There is a new nodelet, Notifications.

What this essentially does is split out the system-generated notification messages into a separate nodelet from the Chatterbox nodelet. So if you enable this nodelet, then all of the messages which come to you from the system (i.e. from root or NodeReaper) are shown in this nodelet and not in the Chatterbox nodelet.

This is structured very similarly to the Chatterbox nodelet, but with a few simplifications:

• It only shows a maximum of 16 notifications; it ignores your "Max to display in Chatterbox" setting.
• It shows a maximum of 16 entries, unless you have "Max to display in Chatterbox" set. (When viewing Notifications directly, the default max is 128.)
• It doesn't show the sender of each message. (It will only ever be root or NodeReaper anyway.) In the place of that, it shows a bullet.
• Since the sender isn't shown, to see the send time you can hover over the message preface.
• There is no 'talk box' in this nodelet. Instead, there is a 'delete' button you can press to delete any checkbox-selected messages.
• The preface from NodeReaper — "I've reaped a node you considered" — is changed to "A node you considered has been reaped".

As with all nodelets*, this one can be viewed "standalone" on its own page, simply by going to the node of the same title: Notifications.

* With just a couple exceptions.

OK, folks, I've got yet another steaming-fresh feature for you: Private groups of one. Each monk can have a private group of which they are the only member. In this group, you have access to the feature which supports threaded discussions on groups. Here's the trick which makes this feature useful (in my hubrile opinion): the Gods also have access to your private group of one! This enables to have private threaded discussions with the gods. I made this because I feel that our inbox-based message system and wikis are rather inadequate for extended discussions.

To access your private group of one, go to your home node. You should see a row labeled "Private Group:" at the bottom of the table next to your picture. If the private group doesn't exist yet, there will be a link to Create it. Otherwise, the link will say Visit.

Alrighty, folks! I've got another steaming-fresh feature for you: What Links Here

There is a new nodelet you can enable, if you are interested in this feature. Go to your Nodelet Settings and find "What Links Here" somewhere near the top of the list.
Then, whatever node you're on, this nodelet will show what other nodes link to the current node.

The list is capped at 20. For nodes which are the target of many links, such as the PerlMonks FAQ, the nodelet will list 20 nodes, followed by a link to What Links Here where you can see the full list.

The database table behind this feature is not automatically maintained (yet), so I'll need some volunteers from pmdev to occasionally visit Update Userspace Links. Doing so will cause a delta update to the table.

I was inspired by this old quote from Rob Malda:

The thing that I always thought was the most interesting in Xanadu is the idea that links are bi-directional. And the Everything Engine was designed around that.

I am pleased to announce a new feature: thread watching. This lets you receive notification whenever someone posts a comment in a thread of interest.

More specifically, you can get notified when someone replies directly to a specific node of interest, or when someone replies anywhere under a node of interest, no matter how many reply levels below the node. These two modes are called 'direct' and 'any'. The node of interest doesn't have to be a root node in one of the sections; it could be any reply as well, in case you're only interested in a subthread under some post.

To register for notifications, click one of the new links you'll find by each node, near the "Comment on" link. For a node you're viewing directly (that is, the 'root' of a (sub)thread you're viewing), the new text looks like:
Watch for: Direct replies / Any replies
For all other nodes in a (sub)thread you're viewing, the new text looks like:
Watch: Dir/Any

If you have already registered interest in a node in this way, you will instead see a link like:
Unwatch

To see a list of all the nodes you are currently watching, go to My Watched Nodes. Next to each watch listed, you'll see a "button" (like [X]) which you can click to delete that watch.

In addition... You can watch a user, i.e. receive notification whenever a specific user posts. To set up this kind of watch, go to the user's homenode, where you will see a link like Watch for posts by this user. When you are stalking a user in this way, you will also get notifications of whenever they submit root posts in any of the main sections of the site.

If a post happens to hit multiple criteria you have set up — for example, you're watching for posts in a certain thread and by a certain user, and that user posts in that thread — you will get just a single notification message.

Some time in the last year or two I suddenly realized that I should be keeping a log of the interesting things I learn from day to day. A couple months ago I was talking with my brilliant young nephew about how I didn't have a really satisfactory solution, and he suggested Notion. He set up a Notion workspace where we can both enter our #TILs. It works really well. Notion is amazing. But I can see how it might not scale too well with a large number of contributors.

Long story short — I have created Today I Learned, a page where anyone (meeting certain minimum elibility requirements) can share interesting factoids. Please check it out. What do you think? Is it worthwhile? If not, could it be made better? If so, how? If snot, blow?

I also want to note that the extant page, Today I Learned, is based on a generic mechanism which can be easily leveraged for other similar tasks. The main configurable parameters are: who can view the page, who can add entries, and who can delete entries. (readers/writers/deleters, in short.) These can be based on a user group (such as janitors or breathers of fire), or on monastic level (such as Level 10: Hermit). Can you think of a use for such a feature?

I thank you, and Paco thanks you.

* On the Today I Learned page, entries can be deleted by the Janitors, and the Editors Nodelet contains a link to that page labled 'TIL'. When there is a new entry on that page, a little flag (*) is appended to the 'TIL' link.

It has happened from time to time that some monks have expressed concern over the unexpected and prolonged absense of another monk. In at least one case, a monk contacted the gods to see if a reachout could be done. Unfortunately, we had to say no, because the contact information stored in the user profile consists only of an email address, and our policies explicitly state this this email address "is used only to send you your password". I believe that this creates — correctly — a strong expectation of privacy around this personal information.

Therefore, I would like to propose the addition of an "emergency contact" field, which would probably normally be an email address, but with a different expectation as to its potential usage. The use of this field would be strictly optional. That is, as a user, you wouldn't have to put anything in it unless you want to.

Alternatively, we could add a checkbox which, when checked, indicates that you are OK with site administrators using the existing email for "emergency contact" purposes, in addition to its current purposes (i.e. password recovery).

Any thoughts?

"such like as" is my homage to blazar.

Why Social Media Algorithms Are Failing You - Rob Malda, Slashdot Founder, Interview (youtube)

(Sorry, not steaming fresh, about 6 months old)

In case you're wondering: if vroom is our Olympian, then CmdrTaco is our Titan.

The doco saith:

Fields may optionally have initializing expressions. . . . the expression can . . . see any other variables in scope.

class WithACounter {
    my $next_count = 1;
    field $count = $next_count++;
}
[download]

But it doesn't say that any other kind of code can be present there. For example, maybe I'd like to do this:

class WithACounter {
    my $next_count = 1;
    if (last_one_was_bad()) { delete_last_one(); $next_count--; }
    field $count = $next_count++;
}
[download]

Would that be permitted?

Also: it looks like the my variables there are essentially "class static" members — so called in other languages e.g. C#. Is that an accurate characterization?

This shows the probabilities of drawing two specific cards (labeled A and B) in a hand of five cards, from decks of various sizes.

All numbers are percentages.

When the deck contains no 'draw' cards:

When the 'A' card causes Draw 1:

The probabilities of other combinations can be derived from those given in this table:

• A | !B (A or not B - possibly both conditions) is the inverse of A & !B.
• A ^ !B (A or not B but NOT both conditions) is the inverse of A ^ B.
• !A & !B (neither A nor B) is the inverse of A | B
• !A | !B (not A, or not B - possibly both conditions) is the inverse of A & B.
• !A ^ !B (not A, or not B, but NOT both conditions) is logically the same as A ^ B.

I submit for your consideration:

Policy regarding abuses of the voting system

1. Massive downvoting of nodes belonging some specific user.
2. The use of vote-bots for any reason.
3. Voting on nodes you (the human) wrote.