Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »

Welcome to the staging ground for new communities! Each proposal has a description in the "Descriptions" category and a body of questions and answers in "Incubator Q&A". You can ask questions (and get answers, we hope!) right away, and start new proposals.

Are you here to participate in a specific proposal? Click on the proposal tag (with the dark outline) to see only posts about that proposal and not all of the others that are in progress. Tags are at the bottom of each post.

Activity for Olin Lathrop‭

Type On... Excerpt Status Date
Comment Post #292379 @#8176 Here in the USA, graphic designer and industrial designer mean the same thing as you describe. However, we also say that an engineer "designs" things. For example, I'm an elelctrical engineer, and it would be perfectly normal to say my job is to design circuits and circuit boards. In that c...
(more)
1 day ago
Comment Post #293212 I hadn't heard of those before. You should make that an answer.
(more)
9 days ago
Edit Post #293212 Post edited:
17 days ago
Comment Post #293212 See addition to the answer. The link you show is definitely not to my Tankwar game.
(more)
17 days ago
Edit Post #293212 Post edited:
17 days ago
Edit Post #293212 Post edited:
17 days ago
Edit Post #293212 Initial revision 17 days ago
Answer A: Earliest first-person view multi-player computer game?
Tankwar, 1978 I created Tankwar in 1978 at the RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York) Interactive Computer Graphics Center (ICGC). The ICGC had two Prime 750 computers, each with 18(?) Imlac graphics terminals. Background The computer games I'd seen at the time were mostly...
(more)
17 days ago
Edit Post #293211 Initial revision 17 days ago
Question Earliest first-person view multi-player computer game?
Today we take multi-player first-person view computer games for granted, but what was the first one? When was that? What did it run on? Who were the players? What was it like? Any interesting technical details? I recently found that I may have created the first one, and would love to know if ...
(more)
17 days ago
Comment Post #293152 This is a Q&A site, not a forum for open-ended discussions. You don't seem to have asked anything. This post should be deleted.
(more)
22 days ago
Edit Post #292955 Initial revision 2 months ago
Answer A: If someone had vibration based superpowers how would their powers react underwater
enough vibrational force to cause nation wide earthquakes ... how would affect water It is probably impossible to move water around to the point where it would shake the land and cause widespread earthquakes. With enough power (way more than any current earthly creature could generate), you can m...
(more)
2 months ago
Edit Post #292932 Initial revision 2 months ago
Answer A: How many megahertz of vibrations would it take to Shatter solid rock
The frequency of the vibrations is only one of many considerations. To "granulate" rock, the vibrations have to cause large tension forces in the brittle material. The wavelength of the vibrations gives a rough idea of the size of the resulting pieces. Pieces much smaller than a wavelength vibra...
(more)
2 months ago
Edit Post #292731 Initial revision 3 months ago
Answer A: What are reasonable limitations for probability-manipulating magic?
If you can do it with your mind, then why can't everyone do it, and why are there wizards with inherently different strengths? It is like many other abilities we are already familiar with. Some people are physically stronger than others, or faster, or have better hearing, or are smarter. Then ...
(more)
3 months ago
Comment Post #292636 Your question is very confusing, and should be closed in its current form until fixed. Which group does "They" refer to in the second sentence? *"The subject in question"* Which subject? *"Now I'd usually seen always on fire"* Huh, what? Try again in English. *"Adding spikes"* to what? *"He has...
(more)
4 months ago
Comment Post #292552 The way I read it, this resurrection technology can bring anyone back from any time, having nothing to do with the physical state of any remains.
(more)
4 months ago
Comment Post #292563 What you suggest sounds reasonable, but doesn't fit with <i>"one-time event -- bring everyone back once"</i> stated in the question.
(more)
4 months ago
Edit Post #292581 Post edited:
4 months ago
Comment Post #292580 @#8046 That's better, but I think still confusing and overwhelming to most people I would point there. At least they see a basic description of the site, but then what? To ask a question, you have to go elsewhere. When you get there you see all noise (from the point of view of someone interested i...
(more)
4 months ago
Edit Post #292580 Post edited:
4 months ago
Edit Post #292581 Initial revision 4 months ago
Answer A: What should we do with older proposals that have no incubator activity?
Our incubator system is fundamentally broken. When I have some time, I'll write a meta post about this. We should do nothing with inactive proposals until we have a better means of starting new sites. Added See this meta discussion about our overall new-site system.
(more)
4 months ago
Edit Post #292580 Initial revision 4 months ago
Answer A: Does the Invasive Species proposal have support?
Sharing information about invasive species is an important issue. I started my town's Invasive Species Committee, and have seen some of these challenges first hand. Lots of people are doing their own thing, with much duplicated learning and discovery out there. I was hoping to get a site going t...
(more)
4 months ago
Edit Post #292557 Post edited:
4 months ago
Edit Post #292557 Initial revision 4 months ago
Answer A: What's the least traumatic way to integrate resurrected historical humans into modern society?
several billion That's going to take some serious 'splainin. We already have too many people on this planet, and the number is still growing. You're going to have to provide a really good reason to make this problem worse. one-time event A billion people poofing into existance at the same ...
(more)
4 months ago
Edit Post #292556 Initial revision 4 months ago
Answer A: Would it make sense for an entity who can control tangible and/or intangible materials be able to manipulate electricity but not light?
Your psionic energy make little sense as we currently understand physics. Since you're making up the rules, it can do whatever you want. You are in effect asking "When I totally ignore the laws of physics, how can I use the laws of physics to explain ...?". Another point is you might want to pic...
(more)
4 months ago
Edit Post #292524 Initial revision 4 months ago
Answer A: What could be a believable reason for technologically advanced underground people to not notice the end of surface war for hundreds of years?
First, this scenario is highly implausible. Surely the people that went underground intended to pop up again once the war was over. That means they created some means to monitor the situation on the ground so that they'd know when that was. However, if you insist, you might be able to hand-wave ...
(more)
4 months ago
Comment Post #292482 The only thing that goes beyond science is magic, but even that has to have rules consistent with itself. That's not much different from science fiction, except that SF pretends the magic is based on plausible laws of physics we aren't currently aware of. Either way, it can still be discussed how c...
(more)
4 months ago
Edit Post #292482 Post edited:
4 months ago
Comment Post #292482 Scientific Speculation already exists and has been at least somewhat shaped and defined by the users there. It should stay its own site. Yes, the questions I used as examples of breaking down a high level vague concept into smaller more defined issues could be asked on Scientific Speculation. Ma...
(more)
4 months ago
Edit Post #292482 Post edited:
4 months ago
Edit Post #292482 Initial revision 4 months ago
Answer A: How can Worldbuilding successfully support creative exploration?
We have to understand that a Q&A worldbuilding site isn't going to support all things all worldbuilders want to talk about. We need to focus on what fits well with our Q&A format. One thing that just doesn't fit is a discussion. That means some things will be outright disallowed, and others need...
(more)
4 months ago
Edit Post #292478 Post edited:
Fixed number of people who posted reactions.
4 months ago
Edit Post #292478 Initial revision 4 months ago
Answer A: Supporters for a Worldbuilding community on Codidact
I would like to get a picture of the general supporters (those who are "okay" with this) for a Worldbuilding community. There is already a mechanism for this. Let's not confuse things by creating a second one. Anyone interested in a new community selects one of several "reactions" to the origina...
(more)
4 months ago
Edit Post #292477 Initial revision 4 months ago
Answer A: Allowed types of questions for Worldbuilding
not having a strict policy of "ask your question correctly or it gets closed" This doesn't work well in a Q&A format, as opposed to a more traditional threaded discussion. These sites and the Codidact software are for the former. Experience here and Elsewhere has shown that attempting to commu...
(more)
4 months ago
Comment Post #292468 Up and down votes here show agreement or disagreement with the points in your post. Although not their main purpose, downvotes can also accumulate when someone thinks the post is badly written, poorly formatted, ambiguous, etc.
(more)
4 months ago
Edit Post #292476 Initial revision 4 months ago
Answer A: What would be the best way to breathe for a creature that shoots fire from its mouth?
Spewing fire is done while exhaling. The same mechanisms that push air out of the lungs push the acetylene out too, when the creature wants to. Since this is mutually exclusive with inhaling, there shouldn't be much of a problem. The overall effect would be very similar to a circus performer doi...
(more)
4 months ago
Comment Post #292452 Monica already moved it to meta two hours ago. You should be able to see that you are in the meta category, not the Incubator Q&A category.
(more)
4 months ago
Comment Post #292452 You are asking a question about the site. That belongs in meta. That's what meta is for. An actual world building question does belong here, appropriately tagged to associate it with the site proposal, or course.
(more)
4 months ago