The Classroom

Ben I.

02:52

Good night, lovely folk!

Also, what do people think of no comprende's question now? I think it has gotten a lot better.

(and I'll find out in the morning whether others agree - good night!)

ItamarG3

06:17

Oh no. Views per day dropped.to 1400

We need HNQs

ItamarG3

06:41

the second result for this search "bias in the cs industry " is Ellen's question. Yippee

Gypsy Spellweaver

On the SMART® board question, Mike Z.'s answer reminded me of the one feature I found useful. Saving the annotations as an image.

ItamarG3

08:42

Which feature?

Gilles

@ItamarG3 No, we don't. HNQ usually highlights the bad stuff.

ItamarG3

What do you mean?

And, let me correct myself: we could use some good HNQs.

Gilles

@ItamarG3 Questions that attract people from other sites are, by and large, questions that attract people who don't know anything about the topic and provide and reward easy-to-write, superficial answers.

ItamarG3

That's true, but we also have some evidence to the contrary.

How does views per day go up? (In other betas, for example. Betas where the views per day are high)

Well I'm going to study for my test now. Back in a few hours :)

Buffy

11:13

DuckDuckGo has @EllenSpertus post at the top for "bias in the cs industry". Probably more valuable than a HNQ.

ItamarG3

11:40

Where? I can't find it :/

Buffy

I'm not so happy with @nocomprende's new question. It is narrow and most useful answers would have wider applicability.

Can't find what?

thesecretmaster

@Buffy This question?

Buffy

Hmm. you did find it. Ellen's post is first and third (first and second on my search). Or did you mean something else?

If @nocomprende's question is on hold, I don't think I can update my answer to match the new version. I think they are out of sync. Or should I vote to release it?

I strongly recommend a new tag, something like Useful Metaphors. I think it would bring a lot of questions together, especially the post office box model that creeps back in.

thesecretmaster

If you're not happy with it, then don't vote to reopen

Buffy

11:56

I think we have a problem. It just sits there in an inconsistent state. No-one, apparently, can communicate a suggestion. I think he/she is unhappy, based on earlier comments there, and might leave. I also think the OP is a valuable contributor.

thesecretmaster

Ask them to join us in the guidance office?

Buffy

I'd say yes to guidance.

I can contribute there also.

On tags, teaching analogy is close, but not the same as metaphor. Perhaps that tag could be broadened rather than add a new one.

ItamarG3

12:19

I am slightly nervous about our views per day... It was much higher a few days ago

Buffy

We just had the 4th and school is out and folks are vacationing and ... I think a slow period is expected.

ItamarG3

I keep forgetting school's out. Teaching at summer workshops can cause that :D

thesecretmaster

13:28

New York Times article today: "Silicon Valley Plugs Coding Into Schools". Computer Scientists: plugging things into other things since cable existed.

ItamarG3

13:43

Snappy. I like it :P

thesecretmaster

@ItamarG3 no comprende is in guidance, if you have advice about their question.

no comprende

14:46

Now cables are passe, I guess.

Wow, someone recognizes that I am plural!

Ben I.

@nocomprende Welcome to the main chat!

no comprende

"I have opinions, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." - George Bush

Ben I.

This is the hub

no comprende

chat as in french?

not to do with sandboxes I hope

Ben I.

Guidance Office is an attempt to sequester question help from here. It only works a little bit :P

thesecretmaster

14:49

@nocomprende They/them/their is gender neutral singular also

no comprende

"I am unanimous in this!"

Ben I.

@nocomprende Y'all are definitely plural

ItamarG3

Who knows how to say "William Shakespeare" in past tense?

Gypsy Spellweaver

Dead

ItamarG3

Possibly. But I'd go with "WouldIwas Shookspeared".

Buffy

14:55

@thesecretmaster and ugly as sin.

thesecretmaster

Does English have another gender neutral singular?

Buffy

No. other languages do, of course.

Aurora0001

@thesecretmaster Traditionally, "he" was considered gender neutral also (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_neutrality_in_English#Pronouns)

Buffy

Actually I think that was from the germanic root of english - as opposed to the french root.

Gypsy Spellweaver

266

Q: Is there a correct gender-neutral singular pronoun ("his" vs. "her" vs. "their")?

Is there a pronoun I can use as a gender-neutral pronoun when referring back to a singular noun phrase? Each student should save his questions until the end. Each student should save her questions until the end.

Buffy

15:00

Pre post 1066

heather

hello

Gypsy Spellweaver

@heather O˥˥ƎH

thesecretmaster

@heather What's a gender ~~natural~~ neutral singular -- Think fast!

heather

@thesecretmaster a gender natural singular?

you sure you don't mean neutral?

@thesecretmaster because in that case I would guess a word that references an individual person that is gender neutral...so like xi (is that the new thing? I can't remember).

Gypsy Spellweaver

@thesecretmaster Gottya

thesecretmaster

15:03

sigh

Buffy

"he" as gender neutral was/is acceptable only to men. If you lived through the 60s and 70s you'd have no doubt of that.

heather

@thesecretmaster sorry. =P

Buffy

Bit crazy here today. And we have a new visitor. We should behave better.

no comprende

"Them behaving badly"

Gypsy Spellweaver

How else will they realize that this classroom has no teacher?

Buffy

15:06

Exactly @nocomprende

no comprende

The inmates are running the asylum

'asylum' used to have a positive meaning. like 'handicap'.

and toilet.

Buffy

Don't continue that trendline

no comprende

can't use the word 'whatever' anymore, now that Mr. T has used it.

Buffy

Mr Toilet???? Who???

Nevermind

no comprende

Someone important, whose last name begins with T, and said something really bad recently.

Buffy

15:10

recently????

no comprende

A week or so ago? I don't really watch news.

Or Gnus.

Buffy

Politics should probably move elsewhere, i tink

no comprende

Sorry. unintentional

Buffy

Even rage against the machine. Likely a useful SE community tho

no comprende

"poly meaning many. Ticks meaning tiny bloodsucking insects."

Buffy

15:11

Yes

no comprende

On the internet, everyone knows that your icon is a dog.

Or a little colored square.

Except on Buddhism SE

Buffy

woof

no comprende

(flutter)

Anything good to say about "Murach's MySQL" textbook? Learning that now to present next.

Gypsy Spellweaver

@nocomprende Does the book's version and the school's version of MySQL match?

no comprende

Yes?

Wait... I don't know. (Third base!)

Does it matter?

Gypsy Spellweaver

15:15

It can.

The book can present an example that don't work

no comprende

Yeah, when that happens I use it as an opportunity to explain. Most of our books have been really great.

Gypsy Spellweaver

Not a big problem, if you know it's there and compensate.

no comprende

If students use a newer Visual Studio at home, then bring work to the class, there is a problem.

Buffy

Try it First is pretty good advice. Applies to examples in books. Also to assignments you hand out.

no comprende

Yeah, I try to keep ahead of them. It is vexing when I reuse stuff from one year to another though and the next year it inexplicably fails.

Buffy

15:18

Going off for a while. Be well all.

Off Raging, actually

no comprende

at the machine?

racing? raving?

rating?

Buffy

Someone go review my update to the teaching-analogy tag, please.

no comprende

"It's a thing of beauty, I tell ya."

wait, I guess I can't see the edits. Oh, well.

thesecretmaster

15:40

@nocomprende You can see them, you just can't review them.

no comprende

16:00

Maybe have a 'metaphor' tag synonym? I suppose that would be asking for trouble. 'Analogy' is "something literally true" so it is a way better fit for teaching CS than a metaphor, but any port in a storm.

Don't get me started on icons... usually results in a holy war.

Everyone is slowly greying out... must be time for lunch.

Ben I.

16:22

Lunch sounds so good right now.

no comprende

You must be an Aural Learner. I am more Olfactory, myself (see the article in The Onion)

Buffy

16:38

Read and article today that says a good sense of smell (in mice at least) makes one fat.

the converse isn't true (personal experience)

I think edits to infrastructure (e.g. tags) aren't visible anyone but the editor and mods until approved. At least the note I got after I edited seems to say that explicitly

@thesecretmaster If a tag synonym is created and someone uses it, what shows when it is applied to a question, the original, or the synonym? If it is the original then having one here seems to do little harm and some good.

Aurora0001

@Buffy The original shows. Essentially the other tag just remaps on to the 'master' tag (the original)

e.g. if [car] is the master and [auto] is a synonym, adding [auto] to your question will just show [car] in the tag list

thesecretmaster

@Buffy You called?

Buffy

16:53

Yes. What shows with the question itself? Or is that what you meant by the tag list - the tag list with the question.

Aurora0001

Yeah, I meant the tag list under the question

Buffy

So I think teaching metaphor would be a good synonym for teaching analogy. If I go to the tags page and search for metaphor nothing shows up now, even after the changes to ...analogy.

Anyone object if I add that?

Aurora0001

Seems good to me.

I originally said yeah but that probably doesn't make sense as a response to anyone objecting :P

Ben I.

@Aurora0001 Do small synonyms like that typically go through meta? Or can they just be made if there is a nominal representative of folks who all seem to agree?

Aurora0001

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with a meta post unless controversial

Ben I.

16:59

That seems like a sensible litmus test to me

Buffy

If search were improved it wouldn't be needed. If search for metaphor turned up any tag that mentioned metaphor in the short description it would be enough.

Ben I.

+1 Buffy

Buffy

?? @BenI.

Aurora0001

Probably too expensive for sites like Stack Overflow where there are thousands of tags

Ben I.

@Buffy It's a silly inside joke in cseducators chat, where we pretend to upvote each others' chat comments.

Buffy

17:01

Thot so, TY

Ben I.

I liked what you said and I wanted to upvote.

Here, have another! +1 Buffy

@Aurora0001 Going through meta for small changes, or not going through meta?

Buffy

Somewhere on SE:SO there is a page about fast text search =)

Ben I.

@thesecretmaster What do you think about synonymizing teaching-metaphor to teaching-analogy?

Oh, hey, @Michael0x2a! I'm not sure if I've seen you in the room before

Buffy

An ugly alternative is renaming teaching-analogy to teaching-analogy-or-metaphor.

Aurora0001

@BenI. Searching through tag excerpts was what I was talking about

Ben I.

17:05

Oh, dear god yes. That would be awful on SO

Aurora0001

@Buffy probably exceeds the length limit of 25 chars

I didn't actually count, but looks too long

Michael0x2a

@BenI. Hello! I mostly lurk here :)

Buffy

29 chars

Aurora0001

I think this is a perfect use-case for tag synonyms, and that should just be done for those tags

Ben I.

Yeah, I wanted to make a tag ben-i.-is-the-rightful-heir-of-slytherin-and-gryffindor-and-an-all-around-good-guy, but it turns out it exceeds the character limit.

Buffy

17:06

sub(bad/good) and you save a char

ItamarG3

you'd have to add that to all your questions. because you have to state your affiliation.

Ben I.

@Buffy ~~Good~~ tip!

;-)

Buffy

Lemmee try to do it and see what blows up.

Ben I.

@Michael0x2a We don't bite. Except for Buffy, because he's a puppy.

Michael0x2a

ooh, what kind of puppy?

Ben I.

17:08

He seems to be a bulldog pup from the picture.

@Buffy fair warning: if you pee on my rug, I will swat you with my newspaper.

And Aurora is a penguin, as you can see.

I was once attacked by a penguin in the wild. Sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it really happened.

It was a baby penguin, all plump and grey fuzz

ItamarG3

sound like the beginning of a limerick.

Buffy

I don't see any UI that lets me do it.

Not a dog. Not that cute. As I keep reminding you.

Ben I.

@Buffy your picture begs to differ.

It is adorable, and it brightens my day every time I see it

Buffy

I am not my avatar. My name is not me.

Ben I.

Well, I don't know how you expect me to keep that straight. That's just confusing.

Buffy

17:11

But it's a bulldog, which does tell you something about me.

Ben I.

Michael is a tidal wave, I am eighth notes, Aurora is a penguin, and Itamar is a

Buffy

Hmmm. How can you program if you don't understand it?

Ben I.

...

Itamar is a lowercase 'm' and a big Hebrew letter

Buffy

I am not adorable, but I'm happy to brighten your day.

ItamarG3

actually it's the letter G

Michael0x2a

17:13

Hmm, I thought it was a sideways "G3"

Ben I.

Hey Buffy, you need to learn to give appropriately descriptive names to your variables.

ItamarG3

@Michael0x2a precisely.

Buffy

What about UI for tag synonyms. Not to spoil the fun here.

Hmmm. Read cseducators.stackexchange.com/questions/1410/…

Ben I.

Tag synonyms can only be done by mods

Aurora0001

@BenI. Not true

Ben I.

17:15

@BenI. Not true

thesecretmaster

If you have lotsa votes and answers in a tag, you can do it too

Aurora0001

You can just suggest a synonym here: cseducators.stackexchange.com/tags/teaching-analogy/synonyms

Ben I.

I'm always learning. Both a teacher and a student :)

Aurora0001

If you have more than 1250 rep + 5 votes in that tag

Ben I.

I thought you needed +5 votes in both tags

Aurora0001

17:16

@BenI. What if the other tag doesn't exist yet? ;)

Ben I.

I thought I tried this before they modded me, and I couldn't do it because I only had +5 in the existing tag

Buffy

Hmmm. Says the tag must first exist. But I don't think I can create teaching-metaphor.

Aurora0001

Oh, perhaps it's only the mod tools that let you create synonyms without them being used

Anyway, it can be trivially solved by just adding the tag, then proposing the synonym

ItamarG3

@Aurora0001 2k mod tools or actual moderator tools?

Buffy

But create tag isn't one of my powers, I think.

Aurora0001

17:19

The super-powered moderator tag merge tools

@Buffy I think create tag is pretty low; about 350 rep

Ben I.

@Aurora0001 source tag is the one that I want to redirect, right?

nvmd, just saw the instructions on the side

Aurora0001

Umm, I think so. Let me check quickly

Yeah, so stick teaching-metaphors in the source

Ben I.

teaching-metaphor is mapped!

Buffy

Yep. TY

Ben I.

And with that, I am off to lunch. Later, friends!

Buffy

17:23

Ciao. or maybe Chow

Gypsy Spellweaver

BTW, I think Michael0x2a is a PCB not a wave.

thesecretmaster

@BenI. You don't eat lunch sitting in front of your computer staring at chat and flags and queues?

Michael0x2a

It's sort of both

Which I thought was cute

Gypsy Spellweaver

17:35

@Michael0x2a Is that found, or self-generated?

Michael0x2a

Found it somewhere -- I'm nowhere near that creative :)

no comprende

I looked up 'ciao' once at it says it means "I am your slave". Interesting.

Michael0x2a icon looks like a famous painting called "The Wave". (I got a colored square)

Buffy

@nocomprende. Yes, that is precisely true. It is often used when leaving or signing off. But it is more like a priest/teacher/sensi thinking of him/her self as the servant of the group rather than the leader. "I am yours to command."

no comprende

17:51

I guess I won't propose a tag for "colorful metaphors", it seems unwise.

Or unnecessary.

Buffy

and wise

no comprende

Is it true that cannibals won't eat clowns because they taste funny?

Buffy

no

no comprende

Obviously they are not Oral learners.

Buffy

by def, cannibals can eat only cannibals.

And such a society can be population stable. Proof by Pat Doyle about 1970

no comprende

18:03

Like in Cloud Atlas or something?

Gypsy Spellweaver

@nocomprende Not true. Almost every child has a period where mouth sensing is at its peak.

Buffy

dunno the ref, sorry. Too old if current.

no comprende

Sure, they put everything in their mouth. It is the only thing that works reliably at that point.

Gypsy Spellweaver

Eventually they "lean" what tastes good, and that clowns taste funny.

Buffy

Hmmm. I've been there at something works ok at the other end also.

Gypsy Spellweaver

18:05

Athletes probably taste gamey.

no comprende

What do teachers taste like? It's academic anyway.

Gypsy Spellweaver

Never ate one, mother made me promise.

Buffy

Do you do standup when not teaching @nocomprende?

no comprende

well, I just don't have an audience.

Buffy

Or just while teaching?

no comprende

18:07

Not much audience there either.

It is how my memory works: associative. And I am an associate.

Buffy

Some teachers are remembered. It would be good if more of what they taught was also remembered.

I've got that trademarked and patented, so you can't have it. Sorry.

no comprende

"A man may occasionally stumble over the truth. But usually he gets up, dusts himself off, and moves on." - Churchill

2

Buffy

what digby said

no comprende

"I have given up the search for truth and am looking for a really good illusion." - Ashleigh Brilliant, I think.

"a truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent." - Blake

Buffy

Sounds like Johnny Cochran (sp?) OJ's Lawyer.

Ben I.

18:14

@nocomprende That should be in "A Little Priest" ;-)

no comprende

My all-time favorite, especially when teaching programming:

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." - Yogi Berra

ItamarG3

29

A: Etiquette: How to deal with "spoon feeding" requests?

Technical point: you cannot vote to close a question with an active bounty (not even during the "grace period"). Otherwise, any combination of ignoring any pings from the user deleting your answer and comments (which prevents pings) downvoting voting to close is appropriate in such a case. ...

I found this post, and I don't think it's all that applicable to us, but we should watch out for this thing.

Buffy

Sorry. not Yogi: "In theory, theory is the same as practice, but not in practice ."
- Fnord Bjørnberger

no comprende

Oh. I thought you were telling me how I could keep from getting my posts closed.

Well, theoretically it is the same quote.

Buffy

A secret pal once advised: "If you don't grok grok, but you do grok google, then google grok and so grok grok. Grok?"

Gypsy Spellweaver

18:19

@Buffy May you never thirst

Ben I.

@Buffy I love that.

no comprende

"I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow." - Woodrow Wilson

Ben I.

Stranger in a Strange Land was a weirdly erotic book to read when I was... however old I was when I read it. 4th grade? 5th grade?

The entire book made not that much sense to me at the time, but I knew it was forbidden

Gypsy Spellweaver

Someday I plan to read it myself.

Ben I.

It's an excellent book, especially if you remember the 60s.

(Which you presumably do)

no comprende

18:20

I'm not that old yet.

Ben I.

Me, neither, @nocomprende

no comprende

but someday.

Ben I.

blinks

I like having you here :D

no comprende

thank you. You are very engaging also.

Gypsy Spellweaver

All I remember about the 60's was that teachers were devils and librarians were angels.

Ben I.

18:22

The lecture question is quite high on the HNQ list

Buffy

My first answer for the lecture question was to be "Just Say No". But I calmed down.

But I do sort of say that, of course.

Ben I.

I am deeply shocked that my answer is doing well, since I was all "yee-haw PowerPoint!"

I was mostly bracing to be downvoted into oblivion

Buffy

Well, we wer all boo-ugh powerpoint.

Ben I.

The handicap thing I mentioned is true. I haven't gone for any kind of diagnosis, but I really don't think I'm talking about the normal sort of tee-hee, my memory is really bad, guys

Buffy

@BenI. If I were to give you one bit of advice to help you grow as a teacher, it would be "be all about the students" rather than "all about the material".

Students can be all about the material, but not teachers.

Ben I.

18:28

I hope that I am, at the end of the day.

As fun as it is to discuss primitives vs references every year, it's not exactly what gets me up in the morning.

Buffy

Note that everyone is "handicapped". Everyone. For some it is obvious, for others less so. Our evolution requires it. If we were too much alike we wouldn't evolve. The outliers in any given environment are the handicapped.

Until the asteroid hits.

Rather, the outliers are the ones "perceived" to be handicapped. Sorry.

Ben I.

@Buffy I keep getting the sensation that you are sitting in judgement over me.

no comprende

there you go again, with chicxulub.

Ben I.

But you don't know me any better than I know you, which is precious little. Please don't rush to judgement. :(

Buffy

I don't judge people who are working to improve themselves.

no comprende

18:35

gosh, I didn't pick up on any judgement vibe.

Buffy

And I'm sure you are or you wouldn't be here.

no comprende

the statement was just that we are all very different, some more visibly so.

Buffy

But the scourge of the old is to give advice to the not so old. And the scourge of the young is to hear it.

no comprende

"youth is wasted on the young."

Buffy

If this was 12000 years ago and we were sitting around the campfire I'd be talking the same way (the old geezer) and you'd be listening. My goal would be the survival of the clan. As it is now.

@nocomprende would you go back?

Gypsy Spellweaver

18:38

I'd like to live in a cave (if it had internet access).

thesecretmaster

We have a sandbox!

Ben I.

Old age is wasted on the elderly.

Buffy

Yay

no comprende

I used to think that my memory is getting worse, but I am not sure I remember how good it used to be.

Buffy

Hmmm. That flowed strangely, didn't it.

Gypsy Spellweaver

18:38

Now we need it to be down voted.

Ben I.

And it has its first down vote!

Gypsy Spellweaver

get it below about -8 and it won't keep getting bumped with every edit or answer.

Aurora0001

I'm not personally a big fan of question sandboxes; it just seems pointless—isn't the whole point of putting questions on hold and commenting to help people make their questions better?

And then you have to check the main site for new questions... and the sandbox for new question proposals

Gypsy Spellweaver

It's also a decent place to test formatting, especially with LaTeX enabled.

Ben I.

@Aurora0001 Yes. But some people feel really bad when that happens, so it's a way to make people feel supported instead of attacked. Closing questions really is designed to help improve questions, but it doesn't feel that way to new users

Aurora0001

18:41

Not voted on it yet though, but I feel like the sandbox idea only works well for sites that have special requirements for questions (like Puzzling, PPCG, etc.)

Buffy

I suggest we try it for a bit.

Ben I.

It was requested, and it is decidedly non-harmful.

thesecretmaster

Also, all the answers on that question get feed to the Guidance Office

no comprende

I'm confused about the downvoting of the sandbox... you want downvotes on it?

thesecretmaster

Yeah, so it doesn't get bumped when people use it.

no comprende

18:42

"I'll be careful."

'you'll be dead!"

Ben I.

I don't think I will ever use it personally, but if I have a question closed on me, I know what that really means, so I'm okay with it

Aurora0001

@BenI. Would seem easier just to explain to people that closure is a chance to improve their question and not a punishment (and prune any comments that are inappropriate)

Ben I.

I'll be doing that anyway. :)

Gypsy Spellweaver

And the voice of experience speaks? @nocomprende?

no comprende

Duh?

Ben I.

18:44

BTW, @Aurora0001, this is an off-the-wall question, but do you enjoy being a moderator?

no comprende

That was a movie quote

about bumping thiings...?

I don't know what being bumped means for a question.

Ben I.

It means it goes to the top of the feed

Aurora0001

@BenI. Well, if I didn't enjoy it, I would just quit :P. After all, I'm volunteering time for my site, and I wouldn't do it if I didn't get at least some satisfaction from it

Ben I.

If a question gets edited or answered, typically it moves to the top of the question list

@Aurora0001 I'm going to think on that.

Gypsy Spellweaver

cseducators.meta.stackexchange.com lists the currently active/hot questions.

When a question/answer is edited/posted the question is the most recent activity, and the question goes to the top of the list automatically.

Aurora0001

18:46

@BenI. And I also feel that I'd be around on the site anyway, so I may as well help out with moderating. But seriously, I think it'd be silly to dedicate time to moderating if you don't get any pleasure at all out of it.

Gypsy Spellweaver

A real low score prevents that.

Ben I.

So far, I don't really enjoy it. I really want to see this community succeed, and I am willing to play whatever role to help it, but it is a lot of meta stuff and dealing with flags and handling people's complaints, none of which directly appeals to me.

no comprende

If someone proposes a question, wouldn't having that show up somewhere be a good thing? Oh, well. "I am only an egg."

Ben I.

My heart is on the main site, and I feel like some days, I barely get to spend any time there because I'm putting out fires.

Gypsy Spellweaver

If I understood correctly, @thesecretmaster set up a feed so that an anwers (proposed question) gets posted in the Guidance Office chat.

no comprende

18:48

its magic

Buffy

I think the intent is to let the mods, say, see it before the public at large, so advice can be given early.

Aurora0001

@BenI. I mean that is the big shame if there is a lot of work to do—a lot of moderators (especially on bigger sites like SO) look like they barely contribute anything, because there's so much work to do on the meta sites and flags

Ben I.

My contributions to the main site have definitely flagged in the last 2 weeks

no comprende

That's a moderator's job I guess, they get all the radiation and keep things from overheating.

Ben I.

I'm hoping that as the learning curve goes down, it will just take less time

Aurora0001

18:50

But I'd honestly suggest you give it a few weeks and let the activity settle a little. If it's really not for you, then the SE team will be happy to support you however possible (e.g. getting more moderators to join the team, or, if you really feel strongly, letting you step down)

Buffy

It won't. Sorry. The number of users grows

Ben I.

That's what I'm doing now

Aurora0001

@Buffy I strongly doubt that, at least for the near future. Currently there's a lot of buzz from the beta launch, and HNQs, but the pattern on a lot of beta sites is that it drops initially, because some initial users become less active, etc etc

Buffy

The main question feed on SE:SO is useless. Ten questions in 2 minutes. Impossible to follow.

Aurora0001

CSE does seem to have a lot of momentum behind it, and I honestly hope it continues... but realistically it might diminish a little before growing again

Ben I.

18:52

Plus, my heart isn't in "SE", it's in "cseducators", and while "SE" is the ecosystem that sustains us, I sometimes find it cognitively difficult to have to defend/enforce SE norms when I don't 100% feel that they serve the needs of cseducators.

no comprende

The pattern I see is that a few initial users champion the site at the beginning, and stay highly visible all along, like on The Workplace and Buddhism. But the next-tier users seem to stick around for a year or two, then get replaced. Meetup is very similar.

Buffy

I was a consumer (via google) of SE:SO for a long time without joining anything. Look at the reps of some of the ordinary members. An immense job to manage that site

Ben I.

OTOH, I also recognize that the role of a moderator is to be the voice of the network to SE staff, and the voice of SE staff to the network.

Aurora0001

@BenI. If there are any norms you don't feel are working out... then consider whether you do need to enforce them or not at all. But of course that usually ends up with even more meta load to decide whether it's a good idea

Ben I.

For now, I'll continue as is. I'm slowly getting the hang of some of it, and I'll see how things go. If I still find it not-so-enjoyable in a few weeks, I guess I'll start talking to the other pro tems and Pops and figure out how to proceed from there.

I assume that we're going to go down in activity also because it is summer break

I'm hopeful that we'll see a significant uptick in September/October

Aurora0001

18:58

Let me just say: I think you've done a really amazing job so far, and this site probably wouldn't be here without your support at the start of the beta especially.

Buffy

If you want an uptick, put a message out to Joe Kmoch at apcs list.

CS Educators Meta

-3

Q: The Question Sandbox

This question should serve as a sandbox for in-progress questions. Any question submitted here will automagically be shown in the Guidance Office. We need this space because it's hard to actually work on questions in the Guidance Office, and having a drafting space would be very useful. Some rul...

discussion sandbox

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