The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Marvin

00:01

0

In Infinity War, Thor gets Stormbreaker, and uses it to summon the Bifrost, bringing him, Rocket and Groot to Wakanda to fight Thanos' troops. But how did Thor know that they were in Wakanda, he didn't even know Wakanda existed, and Heimdall was dead so he couldn't direct him?

Marvin

01:05

0

Q: 90s? Novel dimensional portal opens in Florida aliens emerge

Trying to remember the title of a book probably from 90s or 2000s. English Paperback. A Portal opens up in (Florida)? (Pretty sure it was Florida or another SE USA state) Small dangerous alien creatures start coming through it and attacking people near it. I 'think' it was just a spontaneity ...

story-identification novel alien-invasion

Jenayah

01:33

So a guy asked a question about a book called Dwarves and legit used the dwarves tag since it's the only one available now, but it's more a general tag. How should we name the work tag?

Alex

@Jenayah Zwerge

Marvin

0

Q: How does the water drain out of Girdlegard in Markus Heitz's Dwarves?

Given that the land is surrounded in all directions by mountains, surely the run-off would fill up the land into a big lake which would have to drain off at the lowest point in the mountains?

dwarves

Jenayah

@Alex pretty sure there was a recent Meta post about not using the non-English phrasing?

or was it not translated into English?

Alex

@Jenayah According to Wikipedia the English title is The Dwarves.

At least for the first book.

The others have other names.

@Jenayah Indeed:

9

Q: Should we allow or indicate non-English titles for SFF works along the English title?

While movies tend to retain their original titles worldwide, with a bit of leeway in the translation, TV series and books translated in other languages often have titles that are far removed from the original title. Should we allow the use of non-English titles, alongside the English title if/wh...

discussion title language

Jenayah

@Alex they're all dwarves-related though

Alex

01:39

@Jenayah True, but is there any indication that the overall series is known as Dwarves?

Jenayah

@Alex Goodreads would say so

goodreads.com/series/98118-die-zwerge

> Series also known as:
* La Saga dei Nani
* The Dwarves
* De Dwergen
* Trpaslíci
* Les nains
* Los Enanos
* Cüceler

Alex

@Jenayah Then shouldn't the tag be the-dwarves?

Granted I'm not very familiar with tagging policies here.

Jenayah

@Alex hmm, maybe so

would have to have a clear excerpt and tag usage guidance but that holds

let's get tag-editing then

Alex

@Jenayah Not all tags have (though surprisingly, from what I'm used to, most do).

Jenayah

@Alex aye

but if a new tag is created better be a proper one

Alex

01:47

@Jenayah It's usually the new ones that don't have an excerpt or guidance.

Jenayah

@Alex rather the most unused ones

ah scratch that, SFF has no logic when it comes to tag wikis

Alex

@Jenayah Indeed, you are correct.

If you sort by popularity and skip to the end you will see three full pages with no excerpts or guidance.

Jenayah

@Alex bunch of those are synonym tags though aren't they?

Alex

@Jenayah Could be; I didn't think of checking that.

Jenayah

Unrelated but if you've got nothing to listen to at the moment:

Best of Epic Music 2014 | 1-Hour Full Cinematic | Epic Hits | Epic Music VN

►

Alex

01:51

@Jenayah Well if I ignore all future comments it's probably because I'm transfixed by the music.

Jenayah

@Alex eheh

this kind of soundtracks are always entertaining

and the guys compiling them do a great job at editing stuff so that's even more epic

Alex

@Jenayah By the way, I edited one of your answers a bit ago to remove what appeared to be an unnecessary word that didn't fit in the sentence. But feel free to check to make sure t wasn't actually something necessary (as it was one of those topics that I know nothing about).

Jenayah

@Alex ah yeah I saw that and indeed, it was a remnant from a previous version

thanks, by the way

Alex

@Jenayah No problem.

Jenayah

Actually these Dwarves books sound like they might be worth a read

Hop, they're on the to-read list

oh hey @b_jonas :D

b_jonas

01:58

@Jenayah Hi. I'm sleeping.

Jenayah

@b_jonas oh, typing while sleeping. Useful skill.

b_jonas

02:14

If I want to know if a work is Sci Fi, but the doubt is not whether a certain technology was known to exist at the time it was written, but what technology the author exactly meant by some unclear phrase, then would that be a question on topic on Sci Fi SE?

Or would it only turn out to be on topic if the work turns out to be sci fi?

Jenayah

@b_jonas asking whether work XYZ is sci-fi would rather be Meta, no?

I'm not sure, though

As for whether one could ask questions about it when the technology described was speculative but turned out to become an actual thing, there's this one:

12

Q: If a Show Was Speculative in 1972, but Would Not Be Now, is it SF?

I'm referring to this question. This show, Search, regularly featured technology that was not possible in the time it was written, although some other shows (such as Mission: Impossible) were written as if such technology existed. We can look at the question now and easily think, "Oh, that's ju...

discussion

b_jonas

@Jenayah It could be Meta if the doubt is how you interpret the policy of the site.

Alex

@b_jonas You could always ask it on Literature.

Jenayah

@b_jonas what do you mean?

@Alex oh, right, that works too I guess!

though I know nothing of Lit.SE

Alex

@Jenayah But it would probably get much less attention.

b_jonas

02:19

@Alex I could, and I might, but it's specifically about a Sci-Fi element in a work, so I am hoping it's on topic here, where I think I'd get better answers.

Alex

@b_jonas Well, then, ask away. Worst comes to worst it will get closed.

b_jonas

I think I'll risk it. I can afford an off-topic question that might end up as downvoted, in order to both get a better answer and expand the scope of Sci Fi and better define on-topicness policy.

@Alex No, worst would be if it got migrated to Lit, because it's much harder to convince people to reopen it then.

Alex

@b_jonas But you might want to wait a few hours first. Right now I have my mouse poised over the close button.

Jenayah

oh hey that's funny, rep on Meta isn't exactly synced with rep on Main

Alex

@b_jonas But that's not worse than not having the question at all.

@Jenayah Yeah, that's an old discussion.

Jenayah

02:23

@Alex mh?

I don't mean downvotes on Meta not affecting your rep, I mean the topbar not being synced between the two

b_jonas

@Jenayah Blame caching, as well as different SE sites being pretty isolated for some reason.

I mean technologically.

Alex

@Jenayah Yeah. I recall seeing this mentioned a while back.

I'll see if I can find where.

b_jonas

I never really understood why. It's not like they need to to better partition to multiple servers, because StackOverflow is so much bigger than anything else.

Jenayah

@b_jonas shouldiblamecaching.com

b_jonas

@Jenayah I won't read that, I've read it already and the contents are cached in my mind.

Jenayah

02:26

@b_jonas :p

Alex

@Jenayah Votes on meta do not affect your reputation; your meta reputation is the same as your reputation on Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange (synchronized hourly), though you earn separate badges. You must have 5 reputation to participate on meta. (my emphasis)

scifi.stackexchange.com/help/whats-meta

Jenayah

@Alex okep thanks!

Alex

@Jenayah Although, to be honest, that's not what I was originally thinking of.

@Alex That wasn't serious, for the record.

Jenayah

Oh, cool!

I started a series and it did not get cancelled!

Even more, season 2 should have twice the amount of episodes, that's grand!

Maybe my curse has come to an end

Alex

@Jenayah Is there a timespan from when you watch it that it has to get cancelled? Otherwise how do you know it won't still get cancelled in a month, year, decade, etc?

Jenayah

02:39

Or maybe just you know... Season 2 will get crappy rankings, end off with a twisted cliffhanger and series will get cancelled. As always :/

@Alex true, the series I watched before that got renewed, and then cancelled.

Let me hope, dammit

Alex

@Jenayah Nah, THE CURSE LIVES ON!!!

Jenayah

Alex

@Jenayah That's a lot of "no"s.

Jenayah

yup

Alex

Reminds me of No, Anakin, no, don't, no.

Though, there are probably some exclamatrion points in that quote.

Jenayah

02:43

@Alex Anakin's meme is "the floor is lava challenge" one :p

Alex

@Jenayah I think I might have exhausted my Star Wars knowledge.

Or my meme knowledge?

Jenayah

Obi-Wan vs Anakin (Part 2) | Star Wars Revenge of the Sith (2005) Movie Clip

►

knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-floor-is-lava-hot-lava-game

Alex

@Jenayah Got it.

I'm just thinking that the storyline of 1,2, and 3 would probably be so much better if you didn't already know 4,5, and 6.

Jenayah

279

Q: In what order should the Star Wars movies be watched?

Please don't lynch me, but I've never sat through an entire Star Wars film. I'm aware that the 3 (new) films are technically prequels, but I feel strange watching 3 new films then 3 old films? Do I need to watch the new ones then the old ones?

star-wars suggested-order

Alex

03:00

@Jenayah Interesting. Though none of the answers really address the question's concern about jumping from new movies to really old movies.

Jenayah

@Alex it's a tadbit POB

i'dsay

Alex

@Jenayah Indeed. But I think that order questions are generally accepted because you can provide objective reasoning, even if the ultimate conclusion is subjective.

Jenayah

@Alex aye

holy cr*p

genuine question, what age would you give to these characters?

Alex

@Jenayah You're the one with the age-knowing powers.

Jenayah

Oct 10 at 16:03, by Jenayah

@Alex nah it only works on people I've talked to in chat :p

Alex

03:10

But I'd say they look young.

Jenayah

I meant more on the age difference between the two

Marvin

2

Q: 80s-90s? Novel, after a meteor, wipes out cities in Southern California, a Man is approached to help decipher advanced Tech devices

Meteors have hit some cities in Southern California. (can't remember is they were large like San Diego, or Los Angeles, or if they were smaller cities like Bakersfield or Fresno) The Protagonist (High School? age at the time) who was out of town at the time, has lost all his family and friends. ...

story-identification novel

Alex

@Jenayah Oh, maybe 25 and 15?

I'm not so good at this, though.

Jenayah

@Alex yeah that's what I thought as well, long story short the girl behaves like a teenager unaware of "the outside world" while the guy is an average human

turns out both actors are born 1990 ahahah

but that reinforces my "How old is Ryn?" question coming up soon.

Because clearly the girl isn't supposed to be in her late twenties

Alex

@Jenayah Is Ryn the guy in the picture, or someone else?

Jenayah

03:15

@Alex nah she's the girl

I'd have given her 15-16 years as well, especially since it's said she's still under her older sister's protection, not really an adult etc

Alex

@Jenayah Oh.

@Jenayah I don't think it's that uncommon (especially for females?) for older actors to play younger characters.

Jenayah

@Alex true, IIRC the girl who played Katniss was like, 30? When Katniss is supposed to be 16ish

But the show still doesn't mention how old Ryn is, though.

I'll sort out some maths before asking but I'm curious.

(of course her actress being 30 doesn't mean the character is 30)

Oooooh, season 2 won't get cancelled, there's a trailer o/

Alex

@Jenayah She's 28 now, as per Google. The movies were a few years back, so not quite 30 but definitely older than 16.

Jenayah

@Alex aye

Well, bunch of Siren questions coming up

mmmh...

Actually I'm gonna need to know what our stance on future works actually is

Alex

By the way, this answer cracked me up almost as much as the Harry Potter covers:

6

A: In what order should the Star Wars movies be watched?

Finnish MTV3 Order: III, II, I, V, IV, VI When Finland's MTV3 channel (not related to MTV) acquired the rights in October 2008 to show all six films and The Clone Wars, they held a poll on their website to find the most popular. They received over 24,000 votes: Star Wars: Episodi III - Sithin ...

That's twice in one week; you're on a roll.

Jenayah

03:25

The age question is probably not FW, but maybe the rest is.

I'll see.

@Alex lol, it makes even less sense

Adamant

04:42

@Jenayah I watched that

I was going to ask some questions here but I suppose I answered them all.

@Jenayah Is she supposed to be a teenager? I always thought it was just that she didn't know much about life on land.

Babel fish

05:58

0

Q: "What a piece of work is man" - echo in The Lord of the Rings?

In The Fellowship of the Ring, after Gandalf tells Frodo the story of the One Ring and challenges him to destroy it, Frodo looks at the ring and we read this description: how rich and beautiful was its colour, how perfect was its roundness. It was an admirable thing and altogether precious. ...

william-shakespeare j-r-r-tolkien the-lord-of-the-rings hamlet

Jenayah

@Adamant pretty decent watch isn't it?

@Adamant well if the "growing up patterns" follow those of a human that would make her a teenager I reckon

Now we're not sure about this though... Closest we have is Ellen but that's only 1/8 of certainty :p

Mithrandir

06:35

@Jenayah she looks early twenties, he looks mid thirties

Adamant

08:14

@Jenayah What do you mean by the growing up patterns?

Did we see her when she was younger or something?

Marvin

08:27

0

Q: if you are scared of food and look at a boggart, would that boggart be edible?

I think It wouldn't be edible because it is still a boggart, but I have no idea

harry-potter

Marvin

09:30

0

Q: Identify Author and whether this X-Men book is canon

A few years ago I got an X-Men book by gift in London. It contains a few scenes from the 3rd X-Men movie, and a small comic where Wolverine and Sabretooth fight each other near a gas pump. Logan realizes that Sabretooth also has a dogtag and they talk. They are then surprised by military personne...

story-identification marvel x-men

Jenayah

10:33

@Adamant well her behavior is that of a teenager

Marvin

11:05

0

Q: Creepy children's book where a homunculus was made

I'm trying to remember a book I read when in around 2010-2011. I live in Britain, so it was probably by a British author and set in England. I don't remember if it was an old or new book (but it was written in a modern style) or anything about the cover, but it was scary and had some scenes that ...

story-identification horror childrens-novel

Marvin

11:53

0

Q: 60s Akuma-Kun TV series episode with a giant hand

During the 60s, I remember watching an episode of the black and white 1966 live-action Japanese TV series adaptation of Akuma-Kun. Here below the only memories that I have from this episode: There is a fishing vessel in a sea storm at night. Suddenly, a giant hand emerges from the deepest of th...

story-identification tv

Marvin

14:15

0

Q: Is It Possible for Humans to Fly?

I was reading a book on Super Human training. I would like to know if there is any way for humans to move their bodies in the air. I would like an expert to answer this.

science

Marvin

16:38

0

Q: Who is this character from an old X-Men comic?

I saw this a long time ago, just remember it recent;y. The character in question was a native American, he runs up to a speeding bison, grabs it by the horns (literally) and throws it to the ground on its back. I know it was an X-men comic because the same comic showed Colossus turning his skin t...

x-men character-identification

0

Q: Story about a computer that solves death

I am trying so hard and failing right now to remember this short story I read online years ago. Hopefully someone here knows what I’m talking about though. The story is about this computer that’s built that can understand and manipulate the universe. Before it can be shut down, it starts creatin...

short-stories

Marvin

17:25

0

Q: I can;t remember the name of a book I read

There was a book i read but i can't remember the name of it for the life of me I think it was Shattered something It was about a girl and when she touched you she drained your life from you It was set in the future and there was a group controlling everything that wanted her to be a weapon and sh...

story-identification

Marvin

17:41

-1

Q: Will Horcruxes show up in the Fantastic Beasts Series?

Do we know if Horcruxes will make an appearance in Fantastic Beasts? Did JK Rowling ever mention anything about Grindelwald and Horcruxes?

harry-potter horcrux fantastic-beasts

Jenayah

Oh, today I learned

The "first" in Revival's description isn't the first by chronological order

It's about the votes... Hadn't understood that

Got it for this one while there was another (crappy) answer

2

A: Is the Sabretooth from X-Men (2000) Victor Creed?

TL;DR: his civilian name is not revealed in the first movie, but there are elements from other works which hint at Sabretooth being indeed Victor Creed. It's unclear whether the two are the same individual. X-Men (2000) Sabretooth isn't referred to as Victor Creed in the final cut. In fact, a...

Alex

@Jenayah We discussed this a few days ago. That's what I was trying to explain, but I guess I wasn't clear enough.

Oct 10 at 6:05, by Alex

@Jenayah Frst answer with a score of 2 or more.

Jenayah

Oh, sorry!

Oh hey I even managed to find the related Meta

7

A: Bug with Revival badge

Yours is not the first answer ever, but it is the first answer to get two upvotes, which is what the Revival badge is all about: Answered more than 30 days later as first answer scoring 2 or more. Emphasis added.

Rare enough coming from me to be noticed ahah

Alex

@Jenayah You don't have to apologize. Looking back at my comment now I see that I didn't really explain explicitly that it's not chronological.

Marvin

17:57

0

Q: What are Pajama Man's Superpowers?

In the video game "Pajama Sam", Pajama Sam idolizes a superhero named "Pajama Man". Other than that he's a superhero who wears pajamas, I don't recall any specific powers attributed to him. Do we know what Pajama Man's powers are?

video-games pajama-sam

Jenayah

18:55

Actually I also got it for scifi.stackexchange.com/a/195298/98028 while the other answer had a +2/-1 score. It didn't ring a bell then

I don't get it. The other answer used to have a +2 score, and it was teh first posted, per the timeline scifi.stackexchange.com/posts/178924/timeline

Even if it got downvoted later I don't get how this Revival badge was awarded

Rand al'Thor

@Jenayah Probably the Revival badge checks whether any other answer currently scores 2 or more, rather than whether any has ever had a score of 2 or more.

Jenayah

@Randal'Thor Argh, this Revival badge phrasing is hard on pedants.

Marvin

-1

Q: why was homer simpson clueless to everything that happens

I personally think he is dim witted because he was like bart at school he never concentrated even when he did he couldn't

the-simpsons

Rand al'Thor

@Marvin Are the Simpsons even on-topic?

Jenayah

@Randal'Thor 5 questions so far

but they're not about the show per se ahah

Rand al'Thor

19:02

But almost all of them are about references to the Simpsons in other things.

Jenayah

@Randal'Thor aye

then again I don't think the show is that much SFF

I watched three episodes in my whole life, though

aaaw new user rolled back my edit to their LQ version... :(

ah no, they overrode, not rolled back

Hey while we're on the topicness of things, what's our future works policy exactly?

Case in point, I finished season 1 of a show, it didn't get cancelled right after (for a change), and I'd have some questions which I know aren't answered by S1, but I don't know whether they would pop in future seasons.

So I'm not sure whether the "lack" of worldbuilding to answer those counts as future works...

any advice?

Rand al'Thor

@Jenayah Hold on, lemme grab some links ...

22

Q: Should questions about future works be closed as Primarily Opinion Based?

This is a subject that we've touched upon slightly in the past, but either the questions are based on old close reasons such as "General Reference" and "Too Localized", which are now gone - or they're a little more specific. Movie Trailer Based Questions How do we deal with questions about rum...

discussion faq closing-questions

^ FWP itself

14

Q: What are "future works"?

We have had a long-standing policy of closing "future works" questions as POB. What is unclear, and seemingly disagreed upon is exactly what constitutes a "future work". Is it works that we know for sure will exist/be released? Things we assume will exist/be released? Things that just maybe wil...

discussion scope

^ recent clarification to FWP scope

> If a specific canon has some published works already

> And it also has some future works (planned, maybe, or unknown)

> And, the question is phrased specifically so that it can be answered in the context of already published works

> Then, such question is not FWP, even though in theory there are future works that may alter answers to such a question.

> Just to be clear, any questions very specific to not-yet-published canon are still FWP, as per the first rule.

> "In Star Wars, did Spoiler spoiler the Spoiler?"

> Ontopic, since the answer isn't bound to unreleased works. We can answer it based on Episodes 1-8.

> "No answer known yet but may be revealed in future works" is an excellent answer but NOT a valid reason to VTC

Jenayah

> "No answer known yet but may be revealed in future works" is an excellent answer but NOT a valid reason to VTC

Mmmh... That rules out one of my questions

well it doesn't rule it out, but well, yeah. We don't know yet but maybe we'll know later. Dull question.

Then again, the only "answerable" questions you can ask when there's so few worldbuilding material so far are plot-explanation ones...

the age question may still be receivable though

Alex

19:33

25

Q: Revival badge can be gained by down voting the *real* first answer

I'm not sure if this might be status-bydesign, but I just got the Revival badge by downvoting this answer that already had 2 votes. My own answer was already on 2 votes, I was revisiting it and wondered why I'd never down voted the accepted answer before— it's completely irrelevant to the ques...

bug status-bydesign revival-badge

Jenayah

@Alex by the timeline (scifi.stackexchange.com/posts/178924/timeline), the downvote occured in January, though

while I posted my answer in September

Alex

@Jenayah Doesn't matter:

6

Q: Revival badge when another answer scored first

I got the revival badge for this answer for being the first answer, more than 30 days after the question was asked, to get an answer score of two. While it's true that I was the first to answer after 30 days of inactivity, and that answer did get a score of two, someone else answered shortly aft...

support badges revival-badge

Rand al'Thor

@Jenayah Exactly, so your answer became the only one scoring at least 2.

Alex

Also:

12

Q: Revival Badge awarded incorrectly when other answer downvoted

I've just been awarded the revival badge for this answer. I didn't deserve the badge according to its description, which reads: Answered more than 30 days later as first answer scoring 2 or more. This badge can be awarded multiple times. My answer was not the first answer to score two upvotes...

support down-votes revival-badge

Jenayah

@Alex ARGH this Revival badge phrasing is twisting my mind

@Randal'Thor hum, yeah, makes sense

Alex

19:37

@Jenayah There are a couple of posts asking for rewording. Upvote them.

Jenayah

@Alex but this one is a big wtf one

@Alex provide them :p

I'm lazy

Rand al'Thor

@Alex Upvte? Sunds like what Black and Littlejack might d.

Alex

21

Q: Change the description of the revival badge to match the algorithm used to award it

The current description for the revival badge is: Answered more than 30 days later as first answer scoring 2 or more However, as per the discussion on Revival Badge awarded incorrectly when other answer downvoted , the actual algorithm for awarding the badge is that it is given when your h...

feature-request badge-description revival-badge

11

Q: Improve wording of Necromancer and Revival badges

The descriptions of Necromancer and Revival badges are as follows: [Revival] Answered more than 30 days later as first answer scoring 2 or more [Necromancer] Answered a question more than 60 days later with score of 5 or more I find the word "later" in both badge descriptions to be ve...

feature-request badges wording

The second one's not about this issue, but it's about the poor wording as well.

@Randal'Thor I need a "delete history" button.

Rand al'Thor

@Jenayah I see your starred joke about temperature and raise you:

Jenayah

@Alex to be honest I think Necro phrasing is oksh so far

Rand al'Thor

19:40

Temperatures of the world

Jenayah

BTW did you see this too? :p

23 hours ago, by Jenayah

@Randal'Thor may I ask you to rename twoface into two-face? As Spidey would say, remember the hyphen :)

nudges

pedantry pedantry pedantry

Rand al'Thor

Alex

@Randal'Thor Not fair.

Jenayah

lol

Rand al'Thor

@Jenayah It's a character tag that's only used on a single question. I just got rid of it instead.

Jenayah

19:42

@Randal'Thor ahahahah

@Randal'Thor what? nuuu

:(

There could have been other questions with the tag

14

Q: In the comics is Two-face's coin a regular coin?

In Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent starts off with a double headed coin, which then gets turned into having two different sides when he becomes Two-face. Is this the same in the comics? Is Two-face's coin a regular coin?

dc batman nolan-batman-trilogy the-dark-night

18

Q: How plausible is Harvey/Two-Face's condition?

One of the many praises for Nolan's Batman world is how grounded and realistic it is. But then we have Harvey's condition after he becomes Two-Face. The explosion leaves half of his face with exposed muscle and bones (specifically teeth). Much of his eyeball is left exposed in its socket. Commis...

dc batman nolan-batman-trilogy the-dark-night

well ok this one was closed

Alex

@Jenayah You'll want to go easy on him:

in Discussion about message removal, Jul 23 at 13:01, by Rand al'Thor

pedant mind explodes

Jenayah

9

Q: Dark Knight: Didn't Dent Commit Enough Crimes to Discredit Himself Before He Became Two Face?

As Richard's answer to this question shows, if it became known that Harvey Dent was dirty, the mass arrests he authorized under RICO laws would have been overturned and the criminals set free. But long before Dent became Two Face and started killing people, he had already incriminated himself ...

dc batman nolan-batman-trilogy the-dark-night

@Alex ahah

Rand al'Thor

@Jenayah What the actual f*ck.

the-dark-night?!?!?!

WHERE'S THAT K?

Jenayah

26

Q: Did Two Face's coin ever land on its edge?

I vaguely recall it did just that in a DC 100 page special. Can someone say if it did and point me to the example?

dc batman

@Randal'Thor lol indeed

Rand al'Thor

How could this happen?

That tag must have been around for years.

Jenayah

19:45

> created 6 years, 9 months ago

Rand al'Thor

Did another mod prank us by renaming the tag?

Jenayah

Did a synonymization go the wrong way?

Rand al'Thor

Alex

Isn't (one of) the point(s) of synonyms to account for different spellings?

Jenayah

@Alex yeah but maybe someone did it the wrong way or stuff

Y'know this is something awful we uncovered.

Rand al'Thor

19:47

@Alex "The Dark Night" is not a different spelling of The Dark Knight.

Jenayah

So awful, there should be some kind of consolation prize.

Like, what can I think of...

Oh I know!

Rand al'Thor

@Jenayah Free the-dark-knight tag badges for all of us.

Alex

@Randal'Thor Just like Harmione is not a different spelling of Hermione.

Jenayah

A two-face tag :D

Mithrandir

@Jenayah it's not like it's the most intuitive UI

Jenayah

19:49

@Mithrandir wouldn't know

@Randal'Thor I can live with that

imagines @Rand frantically renaming the TDK tag and checking up on a bunch of other tags

Rand al'Thor

20:03

→ 6 messages moved to Trashcan

Part of me wants to leave the-dark-night as a monument to how long a glaring mistake can last :-P

Take your screenshots now, before I fix it permanently.

Jenayah

@Randal'Thor chat transcript will always be there

as a reminder of our sins

Rand al'Thor

But in a year's time, chat transcript won't be proof that the tag really did exist.

Alex

@Randal'Thor I actually have a collection of screenshots of comments that have been, or might get, deleted.

Rand al'Thor

Maybe we're just having this conversation to prank our future selves :-P

Jenayah

@Randal'Thor what? Chat transcript dies after a year?

Alex

20:13

@Jenayah No but all it will show is that there was a discussion about it. There's no evidence that the discussion was based in reality.

Jenayah

@Randal'Thor oneboxing will still show the sinful tag though won't it?

@Alex ^

Alex

@Jenayah Good point.

Better make sure Rand doesn't delete that message then.

RDFozz

After the fuss about the tag:twoface, I'm surprised no one fixed the title of the "coin on edge" post (before I did, just now)

Jenayah

@Alex Not fair :(

@RDFozz too much adrenaline over a missing K

Alex

@Jenayah Become a moderator....

Jenayah

20:17

also, I still stand that a two-face tag is legit :p

RDFozz

@Jenayah Yes, I saw. At least it wasn't the-final-knight

Jenayah

Now to find good questions about Two-Face, just to justify it even more :D

RDFozz

About when Batman saved the Earth when the sun went out (got eatan, I think)

Jenayah

@RDFozz wasn't that the the-final-night, no k? Or did I not get the joke :p

Now to ask questions about Final Night just to stress @Randal'Thor out

Rand al'Thor

@Jenayah Ah, yeah, the oneboxed posts, I forgot those.

Because the boxing tags is proof of nothing. I can turn anything-i-want into a tag here.

Jenayah

20:23

@Randal'Thor mod power abuzz

Rand al'Thor

No mod powers required.

Mithrandir

@Jenayah nothing to do with mod powers...

Jenayah

Ah?

<--- still a nub

Mithrandir

anyone can do [tag:anything]

Jenayah

Oh, I didn't get what Rand meant then

I thought he referred to being able to edit chat messages after the grace period, then changing the tag

This is part of the mod powers pack innit?

Rand al'Thor

20:27

Aha!

scifi.stackexchange.com/tags/synonyms

Looks like it's @Kevin's fault :-)

Jenayah

:p

Or should we say, it's Evin's fault.

Alex

@Randal'Thor He synonymized them but it's possible that someone else created the offensive tag.

Rand al'Thor

@Jenayah rofl

@Alex I suspect that synonymisation was part of a merge/rename, probably as a result of someone bringing the dark-knight tag to attention as needing an extra "the".

Adamant

@Jenayah Sometimes she seems even younger than that.

Jenayah

@Adamant aye aye

Adamant

20:31

But the impression I always got is that the merfolk customs are just so different from those on land that she doesn't really know what to do.

Jenayah

I wonder though, if sirens age the way humans do

Alex

@Randal'Thor So the moral of the story is don't add "the" to tags?

Jenayah

There might be a partial answer with SPOILER ALERT Ellen SPOILER END, but she's only 1/8th siren

Adamant

@Jenayah And her friends didn't seem much more worldly, just more prickly toward humans.

Jenayah

@Adamant they're described as hunters, though. It might just be who they're trained to be

Oooh, I hope we get to see the colony in season 2

Mithrandir

20:33

@Alex Other way around: We have a meta consensus to do exactly that.

Adamant

@Jenayah I agree, I'm thinking that they are not necessarily much older.

Jenayah

@Adamant I'd say they're Donna's age, who's older than Ryn, though it's unclear by how much

Alex

@Mithrandir Yeah, that's why I said it.

Adamant

@Jenayah I think so. But really, part of why Ryn seems young is because her language skills are very limited in English. Also, merfolk seem to just think differently than humans, at least unless they spend a lot of time out of the water.

Jenayah

@Adamant well they do have some history with humans (or at least, legends)

So by the way, you said you had questions about it that you answered by yourself; what were they?

@Adamant as per the language, they pick up quickly.

Adamant

20:38

@Jenayah I mean that they never got to the point of being questions on the site.

Jenayah

@Adamant yeah that I know, but I'm curious about what you were wondering about

Adamant

@Jenayah Right, that is true. But while they're picking it up, they might seem kind of childish speaking it.

Jenayah

Oh and by the way, the girl playing Ryn does one hell of a job

go girl!

Adamant

@Jenayah I don't really remember. A lot of them probably were things that were answered later in the season, like about Ellen and so forth.

Jenayah

@Adamant ah, I wondered that too

My current main questions would be something around

1. do sirens age the same way as humans? (per our above discussion)

2. can male sirens sing as well?

Adamant

20:40

@Jenayah I am thinking no to that.

Jenayah

3. do sirens really have to talk to each other when in human form? (they've been seen emitting some whale-like sounds, why bother with words?)

although for 3. I guess their throats are modified by the transformation or something

Adamant

@Jenayah That's what I was thinking.

Jenayah

@Adamant per the legends no, but y'know they did say it was kind of like a defense mechanism. The males might use it as well

Adamant

They try to speak their language.

But they can't really do it in human form, so they're better off learning some human language.

Jenayah

true, true

As for 2., Ellen did say there was some kind of matriarch society, implying that males aren't necessarily the dominant ones, hence they could use the defense mechanism

or have one of their own?

@Adamant

My goodness, that is an terrible portrayal of a Native American character. It checks all the boxes. He's a proud warrior longing for the glory days the Apache, check. He hunts buffalo, check. The implied sexism and the obligatory mention of "squaws" (an Eastern Algonquin language family word, not Apache) check. And because he's a mutant, he can have literal red skin! :( — Adamant 5 mins ago

If only you knew... it gets even worse afterwards :/

RDFozz

21:35

@Jenayah yes final night, no k - and Hal Jordan saved the day, completely making up for all the Green Lanterns he killed. Saying it was Batman was my (far too) subtle way of indicating I was joking,

.period.

Jenayah

@RDFozz just another day in the GL Corps...

"Woah, Hal Jordan is our best Lantern"

"Ah, scratch that, he went rogue"

"Uh no it's fine he's better now"

"Aaaand here he comes again, crap"

"Oh? hey, action XYZ made up for everything. Welcome back!"

Well that's a lot of characters, true

And that doesn't change the fact that overall, Hal is my favorite human Lantern

Not my favorite Lantern of all, though.

Mogo all the way, suckers :D

Transcript for

The Restaurant at the End of the Univ…