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6:22 AM
@mts vital when you retag: do not screw up people's tag badges!!!!
@chx +1 for that
 
Iceland citizenship requirements:
1. Pronounce "Eyjafjallajökull".
2
that's its
 
6:41 AM
My post about Crimea already attracted two Putin fans
really surprised they're present on this site
 
@JonathanReez Putin fans? I thought they are all busy killing Syrians..
 
mts
7:07 AM
@GayotFow are those re-calculated after re-tagging?
 
 
1 hour later…
8:23 AM
@chx Those sort of things happen all the while
 
8:46 AM
@mts Exactly the sort of thing to think about beforehand! And especially during a dreaded global recalc.
 
9:27 AM
My top-voted answers are such a random collection of things
 
mts
@GayotFow no tag badges are at stake here, the top users of both tags combined have <10 answers in those tags
 
Talking about Q that should not have gotten answers, look at this one. To broad, no research done and answered by high rep people
5
Q: Personal boat from Vancouver to Seattle

CamillaCan you take your own boat from Vancouver to Seattle? I don't know much about any of this, so any info on type of boat required, if there are specific routes you need to take, and how to travel by boat internationally (if it can be done/how you would go about doing so) is a great help. Thank you.

 
9:48 AM
Hmm, you are right
probably should have voted that as unclear
not clear if it is about immigration, navigation, seamanship, what?
 
@CMaster Indeed. Voted and commented.
 
I just went for too broad
But commented that it is not showing research at all.
 
Hi @Maurice!
This is where the weird folks on Travel meet. By far @HeidelBerGensis is the weirdest. :D
 
10:09 AM
I'm not sure if @Maurice gets a ping if they've never been in the channel
 
@CMaster @Maurice just arrived in the room though. :)
 
If you can find the relevant chat profile you can invite to a channel
OK, seems they do then
and finding the relevant chat profile can be really awkward
 
@CMaster You gotta look for the chat users here: chat.stackexchange.com/users
Although not all SE users are chat users.
 
10:21 AM
Yeah, british paper currency is weird
there are like 6 places that can issue it, but most people only regognise the BoE notes
there's the £50 note, which isn't that valuable in the grand scheme of things
but nobody ever uses
meanwhile everybody uses the £5 lots, but no bank wants to hand it out, because it takes up too much space
 
I have seen a 50 pound note the first time this week, I visit the UK twice a year on average and almost always get 100 or 200 out at a time.
And I have only seen them, not even handled them.
 
I've handled them a few times
when foreginers gave them to me
 
@Willeke I like 50GBP notes. They take up less space in my wallet.
 
I had a friend visit last year, from france
 
I do usually get €50 notes when I get €100 or more, but I do not think I ever had €100 or bigger in one note.
 
10:25 AM
the French BDC had given him a brand new £50 note
that was so old it was discontinued
so I had to swap it him for actually in circulation cash to take it to my bank
 
The guy I saw having them was Belgian and likely had gotten them from their bank
Were you able to get real money for it?
 
When I was treasuer for University clubs, lots of foreign students would pay their fees with 50s
@Willeke I was able to feed it to the automated till at a Supermarket
 
that is good :D
 
but most banks will also take out-of-circulation currency from their customers for deposits
Honestly, I didn't know there was anything wrong with it
but apprently several cashiers at shops had refused it
I think I may have had a €100 once, not sure
 
I am used to the old Dutch system where once notes are taken out of circulation you only have a few years to get them exchanged to new money
 
10:29 AM
€200 and €500 are now banned in the UK (banks aren't allowed to hand them out)
 
Got to get going, swimming at noon (UK)
 
See you @Willeke
 
Oh wow, the Northern Irish banknotes aren't Legal Tender
 
10:51 AM
just wanted to say hi :)
 
11:19 AM
Decided to go early with a fun question that I've been wondering about for years:
3
Q: How can I visit 'Null Island'?

Mark MayoSo while Null Island is one of the most 'visited' places on Earth, the island itself doesn't exist - it's a geocoded point added to the Natural Earth map, among others, to indicate the Lat/long location of 0,0. That said, the location itself is very real, and there's something there to see - Sta...

 
11:59 AM
@mts It's fine to ADD tags, but to remove them may invite anger from anyone working towards a tag badge. Honestly, caution.
 
@GayotFow Anyone who values their badges over making the content of the site better isn't someone I care much about I think
@Maurice Hi. Don't worry about others coming through to clean up the formatting of your posts. It's low effort work (normally) once you're used to it
 
mts
@GayotFow I'll take your word of warning and thanks for pointing out. However I did exchange tags where the previous tagging was wrong IMHO and I'm not sure people working towards badges should be the primary criterion in that case but I totally get they would be pissed and I'm trying to avoid that. In fact, no badges nor badge aspirations were harmed in re-tagging as far as I can tell. Would you mind pointing out a specific question were I should have been more cautious in your opinion?
 
12:17 PM
@Jpatokal wow, I did not expect an answer so early
on the hot list already!
 
chx
That Confluence project missed a great opportunity -- they should've called themselves Pick project
 
 
1 hour later…
1:45 PM
@mts It's a general piece of generic advice about something you appear to have overlooked. As for specifics, I do not go looking for that sort of thing, nor did I indicate such. Totally ignore my suggestions if you want.
 
Is the British Airways website down or is it just me?
> The requested URL was rejected.
>
> Please contact our support team on
> Telephone: (+44) 0344 493 0787 option 3
> (calls charged at local rate within the UK)
>
> Daily 06:00-20:00 UK time.
>
> Please quote support ID 13240401226764529323
 
@JoErNanO Thanks for choosing me as the weirdest, I have been working so hard to get that title :D
 
@MichaelHampton Homepage is working for me
 
@MichaelHampton the site is accessible..
 
Ah, so it's just me
 
1:48 PM
 
mts
@GayotFow ok, again thanks for pointing out and you are right doing so. I'll heed your advice, for now no harm has been done :)
 
Kinda slow, but don't know if thats them or me
 
No, I am not going to contact your worthless support team who won't even know what I'm talking about
 
@CMaster You should make your value system more widely known so that people who come here for other reasons know that you don't care about them. Maybe they should find something else to do?
 
What country/language option are you using?
 
1:50 PM
I don't even get that far
 
@GayotFow The point of the site is to provide comprehensive and accesible information for travellers, no?
Tagging properly helps make the information easier to find
 
@MichaelHampton u know what would i do in these cases.. I open google translate, set it to English to English, and paste the link..
the site then will be accessed by google servers, and then transferred to you..
 
IF somebody opposes better tagging, because it effects their badge progress (intended, as I understand it, as a fun aside for those who contribute)
Then I don't see why I should make the site worse (or rather, not make it better) for the sake of those who don't embrace the site's aims
@MichaelHampton It autofowrads me to en-gb/uk
Possibly autoforwarding you to a non-existent version?
@GayotFow Of course, others may feel differently. I'm certainly not the boss of this place
and I'm also certainly not seeking to drive anyone who contributes away
 
@CMaster I see nothing about 'comprehensive' and 'accessible' in the purpose statement. Wouldn't it be better to read the purpose?
 
@CMaster I agree, proper tagging.
If they answered wrongly tagged Q, they should have added a tag or re-tagged themselves.
But I do not advise diving to the oldest Q to re-tag every possible option.
 
1:56 PM
I'm in US, I was redirected to britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_us
and then got the error.
 
@MichaelHampton it works with me..
 
@MichaelHampton likewise, works fine here
 
@MichaelHampton try this: translate.google.com/…
 
Like I said, I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is
 
@CMaster As mentioned, it makes a more tenable premise to familiarize yourself with the site's purpose before dictating what's good for the site :)
 
1:59 PM
Now all I have to do is find BA's actual webmaster team, because yelling at support is useless
 
@GayotFow I actually can't find a simple mission statement readily
I'll note that the Tour states that tagging is to help find questions
 
@CMaster Travel Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for road warriors and seasoned travelers. It's built and run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of Q&A sites. With your help, we're working together to build a library of detailed answers to every question about traveling.
 
The tour also mentions badges however, although it syas nothing about what their purpose is
 
Badges give bragging rights, nothing else until you get gold tag ones.
 
"a library of detailed answers to every question about traveling." - is that not "comprehensive travel information"?
It certainly doesn't say "here to provide stickers to boost user's egos"
 
2:05 PM
@CMaster You're stretching it now
 
I'll admit it says nothing about acessibility
 
Does courtesy have a place in your value system?
 
I always seek to deal with people reasonably and respectfully
That's not necessarily the same as courtesy
 
@CMaster Do you remember the #1 rule of the site?
 
Be nice? Indeed
BUt I don't see anything not "nice" about helping other users find questions easier
Yes, this may slow someone's progress towards a tag badge
but honestly, I hadn't imagined anyone even cared
and it just gives them more incentive to find more questions to be helpful on, surely?
I'll probably really upset you when I mention that I sometimes use the downvote button too
 
2:11 PM
@CMaster no, tagging very rarely helps an OP locate a question/answer. If ever.
Good tags will help an experienced user find a duplicate
 
guys i am lost and i wasnt following
in short, who is in favor of tagging and who is not?
 
@mts went around fixing a few tags after the climbing/mountain climbing split
@GayotFow Argues that retagging should be done carefully as it may cost people btag badges/progress towards
@cmaster Argued that the badge issue wasn't worth caring about
I think
 
@HeidelBerGensis It's not about who's in favour or who's not in favor
 
oooh ok, thanks for explaining.. not my thing to be a part of..
 
I am a voracious retagger
So what it's about is understanding the impacts from end to end
 
2:20 PM
well, i will say one line about it..
 
and appreciating that people are here for lots of different reasons
 
if the change is good for users, let's do it.. if it is good for users but affects badges and shit, then let's do it as well, if it is bad for users, let's not do it..
thats it..
 
trhe trouble is always that "good for users" is something of a value judgement
 
@CMaster That rather brings us back to square one
 
to be more specific, "good for users" i mean good for "users", not "high rep users", good in the sense of questions and answers.. thats just my opinion..
ok i am dragged into this?>
i will eat then.. lol
see ya
 
2:22 PM
@HeidelBerGensis enjoy your dinner
 
@HeidelBerGensis but is it good for users that some people only stay around to answer questions because of the Internet Points/Internet Stickers they get for it? (Those people may hold the answer, and be gone if they didn't feel appropriately rewarded)
As ever, value judgements
 
@CMaster Sorry, did anyone say they were here only for points and badges???
I didn't read that
 
No, nobody said that
I understood you to be suggesting that badges were an important motivating factor for some people, one that should be respected
but even if some people are just here for that
it's a valid question
is it worth pandering to them to some extent
for the contributions they provide?
On top of that, I imagine you could aruge that there's value in some people having the close/reopen hammer in areas of speciality, that benefits "users" as a whole
 
@CMaster Yes, the site is massively better when dups are closed early
@CMaster No, I am suggesting that people understand the consequences of what they are doing.
 
@Willeke it's lunch actually..
and it is on the way..
one last point @CMaster and @GayotFow isn't that way meta is there? so we can put some nonofficial rules regarding this?
 
2:33 PM
Whichever meal, enjoy it.
 
@HeidelBerGensis what are the unofficial rules?
 
@GayotFow how to say it.. each site has some "culture"..
this culture is mainly developed in meta..
each SE site..
so, if this issue, the retagging thing causes some misunderstanding, then we should take it to meta,, so all high rep users, who will be "affected" can take a decision..
that's just an idea..
or did you stop believing in democracy after sadiq became the mayor now? :D :D :D just a joke!
 
@HeidelBerGensis It's not a misunderstanding as I see it, but you're welcome to take it up on META.
 
@GayotFow nah, i am ok with whatever.. I have zero tag gold badges.. so i couldnt care less about tag badges..
 
chx
The UK is crazy first they vote for Cameron then Sadiq good thing we declared independence a short while ago :D
 
2:40 PM
@HeidelBerGensis Does that mean that people who think they are interesting should bugger off?
 
@GayotFow didnt get u boss
@chx whats crazy about voting for sadiq?
 
@chx Last election would tell you that London preferred Milliband over Cameron
So what's perhaps more suprising is that they had Boris for so long
 
chx
The craziness is the stark difference between Cameron and Sadiq
 
@chx makes sense
 
UK electoral system is screwy anyway
 
chx
2:42 PM
Well, look at the US...
Or actually here even
 
Big parlimentary majoraties off the back of (often fairly small) popular vote margins
and then the executive is drawn straigh from parliament
and acts with the power of the monarch
so ultimatley a few 10000s of votes in marginal areas
decides who gets to be King/Queen for 5 years
 
chx
Look at lop.parl.gc.ca/ParlInfo/compilations/electionsandridings/… this and marvel how little the popular vote difference is between 2011 and 2015 and yet how much bigger the majority is
We need something better than first past the post (although I cant complain about Mr Prime Minister Centerfold, so far :P )
 
@chx yes, but at least the Executive branch is chosesn from a result that (most of the time) gives the job to somebody who got the majority popular vote
Oh canada
yeah, equally screwy there
 
chx
:)
 
Although I don't know if the Canadian PM gets to wield quite the power that the British one does
 
2:47 PM
No election system is perfect. We have more reasonable balance between votes and seats in parliament. But we get way to many parties, 27 in the election, 14 or so in parliament, non even gets 33% of the votes in most elections
 
Smaller gap in the UK mind
Conserrvatives got ~36%, Labour ~30% last election
Result - Cameron gets to play at being King again
Although he's struggled somewhat with changing the law
Stack Exchange isn't a Democracy anyway
its some kind of weird Technocracy
 
Apple stuff = Techtator
 
chx
some weird mix between Technocracy and Meritocracy
With a little Monarchy on top because if things would get truly out of hand I bet SE staff would intervene...
 
Well, and SE staff impose the occasional Diktat
see the Licensing change for example
 
chx
License stuff reminds me of the Tsar blessing from Fiddler of the Roof.
"A blessing for the czar? Of course. May God bless and keep the czar... far away from us."
replace czar with lawyers. :D
 
3:38 PM
here is an interesting country: Nauru
smallest country on earth, with the fattest people on earth, and with the highest diabetes rates in earth....
 
@HeidelBerGensis Do you reject 'Ian'?
 
@GayotFow reject who?
 
Ian. Ian Sapahom
 
reject what? i am lost
@GayotFow ?
 
@HeidelBerGensis It looks like GayotFow is composing a new name for you.
 
3:42 PM
lol
 
@HeidelBerGensis @Willeke brilliant!
 
Ian Sapahom
what does it mean
 
I think people should not change names, as it confuses other people, long term as well.
 
homospaien with some tweaks..
 
A lot of prescriptivism here today
@HeidelBerGensis duh!
 
3:43 PM
@MarkMayo When you decide to award the bounty here, consider giving it to EdC:
4
A: With British Airways, can I access the business lounge in LHR if my connecting flight leaves on the next day?

EdCTo add to JoErNanO's answer which is spot on in general, in this case you will probably have Business Class lounge access on the basis of your departing domestic flight, so long as it's all been booked on a single ticket. (There are no departures from Heathrow before 6am, so you'll not be able to...

 
4:27 PM
:29562708 what was it?
 
 
4 hours later…
8:19 PM
0
Q: Travel to rome 4 days before my visa expires

DivinaGood day. I have a multiple entry schengen visa valid until 03-07-16 duration of stay is 30 days. Ive only used it once when i visited milan for 4 days. I was invited to visit rome from june 30 2016- july 3 2016. I would be returning back to the UK on july 3 the last day of my visa's validity. Wo...

Is a copy of an earlier asked question
1
Q: Is it possible to travel 4 days before my Schengen visa expires

DivinaI have a multiple entry Schengen visa valid until 03-07-16 duration of stay is 30 days. I've only used it once when I visited Milan for 4 days. I was invited to visit Rome from June 30 2016-July 3 2016. Would it be possible for me to travel with my current visa or should I apply for a new one?

As you can see I think the first one already a duplicate, but it is neither closed nor answered.
 
8:44 PM
you can answer that one, no?
 
I am not even going to try, I think it is a duplicate of one already answered.
 
ok, that one has been hammered.
you can go head and mark the new one as a duplicate now
 
No, thanks. Not without a lot more support.
Both versions of the Q still look open/alive to me.
 
chx
9:07 PM
i'm surprised they didn't make it easy long ago to migrate answers from a duplicate
 
chx
9:17 PM
travel.stackexchange.com/questions/68077/… hope this won't be WANTA'd...
 
I wouldn't use booking.com for something like that
 
 
1 hour later…
chx
10:26 PM
I will be honest: I stole that question, kinda. Someone posted it to Hungarian equivalent of Yahoo Answers (or a degenerate version of SE, w/e) and I translated it because it's an interesting looking question and looks like very hard to answer
A wider audience than Hungary perhaps are a better help for them
Any answers I will translate to them
Hope this is not an abuse or something
 

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