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00:53
0
Q: Valiant comic issue where a necromancer ushers his zombies onto a bus and they start singing "The Wheels on the Bus"

FuzzyBootsI'm 90% certain that this was a Valiant comic, the original setting under Jim Shooter before Acclaim bought them up. I think I read it in the early 90s. The Dollar Tree had bags with 2-3 random issues. I mainly kept buying them to read Archer & Armstrong, but I remember also reading issues of Sha...

0
Q: Who was Idril when she was the sleeper in the tower of pearl?

David RobertsIn The Book of Lost Tales (BoLT) Tolkien name drops the "Sleeper in the tower of pearl", but apparently only ever had very rough ideas about this part of the story. At one point, and then abandoned, the Sleeper was going to turn out to be someone called Idril. But since this predates all the late...

01:18
0
Q: Detailed plot summary for Neal Asher's Solider?

simpleuserI read Neal Asher's book Soldier a while back, and would now like to read the next books in the series. But I can't remember the critical characters and events, and am afraid I would get confused by the next books because of that. Is there a detailed plot summary available anywhere for the book? ...

02:08
-3
Q: easier way to get past the dragons, first task, goblet of fire

jordanaI'm trying to shift and I scripted that I would be the champion of my school so; Does anyone know if there was an easier way to get past the dragon in the first task of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter and the goblet of fire?

02:34
0
Q: Book, possibly titled: "Of Teacups and Wizards, Dragons"....can’t remember

Wayne SchislerI cannot remember if the title of the book has teacups in it, or the book series. The series was never finished due to the author passing away. It is fantasy and comedy and has a fire wizard who lights his pipe by covering his head in a fireball, and a super powerful wizard named Vic, who is se...

 
2 hours later…
04:17
1
Q: Story about 2 children who live on an Asteroid

Infinity MilestoneI read this story recently but I am unable to find the story anywhere :- The story starts with 2 children wearing space suits on an Asteroid and expertly unearthing what seems to them like the skeleton of a God. These children were actually on a Spaceship with a guardian, but when on an 'expedi...

04:42
0
Q: 90’s movie that was on the television I need help with

user135836There was a movie back in the 90’s that my mom would watch when it came on. I barely remember it but I know very little bits and pieces of it. In part of the movie, there was a bag of marbles, with all the, I want to say mother’s, who picked a ‘regular’ marble was safe and the one who picked the ...

 
1 hour later…
06:00
0
Q: Possible "Children of the Corn" sequel with four teenagers in an attic

Daniel McGeeCan anyone identify this movie based on this trailer I remember from the '90s? Four teenagers in an attic. Two of them appear to be evil and pressuring the good kids to join them in their cause. They seem to be exerting some kind of telekinetic force on them, for one of the kids, a girl, says, "S...

 
4 hours later…
09:51
0
Q: Why didn't the Romulans retreat in DS9 episode "The Die Is Cast"?

XuanI was trying to word the question so the title is not a spoiler, but also so it was not too vague. I am assuming that any person concerned with spoilers would stop reading at this point. In Deep Space 9 S3E21, Romulan/Cardassian fleet realizes they have been tricked when 150 Jem'Hadar ships appea...

@InfinityMilestone You can flag for issues like this, in this case probably flag -> need improvement and then pick an option. However, just because something may be answered better doesn't mean it should be moved there. A lot of sites have overlapping scope. Also in this case, as Rand says, it would be off topic there anyway
@Randal'Thor Aye, I was wondering about that. Guess partly because of the likes of Adamant's objection? Though I don't really understand that
10:06
@TheLethalCarrot Eh, it's not a big deal, I was just observing.
Votes will evolve naturally and we'll see what people like or not.
Aye, I found it a bit strange myself was all
And it's perfectly fair for people to downvote things because they're "too well-known", so I understand where Adamant's coming from.
If the point is supposed to be promoting little-known works/authors, then maybe a Neil Gaiman thing isn't the best.
I was iffy about proposing Asimov for the same reason.
In my opinion, well known but very few questions are the very ones you want to start off with
Going in straight at the deep end may not be successful
I certainly wouldn't've proposed someone as famous as Asimov in the proposals thread on meta, but I hoped it'd be a nice way to ease in to the topic challenge program, rather than going for very obscure stuff straight away. Step by step, as I said to Adamant.
Yeah, agreed.
It was easier on Literature where some people were promoting diversity of topics from the very start in the private beta days.
SFF has more of a culture/history of focusing primarily on the mega-popular stuff. "Fans" over "readers", to use Gilles's terminology.
Aye, when site activity is up anyway and those invested in the proposal are trying to get it off the ground... harder once the culture is set and people are set in their ways
10:12
I'm not sure why the Thaddeus suggestion is getting so many downvotes, although I suspect it's more related to people's issues with him as a moderator than any negative views of his books and stories.
Like him or not, the man can WRITE.
His short piece from last year "A Coronavirus Comes to Dinner" was good enough that I sent it to people I know IRL.
Or they think it's a joke suggestion maybe?
Another big advantage of that proposal is that he's got lots of short stories available online.
We found on Literature that people don't engage so much with a topic challenge when it means going out and buying a book, or reading a long work even if it's available online.
When there's a ton of "10-minute read" material freely available on the internet, much easier for people to casually dip in and participate in a topic challenge.
Easy to digest or view
Especially on a site like SFF, something visual is likely to be more engaging as well I think... moreso in today's world
Well, SFF is different from Literature in that proposals here might be purely visual, like films or TV series.
A huge advantage of this suggestion over all the others so far is that Thaddeus Howze has lots of short stories available online. (I've learned from running topic challenges on Literature that people don't engage so much when a topic challenge requires going out and buying a book, or reading a long work even if it's available online. When there's a ton of "10-minute read" material freely available on the internet, it's much easier for people to casually dip in and participate.) — Rand al'Thor ♦ 1 min ago
^ summarised my thoughts here into a more visible comment
@TheLethalCarrot A deleted comment suggests that at least one user was turned off the answer by the "intent" they thought was implied by its final sentence.
Wouldn't surprise me
Also this sort of thing what you're after?
10:25
IMO we shouldn't care at all about intent of the proposer, because that doesn't at all affect the topic challenge itself if that proposal gets chosen. It'll just be a topic to be explored and asked about like any other.
The bigger possibility of getting Word of God answers is also a plus, of course.
Shouldn't do, but people will
@TheLethalCarrot Hmm. Well that's "seen", but some of those people haven't posted for years (or ever).
Ooh, I forgot about PearsonArtPhoto. User ID 98, was a mod here for some years.
Might be a bit late to ask him "hey, can you write up a blog post for today that summarises 10 years of SFF?"
Just a smidge
SQB
SQB
4
Q: What are the rules surrounding the passing of the Darksaber Blade and the leadership of Mandalore?

Blessed GeekIn the last episode of season two of The Mandalorian, What are the rules surrounding the passing of the Darksaber Blade and the leadership of Mandalore?

12
Q: A question about ownership of the Darksaber

Wiggo the WookieIn the final episode of season 2 of the the Mandalorian (“Chapter 16: The Rescue”) Moff Gideon makes a big thing of the fact that… Why then it was previously passed from Sabine to Bo-Katan — during the Rebels series — in what to me seem like very similar circumstances. Disney canon answers prefe...

Dupes?
8
Q: Why was Jango Fett so comfortable with showing his face?

11.01.11In The Mandalorian series, we learned that And yet, I never saw Jango Fett following such rules. Other than showing his face, he even gave his DNA for creation of clone army, potentially revealing his face to trillions. Why this inconsistency in the Mandalorian rule? Is this rule/ protocol ap...

23
Q: Do Mandalorians truly never remove their helmets?

Giacomo1968In episode 3 of The Mandalorian, it is said that Mandalorians never remove their helmets for any reason. Really? Not even to sleep or bathe? Is there any canonical source for this idea? I’m going to assume that the “never” implies “Never removes their helmets in public…” right? But in flashback ...

7
Q: Why can’t The Mandalorian from The Mandalorian take off his helmet, while animated mandalorians like Sabine and Pre Vizsla can?

Davman8In The Mandalorian they make a big deal of Mando never removing his helmet in front of others, yet characters like Sabine do it casually all of the time. Is this a contradiction, unexplained, or is there an explanation?

Threeway dupes?
11:16
Bit of a hack but that might work
Added a parameter for last post too in the above
Wow, I didn't realise Paul D. Waite was such an old user.
And last one because it might be helpful, filter by minimum number of posts too
SQB
SQB
What exactly is it that query should show?
19 hours ago, by Rand al'Thor
^ that's the one I was thinking of ... just needs modifying to search for old users instead of high-rep ones
I was replying to that
I altered it again... I'll stop
Should be able to configure all the settings now though to have a play around
11:33
Have a play around? Shakespeare always did.
SQB
SQB
I've made age a variable as well.
(I'm in the middle of writing an answer on Literature about a play, and your sentence threw me for a sec :-P )
SQB
SQB
So it's to see if old users are still active, right?
Essentially yeah
0
Q: Who survived the skirmish at the Sarlacc pit and the destruction of the Khetanna?

SQBIn Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi, we see our heroes escape "a new definition of pain and suffering, [being] digested over a thousand years" inside a sarlacc, and in general from imprisonment by Jabba the Hutt. They sail away on a desert skiff, with the Khetanna, Jabba's sail barge, exploding...

11:35
I added min number of posts cos there's some with 3ish posts but spread out over the years but they're probably not what you'd say were ever really active
11:53
Is there a way to find the most common Story-ID answers? That might be somewhere to plunder for ideas. — Jontia 33 secs ago
^ @TheLethalCarrot since you're volunteering for Data.SE duty today :-P
Don't even know how you'd go about that, if there was a standard format it'd be easy enough but even then you'd have variations in title naming etc.
0
Q: Who is the shirtless man getting thrown out of a female officer's quarters in Star Trek Beyond (2016) and is it Kirk?

RexxiAAt the beginning of the movie when Kirk is doing his Captain's log voice over, he speaks about how 3 years in deep space cohabiting with the opposite sex has caused some "effects on interpersonal dynamics." During this voice over we see one young couple kissing and a red-headed Orion woman throwi...

12:19
@Randal'Thor Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority?" Lots of answers for that...
SQB
SQB
12:53
I'd like to hear your thoughts on a list question. I want to ask who and what in The Mandalorian we can recognise from elsewhere in the Star Wars universe.
On the one hand, it's a list, but on the other hand, it's a finite list.
Would it be acceptible?
Acceptable, yes. Popular... less clear. Might attract some close- and down-votes, but it won't go negative or stay closed.
13:11
Greetings, Earthlings.
0
Q: Was Bilbo still on Ravenhill among the Elvenking's guard wearing the ring?

SNRWhen the eagles had not come yet and the battle seemed lost, Bilbo stood on Ravenhill among the Elves and saw Gandalf sitting on the ground in deep thought, preparing, he supposed one last blast of magic. At that moment, was Bilbo still wearing the ring on? also why did he on the whole prefer to ...

13:32
This is an example of a question that's being treated as a list question
Problem is you can't really police them well without ending up in comment arguments and the upvotes generally mean normal deletion won't work anyway
@SQB Shouldn't get closed, will end up with close votes, likely downvotes. If it survives the initial reaction would probably be a decent HNQ though
14:04
@TheLethalCarrot Hmm. Maybe need to nag a few people for posting late non-answers...
I don't get how TMS has so many votes though; it fails to meet at least 2 of the supplied criteria (society has not socially/technologically regressed, and there's no AI).
That's the problem, you need comments, discussion, downvotes, flags, delete votes and even then it probably won't pass...
0
Q: Why did Bilbo on Ravenhill prefer on the whole to defend the Elvenking?

SNRChapter XVII when the battle seemed lost and their fait doomed. Why thus Bilbo preferred on the whole to defend the Elvenking?

 
1 hour later…
15:28
2
Q: Book about young girl meeting Odin, the Oracle, Loki and many more

RebbieBeccaI read this about 10-12 years ago (as a kid and a German version) but the book got lost while moving. Essentially the story revolved around this girl in a Norse village, who keeps meeting this one eyed merchant guy who she doesn't yet know is Odin. I remember her being sort of an outcast almost, ...

16:00
@Randal'Thor I think it's Asimov's Profession. Just look at scifi.stackexchange.com/… . I think only one of those is false negative. Of course some of them aren't what OP are searching for.
There seems to be less of "The Good Work" scifi.stackexchange.com/…
"The Last Question" is a candidate scifi.stackexchange.com/…
There was a meta post on this somewhere.
scifi.stackexchange.com/… "The Feeling of Power" seems to be less common.
Well, I wasn't really able to come up with anything for the anniversary blog wise.
Still have a little time though.
scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/a/12294/4918 lists some common Anime answers
scifi.stackexchange.com/… And indeed: Magi-Nation anime seems to be a very common answer.
It might be more common than any of the ones above.
@Randal'Thor I'd like to change my answer.
16:23
@Randal'Thor As for the 10 years, does the plot from scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/q/13238/4918 count as summarizing 10 years of SFF?
Also, I think you gave me an idea for the topic challenge. Though no topic challenge really works for me while the libraries are closed.
16:36
posted on January 11, 2021 by tech

Click here to go see the bonus panel!Hovertext: In Hell, you're forced to explain each site visit in particular. Today's News:

4
Q: Propose future topics for SFF topic challenges!

Rand al'ThorSFF Stack Exchange's new topic challenge program has got off to a good start, celebrating the start of 2021 and the 10th anniversary of the site with an Isaac Asimov topic challenge. This topic was chosen more or less by decree, since we didn't have time to hold a proper discussion with voting on...

Anyone here have some thoughts about scifi.stackexchange.com through the last 10 years, how it is has changed, or grown, or anything?
2
16:57
@JackBNimble It's still fun, even after 8 years. I can't vouch for all 10 years though.
Well, the first two years were the best.
> The first year was the worst. And the second year, that was the worst too. The third year I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of decline. It's the people you meet on this site that really get you down. The best conversation I had was over four years ago, and that was with a comment bot.
@Randal'Thor Too fast! :D
0
Q: Does anyone remember this computer game at all?

VeryConfusedSo I played this PC game almost 16-19 years ago at my grandmas house, so I hope my memory is not too terrible, but here goes: PLOT I made it like 10 minutes into the game until I got stuck, so I do not know any cool plot details It opens with the main character( in first person) outside some fam...

17:20
@TheLethalCarrot Most popular dupe targets? There's probably already a Data.SE query for that, even ... I actually think I've seen one.
6
Q: SEDE query to find question with most duplicates pointing at it?

TimI just saw this question: What is the most rampant duplicate on Stack Exchange sites? Is there an SEDE query to find this? I seem to remember there being a page of "questions linked to this" for each question, but I can't find that page now, and I'd like to aggregate the data, with a query.

I suppose that's not a bad way of doing it, again not very accurate though
Apparently it's Gateway by Frederik Pohl with a whopping 12 duplicates pointing at it, followed by The Last Legionary by Douglas Hill (9) and Josh Kirby: Time Warrior and The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton (both 8).
That doesn't take account of unconfirmed dupes, of course.
It misses, dupe chains, not closed ones, ones closed to something else, unconfirmed but correct (nothing we can do about that though)
You're probably best trying to find the most commonly given work as answer... but even then that's going to be difficult. How would you identify it without a lookup table?
Also, what the heck, the Star Wars canonicity question has 46 duplicate questions?!
@Randal'Thor huh
17:51
No one else has a blurb I can put in my post about the site for the last 10 years?
We could all watch the Star Wars Holiday Special, and then contemplate the possibility that we've collectively managed to create something even worse. (I kid, of course — my nonsense excluded, this community is great.) — Paul D. Waite Nov 24 '20 at 17:40
Quotable enough for a blurb?
Could we list all our chat film watching events? How many of those were there? \
We all DID watch the Holiday Special
Movie night, I think that's what they were called
17:55
@b_jonas There's a tag which would help in counting them (note there's not a bijection between tagged meta posts and actual film events).
There was one for Princess Bride
But sadly it was in the tomato blighted room, so the discussion is lost.
in Poisoned room; it is defunct., Aug 26 '16 at 22:25, by Rand al'Thor
Movie night on Tuesday! Group viewing of The Princess Bride (1987) - bring your own copy and enjoy together! Don't forget to sign up so we know how many are coming :-)
0
Q: Was General Grievous developed a droid or was he something else before? If so, do we know what species?

Sina MohseniNow, I know Grievous controlled droids and shared a sort of connection with them, but was he developed as one? I don't know if he is confirmed another creature, but I did find a picture of what people are saying is him before his droid like times.

0
Q: Why can Harry survive anything?

Olivia BrownI mean how. First he survives Voldemort as a baby,Then somehow he kills a giant snake (I'm fully aware what it's just auto correct changing it to basil) and so on though his life.But how dose he survive It all? Voldemort wants to have him dead,Dose he need to try harder or will he find another pr...

18:29
0
Q: Can anyone identify this song from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind?

Eldrick DamussonIn Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind at about 49:48, a sort of techno-electric music plays that I find really enjoyable. Problem is, I cannot find this anywhere on the internet, or even in the official soundtrack of Nausicaa. Could someone help me find it?

0
Q: TV Show/Movie from either the 80s or 90s

Nicolas YelleI have some distant memories of watching either a movie or a short in the 90s. Premise: A kid is tasked by an "unknown entity" to build a weapon to defend the human race. He needs to find the perfect geometric shape for planet earth. The weapon is either a pyramid or a sphere. I can't remember. S...

@SFFBlog @JackBNimble "After nearly a year in beta, it graduated on December 13, 2001." Confirmed, user -1 is the time-travelling robot we'll all be waiting for.
Also, damn, I hope people will get the reference in my quote and not think I hate the site that much :-D
@Randal'Thor hah, thats the award they give Homer to shut him up about something, isn't it?
@AncientSwordRage Wut?
>” The First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence”
19:27
That's a rewrite of a H2G2 quote from Marvin.
Oh.
Yes about the award
@Randal'Thor ahh!
I pinged PearsonArtPhoto elsewhere some hours ago, maybe he can add some words of wisdom too.
I would love to add more quotes as they come in.
My only comment is, has it really been that long? I still remember getting comic books from Brett for answering the some questions on them... Feels like yesterday.
 
2 hours later…
21:16
It's weird that they'd suddenly decide to capitalize the post actions.
@DavidW Capitalism is taking over SE.
I'm sure if it'd always been like that I'd think nothing of it, but now, especially since they made them darker too, it makes a jarring change.
It seems more like a command than it used to. "Share!" "SHARE!!"
@Randal'Thor "taking?"
@DavidW :-)
It's a bit of a cheese-moving moment. Sure it's jarring now, but it won't take long to get used to.
Soon it'll be the old versions that look weird to our eyes, in old screenshots and stuff.
Just like how the dupe-vote autocomments used to be "possible duplicate of ..." and then "Possible duplicate of ..." and then "Does this answer your question? ..." I still haven't got used to the latter, but it definitely looks better (IMO) with a capital letter at the start of the comment.
21:48
@Randal'Thor This is one of those things where I'm not self-consistent. I almost always (unless I'm trying to ape a different style, or otherwise writing for effect) use proper capitalization, just like punctuation, grammar and all else. But for decades I've signed off any informal e-mail with "david," possibly because it seems (to me) a bit lower-key and laid back.
So, with the actions in the same position relative to a post, they used to seem to me to say "share (if you want to) edit (if you feel like it) follow (you don't have to, really) ..." whereas now they seem much more demanding. :)
22:48
-1
Q: How did the Empire build the Death Star II so fast? Also, why would they build another after the first one failed so badly?

SCP Is The BestAccording to Wookiepedia, only 3 years were in between the destruction of the first one and Episode 6. In episode 6, it was almost done and functional.

23:06
@Randal'Thor the latter seems to have made users more likely to comment. Not sure if that’s good or bad overall
2
Q: How did the Jedi deal with trainees who lacked hands and thus couldn't use a lightsaber the traditional way?

user135856Given the tremendous amount of species in the Star Wars universe, there have to be at least a few without hands, or comparable grasping appendages.

23:28
I Had Always Interpreted The Lower-Case Links As A Hint That They Are Backend Tools Which Should Not Distract New Users. That Is Consistent With Other Useful Fragments Like "Edited One Hour Ago," The Lists Of Tags, And Links That Say "Help." However Major Links On The Page, Like The Tabs On The Left Or The "Post Your Answer," Are Written With Initial Capitals As A Way To Emphasize Them. Furthermore, Reading Text With Initial Capitals Is More Labor-Intensive Than Reading Text With Ordinary Sentence Capitalization, As You Have Probably Just Noticed. I Hope The Capitalization Change Is Reverted. — rob 6 hours ago
Oh good grief. Well, it certainly makes the point...

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