The Reading Room - 2017-03-28

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12:02 AM

@Randal'Thor I see. Perhaps one of the mods can undelete/edit the comment. (I no longer remember what I wrote)

3 hours later…

2:46 AM

user image

3:00 AM

@Randal'Thor I found out that protection wasn't broken for mods, and as it HNQed...

@Riker little hard to read that, eh?

2 hours later…

4:53 AM

@Shokhet @Gallifreyan This was the other question that I wanted to ask: literature.stackexchange.com/q/2201/481

0

Q: What's the significance of the witches' name change in Sandman?

As mentioned in another question, the three witches are very significant in The Sandman. While that other question asks for their significance in general, I have a much more specific question to ask. In issue #2 ("Imperfect Hosts"), Dream returns to his home after escaping captivity on Earth. Fi...

symbolism comics neil-gaiman the-sandman name-significance

5:18 AM

Ooh, just three more points and I'll be able to edit without review!

6:12 AM

@Randal'Thor doesn't that mean that they will definitey be mods if they nominate themselves and less that or exactly 3 people total nominate themselves?

6:50 AM

https://t.co/8cvnK0enWI

Tweeted by Priya8Ramesh on March 24, 2017 at 11:38 AM

7:05 AM

@Shokhet and woo

4 hours later…

11:08 AM

@Mithrandir No need to protect everything that goes to HNQ. Only questions that gather, or seem very likely to gather, many low-quality answers from new users.

3

@BeastlyGerbil No, because they're one-seat elections.

If there are fewer nominations than seats, the CMs will extend the nomination period or cancel the election.

1 hour later…

12:33 PM

@Mithrandir I don't know what you mean by "broken", but protection is meant to have certain limitations on when you can use it, & it's advised we un-protect the questions whenever there's no longer a solid reason to keep them protected.

@doppelgreener Protection was broken around the network for non-mods at the time. As that was a HNQ, which often attract bad answers or spam, coupled with the fact that it's a slightly controversial topic... As it's not on the HNQ now, yes, it doesn't need to be protected.

@Mithrandir Oh, shoot, that sounds like a bit of a pickle.

@Mithrandir Didn't we find out that it actually wasn't broken and we'd just been misunderstanding the criteria for protectability?

@Randal'Thor don't remember.

Possibly.

8

Q: Protect privilege has disappeared

On Puzzling, I noticed first that there wasn't an option to protect my own questions. I brought this up in chat, and other high-rep users replied that it has disappeared for them too. Not sure if this is just Puzzling, or site wide, but I have just under 16k rep and have had the privilege a whil...

bug status-bydesign protected-questions

status-bydesign from Shog.

12:48 PM

I sometimes forget to check things to see how it turned out. I guess this was one.

1:11 PM

@Randal'Thor I'm here ;-)

apparently I'm a slower reader and don't come up with questions as often

and the amount of content here is SO much bigger than what I've ever read

Welcome back! :-)

You weren't even pingable here a couple of days ago.

@Randal'Thor weird

i've popped onto the site a few times and looked at new questions, haven't been as active on here tbh

@DForck42 We're making a conscious effort to broaden the scope of the site (see the featured posts on meta).

@Randal'Thor of course the first topic challenge is a sci-fi book ;-)

lol

looks interesting though

btw, anyone here afan of the sword and laser?

@Randal'Thor I'm digging the diversity of the challenge suggestions

@DForck42 Hadn't heard of it.

@DForck42 I've had even more diverse ideas too, but I'm reluctant to suggest anything without an English translation.

1:25 PM

@Randal'Thor swordandlaser.com it's a sf & f book club with a podcast

@DForck42 if you have any suggestions, go for it! :D

I wonder why people downvoted the answer to the topic challenge announcement o_o

@Mithrandir I wondered that too, but decided not to bother leaving a comment.

One downvote on both question and answer, last time I checked.

Could be the same people who DV/VTC all the community engagement stuff on SFF meta, like obituaries and quarterly highlights and movie nights and username/avatar collections.

Two on both.

...but yeah, maybe.

@Mithrandir Oh, huh, must have been another grumpy sod passing by since I last looked.

Maybe it was @DForck :-P

Is the "Hey - it didn't say no beavers" actually part of the poem "No" by Shel Silverstein or not? Hmm...

I wonder how that would fare on main.

2:17 PM

@Randal'Thor wasn't me

@Mithrandir shrugs

my book repertoire isn't very diverse, tbh

the main non-American series i've read is nightwatch

and terry pratchett (but he's famous)

@DForck42 As in Lukyanenko?

YAY, we have another Night Watch fan! :-D cc @DVK

2

@Randal'Thor yes

@Randal'Thor I think I'm about 2 books behind, but someone told me they're not worth reading

last I read was Last Watch I believe

I've finished #3 (Twilight Watch); still need to get hold of #4.

@Randal'Thor I even have a question about the fourth book on sff: scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/15472/…

might contain some spoilers for you

@Randal'Thor when you finally read it, give my question some pondering

Oh, I didn't realise you had such a presence on SFF!

5 gold badges, nice.

2:33 PM

@Randal'Thor lol

3:33 PM

@DForck42 Depends on your reason to like the Watches books. For some of the reasons, last 2 books are great (e.g. if you're into universe lore; or into the whole light vs. dark (mis)understanding going on as reflected by Anton). For others, last 2 books are less great (imho slightly shoddier writing and less humor that first 2 books had).

@DForck42 There's also tons of works in shared universe that aren't bad but I don't know if any are translated into English.

@DForck42 Hm. I am tempted to look into answering that, the current answer is kinda technically correct but too threadbare

@DVK-on-Ahch-To Too threadbare? Yup, better give it a "how many times did Obi-Wan lie" style answer instead :-)

@Randal'Thor oh, I thought all elections were for 3 seats

@Randal'Thor Uh. I still owe you my 30K character answer for when each of Watches books takes place, don't I? (the one where I'm stuck at like 98% progress for a year)

@BeastlyGerbil That's more the exception than the rule, except for a site's first election post-graduation.

Ah, so the first election is 3 seats, the rest 1 seat?

3:40 PM

@DVK-on-Ahch-To I got an answer to that question a few weeks ago from someone else, but you said you had a Tolstoy-length one in preparation.

@BeastlyGerbil No, the first election is at least 3 seats (might be more, according to how big/busy the site is) and the rest are at least 1 seat. On SFF, for instance, it's gone 3,2,2,2 so far, and on Worldbuilding it's been 4,1.

Ok thanks for clearing that up...

Assuming the SE mods decide when a site needs additional mods?

@BeastlyGerbil SE mods, as opposed to what other kind of mods?

@Gallifreyan Thanks for the image update, but...

Am i being dense, I don't see 'candy' in the frames, though the relevant speech bubble would have had space for it. Are there two versions? — Spagirl 7 hours ago

Community mods....

No, you're not being dense, @Spagirl. Apparently there are two versions; someone helpfully edited my post to include images of a higher resolution, but apparently the name "Candy" is missing from the second version. I've now edited my question to reflect that. — Shokhet 1 min ago

3:46 PM

@BeastlyGerbil Ah, mods as opposed to Community Managers? Yes, but of course the mods still need to ask the CMs to schedule an election once they decide they need one.

Thats the name I was looking for :P

@DVK-on-Ahch-To it is, that's why I haven't accepted it. I believe there's a better, more thorough answer out there

@DVK-on-Ahch-To it's got a bounty now ;-)

@DForck42 Apparently you fixed Mos Eisley's bounty bot.

in Mos Eisley, 1 min ago, by Greedobie

11

Q: What happened in the 7th level?

In the book Last Watch (also published as Final Watch) by Sergei Lukyanenko, the seventh level of the gloom (or twilight) seemed to contain ghosts or something, but I never truly understood what was going on. What happened in the seventh level of the gloom?

urban-fantasy night-watch-cycle

It's never actually worked before.

4:02 PM

@Mithrandir aaand I got it. Thanks :)

@Randal'Thor yay! lol

@Shokhet the shoddy thing about non-reviewed edits is that you stop getting rep for edits

I believe

Except for tag-wiki edits.

Until you get enough rep to edit them without review.

yup

4:29 PM

@DForck42 That's true, but it's such a small amount of points that it doesn't really matter, IMO

It's much more important to me that I don't have to wait for review for my edits to take effect

Woo, just met @doppelgreener on Puzzling :-)

@Shokhet 584 of my rep came from suggesting edits.

On SFF.

@Shokhet Not only that, but these days you can't have more than 5 suggested edits pending at the same time.

@Randal'Thor annoying, that.

@Randal'Thor I did not know that

@Mithrandir That's impressive.

I got the Strunk and White badge on Mi Yodeya before I had edit privileges

4:34 PM

@Shokhet heh, nice

@Shokhet I'm trying to get that on every site. It'll take a while :P

@Mithrandir Yep

I'm looking to get Copy Editor (500 edits) on all the sites I'm active on. That will take much longer :p

@Shokhet It's a relatively new change. Probably made long after you broke 2k rep on the sites you're active in :-)

@Randal'Thor I see.

Edits were usually approved pretty quickly on MY, so I don't know if I ever had >5 pending edits

Going to sing with Sci and the piano. Adieu!

4:38 PM

@Shokhet I still don't have that on movies, and I was a mod for a while

...isn't there also a site-wide limit on pending edits? (Maybe 10?)

@DForck42 I guess that means everyone gets their grammar and tags right the first time? :)

@Mithrandir Have fun!

I thought it was Curunir who had the compelling voice, not @Mithrandir ...

@Mithrandir Enjoy!

@Shokhet no, I'm just not a vehement editor

Who plays, you or Scimonster?

@DForck42 Fair enough

4:40 PM

and I don't like to edit something unless there are actual issues

I definitely get that -- some posters get very touchy about others editing their posts

Oftentimes I'll leave comments after an edit, explaining and soliciting feedback...harder to do that when your edit might or might not take effect at all :p

@DForck42 No, Napoleon is the vehement editor over there.

@Randal'Thor yup

@Shokhet both of us.

@Shokhet that's what the "explain your edit" box is for, imho ;-)

4:48 PM

@Mithrandir Nice

@Randal'Thor o/

@DForck42 Also true :)

I am ill and today is not a great reading comprehension day. Time for asking questions about things!

Does anyone know in which edition this change occurred? I'd like to see that first version of The Hobbit if possible.

@Shokhet I don't get this

4:55 PM

@doppelgreener lol

My version (digital trade paperback) doesn't have a "Candy" - not the name nor a 4th witch. I thought the whole point was that there are 3 witches - the maiden, the mother, the crone. Who the hell is Candy?

@Shokhet fascinating

43

Q: What are the revisions in the (Revised Edition) of The Hobbit?

So this past Saturday a group of my friends and I all watched the three Lord of the Rings extended edition movies in one sitting. (I'd detail my strange, warlike dreams that night, but they're irrelevant to this question) That night, I borrowed a copy of The Hobbit, which I've never read, from m...

lord-of-the-rings tolkiens-legendarium the-hobbit

Also relevant: scifi.stackexchange.com/q/76415/31394

5:13 PM

Ah, here we go: ringgame.net/riddles.html

@Shokhet in fact, Sci got an offer to professionally record a song he wrote. My piano teacher just quit because he thinks I need a better teacher and offered to record what I wrote, too. I actually find it a little hard to believe ô_õ

@Shokhet I do believe my version is more correcterer. This page lists some changes that were made for the collected editions, though it doesn't list Candy.

...correcterer? O_o

Er, er, correct.

Oh, so "burninate" is fine for you snobs, eh? :)

5:22 PM

Burninate is a semi-official SE term :P

Meh

6:03 PM

@DVK-on-Ahch-To You're back! Welcome back! Ready for the Hard to Be a God month?

@Mithrandir that was "stolen" from a comic strip

37

A: Origin/meaning of "burninate"

It came from the classic Homestar Runner cartoon in an episode where Strong Bad creates a character called Trogdor the Burninator.

user image

Can we append that to every burninate-request here? :P

@Gallifreyan It has been done before:

6

A: Should we burninate the [brainteaser] tag?

Done. My brain can rest easily now. Please care for the widows and orphans.

And on SO meta:

29

A: Burninate Project Euler

After some Python chat room denizens got itchy about programming contest meta tags, we went ahead and started cleaning. The project-euler tag was a natural progression once we started. After two days of coordinated retagging, closing and deleting, now properly burninated are: programming-compet...

@Randal'Thor Oh my, I forgot to announce our royal decree in the Russian SO chatroom

@DForck42 How about The Witcher?

6:18 PM

@Gallifreyan nope

I did pick up a book at lunch though: Shadowed Souls as edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes

@DForck42 don't know about that one. My repertoire appears to be limited to Witcher and Sandman, with very superfluous influences by other authors

@Gallifreyan it's a collection of short stories, one of them being by Jim Butcher for his Dresden Files series

@Gallifreyan You should read the Night Watch series too.

Especially since you can read it in the original language and appreciate all the Russian cultural stuff.

@Randal'Thor have you seen the two (terrible, awesome) movies?

@Randal'Thor "can read" - yes. "appreciate cultural stuff" - not so much

6:24 PM

@DForck42 Sacrilege! Of course not.

@Randal'Thor I actually think those were better than certain prequels of a certain franchise

You wouldn't know about it :)

@Gallifreyan Wait, you've seen the Night Watch films?

@Randal'Thor they're actually what got me into the books

@Randal'Thor Yep - that's how I know about the series. I'm not saying they were terrific, but certainly better than other fantasy I've seen (LotR notwithstanding)

As a general rule, I don't watch adaptations of books I care a lot about, because they'll always feel like betrayals.

But on the other hand, I also don't tend to be interested in films unless they're adaptations of something I've read. Who cares about a story that's just a few hours long, unless it's a story you already know and have explored in more depth than those few hours?

6:31 PM

Ah, the dichotomies

1 hour later…

7:42 PM

@Gallifreyan Not quite but I'm strongly considering it. Depends on IRL.

@DVK-on-Ahch-To I'll keep some Hard to Be a God questions unanswered then :)

8:23 PM

@Gallifreyan Appreciate the gesture but please answer all you can/want. I'm sure I can find something to answer even if you answer them all :)

@DVK-on-Ahch-To It was more of a stereotypical "I'll keep the seat warmed" remark :D

Also, you don't have to look hard, here's one you avn answer right away :P

9:14 PM

1

Q: Can W.G. Sebalds walks in "The Rings of Saturn" be traced?

In W.G. Sebalds 1995 novel "The Rings of Saturn», the author describes different walks he takes. In some paragraphs, he describes the paths he takes very carefully, while in others he only mentions directions or how long he walked. Can those walks be traced in the real world or is Sebald to vague?

german-literature

@Mithrandir Wow. That's great!

@Randal'Thor Also this: scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/155898/…

...I knew that it would be in the first edition, and I also knew that the first edition would be prohibitively expensive, but that's expensive!

...I was hoping that the change wouldn't have taken place until a third or fourth edition, which would probably make an unchanged edition easier to find

Thanks for the linked questions *reading*

@Gallifreyan I know it's been a while, but in case it's still unclear: she asked me why I mentioned "Candy" in the transcript, when the word did not appear in the panel. The edition you had was missing that word, so I explained to her that your version was missing that word. (I have since replaced your image with mine, and included a link to your image with a small explanation)

...I just left to host a biology club meeting, and one class, and I came back to 10 ping on SE! Seriously...you guys should have at least given me some upvotes to go with that :p

@Shokhet nah

9:33 PM

I noticed some discussion in the star bar about burnination, and I don't have time to read the discussion. But, just so you know...

Burnination is not the same as blacklisting. Blacklisting is an expensive process, only to be requested when a tag has no possibility of being useful, and is very likely to be used accidentally.

Just saying

See also meta.stackexchange.com/q/242624/266359

Anyway, time for next class. See ya!

...and if you're going to leave me pings and comments, upvotes are appreciated ;-p

@Shokhet nah

@Shokhet If I've been too active in chat and not active enough on main sites on a particular day, sometimes I wake up the next morning to about 10-15 pings and only the same amount of rep.

@Randal'Thor heh

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