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3:25 AM
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Q: Why did the other schools participating in the Triwizard Tournament use ships and flying carriages if they could have simply used Portkey?

Infinity MilestoneThis question has 2 parts as follows :- 1.) In the Goblet of Fire, the other schools participating the Triwizard tournament used means of transport like flying carriages (Beauxbatons) and ships (Durmstrang) when they could have simply used Portkey? 2.) From the accepted answer to this question, i...

 
 
3 hours later…
6:22 AM
0
Q: Why is Sator not wearing mask in this scene?

Naomi. JI do understand the purpose of the gas mask here: Scene is about retrieving the briefcase from Protagonist. Why is Sator not wearing mask in this scene?

 
6:47 AM
0
Q: Book Identification- YA Superheroes

DphantomThere was a book I read back in high school about this teen boy who was the son of a powerful superhero. The son always wore red, he had blond hair and glasses I’m pretty sure. He went to this special school for teens with powers and everyone’s powers were color coded. The colors were like red, o...

 
7:20 AM
[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at beginning of answer (34): Hercules/Xena viewing order? by Glehno on scifi.SE
 
SQB
8:10 AM
Well, that'll teach me to edit questions for grammar.
 
0
Q: Story about people living in a cave and not wanting to leave and explore

RPatel99I'm new here, and not completely sure if I'm asking this question in the right place, but I seem to have a vague memory of a story where a tribe of some sort lives in a cave for generations, and never leaves because they have access to food and water. One time, someone (it may have been a child; ...

 
8:53 AM
1
Q: Finding book about an alien pyramid and a (sort of) scavenger hunt

D. BennettI've been trying to find this book (obviously unsuccessfully) for at least six or seven years. I read the book only once and sometime about 9-10 years ago; hence my memory of it might be a bit off on certain things. Aliens, who are mostly (if not altogether) unknown and unspecified, threaten the ...

 
9:06 AM
@SQB Well, who'd have known eh? Though what's the saying? Don't polish a turd
 
10:12 AM
0
A: 2020: a year in moderation

TheLethalCarrotI've compiled some data on the above comparing the numbers from this year to last year and Community actions to Moderator actions. It's all in one big table so you will likely have to scroll it to the side. Just a note on the formulas: % Increase is (2020-2019)/2019 Moderator to Community % Diff...

If anyone's interested on some year in moderation statistics
One thing that stood out to me whilst doing it (aside from the fact that everything is pretty much down across the board) is why there is such a big increase in Questions Unprotected by the Community
Also first time doing a table, no idea if it can be made to look nicer or not
 
10:54 AM
@TheLethalCarrot I've been meaning to do similar
I haven't got the spreadsheet off of RubiksMoose though, and yours is more accessible
I feel like they need to add banding or something to tables to help readability
@TheLethalCarrot New cross site policy on unprotecting old/inactive questions...? I vaguely remember hearing it be discussed
 
Aye that is quite a good one, if I get the time I might knock up something like the top table because it's very relevant to the moderation stats
There was the change to the banner; I can't remember a policy change but to be honest I don't really follow main meta and that sort of stuff
 
@TheLethalCarrot I don't follow it as much as I should do
 
I used to but now I'll check the featured post if I notice it and that's about it
 
likewise
 
Unsurprisingly running the queries shows questions, answers and comments are all down from 2019
 
11:07 AM
is that unsurprising?
 
I've noticed the drop and the moderation stats are all down which indicates a drop as well
Plus 2019 was quite a heavy year for popular on topic releases, 2020 obviously has taken a hit there
With less new releases comes less questions and so less activity
Plus I occasionally check the site analytics and they have all been trending down
 
@TheLethalCarrot of yeah we're in a pandemic
I may need more coffee today
 
2015/2016 was the site's busiest time; it grew until then and has been sloping off since. Which is somewhat to be expected; at some point we were going to hit saturation for older works
@AncientSwordRage Lol, wish I could forget like that
 
@TheLethalCarrot I live 5 min from a medium size super market, and I'm working from home full time since last march
 
11:23 AM
My whole day at the moment consists of get up, walk 5 yards to my office, work all day occasionally going downstairs for drinks and walking Stella on my lunch with the wife and then sit downstairs watching TV. Rinse and repeat with the one break in routine being Fridays when I'm in the office. Weekends are the same without the work
@AncientSwordRage I haven't even been in a shop since this whole thing started; all our food comes by delivery
 
@TheLethalCarrot thats really good
@TheLethalCarrot Sounds like you get outdoor more than me! I should really get a better routine...
 
Yeah Stella gives us a reason to get out
 
11:42 AM
On a different, probably more boring, note. In the MCU the Hulkbuster armour comes from Veronica, however the Art of book for AoU indicates she was originally named Veronika. No idea why or if it's just a mistake the Art of book makes
 
'From' ?
is that the name of the AI, or a person?
 
The AI/satellite
 
oh yeah! now I remember
 
11:57 AM
I just want some new MCU content for stuff to answer or ask... WandaVision is enjoyable but the way it is means most questions are stuff that is going to be answered later on and so FWP
 
@TheLethalCarrot I have so much MCU to catch up on, I could probably find plenty of things let to ask once I get round to it
 
Getting round to it is always the problem haha
We've re-watched a few films recently but either the question has already been asked or I just end up like meh not really interesting because I've probably found the answer already
 
12:13 PM
referring back to earlier conversations, if anything my cats stop us heading out (one is currently on my lap now)
@TheLethalCarrot I think I'm down to Antman & the wasp, Black Panther and Endgame
 
Are they house cats? Our estate is filled with cats just wandering around
But Stella can do that, get all cuddly so you don't want to get up and take her out
 
I think I can catch up on Spiderman after End game
plus then add in ALL the Tv series, it actually quite a lot
@TheLethalCarrot yeah permenant house cats
 
The only MCU film I haven't watched is The Incredible Hulk. Don't think I've watched any of the Netflix TV shows and I'm not too fussed about them really
@TheLethalCarrot ...and the answer was meh
AM&TW is good, Endgame obviously was very well received... I've not watched BP in ages and can't remember it all too well
 
@TheLethalCarrot TIH is fun but entriely irrlevant
 
Have you seen Homecoming or is it just Far From Home you have yet to watch?
 
12:19 PM
I've not seen any Spiderman with tom holland
I've only seen him in Civil war
 
Ah okay, I think he makes a good Spider-Man
And Infinity War I guess?
 
@TheLethalCarrot oh yeah, of course
 
And technically Iron Man 2 :P
 
@TheLethalCarrot hmmm, I would say I've technically watched Iron man 2&3 but I didn't really pay much attention
 
Well that was "changed" to be Peter Parker after the fact
 
12:24 PM
oh right
how old would he have been though?
 
9/10 then to be ~16 in Civil War/Homecoming
 
Quick, to the Stackmobile for another exciting question!
ahh
 
50
Q: Which year does Spider-Man: Homecoming take place in?

Tushar RajThe first scene of the movie is presumably set in the immediate aftermath of The Avengers. The movie then fast-forwards to '8 years later'. But Spider-Man already appeared in Civil War as a high school student, which he still is in this movie. So what's the timeline here? If Avengers was set in ...

Though there is a bit of a gaffe with a caption in Homecoming ^
 
1:22 PM
Greetings, Earthlings.
 
1:49 PM
@Donald.McLean Ahoy!
 
Arr, Matey!
 
@TheLethalCarrot This. The dog gets me out of the house a minimum of twice a day; most days it's the only exercise-adjacent activity I get.
 
2:21 PM
@Donald.McLean avast ye
 
3:12 PM
1
Q: Book where the main character gives a powerful sword to one of his friends which causes someone to betray him

penguin1111Don't remember a whole lot about this book, but I recall it was very long. Like over 1000 pages. The main protagonist got a really powerful sword and gave it to one of his friends, which then caused someone else to betray him, kill all his friends, take the sword and the main character ends up in...

 
4:03 PM
0
Q: Was Jango Fett a Sharpshooter?

Bingo MehndraWe all know that prior to the beginning of the Clone Wars, Jango Fett killed Zam Wissell with a Kamino saberdart using a Velocity-7 dart shooter while being located from a considerable distance. Is that ability enough to catalogue him as a sharpshooter? Or it was just a lucky shoot.

 
4:18 PM
posted on January 28, 2021 by tech

Click here to go see the bonus panel!Hovertext: Really, the ideal thing is to use all the mass in the solar system to put a big shell around the Sun and inner planets, and just hide here forever. Today's News:

 
4:30 PM
I'm guessing it may be related to that tag badge problem the other day but I just got all my Steward badges again meaning I now have 12
 
> Awarded 2 mins ago for reviewing Low Quality Posts
Awarded May 14 '20 at 5:18 for 1000 reviews, over 200 actioned in the old review system
 
Oh everyone with Steward badges just got them again... at least on SFF
"old review system" - they changed something I'm not aware of?
 
Yeah, what's weird is that my total includes them twice, which doesn't match what happened last time with the badges, when they went away and came back.
 
Well a description change as well
 
asked about it on MSE, we'll see if I get an answer
...and turns out I was ninja'd by three minutes by Rand :P
 
4:36 PM
I knew someone would beat me to it so didn't bother asking haha
 
4
Q: Steward badges being re-awarded suddenly?

Rand al'ThorI suddenly got four Steward badges re-awarded on SFF. I actually earned these between 2016 and 2020, but now they're awarded twice (?), and the old ones say: for 1000 reviews, over 200 actioned in the old review system There's an "old" review system??? A glance at the "Recent Badges" sidebar on...

 
@KodosJohnson Not related at all. There's supposedly an announcement about review updates coming out today, if it hasn't been published somewhere yet. Seems the code is getting ahead of itself. — animuson ♦ 42 secs ago
 
... so... we're changing it so that it can be awarded multiple times - once for every 1k reviews... but I wasn't expecting that to go live network wide... now. — Catija ♦ 19 secs ago
 
Please be something good. Please be something good.
 
^^^^ @Jenayah @Null @DavidW et al - don't bother posting a meta about Steward badges being re-awarded, I already got there :-)
@Mithical I knew I had to type fast to get this posted before someone else did :-)
Here they come on ELU too.
 
4:39 PM
@Mithical Oh I look forward to a whole bunch more over the coming days then haha
 
@Mithical Oh, that's actually a nice change!
And yeah, I kind of figured it was something "in the works" that accidentally went live early :-)
 
5:19 PM
0
Q: Why did Anakin join Palpatine in the dark side if Palpatine did not have the power to cheat death?

meltIn Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine states to Anakin (when Anakin became Palpatine's apprentice): To cheat death is a power only one has achieved but if we work together I know we can discover the secret. So right there Anakin knows Palpatine doesn't know how to cheat death. Padme is a few month...

 
5:32 PM
12
Q: Visual design changes to the review queues

Lisa ParkThe Public Platform team would like to announce another release in a series of planned work for the Review queues. This release focuses on refreshing the queue user interface in preparation for further improvements to the user experience. Starting today, we will roll out these changes in three ph...

 
6:01 PM
@TheLethalCarrot Weird. The "Changes" to the review home page are exactly how it has always acted?
 
Aye does seem the same
 
I'll have to see how it works in practice, but I expect I'm going to hate the new UI. It's almost as though they're trying to minimize the amount of space allocated to the post that's being reviewed (which is in theory the most important thing on that page), instead of giving it every bit of space possible.
 
Not read it properly yet though
 
And if "robo-reviewing" is really a thing, and apparently a problem, then a minor UI tweak isn't the way to deal with it.
 
Aye it’ll just change where people click
it is a problem on the bigger sites like SO. We have, or had, a few users that robo review
 
6:17 PM
^ and a few meta posts about those
 
6:32 PM
Here I'm so naïve I had no idea there was a seedy underbelly to reviewing!
 
 
2 hours later…
8:41 PM
0
Q: Anime/cartoon where the main character has a toy/model that turns humanoid and fights an alien invasion

enigma chesesShow about a child main character that has a toy/model figure that turns into a humanoid robot similar to hero man but he produces electric and fights alien from space. The main character often goes to a Ferris wheel.

 
9:47 PM
You’re just making me want to see Stella in snow that deep now
My wife just said she saw the original post for that in the NothingBetterThanABassett group when I went to show her. So took the wind out of my sails haha
 
10:19 PM
@TheLethalCarrot ahah !
 
10:47 PM
0
Q: Yet another vague and imprecise story ID request

Jeff DegeThere was a SF novel I read, probably 20 or 30 years ago, and I don't remember most of the details. The story centers around a colony planet recently settled by humans. There was an alien race watching the humans, trying to learn more about them, for presumably nefarious purposes. And there as a ...

 

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