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Should We Have a [workbench-render-engine] Tag?
We currently have a tag for cycles-render-engine , eevee-render-engine and blender-internal-render-engine but not an active tag for workbench-render-engine
I created the tag on an edit to a question recently when I noticed this, but it seems that the system has deleted the tag as an orphan.
As of this writing, we have roughly 24 questions referring to Workbench, so while it may not be the most popular engine, it may help organization in the long run.
Thoughts?

I have no objections.

Sorry I'm a bit late to the party. I don't mind if there is a tag for Workbench, I'm usually not using the engine but others do. At the moment I'm more concerned about the blender-internal-render-engine because I see it used quite often recently, although many of those users are using versions 2.8x / 2.9x and therefore Cycles or Eevee. I guess they confuse "internal render engine" with some "external render engine" like LuxCoreRender, Octane etc.

Yes, definitely. As a default builtin render engine it deserves a place among other more popular entries.
It belongs in out tag system along with all other render-engines tags cycles-render-engine, blender-internal-render-engine, eevee-render-engine ,luxrender-render-engine, renderman-render-engine, octane-render-engine and radeon-prorender-render-engine.
I'll tag those questions with it so the system doesn't delete the tag.


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Way to set dark mode for https://blender.stackexchange.com/?
Is there a way to set the web interface to dark mode for https://blender.stackexchange.com/? I don't see that option in Edit Profile > Preferences. Thanks.

No, I don't think there is a dark theme for this site. Since we are using a "custom style", one would have to be handcrafted, I suppose

For questions about this site and how it works, please use https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com instead

As far I am aware there is not, some info on main meta here: Plans for dark mode for all Stack Exchange sites

The only option available so far is to use custom style sheets via addons like Stylus or alike, there're even styles written specifically for SE to be used with addon. This is probably going to be the only option for a while

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

sort: votes


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Blender 2.8 is going Beta. What now?
Blender 2.8 is getting its Beta status today or tomorrow. Which means that we can expect the interface, workflows etc to be in their final form. Bug fixes, and bringing back of features that were lost during the refactoring will still happen.
I think this version change is big enough to require some consensus about what to do with old and new questions on the site.
I think some things will happen spontaneously and are not going to be controversial:

people answering questions about (unchanged) workflow will probably use Blender 2.80 screenshot in their answers with no harm to their back-compatibility
new answers using shortcuts or commands that have changed will probably include a "please note" to remove ambiguities

Some other things are more dubious, especially the ones regarding old questions.

Should we edit old answers to update the shortcuts, menu placements, etc, mentioned within them? (e.g. did you know we went left click select this week?)
If yes: how should we do that? By starting a campaign that will bump a lot of old questions to the homepage, or by just updating them if we stumble upon them? Should we limit ourselves to 1k+views questions?
If a question has a good, accepted answer that relies on a < 2.79 workflow (e.g. uses layers extensively), or an answer that correctly (for that time) says "Thing X is not possible", should we:

answer the question with a new 2.8-inspired answer and hope that it will get noticed? (but by doing so, we are "stealing" 15 rep from who gave the correct 2.79 answer)
allow duplicate questions, as long as they have tried the 2.79 answer, which didn't work, and are now seeking a post-2.8 answer?
ask duplicate questions ourselves (meaning: established users, without waiting for a "genuine" question) and answer them?

Related: https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/q/2513/599

I'm against editing the answers at all because there are people who will keep on using 2.79 for various reasons: they have an efficient workflow and switching to 2.8 would be very disruptive to their work, add-ons or third party program that they use with 2.79 will not work with 2.8, their computer cannot handle 2.8, they do not like the new interface, etc...
Having answers for both versions allows us to be a resource for everyone, so we should either allow semi-duplicate questions for 2.8 or post a new answer to an existing question and label it clearly as a 2.8 answer. And we could just edit the previously accepted answer to add something along the lines of 'This answer works for 2.79' or something like that.

Thanks for your point of view. Just to clarify, when I say "edit the old answers" I mean (only for things that are not radically changing) adding a short note where needed. Like "Recalculate normals (Ctrl+N)" → "Recalculate normals (Ctrl+N up to version 2.79; Shift+N from version 2.80)". Of course I don't suggest removing the 2.79 information

@NicolaSap Thanks for the clarification.

My vote is for handling each on a case-by-case basis, but roughly following something like this:

If a question has a duplicate for < 2.79 which differs significantly from the would-be 2.8 answer, answer it like a new question ("How to do X in 2.8?).
If the < 2.79 question is very highly upvoted/appears high in search results, then add a 2.8 answer on it with a link to the 2.8 question (with sufficient information to stand as an answer on its own; perhaps highlighting the differences between the 2.8 and < 2.79 ways).

If a question has a duplicate for < 2.79 which differs very minimally from the would-be 2.8 answer, either edit an existing answer or post a new answer on the < 2.79 question and close the 2.8 question as a duplicate.
Whether to create a new answer or update an existing one depends on exactly how identical the 2.8 and < 2.79 ways are. If "2.8ifying" a < 2.79 answer makes it unfollowable for 2.79, that's probably a good indicator that a new answer is in order.

Naturally the degree to which the < 2.79 ways and 2.8 ways differ is subjective, and in fact there may be multiple answers to one question which each differ to differing degrees. I'd err on the side of the first way (i.e. answer it as a new question).

I concur, there should also be a wiki post that we can refer users to for breaking changes. We should basically clone this https://developer.blender.org/T55194

It's going to be messy either way, because not only we are dealing with a new Blender version but also with new and advanced ways to customize it. I've  already changed so many things in my 2.8 Setup that it's going to be hard to give a "good" answer to new Blender users, without switching back and forth between it and the default setup.

I don't think editing old answers is a good idea. For the same reasons as @Sava exposed.
But we can think about how we should behave in the next months.
First, we are not sure LCS will remain default (still Beta version). And if it does, it might change through time as it is already being.
Second (and I think it's the most important), if there is one thing that LCS makes clear for sure: we don't know how tomorrow will be for Blender. Maybe in ten years, there won't be RCS anymore, or Industry Standard keymap would have take over the world, or we would have reverted RCS default, or we would have a completely new paradigm like that one making today's concerns completely wiped out.
And it's not even to mention the user's customization.
So, considering that, how do we provide answers being as efficient as possible and through time?
I think that we need to educate ourselves in how we deliver information.
As said William Reynish here:

This is a general thing for tutorials: In Blender you can customize the keymap completely, customize the theme, the layout - everything.
  If you make tutorials I would suggest two things:

Use default settings as much as possible
Try to not refer to features by their hotkey only. Do not call it ‘N-key panel’ or ‘W-menu’, but refer to features by their name, and secondarily (optionally) mention the default hotkey if there is one.

We might finally use Blender's UI vocabulary. Blender has already a precise UI vocabulary, giving us a solid base to precisely indicate any UI part of Blender without being dependent of a language barrier, keymaps, customized themes or UI arrangements, ... On top of that, the UI isn't gonna change that much through years so we're good for a while (and if it does change, old answers wouldn't be any more valid anyway and we would just change with it).
On top of being quite understandable and being more precise through time, it will make the information reliable for more people.
Not to mention that, for a lot of people, a descriptive indication is identified and learned quicker than a bunch of shortcuts or tons of different names for the same thing.
But, for the transition time, I think we will need to actually be polyvalent in our answers. Maybe take the habit for a while to give both keymaps shortcuts. But always start with functions and UI names, the official ones as long as possible.

This stack has more than enough duplicates already, and often it can be hard to find useful information in the sea of dupes. For this reason I much prefer options that stay under the original question, rather than add to this.
My preference would be to edit when its a single line correction e.g:
Note: from 2.8 onwards the shortcut for X is now Y
And a new answer for where the workflow has changed more radically, possibly editing the old answer to indicate it applies to versions prior to 2.8.
Under no circumstances should we be making duplicates, as I feel this will just make stuff harder to find. People generally don't indicate a version when they are searching for answers.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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I would like to improve my question reputation
I asked a question on the Blender Stack Exchange that received many downvotes.  I think it is because I was making more of a "request" without showing I had worked on the problem myself.  I truthfully did not have any idea how to start!  The answer is very helpful and I learned from it, and i am sure others will continue to benefit from it.  I care about my reputation and would like to somehow undo my negative score on that question.  Can this be done?
Thank you!

You would be better to answer questions and ask questions than to worry about a past few negative points.  One day you will receive more points than expected for some action.  Its very entertaining that for larger Stack Exchange sites people can earn 300 points for a single question.

@atomicbezierslinger  Thank you for encouragement !

I assuming you are referring to: How to make glowing particles, with a solid glowing center. Well there is not much you can do to change the votes on that question now.
You could edit it to make it a bit clearer what you mean, specify that you are looking for the particle and material settings to make that particle effect.
Yet even then the people who originally DVed probably won't be back to your question to change their votes.
However you shouldn't get too bothered by the down votes. You lost 6 rep from the three DVs, but gained 5 from the one UV, and two more from accepting the answer. So net on that question you actually gained one rep (so far).
I personally don't know why that question got so many DVs. We have had many others that simply ask how to do X, and are well received. For example:
How can I make a wrought iron basket?
How to animate morphing a rectangular plane into a sphere
How did I make this soccer-ball/honeycomb shape?
How to make a jelly material?
So in the end, no there is no way to "really undo" the negative rep.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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How do i upload a screencast video to my Blender question?
I would like to include a screencast video in my Blender question, but I do not know how to upload a video.  It is in AVI JPEG format currently.
Thank you!

Also see http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/q/404/599

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


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How Do I upload a blend file to this forum?
I am sure this is very simple.  I want to upload a .blend file to a question.  How do I do that?
Thank you!


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Sharing a .blend file over 30mb
I understand that most of the time, .blend files will and should be under 30mb, and can be shared easily on questions, using blend-exchange or pasteall.
Sometimes, though, and it's happened to me only twice, files will be over 30mb (the pasteall and blend-exchange limit).
Even if you strip it of all sorts of things to make it lighter...
It could be a scene with complex animations, many objects constrained together, or simply a scene where you don't run into the problem anymore when you delete some elements to make it lighter.
In these situations, what file-sharing website should we use?

Can you share an example for one? My first point would be that I'm not too keen at poking around large files.

I understand. I'd love to! (that's the point of the question, heheh...) How should I share it though? Care to recommend a service?

I more meant an example question, I would have suggested ways to possibly slim the file to isolate the problem. Dropbox is a safe good method.

This one for example; I think most questions about cell fracture will be over 20-30mb: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/43326/linking-cell-fractured-fragments-together-with-rigid-body-constraints-set-as-br
File is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/md4v1zvhexbswqm/cell-fractured-dude-copy.blend?dl=0

For one, don't bake the physics. Simply provide the model and explain the process you followed or what you did and if you are indeed experiencing a problem someone will be able to reproduce it and continue from there.

I removed the physics, joined the original mesh then separated it back into individual blocks ready for simulation. 2.5MB

Ok, don't forget I'm not an expert, so I couldn't do what you did! Thanks a lot. I'll try to reproduce this and edit my question accordingly... Although it doesn't answer my question - and both dropbox and google drive are "temporary" file hosting sites

(now 200mb, THAT i can understand! but 32, heck, I'll try it... Noobs will be noobs)

@fabriced Also see http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1031/allow-permanent-blend-file-hosting?rq=1, so I'd say this probably won't be a problem soon.

You can also try and reproduce the issue from scratch in a fresh file first. This way you can ensure the file contains the bare minimum amount of stuff required to reproduce the issue, and by experimenting you could very well end up finding a solution yourself.

That's a great tip!

@fabriced BTW, If you really really need to upload a large file to blend exchange, you can contact me and I can arrange it.

Ok making a quick list of things you can do to cut your filesize, generally I'd say if it passes 20MB there is definitely something you can drop.

Don't include baked simulations
Don't include large video files
Don't include large textures
Delete unnecessary objects; no need to include your entire world if only your character's head is problematic

In general try to keep your files ~8MB. That's a good small size tho we might argue for a higher cap when and if we get that builtin functionality. Other notes are that your file should demonstrate the specific issue you're having. Nobody is going to volunteer their time to poke through your fancy assets and complex node trees.

Will try to update and refine this later, on mobile atm.

Ok. Also explain how to remove the bake, I couldn't find that anywhere online. I just tried to do what you did, starting by removing the physics, but the file is the same size...

@fabriced IIRC, exact steps. Select the camera, lamp and plane and hide with shift + h. next select any part of the model, hit shift + g and choose siblings. After that join them with Ctrl + J, now use Ctrl + I to inverse select all the empties and delete them, open the dopesheet and delete the keyframes then back into edit mode and use p > separate by loose objects. Finally unhide and you're ready to simulate again. I'm not sure if the model should be split however, your call but TL;DR, delete the constraint and keyframes.

@fabriced There should be a button labeled "Free bake" in the physics cache settings


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Feature request: 'Someone write this code for me'
I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but it looks like it, so here it goes.
It would be very useful if there was a special tag or a section for people that don't need an answer but rather want a simple script as an answer. Right now, where do this questions go? They would be easier to spot and answer if they all shared a common tag.

I doubt these kind of requests would be very well received. If the OP is clearly not searching for knowledge, only solutions, I would guess that fewer potential answerers would donate their time for free.

This isn't dead, fear not. We're actively looking at a way to integrate this or something along these lines in a way that it's actually useful and not just to appease localized questions. It's our most popular tag so we have to curate it somewhat.

I have a slightly different interpretation of this question, but I agree with the general sentiment that a tag for feature-request on the main site would promote something that the site wasn't intended to provide. My more nuanced view is that we kind of already pick and choose which questions are reasonable "feature requests" - even when they aren't specifically labelled that way.
People will ask all kinds of questions on the main site - Some of these questions are well beyond our scope. Some will be honest 'does this exist? it would really solve this problem x i'm having'. In the best of cases the answer to those is, "No, but it's easy to write a script for it".
I think those of us who solve problems by writing scripts really enjoy showing how relatively simple it is to solve these problems. We tend to respond better to questions that would benefit Blender as a whole, not just the one OP who has some specific need.
Often what makes the scripts seemingly balloon in size/complexity is the Boilerplate needed to (un)register an add-on and operators. Script length doesn't correlate to time / effort.

Complex problem descriptions can have simple solutions
Simple problem descriptions can have complex solutions.

I think if you want dedicated Scripts you should be looking at a site like the blender network (by and for Blender professionals).
Or.. bite the bullet and learn Python. That's an investment nobody can take away from you.

Feels like "solve my homework for me" on Stackoverflow. That's generally disliked. That's why this feature request is getting downvoted.
You will have to find a different website for "make this for me" kind of questions/requests, outside the StackExchange sites.


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Why do I have reviews indicated in the top bar, and nothing when I'm clicking on it?
An image to show what I mean (surrounded in green):

Is there a reason for that?

This is a known issue: https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/233535/238438

Also related: https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/q/955/599


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Answer or comments and search engine impact?
Some questions can be rapidly (and efficiently) answered using the comments only.
But is doing that (instead of providing an answer in the answers part) influences the search engine later?
The idea behind this question is about the efficiency of future researches on the question's subject (and so for instance, the amount of duplicate questions later).

Google is probably intelligent enough to down-ranks questions that have no answers or low scores in search results too.


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Following a thread sequence when edited
How to understand what happens is this two situations :

an answer when the question has been edited and so the answer has no sense anymore
an answer which was edited (by someone else) but the related comments are still there (so these comments have no sense anymore)

?

Are you asking what should be done when these things occur? Or..?

@gandalf3 yes, what should be done (and I have the answer by David below) and maybe more generally the global intention of the site (i am still discovering). Q/A ok, but also some kind of cookbooks catalog to solve many situations and the more factual as possible ? ... for kidding, I could try to edit the initial question with this new question so that the answer may become partially obsolete... ; )

OK to respond to your last point "obsolete comments" question - any time a comment is no longer needed say for example: the post was edited, a bounty is long gone, other comments were deleted, etc. Flag the comment as obsolete.

If there is an answer, especially a good and UVed one, but the question has since been edited and now it no longer answers the new question, you have a few options depending on the circumstances.
Say the question was simple, and got a answer; however now the OP (a new SE user) comes back and has a new question, so he edits his question. In that case do nothing to the answer, the OP should be made aware that this is not how SE works, and you could flag the question (please use a custom message saying in a few words what happened).
Now there is a question, a bit unclear, it gets answered. The OP comes back and edits, maybe adds a blend file, and now that answer definitely does not answer the question. In this case DV the answer. It would be nice if you also left a comment as to why you are DVing the answer.
The third scenario - the question doesn't really matter, its there gets an answer then the OP edits and might even answer himself. Before it got edited, a different user gave a really good answer, except in this particular case it had nothing to do with the problem the OP was having. As later discovered, it was because the OP had spilled grape juice on his computer, which killed only part of his hard drive.  In this case I would not DV the answer, I might cast a close vote on the question as "too localized," but I would not do anything to the answer (you could UV it if it helps you.)
(did this come up from this answer?)

A possible example of both points is in my answer here, and the comments below.

@root no, flagging or deleting your comment will not alert the other user(s). When you flag a comment only the mods see your flag. In the linked answer cegaton did delete one of his comments. I deleted the other one that was left. You have two ways to clean up comments like that. 1) flag one of the comments as obsolete. 2) if it is an active user, ask the user (in chat) if they want to remove their comment.


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Is there a way or a convention to know or indicate the first frames of a GIF?
Sometimes gif animations are hard to understand because we don't know where the sequence begin.
Is there a convention to indicate the beginning (something special to add at the beginning of the sequence) ?
Or is there a way to see it by itself with some option in the browser ?

FYI, I have finally found that the screencast keys addon has a time option which does the job.

If you refresh a page they should start from scratch again, or perhaps open them in a new tab (Right click > View Image.)
Anyway unless you manually add a frame counter or a progress bar to your GIFs (which some software allows) there really isn't a direct way to know.
I some times bother to edit my GIFs to have  have a pause or a longer frame at the beginning or end to make it clearer where it stops, but I don't always do it, and not every user bothers to do so.


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bumped to the homepage by Community?
Often this is happening: "bumped to the homepage by Community", when looking at "active" questions.
But what are we supposed to do with it?

@MrZak, ok, but what is the consequence? Just upvoting an answer will validate it as the good answer? Or are we supposed to do anything else? And how many UV are needed to solve the question?

From meta.stackexchange:

The Community user will bump non-negatively scored questions that have at least one answer scoring 0 and none scoring more than that.

Questions are picked randomly from the top-viewed inactive questions.
The number of unanswered questions bumped per hour depends on the site: 4 per hour on Stack Overflow, 1 per hour on Meta, and 2 per hour on Super User and Server Fault. The default for a new site is 1 per hour.

The idea is to give attention to questions which may have been buried.
So if you see one, treat it as you would any other question:

Comment on the question and answer(s) to request clarification etc.
Edit the question/answer(s) to clarify/rephrase/correct etc.
If you feel they deserve it, vote on the questions/answer(s) (up or down) etc.
Write your own answer
etc.


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How to understand BSE stats on http://sese.evbpc.com?
Following some links, I have found this.
How to interpret it?
Mainly about the "needs work" comments and the curves going down?
Surely, the more answers are given, the more people can find a solution (so less questions for the site).
But... ok... what are your thoughts ?

The "needs work" and similar judgments come from the Area51 stats.
Percent answered
We've pretty much always had a steady supply of questions which aren't easily answered, perhaps due to relative obscurity, or lack of OP responsiveness, other reasons.
These occasionally get a great answer, but most of the time they just join the pile and sit there. This drives the ratio (answered questions)/(total questions) down.
Back during the beta there was more reason to care about this, as the site's success was presumably judged based on this stat, among others. You can actually see some of our efforts to stay above the "acceptable" threshold by closing obscure questions as too localized, organizing answer parties, etc:

Graph from stacker. I was unable to find a way to make the site you linked graph data from further back.
Note that the sharp drop near first intersection with the "acceptable" threshold is a glitch; a similar artifact can be observed in the data for other SE sites.
Once we graduated these stats became less important, and less effort was spent maintaining them.
Answer ratio
Unlike programming questions, many blender questions can be pretty completely covered in a single answer (e.g. "how to change the theme?").
There are definitely many exceptions to this, but I think it isn't too surprising or concerning that the average blender question receives only one answer.
I don't think it's anything to worry about, because there are plenty of examples of slightly more open-ended questions being positively showered in answers (e.g. things like "how to model <simple shape>").
Most questions just don't readily lend themselves to such special treatment.


text:
Wow... here, I feel I give a great/complete answer, but.. the OP does not react
Discussion, pure discussion !
Does someone knows why (sometimes, but often) the answers you feel to be the best (and the more time consuming, and often the more accurate) "statically" are the worst received ?
Human matter, surely... or... the less a subject is specialized (and so the more simple it is), the more it is useful ?
Open discussion (if this matters to someone)... not about the rep points in the points sens, but much more about how you feel BSE answers to be perceived by readers from this point of view.

If this relates in part to my question, I do really like your answer, but I'm also very busy and have not had time to properly read over it and accept it. I will at some point, do not fear!

@ShadyPuck, no no... this was more general, no worries

@ShadyPuck, by the way, I won't be connected to BSE for the next several days. So about your question, if you comment and have no answer, don't be surprised.

I feel this way a lot too, but I have learned that usually in the long run those posts will generally accrue more votes.  Many of my longest, most detailed posts got very little votes and comments at first, but now are some of my top answers.  Looking back, I noticed that six out of my top ten answers are ones I remember didn't get many votes at first.

What does OP stand for?

OP stands for Original Poster. I know, acronyms are frustrating. I use this site to help me find the meanings... http://www.acronymfinder.com/Slang/OP.html

@AnsonSavage Stack Exchange Glossary - Dictionary of Commonly-Used Terms

Do you mean "statistically?"

@cat Original Poster

@AnsonSavage I'm aware, I just thought you might find that interesting reading.

Think of the OP as your immediate target, then the rest of the blender users in the world.
At first the reaction will be from the OP, over time more people will see it, and you very likely will get more positive comments.
Now because the OP is the first target, the OP is the one that dictates the response you get - good bad, or none.
Keep in mind what kind of question you are answering, is it a simple thing where the OP glances at your answer, presses the button you told him to and then never comes back? Or a much more detailed step by step answer where the OP may have further questions?
In a few cases, new users, simple answers, or migrated questions, I don't expect to hear back.
I can definitely relate to your feelings, after writing a long answer just to have it be silently ignored, feels almost like a waste of time.
But it is not.
Even if the OP never sees it, hundreds or thousands of other people will see it and probably learn something from your answer.
Try not to get discouraged (even from a 0 UVed good answer), there are just some times where you will never hear back from the OP - no comments or any accept vote.
That just makes the positive comments you do get all the more special.

To all users reading the site, whenever you find a post that helped you, UV it.
It is like giving the OP a hand shake and saying "thanks." It's just a small thing but it helps keep this site going.

Wish I could +1 again for the last paragraph

Thanks David. But there is another aspect. An example here http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/55355/how-to-model-a-square-starting-with-one-vertex/55359#55359. Very UVed for a so simple thing (that's part of my question too), compared to http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/60562/ellipse-construction-advice/60624#60624. But well, let's say, that's life... I understand your though, thanks for the answer (don't wast more time !!)

@lemon in the two examples in your comment, that is normal. :) A few reasons. The first was a hot network question, it also is a simple thing, every "new" user will get something from that. However the long detailed answer has a very limited scope. (how many people are looking to programmatically make an ellipse?) That is the big difference. No offense, but I did not even read your ellipse answer, it is just not something I care about now. That is where the big vote discrepancy comes from.

People who react negatively to well thought out, well explained, unbiased responses to their questions are not people who are asking questions to learn... They are asking questions to hear what they want to hear. These people are not worth it IMO... If you are asking a question, you better be enough of a critical thinker to accept the responses you receive (as long as those responses are also supportive and well explain/genuinely helpful).
I am new on here and very new to blender but not new to how forums work... These people are everywhere, "Fix my problem right now and your response better be exactly what I want to hear and be super easy to do or else I'm going to scream at you." They are the ones that get a new hobby and throw a hissy-fit because they find out they aren't good at it and are not willing to learn.

This topic seems to be strongly related to Why does no one vote and I believe that most of my explanation from there will also apply to this one.
One of the major problems with this is SE's possibility to post anonymously. Anonymous users (aka userXXXXX) don't log in, so they won't receive notifications when there is new activity in and around their question. I almost feel like these people are using SE as some kind of chat. Post your question, sit and wait for s.o. to answer it, rinse and repeat.
Actually I really wonder how many anonymous posters already asked more than 10 questions without feeling the need to create an account.

Related yes, but, the question is also about the ratio between the effort/complexity of the answer compared to the attention this answer receives. Like saying : much more people feel concern by simple answers

@lemon - yes, Blender is getting quite a lot of attention among Beginners lately. Not long ago those people would have chosen 3dsmax or whatever to approach 3D modeling, because it seams "easier" to understand and also more versatile. Those people might not have the slightest idea of what we are talking about thus favoring the simple answers that solve their problems. That doesn't mean we should quit giving complex in-depth answers.


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Question Closed in Favor of an Answer that was Stated as Unsatisfactory
I'm not sure just what the process was behind this question being closed. Honestly, it feels as if someone was either in a hurry to just close it or wasn't looking over everything, including the comments. Also, One important comment has been deleted.
I posted the question before going to sleep. I'm looking for a way to do a popup in Blender, with Python, that is modal (in other words - stops a script until I respond to it) and a popup. Note that's 2 main points: 1) Modal, 2) Popup. I woke up and there were two comments, one by @Alexbries, with 2 links that I looked over and another by @p2or, with another link. I looked over that, as well.
I responded to the first comment about those links not providing what I had hoped they would and what I thought was a problem with what I was trying to do. Then I looked at the link @p2or provided and found it wouldn't work. I explained why: The answer in that link did not provide a true popup, but a panel in the 3D VIEW space that (at least when I ran the code in the answer) would not show up unless you had the tabs pulled out and were looking at the right tab. No popup - which is an important part of the question.
Later I come back and find the question is closed because there is an answer already provided on another question. I go there, hoping for a good answer and it's the same answer that had been given in @p2or's comment, the one I said was not a full answer. So I was thinking, "Maybe the person who closed it didn't pay attention to everything here," and looked and that comment, with the link to that answer, was gone.
I feel a bit like I'm in a whack-a-mole game. I get a comment suggesting an answer and I check on it and leave a comment why it's not a suitable answer. Then I come back, find that comment (with the link) deleted. My reasoning why that answer wouldn't work is still there, in a comment, but someone has now closed the question - for the same reason given in that now deleted comment. BUT - my explanation would still apply, which means if the person closing the question had inspected the code in that answer AND my comment, they'd have seen the reason that answer doesn't work.
I'm trying to get an answer to this, even if it is, "You can't do this with a popup." I've gone through man SE:Blender questions and answers, through Blender forums, and still can't get a clear answer on this - and the answer some people think is an answer is not.
If someone knows of an answer that works and can point it out, I'm fine with the question being marked as a duplicate, but that's not happened and I don't want to have to keep repeating that this one answer does not answer the question.

Hello and welcome. If you feel a question was incorrectly marked as duplicate, or the linked posts don't adequately address the issue, please don't post the same question more than once, instead edit the question including information of what you have tried, why it failed and how the duplicates don't address your issue. Once edited the question is automatically queued up for review so it can be reopened. You can also manually flag it for reopening

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos: Done, but I'm also trying to understand why I had to deal with the same point twice - and why, with my comment on why that answer on the other question was not acceptable didn't seem to matter when it was closed. I'm trying to understand what was going on as much as anything. Even if it's someone saying, "Oops - okay, I missed that detail," that's fine. (And it's reopened - so that's good!)

As you have already seen comments on this site are more of a temporary discussion that may be deleted at any time even by the system itself. That is why you are encouraged to add additional information by editing your question rather than post comments below that may be easily missed, as was the case here.

Also flags for duplicates raised by other users remain active even after you comment or edit in your question, unless they manually retract them after the fact. Since they were not removed, as I glossed over review queues I assumed those duplicates did answer your question so I erroneously confirmed the duplicate and closed it. Other than that we are all humans and make mistakes from time to time don't make a big thing of it. If you question gets closed don't take it personally, use the site tools to get your question reopened and keep an open attitude about it, it happens all the time.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos: Thanks for clarifying!

Fwiw you went about this in a kind and understanding way, welcome to the site

@AllenSimpson: Thank you. I still had to close it. Someone who suggested the links I had said (in the edit) didn't work were good. I said, "Tried, it won't work," and he insisted it would. I feel the OP has a responsibility to specify if suggestions work or don't (for future readers). It was an endless loop! I wish he had been right, but he was using links I already said didn't work. I finally told him if it worked, write a clear answer - he didn't. It was wasting so much time, I finally had to close it. I was less than kind with him because he wasn't listening and it was quite aggravating.


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Need help finding my deleted question which had a link to a helpful question/answer
This needs to go on meta I think but as I don't have enough rep for that I'm just gonna ask that if you can, please migrate this to meta. Also the tag was just randomly chosen so this could be posted, sorry bout that.
I asked a question a long while ago, which is now deleted. It's not in the recently deleted, and it was about putting blender on a raspberry pi 4. It was closed for being a duplicate of another question that had steps for installing blender on a pi. It's the only question I've asked so far so if you can see deleted questions just check my question page please and then answer with the question it was called a duplicate of. Thanks!

You have 101 rep on main site, I would expect to carry onto meta as the 101 is the association rep from the network. I would expect you should be able to post on meta without migrating the post, but either way, this will end up migrated eventually.

Your deleted questions show up in your user profile under Questions.
I assume you mean https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/193193/will-blender-run-well-on-my-raspberry-pi

yes thank you. for whatever reason, it does not show up on my question page tho which is weird.

At the bottom of your questions page is "Recently Deleted Questions" link. It will show any of your questions deleted in the last 60 (IIRC) days.


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What Animation FIle Types Should Be Used in Questions/Answers?
I'm sure this has to be a duplicate, but I haven't been able to find where it's answered -- a link to the existing answer would be appreciated!
For still images I've used jpgs for all my questions and answers so far, and for animations I've seen that animated gifs under 2meg can be used.  Are there any other file types that are recommended for explanatory animations in questions and answers on the Blender Stackexchange?

GIFs are the only accepted animated file type. See https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/963/what-is-the-process-for-creating-gifs-for-questions-and-answers/964 https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/404/how-to-post-gifs-on-this-site/405#405

Although both of those links (I'd only found one of 'em, thx!) are very informative on animated gif usage here, neither says that animated gifs are the only animated file type accepted here (that I can see).  Also, they're both over five years old -- that's still current?  Stackexchange's animations are hosted on imgur, searching animation file types "imgur" turns up several formats that are probably more efficient for this site's purposes.

Nothing has changed

That's a bit frustrating.  However, it seems that my question is not a duplicate.  If you'd be kind enough to put your first comment into an answer then I'll checkmark it.

Answered here:
Is it possible to post .webm videos on the Blender Stack exchange?
“Only images and .gif animations can be uploaded in Stack Exchange Q&A posts.” - Nicola Sap
The points cgslav made in their answer are even better now, three years later.  StackExchange graphics (still and animated) are hosted on Imgur -- I just rendered a webm in Blender, bigger, longer, and still under the 2meg limit, than the best I was able to as a gif for this answer.  I put it up on Imgur with no trouble.


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Upload images in comments
How do I upload an image from desktop to this site to reply on a comment?
Can someone share the steps and share the necessary links?

Depends on the operating system. On Windows, you can install "ShareX", press "PrtScr" key, drag a rectangle over the screen, wait until you hear a ding, then in your comment paste the link using CTRL+V shortcut.

https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75491 https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/963/what-is-the-process-for-creating-gifs-for-questions-and-answers/ https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/404/how-to-post-gifs-on-this-site/


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Suggestion: Tend towards Merge instead of Close As Duplicate
I'll make it quick.
Problems:  Correct documentation for Blender is a moving target, moreso nowadays.  It is desirable for old answers to get updated to reflect the new UI, new parameter names, etc.  We get some questions that get closed as duplicates with links to old answers.
Suggestion:  If we identify a question that has an old duplicate we more or less leave it alone for a while, suggesting any old duplicates as merge targets in the comments.  Let the new question gather answers, and merge good answers into whatever is the better formed question.
Maybe there are limits to the merge system I don't understand, but I look forward to discussion.
It would also go some way towards reducing friction with new users.

https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2660/should-questions-that-need-a-new-answer-for-2-8-be-flagged-somehow

The idea is to reduce information scattering. By "allowing new questions to gather answers" for newer versions instead of updating "cannonical questions" or adding new answers to them, we start having related information about the same issue scattered all over the place making it harder to find and follow. Closing as a duplicate of a well know answers makes them gather votes and become "more familiar" and easier to find in the future.

There are already  plenty of very detailed,  we'll thought out,  and clearly explained answers that show the solutions on outdated interfaces, but that can, and should be updated. Accumulating  new redundant (and mostly incomplete) answers instead, will make this site less valuable as a resource. The fact that answers are editable, and therefore updatable, is this site's greatest asset, in my opinion.

Duplicates are not a "bad" thing. Blender changes quickly now, and it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future Let the dupes be dupes, and send users to the ones that are useful. Don't edit old 2.7X questions just to change the answers, write your own if it's really needed. New users come and go, most won't care to learn how the site works. The ones who do will contribute something worthwhile.

@Timaroberts I agree with most of what you wrote except the "don't edit" part. Plenty of answers can be made better and can be updated while being still useful for those who still use the older versions, or don't have the hardware to run to newer ones. Most functions have not changed, they are just in different coordinates of the interface or have no keyboard shortcut.

Ok.  To be clear I'm not saying "always this, never that", I more just want to open up a third possibility.  It may be that we find some questions once in a while that it would be better to merge new answers into, I'm just throwing the idea out there.  We should at least have a rough idea of how it could work.
Here's a good post I read the other day.
https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/158066/what-is-a-merged-question

@susu I understand, I should say don't edit to change the answer but if needed to add supplemental information where it makes to, use sound judgement. Looking at a few of my own old answers, it would make more sense to say "now this is here..." instead of of an entire rewrite of the answer.


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Blend-Exchange not accepting v3.x files
I tried to upload a 3.0 version blend file into blend-exchange and got the message "All uploaded files must be in the blend file format".   It appears to not recognize post 2.93 file formats.

You should probably ask in Blender Meta

@Emir I'm guessing that Meta is some insider-known website of which I'm not familiar.  Do you have a link where I can Q&A my problem ?

@Emir thanks for your help on this !

@Timaroberts -- suggest to try again after cache cleaning perhaps. What "cache" are you referring to?  Cookies?  I just tried again with a simple 3.0 file and still no love.

What happens if you try with another Browser?

Great ... I thought I'm the only one :) https://github.com/GiantCowFilms/Blend-Exchange/issues/56#issuecomment-1030765447

I've disabled blend file validation for now, resolving this issue. See https://github.com/GiantCowFilms/Blend-Exchange/issues/56 for details.
If someone is handy with PHP and wants to take a crack at handling the new blend file format changes, I'd love a community contribution. It will probably be a little while before I can do this work myself.

Yet again today, it was not accepting my files :-(

I just encountered this error when trying to upload a compressed file from the question Geonodes: when creating an instance, get index from instancer
Turning off compression solved the issue.
Just tried again with the compressed file:

compressed as by an external program like winzip?  has that ever worked?

@MartyFouts compressed as in the setting in the save dialog, which I always used to save space on the server: https://i.imgur.com/EchlR84.png

The developers changed the compression algorithm for 3.0  blend-exchange needs an update to be able to handle the new compression algorithm.  Perhaps @GiantCowFilms is already working on it.

Thanks for info! I am going to try and get a fix out for this as soon as I can (my life is pretty hectic right now). If someone wants to take a shot at this I am also happy to accept a pull request.

Thanks Markus ... great to know :)

@GiantCowFilms Thank you for looking into this once you are able to. Blend-Exchange is indispensable to us. :-)

Today's error du jour is:

@GiantCowFilms -- yet more issues.

As of this afternoon, I was able to upload a 3.0 file, using Chrome on Windows 10. I then went to the Blend-Exchange github repository and verified that there was no change made.  Glancing at the source, it looks like Blend-Exchange does very minimal checking to see if a file is really a blend file; so I suspect you ran into a server internal glitch that got reported incorrectly.
Are you still having the problem?  If so, I recommend filling out their Help request.

Thanks Marty am going to enter a request.  Can upload only pre-3.0 files, same in Firefox and Chrome on Win-10.

Okay while filing a request I just got "There was an error trying to send your message. Please try again later.".  I'm chucking and not going to pull my hair out.  Ah it worked the second time I tried.  Whew!

That's very weird.  Basically all they do is look at the header to see if it looks like a blender file, so I don't know why you're getting errors.

It just started working for 3.0 files for me now, perhaps about 30 minutes after I posted the problem report.  Perhaps coincidental -- don't know .

@james_t Were you able to successfully upload the file? I'm guessing this may have been a temporary issue (The 26mb file size might have been a bit much for my server). When I have some free time I will take a look and see if I can figure out what went wrong.

@GiantCowFilms -- thanks for maintaining this for us!   I had also tried with an almost empty startup file 0.1 Mb and had failures.   Thankfully it cleared for me.  Its very useful.

The 3.0 upload error has re-appeared since yesterday. @GiantCowFilms

@GiantCowFilms  I keep intermittently running into this problem; again today I got the same error message.   Why does this keep happening?


text:
Why is this website designed so horribly?
I could literally go on for days about the problems with this specific forum website and its inability to provide even a modicum of helpful answers, so instead of being specific lets be general. Why is this website so garbage. It doesn't seem to ever offer any useful help that hasn't already been done better on YouTube, and when people do offer advice it's usually not even addressing the issue the original questioner asked. Then to top it off you can't even rate these garbage answers from idiots unless you trudge through the aforementioned swamp of awful answers posted up by people who don't know what they're talking about.

The search here is pretty awful.  What it IS good at is getting into google search results, for better or for worse.  As an intermediate user there was a lot of good information here, and it was frequently surfaced when I needed it.

Could you please cite some examples? it's a participative website, so everyone responds in the limits of their competence, plus you're free to come and help

Without concrete examples, this rant is useless and will not help make the site any better.

First of all, if you have a question about using Blender as defined in the help center, then please ask a question.
Please be on topic, there is a comprehensive list of things that are off topic that should be avoided here.
Make every effort to be as clear as you can be, and do your very best to communicate exactly what your problem is and what your goals are. Include images, explanatory text of what have tried, what you want to accomplish, what isn't working, and anything else you can think of that would help someone provide the best quality answer you would hope to receive.
Understand that if someone reading doesn't understand, they may prod for more information, and at times someone may edit your post in an effort to make things more readable, or help with site organization (if it's a wall of text, or has many misspellings, has incorrect tags for the question, etc). It's normal, and shouldn't be taken badly. (You can always revert an edit if you strongly disagree with it, although most are done in the spirit of making improvements).

As you have noticed by now, this site is much different than most others out there, but it has benefits to the way that it works.
This site is intended to be focused on Q&A, not to cater to conversational wading through pages of unrelated topics to a question before maybe reaching a clue to the answer.
Understand this regarding those who answer questions..
Everyone here who answers a question is volunteering their own free time to try to help other users such as you.

So, keeping this in mind, understand that the quality of a question also depends on you, the asker in many cases.

Are you able or making an effort to communicate your problem?
Are you responding to questions asked in the comments if more information is needed in order to answer (editing to add more information if requested, things like that)?
Are you sharing the information we need to answer the question?
Is your problem an XY problem?

To your immediate question,
Is the site perfect in design? No. Are all the thousands of answers correct? Probably not, but try giving people the benefit of the doubt. We all miss one or two.
In practice however, it's generally faster to get an answer here than wasting time reading about things unrelated to the original topic as tends to happen in many forums.
This never happens here...

To summarize, instead of complaining about what you don't like about the site,
Help improve it.
Ask good questions and write good answers.

First of all this site is not, and has never been, a forum, but a question and answers site, run by people who volunteer their time and experience.
There are many users with different levels of expertise, from varied age groups, cultures, economies, and educational backgrounds. The beauty of this site is that everybody is welcome to contribute, and we can all learn from each other.
Some users might better communicators than others, but keep in mind that dealing with language, math, geometry, time, space, and other abstract and complex notions is not something all of us can do easily. Being patient, understanding and excercising empathy and respect is the only way to help each other out.
Some of us are actual humans, and as such prone to make mistakes.
It is clear that pleasing everyone is not possible, some users might find this site useful, others clearly won't. If you are among the second group, you don't have to use the site and are free to find one that fulfills your needs.
If you decide to stay, help us make things better.


text:
Where should this question go?
I asked a question about downloading Blender open movies - and explain in the question why I need to download them instead of just watching them online. I have an answer, which I haven't checked out yet, but it's closed as not being specifically about using Blender.
What I don't follow is where, if not in the Blender board, this question would be appropriate to ask. I've asked in a few places and it's been ignored, so I went to the one place I figured I'd be most likely to get an answer. While it's not a question about downloading, say, Blender itself (and there are such questions, also about downloading documentation), I'm asking about looking at the best examples of demos of work done in Blender.
I'm asking about getting what I think would be considered the best examples of what Blender can do, considering they're done by the Blender Foundation as test animations to push the limits of the program and to showcase it. While it's not asking about actual documentation, it fits very much in the field of trying to learn Blender and what it can do. While this doesn't go into a "how to" about something, seeing examples and demos are a major part of learning a system for visual learners.
So if this is not the right place to ask about something like that - about examples that can be guides for what people want to do with Blender or want to know what it can do - then where, on SE, should I be asking it?

I'm not entirely sure it would be accepted well, but you could try [movies.se] perhaps. I don't know the entirety of their scope to be able to say for sure that it would be on/off-topic for them. (You could always ask about scope in their meta or even chat also.)

I think you've asked a question that has fallen through a crack.  Many of the forums that should be appropriate will hesitate to answer "where do I download" questions because they don't want to risk dealing with pirating -- even though your particular question is perfectly legitimate.  You might try the Blender foundation's own forums, but I can't think of any other.

@MartyFouts I think you're right - it's between the cracks. I find, more and more, I search and am glad to find answers on SE sites, but am less and less inclined to ask my questions here and, instead, prefer to ask questions in web forums on the topics in question. I think SE is becoming more and more focused on following their rules and kicking marginal questions to the curb and I think that's making SE more a forum for questions by people who already know what they're doing in a topic and kicking to the curb people who are new and don't always have questions that fit SE's precise rules.

@MartyFouts Setting this as a separate comment, since I think it's a 2nd subject: I went to the Blender site first and did try a few places there. Blender is one subject where I rely more on other forums than SE for the reasons stated in the last comment: SE and SE mods seem more focused on policing the questions asked than in making sure people who need help get it.

Well sounds like it could be one of the items in the extensive list of https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/15355/resources-for-blender , otherwise seems like a good fit for Blender Artists Forum

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos Maybe it's semantics, but I'd skip the "otherwise." I checked, since I had tried to get answers elsewhere first and I overlooked the Blender Artists Forum. (I thought I had posted it there - must have missed it.) But it seems to me it'd be a good item to include in any resource list either way.

Everyone is free to add content to that post, feel free to contribute if you find an answer. All Blender Studio movies should be available for download from the Blender cloud, albeit behind a symbolic paywall.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos I may add just the link to the page with all the open movies listed. While it doesn't have downloads, for people on "normal" internet, it's fine. I think Marty Fouts is correct, that to get the downloads, one needs to subscribe. I'm considering that and likely will later in the spring - after we get Starlink internet and after I've finished a lot of needed work on our lot and driveway (it's 1/2 mile long - still not fully finished) and have time to get more into Blender.


text:
Do I need to create a new account for all stackexchange sites?
I want to post some questions to stackexchange/webapps. I was requested to create a new account, which I did with the same email address I use for blender stack exchange. Do I need to create a new account for each StackExchange site? Seems a little bit cumbersome to me.

No need to create a new account. While logged in, go to the site you want to join, and click Join This Community . You will also receive an association bonus of 101 reputation points.

Ok but i was requested to set a new password and i could choose a different user name. But it’s definitely the same email address. I dont get it…


text:
I asked a question as an unregistered user earlier, but I can't reply to the answers now
This is the question I asked:
How to generate Perlin Noise for materials
Now I can't reply because my PC doesn't know that it was really me who asked that question. What can I do?

I sent some points your way. That should let you reply. Try to delete this question once you have things working though, as it's more of a "how to use this site" question instead of a "how to use blender" question, so it'll probably get deleted anyway.

It says that I need 50 points to reply. :/ Thank you so much though! I can send you the points back if you want!

Don't worry. The points come from upvotes - they're yours to keep. I'm not sure what you're trying to do, but just replied to me, did you not? You can "reply" to the others (answers) in the same manner (in the comment section)- just let everyone know you're the OP of the question.

I think I can reply here because I'm now using an account, and this is my question. But still thanks! I will make sure to get rid of this thread soon.

Yes, you can comment on your own questions anytime but you need 50 reputations to comment on other questions.

Oh, I remember that question, I answered it.


text:
How do I ask a question about the effects that a modifier will have on geometry without answers being "opinion based"?
How do I modify a question that asks about the effects of applying modifiers so that the answer will be "fact" based rather than "opinion" based.
I'm uncertain how a question that asks what effect something has isn't fact based when it's an observable and repeatable process.

To make any question objective and based on facts give a us specific use case, with an objective scenario and an concrete example.
If necessary illustrate it with images and state your end goal.
Also avoid phrasing questions with "Whats the best (...)?", "Should I (...)?" or "How would you (...)?".
Preferred phrasing is "For specific purpose X would A or B give more adequate results?" or "What are the advantages or disadvantages of method A versus method B?"

I tried that, solidifying a model for 3D printing, or creating a prop with no moving parts. Both create fixed geometry in accordance with an algorithm. But for reasons that I don't fully understand this is considered opinion rather than fact even though it's a machine doing it. I think that maybe somebody is using a bot to do edits rather than doing it manually, and it's just picking up on key words. I've had this before a couple of times.

Looking back at your question queue there seems to be a history of vague questions without any specific examples or concrete end goals. Quoting JeffUK in https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/240845 "I don't think there is a specific answer to this question, it depends on the model (...)" or see my comment at https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/241349 .

Since no further details have been provided in the meantime your questions remain on hold until more details allow answering objectively. You can always edit your posts to get them reopened, see https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/reopen-questions and https://blender.stackexchange.com/help/closed-questions

This is typical, even when I ask for guidance on how to modify a question all I get is the same vague non-answers. How much clearers can "for 3D printing" be, do I need to specify the exact model of 3D printer?

@AaarghZombies In cases like this, it always helps to provide a specific example you have in mind that is representative of the problem you're trying to solve. This helps to get specific answers.

@AaarghZombies: Although i also don't like if questions are closed too quickly i have to admit that your question doesn't have much information at all. They don't ask only for the model of the printer but for the model/character/thing you want to print. And you just referring here to the model of the printer. So try to answer or make clear what you mean (just because it is obvious for you does not mean it is obvious for everybody else) and if you got comments like this (from those who want to help you) you should answer them or improve/edit your question.

@AaarghZombies: and asking " what is the most effective order" is opinion based. Why? because everybody has a different knowledge level. If a guy is e.g. familiar with animation nodes an animation nodes solution with 3 nodes would need 1 minute for that. If you never heard of animation nodes you might already fail just to install animation nodes....

@Chris. There are objective standards by which topology can be judged, so by definition it's not opinion based unless you specifically ask for it to be.


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How to thank somebody for editing his answer or comment and adding value to it?
This is not really about Blender, but this site (sorry that I couldn't find a tag for it, and because it is required, and I cant add a tag yet, had to use the nearest possible). The site asks to avoid comments like "thanks" and rightfully, to avoid cluttering text with extras that are not useful to the others. But my friend @Georgious included a file I requested by editing his old answer to my question. I am asked to avoid "thanks", but I don't feel good just leaving it like this! So there must be a way to say our thanks without cluttiring the text with too much comments uninteresting for other readers. How :) ?

I feel like I'm entitled to answer this question since it looks like I'm the person you're looking to thank :).
You don't need to explicitely thank back people that helped you. The only gratification system on this site is the upvote (or downvote) system. Additionally if you asked the question and the answer correctly solved it, you can mark it as answered.
Of course it's always nice to try and add some cordiality in places where it makes sense, I think we can all benefit from it in this day and age.
I can talk only for myself, of course, but I assume most people are like me and they participate on this site for a number of reasons :

To improve their blender skills
To improve their explanation and teaching skills
To get a dopamine rush when they get internet points for participating
To engage in a stoical yet really respectful and open-minded community
To give back what they learnt along the way

A thank you in the comments, while frowned upon since it's against the guidelines, won't get you insta-banned for life.
Personally, the simple knowledge that I helped at least one person along the wonderful journey that I am also a part of is well enough. But oh man do I crave the green popup dopamine rush..!

"To get a dopamine rush when they get internet points for participating" I loved that :D. Thanking in the comments is fine as far as I'm concerned, the rules advise against it, but but it can be removed in the long term and I supposed it is a harmless way to add a little social warmth to a site that is often accused of being cold and hostile.

You can tap on

under your question. After a while (i think 2 days or so) you can then give the bounty to his answer.

I suggest putting an icon next to answers and comments to enable "thanks" without cluttering useful text. next to the icon a number representing the number this icon was clicked.
I would like to didicate this suggestion to @Georgious & @moonboots :)

You can already do that using the up and down arrows beside the answer and the person asking the question can also accept the answer which puts a green tick icon beside the answer. Both of these also add reputation 'points' to the person answering the question.

Yes. We don't want to clutter up the site with things such as thanks, etc.. But I am Latin American, and it really, really burns me. I find myself to be unable to behave with such efficiency. It is just rude, in my view, to be so cold and insulting. Cheers.

By the way, I posted the above as a question or answer because I was not allowed to post a comment. Tks


text:
How do I create video clips that demo the sequence I'm using?
Some responses to my questions show a short video clip that demos the actions they recommend.  How are those video clips created?

Hi ttom, your question was migrated here to meta because it was about the site. In the future, any questions that you have about BSE, and it's questions or answers should be asked here. Please read through the question this question has been linked to, it should answer your question (I use LiceCap by the way).

screen capture tools like ScreenToGif seem to be the most popular.

depends on your operating system. What r u using? windows? macOS?


text:
Set comment as answer

In this picture Robin Betts has the answer of my question, but how do I set this as the answer. I don't see any controls to upvote or the check-mark, the only thing I can do is add a comment..

He cannot, normally it could be up to him to change his comment into answer and you could apply it as answer, however, your question was flagged as duplicate and in that case there is no way to add new answer to your question unless it is opened again by someone higher(with higher reputation)

@MikoCG But it is always the case with every post I make, even with this one your comment is displayed as shown in the picture without the ability to up-vote (which I can't do yet) or set as answer.. The only way how to close a question for me now is to click on Answer Your Question, copy the comment of the answer and now I see the check-mark button. Maybe that is just the case?

First of all, no you cannot set a comment as answer - because it is not supposed to be taken as answer. And you cannot upvote it yet, but as soon as you have enough reputation you can do that.

If the comment solves your question and you want closure after some time, you can post it as an answer to your own question and accept it. Probably a duplicate of https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2804/mark-comment-as-answer


text:
Animated gifs of Blender
I see a lot of questions and answers posted here with animated gifs of various sections of the viewport attached to them. Can anyone tell me how this is done? Does it involve a 3rd party application or is there an addon I can use with Blender?

Hello, there are several apps to make animated gifs, if this is what you're looking for. I'm personally using Screen To Gif

https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/963/what-is-the-process-for-creating-gifs-for-questions-and-answers/ https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/404/how-to-post-gifs-on-this-site/405#405

There are also online video to gif converters for free


text:
Is there data available on the amount of questions posted over time?
I've noticed that the amount of questions posted on BSE has sky rocketed. That's implying a sudden rise in the interest in Blender? If I'm not mistaken, the first ever question on BSE was posted 10 years ago or more than 100,000 questions ago. I remember 2 or 3 months ago we reached 100,000 questions and now are suddenly up 10% to almost 110,000 in such a short period of time. We will be at 200,000 questions in no time. I was wondering if there was data on this available, like a chart we could view of the amount of questions posted over time?

Data Stack Exchange API will let you build SQL Queries to get whatever stats you want about a stack exchange site.
I don't know enough about SQL to build one, but Bill the Lizard already did the ground work for us, so I adapted to get the number of questions per month per year.
SELECT count(Id), MONTH(CreationDate), YEAR(CreationDate)
  FROM Posts
  WHERE PostTypeId = 1
  GROUP BY YEAR(CreationDate), MONTH(CreationDate)
  ORDER BY YEAR(CreationDate), MONTH(CreationDate)

You can test it at https://data.stackexchange.com/blender/query/1774167/total-questions-per-month-year
After extracting the output CSV file into a spreadsheet editor we can compute a partial sum column.

Year
Month
Questions
Total

2013
May
138
138

2013
Jun
262
400

2013
Jul
164
564

2013
Aug
188
752

2013
Sep
174
926

2013
Oct
179
1105

2013
Nov
213
1318

2013
Dec
265
1583

2014
Jan
285
1868

2014
Feb
294
2162

2014
Mar
306
2468

2014
Apr
333
2801

2014
May
325
3126

2014
Jun
312
3438

2014
Jul
344
3782

2014
Aug
329
4111

2014
Sep
324
4435

2014
Oct
445
4880

2014
Nov
393
5273

2014
Dec
479
5752

2015
Jan
600
6352

2015
Feb
562
6914

2015
Mar
618
7532

2015
Apr
547
8079

2015
May
676
8755

2015
Jun
586
9341

2015
Jul
685
10026

2015
Aug
817
10843

2015
Sep
656
11499

2015
Oct
658
12157

2015
Nov
643
12800

2015
Dec
705
13505

2016
Jan
805
14310

2016
Feb
753
15063

2016
Mar
771
15834

2016
Apr
712
16546

2016
May
823
17369

2016
Jun
827
18196

2016
Jul
848
19044

2016
Aug
804
19848

2016
Sep
827
20675

2016
Oct
896
21571

2016
Nov
801
22372

2016
Dec
757
23129

2017
Jan
907
24036

2017
Feb
815
24851

2017
Mar
862
25713

2017
Apr
769
26482

2017
May
664
27146

2017
Jun
769
27915

2017
Jul
967
28882

2017
Aug
934
29816

2017
Sep
827
30643

2017
Oct
856
31499

2017
Nov
831
32330

2017
Dec
771
33101

2018
Jan
848
33949

2018
Feb
856
34805

2018
Mar
942
35747

2018
Apr
810
36557

2018
May
921
37478

2018
Jun
832
38310

2018
Jul
874
39184

2018
Aug
838
40022

2018
Sep
823
40845

2018
Oct
760
41605

2018
Nov
827
42432

2018
Dec
925
43357

2019
Jan
1137
44494

2019
Feb
1061
45555

2019
Mar
1100
46655

2019
Apr
1052
47707

2019
May
916
48623

2019
Jun
904
49527

2019
Jul
1098
50625

2019
Aug
1413
52038

2019
Sep
1146
53184

2019
Oct
1047
54231

2019
Nov
1070
55301

2019
Dec
1117
56418

2020
Jan
1228
57646

2020
Feb
1182
58828

2020
Mar
1296
60124

2020
Apr
1423
61547

2020
May
1556
63103

2020
Jun
1638
64741

2020
Jul
1505
66246

2020
Aug
1386
67632

2020
Sep
1313
68945

2020
Oct
1283
70228

2020
Nov
1245
71473

2020
Dec
1231
72704

2021
Jan
1381
74085

2021
Feb
1390
75475

2021
Mar
1398
76873

2021
Apr
1249
78122

2021
May
1197
79319

2021
Jun
1161
80480

2021
Jul
1196
81676

2021
Aug
1085
82761

2021
Sep
1082
83843

2021
Oct
985
84828

2021
Nov
983
85811

2021
Dec
1161
86972

2022
Jan
1470
88442

2022
Feb
1069
89511

2022
Mar
1255
90766

2022
Apr
1244
92010

2022
May
1145
93155

2022
Jun
1126
94281

2022
Jul
1165
95446

2022
Aug
1306
96752

2022
Sep
1139
97891

2022
Oct
1167
99058

2022
Nov
1130
100188

2022
Dec
1159
101347

2023
Jan
1192
102539

2023
Feb
1147
103686

2023
Mar
1130
104816

2023
Apr
1009
105825

2023
May
1065
106890

2023
Jun
946
107836

2023
Jul
1109
108945

2023
Aug
194
109139

Using your favorite office suite you can then build a beautiful line chart.

Nice! thanks for your answer! very cool that we can query different types of data.

Very interesting. We can say in hindsight that the Blender team and community had a great impact on the hearsay for the 2.8 version (around 2020). Of course we can also suppose that the number has been inflated due to worldwide events at the time but the trend makes sense. FWIW here's the query (I think) for number of answers per month/year https://data.stackexchange.com/blender/revision/1791006/2175136/total-answers-per-month-year

It was indeed a turning point, 2.8 made Blender become more "mainstream", and brought a huge influx of new people. It was released in 2019, though, but you can see the effects of its beta ramping up as early as 2018 already. 2020 consolidated the growth with the pandemics and a lot of people locked up at home with extra time on their hands to dedicate to new hobbies. Thanks for the query, gotta sharpen my skills in SQL, seems like a useful tool


text:
How do I deal w/ question with bounty already given (as thanks for time & effort) but still unsolved?
In my question thread Why does "nw_add_textures_for_principled" work w/ Existing Material but not w/ dynamically created ones? I have put a +100 bounty and received some useful fixes for the override problem from @Marty Fouts but these changes did not resolve the issue described in the thread's question. We couldn't figure it out but since I want to reward his time and effort and the bounty was to expire today, I decided to give the bounty to him as a huge thank you but cannot mark his post as an answer. Unfortunately, it is still an issue, the code only works when interactively executed in the Python Console but we found out for some reason it does not work when executed in the Text Editor. I desparately need an answer and I'm wondering how to go about this. Can I raise another bounty on this question like +500 or should i create a new question for this? The title would still be exactly the same but seem as if it was a duplicate question. How do I deal with this situation?

Doesn't the answer you got from the devs work when run and from the console?  If so, what's different about the new question you would ask?

oh i asked the question before i got the ansewer from the dev. its resolved now :)

Would you mind if I updated my answer's script to incorporate what the devs told you, with attribution, of course?

sure pls do! il mark it as the correct answer then.

Sorry I spelled your name wrong in the answer. Particularly embarrassing because I strongly believe in calling people what they want to be called. Thanks for fixing it.

Not very versed in bounties myself, never given or received any.
You can read more about bounties in the Bounties help page.
If you do not manually award the bounty to any answer yourself, there are a few fallback defaults and the system will automatically award it to an answer posted after the bounty started. Generally the highest scoring answer posted after the bounty was started, or the accepted answer if any.

If you do not award your bounty within 7 days (plus the grace period),
the highest voted answer created after the bounty started with a
minimum score of 2 will be awarded half the bounty amount (or the full
amount, if the answer is also accepted). If two or more eligible
answers have the same score (their scores are tied), the oldest answer
is chosen. If there's no answer meeting those criteria, no bounty is
awarded to anyone.
If the bounty was started by the question owner, and the question
owner accepts an answer posted during the bounty period, and the
bounty expires without an explicit award then we assume the bounty
owner liked the answer they accepted and award it the full bounty
amount at the time of bounty expiration.

If non of the answers satisfy your needs and you never accept one the system will still award the bounty or part of it to the highest score answer after the grace period, even if you don't manually, so your "thanks" would be guaranteed.
After that period you can start a new bounty on your question if non of the answers solved your problem. The minimum amount of points for the new bounty will be double the previous bounty minimum.

Additionally, if you offer multiple bounties on the same question, the
minimum spend doubles with each subsequent bounty (50 reputation on
the first bounty, 100 reputation on the second, 200 on the third, and
so on).

Posting a new question is also an option, but only if it is significantly different from the current one. If you can rephrase it to be a distinct question then go for it, if it will still read like the same one, then awarding a new bounty will be the best course of action.

alright thank you very much for your answer! :)


text:
Is it okay to transfer reputation to another account using bounties?
Let's say I have a new Email adress and make a new Stackexchange account using it. My old account would then be obselete but all my reputatuin is still on my old account. Would it be allowed to use the bounty system to transfer my reputation from my old account to my new account?
Or is there a feature just for that?

As long as you can still login to your previous account you can change the email address and profile information. Why would this new account be necessary?

Ok let's change the example: Let's say I make another account which I share with someone. I want to make sure that both me and the other person can e.g. start bounties but don't want to share my current avvount with the other person.

@tempdevnova please don't arbitrarily change examples in comments. If you have a concrete problem that requires solution describe it unequivocally in the question body, otherwise if this is just hypothetical at least create a coherent question with a well defined set of parameters.

If I'm not mistaken you can change email addresses for your current account by visiting the settings page https://blender.stackexchange.com/users/email/settings/142369 no need to create a new one.
Otherwise you can request accounts to be merged. See the help page about requesting to merge accounts https://blender.stackexchange.com/help/merging-accounts
Never witnessed the process myself, so not sure how reputation is handled, it may be preserved, but I'm not sure.
As for using bounties I'd strongly discourage it. This may at first seem like a semi-legitimate usage, but is considered a voting irregularity, and will most likely trip the anti-fraud system.
Your reputation in a certain site is a reflection of your knowledge on that area of expertise, and a representation of the level of respect entrusted to you by the community, it is personal and non-transferable.
See https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/373374/is-there-a-way-to-transfer-stack-overflow-points-reputation

Let's forget the actual cases and just focus on the general question: "Is it okay to transfer reputation to another account using bounties?" From your answer I got that using the bounty system would fall into the grey zone (which I think also makes sense since we are not actually generating new reputation, only transferring). Is that correct?

I wouldn't say it is a "grey zone", it is squarely against the rules . reputation you gained represents your knowledge and the level of respect entrusted to you by a community, it is non interchangeable and transferable.  https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/373374/is-there-a-way-to-transfer-stack-overflow-points-reputation


text:
When will Blender Stackexchange get dark mode?
In 2020 Stackoverflow finally got it's dark mode release.
When will it be available on Blender Stackexchange?

Only the devs know that so I can't really answer your questions, but if I had to guess, based on the fact that our site uses a custom designed theme rather than the default one, and how relatively small our community is in terms of size by comparison,; I'd say it is far away

Should this question move to meta?

@MartyFouts isn't it already in Blender Stackexchange Meta?

Sorry, I should have been clear.  Meta is Stack Exchange's overall meta stack exchange.  It's where you typically ask about features that would be provided by the devs.

Ah ok please do that.

I can't, and I don't think the moderators can.  You'll probably have to register there and then ask the question.

Ok Then I will do that.


text:
Why? Is this the norm for new people?
I am pretty new to all this forum stuff and was in hope I would find some answers to my questions. The 1st question I asked was closed after 2 responses, doesn't seem like that good of a forum to me.
Very disappointed.

It's not a forum, but a Q&A repo.  A closed question isn't a mark against your account or necessarily bad, it just means that answers can't be posted until the question is better suited to this Stack Exchange.  You can [edit] a question and it will be automatically queued for review to be reopened.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/tour

And this question will probably be migrated to https://meta.blender.stackexchange.com :)

Hi bobkoonce, you shouldn't judge too quickly. i didn't see your question but in most cases beginners often describe their problems with just 1 or 2 sentences and think that is enough - which in 99% of all cases isn't enough. We need a lot of informations to help you because Blender is very complex and the problems are also often complex. And often there could be several reasons why your problem occured. So i propose editing/improving your question by adding screenshots of what you have and what you want. And i personally love questions with provided blend file so we don't have to guess.

But i can understand your frustration because this site seems to be very rude if you are emotional and you questions was quickly closed (believe me, i was often in that situation and i was disappointed too). But the more effort you invest to your question the more likely it will attract people who want to answer and it won't be closed. And after you got your first answer from the wonderful - sometimes genius - people here - you will love it. Yes, some people are annoying  - try to ignore them. Most of them are very helpful and have great knowledge like Robin Betts, Moonboots ....

try not to take it as an attack on yourself - is my advice ;)

It is not the norm; but it does happen fairly regularly.
Stack Exchange itself is an attempt to do things differently than other Q&A forums and has very different rules.  They try to warn new users in advance with things like the Tour but it's not mandatory.
They also try to make clear that closing a question is only meant to give an opportunity to fix the question.  In your first question, for example, the close message says "Add details and clarify the problem being solved. This will help others answer the question."
Unfortunately, they also encourage downvoting questions that aren't well written; while at the same time encouraging "be nice" to new users.
And, how close a given forum adheres to the Stack Exchange model is entirely up to the community that makes up the forum.
Blender's stack exchange has the additional problem that being a technical forum, people ask questions that seem perfectly clear to them, but that lack information that we need to help solve the problem.
So, sometimes, a new user, widely experienced in other Q&A forums, comes along, asks a question that seems clear to them, gets asked for detail, and has their question "closed".  Not knowing how Stack Exchange works, they find themselves bewildered, as you have.
If you have any suggestions, as a new user, about how to make it easier for new users to realize that Stack Exchange is different, I'm sure the Exchange would like to hear them.


text:
Is it possible to give away ALL reputation points as bounties to other users?
...of course bounties are welcome, but does it possibly contradict any stackexchange rule I'm not aware of to give away ALL my reputation points to other users over time in the form of bounties?
I don't mean transferring RP to a single user, or targeting specific users, but actually using all my RP over time to highlight other outstanding answers!

Background:
I earned over 24,000RP in 300 days, answered 590 questions, was the first in the world to earn the gold badge in geometry-nodes, was elected moderator, gained great recognition, and sometimes caused a lot of headaches. For me, it was a rocket launch, so to speak!
And I have more than achieved my personal goals.
And all this, only thanks to your help and approval!
Now it's time for me to pass on this recognition and appreciation to others, I think.
One of the questions that came up in the moderator election 2022 was:

Chat is not a central part of this community, and engaging in conversations there is not required nor mandatory. It is however a good way to interact with more regular visitors and socialize a bit beyond the more cold and distant everyday Q&A, since Stack Exchange is often accused of being cold and impersonal. Do you think reviving our chat rooms is a valid goal, or is it just a distraction from our main focus? Do you think it will bring users closer together a encourage users to stick around more? Do you have any ideas or suggestions to engage user in chat or encourage posting more often?
(By the way, did you notice the typo?)

But aside from that being a nonsensical question as long as chat is so outdated and impractical in design, the real question should be how to motivate users to post great answers more often!!!
And that's where my thought comes from: If bounties are awarded more often for great answers, that might motivate some users to post even more great answers. And active engagement makes the chat more likely to be used anyway!
All I'd have to do is spend my reputation points and pick the most notable ones out of the plethora of posts.
Theoretically I could give away 50RP to at least 480 answers at the current time.
In the end, I would be your moderator with the lowest reputation, but at least I can enjoy having been a driving force for this platform for a while.
I would definitely go a way that probably no one has gone before me.
Of course, it would also make the Bounties section a bit more crowded, and make other questions seem less prominent.
However, I personally find that in almost all cases the offered bounties are too small, and the questioners are much too stingy anyway, compared to the free service received.
One could invest here quiet a little more!
Would I be questioning the usual procedure? Yes, of course!
Would I break the rules with that? Maybe!

The only important question is whether I would break any rules with this procedure, which could have negative consequences for me or other users (deletion, sanctions, etc.) due to the automatic detection of unusual behavior?

I don't think you'd be breaking any specific rules, as far as I know, though it might inadvertently subvert what bounties are for. Your reputation is a visible indication of your knowledge and dedication to this site, giving it all away for the sake of the common good, while noble seems a waste of your hard earned efforts, and well deserved reward.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos Hmm, thank you, good point. Of course, I'm questioning (to some degree) the usual system of bounties by doing this, since I'm really just giving away bonuses instead of looking for answers. I may not have thought it through to the end on that point. On the other hand, though, maybe it really would be a way to motivate some users, wouldn't it? Of course I worked hard to get it, but owning RP doesn't really do anything for me (or anyone else) compared to good answers... Currently it is just an idea.

"RP doesn't really do anything for me (or anyone else) compared to good answers." It actually does, for other users it may well serve as some sort of "seal of quality" or vague indication of expertise, for anyone reading your posts, indicating that you are a reputable user with a good record, thus your answers are likely to be of high value. For yourself, if the rep itself means nothing to you personally, it may still be of some use as some sort of "portfolio" proof of expertise in the industry, as maybe part of a curriculum vitae.

Still an interesting idea, posting good questions even more "basic" ones that haven't been asked yet to encourage new users may be a good idea, even without the primary goal being exhausting away all your rep back to the community from the start. Maybe some interesting "challenges", well masked as a good question to not arouse the most conservative of users. Those seem to have worked well in the past, if we don't do it too often that people loose interest.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos "Maybe some interesting "challenges", well masked as a good question to not arouse the most conservative of users. " ...that is a big challenge from experience ;-) But a good idea. ...I will think about it.

The lovely things about this idea are self-evident :) .. my 2¢ on a couple of cautions?  1. The conversion from public to private currency risks being misinterpreted as favouritism .. distribution would have to be carefully considered, taking that into account.. and 2. perhaps some of the perceived value in [bounties-to-reward-existing-answers] lies not so much in the points transferred, as in the exceptional nature of the gift.

@quellenform: FYI, rewarding existing answers is one of the options for why you're starting a bounty, so that part is a valid use of the bounty feature. :)

I sometimes have good ideas, and sometimes bad ones.
...This was probably a rather bad idea.
From the comments I conclude that this would be a remarkable approach in itself, but would actually upset some established systems.

the distribution of points would always be subjective, and the impression of favoritism could arise.
a really fair distribution would not be possible, because I would not be able to distribute points equally to all users in all subject areas, nor would I be equally competent in all areas to achieve a fair assessment.
it would possibly counteract the hard earned reputation of other users through bounties.
reputation points are not made to be distributed to the public, but serve the reputation of individual users (and to a certain degree in consequence also the reputation of the platform, since I am a moderator here).
there might be other (better) ways to get users to give excellent answers.

Therefore, I hereby close the question and consider it solved.
In principle, giving up my own reputation points would have been feasible and justifiable for me, but I realize that this makes little sense and would only be a drop in the bucket.
Nevertheless, it should not stop me from rewarding really excellent answers with a bounty, as long as it is feasible and the contribution is actually an enrichment for this platform!
Thanks anyway for your feedback!

One other note: As soon as you dropped below 75 reputation on this site (for any reason), you'd lose the set bounties. (I'm not sure how this would interact with currently active bounties; I assume you could still award them normally, just not start new ones while below 75 rep.)


text:
Why do I receive a "Voting corrected"?

I have in no way abused this platform, or in any way encouraged others to vote my posts excessively.
I think I have worked hard and well earned the reputation here on blender.stackexchange.com over the last few months, and many of my posts are and have been a great asset to this Q&A platform as well as attracting audiences.
If there are certain users who particularly benefit from my contributions, then they should also be allowed to rate several of my contributions as useful!
I don't quite understand this. And can't accept it that way either.
If my efforts to make a meaningful contribution here are not valued, that would be a reason for me to withdraw from this platform.
Please for your assessment, what went wrong, because I see here rather a mistake in the system. For me, such an action is in no-go, and a reason for termination.

I did a quick check and it seems they have caught a “serial upvoter” who cast hundreds of improper votes. Crudely, the more active you are answering questions, the more times they voted for you. Moonboots, Chris, and myself were all hit harder than you, for example, and nobody active seems to have been missed. This adjustment is not a reflection on you and your contributions are valuable.

I do understand your disappointment.  About a year ago I reported some revenge downvoting.  When mods investigated they found that there was abuse and suspended the culprit for a week.  They also reported the incident to site admins who then discovered that I'd also been the victim of serial upvoting.  The net result was that the adjustment cost me more due to adjusting the upvotes than it gained me adjusting the downvotes.

But I moved on, it's a year later, and I laugh when I think about the amount of reputation that I was distraught over.

@MartyFouts I understand, I'm laughing about it again anyway. ;-) Even though I consider it partly a game here and the reputation points are just a fictional currency, I just want to be helpful first and foremost. Let's see what the future brings. Anyway, thanks for your support, understanding and wonderful contributions.

yes i also was hit by this and lost 20% of my reputation and i believe this was a mistake https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/379345/alleged-serial-voting-reversed-but-no-suspiciousness-of-such-activity-taking-pla

You have not abused this platform or our voting system, your efforts have been noted recently.
Unfortunately there has been a site wide voting fraud and the site administrators have invalidated a large amount of votes by one individual user. Our site was hit particularly hard since he was more active here. These have happened from time to time and tend to be destructive on unsuspecting users, so they are not done lightly and great consideration is taken before comitting.
See What is serial voting and how does it affect me? for more information.
You seem to have been one of the more affected users, but rest assured you have done nothing wrong, just a victim of bad behavior.
As a side note, you've been doing quite well, especially in the Geometry Nodes tag. I've been particularly interested in your answers. Keep up the great work and you will soon recover the lost rep.

Thank you for your insightful explanation and appreciation! However, this really hits me hard, since I personally only have RP left from the countless unpaid work hours that I spend to help others. Perhaps it would be better to put this work into more profitable projects in the future, rather than into a platform where one can become a "victim" of a user/algorithm at any time. For me, this is just a game: I solve puzzles, and get badges when I do well. But the game loses its appeal when the rules are not clear and some obscure system counts the points. ...my motivation is now quite dampened :(

Don't take it too hard, I know it can be discouraging, but it has little effect in the long run. It is more visible for users starting out but at the speed you gain reputation it will be meaningless in the greater scheme of things. It has happened to me on a few rare occasions since I've joined this site and quite frankly they aren't even visible in the reputation graph

PS: Just for the record, this answer was rated positive and marked as accepted by a legitimate user! ;-)

I was about to post about a single (! :) upvote being reversed. But the strange thing is, none of my posts have been upvoted recently (see my reputation tab). Has this individual been abusing the system for a long time and only recently been 'caught'?

Yes, I think many votes were not cast recently, as far as I can tell it goes some time back

I think the real question is why it takes so long until voting fraud is detected. How does the detection work? Is there a system or do mods just stumble upon them on chance?

it's supposed to be 24 hours but apparently it can take up to maybe 30 days coz even in my case where i did not gain 200 points in the past 7 days as of the moment i posted my complaint, i still lost 200 points. https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/379345/alleged-serial-voting-reversed-but-no-suspiciousness-of-such-activity-taking-pla

@tempdevnova: Certain processes are automatic, but sometimes more complex cases of serial voting may not be automatically detected; in those cases, when mods or staff notice it, then it's escalated to staff who then invalidate the serial votes (as explained in the linked MSE post).