« first day (1131 days earlier)      last day (4089 days later) » 

15:00
only 2 votes left today!
@MattЭллен I think I will just do with no hats this year.
How many votes do we get, total?
@JasperLoy I guess it's warm enough in Singapore
I forget.
@JasperLoy been there done that. You will end with a hat.
@Robusto 30 if you're not careful, 40 if you know how to do it right.
One of the hats involves casting all 40.
15:01
Ah. So if you do it too fast you get throttled back?
The 10 extra are on questions only, and you can't cast them after you've used up the 30.
So the best algorithm is to just vote on 40 questions. Every which way.
Voting on 40 questions is playing too safe.
Better safe than hatless.
But as long as it works.
15:02
In which case, may I suggest:
23
Q: Punctuating question tags: A question mark is always required, isn't it. (Well, isn't it?)

RobustoConsider the sentence: You didn't leave the dog in the car, did you? In oral English, this statement may be spoken with a rising intonation or a falling one. If the former, it suggests that leaving the dog in the car is a bad thing, and might even suggest incredulity and consternation on th...

@Robusto I'll save it up for tomorrow, obviously.
Thanks for the fine & good Enlightened bling.
40 votes done!
@MattЭллен Do you now get a hat?
@MattЭллен I is jelly!
Really 40?
15:04
93 Enlighteneds now. There should be a "steak knives" hat if I get to 100.
@RegDwigнt yeah - mostly giving people enlightenment
@JasperLoy yeah, it should turn up on my avatar soon
One hat behind Stack Apps.
thrown a couple into the ring for archaeology hats
Where do you go to see your current vote count? I want to see how many more questions I need.
on your profile in the bottom right
15:07
Oh, duh. Never mind.
I need a mere 12 upvotes for a Guru badge on meta. How easy is that?
it breaks it down by month, week and day
28
A: Exception to 30 character minimum for answers

RegDwigнtSimply link the word to its dictionary definition. Observe: Ghoti. — 6 characters. Ghoti. — 56 characters. This pushes your answer over the 30-character limit and makes it considerably more helpful, as the OP might not know that word. In fact, that might be the very reason why he's ...

there aren't hats on meta!
I need to get cracking. I'm 25 behind @Matt and I've been working my butt off!
Perhaps I need to be less discriminating.
15:09
@MattЭллен you mean this one's for MSO only?
Then they should capitalize Meta.
What's "adv." in the OED? adverb?
@RegDwigнt oh, I don't know. hats aren't being displayed on our meta. and there's no winterbash link in the top bar there
@Hugo well I don't have many guesses beside that.
15:10
@Hugo Yes, I think.
Fuck, I accidentally closed the tab with the +9 queries in it.
adv., like "anon" in "ever and anon". Thanks
Oh, wait. It's still there.
Every browser these days has an "unclose tab" thingamajig.
I'm getting lost in a welter of tabs.
15:11
Pre-Shakespearean antedating submitted to the OED.
I keep thinking it will have an ELU favicon.
most browsers have a "re-open closed tab" thingy
Nice answer for @tchrist. If he'd been faster it could've been Enlightened.
One more and it's a gold badge for his rival.
And he does get Enlightened for Hurricane Sandy.
15:15
Reopen candidate:
-1
Q: What are the implicit rules for creating new portmanteaux in English?

shariq shamsiWikipedia defines a portmanteau1 as: “Portmanteau word” is used to describe a linguistic blend, namely “a word formed by blending sounds from two or more distinct words and combining their meanings.” Wikepedia further provides a list of common English portmanteaux, such gaydar, guyliner, li...

WTF is a Kopperwort?
Typo
Kopferwert.
!!define mobil
@KitFox mobil (colloquial) mobile, cellular
15:15
I get my p's and f's confused in German.
@tchrist your hats are blocking @Robusto
@KitFox Nice hat you have there!
!!define mobile
@KitFox mobile Capable of being moved.
@JasperLoy thanks.
15:16
Even @Cerb gets some bling. Og. Seriously. I didn't know ligatures had so much to do with music.
@badass How?
That is one hell of an edit, though. I had to reopen but am not sure the OP deserves the piñaccollades.
@badass i no rite.
!!define motile
@JasperLoy motile (biology) having the power to move spontaneously
15:16
@badass Farbeït from me to be accused of being a hatblocker!
!!define jasper
@Robusto jasper (obsolete) Any bright-coloured kind of chalcedony apart from cornelian.
@Robusto Except Cerb opted out, didn't he?
@KitFox Oh. Well, there's that.
But what doggy doesn't love a toy?
@RegDwigнt We call that a “heroïc rescue”.
15:17
If he doesn't want to wear his hat, he can chew on it.
@tchrist Is it Christmas Truce yet?
@tchrist *an heroïc rescue
5 more for paraprosdokian . . .
Rob must has monocle.
@KitFox Lamento reportar que ya no me permite corregirlo.
15:19
They should call spectacles binocle.
an ironic rescue: one where you would have been fine anyway if they'd just waited five minutes
Why isn't @Kit on the +9 list?
@RegDwigнt Oh, I could be wicked then.
@Kit should have a bunch more brocks this morning.
Brocks?
brock [brɒk], sb.[entry#1] Chiefly dial. Forms: 1, 4 broc, 3-7 brocke, 4-5 brokk(e, 4-6 brok, 6 broke, 3- brock.
Etymology: OE. broc, from Celtic: in OIr. brocc, Ir. and Gael. broc, Welsh and Cornish broch, Breton broc’h:-OCeltic *broccos, prob. cogn. w. Gr. φορκός grey, white; cf. the Eng. name gray, grey.
1 A badger: a name, in later times, associated especially with the epithet stinking.
15:23
Something is fishy. It still says I only have 18 votes. It's been stuck there for the last 10 or so votes.
@Robusto You get extra votes when you vote on...questions, maybe?
There's something to do with that.
Many an Enlightened yet to be awarded.
@KitFox Correct.
But they have to come first.
Right.
15:24
@Robusto It takes a while for you to see the change, maybe try refreshing too.
@Robusto How do you find your daily counts now?
My profile page.
Um, so I'm having a spot of difficulty at work. I'd like to interrupt the frenzy briefly for some sympathy.
Carry on please.
Ah, Shift-refresh brought me up to 28.
15:25
The guy on the project is stone-walling me like crazy.
@KitFox awwww
He wants me to use a tool no one else is using, which he manages, and he's not given me permissions to add or change anything.
@KitFox You mean Richard Head?
@KitFox Gay protest?
@Robusto That's the guy.
15:26
@Robusto What’s a dickfor?
No suggested edits today. Not a one.
@RegDwigнt Patience.
We need five per nose. I have no time for patience.
0
Q: Describe the question

DanialI can't understand this question anybody here can help me to understand it what exactly this question want??? Let S = s1 s2 ... s2n be a well-formed string of parentheses. S can be encoded in two different ways: By an integer sequence P = p1 p2 ... pn where pi is the number of left parentheses b...

Mr. "It works fine when used the way it is supposed to work."
grr
@RegDwigнt Hmm, is that even about English?
15:28
@KitFox what a jerk
@JasperLoy First and foremost, that question is about itself.
Re-opener?
1
Q: Expression choice: 'conclusion', 'taken as a whole', or 'regarding'

Mitra RahmatiWhich phrase could be used to conclude some results in a paper? I am wondering if it would be nice to use Taken as a whole or Regarding instead of In the general framework. In the general framework of the leaf photosynthesis limitations associated with drought stress, we may conclude that...

36 hats behind GameDev.
@RegDwigнt I can do only so much by myself.
this is an English question and I cant understand that I thought here is the good place for asking it — Danial 21 secs ago
15:32
um
no?
I reached my vote limit. :(
@RegDwigнt Where do you see the rankings?
@MattЭллен Frankly, I can't understand that he thought here is the good place for asking it, either.
You get there by clicking "Winter Bash" in the top left corner of the eponymous dropdown.
98
Q: Why do English writers avoid explicit numerals?

Pavel Radzivilovsky The junction has a stop sign on each of the four entrances. The junction has a stop sign on each of the 4 entrances. The first is preferred, for some reason, by many English texts. Why? I haven't seen this phenomenon in other languages.

Ah, shit. Was I ever wrong about Math.SE. They're kicking our butts.
@tchrist I always resisted upvoting that one because it was wrong about Russian (and other languages).
15:34
@Robusto Well, they are larger.
@Bruno, @RedDwight: Russian language, for instance. In fact, replacing numerals with actual digits when translating from English to Russian is seen as a sign of a good translator (and vice versa for translating from Russian to English). Then again, I can't claim every numeral gets replaced with a digit -- there's some kind of "that feels enough" limit. — GSerg Aug 16 '10 at 12:53
@Robusto :D
I am a good translator and I do not do that.
Ste
Ste
I will happily get involved in helping English.SE getting more hats. So I don't have to read everything thus far, can someone paraphrase please?
I only know bad translators who do that.
15:35
@RegDwigнt I’m not sure which languages it is normal in.
Is it possible that I could be frozen out at 37 votes? I've been careful to upvote questions since I only had about 15 votes.
@GSerg: funny you would mention Russian, which is one of the languages I am a native speaker of. The rules in Russian are not anywhere as simple as you say, see e.g. the Wikipedia guidelines at ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/…RegDwigнt Aug 17 '10 at 9:35
Zero upvotes for actual info after all these years.
But 8 upvotes for the misinformation.
@Ste Paraphrase paraprosdokian!
Guru candidate:
39
A: Difference between "delete" and "remove"

DanielDelete and remove are defined quite similarly, but the main difference between them is that delete means erase (i.e. rendered nonexistent or nonrecoverable), while remove connotes take away and set aside (but kept in existence). In your example, if the item is existent after the removal, just sa...

Ste
Ste
@Robusto I've already done that one.
15:37
@Ste Upvote some of these Qs with 24 votes to 25, so they get a hat: data.stackexchange.com/english/query/153990/…
Ste
Ste
@Hugo - Cool I will do those now. Might need to do more tomorrow.
If you do 40 in a day you get a hat yourself!
Also, some here just below 100. 100 gets a gold badge and a hat: english.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&q=score%3a90
We’re still only in position 14, damn it.
out of how many?
Ste
Ste
Okay - I am on board. I will ensure I participate in this each day.
@badass 110
@MattЭллен That's pretty good already.
not bad, indeed
I'm still stuck at 38 votes, but I'm barred from voting.
@Robusto Can you retract some answer votes?
15:44
@Robusto even on questions?
And make Q votes instead?
I don't think I can retract after the time period has expired.
@Robusto well I told you.
This is one point from a Reversal badge:
25
A: Does apologizing entail recognizing being at fault?

RobustoThe statement I'm sorry if you got the impression that I meant to insult you. That was not my intention. is an apology of sorts, but it borders on the confrontational. By saying "you got the impression" you are absolving your own communication of any fault, when in fact there is a chance yo...

@Robusto you could ahem superficially edit an answer and then retract your vote
15:44
@MattЭллен you have to start with the questions, that's the catch.
@tchrist 14/110 put you in the top 13%
43 mins ago, by RegDwigнt
The 10 extra are on questions only, and you can't cast them after you've used up the 30.
@MattЭллен You are sneaky. I like that.
@RegDwigнt true, but if you retract 1 answer vote, you should be able to spend the last lot on questions
@MattЭллен That would be too obvious, lol. Don't do that @robusto
15:45
@MattЭллен that is too much infrastructure for Mother Russia.
Who am I, a full-time voter?
Well, if I retract an upvote it might blow someone's badge. Fuck that.
There's always tomorrow, which on SE sites means 8 hours from now.
@Robusto most badges can't be blown.
We've been there.
It's quite funny how serious you guys are about the hats, lol
15:46
You call this serious? We are doing this totally ironically.
Pretty much only tag badges can. And only by nuking the tag.
hats are srs bsns
Hi guys
Ste
Ste
I didn't get my boater but I have used my 40 votes... what goes?
@Robusto speak for yourself, I am doing this totally high mimetically.
15:47
Hi
@Ste probably just time. it took a few minutes for mine to turn up
I'm doing it accidentally.
What's the meaning of this? "Never get caught without an important file again."
By the way, Math.SE has like twice our number of badges. So much for not worrying.
Good or bad idea? Post on meta.ELU for tips how to increase ELU's standing on the leaderboard (e.g. creating silvers and golds)
15:48
@Gigili quite literal. To be prepared in the future.
@Gigili get being used to mean be
Ste
Ste
@MattЭллен - yeah just arrived.
@Hugo - Good idea. Even it is closed beyond the New Year.
Does "get caught" mean "get arrested" here?
@Hugo bad. The first rule of Fight Club: you do not post the rules of Fight Club on a meta for other sites to see.
@RegDwigнt Yeah, thought so...
15:49
@Gigili No, get found out.
@Gigili no, arresting is something the police do. catching is something anyone can do
I caught Gigili without a hat.
let's just star them in chat instead
means I found out she has no hat when she is supposed to have one.
unless you're using arrested to mean stopped, in which case the meaning is different to caught anyway
15:50
@Hugo as is the case with all FAQs, the target audience is precisely the people that won't read them. Only people who already care about hats will be reading the post. Read: our rivals.
I have three hats, three hats I have.
Add just one more, I'll need some salve.
But if the total I should halve
The rest will probably just calve.
step up to the streets: hats
The people who know how to access our Meta anymore are all here in this chat right now.
!!define calve
15:52
@MattЭллен calve (intransitive) To give birth to a calf.
I tried on the three-hat but I might go back to the kitty. It's cuter.
Yeah. Kitties are cuter than actual hats.
This answer's one vote away from a sock puppet: english.stackexchange.com/a/141990/9001
@KitFox: With respect to the Richard Head issue, isn't there a court of appeals there or something?
Thanks!
15:55
Someone post a hundred low-quality answers pronto for everyone to review.
@Robusto I don't know. I'm trying to meet up with my manager about it.
@RegDwigнt a hundred? I'm not sure the system would allow it :(
@KitFox The guy is being obstructionist and hurting the organization with his petty bullshit.
@MattЭллен I would allow it.
Mr Gorbachev will tear down the system.
I mean... it sounds fun, but then I might lose my hats
15:57
Hats can never be lost.
hats can only be lost: they all go away on Jan 3rd
@Robusto They must know this already though. He's been here for a year and a half.
@Jasper you slacker, you have half the number of hats of Thursagen!
but I want to keep them for all that time
@KitFox Remember the domino principle. You can't do your job because you're blocked by Dick Head. Go to the person who is blocked by you not finishing.
15:58
@RegDwigнt Wait, I have a hat? I did not even do anything for it!
Say, "I'm sorry, but I can't meet the deadline." And give the explanation, dispassionately but clearly.
@Robusto I can't. The organizational structure is not that clear to me and I'm not certain of the politics yet.
@JasperLoy Yes, and we applaud your efforts, but you managed to do even less than a permabanned user.
One vote from Populist:
26
A: Does apologizing entail recognizing being at fault?

RobustoThe statement I'm sorry if you got the impression that I meant to insult you. That was not my intention. is an apology of sorts, but it borders on the confrontational. By saying "you got the impression" you are absolving your own communication of any fault, when in fact there is a chance yo...

@RegDwigнt I will put on my hat now.
16:00
You can leave your hat on.
got the sock puppet
I'm on my way to the cat, it would seem.
We need to get on that Peanut Gallery task.
I haven't been witty enough to be within a whisker of the cat
3
@KitFox Well, if you don't get it sorted out the right way, you are being set up for failure.
You do now.
:D thanks!
16:01
@Robusto Don't I know it. I'm working on letting my manager know. That's my best course of action at this point, I think.
Ah, still no hat in the chat for me. I have just put it on.
@JasperLoy it'll take time to filter through
Jasper, you're just not as cute as @Matt when you beg for it.
I got the hat for posting or voting on Dec 5.
Man it’s hard to drum up Populist candidates.
Ste
Ste
16:06
This QUESTION and my ANSWERS need a few for populist: english.stackexchange.com/questions/130384/…
Sorry - I meant three votes for the accepted answer.
It appears there are secret hats this year again.
Of course!
I think I have three already.
Trouble is, there's no description of how I got mine.
Yours being?
Ste
Ste
16:10
My only secret hat is the three-hat which is pretty self-explanatory.
Chuck Yeager (crash-helmet).
There we go.
@Ste Yeah I'm not sure how that one's secret.
@AndrewLeach I think it's for editing a new question within the 5-minute grace window. Did you do that?
Not on GD. I did make a fast answer, though.
Ste
Ste
36
A: Describing "not knowing what to do" (as a response to an unexpected event that happened)?

SteYou could use dumbfounded in your scenario. affected with sudden and great wonder or surprise

16:12
...goes to look up who Chuck Yeager is...
I had a fast answer, too...
Ste
Ste
That's what I meant to post before - Populist candidate.
So that is it, then.
!!wiki chuck yeager
| serviceyears = 1941–1975 (34 years) | rank = Brigadier General | servicenumber = | unit = | commands = | battles = | battles_label = | awards = See below | spouse = | relations = Steve Yeager (nephew) | laterwork = Flight instructor | signature = Chuck Yeager signature.SVG | website = }} Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager (; born February 13, 1923) is a retired brigadier general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. In 1947, he became the first pilot to (officially) travel faster than sound. Yeager's care...
16:13
@Ste that one's not easy as you have to outscore the answer above yours and the accepted answer needs 4 more upvotes as well.
Yes. Still around. I wonder if he's flattered that he has a Hat named after him.
I wonder how many pilots travelled faster than sound unofficially before him
Ste
Ste
@RegDwigнt Oh well, You can give the Populist to @apsillers
@jonhanna needs more hats. Wake up, Jon!
@Ste well I am not giving anything to anyone, just explaining the devilish intricacies.
Ste
Ste
@RegDwigнt - I see!
16:19
@MattЭллен I think many did as a result of power dives they couldn't pull out of.
> Worse still, a particularly dangerous interaction of the airflow between the wings and tail surfaces of diving Lockheed P-38 Lightnings made "pulling out" of dives difficult.
Some of those reached near-sound barrier speeds in dives.
> Flutter due to the formation of shock waves on curved surfaces was another major problem, which led most famously to the breakup of de Havilland Swallow and death of its pilot, Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr. in 1946. A similar problem is thought to be the cause of the 1943 crash of the BI-1 rocket aircraft in the Soviet Union.
One of the reasons the Bell X-1 did the job is that it had flat, stubby wings and flat control surfaces.
> There are, however, several claims that the sound barrier was broken during World War II by manned aircraft. In 1942, Republic Aviation issued a press release stating that Lts. Harold E. Comstock and Roger Dyar had exceeded the speed of sound during test dives in the P-47 Thunderbolt.
Of course, that could have been an attempt at PR.
true, true
2
Q: Is SO Saying that Chuck Yeager was a Secret Soviet?

RBarryYoungSo I love the hats and all, especially my Chuck Yeager "secret" hat (though I still don't know what it was for). And I'm not complaining or anything, but shouldn't the star be blue or something? Because to military folks like General Yeager a single red star on a white background definite...

@RegDwigнt Russia invented Chuck Yeager!
16:32
Russia invented everything. Russia even invented Russia. Think about it. Think about it.
@Kosmonaut: We offer seven-layer bean dips and gold badges. And hats. Don't forget the hats.
So anyone maxed out yet?
Today is so slow.
maxed out on what?
@MattЭллен But only the Brits have broken the sound barrier on land. Note that they had to do it in America, because there isn't enough straight highway in England to hang a clothesline, much less break sound barriers.
@MattЭллен rep capped.
No bowties that I can see anywhere.
16:35
@Robusto That's a deliberate design feature.
@Robusto well, that's what you get when Romans build your roads
@AndrewLeach We have that in Boston as well.
50
A: CSS "color" vs. "font-color"

RobustoThe same way Boston came up with its street plan. They followed the cow paths already there, and built houses where the streets weren't, and after a while it was too much trouble to change.

Yeah, for Romans all roads led to Rome, but then they discovered that England was an island, so they had to go in circles.
More to the point, there's a three-inch deep pothole every six yards. That appears to be a design feature, too.
There are streets in Chicago that have more straight road than exists' in all of England or New England put together.
16:36
@AndrewLeach please do not tell me what your people do to those holes.
@AndrewLeach lol. it's like drivers pay road tax to keep the dvla running, not fix the roads
@RegDwigнt ??? They attempt to fill them with tarmac, usually.
@AndrewLeach Yeah. Funny story about that. My new car has this "keep-awake" warning if you stray over center lines too much. I had to turn it off, because all the potholes were making me cross the lines way more than any drunkard ever did. That's just SOP in Massachusetts. We just call it "driving."
@AndrewLeach which part of "please do not tell me" is not British enough for your British parser to process?
All of it. I just refused the request.
16:38
So I noticed.
@AndrewLeach Yeah. Funny story about that. My new car has this "keep-awake" warning if you stray over center lines too much. I had to turn it off, because all the potholes were making me cross the lines way more than any drunkard ever did. That's just SOP in Massachusetts. We just call it "driving."
WTF is with Rob.
Die Platte hängt.
@RegDwigнt I find UK roads interesting, even if no-one east of here does!
Rob is so old, he types stuff he only just typed.
Fuck, I tried to edit exists and it was close to the time period ending and I inadvertently added an apostrophe.
16:40
Well the usual way about that is pinging the hippo with the fixes desired.
@RegDwigнt no, see, every request in British is sarcastic. you should have said "Oh, please do tell me what exciting things people do to these potholes. I'm sure it'll be the most interesting thing I'll ever hear."
@RegDwigнt Not my fault. I got caught in an edit timeout and it wouldn't let me exit the edit until I cleared it.
@Robusto see, you are doing it again!
You already expained that, don't you remember?
I will continue to do it until my people get the respect and bean dip they deserve.
Nobody lives for that long.
Not even Methusalat.
16:41
I'd settle for the bean dip.
OMG Matt's eating the kitty.
Bloody orcs.
:D
gnaws on kitty head
No. He's just cleaning it up from behind.
Even @nohat has a hat now.
@JasperLoy I have lost so many hats over the years...if I had a dollar for every hat I lost...wait, make it 10 dollars...then I could have another hat.
What kitty?
Whoa, that doesn't show the hat.
But it's there.
4 hours ago, by RegDwigнt
Oh. He really is nohat in the inline.
16:47
@KitFox Has he eaten it all already?!
4 hours ago, by RegDwigнt
user image
@RegDwigнt Hey, you're 7 hours ahead of me.
@RegDwigнt I know! The important point to note is that nobody else has.
You get up when I'm just going to bed.
Speaking of getting up, commute.
I expect to see OVER 9000 more hats when I come back.
16:48
nohat was cuter when he was little.
And by expect I mean demand, from every single user.
We assumed that when you used the word expect.
All users with less than OVER 9000 hats will be permabanned, because as Thursagen and Jasper demonstrate, that gets them twice the number of hats.
Lators.
and by OVER 9000 we assume you mean seven or maybe eight
CU
@MattЭллен Phew. Nine (but not nine different ones).
16:50
@RegDwigнt Wait, isn't Thursagen due for parole next year?
September 20th, 2014
So technically he could be back? Oh, wait. I'm living in the future.
Let's fall off that bridge when we come to it.
About the same time as my Nemesis, I think.
who is your nemesis?
!!define tmesis
16:55
@MattЭллен tmesis (prosody) The insertion of one or more words between the components of a compound word.
Don't you remember? Our sockpuppeteer.
oh!
I didn't realise you'd nemesised him
He rather assumed the role all by himself.
Helped me get the Marshal badge though. Now I just flag rather than comment.

« first day (1131 days earlier)      last day (4089 days later) »