text:
New off topic close reason
There is a consensus that we have to do something to address posts that are off topic. See all the previous meta posts:
Add a “Closing > Off-Topic > Not about Blender” reason
How should I flag tutorial requests?
Cleaning up our custom close reasons
Custom off-topic close reasons: 2014 in review (yes it is from two years ago)
I propose adding a "off-topic" close reason, which would link to our off topic list.
Remember we are limited to only three custom close messages, and we already have two of them used. Here are the two current custom close messages.
We have the bug report reason:

This question appears to be about an issue caused by a bug in Blender. These should be reported to the official bug tracker.

The second is too localized:

This question is too localized in its current form and is unlikely to be applicable outside of a very narrow context. Consider broadening the scope of this question in order to make it more useful for future users of the site.

Now my question is what should the wording be for the third close reason.

I think there will be agreement that it needs to deal with other off topic questions. Some examples: "How does my picture look", "How to do this in 3ds max" or this question (10k only link, community deleted it).
Finally here is my wording:

Blatantly off-topic (this question has nothing to do with blender, or is off topic for this site).

Let me reiterate that I'm 100% ok with changing, rewording, or using a completely different close reason. This post is just to get feedback on the new close reason (which we really do need).
Whatever we end up using I just want it to fill the need for a close reason to use for questions that have nothing to do with blender or any part of our scope.

Not really much of a fan of that wording ("blatantly" in particular seems too strong IMO). How about something like "This question doesn't appear to meet the site's topic requirements"? On a related note, I think the definitions of "support requests" and "hotkey questions" in that meta post could use an updated looking-at (not to mention source code questions). it feels like a fair number of our current valid questions could arguably fall under those categorizations.

I do like it, but I agree "Blatantly" can sound a bit strong, though I can't really come up with a better wording. Maybe Evidently or Totally off-topic - This question doesn't seem to be about, nor remotely related to Blender specifically ? English is not my first language so the nuances of the language may elude me.

My biggest complaint is that the "belongs on another site in the Stack Exchange network" only lets you recommend meta.blender.se. This should be a fill-in-the-blank or a listing of many SE sites (not all, but like code review, stack overflow, graphic design, computer graphics, photography, etc.).

@pycoder I know how you feel, see my answer here for why we don't have more options, and what to do instead.

Perhaps instead a simple This question doesn't seem to be specifically about Blender would suffice. Because most of the time the user does happen to be using Blender, and said task could even be done in Blender but it is more of a general question about 3D modelling or about other related tasks  like parallel software/OS/file management

Two general themes to the custom off topic close reasons that I find myself sadly using quite a bit (but with different wording) are:

This question is off topic because it has absolutely nothing to do with blender.

and

I'm voting to close this question as off topic because it shows very little to no effort researching and/or writing this question.

Perhaps the third custom close reason should be used for people either new to Stack Exchange, new to Blender, or both. (This question is off topic because it appears as if the OP didn't even try to find an answer himself, and instead whipped together a poorly written post demanding an answer)
Of, even better - here's my blend. Fix it. Now. My project is due - tomorrow.


text:
What is our criteria for a minimum effort?
This is a two part question, but it is centered around one issue: What is the minimum effort we expect to see in a question?
I bring this up because, yet again today we had another "How do I do X" post.
This is an interesting subject on BSE, some questions are heavily DVed, while others are some of our most popular questions.
There are several variations I have seen on BSE, listed below. Are all ok? Are some ok? Where do we draw the line? How do we distinguish between off topic and good question?

Post an image and ask how do I model this
Link to a youtube video and ask how do I make this effect
Conceptually describe the desired outcome, ask how to do that.

"How do I do X" (hdidx) questions can further be categorized into materials, modeling, look (I'm using "look" as an overarching term to encompass questions asking about the post processing, feel, style, etc of an image) and workflow (workflow encompass questions about the use of functions in blender).
The Material and look categories seam to lean towards being ok just to ask "how do I make this *example image here*," without anything further. Is that ok? If so we need to make that clearer and apply it uniformly. Or do we want to see a minimum something here?
Modeling is the one category that we seam* to expect to see some effort, and not just "How do I make this?". However as you can see from the links below, this category is no exception to our complete lack of standards. Some questions get DVed because the OP did not show any effort, or it is too localized, or too broad; yet here again we have question the go on to be massively popular.
I think the last category (workflow) is a good example of why we need "minimum standards", people should be asking how do use blender. Yet do we want to be answering no effort, "noob," "just make it work" questions?. This goes back to the original question of "what are our minimum standards?"
A plus denotes a well received question, a minus denotes a down voted question.
How to make a crystal material? +
How to make a spiked sphere? +
How to make a sun in Blender?
How to make a shockwave? -
How to make a flexible "garden" hose that can be controlled from both ends without losing shape?
How to make or simulate perspiration? +
How can I model ultra-viscous, dripping wet objects?
How to close view windows? +
How can I quickly generate / create a large city without modeling it all by hand? +
How can I make a wrought iron basket? +
How do I model a bottle case like this? -
How would I create an arch? +
How would I go about creating a spiralled dome? +
How to model hard surface sword -
Making a multi-colored candy material in Cycles? +
How to Construct a Diamond or Other Gemstone Material in Cycles +
Approach for a Cheese material with SSS in Cycles? +
And many more... (if anyone else wants to add more examples, positive and negative please do)
As was suggested by shog9 (an SE employee), we need some kind of minimum standards.

... Stack Overflow has MCVE, TeX has MWE, you need... Something to succinctly express what your expectations are here.

What are BSE's MWE (minimal working example)?
In cases where we do not need/want a MWE, what do we expect?
What are our minimum standards for questions?

I think the difference between the first downvoted one about the rocks beneath the castle, and the second one about the spiked ball is that the rocks would be easy to model, it would just take forever to get the details right. Whilst, the spiked ball was more about using modifiers and special modelling tools. One is asking for technique, the other is asking for somebody to do something for them or they are new blender and don't know anything about blender in which case they should ask a more fundamental question. But how to define them... idk

I agree with Sammy. The UVed questions ask for fundamental, basic, concentrated and fast to achieve things (demanding a little software knowledge), while DVed ones ask for advanced, time consuming techniques, that requires a large tutorial, not a simple answer. And they sound like: 'please do it for me, I have no Blender knowledge, very tight deadline and no money to pay the guys on Blenderartists.org'. It's like asking for creating a simple spring vs creating a box-spring bed (with a blanket on top of it :)).

Sorry, can't edit, but please fix the title: criteria is plural, criterion is singular, so your title should either be "what are our criteria_ or (unlikely) "what is our criterion".

For modeling questions

Reference Images
After some thought, the question must include an example of what they are trying to accomplish.
For example, this question How would I create an arch? should have included a picture of the type of arch.
Questions about how to model things should be phrased like this: How would I go about creating a spiralled dome? and should include multiple reference images. There should be a minimum of 2 different reference images. (which brings me to the next point)
Complexity
On all SE websites, the goal is to help users. Ideally, one user has a question and then in a few months another user has the same question, does a google search and can find the answer without having to ask another question.
Questions like this: How to model hard surface sword don't promote this behavior. Asking how to model a specific object is far too small of a scope. Only a few users would benefit from learning how to make that specific sword and if others wanted to make a different sword, they might ask a separate tutorial on their sword.
This question: How would I go about creating a spiralled dome? is a great question because there are thousands of little spiraled things, and each reference image shows a different style. The answer to this question must be a dynamic answer that can fit almost any of the styles in the reference images, and that is exactly what the answer is. Now anyone who wants to make a little spiral thingy on the top of their building has a simple solution that will work for any little spiral thing on the top of any of their buildings.
Example:
Here is an example of a minimum modeling question

Is there an easy way to model lenses?
How can you easily model any simple lens in blender???????

This is a good modeling question because anyone who wants to know how to model lenses in the future is presented with a way to make lenses in blender will not have to ask a separate question or search for a separate question about how to make bi-convex lenses.
We should encourage users to make the scope of their question bigger so that their question is more useful to a wide variety of users.

For material questions

Reference Images
Just like objects, you need reference images for material questions. You should have at least two reference images from different angles, in different environments, or in different shapes, or one high quality reference image if you can easily find more on the internet.
Previous attempts
Unless the material is extremely complicated (like iridescence) the user should have a screenshot of their node setup of their attempt, and a quick rendering with their attempt. This is so we are sure that the user put in at least a little bit of effort into making it and so that we can assess what they did wrong.
Why material is different than modeling
The scope for material questions should be much smaller than modeling questions because questions like "How to make a metal material" could have hundreds of thousands of different solutions that are all equally correct, but are different types of metals with different properties.
Example:

How can I make a denim material in cycles?
How do I make a procedural denim material?  I tried to make a denim material, but it just looks like this  Here is the node setup I tried

This is a great question because it showed that the user attempted (although very minimally because that "denim" material looks horrificaly unrealistic) and shared their attempt at a node setup .

Modeling Questions
Ok, here's what I think. It's kinda long but summed up into "one" sentence:

Questions pertaining to the creation of an object through modeling may only be permitted if it includes: description of previous attempts, images of desired results, does not appear to intentionally have someone make something the OP is too lazy or busy to make, and can not be easily created through the use of basic tools, requiring the use of advanced tools, techniques, and/or modifiers.

You can totally suggest changes to this - I'm not 100% sure of it, it seems a little ill-defined.
In More Detail
Include Sculpting?

Questions pertaining to the creation of an object through modeling

I don't know if you want to combine this with sculpting or not. We probably should...
Criteria
Previous Attempts
I think this is necessary if the OP wants to have a chance at getting a good answer and to cut other unnecessary "fat". Also, in this way, the person answering the question can put more focus on one area the OP is struggling with.
Image of Desired Result
I think this goes without saying; if the OP wants a good answer that actually gives him/her what s/he wants they need an image of the final product
Intent

does not appear to intentionally have someone make something the OP is to lazy or busy to make

Ok, here's what I really wanted to talk about. The OP can have all the above criteria but still asks for way too much. Like if they ask for how to model the Taj Mahal, throw in a picture of it and say the struggle with the domes, but still want the entire thing, pillars and all, then that's too much. All they want is an entire .blend because they're too lazy to make it themselves. BUT if they ask how to model just the domes, throw in a pic of the domes and really spell out where in the dome they struggle with and it seems genuine, then sure we should allow it.
Also, with things like the spiked sphere, sure you could model each spike and try to get it exactly right but would be tedious and improbable, if not impossible. So that question is asking for technique through the use of modeling and all those other neat modeling tools.
Material Questions
I think all 'how to make x material' should be encouraged. It'll be useful for future people and is quite different then modelling. Of course they need to include my first two criteria, desired result, and previous attempts, as should all "how do I make" questions

source: Stack Exchange

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

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

sort: votes


text:
Hats Contest (say good bye to the Winter Bash)
The contest is over and the winner is 10Replies
See below for the full results.

In case you did not know we have contests here on the meta from time to time.
Before the hats are all packed up for another year, lets do something fun to make them last just a bit longer.
The objective of this contest to is model and render a hat (or more then one), but not just any hat, a hat from the Winter Bash. All the hats are laid out here. Keep your hat as close as possible to the original.
Some rules:

Use Blender. (duh)
Keep it nice, nothing a reasonable, average person wouldn't want to show to a five year old.
Include .blend file, we want to learn from each other, and yeah we want to check that you really did make it in blender.
You can edit/change your submission at anytime up until the deadline (1/11/2017 UTC 00:00:00z).
Late entries are not counted, but you may as well post it (not like there's a prize)
Only one entry per person
Downvotes will not be considered when picking the winner

Winner:
This is a popularity contest where the entry with the most up votes by the vote cut off deadline (January 14, 2017 at UTC 00:00:00z) wins.
The winner will get bragging rights, and not much else. Except for the knowledge you gathered from trying something new.
Deadlines:
All images must be posted (as an answer below) by January 11, 2017 at UTC 00:00:00z.
Only votes before January 14, 2017 at UTC 00:00:00z will count towards the winner.
At or around January 14, 2017 at UTC 00:00:00z this post will get updated with the winners.

The winner is 10Replies with his "First Responder" hat. congratulations!
Here is the standing and the vote totals at the time the contest ended.
+------------+-------------------------+-------+
| User       | Hat                     | Votes |
+------------+-------------------------+-------+
| 10 Replies | First Responder         | 12    |
+------------+-------------------------+-------+
| David      | Maverick                | 10    |
+------------+-------------------------+-------+
| Ward       | I Have A Little Dreidel | 8     |
+------------+-------------------------+-------+
| Kidus      | Just Here for the Hat   | 6     |
+------------+-------------------------+-------+
| *Carlo     | Philantropist           | 6     |
+------------+-------------------------+-------+
| Luka ash   | Amped Up                | 5     |
+------------+-------------------------+-------+

Note that Carlo submitted his entry after the deadline, and so he is not eligible for the prize.
Here are the links to each post:
10Replies, David, Ward, Kidus, Carlo, Luka ash

Nooo! I will never say goodbye to hats!

@X-27 It's okay, just let go.

My head will be so cold without hats  ;(

I'm going to keep the hats by screenshoting my profile pic w/ the hat and setting that as my profile pic. Problem Solved! :)

@veryrandomme did that last year. it was... unique

@Ward Do it every year and watch as your endless hat collection grows

Well played linking to PPCG, whether intentional or not ;)

so Carlo was "not eligible for the prize" - aww. that is an awfully big loss...

What year is it? Does your hat tell you? I didn't think so. High quality hats. Produced by a modern noise free high quality factory.
Now you can know what year it is
IN STYLE

Upvote for Suzanne

Just so you know, the last image is a close up of the feather. It is only partially rendered because I didn't quite finish it in time...

Maverick

will add blend after I clean up the unused bits, and pack textures

HAVE A LITTLE DREIDLE
With under a day to work on this since I leave tomorrow, I’ve decided to take

Keep your hat as close as possible to the original.

very literally. :D Iḿ not sure how i managed to do poorly at such a simple model, but when you have the kind of lack of experience that I do, itś easy!

That being said this is probably the laziest and suckiest entry to this contest, but whatevs. hope you enjoy.
I also uploaded to sketchfab if you want to see the model in 3D but don't want to

Either way, enjoy! have a happy new year.
(I tried making a video of me modelling it, but only was able to capture about half of the process because I'm stupid. I will add that to this thread as soon as I edit it.)

Nice! You sure are not the "suckiest entry to this contest", especially as yours is the only on so far.

Philantropist
A little bit late for the competition, but I'll post it anyway:

The original reference:

Very realistic! Great job!

Just Here for the Hat
I rendered it using blender internal. Modeling was the easiest part. I spent most of my time on the lighting. After lots of trial and errors and after using about a billion lamps I got it to look like the hat. Anyway, here it is.

And the .blend:

That turned out REALLY close to the original. Well done!

Amped Up
Haven't worked on many other projects other than just one model for the past few weeks so this was a nice little thing to do(and leave until the last minute to complete) I've never done this sort of art style before either.

Rendered in cycles. Couldn't get the handle bar to look the same, as it had some weird lighting in the original, and also the original was slightly more warped.

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


text:
Why are numbers "banned" from tag synonym names?
After getting this error message
when trying to create a new tag synonym for 3d-view

Failed to propose synonym:
Version specific synonyms can only be created by moderators

I researched it a bit and found that (it appears) SE does not allow anyone but moderators to create synonyms for tags with numbers in the name. Why?
I have not seen any problems with version specific tag synonyms on BSE. If it is a problem on other sites (SO) why not make the synonym lock only for those sites.
Further if it is found that the tag synonym ban is really be needed on all sites, why not have it be another part of the privilege system? Say if you have the "access to moderator tools" you could then propose a tag synonym with a number in the name (providing you also have the needed 5 rep in the tags.)


text:
migration rejected closed question any way to edit?
This question https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/13737/best-way-to-model was migrated from game dev with the tag of untaged. Is there any way to retag that question now? On most closed questions there is still the option to edit them, why is this question locked? I would say that this question could be deleted all together, but again for some reason it is locked.

I'm not exactly sure why you can't edit it (I can as a moderator). It's probably because it was migrated then closed (?). Every question needs at least one tag, so what probably happened was that when the moderator from GD.SE migrated it he dubiously selected the untagged tag.
It's a good idea to keep closed questions around. They help show the community what's not accepted here. (Unless if it's spam, etc, of course).
If you want it changed, let me know. I guess the modeling tag would work.

yes, if you think it a good idea to keep the question around, then please do re tag it.


text:
Can the "New tag confirmation" be turned on?
From Recent feature changes to Stack Exchange

2014-06-10: When moderators or users with the "create new tags" privilege attempt to create one or more new tags either while asking a question or during an edit they are shown a confirmation dialog to reduce risk of tags created by mistake. This feature is enabled on a per-site basis.

Can the New tag confirmation dialog be enabled for the blender exchange? I think that would be helpful, for some of the tag typos that come along. Example question intoface, not interface.

Done! Oded activated it this morning.

thanks that should help


text:
Tag Synonyms with no users
What are the reasons for making some of the tag synonyms?
These tags have no users and are not needed but are still in the tag list because they are synonyms.
glossy
material-nodes
bezier
As any mod on blender exchange knows, I do I lot of re-tagging and clean up.  Is it not better to (when a tag is still small) re-tag the question or questions in stead of making a tag synonym?
A example is collision is a pending synonym for rigid-body-simulation why make it a synonym?
I ask for the synonyms glossymaterial-nodesbezier to be deleted.

Synonyms exist so that commonly used words which are incorrect can be remapped to the correct tag that should be used. Generally, our agreed upon policy is if the tag falls under a broader one, merge/synonimize it.
The tags you mentioned have been been in the waiting list for sometime now. They have been removed.

when you say removed, you mean added to the list of synonyms. Why do you not just delete the synonym and then have SE cull the tag, because it is empty?

@David Gone now, apparently, the merge/delete didn't complete for some reason.

Thanks, those unused and unnecessary tags were bothering me. I like to keep the tags clean.


text:
Editing questions to remove "thank you" etc
"Any help would be much appreciated" "Thanks in advance" etc. Should we remove them from questions, or just leave them? I know there are other meta post on this topic Should 'Hi', 'thanks', taglines, and salutations be removed from posts?, What should I keep out of my posts and titles? and all have the same type of sentiment, that this type of extra wordiness is not needed.
What is the blender exchange's feeling towards this, and when is editing a question just to remove it going too far?

I usually only remove them if I'm editing the post for some other reason anyway.

This is mostly done by people new to se and probably have experience with forums or irc and this being a QA site, it seems like clutter. I'd say remove these only if the post requires other needed edits, tags, spelling, wording etc, otherwise just leave it, it isn't adding or detracting anything from the post and it doesn't make sense to edit a post to just remove "hello" or "thank you".

I agree, remove if you add some mark-up anyway or do other changes. Once exception though: if it's an entire paragraph of thank you, please answer and best regards, I would remove that even if no other changes are needed.

The internet is filled with pedantic people, SE being no different. That being said, if it's not a part of the actual problem it's probably not useful. I do say that an edit is usually not worth it but if you do have to tweak the post, might as well strip it. I'm also not sure if "respect" is really applicable here since we are an open community and posts can be edited/improved by anyone as needed. In concluding, it's a trivial problem IMO and one should exercise their judgement. I don't see removing a "Thank you" in a cleanup offensive or detracting from a question.


text:
Shouold picture resources be added to our "Resources for Blender" question
I think seeing as there is a great deal of overlap between textures and pictures, another category should be added to this answer. Something where free stock photos sites can be put. Sites such as morgueFile or stockvault.

As in reference images?


text:
How to deal with dead links
Looking through old questions I have com across many dead links. There seams to me no real consensus across the SE network as to what should be done with dead links. I have read many questions (1,2,3) about dead links and they say: just leave a comment; or edit the post to update the link. Flagging seams to be discouraged, but there is no definitive answer.
Here on BSE what should we do when we come across a dead link?

When I post links I try to give as much info as possible about the external site such as the article's title, the author's name and whatever else I think may be relevant such as important keywords so that if the link goes down, a mirror of the sites information can still be easily located(if it still exists online at all at that point).  Encouraging people to do the same can help to minimize the impact of this in the future.

@MarcClintDion Indeed, we already encourage this quite a lot (and discourage link-only answers). However there are other kinds of links too (e.g. .blend files), I'd be curious to see if there is an established procedure for such links. Though comment -> no response -> update or remove link seems like a perfectly fine strategy to me.

This is why it is encouraged to quote the relevant parts of your link(s) and write a full answer, links should only be to complement the text or be additional reading. Unless the question is fully answered in your opinion and the link(s) are just extra reading, flag it for deletion so it can be updated to be a proper answer, converted to a comment or removed.

What about the answers (like yours) where the answer is fine, the link is quoted, but the link is dead? Are we to flag, a other wise good answer, to be deleted, just because of a dead link?

@David Good point, if the answer has been proven to be correct or useful, perhaps just strip the link. See http://blender.stackexchange.com/posts/455/revisions.

Maybe comment first? Perhaps the OP might know of an alternate link, or perhaps in the case of uploaded content (e.g. a .blend) could upload it again.

I normally leave a disclaimer in my answers that says something like"if you are trying to click on this link 5 months or more after this post was made, do not bother because pasteall will have removed the file" sometimes I make all of that the link discription.

such as in this question http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21605/how-can-i-spawn-a-moving-object-in-bge/21649#21649   and  this question    http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21797/make-modifiers-update-in-the-game-engine

But in those cases, I always have a full question/answer and the link is to a blend file which is merely an example of the things discussed in the question/answer.


text:
Proposed tag changes
Change #1
I have come across many questions that deal with units, the latest one here. I propose we change blender-units to be units. It would fit a broader spectrum of questions, and some that are already  tagged as blender-units are really not about blender-units.
We should also synonymize measurement with the new units tag. All ten measurement questions would fit well under units.
Change #2
We delete actuators in favor of logic-bricks. I feel there is no need to Synonymize actuators as there are only four question tagged with Actuators. Just four little retags and that is taken care of. Not a big change, but I was posting here anyway.

Change #3
Synonymize node-editor → nodes. These tags seem to be used interchangeably and sometimes both are used on the same post. IMO nodes sounds like it has a larger scope which would contain node-editor, which is why I suggest that they be merged in that way.

By Blender-Units do you mean the default setup? ie: -1.0, 0.0, 10.0, 20.0, etc. (no cm., mm, inches)
If so, this should definitely be changed.  By adding 'Blender' to 'Units' it gives the impression that there is something Blender-related going on with these numbers when they are just the standard numbers used by people all around the world in every field where numbers are used.

@MarcClintDion The tag description reads "Basic measuring unit of blender. Acronymed BU. It can generally be held as relative to any unit. Physics engine regards 1BU as 1m." Yes I'm suggesting that we go to just plain units.

They all look good to me

Good suggestions, we will try and add a few more to the list and get this done.

@gandalf3 if this post is going to be continually updated, should we mark the completed tasks as "done"?

I don't know. Maybe the should be separate answers? I don't know..


text:
Add contests on blender exchange
In light of our recent event aiming to improve our answer ratio. I think it would be a good idea to consider adding contests to blender.stackexchange.com. The stackexchange site Code golf has a 9.5 answer ratio. That answer ratio is more attainable, we already have more daily visits then that site does.
Contests in the blender community seem to generate a lot of activity such as "Weekend Contest: Default Cube." I feel that it would benefit this site in many ways to add a contest following something along the lines of Bart's Weekend Contests.
A new contests tag would be used for the contests. We could follow the same type of guidelines as code golf does for its contests. I have other ideas for the contests, and if the community thinks it a good thing to add to the site, then I shall share them.
I know that contests were talked about for the meta: "Are contests appropriate for meta?", but I think this is different enough to warnte another post.

+10! :D Would love to see what people would do if we had a [tag:default-cubism] tag.. ;)

That's an amazing idea!

I'm all for it! if we can get our mods and power users to vouch for this, then I don't think anyone will cause trouble. :)

Maybe a contest idea to start with can be something along the lines of "Who can do the best job of porting a specific 'Yo Frankie' game level to modern Blender 2.7x."  If Campbell Barton and Dalai Felinto agree to review and judge; the contest will have the benefit of also contributing directly to Blender Foundation Development.

@MarcClintDion That sounds like a very big project.. I got the sense these would be more like small "weekend contests" like you see on blendernation. Plus it would be hard for the community to vote on, as the results would visually be more or less the same.. (Not sure if having developers judge contests is a better use of their time than coding..)

It saves them from having to do it themselves and that leaves them free to code.

The Yo Frankie levels all load more or less properly.  It's the logic bricks that seem to need repairing.  That's pretty small since a person would just have to use the old version as reference and add the modern bricks that work with 2.72

Here is a mini level .blend from Yo Frankie that I drag and dropped into 2.72. So the idea would be that whoever does the best job of repairing it will be the winner. It's a given that different people will have skill in repairing different areas so many people will all end up with partial solutions to the whole problem and this leaves the core devs free to work on the big stuff without having to do several weeks of chores. The students do the rough work instead. ;) http://www.pasteall.org/pic/79628

I think this is a great idea!

Sorry to be the grump here but this isn't going to happen. Code golf was intended to be used like that, we have a stricter scope and I don't think contests should mingle with serious questions on the main site much less introducing new tags for these, as for helping the answer ratio, these would just be superfluous and in poor taste.
On the other hand, I for one wouldn't mind overseeing this on meta (seeing how many people are interested) in a manner similar to what Anime.se had but it won't happen on the main site.

Contests like this held on Meta could possibly generate a lot of activity on the main site because we would then see many questions like the following.  http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/18683/how-do-i-fix-the-texface-conversion-problem-message-when-importing-yo-frankie/18684#18684

@MarcClintDion Yes, we would most likely have an event to go along with the contest and these will show up on the bulletin board.


text:
Where to upload files other than .blend files and images?
Let's say I want to upload my blend file but due to it being linked to other blend files I have to upload the linked blend files too. blend-exchange doesn't let you upload more than one file at a time neither can you upload .zip files. The addon from ideasman's answer only creates a .zip and doesn't really pack the files into the blend file. So should you use services like Dropbox or Google Drive for uploading a zip file (containing several blend files)? Or where should you upload it?
This question refers to my question. Since the question is about a problem with linked files I can't leave them out. When posting the question with the Dropbox link I knew that links from external sources are not welcome but I couldn't find another way.

hmm, very good question. This is an interesting edge case that I had not thought of. We normally would say something like "just create a small example file to show the problem" but for file linking you need more then one file.

This could be a hassle, but couldn't you upload each linked blend separately? as long as they are all downloaded to the same directory it should work. All other kinds of linked data can be packed into the .blend.

@GiantCowFilms You're right, this would work, but it would be more work for both, the one asking and the one answering. Besides that there can be other cases as well. For example if you want to upload a 3D model that isn't a .blend but something like .obj


text:
Blender — Top User Swag!

This has been shipped today! Enjoy your swag, everyone :)
If you still don't have yours and think you should have it by now, please send me an e-mail so I can look into it instead of leaving a comment here. :)

We want to congratulate and thank everyone that helped this site and community grow healthily into what they are today!
If you can find your name among the top 72 users in the first two pages here, we have a surprise for you! We want to send you a token of our appreciation for being among the most prolific users in this community! As such, we're sending you a little box, inside which you'll find:
A T-SHIRT!

STICKERS!

I'll be reaching out to you later today with a link to a form: be sure to fill out the form as soon as you're able to do so! You'll have two weeks to do it, after which I'll close the form and take care of sending all of the swag your way! It should take from 6 to 8 weeks for the package to be delivered to you!
If you're not on the list, don't worry too much about it — we've got some extra swag stored we can send to you for events and such!
Thanks to all of you for making this site great!

Hey I didn't know about this, I was unaware there were BSE prizes! Pretty cool :)

I have the same mailing address as another user on this site. Will it be a problem to have two packages coming to the same address?

I don't expect it to be a problem, no, @X-27.

Awesome, I'll submit my form :)

Yay! By the way, the logo pictured is the wrong logo. I realize this is probably due to a recycling of the demo images of the original logo, but better safe than sorry ;)

To everyone getting some of this nice "swag" congratulations!

I am gonna wear it with pride!

Awesome, got an email out of the blue today offering free swag. Can't complain about that! :D

Wow, this is awesome. Gonna be wearing this around. Not sure if anyone will recognize it though.

I've let our designers know, @gandalf3 (though I'm pretty sure it was an oversight ;)

Wow, cool!  Though the lack of mousepads is dissapointing I'm looking forward to my t-shirt!

Eagerly awaiting my shirt, stickers and tablet! :)

Approximately how big are the stickers going to be, and how many are coming in the surprise pack?

The picture above gives you a sense of the stickers' size, @X-27. And we usually send 3 to each user, IIRC.

Dang... three pages away from Swag!

Serious question: If I fill out the form twice will I get two shirts?

Serious answer: nope :P

is the forms up yet cause I can't see them ?

You should have received an e-mail with a link to it, @Chebhou.

Hello! Has anyone recieved the shirt yet? Have they been shipped? No hurry, just asking, maybe mine sank in the ocean? :D

I don't believe these have been shipped yet, @RóbertLászlóPáli. I'll let you know once they have.

Thanks for notifying about status! As a warning, I started to receive spam mails from something calling itself FedEX failing to deliver parcel, which contain .zip with strong encoding trojain .crypted Ransomware. So be careful when checking these.

Alright, thanks for the update and also for the warning.

I was just loosing hope, here in Italy... :) I just wish they don't come in middle august, since I could not be at home, for the holidays...

@JNat Soo.. 15 weeks passed and no sign of the shipment. I will move to different address in a week, If the shipment wasn't shipped yet, I might need to change the shipping adress..

I'll check on the status of this, @Jerryno. In the meantime, you can always send me an e-mail with your new details.

My package has arrived!

Thank you SE for my shirt stickers and tablet!
The shirt is greyer then expected.
The stickers are a little smaller then expected.
The tablet is completely unexpected!
I'm also glad to finally figured out the secret meaning behind 6 to 8 weeks. It is not 6 to 8, but 6 + 8 weeks, meaning about 14 weeks (or in my case 16).

Edit: this should help

We did not send tablets to anyone, no, @cegaton :P

How lucky you are you've got Intuos 4!. I've only got Intuos 2 in my package :(. Your answer made my day BTW :D.

@PaulGonet Glad to hear it made you smile. that was the main point.

@JNat I've been meaning to say - I recently received my package. The shirt is even nicer than expected (love the color and material). Thank you guys so much for the awesome swag!

I got mine today... :D the t-shirt color is a little different, but my smile is big anyway, thanks!


text:
2019 Moderator Election Q&A - Questionnaire
In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected from an earlier thread have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as the space for the candidates to provide their answers.
Due to the submission count, we have selected all provided questions as well as our back up questions for a total of 8 questions.
As a candidate, your job is simple - post an answer to this question, citing each of the questions and then post your answer to each question given in that same answer. For your convenience, I will include all of the questions in quote format with a break in between each, suitable for you to insert your answers. Just copy the whole thing after the first set of three dashes.Please consider putting your name at the top of your post so that readers will know who you are before they finish reading everything you have written, and also including a link to your answer on your nomination post.
Once all the answers have been compiled, this will serve as a transcript for voters to view the thoughts of their candidates, and will be appropriately linked in the Election page.
Good luck to all of the candidates!
Oh, and when you've completed your answer, please provide a link to it after this blurb here, before that set of three dashes. Please leave the list of links in the order of submission.
To save scrolling here are links to the submissions from each candidate (in order of submission):

Duarte Ramos

Pierre Schiller

A diamond will be attached to everything you say and have said in the past, including questions, answers and comments. Everything you will do will be seen under a different light. How do you feel about that?

How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments?

How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

If elected moderator, how much of a priority would you make it to regularly do reviews, to help solve the problem we currently have where there are several dozen posts in the close vote review queue at any given time?

How much time can you dedicate to moderation tasks?

Rep, badges, flags, candidate score and the like are all measures of your familiarity with BSE. How familiar do you consider yourself with the SE system?

How familiar are you with blender (2.8 and prior)?

Which Blender Open Movie is/was your favorite, and why?

Could you add either iKlsR's question or the #2 question from the alternate list? See the discussion from our chat. That question is one that we really did want included (just not both).

Fixed it, @David. I just didn't include iKlsR's question 'cause it's deleted! :)

Duarte Ramos

In your opinion, what do moderators do?

A moderator's work is to help run a site smoothly by dealing with any exceptional issues not dealt by the network's "self regulating" system. It should cover general housekeeping like dealing with review queues and guiding new users, but also dealing with misconduct and improper use of the site.
Intervention should be minimal, and ideally invisible to most users, but whenever required further actions should be firm and fair.

How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments?

Users who provide answers are invaluable and an essential asset for the network where the needy far outweigh those knowledgeable and willing help. If those answers are of high quality even more so.
The point being that I believe despite the trouble caused, users providing good answers are probably still worth the minor trouble they may stir up.
This of course does not mean inciting or rebellious behavior should be condoned. Bringing it up in private would probably be the advised course of action; I'd try to talk him into improve his behavior in a tone that would avoid driving the user away.
If the bad behavior persists; the moment the trouble caused outweighs the benefit of his answers, more severe actions should probably be taken. Discussing it with other moderators about possible course of action would be the next logical step.

How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

I wouldn't generally question another moderator decision, or try to create any disagreement. If I felt very strongly against it I'd probably bring it up in private conversation at the chat and try to find out the reasoning for actions.
If different solution was found, actions would be taken to guarantee a fair outcome to the original posters.

If elected moderator, how much of a priority would you make it to regularly do reviews, to help solve the problem we currently have where there are several dozen posts in the close vote review queue at any given time?

I generally manage to find time in my day to clear my review queue at least once or twice a day, often more.
Most of my current time in the site is already spent on reviewing anyway, so I plan to at least keep my current rate, whenever time allows.

How much time can you dedicate to moderation tasks?

Hard to say in absolute terms, BSE tends to represent a resting time from work for me.
While I rarely spend extended periods visiting the site, I do like to make an occasional break, or sporadically give it a peek while waiting for a render.
I already spend a considerable time here, and the urge to come back spikes whenever I am away for to long, I don't see that changing any time soon.

Rep, badges, flags, candidate score and the like are all measures of your familiarity with BSE. How familiar do you consider yourself with the SE system?

Definitely not as familiar as the veteran users that have been around for far longer than I have, but familiar enough to know my way around in most day to day tasks.
I plan to keep improving my knowledge for the foreseeable future.

How familiar are you with Blender (2.8 and prior)?

I have first started learning Blender in the 2.48 days, mostly as a hobby/side interest, and have been using it on and off since then. I started using it professionally about the time 2.5 came out for sporadic side jobs. As it currently stands it quickly became my main work tool for the past four years, using it daily both as freelancer and at my current day job.
While I know Blender fairly well I don't usually work with animation or characters creation, so certain areas like sculpting, dope sheet, painting among others, are generally out of my deeper knowledge.
Other than that I generally take interest in areas I don't necessarily use professionally out of curiosity, and browsing BSE questions and answers has vastly expanded my horizons.
I also follow development closely, so I'm well aware of most planning, known roadmaps and upcoming features; and have occasionally lectured beginner workshops introducing new users to Blender.

Which Blender Open Movie is/was your favorite, and why?

I really enjoyed Agent 327 and Daily Dweebs, but Cosmos Laundromat remains my favorite so far.
I enjoyed the enigmatic story, the expressive characters and overall graphic quality. On the more technical side, hair simulations and particle system simulations caught my eye for the particularly high quality.

Pierre Schiller

In your opinion, what do moderators do?

Guide new users through the site, it´s functions. Also to calibrate the quality of the case (questions) presented in such manner that everyone will understand the question in term correctly. A moderator should build (emphasize) team collaboration, team reviews and collective talents to present solutions in a consistent basis.

How would you deal with a user who produced a steady stream of valuable answers, but tends to generate a large number of arguments/flags from comments?

I will first direct him/her to the StackExchange general guides about the issues, and how convenient it is to make "brief answers with solid points". If the user repeats this behavior, I´ll try to see what is it that he/she is really trying to communicate. On a third (and last) opportunity I´ll strickly signal him to follow a specific order in arranging his answer/thoughts that will conform to the site´s guidelines.

How would you handle a situation where another mod closed/deleted/etc a question that you feel shouldn't have been?

Experienced mods are qualified to do that because they know the community. I´d simply ask if there´s a new opportunity to open the question on another (similar) thread. Or to keep it simple: I´d try to open it to offer the answer (to the best of my experience) and then wait for a period of 24 hours to see the reaction to the answer given. If there´s no interest from the community: I´d close it again.

If elected moderator, how much of a priority would you make it to regularly do reviews, to help solve the problem we currently have where there are several dozen posts in the close vote review queue at any given time?

I generally organize my time into a space of 1 or 2 hours at the end of my day (when all general inquiries are done commenting/voting) to help review them every day. At most: skipping one day.

How much time can you dedicate to moderation tasks?

1 or 2 hours

Rep, badges, flags, candidate score and the like are all measures of your familiarity with BSE. How familiar do you consider yourself with the SE system?

I will study it deeper in case I result elected. In general, yes: I'd say I know them.

How familiar are you with blender (2.8 and prior)?

I´m am a Blender Foundation Certified Trainer. I applied because I come from a large experience background in the 3D industry producing commercial advertisement, vfx for movies, interactive applications and videogames. I started on Blender 2.78 which is the version of Blender NextGen movie was created in. I also created a training course to change Blender's UI with code to customize Blender 2.79 (python). I am familiarized with all areas in Blender (sculpting, nla, uv, shading, compositing...etc) that I often receive a lot of questions from other 3D artists using other application to make the switch to Blender 2.8 - I´m also subscribed on the most influential sites from the developers to keep up the news.

Which Blender Open Movie is/was your favorite, and why?

Yeah, has to be open movie: SPRING. Otherwise NextGen all the way.
Spring is my favorite because of the animation (tools presented on 2.8, finally getting some love and attention specially the NLA), because of the VDB volumetrics (lovely clouds), and I guess the characters: Who doesn´t love a dog like that? Spring as a character was well designed. Mark my words, that movie is going to earn a LOT of festival awards. Spring also represents a lot of integration on industry standards (i.e: materials and workflows). Story-wise: it´s the most solid and compelling one.

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


text:
Where is the "Include your .blend" button?
I have to say the GiantCowFilms services are really amazing. It seems they are "official BSE .blend cloud", at least from my point of view (orthographic?). The ability to post a .blend file, link it to a question, etc, is amazing. (Did you try his .HDRs ?)
But how can a newcomer know that?
Asking a question allows many things but no link to this service.

It seems we need a "post your blend" button. The blender icon should help newbies to find the good tool.

Why not?
How to make newbies life easier? (and ours too!)
Do you have an idea ? (about that... :) )

Well, we do have a user script to add such a button; however, only users familiar with blend-exchange install the user script, so it doesn't help much in this case. We are also running a community promotion ad that appears on the sidebar, which helps a little bit. Overall though, full integration would be nice. Even better, though, would be a stack-exchange guaranteed and funded (or even maintained) service.

@GiantCowFilms 100% agreed. Very cool for everyone but newbs...

Exactly the issue :/

@GiantCowFilms not about you hosting this, the future of this service if you leave us (please don't!!) but some questions could be asked.

As far as the future, the code is open source, and as long as I give warning, someone else could take over the service. I'd only have to setup a redirect for the domain (which I don't intend to party with anytime soon). If I got run over by a bus (died suddenly), something might go wrong though. But I don't intend for that to happen any time soon either.

I want to officially endorse a proper built in integration (so any staff wondering across this post know that blend-exchange is ready).
Firstly, we already have an embed page (http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/eembedUpload/?qurl=[url of question])
which is ready for use for use in a popup window (I can easily add iframe support as well if need be). Also, the code is open source if any stack exchange developers would rather just make their own changes.
All that being said, I think we'd all prefer if SE acquired a proper file hosting service, this one has limited funds and limited space :/.

I wonder if "I" can accept this answer.

Sure, but wouldn't help much. SE is the one we need to be endorsing ideas. :/

wait and see...


text:
Place to store frequently used markdown
As a new user (1 month) I need to learn about how to do this or that. A good exemple is this. As I don't remember the exact syntax, I need to open the link every time i'm posting an image.
I'd like to have a "box" where I can put links, commands or texts that I can use when needed and edit when i want to add/remove/change something.
Is it possible?

Sounds like a good use for a local text file to me..

what i'm doing, but switching from notepad to browser is tedious. Getting the good tool where you need it seems better to me.

First off there is a helpful box to the right of the input on the ask a question page. It holds some of the most conman markdown syntax. If you click the link in the box called formatting help it will take you to a much more comprehensive list of the mark down syntax.

If you have just a few conmanly used lines you want to save I don't think there is any problem with putting them in your user profile, (I do).
You could use a external editor to write your question and answers (but for most question and answers it is overboard).
There are many good options available as online apps and as downloads.

stackedit (my favorite of the web based)
dillinger
markable
markdown-editor
brackets with the markdown addon

If you just want to have a place to keep notes on the question page try one of these browser addons.
FireFox floatnotes, internote
chrome Note Anywhere (I have not used any of the browser extensions)

really interesting links, thanks. I just thought it would be a good BSE improvement, especially for new users. Formatting is an example, rules, things to check later, ideas, to-do or anything relative to BSE navigation or use to remember. BSE (and SE) is so dense!


text:
Blender site design ideas - input welcome!
First, congratulations on the upcoming graduation of your site!
My name is Kurtis, and I'm the Stack Exchange team member who will be working on the design for your graduated site.
I've read your suggestions regarding site design and logo ideas. Thank you for getting the ball rolling! These ideas will come in handy as we begin the design concepting phase. Feel free to add more logo and site design ideas to this post, and we'll keep them in mind as we move forward!

Of those proposed I like Gandalf3's design the best.  I really love the Suzanne badge idea that several people used.

Yeah, using the monkey-head badges is very relevant for Blender users

I can't believe it's finally happening! My design is a rough proof of concept based off the blender website, and changes to SE have roughed it up around the edges over time.. Honestly I don't feel this site needs to be a clone of blender.org (like my proof of concept), but the upvote buttons and badge icons are definitely things which I would love to see in the final design :)

I think looking like blender artists or blender.org would be best. I definitely think we should NOT look like the blender UI itself, since it is simply to dark for reading paragraphs of text.

@GiantCowFilms Not Blenderartists, but maybe blender.org. I agree about the interface though. Dark themes are much harder to pull off successfully for reading. Much better for interfaces. I think we should still go a bit more towards a bit of a greyish background just to make it a bit easier on the eyes, but not extremely dark.

@TARDISMaker Still, black text... Maybe #fff white is a bit harsh (If you find it seriously irritating you may need to dim your monitor) but something close.

@GiantCowFilms I'm thinking #BFBFBF at the most. I think that is probably a bit too much. So nothing really harsh, but just bringing the value down a bit. And yes, I'm not trying to argue black text. With text, I think the only modification that could be done, is taking out a bit of contrast (brining the value up a bit), but I don't think this is necessary.

One thing we cannot forget is to leave room for the new blend file upload feature, right...? :D

Oh, here is everything we need in a list, BTW: http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/q/610/3127

@GiantCowFilms This is the design thread, non-design specific stuff likely wont be covered here. Also, it's probably better to post new design things on this post so the new and old ideas don't get all mixed up.

@GiantCowFilms I see that. Thanks for the heads up!

make sure you make the logo pop

I have no idea how this design process thing works, so I'll just blurt out stuff until the ball gets rolling :)
This site is all about Blender, so it seems logical to me that the site would in some way be themed around that.
What reminds me of Blender?
Blender colors
The logo is of course made up of three colors:
http://dummyimage.com/660x75/f5792a/bf5009&text=f5792a
http://dummyimage.com/660x75/ffffff/bbbbbb&text=ffffff
http://dummyimage.com/660x75/0d528a/1279cb&text=0d528a
Incidentally, these are similar to the colors of a Dutch flag, which is where Blender started.
In addition to the logo colors I tend to associate a dark gray with blender as well. Not too sure why.
Am I the only one who sees "Blender" when orange and this kind of gray are together?
http://dummyimage.com/660x75/474747/777777&text=474747
Suzanne
As Blender's mascot since the beginning of (open source) time, Suzanne is a distinctly Blender icon. An easter egg that is recognized by blender users everywhere. For example, the Suzanne Awards is the one of the largest Blender competitions around. And perhaps that association with an award adds an extra reason to use Suzanne's image for something like a badge icon.
Meshes, geometry, "3D" things
Blender is a lot of things. Video editing, motion tracking, image manipulation, the list goes on. However it's most widely known for it's 3D modeling.
The basic building blocks of a 3D model are polygons made up of little vertices, edges, and faces. (triangles if you want the most basic of  them all).
So as GiantCowFilms suggested, perhaps it might be interesting if these fundamental pieces of 3D were somehow referenced or incorporated in the design.
CG/Digital art
This site (like all SE sites), is more than just a support site. It has a little community too, and most of the blender community is all about creating art. So I (and others) feel it would be natural to make artistic imagery a part of the site, perhaps with a contest to regularly create new header art.

Here's a short list of other large Blender related sites, perhaps looking at some of them can help inspire (or perhaps serve as lessons in what not to do):

Blender.org
Blender Nation
Blender Artists
Blender Network
Blender Cookie
Blender Guru
Blender Diplom

This list is not at all complete, there are many more blender sites out there.

Some doodles
After writing this, I couldn't help but try a few things.. Of course these are all just my random personal ideas and don't mean anything (I'm not the designer here ;).
Discussion and feedback is of course welcome!
Logo
Assuming SE doesn't want to use the blender logo (?), I attempted to come up with some kind Q&A + blender related logo/favicon thing. Though it pretty much just looks like the blender logo..

Small and in context:

Not enough "pop"? ;)
Badges
There are of course the Suzanne badges which I'll copy here just so everything is in one place:

Icons
And some flattened voting icons, since flat seems to be current "modern" (the ones in my original proposal were based off the old beta theme, with lots of shadows and gradients).

Make of this what you will, I look forward to seeing what the professionals do!

i'm liking this a lot, especially the single-tick blender logo. I imagine a minimal theme, not dissimilar to the current one, with high quality user picked header images, maybe once a week if the supply lasts?

I love it, the logo is awesome!  (And of course the Suzanne badges.)

I much prefer the older shadows and gradients, honestly.

This looks very good

If I don't try hard, I fail to recognize Suzanne in the Badges. Apart from that, I love it.

The logo is pretty sweet and minimalistic and is allowed as per https://www.blender.org/about/logo/

Blue Polygon Background [Copied From Here]
This is a specific idea for the background (I also changed the font to Open Sans) that helps start the look of the site. I used the http://chemistry.stackexchange.com theme (modified) for the proof of concept. Naturally it would need some tweaking, but I think it has potential.
Polygons make up all 3D art in blender (with a very very few exceptions) They are an intrinsic aspect of 3D, and are also a powerful design element.

Some have suggested limiting the background to the header:

Also, I used this answer on the site to create the background :D. That is the beauty of SE!

I think aesthetics and a good sense of design and composition should take priority over looking "themey". Sure, having the Blender colors in a couple of places - used tastefully - could be good. But if the icons are all literal elements taken from Blender's UI it could start to look gimmicky and cheap. And while we love Suzanne, she's one of the more overused and definitely less sexy symbols associated with Blender. Could we maybe think outside the box a little more?
It should be sexy. It should be chic. It should be smart. It should demonstrate that this is a place for artists who understand design, not just people with a purely technical understanding of Blender. This may be a place to find out "how" but let's not forget the "why", which is the creative element. Blender is a powerful pro graphics application being used by many brilliant artists around the world and we owe it to the community to deliver something that impresses and inspires.
What might such a design look like? Let's discuss.

What!? How dare you demean the high and exalted Suzanne! Sacrilege!
In all seriousness though, what would you suggest instead? It's all very well to suggest making the site beautiful, but that doesn't get us far in figuring out what "beautiful" is.

Sexy? Chic? Are we still talking about Blender? I might be more willing to consider "sexy" and "chic" if this were a site about some type of mass market appliance, but I suspect Blender SE is more used by people who aren't impressed by those things.

Why not make it beautiful and theme-y? That is what great design is, pleasing, functional and relevant. I do agree with you that the blender UI elements and colors won't work for the site, but themeing is important, like using Suzanne or common elements of 3D/blender. Suzanne is wonderful when used correctly (like for badges).

Suzanne is the most sexy 3D ape head I've seen! And you know what? every single one of those brilliant artists around the world swore allegiance to her on their first day on the job.


text:
Are templates within the scope of this site?
Are templates within the scope of this site? How I see it, they shouldn't be. It's basically someone else's scene, and they should be responsible for making sure that it works properly.
If someone is having issues with that template, wouldn't that be the creators responsibility to fix it? While it's not a separate piece of software, or an unofficial addon, it's similar to one because someone unofficially created it. Unless they released it with their own license, there is no guarantee that it works, and it could have lots of issues.
Now, if it's something regarding extending a template, or the author can prove that it's not an issue with the template, then I think it should be within the scope. But I think that questions like this, should be out of the scope, because it could easily be an issue with the template, and nothing that the user needs or wants to learn about.

Why should we particularly care if the OP is using a template or not?
If the question "didn't open with blender, also the audio doesn't work" had been asked without mentioning "template", would it be considered off topic? Perhaps the way it was written it might be considered "unclear", but I don't think it would be considered off-topic.
The afformentioned question appears to be about issues encountered while using blender with external assets (video, audio). IMO this fits under our scope:

The Blender Stack Exchange site is for people who use Blender to create 3D graphics, animations, or games.

Now if the question was "what's the best way to use this template", then yes, that has more to do with the intent of the template author than with blender (and I would consider that off-topic).


text:
If I have multiple answers to a question, how should I post them?
While I was answering this question (How to distribute objects in a circular pattern on a surface (Radial Array, Polar Array)), I noticed that I had several ways to answer this question I posted one of the methods I would use, but since I have several, should I post them at all, post them as a separate answer, or post them in the same answer, or something completely different?

I say, if the multiple solutions are really different (i.e. not just variations of the same basic idea), then go ahead and post multiple answers.  SE gives the option of doing so, so I say use it!  There's no law of SE that says "you must always choose the option that gets you the least reputation".

Do want you have time for.
The one reason I don't like to see tonnes of solutions in 1 answer is because it makes it hard to see which of the answers is voted for more often. ie, which is proving to be most useful.
Lumping them together has that problem, but people also don't like to see multiple answer by one person - and I think wrongly justify their averse reaction to multi answers as an attempt by the answerer to 'milk the cash cow' for points.
However, for this question about the circular array, it has been asked in so many forms already, and his been given unique (but similar) answers in most cases. I propose that we do a canonical answer instead because it's a very basic and useful question with some convoluted responses in other threads.

Yeah, if it wasn't for the rep, I would think it would be to just answer multiple times.

On your last point, do you mean a wiki similar to the gpu setup one found here: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/7485/enabling-gpu-rendering-for-cycles?

So in general, you would just say keep it all in one answer unless it becomes fairly large and it's hard to find the part that is needed?

We don't need to give full blown answers either, in general people are quite happy with the minimal answer if it lets them piece together the rest themselves they get a sense of accomplishment too (and neural training to solve own problems). I like to keep that in mind, sometimes we do a disservice by being too complete in our answers. Some topics pop up so often that a dedicated wiki page / or community answer is useful. I will add my answer to that question as the other answers in the past have bothered me a lot.


text:
Editing posts that require a .blend file?
I was just reading through this question about .blend file hosting, and the general consensus seems to be that it would be helpful and necessary, to have built in .blend file hosting.
The problem with this, is that it still requires downloading a file to fully understand the question, and therefore, limits the usefulness of it, and it's answer, to anyone who's looking through for their own projects.
I'm thinking that it might be a good idea, for experienced users to edit these questions, to get rid of the need for a .blend file. Adding relevant images and text, to show what a newer user has trouble understanding.
What could also help with this, is to have a separate review queue for questions that have a .blend file attached.
Those are my thoughts, what do you guys think?

We will still need file support from stack exchange, since sometimes blends are nessary/beneficial. I think it might be a tad early to make this push. There are also litterally thousands of blends on this site, so I wouldn't be to hasty.

Your second paragraph is excellent. I agree with part of what you said. I do not think we are in need of another review queue. However I whole hearty agree that in some cases a blend file does not make a good question. This is something I have been saying all along, we should not put such a weight on "the file."

@GiantCowFilms Yes, there are a lot, but when we see a post like the one David linked to, if we have extra time, shouldn't we be looking into editing it to get rid of the need for a .blend file, or if the question is too situation based, close it? I understand that it is quite unpractical to completely get rid of .blend files from every post, but we could at least try to take care of newer questions. I just think a .blend file should really just be a backup instead of a primary choice for explaining a problem. Something that heavily requires a .blend file, is much more suited to a forum.

The difference whether to include an image or a blend file in a question or answer is really not about downloading the file from an external source. Both images and blend files are external downloads. The difference is that the image download is automatically performed by the software, and the user must deliberately download the ~.blend file. In some of the questions I've seen, it would take multiple images to show the information needed to form an answer, while the same information could be gained from a single ~blend file.


text:
Cannot vote to close a question
I tried to close this question: Fly through a window into a new world / scene? as I've answered a similar one asked earlier (Creating the Minecraft End Portal in Blender). When I've pasted the link in the Closing window the message: This question does not have an upvoted or accepted answer appeared. What's wrong?

Exactly what the error says. You cannot close a questions as a duplicate of a question which does not have an answer with at least one upvote. Luckily, your answer now has at least one upvote ;)


text:
Can I give my reputation to other users?
Does Blenderstack (and other stacks) allow to give some amount of my reputation (not limited to 15 points, but unlimited like in bounties) to other people who answer my question to thank them?
Example: @poor created an add-on, which will be super useful for me (How to disable/enable multiple shapekeys visibility?) and I want to thank him by giving some of my reputation. Is it possible?

I feel honored :) Thanks Gonzou!

Great to hear that sir :). The add-on you wrote for me works fantastic BTW.

Outside of bounties, no. A bounty is what you are looking for.
In fact "thanking him by giving some of my reputation" is one of the reasons for offering a bounty.

Reward existing answer
One or more of the answers is exemplary and worthy of an additional bounty.

After you offer a bounty, there is a time block (24 hours) that you have to wait till you can grant it, but after that you can choose any answer on the question.
(There is another bonus, that the added exposure the bounty gives to the question may very well turn in to more UVs for the answer you want to reward.)
But no just giving rep is not allowed, for good reasons. We all want the site to stay fair.
(PS bounties are not unlimited: 500 is the max.)


text:
How to add the boxes around the keyboard buttons?
When I posted an answer for someones question:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/posts/16530/revisions
It got edited and these key box's were added.
They look nifty, but because I'm new, I don't know how to add them.
Could someone clarify please?

I'm not sure what you are asking, your original post was a bit untidy and it was formatted properly by other users. See http://blender.stackexchange.com/help/editing

I agree whole-heatedly that I was sloppy. If you look in the areas where I had put key notations (ex. 'N') they were replaced by some sort of icon in the edit. how does one use those icons to avoid future 'mistakes'?

And with my most recent answer to my own question. How did you do that? Pretty cool. Maybe i just need a course on formatting in this site.

That was done using markdown, when writing a post, look at the top of the edit field to the right and you will see a help button (a gold question mark). See http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/questions/250/guidelines-on-the-usage-of-stackexchange-markup-and-style. You can also drop by our chatroom and ask for assistance, you will get used to the site in no time. :)

Also here's a quick and basic guide to using markdown and html within SE posts: http://blender.stackexchange.com/help/formatting. The formatting in question is key. If you get tired of typing , there is a userscript which adds a button to insert them automatically: http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/q/388/599

cool. thankyou.

Those are simply kbd tags, defined in the html spec, and styled as such on SE.
Here is an example usage:

When you really messed up, press AA then DeleteEnter.

This is how the sage advice looks in code view:
When you really messed up, press AA then DeleteEnter.
For more detail on how to format the kbd tags see this answer.
There are also user created scripts to make adding the  tags easier.

It's sooo annoying to type those kbd tags though. If one is on Windows, one can use a simple AHK script:
#NoEnv
SendMode Input
#K::
a := Clipboard
send ^c
ClipWait
sleep 100
StringReplace, Clipboard, Clipboard, + , %A_Space% + %A_Space%, ReplaceAll
StringReplace, Clipboard, Clipboard, -> , %A_Space% -> %A_Space%, ReplaceAll
StringUpper, Clipboard, Clipboard, T
Clipboard = %A_Space%%Clipboard%%A_Space%
sleep 100
Send ^v
sleep 200
Clipboard := a
return

So if that AHK script(text file with .ahk exxtension) is in shell:startup(one could copy-paste that to Windows Run menu( Winlogo  +  R )) folder and starts with Windows, one can simply select some text like "a->ctrl+b" and hit  Winlogo  +  K  to get " A  ->  Ctrl  +  B "
AHK needs to be installed.

I don't know if you've seen my AHK macro and what you think about it: https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2927/60486 - the mouse mathjax formulas I think are a bad idea, but then again I don't like the images in Codemanx/Gandalf solution too much either. I wish there were proper emojis for LMB, MMB, RMB and mouse wheel up and down... Other than that I've been using my macro with success for a couple years now.

I think we, who script, make ourselves whatever makes most sense to us. I am just so used to my way by now, plus I have a bunch of other weird stuff in the same script - for example I use my native Lithuanian keyboard where 12345678= switch to ąčęėįšųūž and in that scenario it sometimes happens that I forget to switch the layouts and/or have caps lock on and I manage to write whole sentences like that before noticing :D :D So I have a key that fixes that which is surprisingly useful for us lithuanians as a few friends of mine loved it and I believe still use it after I shared it with them. :D

I have a huge macro I found somewhere: https://pastebin.com/YPhYrfCU - it allows me to type any special character like that (though there are a few bugs). On top of that I added some macros for commonly used messages, images, my script simulating a 2nd cursor, very useful when I played Gothic, that can't be (safely) minimized... some macros like this: https://i.imgur.com/DdM2RLB.png AHK is the main reason I stay on Windows...

For me, Win+K opens a Windows panel (wireless devices or something like that). Is it supposed to run the script put inside the startup folder ? I don't understand how or where the script would be linked to this shortcut. I don't know AHK so maybe my question is trivial.

@Lutzi Well, you would install AHK first and then could place the script in startup folder You can change the hotkey in line 3. That's the #K there. See AHK hotkeys. It just runs in the background.


text:
Is putting my experience level a necessity?
I recently asked a question which got some confusing answers.

I have absolutely zero idea what they are talking about. "Render engine"? "Texture panel"? It is all just nonsense to me - They might as well be talking french.
From this point of view, would it be practical to put my experience level in a question? My previous opinion of "Sorry for this question I'm a newbie" was that it's just non-constructive noise - But is it actually required for people to know my experience level and to gauge their answers based on it?

No, it's not necessary, as a matter of fact you are in agreement with what is generally (but not too strictly) considered extraneous noise on SE.
If you feel like too many unexplained terms are flying about and you want more explanations, it can't really hurt to mention that you are an aspiring new user. But you are always more than welcome to ask for clarification (as you have done).


text:
Imaginary worlds - Challenge #4
Contest: Imaginary worlds
This is your opportunity to depart from reality a little. The goal of this competition is to spark your imagination and creativity, and to be a fun departure from more 'serious' works.
Objective: Create an imaginary world using non-photorealistic rendering techniques
You can use any method you want (i.e. Freestyle, Low-Poly, Texture Paint, etc.), as long as you use Blender for all modelling and rendering. Both Blender Internal and Cycles render engines may be used. Minor post processing in 2D photo editing programs is permitted.

Rules:

Only new and original work.
Blender only, non commercial add-ons are allowed.
Keep it nice, nothing you wouldn't want to show to a five year old.
If any doubt is raised about the validity of your entry, you will be required to show a .blend file, so we can be sure it is yours (use pasteall.org). Otherwise your entry will be disqualified.
The competition runs for approximately 1 week, you can edit/change your submission at anytime
Late entries will be disqualified
Only one entry per person (Multiple images of the same entry are allowed)
Downvotes will not be considered when picking the winner

Voting guide:
(Going beyond the simple visual appeal)

Creative: Shows thought and artistry

Appealing, good story-telling
Artistically carried out, high quality result

Meets objective, not missing anything
No rules were broken
Artistically sound:

Good composition
Good use of color
Solid design

Well Executed

Technically impressive
Quality of execution meets artistic goals.

Judge all included images on all of these points.

Winning criteria:
Submission with the most upvotes as of January 23rd 2015 (UTC +0000). The submission must to be posted before the deadline.
Deadline for entries: January 19th 2015 at UTC +0000
Voting ends: January 23rd 2015 at UTC +0000
And most importantly, have fun!
If you have any questions, ask them in the events chat room.

PGMath [4 votes] has won the competition, congratulations!
Notice that changes to the competition structure are under discussion, so new ones may not show up in the near future. Check out the Events chat room to keep up with the discussion.
Also see this proposal on Meta.

I'm having trouble figuring out how to render the really odd perspective on my render.

@VinceScalia Odd perspective? The small planets are modeled that way, even in my render(made before the comp) I used a sphere for the surface.

Have you ever seen MC Eschers other world? that's the perspective.

If not see this One of the best sites ever.

@VinceScalia Try messing around with the Camera's focal length.

PGMath has 8 votes now!

PGMath has 9 votes now!

This is pretty slapped together, slipshod scene :D but here is my render.

I think about 60% of the time I spent on this was modeling the Statue of Liberty, I then realized I only had 2 days left and slapped the rest of the scene together!

I think you win, nobody else entered . . .

@NoviceInDisguise I think we definitely need to advertise these challenges more.  And I think a week is kind of short for a lot of people, especially since a lot of people on this site (like myself) are just hobbyists, this isn't our job (I'm still in high school).  My entry, as you can probably see, is super slipshod (looking at it now I think the best part is the Saturn shader :P).  I should just make Saturn the whole scene!  But anyhow I think a couple of weeks should be a minimum.  As long as we advertise it well to begin with (and don't have it over Christmas break) I think people will...

...not forget about it if they start working on it.

Name your image!

@PGmath you should make a repeatable GIF of earth rotating. That way we could see the great wall of china!

@PGmath You won! Yay! XD

authors: ʇolɐǝz ǝɥʇ qoq


text:
A better dialogue for own-question answer?
After waiting couple hours for an answer to a question I posted on the Blender site, I found the answer myself and decided to post it.  During that process, I was asked a pointed question ("do you really want to do this").  I thought answering your own question is not only possible but encouraged.  Is the heavy-handed approach really necessary?
Here's the sequence:

Strikes me as somewhat counterintuitive: Answer Your Question... OK, I will.  Immediately afterwards, "Are you sure you want to answer your question?"

It's important here that you look at the rest of the dialog. It's essentially there to try and prevent users from posting follow-up comments/responses or clarifications of their questions as answers.

Who asked the "pointed question" discouraging you from answering your own question? It seams that user needs to learn something about the SE system.

What you're asked is the following:

If you keep on reading past the large title, it suggests that comments should be posted as a comment, and questions themselves can be edited to update them.
There are plenty of users who aren't used to the Stack Exchange Q&A format. They are used to forums where you respond to others or clarify your own content by creating a new post. We'd like to prevent that from happening. (It's annoying to deal with for us regulars, and won't be a positive experience for the poster either).
So that's all there is to that dialog. If you have a great self-answer, by all means post it. We just want to make sure that you're not making a mistake.

At the time I was answering my question, there were no answers.  So, I could not be responding to an answer.  And as a longtime stackoverflow user, I know how to edit questions, and could not be confusing the issue.

Certainly. You apparently are very aware of how this thing works. Great. :) But unfortunately that's not the case for a lot of users. So better be safe than sorry there. You could put in a new feature request somewhere to make it context sensitive, but I'd give that one a "meh".

By the way, I initially did not read past the large title, because all I was concerned about at that instance was not forgetting what I was going to post! ;-)

Haha, can't say that hasn't happened to me before. Especially in a dialog that "doesn't apply to me". Clickety-click. But yeah, overall I can deal with an extra dialog if that prevents me from having to clean up the mess of others afterwards. :)

I wonder how difficult it would be to do a context-sensitive check.  I am not familiar w/ the Stack Exchange API, and I am sure the current number of answers to a question would be available, but how easily, don't know.  Also, if a user like myself does not initially read past the large title, then that in itself should be a comment on the UI experience, don't you think? Thanks.

Hang out with us on Meta SE and Meta SO for a while. You'll realize soon that people (even those with the best intentions) don't read stuff, no matter how well you prepare it for them or how in-your-face you put it. :D But that said, if you have particular suggestions to improve experiences, by all means see if they have been suggested before, and if not then suggest them.

Great, thank you!

There is nothing wrong with answering your own question. In fact it is encouraged.
This comment discussion shows it well.
Self answer
It’s OK to Ask and Answer Your Own Questions
Should I not answer my own questions?
Etiquette for answering your own question
That warning is similar to the "Are you sure you want to add another answer?" warning. Just a reminder box letting users know that what you are about to do may not be the best format.

And of course there's the introduction of the feature.


text:
Mechanics - Challenge #3
Contest: Mechanics
3D artists always enjoy rendering impressive, shiny machines, from robots to complex vehicles. But often times they wouldn't work in the real world.
Objective: Create a machine that is mechanically functional.
You can use any method you want, as long as you use Blender for all modelling and rendering. Both Blender Internal and Cycles render engines may be used. Minor post processing in 2D photo editing programs is permitted.
Rules:

Only new and original work.
Blender only, non commercial add-ons are allowed.
Keep it nice, nothing you wouldn't want to show to a five year old.
If any doubt is raised about the validity of your entry, you will be required to show a .blend file, so we can be sure it is yours (use pasteall.org). Otherwise your entry will be disqualified.
The competition runs for approximately 3 weeks, you can edit/change your submission at anytime
Late entries will be disqualified
Only one entry per person (Multiple images of the same entry are allowed)
Downvotes will not be considered when picking the winner

Voting guide:
(Going beyond the simple visual appeal)

Mechanically sound: Would be able to work in the real world.

Able to achieve any position that is necessary for it to function
Components look sturdy enough to support the weight/strain their function requires

Meets objective, not missing anything
No rules were broken
Artistically sound:

Good composition
Good use of color
Solid design

Well Executed

Technically impressive
Quality of execution meets artistic goals.

Judge all included images on all of these points.

Winning criteria:
Submission with the most upvotes as of January 9th 2015 (UTC +0000). The submission must to be posted before the deadline.
Competition Ends: January 5th 2015 at UTC +0000
And most importantly, have fun!
Winner: NoivceInDisguise [4 votes](Again!)

Vince Scalia[3 votes]

If you have any questions, ask them in the events chat room.

Golf Ball Machine

Description:
This machine is an artists rendition of how a golf ball is made. Although all the steps are the same, the way it is achieved is completely different. All parts of this machine are theoretically functional.
Artwork:

How it works:
A rubber cube is roughly rounded by a saw, and is then fed into the rotating portion of the machine in the background. The meal cups are electronically heated, and melt the rubber into a spherical shape. A burst of steam is used to loosen the sphere from the mold.
Next the machine on the right is given the sphere, and trims off the edges made during the molding process. The machine then rotates and drops the sphere into the chute, which channels it over to the other side where it is cased and then printed and packaged.

I only had time to finish part of the machine so far, so more may show up before the 5th.

Craig's Hand
Click Here for hirez

I really could not think of a decent name for this, I apologize.
Here is a small domestic robot who's main duty is that of one of your hands. It measures 1' from foot to finger-tip.
Usefull activities include

Greeting guests
Loading printers
Feeding birds
Writing
Typing
Playing piano

Some not so helpful activities (Pre-install, God save us all)

Doodling on walls
Rubbing feet on floor, then commencing to 'static shock' people
Getting fingers stuck in whiffle ball
Flicking shins

Its joints all consist of a ball and socket, all but the hips and ankles rotate about but one axis. They move using magnetic paddles, akin to a water-wheel. I added some clockwork to the 'birdcage' but it doesn't do anything but tick. All electronics would be housed in the palm.
And, of course, the back of the hand has my kifwebe mask. Comes in two versions, left, or right.
Home delivery; unpacks self.
Click here for hirez.

You made me laugh so hard! The "some not so helpful activities" part especially :-)

Laughter is good for the soul :)

Well I achieved my goal then.


text:
Duplicate answer vs duplicate question
I have noticed several instances where a question has been closed as a duplicate of another question when the two questions have the same answer, but aren't really the same question.  A recent example is how to fix “object has no uniform scale”?, the question marked as its duplicate is Why is it important to apply transformation.  The new question is asking about what the message means and how to get rid of it, the old one is asking why you should apply transformations, the questions are really different but they have essentially the same answer.  I have seen several other instances of this as well.
Personally I think we should only close duplicates if the question is the same.  The purpose of duplicates is to make sure people search the site before they ask a question.  But, using the example of the question I mentioned above, the asker (especially if they are a new user) definitely could not have even found the question that was marked as a duplicate, let alone tell that its answer was the solution to his own problem since he had no idea wheat applying scale means.

I have noticed the same thing. Good idea!

I quite agree. Here's another example (all could have dyntopo as an answer, but are not the same question per se): http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/5542/599, http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/5136/599, http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/5613/599, http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/7532/599

This happens from time to time,
If the questions are really different but the answers the same, suggest not to close as duplicate because.

This may change over time (as Blender changes, the answer may no longer be a duplicate for both).
You can always give a brief answer to one that links to the answer from another. (to avoid too much copy-pasting text).

However if the questions are almost identical and have duplicate answers, its likely worth closing as a duplicate (some questions are unnecessarily specific).


text:
Confusion of “baking” and “texture-baking” tags
I have noticed several questions lately about texture baking that have used the [baking] tag instead of [texture-baking].  The tag wikis make sufficient difference between the two:
Baking tag wiki:

Baking is the act of pre-computing something in order to speed up some other process later down the line. Use this tag for baking any physics simulations.

Texture-Baking tag wiki:

Questions about blender's Bake feature under the Render panel, such baked images as normal maps, AO maps, and displacement maps, and texture maps.

But unfortunately a lot of people don't actually seem read the wikis.
So I am wondering if there is anything that can be done about this confusion (albeit this isn't exactly super important).  Can the [baking] tag's name be changed to something like [physics-baking]?  Or if this isn't a problem, should the [baking] tag always be used along with [texture-baking]?
I am aware of this meta question, but it seems that the “Use this tag for baking any physics simulations.” has been added since then.  I do think it is a good idea to have two separate tags since baking physics and textures are quite different procedures.
A couple of examples of the confusion are textures bake transparency as white and how to improve ambient occlusion in cycles..., I have suggested edits on these types of questions before.

When you find a question like the two you linked to, edit them and change the tags. There were many old questions that confused the two tags before we made a distinction. We had a discussion a while back in the chat about baking and texture-baking. Both of the question you linked are over a month old, I have not seen many recent questions with the wrong baking use. At this point I do not think it is needed to re name the tag, just fix the missed tagged question when you find them.


text:
Is there a way to encourage people to tag the render engine they are using?
I have noticed that one of the most common first comments on a question is something like “What render engine are you using?”.  My question is simply this, is there anyway to remind people to put the render engine in the tags?
Some kind of note like “Please be sure that if your question has anything to do with rendering (materials, rendering, etc.) that you include in the tags what render engine you are using.”  I myself have just forgotten to specify render engine occasionally since I always use cycles.  So I think this would be beneficial to everyone, askers and answerers, new and experienced users.
Is it possible to implement something like Greg Zaal's Idea, so users would get a message like "Please make sure you tag what render engine your are using." if they use the rendering or materials or other similar tags?

This would be a great notice to have on the "ask a question" page.. +1

I agree, another one would be to attach photos or a .blend. Seems like I am constantly asking for those.

Is there perhaps a way of forcing them to choose the render engine if they have added the rendering tag?

@GregZaal or the [tag:materials] tag.


text:
How does the community bot cast close votes?
I recently marked a question as a duplicate (here).  When I came back later to look at it I noticed that it had been closed and the only two votes were from me and the Community ♦ bot-user moderator.  How does this bot cast close votes?

It seems the OP is prompted to confirm if their question is a duplicate. If they click yes, then the question is closed by Community ♦. I can't find an official source for this though.. Another way this can happen is if a user that voted to close is subsequently deleted.

@gandalf3 I think the feature was first mentioned with this post: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/250981/new-ui-encourages-askers-to-confirm-or-dispute-duplicate-votes but it is only in this answer that it is explicitly mentioned that Community will be listed as a close voter: http://meta.stackexchange.com/a/250930

@RayMairlot Excellent! You appear to be gifted with the ability to find anything ;)