The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

SQB

5:22 PM

SEDE, perhaps.

You could tally amount of votes during bounty period.

Alex

@SQB Is that public information?

SQB

Sure.

Are you familiar with SEDE?

Stack Exchange Data Explorer.

You can't see who voted, but you can see that there has been voted.

Alex

@SQB I know what it is, but I doubt I would be able to construct any queries.

SQB

Okay... apparently, Bounties are... votes.

At least, in SEDE.

Jenayah

5:40 PM

22

Q: Is the bounty system effective?

For years, people have been able to spend their hard-earned imaginary Internet points to add "bounties" to questions in order to attract more attention to them. (Because, really, "attention" is the only thing that you can be reasonably sure a bounty will give you.) But does this extra attention ...

maybe by tweaking that a bit, someone can get you the new upvotes stat

SQB

An awarded bounty is a "vote" on the answer, a bounty set is a "vote" on the question.

Alex

@Jenayah Thanks.

Jenayah

@SQB that's funny

hmmmm if I remember correctly @b_jonas had a query to sort bounties by type

SQB

Hm... Research indicates that an awarded bounty is a "vote" on both.

Jenayah

Not enough attention, exceptional answer etc

maybe that distinction would be relevant too... an "exceptional answer" probably brings less upvotes to the question than a "not enough attention"

Alex

5:47 PM

@Jenayah Good point.

Though if I was offering a bounty just to earn reputation I could select whichever reason would give me the best result.

Jenayah

Hmmm...

Least bounty is 50 rep

An upvote on a Q is 5 rep

So to get a "refund" you'd need 10 upvotes on the question

to be honest I doubt it would be effective on SFF

especially for a HP question (since all your questions on SFF are about HP I reckon)

Since HP is one of the big tags and most likely the people committed enough to vote for it will already have taken a look at it

Just my opinion though

Alex

6:04 PM

@Jenayah Unless it’s a question I asked five years ago.

Jenayah

@Alex not on SFF then?

My above analysis only tackles SFF

I have absolutely no idea how the other stacks behave

Alex

@Jenayah I'm talking in theory. I haven't been on any site for more than a year.

Jenayah

@Alex then yeah, I guess since the "pool" of votes was renewed, you could have 10 new upvotes

Alex

Besides, on March 17, 2023 there will be questions that I had asked five years earlier.

Jenayah

@Alex true, but maybe someone will have answered them by then.

(which you could still bounty for exceptional answer, granted)

Alex

6:07 PM

@Jenayah I'm not particulary interested in answers.

Jenayah

@Alex why ask a question if you don't want an answer?

Alex

@Jenayah Eh, that's not what I meant (though it might still be true to some extent).

I meant that in the context of this discussion, I am trying to gain reputation by setting bounties. I'm not giving the bounties in order to get answers.

Jenayah

@Alex ah

even then I don't think it's viable

(still talking about SFF)

Alex

@Jenayah The truth is, though, that especially on a site like this, my questions aren't the sort that need answers. If I don't get an answer, I'll just remain with a question on a work of fiction. It's more about the process of articulating a question, and seeing if people agree with it, and seeing if we can get into a debate about it, and seeing if I missed anything when reading the books.

Jenayah

@Alex well it might just be me but you're even less likely to have upvotes for a question which doesn't have, and will likely never have, an answer

Alex

6:14 PM

@Jenayah That's probably why I have a handful of downvoted questions here.

Jenayah

Sometimes just the question is "okay", but upon reading the answers you realize that the question was actually a pretty good point to tackle

and then UV the Q

@Alex I only speak for myself but while some Qs don't have (and will likely never have) an answer, they can still address an interesting plot point, a possibility that makes sense, etc

Others are just "frankly, who cares?"

Not speaking about your questions particularily, it's a general thing

Alex

@Jenayah Of my three questions with negative scores, two of them are almost certainly just authorial errors.

Jenayah

@Alex well yeah but there are interesting authorial errors and dull ones

Alex

@Jenayah Indeed, one of them earned a "this is so meta" comment from you:

Wow, did not think of that. This is so meta. But I guess it makes sense, in a way! — Jenayah Jul 15 at 3:19

Jenayah

@Alex no, your comment was meta. My opinion on the question was exactly what I commented, Harry did not stop to take a look at his watch

Alex

6:19 PM

@Jenayah Ah, pedantry again.

Sometimes, though, a simple authorial error question can be turned into an answer. That's what I did here:

3

A: Is there any other mention of students being held back a year?

As far as I know this is not confirmed anywhere, but a possible student that got held back would be Sally-Ann Perks. Consider the following: In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone she was sorted right before Harry. There weren't many people left now. "Moon" ... "Nott" ... "Parkins...

Jenayah

Don't know if you're familiar with Animorphs for instance, but there are a bunch of authorial errors in there, known as KASU (K.A. Applegate Screws Up). Granted, it's generally due to half the books being ghostwritten, but some of them would have been really interesting if they had been a thing.

Alex

@Jenayah I read a handful of them back in the day.

Probably not enough to find the errors.

Jenayah

Like, there were hints at the bad guys having infiltrated the uninfiltrable good guys' planet. That would have made for a great arc, the Andalites fighting an internal war on their home turf.

But nah, that was dropped

SQB

Wow, Freaked is amazing.

Jenayah

@Alex if you ever have the chance to finish them, do so. The ending is really great.

Not great in the "everyone's happy yeay" sense, great as in, the series grew up with its lectors, became more serious, and took strong stances

Alex

6:23 PM

I'd probably have to start over. I only read a few of them, and not in any order.

Just whichever ones happened to be around.

Jenayah

Some of them are fillers and can be skipped, though (think "villain of the week")

@SQB bad amazing or amazing amazing?

SQB

Mr. T as The Bearded Lady, Keanu Reeves as Dog Boy, and I thought I recognised Sockhead's voice.

It's Bobcat Goldthwait.

Jenayah

There's Keanu Reeves too?

Alex

@Jenayah The one I'm remembering probably fits that category.

Jenayah

@Alex what was the plot? Roughly?

Alex

6:25 PM

@Jenayah Helmacrons.

Jenayah

@Alex oh yeah, those

Well it had some kind of importance by bringing back up the morphing cube

but other than that the Helmacrons are pretty much laughable at

Alex

@Jenayah I probably missed that, having only read like two others.

Jenayah

@Alex come to think of it there might have been two issues with Helmacrons

@Jenayah The one I'm thinking of had Cassie turning into an anteater on the cover.

Jenayah

6:29 PM

@Alex I don't remember each book's cover but Wiki says it was the first one featuring the Helmacrons yeah

The Suspicion (novel)

The Suspicion is the 24th book in the Animorphs series, written by K.A. Applegate. It is narrated by Cassie. == Plot summary == While Rachel tries to convince Cassie to go to the beach with her, Cassie notices what looks like a toy spaceship attached to her water pump. Cassie notes that it's where she hid the blue box, and is a bit unsettled by it, but brushes it off and puts the spaceship with a bunch of other things being donated to charity. They head off to the beach, coming back to find Jake. They notice a different "toy" spaceship attached to the water pump and, while they watch, it detaches...

and there was indeed the blue box

Alex

@Jenayah Yep, that's the one.

Jenayah

Duh, if you began reading those with one narrated by Cassie, no wonder you never did much more to read the others

Cassie's narrative were awful

Alex

@Jenayah Eh, I didn't stop reading them because I didn't like them. It's just that I only ever has access to a couple of them.

I think I read one by Mark.

Where he meets his mother.

On a spaceship?

Jenayah

@Alex they should be on the Internet somewhere

@Alex oh yeah!

That one

"wooops, shit just got real"

one of the first big twists

And introducing Visser One too

Damn that guy was wicked

Alex

@Jenayah That's the only other one I remember anything from.

Jenayah

6:34 PM

@Alex well, if you ever have the time and the books, you know what to do

Alex

@Jenayah I think I once looked for the whole set on Amazon, but wasn't in the mood to spend that much money at the time.

Jenayah

@Alex yeah the whole set must be pretty expensive, there are like 54 of those

plus the spin-offs with the Andalites, the Hork-Bajir and stuff

Alex

@Jenayah But probably cheaper than buying them one at a time.

Jenayah

@Alex true

Alex

6:48 PM

@Jenayah Looks like they're all free here:

animorphsforum.com/ebooks

Jenayah

@Alex a lot of stuff is free on the Internet. Whether it's entirely legal is another debate :D

Alex

@Jenayah True, true.

Jenayah

@Alex the days of Animorphs being rentable for KAA are probably long gone though

By the way, did you ever take a look at the TV show?

SQB

G'night/other time of day.

Alex

@Jenayah What's KAA?

Jenayah

6:53 PM

It's as kitsch as it can be ahah

Marvin

0

Q: Does K gather information from the bees?

Other questions have asked about the significance of the bees and only pointed to symbolism but offered nothing as to what the bees symbolize. Or that the director has bees in the future as a nod to life continuing, etc. This question regards the specific interaction of K with the the bees. W...

blade-runner-series blade-runner-2049

Alex

@Jenayah I saw a couple of episodes on youtube back in the day.

Jenayah

S1E1 Animorphs

►

@Alex Katherine Asomething Applegate, the author

@SQB already going to bed?

The theme song was catchy though

SQB

7:52 PM

@Jenayah watching Spirited Away with my eldest.

Jenayah

@SQB oh, that's a good one!

though I admit Miyazaki can seem a bit weird when you watch it for the first time

(as a non-Japanese)

Marvin

0

Q: What metal (or alloy) is Abraham Setrakians sword made from?

I've been binge watching the FX show "The Strain". In the show, there is a character, Abraham Setrakian, that has a sword-cane made to kill the vampires. I was sitting here wondering how this was even possible. Silver, (As far as I know, I don't know much about chemistry.) is a very weak me...

urban-fantasy the-strain

SQB

8:10 PM

@Jenayah true, but we've watched it before.

Jenayah

@SQB "it" as Miyazaki or this particular film?

SQB

It's one of the most beautiful films I know.

I was lucky enough to see it in the cinema when it came out.

Jenayah

:)

Marvin

9:01 PM

0

Q: Kryptonian food?

I’m just curious about this: what did the kryptonians actually eat while they were living on krypton? I figured that they wouldn’t actually eat the same things that humans would eat wouldn’t they?

dc krypton

Alex

9:36 PM

@Jenayah And it looks like your problem is solved.

Jenayah

oh did it?

eh

it's a tie

Alex

@Jenayah Well if you really want, I could remove my upvote from the other one.

Jenayah

@Alex don't :p

well your vote is probably locked anyway

Alex

Unless there's an edit.

Does it work if I make the edit?

Jenayah

think so

Iwas looking on main meta for a post I remember reading about whether it's okay to edit a post to thaw the vote lock but I can't seem to find it anymore

I suck at searching stuff on main meta

Alex

9:45 PM

@Jenayah I remember something about that as well.

But if true, it leaves open a world of possibilities for unsavory characters like myself.

Jenayah

(especially when I'm launching a video game and following a series at the same time, granted)

Alex

@Jenayah Hope I'm not disturbing you.

Jenayah

don't worry

I've dropped main meta anyway :p

Alex

@Jenayah Here's an interesting one:

5

A: Vote "locked in" despite edit

It looks as if the post was edited during the grace period, there are no edit revisions listed for that post. You have enough rep to freely edit the post. You could make a trivial edit just to unlock the vote. Roll back the edit if you feel the trivial edit was otherwise not needed. See Vote can'

You have enough rep to freely edit the post. You could make a trivial edit just to unlock the vote. Roll back the edit if you feel the trivial edit was otherwise not needed.

This is beginning to sound like a scam.

Jenayah

eh

Marvin

10:53 PM

0

Q: Movie with a character taking razors out of his mouth

There was a movie, I don't know what it is; like a guy started taking razors out of his mouth. He was eating something I think, but I tried to search it up and it came up with this.

story-identification movie

0

Q: When did toons come to life?

Who framed roger rabbit had toons and people living together: now my question is this: when did toons and people start living in the living universe? I would like to know if there’s a in-universe answer if possible.

movie cartoon

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The Restaurant at the End of the Univ…