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Willeke

9:40 AM

7000 votes cast ;-) @JoErNanO

Willeke

10:00 AM

And counting

Fiksdal

0

Q: CEO promoting his own company's paid app in an answer

Zach Lipton recently flagged this answer, which has slipped under the radar for over a year now. I asked chief prosecutor Lipton to provide the evidence. Turns out the CEO of the company which sells the app is clearly the same guy (photo and name) who posted the answer. This is not disclosed in ...

CMaster

10:18 AM

travel.stackexchange.com/a/79172/26433 Genuine answer, or beer ad?

Willeke

Just edit out the beer line, it is not really a part of the useful answer.

I see it as helpful advice but not to the point.

Fiksdal

@CMaster I'm not sure, but the beer part is quite irrelevant and should be removed regardless. But the problem is, if OPs motive is the beer part, then there's no reason to think the rest of the answer is accurate either.

CMaster

@pnuts that Indian in spain one contained their passport and visa numbers in initally, as part of the irrelevance

pnuts

11:01 AM

For the sake of the gene pool I hope he does not breed.

Q still got upvoted.

hippietrail

11:45 AM

你好

Willeke

Good day to you

hippietrail

know a cheap pace to stay in 满洲县?

Willeke

12:02 PM

not me

hippietrail

me neither

JoErNanO

@Willeke Now that is impressive. Well done!

Willeke

@JoErNanO, I did not think a thing of it till you claimed your 6000

pnuts

Would 'impressive' apply even for voting by bot?

JoErNanO

@Willeke You've been around less time than me and have distributed more rep. That is impressive.

@pnuts Share the love.

Willeke

12:11 PM

I like rewarding people for participation.

And is mostly rep that does not cost me, very few down votes.

pnuts

Does posting off topic Qs count as 'participation'?

JoErNanO

@pnuts Is the sky blue or black?

pnuts

Day or night?

Willeke

If I see them as off topic I do not upvote, I flag or vote to close

pnuts

Seems fair.

Willeke

12:13 PM

It ever only seems blue, see the 1000's of Q about it on Yahoo answers.

pnuts

Though I generally downvote in that case.

Willeke

If having a positive vote count, and seriously off topic, I may down vote, if already on negative votes, I do not add to that.

pnuts

Again seems fair - you have better use for your ration!

Willeke

It is more some of the regular/long time users here that risk down votes from me.

Never automatic, but for example, advicing someone to rent a car in Paris, that is crazy, that deserves a down vote.

pnuts

It got mine!

Willeke

12:19 PM

I do agree with his 'walking if your luggage allows it' as I did so myself at least once. But bringing any car into any main city to avoid taxis or local transport? I even never used a taxi in a main city when alone, hardly ever with someone else, public transport all the way.

Boyfriend and I picked up a rental car in Barcelona, on our way out, not pleasant for him, driving, and even I as passenger was not happy.

pnuts

Renting a car for what can be walked in 50 minutes is hardly sensible either.

I case anyone is wondering, I deleted [work-permit] from two Closed Qs as it seems unwise to have that tag available here.

Willeke

I have walked extensively through Paris and will add many more miles there, I am sure, but I will not advice it for new visitors with luggage, not as main advice.

hippietrail

0

Q: Is there somewhere a glossary or introduction to the different kinds of accommodation in Taiwan including the Chinese characters?

I've travelled in both mainland China and Taiwan before, but this time in Taiwan I've noticed a lot more Chinese words and characters used for different types or accommodation, or indeed for the same kinds of accommodation. In China there were a few words for hotel but for the ones at a backpack...

online-resources accommodation terminology taiwan chinese-language

Willeke

You are right. And it is also the main word in the header, so should not be needed.

@hippietrail +1, (now I am going to spend more time reading the whole of the text) but I will not even know where to start looking.

hippietrail

we probably have somebody who does know

pnuts

12:32 PM

Perhaps one of: Mark Mayo, drat, hippietrail, George Y ? :)

hippietrail

@pnuts: we have work and working-holiday and it's probably not best to have too many specific work tags since most kinds of working overseas cannot be done by a traveller and only by an expat

and we also have permits

pnuts

Agreed, but perhaps even more to the point is [working-visas].

hippietrail

yep i think we most likely have enough to cover the range of non-expat working overseas questions and if not we can discuss first

pnuts

What is a bit disappointing is that AFAICR the two I removed were added via suggested edits.

Willeke

I admit approving that last edit, not realizing the tag was new/not much used on TSE

hippietrail

12:40 PM

grr

the SE dev team could put more work into some aspects of the tagging UI

i guess it's lack of competition from other systems, they've got other stuff to work on

Willeke

Just given a down vote, I expect to get that point back, as I do get most. Answer did not answer the question.

pnuts

Me too. I did wonder whether the other car hire places might be at BSI, but then saw OP mentioned drop off at airport.

Willeke

Car rentals are within walking distance from Keflavic (without luggage that is) while BSI is in Reykjavic, within walking distance (with luggage) from the city center. That is about an hour by coach if I remember right.

There is likely to be a car rental close to BSI, as that is next to the Reykjavic airport if not at its entry.

Owner deleted that answer.

pnuts

Thank you.

chx

2:07 PM

I think the entire karma system needs to change and recalculate , it's not fair the same answers just produce karma indefinitely -- of course you will have more karma with more answers but as currently it is, it's more of a quadratic growth

Willeke

@chx with karma you mean rep? (I am used to a site where Karma was used to indicate things hidden from sight, like your power to report things.)

chx

yes, yes

i mean that

Willeke

Rep gets you more rep, and most of us do not have the starting level or the presence to make use of it.

Most days I get 20 or less rep, very few days I get 100 or more.

Relaxed

How so?

It's not even about rep begetting rep, it's just about exposure.

Where do you see quadratic growth, @chx? I am not sure I follow...

chx

if you have say 100 answers then all 100 constantly generates reputation

more or less

Relaxed

2:16 PM

Not much

And that's still linear

chx

the amount of rep generated by upvote needs to decrease by time

Relaxed

That much I understood

Not that I am convinced, incidentally, what would be the purpose, really?

chx

If you write one answer every day and each of your answers get one upvote every day then what's your rep as a function of the number of days on site?

Willeke

I think new users might need to be instucted to not upvote the top answers with huge vote levels, but as the system gives rewards to high levels of votes that is not fair to the users that would not get those rewards.

chx

sure, get a great answer badge but also 1000 rep?

Relaxed

2:19 PM

@chx That's not how it works, not in my experience. Most of the rep comes from recent answer, occasionally from other answers that got bumped to the top by an edit.

Willeke

Why not, rep gets you bragging rights, why not give it.

Relaxed

And then I get some rept to a few really popular questions, just because some people read them a lot.

There is no steady stream of upvotes to random past questions or if there is it's very low and dwarfed by anything else.

On another site, I have a (not very good) answer to one of the site's top questions and that's the only one still giving rep while I am not active there.

Willeke

After the first 30 000 or so it does not give you more privileges

Relaxed

You can't assume one (or even one tenth or one hundredth of one) upvote per day/question, it's much less than that.

But OK what you mean is clearer now, we could look for some data on that

Could be interesting.

Still not sure I understand the problem though.

chx

i feel there's too strong a corollary beween #days and rep. except @Berwyn of course :)

Relaxed

2:27 PM

There is obviously a strong correlation between number of days and rep, but it comes from constantly writing new answers, not seating idly and collecting rep on older ones.

Either way, even is that was the case, how's that a problem? Too strong in regard to what standard? Some intuitive notion of fairness? Something else?

Willeke

Compare @JoErNanO travel.stackexchange.com/users/22140/joernano and me, travel.stackexchange.com/users/27650/willeke?tab=profile I have been here a few months less, completely different number of answers and quite a difference in rep, in my view.

Or otherwise, follow to my activities on the other sites, Bicycles is the best, I have been there about as long as here and while I do not spend as much time there as here, I did read all questions there for months on an end.

Comepletely different rep pattern.

Relaxed

Yeah, good point

Willeke

@MarkMayo, with regards to the comments you moved to a chat, on this answer travel.stackexchange.com/a/79067/27650 they were NOT a discussion, and aside from one or two to the point.

There has been a discussion in that comments area and when I edited the point of view of both users into my answer, the discussion comments were deleted.

I feel that by removing those comments you do not serve the OP

Relaxed

Nothing is deleted in this case.

Willeke

It is removed to a chat which almost nobody will go to.

gerrit

2:40 PM

Does the spoiler syntax not work on Travel.SE?

I was going to put a historically interesting but no longer relevant travel advice in a spoiler tag so people don't accidentally follow it, rather than removing it completely

Relaxed

Sure but I am guessing most people don't read comment either, nor should they need to.

Taking them into account is the right thing to do.

CMaster

@gerrit Strikethrough instead?

gerrit

2:55 PM

@CMaster Hmm, that would have worked. Finally I decided to remove it completely. If people really want to study history they can always look at previous revisions. Most people don't study historical timetables though…

Willeke

3:28 PM

Maybe we should have looked for duplicates first.

1

Q: Any alternative ways to find hostels than hostelworld or hostelbookers

Are there any other reliable ways to find cheap, hostel like accommodation last minute, without using hostel world or hostel bookers? I'm currently finding all accommodation booked up on these two sites :-\

accommodation hostels

hippietrail

4:00 PM

oh well closing is a dupe is a way of finding an answer for the OP too

ha that one is already closed as a dupe of another one!

5

Q: What are the cheapest sites to find hostels around the world to book?

Always when I'm going to travel to someplace, I book my hostel with precedence. Actually I look only for two Booking sites: http://www.hostelworld.com http://www.youth-hostels.co.uk/ Is there a cheaper site than these two, which has the same service with same quality, with the same number or l...

budget online-resources bookings hostels

chx

4:25 PM

OK the site reached its peak someone applied for a uk student visitor visa for sex. I am laughing so hard.

it's deleted now travel.stackexchange.com/a/46219/4188 alas

I know it's just a typo but still.

Willeke

5:06 PM

This is strange, I have voted at least one 'deleted since' answer but I have 31 votes on the counter on my profile page, 32 on the vote counter in the bookmarklet, and I go the warning only ... left, I think I have only 2 left now. Which makes for a lot less than 40.

I am going to check out how many were Q votes as those do not stand out in the list

Willeke

5:20 PM

7 Q voted on, several on which were within the last 10 votes cast.

When you spread your votes out over the day, you can not vote on 10 Q first, not enough of those between going to bed and getting up.

Ah, vote counter caught up and is now at 34.

Bookmarklet still at 32, but that can be explained by the votes on since deleted answers, (which also do not show up in the list of Q/A voted on.)

Downvotes on deleted also do not show up when you have only the downvotes show, no option to add 'recently deleted' as you are in some categories.

Zach Lipton

5:54 PM

oh no! @JonathanReez is on a 'rationale' removing tear again

Willeke

Why does he do it? I rather like that tag. (Not that I have added it anywhere.)

Zach Lipton

there was a meta discussion on it

Berwyn

Did it have the rationale tag attached?

Zach Lipton

something about meta tags vs descriptive tags, I decided I didn't care one way or the other

Berwyn

if not, you should add it

Zach Lipton

5:56 PM

hah!

done! meta.travel.stackexchange.com/questions/3633/…

Willeke

I think that all serial actions should be kept out of the normal 'bring to the top' actions.

That is about 20 updates in a few minutes, hiding a lot of recent activities for those who come in once a day.

Berwyn

@ZachLipton Heh :)

Zach Lipton

I mean, meta tags are inappropriate on the main site, but clearly they belong on meta, right?

Berwyn

Indeed!

gerrit

meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/meta-meta

meta meta meta

phoog

6:10 PM

@Willeke I agree.

Willeke

I think that 20 has been doubled since, going to being a page full for everybody.

JonathanReez

@Willeke A mod has confirmed that the tag is against the rules, so I'm removing it. I think I've tagged the majority of the rationale questions, so I'm responsible for cleaning it up now :)

Berwyn

Isn't there a silent way of doing it?

Willeke

You should have waited for someone to get it off without getting the content to the top, in my view. If the site does not have a method yet, they can make one.

JonathanReez

@Berwyn only admins (as in StackExchange admins) can do it silently, I think

Willeke

6:13 PM

I think would should all do a couple of edits after the work on that tag is done, to bring real content to the top again.

JonathanReez

@Willeke it's been discussed on Meta that flooding the front page is okay

Berwyn

Wouldn't it be good to ask an admin to do it then?

Willeke

I do NOT agree there

Berwyn

Yeah, it makes "active" useless, and you have to go to "new questions" instead

or "newest" rather

Willeke

New Questions is not the same, as a lot of the active ones are edits and answers by new users which do need attention.

I am going to do a few edits soon.

JonathanReez

6:15 PM

@Berwyn not sure. Anyway, it's done now

Berwyn

I agree it's not the same, but looking at active is hopeless

JonathanReez

@Willeke feel free to start a thread about flooding the front page. I've done this several times now and usually no one complained

Willeke

But not before @JonathanReez has stopped his work.

I am more likely to voice my opinion, which is part nationalty and part upbringing.

JonathanReez

I wouldn't worry about it, Stackoverflow's front page is a nightmare and Q's still get answered

Willeke

@JonathanReez, can we get a warning when you are done?

JonathanReez

6:17 PM

it's done :)

rationale is gone

Willeke

OK, thanks

I use the 'complete list of questions' when the 'recent active' moves off the screen.

phoog

Hello everyone, I've just tried to edit the tag info for customs-and-immigration which bizarrely indicated that the US does not use the term "immigration" to refer to passport control. In fact, at cbp.gov/border-security/ports-entry/operations, CBP says: Port of entry operations include immigration inspections of people entering the country including visitors...

gerrit

I use new questions much more than recent questions.

phoog

Indeed, the office that used to do these inspections was the INS ("Immigration and Naturalization Service").

Willeke

I want to read every new answer on those questions I find interesting enough to open.

phoog

6:27 PM

But apparently this change needs to be reviewed so I'm shamelessly soliciting support for my proposal here in chat.

Willeke

That is one more on the way to a badge there :)

The balance between the level to make a tag and to change a tag description is way out.

JonathanReez

@Willeke here you go: meta.travel.stackexchange.com/questions/3930/…

Willeke

I would expect to be able to add a little text to a description at least at the same time as doing something with as much impact as making a tag.

I have complained about it before, also on Meta. Did not work then.

JonathanReez

I couldn't find a discussion about the core issue in the archives, so let's have another go

Eugene

Hello everyone!

JonathanReez

6:33 PM

There's probably something about this in SE behaviour guides or admin posts

Eugene

Are different airline companies and e.g. luggage allowed during travel discussed here as well?

Willeke

On the site, to a point, in the chat, as much as you want.

(If people get bored they will chat about other things or take a break)

@Eugene, did you run a search on the site, as we do have several good questions about airlines, carry on and hold luggage.

Eugene

Honestly I did not. Thought, that it is better and quicker to first confirm at least here, that this is the right place.

It is just my first time traveling alone + without a tour, so all moving around is done directly by me.

Willeke

can you ask your question here, we are all experienced in traveling.

Eugene

I'm trying to find information on Ryanair and Finnair carry on luggage criteria. Is carry on + laptop bag summarized regarding weight or not. Things like that. I have a direct flight with Ryanair and with one transfer on Finnair back. Are criteria for carry on same for both flights?

I have waaaaaay more than one question)))

Willeke

6:47 PM

Ryanair has no connecting flights, so all flights with them you need to follow their rules.

They allow one carry on and a personal item with restricted size. The details are in a recent (weeks at most) question on the site.

I have never used either and do not know much about finnair

Let me find you that Q

@Eugene, not as new as I thought

6

Q: Would Ryanair tolerate a 15.6" laptop case as a second hand luggage?

Ryanair recently changed the luggage rules allowing a second small bag: One cabin bag weighing up to 10 kg with maximum dimensions of 55cm x 40cm x 20cm, plus 1 small bag up to 35 x 20 x 20 cms may be carried per passenger I have a 15.6" laptop, which works out to 38cm width, or about 42 cm...

luggage regulations hand-luggage ryanair

There are several more that might be useful.

Eugene

@Willeke that I understand, but flight back is with finnair and they might have diff. criteria. So luggage must suffice both as I assume.

Willeke

Knowing that ryanair is quite restrictive I searched those first for you.

I will run a google search for Finnair

finnair.com/lv/gb/information-services/baggage/carry-on-baggage

You need the 'other passengers' bit

8 kilo is not much, though, not sure how often they do weight the personal items

@Eugene, does that help?

Eugene

7:08 PM

looking into it

ou wow, so they have even smaller/lighter

maximum combined weight 8 kg

Willeke

I would struggle to keep my 'personal item' under that 8 kg limit, if I go for maximum carry-on size I will certainly be above it.

And I can really fit that personal item under that seat, even if it is mostly my only carry-on.

Eugene

7:29 PM

Question is wether they will be okay with it.

Willeke

Do you also book hold luggage?

Eugene

hold?

The one, that you give away during check in?

Willeke

Check-in, the luggage you hand in when you arrive at the airport and get back where you arrive

Eugene

Nope only carry on sadly. Firm booked a flight for me.

But I'm going only for three days

Willeke

I hope you do not need two sets of formal clothes then.

Eugene

7:32 PM

Ou now. It is casual conf. where I'm going.

Willeke

@mts, do you have experience with Finnair?

@Berwyn, can you offer help here?

@Eugene do you have more questions?

Eugene

Mostly regarding flights. Everything else I hope I'll be able to resolve on spot

Willeke

7:47 PM

Traveling alone is not difficult. I have done it since I was about 20 and I know several people who started out at about 16.

Berwyn

@Willeke Regarding what?

Willeke

Finnair and whether they are strict in the 8 kg limit on carry-on combined weight

And other general travel information for someone new to the sport.

I am about to leave for the night

Berwyn

Ok

I think I've only flow Finnair once (two flights)

They didn't check my luggage weight, but that's hardly a definitive answer!

Willeke

8:03 PM

Good bye.

Berwyn

Bye

Eugene

@Willeke good bye

Gayot Fow

11:24 PM

1

Q: Schengen duration of stay doubt (Schengen day counting)

Valid for: Schengenstater (Issued by Sweden) valid From: 26-09-16 to 16-10-16 Type of Visa: C Number of Entries: 1 Duration of Stay: 6 days 1st entry in Greece on 10-10-16 and exit on 13-10-16 2nd entry in Belgium on 13-10-16 and exit on 14-10-16 3rd entry in Norway on 14-10-16 and exit on 16-10...