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00:13
@chx Oh huh, the 10-year bans go in some sort of database? I know they check timatic first
And yeah I love some of the answers on this site
Heck I've asked a few questions that have been pretty strange myself
travel.stackexchange.com/questions/84337/… come to think of it I've even answered a few weird ones! Like this:
3
A: May a Dutch citizen enter the Netherlands using a foreign passport?

Owen VersteegI suppose I may be one of a few people who can actually answer this question from experience - me, some family members, and some friends have all experienced this. This is all assuming your foreign passport is one that you can travel to the Netherlands with. If you are a Dutch citizen but have n...

 
5 hours later…
04:47
39 unanswered questions, 36 with no answers at all, and 10 active bounties! We're getting there!
chx
chx
05:25
@OwenVersteeg maybe if you are coming from a visa free country you might be able to get on board, yes.
@MarkMayo don't get your hopes up, one of the bounties is not for an open question, it's travel.stackexchange.com/a/89729/4188
@MarkMayo I need this answer to stand out -- as I said in my comment, this is why we are here
05:52
@chx, yeah, my comment was actually in the hope that it might encourage more bounties ;)
0
Q: Are you arrested for viewing adult sites whilst in the UAE

kelvinDoes the Law in UAE arrest people for accessing adult internet sites

lol
I feel like he could have googled that. Sheesh
-4
A: I have an extra legroom seat- can I resell once on board

ScottDo NOT do this for takeoff or landing. In most cases, due to either airline terms and conditions, or legal requirements, you are required to obey all instructions given to you on the flight, whether by illuminated signs, non illuminated signs, or the flight crew. In the USA, this is required by ...

This is getting increasingly silly
Regardless, he doesn't answer the question
oh my goodness, the other answers too
"toots"? what are those even?
lol
I think he means touts
yeah, I just worked that out. still ridiculous :)
"any person who solicits business or employment in a persistent and annoying manner"
chx
chx
06:00
oh my god i imagine this guy going around and asking 'hey! i have an extra legroom seat, who is going to give me twenty for that? That guy there, in 25A offers 20! Who is going to offer 25? Going, going, gone!"
interesting username too
the whole question is ridiculous
chx
chx
lord
that would be some hilarious shit
i am going to bring a gavel just to be able to do this
cabin crew are looking for unusual behavior from passengers when they board, because they want to get the flight off on time and they're looking out for people who might be drunk or dangerous
standing there trying to sell your seat is going to attract negative attention in a hurry
I was shocked to find some fool actually made an app to sell seats like that
lol @ seateroo. Nice idea,but airlines are going to shut down that pretty fast if they spot it
especially between classes
chx
chx
06:02
well this would happen once you are up there
i cant imagine it boarding time either
but once you are en route
maybe at dinner time?
chx
chx
without a laptop, ereader or tablet
it could be entertaining.
"would you like the beef or the fish, and perhaps a window seat ?"
chx
chx
:D
It's also like, if you asked me to switch seats, I very well might say yes (especially if you're offering me a seat with extra legroom). If you try to sell me your seat, I'm going to think you're very strange and probably not stop telling the story of "the weird guy on my flight who tried to sell me his seat" for a while
 
4 hours later…
mts
mts
09:42
@chx thanks for checking this, I have left a comment as you suggest. travel.stackexchange.com/questions/90192/…
Can I resell my on-board meal?
Plane runs out of chicken, I sell it to the seats in the back
What's a good asking price?
chx
chx
Actually I did ask about that once.
:)
@MarkMayo do we get a prize for the #1 unanswered spot?
@Dorothy Yes wiki and excerpt are the usage textboxes one should define for each tag.
Getting Expats.SE up to 100% unanswered would be nice as well, but most of those Qs are way too specialized
09:45
The excerpt is what shows up when selecting tags from the ask question form.
Wiki is the broader explanation that one sees clicking on the tag.
chx
chx
@JonathanReez back when I was still doing transatlantic flights in economy, once I got the last meal of a certain kind and the FA did note this and in a joking tone I have asked back how much could i get for it if i were to sell it :P
Now, we had a discussion about the cyprus and northen-cyprus tags a while ago:
10
Q: Should Northern Cyprus be tagged separately from the Republic of Cyprus?

jpatokalOur (few) existing questions about Northern Cyprus, like this, are currently tagged cyprus. The tag's description is: Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and is a member state of the European Union. Which is fair enough in lega...

The consensus was that splitting them would be beneficial since they are different geopolitical realities and have different travel regulations.
By that logic it might make sense to split their relative -citizen tags too.
@Dorothy ^
I once got to the last bikeshare bike at the same time as another guy and he proposed a rock-paper-scissors game to decide who gets it
Far more civilized than a bidding war
 
2 hours later…
11:53
@JonathanReez the sponsor question is not the same as an invitation question. The former implies financial support; the latter does not. The answers to the latter do not address the fact that there is someone other than the traveler contributing to the costs of the trip, which is central to the former.
3
Q: Is a bank statement needed to apply for a German visa if I have an invitation?

leoI want to know that will it still be necessary for me to sent my bank statement to the Germany embassy for schengen visa , whilst i received a invatation from the one inviting me from Germany ?

0
Q: Do I have to supply a bank statement for my Schengen visa application if I have a sponsor?

user57070Is it necessary to submit a bank statement which does not have enough funds,though I'm being supported by a friend in Germany when applying for a schengen visa to Germany from Zimbabwe?

The german invitation letter (verpflichtungserklärung) is a sponsor letter
chx
chx
12:17
before I post to the site, can anyone imagine any reason why something like this would be banned in carry on? indiegogo.com/projects/…
the battery is small
wonderful
oh god, having something like this in Florence...
12:42
@chx on the next episode of "things you can't carry to America"...
13:01
@JoErNanO I am here, now :D I did the cypriot-citizens excerpt and wikis; thank you. It's in the review queue. After reading the Meta Q&A, I tweaked it a bit, but I'm not sure I have it right.
@Dorothy Splendid. @MarkMayo accepted the tag edits.
@JoErNanO Lovely !! So it's correct to do the one-liner, then the bullets with the urls... learn something every day. I deliberately side-stepped the political issue and, as I understand, there are Turkish Cypriots who enjoy the benefits of EU and Commonwealth citizenship. Note that the government functions in both Greek and Turkish. This way it can be used for both.
 
2 hours later…
15:05
@Dorothy A friend of mine is in that situation. Basically you have to prove your family was on the island before 1974.
You need to cross the green line to apply for a passport and it's labelled in both Greek and Turkish.
@Dorothy According to @MarkMayo it is. But he's a tag noob and knows nothing. :P
 
4 hours later…
18:57
@JonathanReez A Verpflichtungserklärung is not precisely the same thing as an invitation letter. See for example accra.diplo.de/contentblob/3500650/Daten/5377908/…, in which an invitation letter is required for example for a business visit, but a Verpflichtungserklärung is required for a business visit only "if the costs of the trip cannot be covered by the applicant."
Also notice how for "private and official visits" the invitation letter and the Verpflichtungserklärung are listed under separate bullet points.
So the invitation letter serves to justify the purpose of the trip, while the Verpflichtungserklärung is an undertaking by someone else to assume certain financial obligations. This is a different function.
19:19
@phoog but then why would you not show your bank account if it's just a letter inviting you for a business visit?
oh well, now we have Gayot's excellent answer
19:54
@JonathanReez The document I linked to suggests that one ought to show bank accounts in any case; under "general requirements" it says that these should be included as evidence of employment, which in turn is proof of social and economic ties to the home country.
But the basic point here is that the questions were different: one concerned an invitation (which may actually have been a Verpflichtungserklärung but there's nothing that definitively leads to that conclusion) and the other concerned a sponsor who was offering financial support. The answer to both questions is the same ("yes, you should include them") but having the same answer doesn't make two questions duplicate.
Surely it would be possible to come up with a way to pose a question in general enough terms that it covers both situations, but the person asking the second question isn't necessarily in a position to generalize from the other question to his own. The more likely reaction is, "but this isn't the same situation I'm in."
In general I'm coming to the conclusion that when we close a question as a duplicate we have to make sure that doing so provides the person asking the question with an acceptable answer. Otherwise, it just turns people off, not to mention defeating the purpose of the site.
That's one reason why I don't like encyclopedic canonical questions that attempt to cover every possible edge case in detail. It's just confusing. In the case of the "do I need a Schengen transit visa" question, it's not terribly much better than linking to the Schengen codes.
20:11
the problem with the no-canonical approach is that we have 100 questions about a certain topic rather than a single centralized question
e.g. "Do I need to show credit card on German trains" is answered in 3 separate questions (one for locals, one for foreigners, one for some other situation) - and the top answers are all outdated now that Deutsch Bahn no longer requires the original credit card
Schengen transit rules can change at a moment's notice - and then who's going to fix all the old answers?
even worse - it's generally considered bad taste to amend inaccurate information in other people's posts by yourself, so you will be stuck with adding a completely new answer
and it's not like we have just a few canonicals, there's already a few dozen - just for the Schengen Qs!
15
Q: Schengen overview community wiki to avoid duplicates

mtsWe are getting a lot of visa questions here and the high number of already existing questions and answers makes it hard to keep track at times. My feeling after being on the site for a while is that user @GayotFow does an excellent job at keeping the UK-visa questions sorted, due to extraordina...

chx
chx
21:05
@JoErNanO Uncle Fester :D ?
 
3 hours later…
23:41
"That extra scrutiny will include asking applicants detailed questions about their background and making mandatory checks of social media history if a person has ever been in territory controlled by the Islamic State."

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