don't know enough of the rest of the TL answerers for how they're fast

Side note: Ed was creating a website to search TL works, similar to asearchoficeandfire.com but he's lazier than I am

TheLethalCarrot

3:51 PM

Hello @Hend

Rand al'Thor

4:38 PM

@doppelgreener Relevant to the coffee conversation:

If Coffee Commercials Were Honest - Honest Ads (Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Folgers Parody)

►

Narusan

Has there ever been a confirmation that „Old Man Henderson“ took place? WHM told a set of stories in 2010-11, and in 2012 the „professor“ released a director’s cut.. But I can only find WHM on these four threads, which made me wonder how reliable the whole thing is (and if the professor has actually a valid connection or just made the whole thing up)...

Jenayah

Also relevant to the basic need for coffee:

Apocalatte

►

SQB

5:38 PM

Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever

►

Jenayah

@SQB Interesting!

I just want to point out that WHO recognized a "gaming disorder" though. So, I'd say take it slow on the "wimpy psychological addiction" it's described as.

For further reading:

who.int/features/qa/gaming-disorder/en

SQB

5:59 PM

@Jenayah doesn't rule out it being psychological.

Jenayah

@SQB doesn't make it "wimpy"

Transcript for

The Restaurant at the End of the Univ…