The Awkward Silence - 2018-04-20 (page 3 of 4)

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12:00 PM

@RichardU I do see 'em . . . Charcoal

@RichardU the pager thing? Yeah it was

Undo sometimes messes with spammers

Stupid.

https://metasmoke.erwaysoftware.com/search?utf8=✓&title=&body=Hacker&username=&‌why=&site=&post_type=&feedback=&autoflagged=&reason=&user_rep_direction=>%3D&user‌_reputation=0&commit=Search

IPS Comment Bot

@AJ I respectfully disagree....this answer is to-the-point, and I don't think it indicates the user didn't read the question body (for example, the OP's gender is not mentioned in the question title). It answers the question, so I don't think further explanation of why it works is needed. I can't really see how this answer could be improved in response to the feedback you have given here. On the contrary, I found it succinct and easy to read. — Kidburla 25 secs ago

#13404 Kidburla (395 rep) | A: How can I politely ask the gender of a potential roommate via email? (score: 32) | posted 13 hours ago by Acccumulation (543 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["chatty"]

@IPSCommentBot that's meta meta. Obsolete after a while

@avazula Not really, it requires some feeling and getting used to. You're probably just going to get to know them once you're close to breaking them :) In general though: Be as nice as possible, read doppelgreener's message a few times.

Don't swear or jab at people, don't call out specific people in chat (asking 'I'm noticing a flood of low quality answers, what is the best way to proceed' is okay, saying 'they're posting ...' not so much.)

medium.com/@Aprilw/suffering-on-stack-overflow-c46414a34a52

Misses the point, but is right sometimes

It's a pain when you have to attend your friend's wedding and can't take pictures due to red nose. :/

12:13 PM

@Tinkeringbell Okay. That's clearer now. thanks :)

@AJ Stop drinking so much then :P

@Tinkeringbell they're posting ellipsis! That's unexcusable!

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Stop it ... that's inexcusable behavior. Specifically after what I just explained. ;)

@Tinkeringbell Besides the fact that I don't drink, it's actually due to cold. :P

Um

12:14 PM

@AJ I knew that... didn't I?

@Tinkeringbell ellipsis is just the three dots. I was making a meta joke

@Tinkeringbell Yup. :P

@AJ ugh, then wedding pictures are the least of your problems

I hate watery noses

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Better now? I thought you said you were good at chatroom jokes?

@Tinkeringbell well, I wasn't good this time because I thought you weren't good . . .

12:17 PM

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ ouch... okay, you win

Which is weird

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ What wanted you to say while sharing this?

10 mins ago, by M.A.R. ಠ_ಠ

Misses the point, but is right sometimes

We can discuss it further if you're interested

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ how is SO excluding women? SO can't magically raise the quota of females in the IT industry...

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ I'd like too, because I didn't really understand why you've posted this at that precise moment in time

12:24 PM

@Cashbee yeah, one of the things it gets wrong

@Cashbee As a female IT engineer, I can tell we're more than 7% in companies, in the French ones to say the least

@avazula well shrug just sharing something potentially nonboring to discuss

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Okay! I just wasn't seeing the relation with the other conversation that was ongoing at the time.

They're right about the confusion about what a new user did wrong

@avazula the female quota of all the IT people i personally know is less than 5%

12:26 PM

But it's not because downvotes are anonymous, and certainly the way to fixing it is not requiring a comment

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Yup. I think that even if we recommend to take the tour, IMHO learning to use SE sites is sth quite empiric

@Cashbee Shoot, that's not much!

@Cashbee Maybe it's because I'm in a company hiring lots of young people, so it'd seem normal to have more women

@avazula no it isnt. In my apprenticeship, I had no female classmates, in class of 30 guys

it's so sad really

@Cashbee I forgot you're only 26 ... that's really sad, yeah.

At least we were 6 girls in a 52-people promotion, when I was still studying

@avazula youre quick in looking things up huh? :D or good in remembering unimportant information

@Cashbee Don't want to boast, but I'm pretty good at remembering what people tell me. I'm WAY worse to remember WHO told me. ahah

Huh, but I think I learned your age in one of your posts actually. And since you're pretty much high-rep on IPS... I've remembered. Eheh

(That's a weird quality, I agree)

12:31 PM

@avazula yes it was one of my posts, I haven't stated my age anywhere else here. yay someone called me "pretty much high-rep" ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

2800 in a beta is crazy high

IPS is no normal beta, though

It's like PPCG, WB and the like. Lots of activity compared to a normal site.

Which is good, but means more crap, and more irrelevant opinions in comments

Having mod tools is supposed to be hard :p

Mithrandir24601

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ WB isn't a beta though

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ well, on the userlist of area51 I appear on 6th page :D

It's not crazy high for beta, but it's crazy high for this early in the beta.

I'm gonna be famous sometime :))

12:34 PM

@Mithrandir24601 it used to be, master nitpick

@Cashbee You can't be promised to another future with such a nice pseudonym :)

waaaaait a second.. area51 says IPS has 21 visits per day.. !!!!?? what

Sorry, I'm a beekeeper

@Cashbee That's a bug.

@Tinkeringbell it's a feature

12:35 PM

@Cashbee The analytics are broken, including Area 51.

@Cashbee IPS' stats say sth around 80 people

@Cashbee alien visits

I think something on Google's side changed?

@avazula you're a keeper fixed that for you

Mithrandir24601

@Cashbee the year above mine in computer science had 1 girl and about 80 boys

12:36 PM

@avazula now I feel like shouting "ECHO ECHO ECHO"

echo echo echo

@Mithrandir24601 OMG that's so few

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Are you substantiating yourself with only high-caffein drinks?

@Cashbee "CAN YOU HEAR ME"

We're investigating, we've had a number of large changes to our Google Analytics infrastructure, looks like we missed some bits... — Dean Ward ♦ Apr 16 at 17:11

@avazula No, just my awesomeness

12:38 PM

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ "I WAS WONDERING IF AFTER ALL THESE YEARS YOU'D LIKE TO MEET"

Mithrandir24601

@avazula yep, I think it started with 3, then 2 dropped out

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Looks like that thing is powerful

@avazula To go over everything I think. I forgot the lyrics

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ "HELLOOOO FROM THE OTHER SIIIIIIIIIIDEEEEEE"

My entire school has two girls.

12:39 PM

The rest is just shooting

...and two boys ;)

@avazula chemicals don't need to get high. They are high

(yay homeschooling)

@Mithrandir Ahah, I was wondering how's that there's so few girls in school at your age :)

@Mithrandir I still think you're missing out

Mithrandir24601

12:40 PM

@avazula at last! We see each other plain! Monsieur, the mayor, you wear a different chaaa-aain

@Mithrandir24601 Wow! I feel some frenchy trend other there!

@Mithrandir24601 Does that make you feel ... miserable? ;)

@Mithrandir24601 Drink with me?

@avazula watch out, you don't wanna get flagged by Javert

@Tinkeringbell There are empty chairs and tables over there

@Mithrandir Nice, but I prefer to drink on my own

Mithrandir24601

12:43 PM

@avazula I have listened to Les Mis literally every day this week. Sometimes more than once per day :) I feel very happy about that actually :)

There's a reason my username ends in 24601 after all :)

@Mithrandir24601 LOL just realized

@Mithrandir24601 I've only watched random clips on YouTube, mostly from the 2012 movie

...speaking of which, I think I've still got an unanswered question about it over at Movies & TV

Mithrandir24601

@Mithrandir if you ever get the chance, watch it live! It's incredible :D

@Mithrandir24601 totally

I don't think it's playing anytime soon here :(

12:46 PM

I've just read the book years ago for school n_n

4

Q: Why does Javert make Jean Valjean get the flag before releasing?

Before Javert releases Jean Valjean on parole in the 2012 movie version of Les Miserables, he makes him recover the flag from the ship... which Jean does by picking up the entire mast and dragging the flag with it. Why does he have Jean get the flag before relea...

plot-explanation les-miserables

@Mithrandir24601 I think you'd be better off recommending the book to him, he likes to read :D

Victor Hugo is an incredible author

Mithrandir24601

@Mithrandir aww :/

Yes, read the book!

He strongly made a change in the fight for forbidding death sentence in France. He even wrote a book about it, telling the story of the last day of a prisoner, whom it's impossible to prove the guilt. Awesome

12:48 PM

(has that word been missing in the title since January? :/)

@avazula Although I hated his descriptions of Paris... just gimme the story! (same goes for the game of thrones of books :P)

@Tinkeringbell Ahah. He belonged to a movement of authors who LOVED descriptions. His colleague Emile Zola wrote an entire chapter about the way a woman ate her soup.

@avazula I just picked up a copy of The Hunchback of Notre Dam the other day

@Mithrandir Do you know there's a musical about that story?

And now I have a large backlog of old books to read

12:51 PM

It's actually the first musical France has made

@avazula And a Disney movie! :P

@Tinkeringbell yay! :D

@Tinkeringbell Which is weird because some of the songs in the movie clearly talk about sex (isn't it a movie for children?)

@avazula So is Finding Nemo...

A lot of jabs go unnoticed when you're young, but make fun for adults ;)

who knows who susan boyle is?

@Tinkeringbell I NEED TO REWATCH IT

@Cashbee Isn't she the winner of some edition of America's got Talent?

12:53 PM

@Cashbee I do, she was popular here too :)

@avazula Pay special attention to that pink little octopus, and look up some info on octopodes (and how they reproduce) on Wikipedia. Lemme know once you've found the joke!

@avazula Britains got talent, and she did 2nd place. She sang I dreamed a dream at audition and baffled eveyone

@Tinkeringbell I'll let you know. You've maybe found my evening movie :)

@avazula Hah, have fun with that! :D

I don't have an evening movie yet. Let's make a game to define one: I will watch the 6th movie that will be mentioned here, starting now. give me filmnames now :)

posting 2 names in sequence is not allowed ;)

@Tinkeringbell You drink alone? You are much braver than I am.

12:59 PM

@Cashbee That's cheating.

@Cashbee But we don't know about your tastes?

@avazula let that be my worries :)

@Rainbacon I don't drink much ;) And my personality kinda changes, so I don't really want people around ;)

@avazula I even googled "That's cheating" in case that was a filmname xD

@Tinkeringbell I'm hesitant to drink alone because I don't exercise good self control

@Rainbacon Ah, that's one thing I do have when it comes to drinking ;)

I only ever take two drinks: a first and a last :P

@Cashbee Ja zuster, Nee zuster

1:02 PM

If I'm not careful I'd end up drinking a whole bottle of wine

@Rainbacon Which is 1 :P bottle

@Tinkeringbell I do that too. "That's the first drink since I had my last one". Works perfectly

@Cashbee I always quit smoking after every cigarette too

Mithrandir24601

@Cashbee five choices are: Les Mis 10th Anniversary, Les Mis 25th anniversary, Les Mis film, Spirited Away, LOTR

IPS Comment Bot

he is not attracted to me, he's married. I also agree with SomeoneElse's comment — Isa 1 min ago

#13418 Isa (119 rep) | A: How can I improve my teacher-student relationship with a professor that ignores me? (score: -3) | posted 6 hours ago by Awesome (165 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["chatty"]

1:07 PM

@Mithrandir24601 these are multiple films >:( but hahaaa how long has it been since i watched spirited away!

That is a masterpiece

Mithrandir24601

@Cashbee It's soooooooooo good. I can't even describe how good it is - when I tell people that there's an animated film that outclasses anything by Disney by miles, I tend to get some surprised looks. Then I hit them with the "it's one of the best films of all time, alongside Godfather" :)

Is it on netflix?

Mithrandir24601

I remember the first time I watched it, my friends hyped it up so much, I was just like "there's no way it could be that good" and it just blew my mind

@Tinkeringbell probably not :'(

@Mithrandir24601 That's sad. I'll find another way to watch it then :)

Mithrandir24601

@Tinkeringbell please do. I just can't emphasize how good it is

1:17 PM

@Mithrandir24601 can second that

@Rainbacon I've got the same problem

If you liked Spirited Away and aren't scared of something mind-blowing, Satoshi Kon's movies are extremely beautiful

Though the story is sometimes a bit weird

Hayao Miyazaki has also made other really nice movies (princess mononoke, howl's moving castle, my neighbor totoro) but spirited away is just... wow

It may be because I love drawing but I think that the graphisms outdraw all the rest

@avazula graphisms?

Extroverted Main Man

0

Q: How to reply to "Drive/Travel Safe"?

Oftentimes when leaving work, or the last time I see someone before I go on a trip, someone will say "drive safe!" or something similar. On one hand, this feels more or less like well-wishing to me (e.g. "I hope you have a safe drive.") so my instinct is to respond with "Thanks!". However, gram...

1:28 PM

haha in order to find a movie for tonight i stumbled upon this gem of a website.

IPS Comment Bot

Welcome to Interpersonal Skills. Please take a second to take the tour. Questions asking for help with phrasing something are off topic. The same with questions asking "How do I respond to x?", we need to know what your goals are for the interaction before we can meaningfully talk about how you could reply — sphennings 2 mins ago

#13441 sphennings (5213 rep) | Q: How to reply to "Drive/Travel Safe"? (score: 1) | posted 11 minutes ago by thesquaregroot (106 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["possible-aic"]

Mithrandir24601

@Cashbee hmm... I've never seen Black Swan before

@Mithrandir24601 Exactly. I would have never thought of watching that if it wasn't for some random-movie site :)

actually those 4 you see are not randomly generated, they always appear on page load :(( you have to click refresh to actually see random movies

@Cashbee I wanted to say drawings?

@avazula I assumed that, but graphisms are a thing too..

oops wrong link. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphism

1:38 PM

@Cashbee Oh, okay. I used the wrong word, assuming the French one had the same meaning

Opinions? interpersonal.stackexchange.com/a/13250/31 Flag was disputed.

@Mithrandir I'd like to flag this comment as R/A

@avazula which comment?

Which? The "so delete it" one?

He's playing abrupt and blunt

But meh, not RA

1:49 PM

@Mithrandir Yep

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ I'm very sensitive,that's why I didn't do it, because maybe most people wouldn't be offended of it

IPS Comment Bot

Hi Helen, thanks for visiting IPS.SE. F1Krazy has already explained that there are some problems with your post. If you take the site tour and visit our help center you will find more advice on what we are looking for in our questions and answers and how to write good posts which people will be glad to upvote. Do take a look round the siet and see if you can make some changes to your answer to improve it, otherwise it risks being closed. Don't be discouraged though, we all started somewhere, stay and look around, jump in again when you are ready. — Spagirl just now

#13439 Spagirl (9690 rep) | A: Is there a Russian etiquette on declining offers of food when visiting someone? (score: -2) | posted 42 minutes ago by Helen (1 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["chatty"]

@IPSCommentBot I'm too lazy to post comments like that anymore

@avazula it's just a usual case of no-longer-needed

@avazula it is kinda unnecessary

@Cashbee @M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ say no more

1:52 PM

Gives the "yeah, go on moderation camp. I dare you" vibe

@avazula no more

@avazula now moar

Nevermore.

Comments under this answer really give a feeling of "you mods and reviewers are so mean with us"

Kinda, yeah

SO haz porblems wiht knew users

IPS Comment Bot

1:56 PM

Hi bluerojo, thanks for visiting IPS.SE. Tinkeringbell and sphennings have already explained that there are some problems with your post. Even though you are an old hand on other Stacks, if you take the site tour and visit our help center you will find more advice on what we are looking for in our questions and answers and how to write good posts which people will be glad to upvote. — Spagirl 34 secs ago

#13421 Spagirl (9690 rep) | A: Rebuffing a former friend's (now a convicted criminal) attempts to restore friendship (score: -4) | posted 6 hours ago by bluerojo (101 rep) | edited 4 hours ago by Secespitus (1064 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["chatty"]

@IPSCommentBot this might get annoying

Did I mention I got a mod message on ELL a few years ago for my welcome comments?

Jeez.

He said they may come off as rude

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ It gives us incentive to set appropriate precedents and reduce the number of chatty comments.

Although, it tripping on our welcome comments is slightly irksome

It trips on any mention of votes.

@Rainbacon I meant the very long welcome comments

But we like long welcome comments

2:01 PM

@Rainbacon when they have at least something specific to the question

Like, "if you wonder why you're getting downvotes, it might be because" comments

What's more, Spagirl specifically said everyone else covered the

Important topics

I'm all for welcome comments, but preferably those are posted on the posts in the first posts queue ;)

Welcome comments are quite okay

Also, it's kinda weird and probably impressive to have 3 people pile comments on you ;)

(I might reconsider posting them myselves now I have the diamond)

Less so if they're a general check-out-tour that have nothing to do with the thread and super long

Good welcome comment:

in The Periodic Table, Apr 2 '15 at 3:13, by Martin

Welcome to Chemistry.SE. Take the [tour] to get familiar with this site. Mathematical expressions and equations can be [formatted](http://meta.chemistry.stackexchange.com/q/86/4945) using $\LaTeX$. If you receive useful answers, consider to [accept](http://chemistry.stackexchange.com/help/someone-answers) one. This appears to be a [homework question](http://meta.chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/141/), please share your thoughts and attempts towards the solution.

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ That's nice. But I don't think family members lend themselves well to LaTeX formatting.

2:17 PM

Well they should

And they shouldn't post relationship homework on IPS

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ :D that's a good one. :)

Sorry, but questions pertaining to where is the best flower shop in town are off-topic.

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ I'm tempted to go ask a question on chemistry about flowers now :P

Maybe something like 'what have flowers to do with chemistry between people?' :D

Well, for starters, what does the chemistry between people have to do with chemistry?

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ It's still chemistry? It involves hormones and stuff! :P

2:21 PM

It's a complicated question. I'll upvote it

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ rene should know

Hmm.. I'll work on it for a bit though. I don't want it downvoted for lack of research effort

@Mithrandir rene wouldn't sell out his kind

IPS Comment Bot

2:40 PM

Okay I edited the wording a little bit. Do you know if other students (maybe in other classes of his) have noticed similar behavior from him? Have you tried to talk to the professor directly, for example to ask questions about the material, and if so how did he respond? — Em C 24 secs ago

#13412 Em C (6054 rep) | Q: How can I improve my teacher-student relationship with a professor that ignores me? (score: 5) | posted 13 hours ago by Isa (129 rep) | edited 2 minutes ago by Em C (6054 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["possible-aic"]

@thesquaregroot I'm not saying this is better than your approach, if you are getting answers that help you, all is well, but if I were you, I'd ask "how do I tell how serious they are" or "how can I ask if this was meant seriously"(regarding your comment that you don't seem to get the chance to address it again) and not "how do I reply", especially since you have figured it out yourself, you just seem to apply it to the wrong situations. I don't know if it would be on-topic here in my formulation, but to me it seems like the question you actually need to answer is not the one you asked — Raditz_35 1 min ago

#13441 Raditz_35 (191 rep) | Q: How to reply to "Drive/Travel Safe"? (score: 3) | posted 1 hours ago by thesquaregroot (116 rep) | edited 16 minutes ago by thesquaregroot (116 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["if\\Wi\\Wwh?ere\\W(in\\Wyou('re|r)|you|u)"]

Extroverted Main Man

0

Q: How to improve relationship with my fanatically Christian mom?

Backstory: I am currently 28, and grew up with just my mom until she married my step-dad when I was 14. They are still together, and are both very Christian. I was raised in a non-denominational evangelical church, which I left when I reached my teenage years. My relationship with my mom has su...

boundaries parents religion

3:07 PM

Currently, we have only 2 questions on the frontpage that are on hold. It's getting better and better guys!

4

1 hour later…

IPS Comment Bot

4:09 PM

I've upvoted this for the first part about setting up dynamics for the future, but I think you really need to spell out how you intend us to understand the relevance of your company safety policy in this context. — Spagirl 55 secs ago

#13449 Spagirl (9719 rep) | A: Establishing expectations with my parents about visiting after I give birth (score: 1) | posted 31 minutes ago by elliot svensson (498 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["chatty"]

I agree - it's just a pleasantry. I realized this quite recently after I was heading to the airport and someone said, "Have a safe flight!" I found myself thinking: But I'm not the pilot. I ended up answering jokingly, "Okay, I'll be sure to keep my seat belt buckled until the captain turns off the Fasten Seat Belt sign." But the point is that these remarks are usually just well-wishing niceties, more so than exhortations to keep your hands on the steering wheel and mind the posted speed limits. — J.R. 55 secs ago

#13442 J.R. (111 rep) | A: How to reply to "Drive/Travel Safe"? (score: 15) | posted 2 hours ago by Violet Flare (394 rep) | edited 11 minutes ago by Violet Flare (394 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["chatty"]

I'm really tired of seeing "Print out this question and send it to her" as a comment. Destroy with prejudice.

4:39 PM

@Catija What are your thoughts with "What's wrong with just telling them this?" as a comment?

user15026

I think that can be a valid question

Extroverted Main Man

1

Q: How do I handle unsuitable requests for endorsement of jobs/internships applicants?

I work as a software developer in a medium sized company in developed country A. I have family relations to underdeveloped country B. Due to economic crisis, glorification of the west and nepotism being common in country B, I got several requests from family members/ "good" friends of family mem...

saying-no cross-culture

user15026

Because sometimes just communicating things is a good way to go about it, so if they can't for whatever reason, it's a good thing to note

IPS Comment Bot

@Bilkokuya I agree; also, the use of "female-only tenancy" also covers the potential of other preexisting roommates. As this answer is written, the email correspondent could be female herself, but have a preexisting male roommate -- but since she is female, may answer that her apartment (house, condo, etc) fits OP's needs either by virtue of simply not thinking about it, or out of desperation if they're getting behind on their rent and urgently seeking to fill an empty room. — Doktor J 40 secs ago

#13404 Doktor J (101 rep) | A: How can I politely find out the gender of a potential roommate via email? (score: 41) | posted 18 hours ago by Acccumulation (543 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["chatty"]

5:17 PM

@Cashbee whoa, tell me your secret

On Chem, questions get closed by default

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ We're not any SE ... We're IPS! Ahah

@avazula ಠ_ಠ

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ oh hello

@avazula ಠ_ಠ

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ wouldn't you smile?

That is not a friendly face ahah

5:24 PM

Chem is the awesomest SE evar

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ You say this because you're not on IPS

@avazula Veni Vidi Vici

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ You vici what?

@avazula No, I Vidi Vici

Extroverted Main Man

1

Q: Friend is having a hard time, but resists emotional support

My friend has been experiencing some health issues lately which might be quite serious. However, he doesn't want me to inquire, tells me to forget about it, and my best guess is he doesn't want pity for his situation. At the same time, he sounds so stressed that I find it hard to do nothing. Part...

conversations friends physical-health

5:34 PM

0

Q: Delocalization of positive charge 😂

Benzene ring with a positive charge. Will the positive charge be delocalized?

organic-chemistry

I dig the emoji

5:48 PM

I managed to take some pics in the end. @Tinkeringbell

IPS Comment Bot

@jipsaw I'm curious where it's typical for people to respond to a text with a phone call. That would be a very bizzare thing to do in my circle. — Azor Ahai 1 min ago

#13348 Azor Ahai (241 rep) | Q: How do I get people to stop excessively calling me on the phone without alienating them (score: 4) | posted 41 hours ago by jipsaw (21 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["possible-aic"]

@AJ Nice!

IPS Comment Bot

6:17 PM

Hi, this is my first post here. Downvote? Please give me also the feedback of WHY you don't like my answer so I can improve it. — Patrick Parker 50 secs ago

#13461 Patrick Parker (99 rep) | A: How to refuse to shake hands without offending the other party? (score: -1) | posted 7 minutes ago by Patrick Parker (99 rep) | edited 2 minutes ago by Patrick Parker (99 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["chatty"]

@AJ That's nice for you :)

IPS Comment Bot

Agreed. Also, as an added bonus, you won't spend your time worrying about how to carefully, tactfully respond and can instead spend your time on other things you want to do — MikeTheTall 1 min ago

#13389 MikeTheTall (101 rep) | A: How can I tactfully tell my ex-superior that I don't owe him anything? (score: 6) | posted 24 hours ago by RandomUs1r (171 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["chatty"]

+1 to answering the ridiculous with the absurd. — G. Ann - SonarSource Team 48 secs ago

#13381 G. Ann - SonarSource Team (1100 rep) | A: How do I politely decline a request for a contract marriage? (score: 104) | posted 28 hours ago by baldPrussian (12452 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["+1"]

IPS Comment Bot

6:41 PM

Have you tried responding: "Screw that, I plan on my trip ending with a Blues Brothersesque chase through a mall!"? — aslum 10 secs ago

#13441 aslum (690 rep) | Q: How to reply to "Drive/Travel Safe"? (score: 8) | posted 5 hours ago by thesquaregroot (144 rep) | edited 4 hours ago by thesquaregroot (144 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["possible-aic"]

IPS Comment Bot

6:58 PM

Downvotes on answers simply mean that someone found your answer not useful. This is an excellent written answer, please writing answers with at this level of quality. However I don't think this answer will be useful to me, for reasons that can't be fixed with an edit. Since I had nothing constructive to say I didn't add a comment since this site strongly discourages comments that aren't either suggesting improvements or requesting clarification. I hope my vote doesn't discourage you from continuing to participate in the site. If you want me to explain my vote ping me in chat. :) — sphennings 16 secs ago

#13461 sphennings (5211 rep) | A: How to refuse to shake hands without offending the other party? (score: 1) | posted 47 minutes ago by Patrick Parker (119 rep) | edited 3 minutes ago by Patrick Parker (119 rep)

Matched regex(es) ["chatty"]

I saw the exchange starting here about how much explanation is desirable/required in answers:

@Kidburla I know this answer is to the point, but we require that answers provide some sort of explanation for why they are suggesting this solution. — A J ♦ 7 hours ago

Is there anything more concrete than what's linked there? It's a little unfortunate that it's among a couple other similar-scoring answers, one that says "want references yes, require no" and one that says "experience is okay, lack of experience is not good" but isn't too clear on what is/isn't required.

@Cascabel there's the good subjective bad subjective blogpost, that's pretty clear on back up opinions with experience or references

Good Subjective, Bad Subjective

Robert Cartaino on September 29, 2010

Stack Exchange is about questions with objective, factual answers. We’ve been crystal clear about this for as long as I can remember, even back to the earliest, pre-beta days of Stack Overflow. It’s right there in the standard Stack Exchange FAQ:

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

Avoid asking questions that are subjective, argumentative, or require extended discussion. This is not a discussion board, this is a place for questions that can be answered!

Thus, questions that are not answerable — discussions, debates, opinions — should be closed as subjective. It seems simple enough: Fact good; opinion and discussion bad. But why? …

But on our meta, I'm sad to say back it up has always received too much pushback

(IMO)

Yeah, I do link people to that a lot; I was hoping for something IPS meta but it's decent anyways.

(I'm more active on sites where enough questions aren't subjective that sometimes people get overly picky and call things "primarily opinion-based" when it's really just "not totally objective", so I'm usually in the position of using it to say "this is okay" than to say "this isn't okay".)

7:13 PM

Even this one can be used for lawyering against having to back up opinions: interpersonal.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1611/1599

Maybe one tricky thing about "back it up" as a requirement here is that it's easy for it to be overenforced, or too selectively enforced.

haha, that's even mentioned in what you just linked to

@Cascabel I've been pretty heavy on the back it up side lately, since I'd personally get annoyed at the problems not doing so causes for this site...

Yeah, the reason I bring this up is that community enforcement of that is going to tend to fall on answers that people don't like, not necessarily fair across the board.

Experienced users will likely get cut more slack, etc etc.

@Cascabel Yes and no... I tended to push for it harder the more rep people got

Yeah, maybe you do, but... overall, short answer from a new user, mid-length answer from a mid-tier user, which do you think people are going to quickly jump on and say "you need to explain"?

7:17 PM

@Cascabel And yes, it's pretty easily enforced on answers that hold an unpopular opinion, and less so on answers that seem more valid. I'm still at a loss as to how to encourage more fairness when it comes to that

@Cascabel for me, both. For others, the new user

I'm not arguing against it to be clear, I think explanation when reasonably possible is a good thing.

@Tinkeringbell yeah, and there are a lot more people who aren't you :) Also low-quality review queue is a thing.

I've heard the argument made before ' focus on the worst first'... That isn't fair

I love my new profile pic.

I think the time it really gets me is when the explanation is going to be really silly.

@Cascabel as in? Any examples on your mind?

7:20 PM

The one I linked above actually.

49

A: How can I politely find out the gender of a potential roommate via email?

Give a list of things you're looking for, include gender, and ask whether it's a good fit. Hey, I saw your ad. I'm a woman looking for a female roommate to share a place with on-site laundry facilities, no pets, and street parking. Will this place fit my needs?

The explanation is pretty much just that it softens the question a bit by casually tucking it in with a few others.

There's not anything terribly profound going on.

or maybe even "I did this and it worked"

@Cascabel back up means more than explaining why it would work, it means explain that it did work before and under which circumstances

@Tinkeringbell okay but there's no way every answer is from someone who has actually been in that specific situation.

Even if it's just silly, things like cultural norms are always good to mention

:þ

I guess? I think what I'm angling at is the amount of improvement from explaining answers like that is really really marginal.

7:24 PM

@Cascabel I think we have a pretty good meta (nicked from RPG) about how to include experience if that's the case: interpersonal.meta.stackexchange.com/a/183/1599

@Cascabel If you include the example it sets for the quality of answers expected here, it might be a bit bigger... Anyhow, there's room for improvement

There is definitely room for improvement.

I don't know what kind of quality example you really set by being forced to say "I've never been in this situation but I know that for a simple informational question someone should reasonably answer, just casually asking it works."

@Cascabel Hey, I saw one of those today.

Presumably the answer is that you need enough explanation for a reasonable reader to understand why you're suggesting what you are?

@Cascabel Exactly, and we can't expect readers to read between lines

Sure, though I think the definition of "read between lines" is kind of "things that a reasonable reader might not immediately understand" so it's a little circular?

7:33 PM

@Cascabel I'm all for spelling things out :P

But yeah, a lot of people go 'this is evident for me so it should be for you'

@Tinkeringbell Which is wrong most of the time.

@Pheo You don't have to tell me that :)

@Tinkeringbell Ok... :þ

I guess I'd say the value of this is still lessened in really basic situations?

@Pheo I'm going to go out on a limb and say that "this is evident for me so it should be for you" is wrong all of the time

7:45 PM

Adding the explanation is a pretty marginal improvement, and it's not going to help discern good advice from bad.

@Cascabel Would you say a really basic programming question could do with an answer that doesn't explain, just gives a code snippet?

@Rainbacon Like my pic?

@Cascabel I'm not going to argue over that specific example, it would be nice if the user had added something, but it's not worth fighting over... Still, I'd leave those comments whenever possible too

@Tinkeringbell I would say that the amount of explanation required is very minimal, often just like "thisFunction() does what you asked, e.g.:"

(for simple questions)

@Cascabel Exactly.. you give an example of how to use function and the circumstances under which it works

7:50 PM

Right, so the explanation here is again something as simple as "when it's something simple they should be willing to tell you, you can just ask casually, e.g.:"

I'm not saying it's not an improvement at all, I'm just saying it's often not that significant of an improvement in terms of helping people verify or understand.

It's more on the scale of copy-editing than of not-an-answer vs answer

@Cascabel .... That doesn't give the circumstances under which it works, like your code example implied... I know it's just nitpicking, but considering these people might write more answers here, to more complicated stuff, I feel it's at least good to mention it's encouraged

@Tinkeringbell Maybe more productive to encourage on the more complex answers?

@Cascabel maybe... I personally love to mention it when people first post on this site...

and I pretty much did give the circumstances, it's basically any situation in which you're asking for information that someone should reasonably be willing to give you.

Their answer would with asking all kinds of things of the potential roommate, not just gender, as long as they're not sensitive subjects, and it would work for asking people besides potential roommates too, and...

@Cascabel So why is this info people should be willing to give? Why is it reasonable to expect this? :P ...

7:55 PM

I'm not sure that explaining this is really necessary to make for a good answer to that question.

@Cascabel I know.. I'm guessing we're now at the point where you'll have to ask AJ about it though

Why he said it the way he did

@Cascabel hence the smiley face

I'm all for good explanations, don't get me wrong, but I don't know if it's always an improvement to skew folks toward a couple paragraphs of explanation when it could be simpler.

Extroverted Main Man

0

Q: What’s the best way to decline sharing my WiFi password with a neighbour?

Occasionally when we have friends who are neighbours over to visit we are asked for our wifi password so their kids can watch videos on the phone or whatever. Since neighbours are very close to within range of our network all the time, I would prefer not to share the password in order to ensure t...

politeness saying-no neighbors

@Cascabel In this stage of the site... I'm going to say yes. If only because it'll make stuff less opinion based all the time, and makes focusing the scope easier (IMO)

scope is more about questions, maybe I'm misunderstanding something?

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