« first day (1790 days earlier)      last day (3190 days later) » 
00:00 - 20:0020:00 - 00:00

8:01 PM
One thing to maybe to look at is the stats, how many newbies are asking game rec questions vs other questions
You'll probably find it's a very small percentage.
 
Do you think?
I think mostly newbies will be asking game rec.
Is there a way to see the statistics?
 
I suspect but without figures I can't tell.
I think the mods can pull some stats
 
I will ask @waxeagle and see if he has access to those statistics if he ever show up here. See if he can help us with that matter.
 
Out of the 13305 questions 416 are game req
 
@Althis You can pull whatever stats you want from the SE data explorer: data.stackexchange.com/rpg/queries
 
8:07 PM
Thank you very much @mxyzplk.
 
Thing to consider as well is the number of "I'm new to RPG's and I want a system to learn on vs I want a system where I can do XYZ within ABC and EFG
 
However, "how many game-rec questions are new users" isn't going to change the on-topic decision whether it's 100% or 0%, but you're still welcome to find out!
 
I personally don't plan on changing anything. I just want two things:
1. Have something to do while they don't assign me anything else to do.
2. Have something to complain about on the internet.
 
I wanted to keep them too. There's a couple popular kinds of threads on forums that are always complete shit - "Sell me on <system X>" and "System for setting: <whatnot>" and I was hoping our format could handle those more constructively. In the end though as a commenter said "this is why we can't have nice things" - the community was not sufficiently bought into doing them "right" and many wanted to do it forum-style, which doesn't fly hereabouts (for anything).
Ended up as a basic "we can do X if you follow these rules" - "I don't want to follow the rules!" - "OK then no X" kindergarten kind of thing
 
Pretty much
 
8:13 PM
tragedy of the commons
c'est la vie
 
I stayed out of the game rec stuff anyway. Don't have enough experience outside of D&D to constructively contribute to those.
 
Weird question: Do I do 1d6 slashing damage, 1d4 slashing damage or 1d4 + 1d6 slashing damage when grappled with bladed scarf proficiency? The page confuses me: d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/weapons/weapon-descriptions/…
 
8:39 PM
The wording there is confusing, I'm gonna check with the ISWG actually says
So, I checked the guide, it says on grapple, it's 1d4. d20pfsrd probably got the first part confused, and meant to say you do 1d6 as an attack
Bladed Scarf: Knowing that seductive
performances can bring out the worst in
watchers, some Varisians craft rows of
razor-sharp blades into their scarves.
The skill required in using such scarves
effectively and not revealing their deadly
nature makes them exotic weapons. If you
are prof icient with a bladed scarf, you
deal 1d4 points of slashing damage to
any creature that makes a successful
grapple check against you while
you wield the scarf. You can use the
Weapon Finesse feat to apply your
Dexterity modifier instead of your
 
It always bothered me that, at least from where I stand, we can't (or at least won't) allow the community to function as normal for game rec questions. It isn't a very community-defined experience as the way it plays out in the field has proven unacceptable to moderation. At that point, my feelings tend toward "either allow it or don't."
 
Ok, thank you
 
@Althis The Stack doesn't consider new users a precious commodity to be courted, if it means compromising the quality of site content‌​.
 
@BESW I am not saying to compromise, I am saying to teach them.
Slowly, train them to become what you guys consider to be better users.
 
We do our best, but it's not efficient to allow off topic questions simply as teaching experiences. We close off topic questions and direct new users to the rules and chat as teaching experiences.
 
8:45 PM
Mm, and that's why game-rec questions got a tag wiki, and a banner on every page with links, and hand-holding comments.
But, frankly, new users weren't the problem.
2
 
The question just isn't whether it's a teachable moment for new users, it's whether it's on topic or not.
 
I dunno, I don't think it takes much training to learn how to ask not terrible questions.
 
It was users with at least 4 digits of reputation refusing to follow the Back It Up! principle when answering questions, in my experience, that made game-rec such a nightmare to curate.
 
Depends on what the mission statement for this stack is, I guess.
Is it written anywhere? What this stacks aims to accomplish?
 
The idea of a well-sorted group of questions and answers is central to every Stack.
The "well-sorted" bit means that we have to exclude certain kinds of topics that can't be voted on usefully.
A library that isn't organised is useless.
 
8:50 PM
The tour is also enlightening in this regard.
 
Well, if it is "every question about role-playing games" I would say "which game meets these criteria" is acceptable.
 
"every question" is a poor phrasing, alas.
 
I agree with Pixie.
The tour was super helpful when I first started.
Also, do you guys think I should offer a bounty on this question? rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/67456/…
 
@Althis Have you seen the Optimising for Sand, Not Pearls article I linked above?
@misterducky I'd be inclined to wait a week; not every user logs in every day.
 
Fair enough
 
8:53 PM
I usually wait a week so that the question gets attention from the natural flow of the site, then I start taking unusual measures to get it more attention.
 
I probably had my first question open for about that long before I ended up just going through HeroLab and searching feats/items/class abilities for keywords.
Ended up finding something useful.
Answered my own question
 
@BESW, just read it.
 
@Althis We answer these questions based on particular criteria and a defined workflow, however. Fixating on that one statement is missing... the entire site ethos. It's a nice pitch, but it would be better stated as "every question about roleplaying games that is possible to meaningfully answer in our format, which is detailed below."
 
The Stack disallows questions which experience has shown consistently produce answers that don't fit the Stack's quality guidelines, because the reward for hosting them isn't worth the effort of curating them. This type of banning is done reactively, not proactively: we tried shopping questions and they proved to be too hard to keep at a quality level on par with the rest of the site.
 
Aaaand must abscond again.
 
8:59 PM
I understand what they want, but by choosing to not alienate the experts instead of newbies they are creating a highly elitist community. Since they think so strongly that curating questions isn't the most productive for the site, they might at least try to make the whole "site ethos" less daunting to newcomers through other means.
 
In this case, the Stack's quality guidelines include "provide context for links" and "insist that opinion be backed up with facts and references." Alas, a distressing number of high-rep users felt very strongly that they should be allowed to speculate wildly on game-rec questions without backing up their speculation.
@Althis This is not just about the newbies. Again.
 
Hm. I keep coming back to newbies because, being one myself I have this burning sensation every time I look at stack that it is more focused on validating the holders of knowledge than in actually helping those that do not possess it.
And I think that whole "site ethos" thing is part of that.
 
There is a strong sense across the Stacks that there's no point in trying to court users who are unwilling to put in effort to learn the system.
 
I think validating isn't the right word for it, but I'd agree there is a necessary emphasis on people with answers over people with questions, for some obvious reasons.
 
Which I morally think is bad for the whole system, every good system should be designed to be approachable. But that is just a personal opinion of course.
 
9:03 PM
That can get elitist sometimes, but historically it's a reaction to very loud voices demanding that the Stack prioritise courting new users over having high-quality content.
 
I don't think I can comment on the dissidence of high-rep users, because I've honestly never paid much attention to that fact.
But I would imagine that if that happens, it is because the rules and guidelines are not inherent to the answer itself, but actually require some effort to follow. Which might or might not correlate to the usefulness of the answer itself.
 
@Althis "people downvoted me because I did not put "I did that" in the post" is pretty representative: the belief that we should just assume an answerer can back up an answer and it's insulting and/or lowers the quality of the answer to ask them to include that support.
 
To figure that out it would be a great idea to see how many questioners actually came out satisfied from a question asked in which the question "didn't meet stack standard".
 
Honestly, that's not a metric the Stack is very interested in: answers should be good for more than one person.
(Which is another reason shopping questions are so quickly banned on most Stacks.)
This is why voting and accepting are different mechanics.
The opinion of the groupmind (through votes) is more important to sorting the quality of answers than the approval of a single user (through acceptance), even if it's the user who asked the question in the first place.
 
Were shopping questions usually upvoted?
 
9:09 PM
Questions, or answers?
 
Questions.
 
Five questions out of 429 have a total score of 30 or more.
About 34 have a total score of 20 or more.
30% of game-rec questions have scores under 5.
Bah, my brain's still to asleep to do maths.
But if you want new users to feel more welcome, game-rec isn't the place to start.
Check out the tag in meta and see the ongoing conversation.
Being approachable isn't gonna get solved by the kind of question we allow.
 
Yeah.
I see.
 
A major point of the Stack is that we do things forums can't do well.
If a forum does something well, the Stack is not invested in duplicating that service.
And yanno what? Forums are great at providing unsupported game system suggestions.
 
I have a question.
I understand that stack shouldn't prioritize duplicating something a forum does well.
But why would they not care at all?
 
9:20 PM
(Forums are also at least as hostile and unapproachable as the Stack; this is the first online RPG community I didn't flee in terror.)
@Althis Because the Stack was created to address needs that other parts of the Internet weren't providing for.
 
@BESW (I agree on the hostile front. But not on the approachable one. We have to separate one from another and realize that while a forum can be pretty hostile, it doesn't become any less approachable because you that.)
 
Oh, yeah. RPG forums are filled with internal jargon and obscure standards and attitudes which will get you jumped if you ignorantly put a foot wrong.
 
@BESW But forgetting all the good things a forum does, also means that we learned nothing from that concept. As the great bunch of smart people the makers of stack are, they should recognize the worth of previous systems and still try to incorporate them in their own, even if it is not a priority.
@BESW Never found those personally, then.
 
@Althis That's kinda like saying, "Hey, boats are great! Why don't submarines act more like boats?"
Staying on the surface of the water is awesome, but boats do it great already. If you want to stay on the surface of the water, use a boat.
 
That is saying:
"-Boats, great. Let us make one that goes under water!
-Do we want it to be able to sail on the surface as well?
-Of course not, why would we do that, boats already do that and they are boring!"
 
9:26 PM
The Stack is just one part of an array of online tools and communities.
If the Stack tries to be an all-in-one site, it starts competing with other sites in areas where competition isn't necessary. It's filling an already-filled niche.
Why should the Stack do things forums already do?
 
Because it would provide for all my needs in a single place?
 
It's more effort to re-design the voting system and interface, and a LOT more effort to curate.
@Althis There it is.
The Stack isn't interested in doing everything because it'll become a cul-de-sac. The Stack wants you to participate in other communities.
One of the reasons we're limited to a certain number of actions per day on the Stack is that the Stack wants experts in fields, which means it wants its users to step away from the Stack and do other things, to participate in wider communities of experts and gather their learning to bring back.
 
(The way we are talking about it reminds me of that old Uncle Sam poster.
Stack wants YOU to post in other places!)
I guess it makes sense.
Still, I think the barrier of entry is too high. There should be ways to lower it. Make it a more inclusive system without making the ones already in place any worse.
Why do you think would happen if the devs implemented that rep filter I mentioned?
 
It's a discussion that's got some pedigree.
 
The stacks keeps sending me to other communities that then proceed to tell me I'm not welcome. :p
 
9:34 PM
@BESW, how do you even remember all of these stuff?
Your references are quite magical.
 
@Althis I don't. I Google fast.
@Zachiel ...this is a small flaw.
 
@BESW I bow before your ability to Google, sir.
 
@Althis He knows the tricks. site:stackexchange
 
I know that as well.
But I don't jump into google nearly as frequently.
 
I know it and I seldom use it. especially when looking for spells in the d20SRD
 
9:37 PM
Mmm. I've got my browser set up so that typing into the address bar is also Googling, and any site whose internal search box I've used gets added to the bar so I can use their own internal search again without going to the page first.
 
What search engine do you use?
 
So I can type "rpg," hit TAB, then type "janelle" and hit ENTER, and I get this page.
 
@BESW Isn't that a thing with all chromes?
 
@Althis If the option's on, yeah. But do you use it?
 
I've always had this feature in mine and was quite surprised when that didn't work on my friends laptop.
@BESW I do, but a lot less often than I should, probably because it doesn't open a new tab, so I can just tab select the address bar and google something.
 
9:40 PM
Yeah, I just cmd+t and type.
I also use Boolean operators as much as possible, and I've learned how to "search for what to search."
 
@BESW I didn't know of the tab thing. Very useful.
 
Also useful is ctrl+w to close windows.
 
@Zachiel Keyboard shortcuts make me happy.
 
Ctrl+Shift+W to reopen the last closed window.
 
@Althis Oh no, that always closes the wrong one when I use it.
 
9:42 PM
(My clients are very impressed and willing to pay me more money when I do amazing things in Photoshop without touching the mouse.)
 
That is when you use Ctrl+Shift+W girl!
The google people! They thought of everything!
 
I'd switch back to Firefox in a heartbeat if I could figure out how to make it compatible with my workflow again.
Every six months or so I spend a day trying.
 
What are you missing from Fx that you'd want added?
 
I'd have to go try again and see what my problems are this time around.
Last time, a major stumbling block was being logged into two Google accounts at once.
 
@Althis Ah. Another person guesses wrong because of my avatar. That's just one of my characters.
 
9:46 PM
Ah.
Misleading.
 
I will let you guys in on a secret, because Zachiel brought it up
I am neither a duck, or a pattern
I am sorry if I mislead you.
 
Dangit...
 
Quack
 
I've once faked my sex in a chat for almost a year. All the admins were really nice to me, someone almost fell in love with me and at one point I had to quit and rejoin with a different identity to be in peace with myself again.
 
...And I'm not really a 19th century German.
 
9:47 PM
I guess you must be a rabbit, then, since you are not a duck.
 
@BESW You're the bog monster with the moustache, right?
 
Well.
A least MY avatar is completely accurate.
At no point did I ever say that I was anything else but a cat.
 
@Althis By this reasoning, since I'm not a young lady, I must be a old classy hag.
 
And old classy male hag
*an
 
 
1 hour later…
10:58 PM
I'm actually a Vulpix. [baps keyboard, somehow still maintains high WPM without fingers]
 
@Pixie Well, Vulpix has a bunch of tails, right?
 
@Miniman [baps keyboard with large fluffy tails, somehow still maintains relative accuracy]
 
[Pets vulpix. Vulpix are cute.]
 
@Pixie Wouldn't your online identity be a vulpixel?
 
@BESW [facepalm]
 
11:16 PM
@BESW Thinking the same thing
 
@misterducky Great minds think alike! (Fools' thoughts differ little.)
...oh, my. I love this diagram so much.
I think my favourite bit is the antenna on top.
(context is absolutely insane conspiracy nonsense, and also my second-favourite spelling of "anunnaki.")
> The Anunnaqi arrived on the planet Qi by way of passenger crafts called shams.
You don't say.
 
Off to dance class. Late.
 
ttfn
 
Daaaaang that question blew up
Get offline for like six hours and I got like 188 rep
If both questions get two upvotes I get Populist!
 
11:32 PM
@Sandwich Black lotus extract?
 
Yeah
 
@Sandwich Actually, the accepted would need 3, and you would need 4.
 
Really? Huh.
Still its the closest I've been to getting populist since Power Player Problem
 
> Highest scoring answer that outscored an accepted answer with score of more than 10 by more than 2x
So I'm wrong, it needs 3 and you need 5
 
The other one was 83 to 49
Later on though the question asker changed the second answer from accepted to mine though
So now the only badge I can get from that one is Great Answer
I need 12 more rep in 22 minutes to cap off for today
I wonder who downvoted my answer
I didn't have any incorrect information in there
I even specified that "In order to cure the poison Black Lotus extract requires two consecutive saves. If someone affected by it makes the first but fails the second, the poison stays in effect until they make both saves consecutively."
 
11:38 PM
I am impressed by how well Stack's plan to gamify their reputation system worked.
 
@Althis I don't want badges, I NEED them
 
I am imagining you dressed in an outfit that is nothing but merit badges now.
Lots and lots of them.
 
@Sandwich I didn't downvote, but judging by the other answers there it's probably because you didn't address the issue of the initial save to be affected by poison in the first place.
 
"If someone affected by"
 
For almost a year my silver:bronze badgers maintained a near-perfect 1:2 ratio as they grew.
 
11:39 PM
That was in there before it was even edited.
 
@Sandwich Hey, it's not me. I'm just trying to guess someone else's thought process from available information.
 
Fair enough.
 
Then it hit 1:20:40 with gold and I was very pleased.
 
I'm way behind on Silver badges then =\
 
Now it's 1:21:36 and that's just messy.
 
11:41 PM
I have way too much bronze
7:44
 
@BESW Interesting, I'm at 1:21:37.
 
@Miniman Ratio brothers!
 
I'm like the master of Bronze rn
 
@BESW I'm trying to see if there's anything on intended badge ratios now.
 
Looks like I'm not capping off today =(
 
11:45 PM
@Sandwich The plurality of my silver badgers are "You got a Nice Answer badger, and you answered first!"
 
Thats hard to get now
Because there are so many people answering on this stack :(
 
(About 42% of my Nice Answers are also first answers.)
 
@BESW Wow, 74/124 for me.
I hadn't realised how common that one was.
 
@Sandwich Outside the D&D tag, it's a lot easier to be Enlightened.
 
(No subtext there...)
 
11:47 PM
[innocent]
 
(I'm glad I'm not the only one who read into that)
 
Ooh, over half of my Nice Answers were first answers.
 
I found that a little while ago while browsing the internet
Theres some demotivators out there
..Yep.
 
Wow, that's a really small snake.
 
"As cool as snakes" sounds like the sort of thing a sitcom father says when he's trying to be cool around his kids.
 
11:51 PM
Snakes are cold-blooded.
Facts! jazz hands
 
00:00 - 20:0020:00 - 00:00

« first day (1790 days earlier)      last day (3190 days later) »