text:
Funny Questions #1
NEW CONTEST - FUNNY QUESTIONS -
The rules of this contest are simple

Write a funny question as an answer to this post. Put the title of that question following a #.

You may use plays on words, you may make fun of noobs, regular users, or smart users.

You may pretty much use any method you want to make your question funny.

The winner will be decided based on who has the most up votes.

Downvotes are Not Counted When determing the winner, so save your daily votes. (you only get 40)

Although I highly doubt there are any five-year-olds on this site, we must use the same rule from the previous image contests, and keep the entries "Politically Correct" .

The main point is to create a question that other users will see funny.

As of now, this will be a one time event. The winner will be chosen and his/her/its entry will be accepted. The link to that entry will be placed in the space below

The winner will be chosen on August 27th. Other entries are welcome after that, but the winners entree will stay accepted (even if new entries gain more upvotes).

YOUR QUESTION SHOULD NOT BE POSTED ON THE MAIN SITE OR IN ANY PLACE OTHER THAN THIS POST UNLESS YOUR QUESTION IS A REAL, SERIOUS QUESTION.

You may enter more than once, but only one can win (Obviously)

WINNERS AS OF 8-27-2015
Gold (first place) -  Silver (second place) - Bronze(third place)
Remaining Places

https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/a/838/3127
https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/a/849/3127
https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/a/839/3127
https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/a/833/3127
https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/a/840/3127

Remaining Posts had less than 5 upvotes

Before you have a fit about this post being "off-topic" , it was discussed before, and the feedback was positive. If you have a problem with this post, you may rant here
This event has ended. You will find more funny questions at Funny Questions #2

IT CAME TO MY ATTENTION THAT THIS CRITCAL IMPORTANT OFFER WAS STILL VALID. HURRY WHILE IT LASTS.

How do I mark something as spam again?

I sure want more life spam.

How do I stop the smoke simulation?
I decieded to make a render of a factory blowing up in Blender Cycles.  So I used a cube for the factory and added a quick smoke with resolution 4.  But that looked terrible so found out how to really model and I modeled a huge factory with a surrounding lake, city, and forest (total 2.6*10^13 polys).  Then I used a smoke simulation with a 1 mile domain and 2048 resolution subdivisions and 16 levels of smoke high resolution and 43 separate emitters.
But when I tried to bake and render the scene I realized that I must have used too much smoke because it started coming out of my computer.  I couldn't even see my monitor for all the smoke billowing out of my machine, and the flames burned down my computer desk.
I'm pretty impressed with the realism so far, but I'd like to stop and restart the smoke simulation (with less smoke, say 36 emitters), but I can't figure out how to stop it.  So how do I stop (and undo) the smoke simulation?
System specs:

Intel Pentium II processor.  (I think that's what it is, all the documentation got burned up.)
128MB, 400MHz RAM.

By the way: I tried calling that Ton guy but his name is so long I fell asleep typing it into Google to get his number.

smokesimulationcyclesflaming-computer

You think Roosendaal is l;long? there's a guy on the local football team named Dominic Rogerscromaties.

1st add a particle system, use boids, name it "firefighters". then use a fluid simulation to extinguish the fire, add a forcefield wind and use it to get rid of the smoke.

What kind of program cuts off the head of its monkey?

HI, I'm not new to blender, but I have no idea what I'm doing.
I started blender because it appeared to be the only 3D program that included a prebuilt monkey. WHERE IS THE MONKEY??? I have only found the monkey's head in my program. yet I KNOW the whole monkey exists LINK TO WHOLE MONKEY!!!
HOW DO i GET MY POOR MONKEY A BODY????
tHIS WHOLE SOFT WARE IS USELESS TO ME IF i CANT GET A BODY FOR MY MONKEY. hOW AM i GOING TO MAKE MY MONKEY IN THE CLOUDS PICTURE WITH ONLY THE HEAD OF A MONKEY?
sorry caps
Thanks
modeling monkey objects point-clouds

I'm working on that, I might have an answer soon :-)

Goddamn, the smoke modifier on that monkey does seriously look awesome. Very inspiring.

This type of program!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teGs5RLN2h4

Need help making feature length movies
Hi, my name is Brad Pitty. I like to think i work in hollywood, but I am a looser writting this from an internet cafe. This is my face:
I need your help as an artist to work for no pay to single handeledly pull of a poorly written ambious script about a dog trying to befriend a hamster in a distopian city. You will get a credit as an assistent to effects production. I would also like it if you could mail me a dog and a hamster.

helpfull-time-jobfeature-length-vfx-move

HI EVERYBODY!!!!!
I have a problem, but you'll need some background information.
The Beginning
In 1972 I was born, now this is when the A-team was sent to court by a military court for a crime they didn't commit, (later they escaped) but I was very, very small then and don't remember much. I assume I cried and slept a lot, but I can't remember much about then. The first thing I do remember was around the time I was three. My brother was poking me with a pencil because I was crying too loudly, and mom was asleep. Of course, I didn't like being poked much, so I stabbed him with the pencil, and guess what - he went hollering to mom (waking her from her nap), who strapped me to a pole in the corner for a few hours. Of course she didn't believe me, because I was small. (the pencil didn't leave any dark marks because the lead was broken off.) that was before my birthday.
First Conflicts
For my fourth birthday I wanted toy soldiers so I could march into my brothers room and destroy all of the buildings in his city. But he (later I saw this as cheating) klobered me a good one and "nuked" all my army, which actually was a pillow he grabbed of his bead and started swinging randomly. he slipped on my plastic tanks and fell over backwards, allowing me to destroy a few buildings. This war continued till I was seven, when I built a giant mech out of spare parts in the yard, and smashed his military base. (I won- YAH!!!) After I turned seven, I discovered blender. It sat in my downloads folder for a few years, and I opened it for the first time after I saw a movie with awesome VFXs.
When I turned eight, I was forced to recite the Gettysburg address.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

I did not like doing this much, but I had to. I got a B- on my recital, but only because I had to go to the bathroom, and sped through my recital. For Christmas that year I got my first nerf gun. :-) It was a basic model, semi auto, air powered. I modified it to be fully auto, and built a belt feeding system to feed the darts in rapidly. I spent most of my money that month buying extra dart packs, and I had a respectable LMG pretty soon. however, it didn't shoot to far, so I bought one of those 12 volt air compressors, and made it a Fun little toy. I was the un-disputed king of nerf wars.
27
When I turned nine, I became obsessed with the number 27. I memorized PI to 27 digits. 3.1415926535897932384626433 or 3.14159265358979323846264338 if your not counting the decimal point as a digit. I opened Blender again and duplicated the cube 27 times. The first thing I made was a castle (it was made of cubes, cylinders, and cones. (I did not know how to enter edit mode, so everything was manipulated in object mode.) I hit tab by mistake, and unlocked the secrets of edit mode. I extruded a cube, and I even made a ugly looking missile thing. When I turned ten, my birthday cake was (nearly) a perfect cube, and I made the frosting as close to the default color as I could. I found the game engine but I could not figure out how to do anything, so I closed blender in a mad fit, deleted all of my previous files, and annihilated any trace of the .exe (much, much, later I found yo-franki and  downloaded version 2.49)
Water Wars
I turned 11 in 1983, and I much enjoyed season 1 of the A-team. I learned many valuable lessons from that show, and started stockpiling weapons. I built my first machine gun in the school machine shop out of wood. It broke after a few rounds, but that experience was valuable. On april fools day, 1984 my brother replaced my pillow for a giant water balloon, only with my pillow case. He then shot a rubber band with a sowing needle taped to it at my pillow. I had to sleep in a soaked bed. the next day I snuck into his room and opened his window. I left the hose running thorough his window all day, and I had placed a bicycle tire tube under his door, like a gasket. When he went to bed that day, there was a large rush of water that came out of his door, and down the stairs. His bed reminded me of a large sponge, and I considered myself to have gotten even. Unfortunately, he considered himself the loser (that part was fine with me) only he then wanted to get even. I built a minigun that shot two inch water balloons, and mounted that to the lawn tractor. He thought he was soooo clever, filling a large bucket, and climbing a tree. I pummeled him in water balloons, un fortunately, he picked me upside down and dunked me into his bucket - which sadly was full of ice. I found that not too nice, so I nailed a large spring to his beedroom door, so it would slam shut on him. it worked perfectly, but I got in large trouble when he fell down the stairs.
Revenge on The Elder.
On my 13th birthday, I got my first paintball gun. I of course couldn't stand it's semi-auto lameness, so I modified it slightly to make it fully auto. I bought five more of the same model and modified them the same, and then set them on a rotating base to create a minigun. I really liked this setup, so I challenged my brother to a defend the fort match in the yard. (he thought I only had one semi auto gun) The prize was to be a bag of candy. (I really liked candy then) Being smaller and slower all my life, it was fun to see him so totally outgunned and helpless. I easily won, and I got the candy.
The Bunker - original plans.
I once saw a movie where aliens invaded the world, and only one person in a bunker survived. I immediately set out to make plans for my bunker. I opened blender again, and started making plans. I extruded a few cubes, and added tunnels, and lights. I wanted to find a place to put my bunker, so I looked on mapquest, but my dial up connection was so slow, that the maps would not load. I instead decided to build my bunker on somewhere in the middle of the ocean. When I was still 14, on a summer day, me and my brother went to the beach. I walked to the shore, and started swimming, I figured in a few days I could find a nice isolated spot to build my bunker. After a few hours of swimming, I started to get tired of swimming. The shore was a respectable distance away, but I knew I wasn't far enough. I don't remember how long I was out there holding on to a lobster buoy, but I got a nice helicopter ride form that "stunt"
First Job, First Friend
When I turned 15 I got a job working for a private detective. That job gave me a good excuse for calling around finding out secrets that most people couldn't know. My boss Jared was a Unique type of a conspiracy theorist, and suspected that the president was a extra terrestrial spy, waiting for a good moment to launch a mega alien invasion. He and I got along well. We predicted the exact time that the aliens would attack, and I helped him lay lead panels on the roof of his house to deflect protractor beams. We dubbed the president as MRAX for Mega Raquatyun Alien Xeompanatior. I have absolutely no idea what Raquatyun or Xeompanatior meant, but the name sounded cool, so we kept it.
The Election of 1988
I turned 16 in 1988. The presidential election was coming faster than we thought, and MRAX had served his two terms, as a result, he was not running again and would need to attack before he lost power. Jared and I assumed the aliens would attack at any moment. I tried to build a prototype of a mech, and I tried to find a episode of the A-Team where they prepared for an alien invasion. Unfortunately, Hannibal was more worried about Colonel Decker, then defending against aliens. So I turned to transformers, but they seemed too Sci-fy and un-realistic. I eventually designed the plans myself and got a working mech prototype. Jared liked the prototype and helped me build a larger model that could house a person. When the presidential election had come and gone, Jared went insane. He could not make any sense at all of why the aliens had not attacked, and seeing how MRAX was no longer in office, he lost his mind. (not literally-it stayed in his head the entire time) He did however end himself in an insane asylum, leaving me with all of his equipment and weapons he had stock piled. I was faced with the highly disappointing truth that MRAX was actually Not an alien spy. Although, while he was in his first term in office, he did seem a bit far out, after he changed his party affiliation, he no longer seemed like a wacky socialist.
Insane Jared
Left with a boss in an insane asylum, and most of his possessions, I turned my focus to more pressing matters. I knew that Jared would have wanted me to warn the world about the looming alien apocalypse. I sold what had been Jared's house, and bought a rather large barge, and (quite literally) Tons of concrete. I also was able to buy a crane, which I mounted to the ship. I was not ready to set out to sea yet, because I (being human) needed lots of popcorn and soda, but I could not bring an infinite amount to sea, and especially not into a bunker.
Building X-Apocalypse
I spent the next few years preparing for a major change in my status as a human. (mainly genetic research and boring stuff like that) I knew that when I was 27 would be an important occasion, so I was ready for the switch on a special day. Up until that point I had been building a new mech, but the driver space was far too small for me to fit in. My new mech was far more advanced then anything I had attempted yet. It took some heavy testing, and faced some major setbacks, but my new mech could run practically infinitely. (I had developed a mini-cold fusion generator.) I had originally called my new mech X-Apocalypse.
Full Digital
On January First, 1999, I ran the program on my new mech. it injected me with knockout gas. What I know now I did not see first hand, but watched later on my new body's memory bank. My mech body suit transplanted my brain into it's support system, and re-booted myself. I have to admit, it was a surprise being made of titanium, carbon fiber, and circuit boards with gold circuiting. I now saw that X-Apocalypse was too long of a name, and re-named my mech body to X-27. In year 2004, my new body was 5 years old. I was aware that my human brain cells would eventually die, so I started making  Human.exe, and it only took a few months to make. I was not alone when I tried to warn the world about the looming apocalypse. There was another. Gwenn was right when he warned you about artificial intelligence. I, however, have no plans of taking over the world.
The Portal - Bunker Complex
It was year 2005 that I finally loaded my barge full of all the supplies for my bunker - mainly things like precast concrete wall sections, steel, and wire. It took three months to lower the parts in place, and another month to connect them and make the complex air tight. I can not at this time disclose how I keep it pressurized, or how I power the complex. In 2007 I started creating a portal system. By 2009 it was operational. I knew that I could not stay in hiding forever, so I made my mailing address an abandoned oil rig. I also Built an airship, and a land base. However, my portal-bunker complex is my main base, and my charging bay.
Here and Now
It is now year AD2015
My human body (would have been) 44. I have been implanted in X-Apocalypse or X-27 for 16 years. although (as of now) I still have no plans for taking over the world, I have been calculating what I call TBPSFTWDAA (the best possible strategies for total world domination and annihilation). I also have been in cooperation with several users who will remain anonymous(1, 2, 3, 4  and 5) on a top secrete project that can be found here. However, a few weeks ago, I Encountered a problem. (I know what your thinking, because my human emotion prediction software can guess relatively accurately) - you're thinking FINALLY HE/IT GETS TO THE QUESTION wrong, More background is needed.
I first opened one of the project files. Now I thoroughly checked all of the logic, and there is nothing that would cause this error. it is simply a lot of no collision plants (not planes) with LOD. My problem is, when I try to start the game engine, by pressing  P  Nothing Happens!!! I know, right? Nutz!
I hope I gave enough details, but If anything is unclear, let me know and I'd be happy to data mine my memory banks to provide the nesisary clarification.

I think that the backstory had too little rant and was to interesting. I only skipped after the first paragraph.

you better read that, do you know how long it took me to write it?

I never realized that you where 44! I always throught you where, like, 7 or something.

I has same story with problem, help plz?!?!?!1?!1?!11one?!?11

You have an error on line 107 "in a insane asylum" should be "in an insane asylum"

I knew left something out! an entire N! Don't worry, I fixed it.

In an insane- sounds redundant

I just removed some grammatical and spelling errors, and added details on how and when I build the bunker.

Never take inspiration from the A-team, all they were ever able to shoot was car tires.

@PGmath  They either had absolutely horrible aim, or they never tried to actually kill anyone.

nEED hELP dUMPED BY gIRL"FRIEND" [migrated]
mY GIRLFRIEND DUMPED ME YESTDAY BECAUSE me LOST me JOB AT PIXAR. i NEED TO GET IT BACK. hOW DO i USE BLENDER TO GET MY GIRLD FRIEND AND JOB BACK. mY PARENTS HAVE DISOWNED ME.

womenslef-helplifejob-request

migrated to dating.stackexchange.com by David♦ 1 hour ago
This question belongs on our site for people seeking answers to questions about dating and long-term relationships.

That edit tho XD

@David the time needs updating... Aug 19 '15 at 2:21 instead of 1 hour ago

Can I bake useful things in Blender?
I was reading about Blender and I think it is a really cool piece of software since it is so versatile.  It can do modeling, sculpting, rendering, compositing, games, and video editing; but what really peaked my interest (being an amateur pastry chef) was that it can even do baking!
But after looking further I have only found information on baking cloth, water, and smoke.  These don't seem like very useful things to bake, (I mean like seriously, who would bake water?!?).  So can Blender bake more useful things, like croissants?  And would it just do the baking, or would it knead and tourage for me too?

bakingcroissants

Ha ha! This is hilarious!

How do I get out of my Moms basement?
I have been living in my parents basement for the last 16 years after I finished my degree in computer sciences form Stanford. This arrangement has worked well, as my parents slid pizza under the door. Today I tried to get out for the first time and discovered the door is looked. I tried forcing it, and picking the lock didn't work. How do I get out. sorry if this is a little off topic.

+1 just for weird factor XD

Blender to lock! You might need an industrial one, but it should work in the long run.

@TARDISMaker I already tried that and am now bleeding to death.

First off, what kind of basement is it? field stone or concrete? What is the door made of? Is there anything else in the basement? (Tools, Spare parts, Etc) are there any windows, or is it completely underground? Is there any reason why someone else would un-lock the door and come into the basement? (to fix something that could be mysteriously broken)

If it is field stone, you would try removing a few lose rocks and tunneling your way out. If there are tools and spare parts, you could try building a non-lethal mounted gun and attach it to a vehicle and blast your way out. (like the A-Team did so regularly in seasons 1-4)

You could also sabotage some wiring, or cut the TV cable so someone would come down and fix it. when they open the door, BLAM - krong them a good one, and escape. You could also use the explode modifier on the door and blow it apart. Possibly the easiest solution would be to add a cube, scale and rotate it, and once it is in a good shape, you can use the Boolean modifier to create a tunnel leading to the outside. Once you hit apply and delete, the cube, you have a perfect tunnel leading to the outside.

@X-27 that last solution is so elegant!

Can we ban gandalf3?
I have been on this site for 3 days, and have gotten only 5 rep. gandalf3 has over 60,000k. Since I am a super skilled blender expert and always got a A in writing class, I don't see how he could be better at rep earning then me. Therefore it is clear that he is lying and cheating.
Since he is a moderator, getting rid of him will not be easy, but I have a 11 step plan.

Destract him with a question
While he is destracted, enter his house
Sneek up behind him.
Hit the delete account button.
Make me moderator so I can block him from the site.
Upvote my posts
Downvote @gandalf3 posts.
Send me bitcoin to 13QG1WsU8eaH5ERAjudnPUmFuorw7DwwPM for my services

where are the last 3 steps? I'm lost!

@David That is the joke..... this dude "had" an 11 step plan but only managed to think of 8.

Need Help FAST: Blender problem
I'm trying to make an awesome sifi movie and I'm at this part where the bad guy shoots a gun (It is just a fake plastic nerf gun from walmart, but I hope that after vfx it will look COOL! I'm having my friend's older brother's baseball coach's uncle do the audio in this part) So in this part it will shows the bullet really awsome. Sorry noob question, but after I FINALLY got blender installed why does my blender not work like in tut? Problem is it is not working right.
PS if you guys will respond like in the next 10min I'll add you to the credits in my movie.
help blender-internal modeling n00b

Your blender might not be working like in that tutorial because he had bought the golden plated platinum core premium license for total blender awesomeness. If your running the free version, you are probably experiencing all of those super hard features the developers put in to confuse people. With the premium license, the complicated features are a lot simpler to use, and you can even morph a bunny into a dragon with a simple click of a button.

PLEASE, PUT ME IN THE CREDITS OF YOUR MOVIE! NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

i THINK iT'S BECAUSE THE TUTORIAL IS USING BLENDER 2.89. WE'RE CURRENTLY WAITING FOR TESTBUILDS OF THIS VERSION (THEY GIVE IT OUT TO THE PEOPLE WHO PAY THE MOST FIRST).

i WaNT TOOW bE iN TEH CREDITS!!!!!!

#CreditsBomber - the guy that everyone knows is in there that really shouldn't be

considering the quality of this movie, I'm pretty glad I didn't make the creds and it didn't go on my resume. no offense to anyone... :P

@VincentScalia my friend's older brother's baseball coach's uncle (nick) is very offended.

he can be. he sucks

Nasty Problem
Blender wont work. I have a headake.

I weplaced my keeboard and it still wont work.
I got Realy Realy mad!

I tout that computer a lesson!!!
now NOTHNG is working!!!
at all

How do I fix it???
Edit: I tried increasing the voltage to my keyboard, but that obviously didn't help.

hellpppnothing-is-workingm-16nato-roundscomputerflaming-computer-with-sparks-coming-out-of-it-i-have-a-head-ache-now-my-motor-chair-has-a-dead-battery-and-now-my-m16-has-jammed
i-thought-you-could-only-have-five-tags
now-i-have-seriously-too-many-tags

COOL GIFS = VOTES

SO you live in the middle of a perfectly flat rocky surface, with a computer. I presume the window is behind the camera. Just curious HOW DID YOU FIND THAT PLACE!

I spotted it with one of my spy satellites, and used my portal to teleport there.

lol., nice particles

@VincentScalia not particles, that is totally BGE

i don't care if yuou made them without a particle generator, they're still particles.

How to I puree?
I downloaded BLENDER and am now trying to make a smoothy. I seem to be unable to put fruit in. I tried the USB ports but only the carrorts when in. So me DECIDED TO MAKE STUPID CARROT SMOOTH BUT I CANNNNNNOOOOT find the puree button... I also want to make a photoreaistic portrait in my blender, but I only found the mix ice puree and slice options, no f21 key. My mom was also made at me for putting PAINTS into her blender.... whichs ish why i had to download one.

iam6hlpme---plz

FINALY!!!! The large moo moo has revealed his age!!!!!

WARNING: Rendering a portrait in your blender may result in serious injury or death!

@NoviceInDisguise I don't think you understand, you put a portrait into Blender, then you render it useless.

Ah I see! I always wondered why people were shocked at my method of rendering portraits!

Don't try to render your pets with this special version of Blender!

These comments are way better then the original post

Help, iu can't reach the hotkeys!
I have 5 of my fingers stuck in a whiffle ball, they've been like that for about a  week now. The doctor says they'll eventually die from lack of blood, then fall off and my hands will be free, but until then, I can't figure out how to use blender effectively! Doing certain tasks and reaching certain keys causes me excruciating pain!!
So far this question has taken me 45 minutes to type with my thumbs and nose, and obviously that isn't an effective work method.
Specifically, I'm having trouble manipulating the screen because I can't grip the mouse and I'm having trouble with some of the hotkeys in the middle of the keyboard.(G, H, J, F) I would normally re-set them, but blender is so complicated, theres no keys I could set them to without losing a special function that I might need later.
Remember, this is only a temporary predicament, but I have a project for school I need to complete ASAP! help please!

lol, I tried to take a picture of  my hands stuck in a whiffle ball for effect, but those of you who know me know my hand size... it didn't work. I found the biggest ball I could but still couldn't even get my pinkie finger into it... lol

You can use Voice control. It's really stupid, but it might help you ;) http://www.blendernation.com/2015/06/06/use-speech-recognition-to-execute-blender-keyboard-shortcuts/

I tried that, but I noticed that you need to be a Texan for it to understand you.

Told you it was stupid.

This is amazing.... I thought my fake posters were pathetic..... rofl

Why isnt the Alt - F4 Command working?
My friend told me that if I press alt f4 it will create a massive city and godzilla but instead my blender closes.
Why does this happen?
P.S. Check out this awesome model I spent a long time on!

(edited out thanks because you cant say that)

were you in edit mode or object mode when you pressed Alt F4?

@David whats edit mode

https://www.google.com/search?q=edit+mode

@David i clicked on the first link and it was talking about ms dos. so i think i was in edit mode

You might need to turn down the settings for how big you want the city to be created. Blender is probably crashing because the city and monster you are tying to generate is way, way too big. (Your computer probably can't handle all the awesomeness blender can generate from one button) Here is a tip. You need to spend a long time modeling at least one item to be put in the city, (blender needs something to go from), IMPORTANT make sure you Have Not Saved it. (saving it throws a bug that makes the Alt+F4 city generator not work.)

@X-27 I don't think I need to turn down the settings. im on windows 1.0 , my processor is a single core with a 5KHz clock speed and 128 bytes of ram. the computer also takes up my whole room so its probably powerful enough to generate a city and Godzilla

Try upgrading to a Raspberry Pi, you'll get way better performance. Size isn't everything-

@X-27 thanks I'll try it out. I've heard that people at Pixar and dreamworks use raspberry pi too

Problem with my file
I'm a total noob here, (I mean, woorse than most noobs - when I say I'm a noob, I mean I spent an entire day clicking and watching that red crosshare thing move around, and then I spent another hole day tryin to moddel a cube, I tried scalling a plane along the Z axis, but it wouldn't scale.) Sorry for my bad english,  and spleping -it is my nativ language.
anyway, here is the link
any help is apritiated,
thanks.
by the way, my projct is due in 8 days, so I want and answer and I want it now!
blender-filesedtinggeneral-electricnoobuber-noob
tagduplicate-tagun-tagedproblemnot-workingmodelliingproblems

mmmh.. either the file doesn't exist or was deleted; or the file is password protected and you gave the wrong password..

it is my nativ language... lol +1

Rendering a bookshelf
So yesterday, I finished modeling my bookshelf. It took a few hours, and it was really difficult, but I got it done.
So today, I was planning on focusing on rendering. So I hit the render button, and the book shelf showed up, but it seemed pretty normal to me. I tried a few more times, but no matter what I did, I couldn't render it useless.

Maybe the books in it are too smart?!?!

Who said there where any books? If I wanted to render the book shelf useless, I would make sure that it wouldn't have a use before rendering it.

Aaaah I see! This sounds like the doctrines of Confucius to me, isnt it?

@Jonathan No, no, no, it's from "Explorations in Stupid Psychology With Cake"

Maybe you have to add more uselessness with books like this: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Useless-Information-Noel-Botham/dp/0399532692/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1440015330&sr=1-1&keywords=useless+book

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I NOW KNOW HOW TO RENDER MY BOOKSHELF USELESS WITH A BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Premium Leather handbags
We are proud to present premium luis vutton leather handbags, made only from high quality polyester. These hand crafted works of art, made in the famed workshops of south bejing, have genuine metal clasps, and quality seems made using the highest quality superglue with artisan printed stiches. Now on sale, 98% off, just $45.00! Today is your lucky day. Don't have any regrets buy now from our secure server!!!! We accept all credit card numbers!!!!!!
For one day only we will take bitcoin private keys...

child-labor-goodno-scamremove-pc-virusauto-insuranceplant-face

I would nuke that post in less then 10 sec. (and probably the user too)

.. Being a Cow,  why are you selling leather? :P

@someonewithpc "made only from high quality polyester" :P

@GiantCowFilms Right, I meant  """""leather""""""

Help!! Blender Not Working!!!
HI, I'm new to blender. Blender is not working. I tried throwing my computer through a window as @GiantCowFilms suggested, but Now I only have a very broken window, and a dented computer. I plugged it back in. I tried doubling the voltage hoping that overclocking my computer would give the needed performance. I am now at a library computer asking this, because my computer is now in a few different oddly shaped pieces now, and a few of them are still smoking. I can distinctly smell that nice burning plastic smell, kinda like you can smell when electronics are burning. I'm pretty sure that is what happened. What I really don't get is, why my computer had any thing to do with my blender. None of the suggestions so far came remotely close to getting the blade to start.
Thanks!

I think there's a button that fixes that in the texturing tab.

I'm running on 120 Volt AC Power, so I can't imagine what is causing this.

@TARDISMaker lol XD

Well, in that case, you may have to add a decimate modifier so that your computer can handle the geometry. But don't underestimate the Texturing tab! Especially when you're working with cycles!

More details, it is about 87℉ my favorite color is blue, and I do not have a pet dog.  The plug is a standard 120 Ac outlet, and White birch trees look cool.

Ah, see! It's the pet dog! Every 3D artist needs one, or what you just described happens!

Thanks, I'll have to get one so my computer doesn't suffer in the future!

REAL EXAMPLE #1:

Giving lettes an individual node
First of all. Im a total noob at blender. I only have a few days of training.
I am working on a logo for an animation. Im trying to bake the scene, but my text is too long for only one bake map (or texture or what ever) So I have seperated each letter so they can be baked one at a time. But they all still share the same node ?
How do I give them one each ?

HOW DO I GET $$ FRUM REP
i noticed thet som peple have A LOT OF REP and i was wonderin if maybe ther is a way to MAKE MY REP INTO DOLLAS sos i kin get rich. I NEED SOM QWIK MULLA or my CABLKE TV will be TURNED OF ON ME so if thers a way, pls HELP

Not currently earned rep, but you can with future rep. All that you do is instead of spending that effort on a stack exchange post, you use it to earn money at a job

@GiantCowFilms XD Good advice :P

I can has the bronze icon as dollaz?!?!

Noob Problem!! My blender isn't rendering!
i have bin trying to render gravl in my blender, and i cant figure out how to do it :P i tried cliking the buton with my mowse, but thet just turned on setting 7, which os pulse, and crashed all the windows D: i lowded it on my desktop and everting!!!! maybe i shud jest put it in te resykl bin and b dun :(
thanks from uberNoob_18q9384769k2 :-\
btw, wher do i ask kwestins about winduw repare?!?

Generally question regarding winduw repare are asked with the tag winduw repare. Just a tip, make sure that you have at least 1000 samples, or winduw repare won't have enough information to fix the window you through your computer out of.

Dudez You all nuubs
You need ot hit Ctrl-Q to fix your problemz...duzh

Closed as not a question by X-27, David♦ Aug 19 at 3:26
This should be an answer although it would probably get deleted anyway.

I think there is a rule about acting like a mod, or putting fake notices on questions. I will bring this to the mods attention, O wait, I am one.

Okay... I thought it was cool here....

It is no problem for me, or probably any of the other 2 mods, but if other mods happen to see it... Probably fine, and I would leave it just kind of a heads up.

HOW DO I MAKE MBRRYYYLLP LOOK COOL
i wanting to 3d print a big robot type thing that looks a bit like pizza it's for a movie i making was asking everybody i knew about what i could use to 3D print my big robot type thing that looks like pizza (mbryyyllp for short). My brother told me about Blender, so I decided to download it and try it out. I just opened it today. When the interface popped up, I noticed that there was a cube in the center of the viewer thingy. Now I know this is a 3d modeling app but usually when you can render stuff in that app it opens up with a suzanne uually it's not just a suzanne but a manifold suzanne So a bit angry at whoever develops this stupid piece of software, because everyone knows, that new users can't open a piece of software, and see a cube so after a while after looking through the add menu decided that most mbryyyllp's have bones so the bone type was the perfect thing took a long time but i finally was able to shape them into a mbryyyllp i decided that it. was time to render it so i hit. the render animation button and not only did it not animate, but it didn't show up at all! i dd lot work to try to figure it out i googled how to fix it but I couldn't find it even when i went far back page 2048. i decided to ask here. what i doing wron how can make mbryyyllp show up and look awesome why would someone. name themself david how do i eat plasic why is my computer slow how do I makeVFX in wndows movie maker i think you forany help you might have, and you don't help me i hunt you down and dad kill your

If you add a explode modified to mbryyyllp, he will look awesome. Your computer could be running slow because the pizza made it sticky, and the last time I put a pizza in my CD drive, the computer wasn't happy. Try running blender in binary code, it may improve performance when rendering awesome VFX because it won't need to render the VFX. Even if you don't render the VFX, I'm pretty sure an explode modifier will help, but stay away from the ocean modifier, unless your computer is water proof.

@X-27 you tried to send pizza through your cd drive too?

@X-27 YOU IDIOT WANT TO DO VFX IN WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just downloaded Blender 2.75 and I've been having some issues. Basically, every few minutes, Blender crashes my computer. I'm not sure entirely why it's happening, but it's definately happening.

I've got my kids on the bike 24/7, so I know it's not an issue with electricity, I'm running Windows 95, so I know that I have enough hardware power. I just can't figure out what it is!
Thank you from India to anyone who can help me out.

Hey! No need to be racist

India was the only place that I could think of that seemed poor enough to be funny. But the joke would have been racist to some place anyway. I just hope that the people from there can laugh along with us (or at least the people who find this funny)


text:
Is the question answered?
In one of my questions ( Get list of operators in a menu layout ) the answer offered is "so far, you can't, here is a workaround" which is not a very safe option... Should I mark the question as answered or wait for a better (in a future version?) answer, and leave the question open ?
What is the rule in this kind of cases ?

Now you have decide whether or not to mark this question as answered.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Where did the helpful comments to my question go?
My question was marked as [duplicate] by several users, and there were some helpful comments, and I've edited it to help clarify what I need to understand beyond the answer to the related question. However now the original comments are not visible to me. Are they gone? Thanks!

They look pretty gone. Unfortunately AFAIK comments are one of the few things which can be permanently and irrevocably deleted on SE..

OK, thanks. They appear to have been automatically deleted when I edited the question, at least I didn't do any explicit deleting that I'm aware of.

That's odd.. AFAIK only the author and moderators can delete comments. Not sure what is going on here..

I have edited the question. When I log in, I can see my edits. When I am not logged in, it shows only the related question which is proposed to be the answer, and not my revised question with edits/clarification. I do not know what OTHER people see. Are my edits visible to others when they are logged in? If not, it seems like following the directions to edit the question does not actually do anything useful. Thanks!

These were removed automatically by Community (a background process) since both links were the same as the post marked as a duplicate so nothing missed.

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


text:
Closing old questions from inactive users as unclear
I'm going through old unanswered questions trying to answer, but some of them needs the feedback from OP which have been inactive on the site for a long time so it is unlikely that they will respond. Commenting and waiting for feedback will be a hard to track and putting an answer is not really an option, should this kind of question be closed? Should I just go with what I think and leave it for voting?
Linked node groups appear as black in preview and final render
How to set camera rotation on local Z axis to 0
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/16396/rigid-body-animation-objects-are-being-effected-by-an-invisible-boundary

Every now and then I browse through some tags as well. If it's older than 6 months, with low views (< 10) and no answers and the user hasn't responded or hasn't visited in about that same time it should be ok to flag or delete these. More incentive if it's some localized issue.

Look at the source of my edit, for SE links the link will automatically turn into the question title.

@David thanks didn't know that,  about the OP I though that means Post Owner ?

@Chebhou Orignal Poster - Stack Exchange Glossary

It's okay and recommended to do the occasional cleanup every now (we have to keep our quality at a certain standard after all) and then ensure that we have as little unanswered questions as possible and those that are asked have at least one useful answer. That being said there are some questions buried deep in the Unanswered tab that can't be answered due to insufficient or incorrect information, poor quality or some other technical issue on the user's end.
Three things I look for when deciding whether a post is worth keeping open or keeping on the site are:

Is it localized or do you find it not helpful to future viewers?
Does it have more than a few dozen views?
Has the user made any effort to communicate with anyone via comments etc
Is the user registered or have they been active on the site in the past 6 - 9 months?

If you come up with a yes, no, no, no or it matches at least 3 of those do cast a delete or close vote or flag it. Closing as unclear won't necessarily apply to all of these however and might discourage a potential answer. Also, if it has a good number of views, that means it might be a recurring problem and worth taking another look at so use your best judgement.


text:
How did my deleted question get a comment?
I deleted my question pretty quickly after it was posted when I realized I'd posted on Blender SE instead of Python SO. But it still received a comment afterward. Is it really gone?
This is the "share" link to the question, but it seems that since it is deleted - nobody can see it, or at least leave comments?

When you've got enough reputation, you can view deleted posts, see: http://blender.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/moderator-tools It seems that moderators are also able to comment on deleted posts.

That was me, and moderators can comment anywhere, anytime.
When a post is deleted it is not removed from the site.

What does deletion mean for a post?
Deleted posts are usually not physically deleted (that is, removed from the system); they're just hidden (AKA soft-deleted). This means they won't appear in search results or data dumps, and normal users following links to them will see a 404 (not found) page explaining the cause of deletion.
Moderators, and normal users with >=10k reputation, see all deleted posts that they have links to.

Quoted from: How does deleting work? What can cause a post to be deleted, and what does that actually mean? What are the criteria for deletion?
So while you did delete it, now that you posted a link to it any user with 2,000 rep (on a beta site like ours) can still read it.
I just added the comment because I thought it would be helpful (nobody can answer a deleted question).

Aha! OK thank you for the explanation. So a deleted question just gets more and more difficult to "find" (after 60 days for example) unless I keep a personal copy of the link somewhere. And apparently that's what I did without realizing it by adding a link in this question. OK, live and learn. Thanks!


text:
Can we please reconsider allowing Q&A regarding Blender build problems?
I posted this question on building Blender and was kindly informed that it's off-topic and I should direct my question to either blenderartists.org or #blendercoders.
Quote:

Reason being, there is often not a definitive answer, issues like this
  also require a bit of discussion to resolve and then there is also the
  possibility that the problem is entirely on your end.

As I find this problematic on a systemic level (that is: detrimental to the Blender developer community's productivity at large, aka huge missed opportunity), I want to make an effort to protest this decision.
Concerning #blendercoders: IRC is an ephemeral media - any knowledge it produces is (technically speaking) instantly forgotten. It is also strongly driven by coincidence and does not scale - The bigger the circle gets, the smaller the chances will be that you meet a person on irc that might have recently produced the knowledge you depend on now. (If that person sees your question through all the clutter and lives in your timezone and is not currently having lunch or at the cinema anyway) Should we really promote this? A platform that gets worse as it grows? A platform that produces duplicate questions by design? That enables access of already produced knowledge only through coincidence? Where the reproduction of knowledge means actual manual labor for persons other than the one searching the knowledge? Really? :)
If anything is to come out of this protest of mine here, I would like it to be that we stop actively promoting IRC as a medium for our knowledge production. It's 2014 and I think we can really do better!
So then ... blenderartists.org! This is already more agreeable, but as far as I am concerned still the wrong place to promote for this. Forums are a 90ies thing, and it shows - I just tried to conjure up the search I would have done on BA to find the solution to my above-mentioned build problem: It leads to a bulky form called "Advanced Search", that is so advanced it does not even feature searching for tags, which is not suprising at all, because this forum does not even support tags in the first place. Falling back to a keyword search "build fedora" brings up a staggering amount of threads that have exactly nothing to do with my problem. Later I notice a faultily rendered select box of sorts (overlapping with another), that would let me limit the search to the appropriate subforum somewhat effectively, were it not unusable in that it only shows 2 subforum titles at a time, while being only navigatable with my mousewheel which unfortunately scrolls over more than 2 entries at a time.
And then there's this problem with policy; for all I know a forum is a place to discuss, and that's absolutely fine with me, but why then am I sent to a forum with my dry technical build problems? I don't want to discuss, I don't want a layout that promotes lengthy pieces of literature without any form of rating or discrimination. What I want is harsh moderation, sticking to the point, a concise layout that labels content in terms of its quality and an environment that enforces people to write as much as is needed to solve a problem, but not a single word more than that. And there's a place for that and it's called Stack Exchange!
And now addressing the reasoning to ban build problems from Blender SE quoted above:
Yes, there is often not a definitive answer - which is why SE allows moderators to close and delete questions!
Yes, a build problem often requires discussion to be solved - but to elaborate is not to argument, and as such I don't see the problem with it.
And yes, the problem might well be entirely on someone's end - but how does that justify neglecting the chance to document the solution for a build problem that might affect eg. 1000s of users building on operating system XY under perfectly repeatable circumstances?

I hope this manages to point out why both IRC and Forums are clearly inferior places of knowledge production and conservation for the subject at hand (build problems), and why - although all the reasons against its inclusion do apply - Blender SE would still be the best place for the community to solve these questions in a contemporary and efficient fashion.
Cheers and thanks for taking the time to read and consider this, regardless of the outcome it is much appreciated!

I would say no, to this.

Issues building Blender often end up being specific to a platform, compiler and the version of Blender you're trying to build.
Build environments are a moving target, on all platforms.
Build errors are very hard to debug remotely, and there is the chance something is broken on the system, its hard for anyone to tell.
There is the Blender Developer Forum topic for building topics.
There is the Blender Developer Handbook which can be used for general information for developers.
This is scope creep on blender.stackexchange, building software is unrelated to using Blender (which adds noise and unrelated content for Blender users).

Having had to help others build Blender before, the reasons it can fail are so varied, that I don't think its useful to have here.
Also there is a fairly high instance of very weird/specific problems, sometimes new developers make modifications to their systems which make error messages very strange (while attempting to build).
Eg:

A libraries missing so they create a symlink from an older library to the new name.
Some change is made to Blender in an attempt to make it build, but that fails (further confusing the error message output).
The build fails before of a local change to the code.

Considering the time it takes to figure all of this out, and the value of the question to anyone else, I think its not worth to have build questions.

If there's a clear-cut conceptual intention to keep the Blender SE free from actual Blender development, this is all the reason I need as an answer for this - thanks! With all this being told how convoluted build questions can be, I want to point out that just by taking them elsewhere they won't get less complex, and encouraging people to make a habit out of ephemeral problem solving on irc is still detrimental to our development (pun intended), and eventually should be adressed with better approaches than a forum or a mailinglist (thanks for mentioning it though, currently the best bet imo)

I realize this may seem harsh, but as a developer you really need to learn how to troubleshoot your own build environment - link errors, header versions, missing includes, compiler compatibility, modifying the build-system,  etc... while its highly frustrating at times. I think learning how to do this is not specific to Blender, which is part of the reason I rather not attempt to address this with blender.stackexchange

If you want to further elaborate on this, I'd be interested in how you'd rather address building problems then, because the part about why not on blender.stackexchange has actually been sufficiently and satisfactorily covered for me! :) That anyone may have to figure out his build problems on his own is just how it is, but I disagree that this means it's pointless to document specific solutions for the whole community to see. Even if a specific solution does not apply to me I can still learn a great deal from the general approach. Denying people, denying us this knowledge - that is harsh.

@simon-repp https://developer.blender.org/docs/handbook has been created, common can be documented here.

Nice, thanks for the update!

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


text:
What are we doing wrong that we're still in Beta?
So an earlier answer in the Blender meta site seemed to suggest that 1500 visitors per day was a desirable goal. If I read the stats for the Blender site correctly, were have more than 10,000 visitors per day, and we've apparently been in beta status since some time in 2013. What other hoops do we need to jump through here?

And now moderator elections are in the works and we are officially in the qeue :D

I do not think we are doing anything "wrong." SE sites can take a long time to graduate.
If you look at the stats of the other sites, we are in a good place. We actually place ahead of several full sites. The time in beta does not mean anything. The old 90 day limit has been done away with. Now the SE team looks at each beta site and lets it grow until it has a sufficient base of higher rep users.
If our nearly 2 years in beta has you worried, don't be. There are 55 beta sites that are older then us. Also, of the sites around the same age as us, our stats are much better.
Look through the different data points on the sites (and use the sort box) http://stackexchange.com/sites you will see we are in good shape.
However obsessing over the stats is discouraged, at nearly ever place site graduation is talked about.
So keep using the site, get more rep, and don't worry when that day comes. (I for one don't mind being in beta at all)
http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/10/when-will-my-site-graduate/
Good explanation of the graduating review

I'm not worried. I just thought if we were needing to send in soup can labels, or cereal box tops to uprade the status, I wanted to be sure I was participating.

@brasshat lol. no box tops needed :)

@David You forgot to note that one of the community managers said we were in the queue for graduation (unless I missed an update). The comment is somewhere on meta.se

@brasshat if you go by the stats on area51 we are only low on two stats - answered and answer ratio - the more questions you answer the more you help. I do think answered we can (and should) improve, but I'm not sure that answered ratio will improve a lot as some of our questions will only get one answer. Another thing I do is watch other SE sites with blender tags, answer and flag some as more suitable for this site, this not only gives us more questions but sends more users to the right place for future questions.

Excellent answer. I should also add that graduation depends not only on stats, but other seemingly minor things such as having a theme for the site (for example).


text:
How about a recommended practices page?
Might there not be value to the community for something akin to the Resources question where we assemble a list of answers providing "recommended practices" for the benefit of less experienced members of the community, especially when the best practices are not necessarily immediately obvious. One of the first "recommended practices" I would suggest should be on the page is to frequently apply scale and rotation. There are others that should be on such a list, too.

I'm not so sure about your idea. I'm sure that if we could get people to properly trouble-shoot their .blends before asking a question the quality of the site overall would rise, but having just another meta post for people to ignore isn't the way to do it.

The "Resources" page I reference in the question is on the main BSE site, not the "meta" one. And I would expect that trouble shooting might come into play on such a site in the case of something on the order of "when I see this condition in blender, this is the first thing I check". But what I propose is something broader than just a trouble shooting help.

Please understand I don't have any real authority in saying this, but I don't believe another list of workflow tutorials would be necessary as both the resources question you linked and the beginner's reference question already serve close to this exact purpose.

I agree. What we could do is find a way to better link it to newcomers.


text:
How to handle a question which is a duplicate of a question in a different stack exchange?
In a comment to a question, OpenStreetMap export, I noted that the question was already answered on Geographic Information Stackexchange.
Should this be considered a duplicate and closed as a duplicate, or is a question (or answer) only considered a  duplicate only if the question it is already asked (or answered) on BSE?

If it was a duplicate (this case it is not) and fits on the other site, you could flag it and ask it to be moved to the proper site where they could mark it as a duplicate.
However it seems like the question you linked to is not what the OP is looking for.
In this case the best thing to do is to simply write an answer to the question on BSE. You can use parts of the other site's answer, so long as you give the proper attribution.
I would suggest any time there is a question that does fit our scope, but has already been asked and answered else where, you write your own answer here. By all means you can link to the other answer, even quote parts of it if you need to. Chances are that the question on BSE will be a bit different then the one on any other site. (Makes it easy to write an answer that is your own.)
It is as simple as this: There is a question that has not been answered yet on BSE, answer it.
SE has no system to close question as dups across sites, each site is separate while still part of the whole SE universe. Yes, questions are only considered a dup if the dup is on the same site (that can lead to some strange results, but it is what we have.)


text:
Are questions about blender forks such as "Bforartists"on topic?
I'm moved to post a question here by this question about the package "Bforartists". At first superficial glance appears to be a shell over Blender. Should this be within the scope of Blender Stackexchange, or not? I'm prepared to vote to close, but I'd be more comfortable with some discussion of this first.
It seems to me, that if we're going to open BSE up to other forks, that we might want to add tags for the other forks, to better be able to distinguish posts related to a fork.

Related: http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/q/4/599. I think this could be an exception to that rule however, as being a fork, the differences may be more comparable less likely to be based on opinion.

I feel like this question just shows an inherent lack of research as a quick google search will explain what the differences are... because nobody would fork blender and just not change it...

I feel like this question just shows an inherent lack of research; as a quick google search will explain what the differences are.
In fact, nobody would use a blender mod/fork/thing if it didn't do something better, cooler or faster.
The download page for any blender mod/fork/thing has almost always explained why you should use their software and I don't think that BSE is a place where "Google what this thing does for me please" questions should be accepted.

I agree that questions merely about the differences may be out of scope for BSE, and while the question that motivated my question here is one of these that shows a lack of research. But to the extent that these Blender forks can be thought of as a "shell" on top of a certain amount of actual Blender foundation code, I can see the possibility that questions from people using such a fork might be of more general interest to the greater community of Blenderheads. It seems to me that some questions are in scope, and others, mainly dealing with UI issues, are not.

Figuring out where to draw the line between questions about these products that are in scope, and those that are not, and how to publicize the existence and location of such a line seems better done as a conscious effort ahead of time, than ignoring the issue until another question comes up where the location of the line is an important consideration.


text:
How should we handle old questions and answers needing some remediation?
One comment response to a recent question (cf. Texture shows in render but not in 3d view) was to refer back to an earlier, similar question (cf. Can't get my model out of wireframe mode), and when I went to review the earlier question, I found the ~.blend uploaded in response to a request, was uploaded to Pasteall, and is no longer available to download. The poster of the original question has not been active in about a year.
How should this be handled?

I'm not sure I see what's to be handled. The lack of .blend in the question doesn't affect the answer, and the OP of the new question can most likely tell if the old answer applies to their situation or not.


text:
Do we need the Undo tag
The undo looks useless and I think it needs removing.
Currently it is only used on one question (which is a duplicate of another question which didn't use the tag and got answers).
I can't see undo being used anywhere else.

Good catch, as iklsr said, (almost) anyone can create a new tag, and some of them, like this one, are not needed at all. PS this is a perfect use of the meta, any time you have a question, or concern about the main site post a question here.

It was just created, new users create these all the time however we don't normally have tags for simple features like this, it has been removed.


text:
What to do with questions that include other questions?
I posted a question about replicating the view-port lighting in the render - Is there a way to render an animation that looks like as if it is rendered with the OpenGL lights (View-port lights)?
However, the question is asked in a way that the answerer would have to answer as if he is answering multiple questions, which means in a way that I asked multiple questions with one post. Some of those questions can be -

"How to make objects not to block the lighting (like in the Blender Internal textured view)?"
"When objects are parented to the camera, how to make them not to react on the zooming of the camera?"

For example, one can post a question on - "How to use Blender to create a movie?". However, that involves knowledge about - Modeling, Lighting, Animating, Rendering etc.; that should be asked as separate questions.
What would be appropriate to do with those kind of questions and what do I have to do with the question? I thought of deleting it, but maybe there is another solution. And there is no delete button for the post. What do I do with it?

It looks like you already fixed it yourself :)

Not sure what you mean, but the post at first had other questions in it. I edited it and deleted them, but that doesn't change the fact that the post is a mixture of other questions. Any ideas what to do with it?

Since you removed them from the post, I assumed that you no longer were asking those questions. If you still want to ask those, feel free to create new questions with links to the original question for context if necessary. Though I think the "not block light" question as already been asked and answered here: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/8108/599

Thanks for the post. The thing is that, the question I asked about blender is like I'm asking multiple questions in one post, so that an answerer would have to answer as if he is answering multiple questions. I'll make an edit to make this post more clearer.

Just split your questions into multiple posts so that each post has one question each. That said, I think your question is fine as it is currently..

Ok. I don't want to make any violation as a user on the site, but if its fine I'll leave it as it is. I'll just put in the needed "tags".

Questions can have multiple smaller follow-up questions if and only if they are directly related to the main question.
For example: "How do I change the focal length for camera to emulate that of a GoPro?" and in the body there is, "Also, where are the camera presets located? This is perfectly fine. However, asking how to extrude faces and add effect strips to a video are not.
So, as a general answer to your question and not the specific case you mentioned. There are several approaches you could take for questions that ask different questions in their body.

If there is a larger or more prominent question, mention this to the poster and or edit it to be that specific one and answer that question. If all questions are of equal significance, cast a close vote as too broad.
Mention in the comments section to the poster that multiple different questions aren't supposed to be in one post and cast a close vote as too broad.

Either way, always try to alert the original poster and do not attempt to answer several different questions in one post.

Thanks for the answer. The post (about Blender) doesn't have  other questions written into it, however the question is written in a way like I have asked different questions in one post. For example, one can ask how to use Blender, however, that would involve: Lighting, Modeling, Texturing etc. which should be asked separately.


text:
Announcing: Blend-exchange a new solution to .blend hosting
Announcing:

For a long time now .blend hosted on pasteall.org have been disappearing, after 5 months. Although good answers and questions shouldn't need .blend files, they can be extremely useful to demonstrate concepts or offer complex setups that aren't relevant to the actual answer. The goal of stack exchange is to build a knowledge base that is easily searchable and efficient to use. Having a part of our knowledge base expire and disapear goes against this philosophy.
Blend-exchange, a new blend hosting site just for blender.stackexchange solves this issue by permanently storing .blend files.

Permanent file storage
Open source
Totaly free, no email accounts
Run by a community member, me
Support up to 30MB files

Note: It is still under development (αlpha), please treat it gently

@SixthOfFour I I'm targeting it for about 20-30-MB, mostly interested to wee what people need, it is currently 50MB

@SixthOfFour that why I made this...

Your appreciation is much appreciated! ;D its nice to see people using tools I spent hours making!

Can I upload a file to an answer?  When I give it the url of the answer it says that it is invalid.

@PGmath Always give the question URL, not the answer URL, even if it is an answer... its to difficult to support both sadly, for various reasons. The URL is only used to check that the blend is used on this site. And it is pretty easy to tell from the question whether the blend is used or not.

Thanks man, sorry for my ignorance.  It's pretty slick btw!

No problem... usually means there is some UX issue that needs to be fixed :D ... I'll see what I can do! Thanks :D

@PGmath Okay, I pushed a change that give a more descriptive error when an answer url is provided. Thanks for the feedback!

Who has admin control on BSE? Each SE site seems to get some control over a custom layout, would it be possible to add a button and script link to the style layout of BSE?

@sambler The SE staff has admin control. When we graduated from beta, they had a professional designer come in, converse with the community, and then create a design (see discussion here: https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/q/969 and here https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/q/782).

Blend exchange seem to not support uploading up to date Blend files. I get an error it's not supported when trying to upload a Blender 3.2.1 file.

@ChristophWerner Can you provide a sample (i.e. upload to google drive) of the file you are unable to upload? I pushed a patch for this issue a while back, and I am not sure why this error is still occurring.

Hi. Thank you for the feedback. Meanwhile I've found the reason why my .blend file was not accepted. I saved it compressed. If you set the "compressed" option in Blenders file save window, then this kind of files will not be accepted by Blend-Exchange.
All .blend files must be uncompressed to be uploaded, currently. Maybe you can change this limitation for the future or inform the users about this?

@ChristophWerner The issue has been fully fixed. It makes sense this would impact only compressed files, because the issue is they changed the compression algorithm, so my previous validation was not able to uncompress newer files.

Here is a userscript which allows for blendfiles to be uploaded to Blend-Exchange from the editor on blender.stackexchange. Written by @GiantCowFilms and myself and based on the kbd script.
It's quite simple to use:

It's still in a bit of an alpha state, so come back for updates if you try it out now!

@SixthOfFour I fixed that yesterday.. Are you using the latest version?

@SixthOfFour Ah, well according to github I pushed it about 11 hours ago. Anyway, it should work now (just checked the source on github, it has the fix)

@SixthOfFour Yes, not appearing in questions is a known limitation. The URL of the post is used to programatically detect .blends not being used on SE, and the url of the post can't be gotten when the post hasn't been posted yet. I didn't see a reason to disable it on meta, but if users find it pointless and annoying I'll be happy to change it ;)

Service Update 1:
Blend-Exchange has got a new feature in alpha:
Optional Accounts! Now you can view all your blends in one place, and hopefully soon  be able to update and delete them. You can register here
Exit alpha soon?
Blend-Exchange has had no bug reports for weeks, and appears to be running without much hassle. However, new features like this login may still have bugs. As soon as this is done and tested, I want to move out to beta. Before I do this, I'd like to know what changes are needed/desired, since I prefer to add them now then later. Leave a comment below
UX concerns
There have been a few instances of new users having trouble with the service, please notify me by email or opening an issue in the github repo. I'd like to be able to make this site easy to use as possible, since we have visitors from all experience levels, nationalities and ages.
Update 1 on UX:
The url input is much much more forgiving, it now supports any of the below formats

http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/21800/undo-cursor-move
http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21800/undo-cursor-move
http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21800/
http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21800/245
http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/21800/245
http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21800/undo-cursor-move/21802#21802
http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21800/undo-cursor-move/?abcd=efg
http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21800/undo-cursor-move/?abcd=efg&hijk=lmn

Missing a format? please suggest it!
More feedback can help me make even more necessary changes
Service Update 1.5:
Bug fixes and improved login.
Better and more descriptive errors for the URLs.
Thanks,  I look forward to you feedback!

Since I just noticed that the request for permanent storage for Blend files was declined, I should note that I don't think it fair that GiantCowFilms ("GCF") bear the cost of permanent blend file hosting all by himself, either financially, or the time cost of maintaining the site. I propose that we explore what options are available for community support for these costs.

At this point in time, Blend-Exchange costs me nothing, since it is using unused space on a server I am already renting to host my site, http://giantcowfilms.com. That being said, thanks for the support. I will look into funding from the community if the expenses increase significantly.


text:
What do you look for in a moderator?
As our site finally reaches graduation, we are getting the opportunity to elect moderators. In the election we will be voting for who should lead us. It is important for the candidates (or those considering candidacy) to know what the community wants. It is also valuable to be reminded of what a good moderator is. What do you look for in a moderator?
Note: These are the qualities that stack exchange looks for, and general information about the post of moderator.

I'm tempted too answer this with only a link... http://blender.stackexchange.com/users/12/iklsr

Committed
I would want all moderators to spend time on the site regularly, and actively participating in site activities, answering, moderating, reviewing and mentoring above and beyond the norm. This would show that the moderator was interested and active in the determining of the site's present and future atmosphere and quality.
I would also note that they need to be able to offer this dedication in the future as well as present. Upcoming commitments such as a job or college/school should be carefully considered.
Professional
I would expect a moderator to be a professional, someone who promotes high quality on the site, and who contributes high quality material. They should always have the site's quality in their mind. A moderator is supposed to be a leader, and they should set a good standard.
Responsible
Moderators have a lot of power, so they need to be responsible in the using of that power. No favoritism, targeted chat bans, etc. This is really a critical point, a moderator who abuses authority is worse than useless, no matter if all the other criteria are fulfilled. The abuse of power damages users trust of the moderator, and moderators in general, while also potentially delivering undeserved punishment and making users decide it isn't worth contributing.
Friendly
It is easy for a mod with a lot of responsibilities and a busy schedule to become aloof and hard to reach. This is not good, as moderators really should be able to be consulted on important site questions (especially on meta). If the moderator is not friendly and interested in the users as well as the site, then the users will be less likely to ask.
Communicative
Moderators need to communicate to the users what is going on in the stratosphere, as it ultimately affects them as well. Letting them know why they take specific actions can help as well. I think a moderator should be prepared to answer questions about their actions and have reasons for them, and that anything major should be communicated to the users without needing to be asked.
These are basic qualities, @X-27's answer shows good ways to quantify these qualities.

Activity
If a user is not active, he can not fulfill his duties as a moderator.
Helpful Flags
A user should be able to identify when a post is bad. Having lots of disputed flags would be a good indicator that he is a bad judge of quality.
High Votes
A moderator should not only smash down the ban hammer whenever someone makes a mistake, but also encourage good users by voting on their posts.
Many Reviews
Having many reviews shows that you are willing to help monitor and improve the site. If you do not review posts normally, how could anyone expect you to do that and much more as a moderator?
Good Standing
Any prospective moderator should have a good standing with the community.
If a moderator never answers or asks any questions, never comments on posts, and never visits the site's chat rooms, there will be a void between the users and the moderators. It will be much harder for them to keep the site's quality where it should be, without discouraging users away from the site.

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/moderator

A moderators job is to help keep the site civil and dignified.
A moderators job is not "teacher" of the site's content.  The moderator is a teacher of the site's code of conduct.
If the moderators do their work properly, content-teachers who contribute to the site will want to stay because people who visit the site are behaving well, otherwise, those people will leave so they can avoid all the trouble that happens when a site is overrun with malicious and snarky comments.
Nobody wants to work in a hostile environment; a moderators job is to make sure the site does not become like that.
A moderator is a person who should mediate conflicts, not escalate them.
The history of our civilization shows us that conflict and war have always been with us.  Moderators should be able help to make sure this site is not contributing to this problem.  What happens here will certainly spread into all of our personal lives,  this is true for both the good and the bad.

--- From the wiki ---
As a moderator, your actions now represent the community, so you will be held to a higher standard of behavior. You are an ambassador of trust, with the same sorts of rights that the official development team and community coordinators have.
Your goal is to guide the community with gentle — but firm — intervention. Respect your fellow community members at all times; demonstrate fairness and impartiality in your actions.
Whenever possible, try to leave frequent comments on posts where you’ve taken (or considered taking) a moderator action, explaining the reasoning. This is important so that community members can learn the norms of the community and the moderation policies.
Keep the site reasonably on topic by closing, migrating, or removing blatantly off-topic questions.
Regularly check for flagged posts, and decide if further action is warranted.
In the case of serious disputes, communicate directly with users via email to help mediate and resolve those disputes.

Role Model - Always
Moderators set the tone and expectation for a community. A moderator who is rude, incomprehensible, unruly or unintelligent can lower expectations and confuse new users. This applies to all circumstances, chat, meta, main, comments and even other network sites. The moderator should be someone who is looked up to. Look to community managers for example. Every time one posts on meta, or makes a statement, it clears up confusion and calms irritate users. There thoughts are usually both correct and final; and they communicate them in a way that everyone understands without fail. Wow, I wish I could be like that.... every time I read there work, I think about how I could communicate better. Those types are who our moderators should be.
Dedicated -  now and in the future
Maintaining a site takes work, and these individuals need to be prepared to do it. That is pretty obvious. But, as we have learnt the hard way, they need to be prepared to do it in the long run as well. Two of our moderators have stopped contributing; one of them  was replaced. Many of our original candidates who were not elected have left the site as well (Maybe as moderators they would have stayed, but chances are they would have left). Candidates should be able to contribute to the site for some time to come. Future candidates: Please consider your future before running! Do you expect to go collage, get a job or have a family. How will this change your schedule?
If things change suddenly, you should also be prepared to cede you post. There isn't shame in resigning in order to pursue life, or be there for the people and tasks that mean the most to you.
Available - (esp. on chat)
Being able to reach people of authority informally can be helpful to many users. Sometimes using the formal channels of discussion can be intimidating or a tad unnecessary. In other cases it can set larger wheels in motion or create controversy, when an informal discussion can resolve the issue or dissuade unnecessary action. Its also nice to be able to chat to the boss!
Experienced & Valued Contributor
Moderators, armed with super powered close and open votes, as well as swaying opinions, have to understand site policy. One of the best ways to know what is current is to be actively involved in the site, answering and asking, to see when rules should be bent, and when not.
A contributor's post's "Value" is easily quantified here on stack exchange with reputation. So can experience. Moderators should have a fair amount of it. That is simple.
There is however an important aspect to observe here: Current value. Old posts, that are early to the site, can sometimes belie actual skill. The simplest and most basic answers on sites such as stack overflow can have some of the most votes. Be sure the investigate the users profile, and see where their reputation comes from. In the brand new (and quite nice) profiles, under the activity tab, there is a graph of the reputation that user has earned. Frequent plateaus reveal periodic absences and a steady decline in gain shows decreasing interest. They should also be present in the top few rows of the week, month and quarter tabs. This also applies for the edits and  voters tab.
Active Cleanup - Review Queues, Tag Wikis, Flags and Edits
A moderator should be constantly using their power to clean up the site that is there first an primary purpose. Their contributions in this area can be measured through badges, and review queue stats. They should have a considerable number of edits and help full flags (visible in the activity tab of the profile)
Meta master - On Meta.SE!
Its obvious a moderator should be active on local meta, but also on Meta.SE as well. The major policies of stack exchange are determined there, and moderators should be actively trying to help the network as well as their site. Furthermore, many improvements to local sites can and are gained through Meta.SE as network wide changes.
Above and beyond
There are boxes of service for moderators to check. There are many that are optional, and some that aren't on the list. Moderators should check all of these. Nobody requires a moderator to advocate for our community or spread the word, but they still should go that extra mile, or at the very least, convince others to do so.
Notes:
A diamond isn't a verified seal of a quality contributor. Moderators usually lose their diamonds for fairly major offensives or gross negligence. I've seen moderators trashing valid area 51 proposals (Down votes on highly voted example questions, etc) that might steal traffic and a bit of scope for there sites. I've seen moderators only check the bare boxes of there posts instead of handing it off to far more dedicated and worthy individuals. Many of these folks are still moderators. Use the criteria in this post, other posts and stackexchange blogs/official statements as a guide, before blindly voting for someone just because they are moderator on another site. Moderators are hard to replace, so choose wisely.
Chat is more important then you think! You may think its a waste of time, or just a social party, and to some extent it is. It is also the highly influential power user hangout, and can influence meta greatly (More then you would think: imagine meta posts to be press releases, while chat is the board room. That can often be the case [Okay literal folks, this is a bit exaggerated.]) It is also responsible for anomalies on the main site. Chat posts can determine the fate of a question, or influence a decision. Moderators should be active and aware of what happens in chat.
Moderators - Figureheads of Policy
Moderators are the figurehead of our site, to other sites and new users. Vote for who you think best represents the positive attributes of our site, and will work to keep them that way.

Long-winded, but excellent points!

My requirements for moderators are very simple.

Moderators aren't leaders, they are protectors of community agreed scope, sanity and netiquette. In their choices they should be an example of the spirit of B.se. and should be seen to participate with the QA like everyone else.
Impartial, open to reason, and willing to concede for the greater good of information flow when the scope is being stretched.
Subscribe to the bf-committers mailing list and routinely read through the bug reports for awareness. Should be familiar with the bug reporting process. (If they've never done a bug report, how could I possibly feel confident they have the right mindset to be a moderator?)

As a community we govern ourselves through popular vote and counter challenges to that vote, moderator votes help swing the ballot faster.
Moderation shouldn't be a second fulltime-job either. We should have enough moderators in overlapping timezones to react to unwanted or disputed content.

The last paragraph especially is good, this isn't a one man (or woman) show, it is a team effort.

This was interseting... that highlight on bf-committers was a bit odd, and I don't think it would sway my vote, however, when we ask the moderators questions (stage two of actual election), do add a question about activity on bf committers/ other development.

@zeffii, moderators aren't always leaders, but sometimes on meta and such they have to guide people in disagreement, or in tough situations make calls. The need to a have a few leadership qualities to guide people.

We can of course have alternative opinions about what makes a good moderator, only votes will show our collective choice, and only time will show if that choice was good or not.


text:
Are sarcastically funny comments allowed?
Sometimes, when a particularly ridiculous question appears, a sarcastic joke can actually shed light on to the issue (by making the OP see how ridiculous the premise for the question is). They also can give some folks a good healthy laugh. However, these aren't the niceset way to communicate, and may potential offend the OP (In the case of some OPs, there is even a real risk they may take sarcasm for fact).
Case Example:
I wanted to post this:

No it won't work, Microsoft completely re-worked its entire API, just to show software companies who is boss. However they didn't realize that everyone would just switch to their main competitor OS, windows 7.

as a comment to:
Is Blender compatible with Windows 10?
However I was afraid it may be deleted, or just isn't a good thing to say... Do we condone such comments?
Bonus Question Anyone think of a nicer way to make the joke?

I think we should, as this could be perceived as offensive. However, if written in a way that is obviously a joke, it should be fine.

I know! We can have SE build us a system where advanced users can write two messages, one for the author, and one for people above a certain amount of rep!

Well not a nice way to say it, but "It will never be compatible. In late 2014, Microsoft decided that they like to keep software companies in the dark, so they completely redid their software api so that no software company could ever write code for their Windows 10. This is why, I have switched to their main competitor, Windows 7."

What would a giant cow be doing asking about such an advanced subject as humor? All joking aside, there is nothing wrong with humor in the comments. (even if one of those nasty mods come along and deletes your comment as "too chatty" or "not funny" you really haven't lost anything.) However questions, answers are held to a different, and much higher standard. (I really tried to think of something funny to put in this)

Quite honestly, this may not be the right thing to do in light of @David's comment, but if I thought something was funny I would put it in an answer as well as a comment, I think the line isn't really a line, more like a gradient. as long as it's not a joke about someone, toward someone who has a history of being easily offended, or could be conceivably imagined to hurt someone, in my mind, it could belong either place. (I have no idea if that made sense or not)

Well, we can't be serious all the time ;)
There is quite a lot of discussion about this on the global meta.
In general, humorous remarks are fine as long as they are relevant, not offensive, in good taste, and actually funny ;)
Of course, all these are highly subjective attributes. Such is humor.
Bonus points if your light-hearted comments also contribute useful and relevant information to the current discussion.

I don't think sarcastic comments have a place on any SE site. For most people who ask questions here it's a one-off QA experience. We shouldn't be in the mind frame of thinking "they should know better than to ask a stupid question like that".
In the past it has happened that software written for a previous version of windows / OSX didn't work on the next version. Granted the way to solve it was often installing a system library or update the software to a compatible version. So that question isn't actually a demonstration of someone's ignorance. It's simply a question which deserves a respectful answer.
How difficult is it to answer (specifically to that question)

" While currently windows 10 is a Beta edition, people have reported some issues to the bug tracker. As soon as Windows 10 reaches maturity (released to the public) we'll be able answer the question more authoritatively. It's in Microsoft's best interest to not break programs between upgrades, i'd be very surprised if Blender doesn't work on win 10 or can't be fixed specific to win 10 if it doesn't work immediately "

My biggest problem with sarcasm on a site like BSE is that the reader doesn't have the benefit of the cheeky glint in your eye as you give a nonsense answer. All they see is text, and are free to interpret your message in a way you didn't intend, not just because of language barriers, but someone can see it as a personal slight, especially if you haven't first built up rapport with them.


text:
Do you want hats?
Update (29/11/13):
We will have hats. For those who don't want to participate, there will be an option  in the site footer to disable these.

For a while now StackExchange has had a little winter themed event in December for sites to participate in called Winter Bash.

Basically, users earned "hats" for their gravatars by completing certain tasks (similar to badges).
Certain actions would trigger the user receiving a hat, which their gravatar could then "wear". For example, editing a post would yield an editor-themed hat (fedora with pen) to the editor.
From previous years:

Users had their entire hat collection on http://winterbash2013.stackexchange.com.
Individual users who didn’t want to participate, didn’t want to see hats, and/or are generally anti-hat had an "I hate hats" option available..
The only visual change to the site itself was the presence of the hats and the "I hate hats" button in the footer.

This is totally optional. Should we take part in this? Instead of mass responses, just vote on either of the answers below. We have until Dec 1st to reply, so in a week or so, the answer with the most votes will be the one we go with.

Sounds like fun! xD

What is this, TF2? Count me in!

Oh trust me, they are tons of fun :)

Wait, are we supposed to downvote answers too or just upvote?

@WChargin Either goes, it's the one with the most votes that will be chosen.

@WChargin Do you want to vote once or twice? ;)

I just signed up the site.

@DantheMan I submitted a reply days ago. See the update. ;)

@iKlsR Hah. Ok. I just got the email yesterday.

Yes, give us all the glorious hats.

No, keep the site hat free please.


text:
How do I ask a question that is hard to describe?
I'm new to Blender and I ran into a problem, I'm not sure of how to accurately explain my problem. How can I best explain/show the community the issue I'm having to get some help?

Your new to blender? Wow.

Blender is a visual application, words will go a far way but a picture is worth a thousand words or so the saying goes.
The recommended current workflow is to either use as many images as needed to illustrate the issue or to submit the problematic file for inspection.
Solution 1
A well worded question can trump all, provided you describe the steps that are necessary to reproduce your problem or show what you have achieved and where you want to go. The editing text area uses markdown and supports basic html editing so you can highlight your points etc, list any steps and bring your point across as best as you can. If you aren't sure what feature X is or how to explain what a modifier or operation does, just mention that — the chances of someone knowing are high.

Solution 2
Upload image(s) showing the problem(s). See How can I optimize images and screenshots that I embed in my post? for more information regarding this and how you could fit several images neatly in your question without making your post extra long.
At the end of the day, either of these solutions would be good, the ideal solution being a combination of 1 and 2 (for more complex questions). Definitely better than a string of vague words thrown together.

Solution 3
Record a small video/gif of the problem and upload that. Tools you can use are LICEcap or GifCam (preferred), these run natively on Windows but can also be executed on linux under Wine. If the resulting gif exceeds 2MB in size you can upload it to gfycat and then add the link in your post. Otherwise you can use imgur directly from StackExchange as you would with any other image. See How to post gifs on this site? for more detail.
If you are more advanced or have the software readily on hand, Camtasia, CamStudio (free), Open Broadcaster Software (free), Bandicam (free but with watermark), Fraps (free) and recordmydesktop, simplescreenrecorder on linux etc are good for recording your session.

Solution 4
Share your file - people might be working on projects and not want to share their project files, that's fine, but if that's the case, try to recreate the specific problem in another file or edit that scene to isolate the problem. This is usually the fastest way to get help especially if your problem is a localized one, a seasoned Blender user can usually immediately spot whatever the problem is.

Good reference to point new users to.

I totally agree with the solutions you propose. If people intend to use a 3D creation software, they should be able to make some screen captures and annotate them ;) In the list of utilities, I would add QuickTime Player that comes gratis with every Mac. It has screen recording functionalities that often people ignore.

also a site called ezgif  allows for on-line optimization of GIFs, very handy to get the sizes down sometimes.

I didn't put them in levels but I agree it could be read incrementally.


text:
Question title capitalization convention
So I've been wondering whether it's better to capitalize all the words in the title for example
1. "This is a Title that has Capitalized Words."
or just capitalize the first word as used in normal sentences..
2. "This is a title that has regular capitalization in it's name."
I've been capitalizing every word in the title. Here's my argument for that. Although most questions are titled in the matter of #2, I think #1 is generally used on most news sites. Therefore, I think it looks more professional.
However, I would like to hear what the majority of people think about this. How should we capitalize question titles?

This has been asked over on the SO and EL&U meta sites.
In short, Stack Exchange sites use sentence case because:

Question 'titles' are not titles in every context
Sentence case is more readable, particularly in lists (see the related questions on the right)

both good points.


text:
Should the 'tool' tag be removed?
Should the 'tool' tag be removed? It's kind of broad and undefined. Besides, blender is a tool. I don't think using it to mark a question about the knife 'tool' makes sense either; that's too broad.

The tool tag has been removed from the questions they were assigned. Tags with no questions are soon removed completely. If you see them pop up again, flag one of the questions for moderator attention. This becomes less of a problem after the private beta, when the rep requirements to create new tags is increased: https://blender.stackexchange.com/faq#reputation.

I agree that the tool tag is far too vague, and generally does not add a lot to the question. It's better to be more specific, and use tags such as modifiers or knife-tool instead.

A question about the knife tool is fine, but tool needs to go. It's not useful because it could refer to anything or nothing at all.


text:
Time restriction before accepting answer
Is there a way for the site to enforce a minimal time limit before the question is allowed to be marked as 'accepted'? This should give more people a time to answer, and increase the quality of the answers.

If I remember correctly, new users have to wait ~15 minutes before they can accept. For own answers, OPs have to wait a day.
This is usually encouraged and or practised but users tend to go with what works for them at the moment and just accept answers. If something better or more indepth is posted, they can always unaccept the current one and accept the better one, but in the end it is what the OP chooses and when they decide to accept it.
We are a free and helping community, this is a learning experience for everyone and that is one reason why the edit functionality exists, most times questions can be improved or bettered with a few points etc. We can all chip in and make one good answer. If you feel however that your contribution merits a new answer, feel free to do so as multiple answers are always encouraged.

this sounds reasonable enough to me. Accepted! :)

Related: http://meta.stackexchange.com/a/50703/192187