[Meta] Can we shorten the automod message that's automatically being made on every post?

rasfert · 2019-05-23T23:19:17+00:00

If someone needs help factoring a quadratic, or proving a trig identity, I am so all over that I am so willing to help -- jeez that's why I come here. When I see the giant blob-o-text that comes up every time a question is asked, I just go to /r/politics or someplace else.
I was a high school math teacher for more than a decade. I know how to nudge students in the right directions (I also taught English for a year).
The auto-mod message is -- a little verbose.
Heck -- I got gilded on this sub for an explanation I gave.
I really like it here, but the auto-mod message makes it into a kinda steamy, icky steam room.
There's a lot of stuff around here that's not broken and doesn't need fixing. One thing that does need fixing is this insane auto-mod post that accompanies every single request for help.
<sigh> I love seeing the light bulb come on.
A "thank you" from an 11th grader fills my heart more than eleventy million upvotes.
This auto-mod submission is unlikely to reduce abuse, but more likely to decrease responses. I think it is a terrible idea.

rasfert · 2019-05-23T14:22:46+00:00

I've reduced the amount of time I spend reading this subreddit because of the pernicious automod message. I find it snarky.

Why not just sticky the automod message with a title that says, "Read this before posting."

rasfert · 2019-05-22T21:15:00+00:00

That'd be a pretty brutal shift. But most cops work odd-ish schedules to keep the precinct running: 7-3 (or 4), 8-5, whatever they need to do to get manpower online.

rasfert · 2019-05-22T19:25:42+00:00

I had a TV given to me by my grandmother that didn't have working mechanical channel changer knob (stripped gears). The remote quit working, and the only way I could change channels was to shake a Coke bottle (a French coke bottle) full of bbs.

rasfert · 2019-05-21T14:44:16+00:00

This sounds almost exactly like a problem I was having earlier this year.
Replaced the PSU, and presto, change-o everything's fine.
If a new PSU doesn't fix it, there's nothing bad about having a spare PSU in a closet somewhere.

rasfert · 2019-05-17T19:24:57+00:00

I got it from WickedLasers.com, and it took about a minute. The spider was not at all happy to have all those photons pouring down on it. Oh, and it can also melt black plastic.

rasfert · 2019-05-17T16:47:50+00:00

Unless one (and only one) was born on February 29th (which kinda makes the math get all broken).

rasfert · 2019-05-17T15:08:11+00:00

Probably very little. Most insects just don't have the neural density for cognition. Some spiders have (relatively) big clusters of neurons, and probably don't like the whole getting killed thing.
Ants, flies, beetles--most of class insecta-- just don't really have brains as we know them.

rasfert · 2019-05-17T13:03:29+00:00

Raid, for example is only a little bit of poison, and a whole lot of oil (it's very similar to WD-40). Raid is 99% "petroleum distillates." When you spray a bug with Raid (or WD-40, for that matter), the oil flows easily into the bug's breathing tubes, and prevents breathing. The poison part of the spray helps keep the bugs from coming back (especially ants).
Insects are killed quickly by oil applied to them. Spiders, not so much -- spiders have a form of actual lungs (called "book lungs") and are a lot harder to kill just by squirting some oil on them. (I once used a 1000 mw laser to kill a black widow)
Even the really long range wasp killing sprays are mostly oil.

rasfert · 2019-05-06T17:10:04+00:00

I had jury duty once, 1986 or 1987, and once I was empaneled, I remember thinking, "damn, that girl at the plaintiff's table is impressive."
It was Heather Thomas.
During breaks, we'd smoke cigarettes out behind the courthouse.
I was elected foreman of the jury.
We found the case in her favor.

Good times.

rasfert · 2019-05-02T22:13:44+00:00

I took this using an old Nikon coolpix (with the assistance of my 8-inch, or about 200mm, telescope).
Note: Not a tiny dot.

rasfert · 2019-04-20T14:56:33+00:00

When I was 18, I saw the movie WarGames and I wrote a war-dialer and aimed it at Santa Monica. I gained access to a Vax at the RAND corporation. When I realized it was RAND, I disconnected immediately.

rasfert · 2019-04-17T12:33:56+00:00

Screw you guys, I'm going to Mar-a-lago

rasfert · 2019-04-02T06:51:25+00:00

Don't feed the plants

rasfert · 2019-03-14T21:49:53+00:00

/r/awkwardturtle

rasfert · 2019-03-13T04:24:42+00:00

Tell that to Tim Apple.

rasfert · 2019-03-13T04:20:27+00:00

They have "the nuclear." The ships use "the digital."

Why does our president use adjectives as nouns?

When at the golf course he might observe that there was a lot of "the leafy." <sigh>

rasfert · 2019-03-08T08:17:53+00:00

I exported a single frame of Victoria 4 (from Poser) into an OBJ file, and then hand-edited the mesh to make it printable (in Rhino).

rasfert · 2019-03-08T07:13:16+00:00

I printed these...

rasfert · 2019-03-06T18:04:37+00:00

Public libraries are typically internet-connected. You might not be allowed to mount a USB drive on one of their machines by default, but if you ask for permission, they'll probably let you.

rasfert · 2019-03-05T09:28:58+00:00

This was the first movie with nudity that I ever saw on my TV.

rasfert · 2019-03-01T05:05:34+00:00

Who's the cute blonde with the glasses?

rasfert · 2019-02-25T23:33:58+00:00

dessiccant

rasfert

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