To queue or not to queue

November 19, 2014 7:30 AM

This post was immediately closed as being not appropriate for MeTa. And that's fine, I don't have any question about that decision. But why was it even allowed to go up, now that there is a MeTa moderation queue? Shouldn't a mod just have said to the poster, "Hey, this isn't a good fit," rather than having it go up and closing it immediately?
posted by Chrysostom to Etiquette/Policy at 7:30 AM (92 comments total)

It's a good question so I'll approve this to answer it publicly :)

Honestly, it was a screwup by me. I thought it was borderline as a MetaTalk post -- we've been making a concerted effort the last couple years not to have MetaTalk be a surrogate MeFi, so we tend to curtail "half good" posts that might not be "enough" for a full new post to MeFi. Ideally, it'd be a comment in the original old thread, but that was closed, and it wasn't quite enough for a full new post on MeFi, so I hemmed and hawed and let it go up, but soon after taz reminded me it would be better as a new post to MeFi and a bad fit for MetaTalk since we don't really do MeFi post updates here anymore and I agreed.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:34 AM on November 19, 2014 [9 favorites]

MetaTalk: basically hem and haw and waiting for Taz to turn up. Hahaha.
posted by Namlit at 7:38 AM on November 19, 2014 [21 favorites]

MeTa moderation queue makes me think of a conga line. Or queuing at the post office.
posted by arcticseal at 7:51 AM on November 19, 2014 [3 favorites]

The conga line sounds way more fun.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:00 AM on November 19, 2014 [3 favorites]

It's nice that mathowie has created a working environment where his staff feel free to question and overrule the big boss's judgment calls. I've seen far too many dysfunctional organizations where that isn't the case.
posted by Jacqueline at 8:09 AM on November 19, 2014 [48 favorites]

As I recall, Matt also has had a surprising number of FPPs deleted.
posted by maxsparber at 8:26 AM on November 19, 2014 [7 favorites]

his staff feel free to question and overrule the big boss's judgment calls

If you hire people smarter than yourself, it's pretty easy to agree with their advice even when it contradicts your own position -- they're probably right.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:32 AM on November 19, 2014 [84 favorites]

If we could somehow get a list of Matt's deleted FPPs, I'm sure that itself would make for a fantastic FPP.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 8:33 AM on November 19, 2014 [19 favorites]

If you hire people smarter than yourself, it's pretty easy to agree with their advice even when it contradicts your own position -- they're probably right.

This is a great lesson, along with "learning to delegate (or let go of control) is hard". Thanks for trying to build a non-dysfunctional organization.
posted by Phredward at 8:50 AM on November 19, 2014 [5 favorites]

If we could somehow get a list of Matt's deleted FPPs, I'm sure that itself would make for a fantastic FPP.

Who will be MeFi's Citizenfour?
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:52 AM on November 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

> MeTa moderation queue makes me think of a conga line. Or queuing at the post office

Do we have to pick one or the other? Why not both? Simultaneously?
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:33 AM on November 19, 2014 [9 favorites]

If we could somehow get a list of Matt's deleted FPPs, I'm sure that itself would make for a fantastic FPP.

Most of Matt's 70 or so deleted FPPs have been tests or double posts.

But then there's Crazy ass police kill dog
posted by vacapinta at 10:20 AM on November 19, 2014 [25 favorites]

Most of Matt's 70 or so deleted FPPs have been tests or double posts.

That's not counting all the paphnuty deletions, of course, but good luck finding those.
posted by solotoro at 10:28 AM on November 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

paphnuty's posts have been moved from person to person via anonymous flash memory cards where they survive as Samizdat.
posted by maxsparber at 10:31 AM on November 19, 2014 [3 favorites]

Who will be MeFi's Citizenfour?

You are Number Six.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:44 AM on November 19, 2014 [2 favorites]

Unrelatedly, what happened with this post: I El-Rei have knowledge of you Captain Zumbi of Palmares...? 4 posts, 3 deletions, all identical? Awesome yet strange.
posted by marienbad at 11:07 AM on November 19, 2014

Unrelatedly, what happened with this post...

I was performing some server shenanigans at exactly the same time adamvasco hit the Post button. It was just a server hiccup.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:15 PM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

The answer to who moderates the moderators? seems to be taz.
posted by maryr at 2:11 PM on November 19, 2014 [11 favorites]

I was performing some server shenanigans at exactly the same time adamvasco hit the Post button. It was just a server hiccup.

Sure it was. We all know that you've been bending time and space again with your wizard powers, you wizard!
posted by Jacqueline at 2:11 PM on November 19, 2014 [12 favorites]

It seems to me that in the spirit of MetaTalk's openness, it's better that posts be posted and closed than to be disappeared -- with a few exceptions, of course. Also, aside from being more open and transparent, it has the advantage of promulgating community standards of what is and isn't an appropriate MetaTalk post; whereas just removing it from the queue and informing the poster only instructs one errant poster at a time.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:18 PM on November 19, 2014 [5 favorites]

promulgating
Oh yum, a new word for me non-native sucker.

Word of the week, pronounced like this, I think, but I'm not sure.
posted by Namlit at 2:53 PM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

If you hire people smarter than yourself

That sort of line always amuses me -- the big boss insisting they have no talent other than hiring well. "I just sit around signing paychecks. It's all I am really good for."

I mean, it's a smart position to take, but it still amuses me.
posted by Michele in California at 2:53 PM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Can't say I like this queue, spontaneous posts that were deeply flawed yet transformed with a good dose of mefi lovin into wonderful happenings - these are gone forever, like y'know - tears in rain and stuff.

The portobello mushroom lives on in our little metahearts.
posted by sgt.serenity at 3:34 PM on November 19, 2014 [4 favorites]

That sort of line always amuses me -- the big boss insisting they have no talent other than hiring well. "I just sit around signing paychecks. It's all I am really good for."

I wish more bosses were this self-aware!
posted by Room 641-A at 3:48 PM on November 19, 2014

> If you hire people smarter than yourself, it's pretty easy to agree with their advice even when it contradicts your own position -- they're probably right.

But if you're hiring people smarter than yourself, Dunning-Kruger says that you don't realize that they're smarter than you so you tend to overrule their decisions anyway. But you're not doing that which means you're smart enough to know better, so you're not necessarily dumber than them but you don't realize that you're smarter than them. But if they know that you're smarter than them, does this mean that they're smarter than you about being smarter than them?

I have to have a lie down now.
posted by ardgedee at 8:03 PM on November 19, 2014 [6 favorites]

That was like... An analysis from smart Fredo only with the same end result.
posted by clavdivs at 9:52 PM on November 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

*googles "smart + fredo" and finds nothing new*

Internet, I don't care what form it takes, please make "Smart Fredo" a thing.
posted by Room 641-A at 11:32 PM on November 19, 2014

a new word for me non-native sucker

"Promulgate" is one of those words that on first hearing struck me as deeply fishy, like "comptroller".
posted by flabdablet at 4:20 AM on November 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

Both words are a bit like talking with your mouth full.
posted by Namlit at 5:51 AM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

#notallpromulgaters
posted by disclaimer at 5:58 AM on November 20, 2014

"promulgate" is a fun word to say. It uses the front of the mouth - Prom - then the tongue and middle of the mouth - ul - then the throat - ga - and back to the front again - te.

#yesallpromulgaters
posted by jillithd at 7:01 AM on November 20, 2014

#okaymaybesomepromulgaters
posted by disclaimer at 7:07 AM on November 20, 2014

"Promulgate the asseveration!" ululated the comptroller
posted by flabdablet at 7:22 AM on November 20, 2014 [15 favorites]

Sorry, phonetically it should read:
'Smaht'
posted by clavdivs at 7:24 AM on November 20, 2014

flabdablet: ""Promulgate the asseveration!" ululated the comptroller"

Tension, Apprehension, and Dissention have begun!
posted by Chrysostom at 7:26 AM on November 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

There was a young fellow called Angel
Who traded his goat for an orange.
He'd had it a month.
It had eaten the bulbs
And most of the family silver.
posted by flabdablet at 7:32 AM on November 20, 2014 [17 favorites]

mathowie's deleted FPPs, according to mefideleted.blogspot.com.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:41 AM on November 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

I have no idea how I ended up in this thread, or why.
posted by infini at 1:51 PM on November 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

Dunning-Kruger says that you don't realize that they're smarter than you so you

This is a misinterpretation of Dunning-Kruger, I think. As I understand it, it doesn't say that nobody is capable of correctly assessing their own competence, it says that unskilled people tend to overvalue their competence while skilled people are likely to undervalue theirs. So if anything, looking at others and thinking "wow, they're smart and good at what they do!" would indicate one was competent, not the other way around.
posted by Lexica at 2:11 PM on November 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

Wait, I'm suddenly confused. I thought Americans didn't use the word "queue". I've always been met with bafflement when I've been in America and forgotten to censor myself and replace "queue" with "line". ("Are you in the queue?" to people milling around near a cafe counter, or something.)

Is it the case then, that Americans use "queue" in the metaphorical sense, like a moderation queue, even though they don't use it for the act of queuing? If so, where did THAT come from?
posted by lollusc at 6:08 PM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

American: " pardon me, are you in qveve"
posted by clavdivs at 6:18 PM on November 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

Your American spelling's superb
And you'd rather not use the wrong verb;
When you come to Australia
Don't suffer a failure -
Remember to queue on the kerb.
posted by flabdablet at 6:43 PM on November 20, 2014 [7 favorites]

I think US use of queue is pretty much restricted to moderation queue and other IT-centric uses. I've never heard used for "a physical group of people waiting for something in turn."
posted by Chrysostom at 6:46 PM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

If you tracked the American usage of the word "queue" I bet it would somehow be tied to the rise of Netflix's popularity.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:52 PM on November 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

I think that in the US, "line" is used for people or things and "queue" is used for things exclusively. Also, Room 641-A is undoubtedly correct.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:10 PM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

Is it the case then, that Americans use "queue" in the metaphorical sense, like a moderation queue, even though they don't use it for the act of queuing? If so, where did THAT come from?

I suspect the use of queue in American English entered the IT-geek vernacular via engineering / math / comp sci students (et al.) studying queueing theory, which is pretty common under that name in American universities and also never called lining-up theory.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 8:42 PM on November 20, 2014 [5 favorites]

"Mean field models consider the limiting behaviour of the empirical measure (proportion of queues in different states) as the number of queues (m above) goes to infinity. "

Sounds like metatalk at times.

"The impact of other queues on any given queue in the network is approximated by a differential equation. "

This is when Matt calls pb to "fix it, please"

"The deterministic model converges to the same stationary distribution as the original model."
posting resumes
posted by clavdivs at 9:47 PM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

   deterministic
the original model
  both stationary
posted by flabdablet at 9:58 PM on November 20, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Is it the case then, that Americans use 'queue' in the metaphorical sense, like a moderation queue, even though they don't use it for the act of queuing?"

The "people waiting in a queue" sense is no more or less metaphorical than the "moderation queue" sense. The origin is from French for tail and was and is still used in English for a hairstyle, which is just slightly metaphorical relative to the French. It then became more metaphorical in "people waiting" sense and was then, I think, generalized into the idea of items waiting for an operation in an ordered sequence.

"If so, where did THAT come from?"

...and thus, the computer science usage of queue. You can see in the Google ngram viewer for queue in American English that its use in American English remained rare but steady until about about 1960 and then its use increased by almost sevenfold during the period from then until 1990, which very closely mirrors the rise of computing.

Not that this is the only American use of queue. When I worked in radio in the early 80s, we queued up 45s to play. Granted, a lot of people then and now confuse that use with the dramatic cue, but it's pretty clear that queuing up a record to play next is to queue and not to cue.

If the generalized sense is metaphorical, then so is the "people waiting" sense. But I don't think either should be thought of as metaphorical, as these are essentially the same thing relative to a hairstyle (more so the French "tail") and the hairstyle usage is now much more rare than the others. Queue in English now means a queue of anything, including people.

I don't think Netflix is influential at all. Its use is the computing use, and so is MetaFilter's. And Americans still aren't using the word for people waiting in line.

Arguably, though, in American English, Netflix's use of queue is an example of what linguist Geoffrey Pullum calls nerdview, which he defined as "writing in technical terms from the perspective of the technician or engineer rather than from a standpoint that would seem useful to the customer or reader". That usage rate in Google's book corpus is still really quite low and so I'm not sure whether the term is very accessible. On the other hand, unless I'm having transient cognitive difficulties, I don't think there's a more accessible subsitute for this purpose.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:38 PM on November 20, 2014 [5 favorites]

"If you tracked the American usage of the word 'queue' I bet it would somehow be tied to the rise of Netflix's popularity."

Somehow in my editing I deleted the bit where I pointed out that in the Google ngram view of its books corpus, the rate of queue weirdly declines after 2000, which is exactly the opposite of what you'd expect from a Netflix influence. That could be some glitch of Google's corpus, but I really don't think that Netflix's use affected the prevalence that much since I don't think it's moved beyond the contexts where it was used before Netflix. If it had popular currency in all the places where it could apply, beyond computing, then maybe. But I'm not seeing that.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 11:46 PM on November 20, 2014 [2 favorites]

it's pretty clear that queuing up a record to play next is to queue and not to cue

Given that every other radio type I've ever corresponded with has spelt that process "cueing" and called the associated skill of getting the stylus into the right spot "back-cueing", and that in any case Collins lists "cue" as an US variant spelling for "queue", I think your assertion is on shaky ground.
posted by flabdablet at 11:57 PM on November 20, 2014 [3 favorites]

"Overthinking a queue of beans"
posted by infini at 12:36 AM on November 21, 2014 [3 favorites]

This gets a bit like Calvin's bat essay.
Cue, queue, no clue (sorry: clve). Bats are no bugs...
posted by Namlit at 1:27 AM on November 21, 2014

"Given that every other radio type I've ever corresponded with has spelt that process 'cueing' and called the associated skill of getting the stylus into the right spot 'back-cueing', and that in any case Collins lists 'cue' as an US variant spelling for 'queue', I think your assertion is on shaky ground."

That's exactly what I did thirty years ago -- disengaging the drive so the turntable was free, placing the needle and then flicking the turntable forward and then backward so that my segues would be timed just right¹. It's been thirty-one years and I still have a sense memory sitting right here of reaching to my right to do this.

Anyway, on consideration, I think you're right. I spelled it cue back then and just now I'd decided it was a mistake because our jargon was (and still is, I'm sure) that we were "queuing/cueing up the next song" -- which seemed to me to be very much in the queue sense.

I'm pretty solidly a descriptivist, so I'll accept cue as a variant of queue if it's sufficiently widely attested. But sometimes such variations arise from genuine errors and insofar as cue is intended specifically to mean queue, I think that was originally such an error. Because you can see from the etymology of cue that it's independent and distinct -- from Q, basically. And it's a theater/music term.

But here's the thing: I'm pretty certain, now that you've forced me to think about it further, that this whole disc-jockey (and related) use of the term surely must originate from the cue audio channel. And that is very much in line with the dramatic/musical cue. When I cued up a record, I had that turntable on [the] cue [audio channel].

1. When you do this about fifteen times an hour, six hours a day, six days a week, for a year, you become very good at this. There's all kinds of randomness about where that needle lands in the lead-in, especially when you're in a hurry, but after a bazillion times you develop an uncanny ability to place it just about where you expect it and, sure enough, a quick flick of a half-turn of the turntable hits the song's open, and a quick quarter-turn or so back gives you that precise three-quarters of a second you expect after you hit the turntable's switch.

Eventually, after you start getting bored and a bit lazy about being a radio disc-jockey -- all those listeners can be a bit theoretical -- you'll occasionally find yourself zoning out at the last chords of some godawful song by, say, the Oak Ridge Boys, and you look over and realize you have nothing cued up on the other turntable and -- assuming there's not a cart handy you can throw in the machine without checking -- you learn to improvise a back-announcement or a weather report of just plain bullshitting while you simultaneously reach behind yourself for a new record, throw it on the turntable, and cue it up even while you're speaking. Then, just for the hell of it, you segue from your voice to the song's cold opening just right because, hey, maybe you don't have the best voice in the world, but you can sure work a tight board.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:30 AM on November 21, 2014 [5 favorites]

Here's the playlist. I'll leave up to you
The order to put them into.
So sort out the hoard
As you work your tight board
And then you can queue while you cue.
posted by flabdablet at 6:33 AM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

"When I worked in radio in the early 80s, we queued up 45s to play. Granted, a lot of people then and now confuse that use with the dramatic cue, but it's pretty clear that queuing up a record to play next is to queue and not to cue."

Nope. You're putting the album in a state of readiness when you cue up. Apparently from "quando."
posted by klangklangston at 9:01 AM on November 21, 2014

Also worked in radio. Confirming we cued and did not queue.
posted by SpiffyRob at 10:38 AM on November 21, 2014

Q?
posted by Chrysostom at 10:58 AM on November 21, 2014

We also see the word cue used for pool cues, so it'd make sense that's the spelling we'd know.
posted by NoraReed at 3:13 PM on November 21, 2014

"We also see the word cue used for pool cues, so it'd make sense that's the spelling we'd know."

I wonder what the history of that usage is? It seems likely that it's directly from the French, given the appearance of a pool cue.

Also, earlier I was wondering about broadcast studios these days. Just before we divorced, back in 1993 my ex-wife worked as a DJ at a station that had recently invested an enormous amount of money to go all-digital, including with the music played from data storage, which I think was quite rare then. But it's been twenty-one years since I set foot in a radio station.

I assume a digital data-storage and production environment is the norm, now? Because in that context I can see a queue being natural. Not only would it properly be a queue by its nature, but the software engineers and interface designers are most likely going to refer to it as a queue in the user interface. So you'd put a channel on cue, cue-up a song or ad, and place songs or ads in queues. But maybe the nomenclature is playlist?
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 6:47 PM on November 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

That's two different things. Queueing up the records to get played, and cueing the needle on the next record to hit the exact spot you want when you let it go.

My record players had a "cue" lever (spelled like that) that held the tone arm so the needle was just off the record so you could eyeball it over the gap between songs and hold it there until you were ready.
posted by ctmf at 6:51 PM on November 21, 2014

"My record players had a 'cue' lever (spelled like that) that held the tone arm so the needle was just off the record so you could eyeball it over the gap between songs and hold it there until you were ready."

Well, a couple of things.

First, others and then me all agreed that what folks do in radio is cue up records, not queue. I discussed queue again in my previous comment in the context of digital systems having a playlist queue.

Second, all the consumer turntables I've ever seen have that cue tone-arm lever you describe and, I think, production turntables did, too. But my own experience was that we never used them for the purpose you describe nor, I think, did the engineers at the production studio (that mastered tapes for automated stations) where I later worked in Dallas.

What I did as a disc-jockey back in the stone age of the early 80s, was first on the board (looked a lot like this one) put the turntable on "cue", take the turntable out of gear (these, apparently one of these Russcos or a similar model, had clunky, heavy-duty levers and a friction drive that would control whether they were free-turning, 45RPM, or 33⅓RPM), then place the stylus by hand where we wanted it (which, after practice was invariably before the track's beginning), manually turn the turntable forward while listening for the start of the track, manually turn the turntable backward a certain amount so the timing from start-up would be precise, put the turntable back into gear, and then bring the levels for that turntable off of cue and up to the estimated correct level for that track (this didn't really vary from expectations much with 45s). Then, in the case where I worked, there was a switch on the board that simultaneously switched that turntable track to "air" and would start the turntable motor. The silent lead-in that we'd leave available accounted for the spin-up and was just about, in my estimation, three-quarters of a second. Also, we'd pull the levels of the other turntable all the way down rather than just switching it off because that avoided, with that old board, any electrical clicks combined with the fact that the switching of the channel from "air" and the switching off of the motor, though controlled from the same mechanical switch, wasn't, in fact, reliably precisely instantaneous.

Most of that is what disc-jockeys at clubs did, and mostly still do when working with turntables, I'd imagine, though with additional, more complicated stuff.

Anyway, that whole act of getting a track ready to play we called and people still call "cueing up", as people have stated above. Which is why I had convinced myself that cue was an error of my own or of my memory, as that really seems like queuing stuff up in a sequence, ready to play. But I think that all these uses are all cue and derive from the musical/dramatic quando, as klang mentions, not queue.

But you could have a "queue" in this context! My various music players all seem to call this a playlist, though. But in many cases these function precisely as a queue and I especially wondered if a modern broadcast station with everything in digital storage wouldn't just have something they call maybe a live or air or broadcast queue. Which would sort of be confusing, having these homophone but distinct terms in use in the same environment. I suppose that's at least why software music players call them playlists, even if the software engineers who designed them very likely thought of them in terms of a queue.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 8:47 PM on November 21, 2014 [3 favorites]

I have no problem with the decision either, and I posted the thing. In fact, the queue emboldened me to post it -- I figured, if it wasn't a good post, it wouldn't make it out of the queue.

I might still FPP it on the blue, but I dunno. Might be borderline. Maybe if I can build it into a general Sjobergstravaganza.
posted by JHarris at 8:50 PM on November 21, 2014

Q?
posted by Chrysostom at 10:58 AM on November 21 [+] [!]

No, not that Q. This one.
posted by Michele in California at 10:07 AM on November 22, 2014

No, not that Q. This one.
posted by flabdablet at 10:23 AM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

No, not that Q. This one.
posted by flabdablet's sock puppet at 10:31 AM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Q
posted by infini at 10:33 AM on November 22, 2014

(Fashions Q-tip from dryer lint and a blow pop stick)
posted by clavdivs at 11:50 AM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Why are you guys talking about the Evil Terrorist Organization Known As Q, from the incomprehensible kind-of Japanese spy "movie" Mighty Jack? (YouTube [1h 37m])
posted by JHarris at 1:01 PM on November 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

Gah, bumhug! I'm sick and tired of the evil terrorists trope.
posted by infini at 1:46 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Everyone needs a Gah, bumhug.
posted by Michele in California at 1:49 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

"I wonder what the history of that usage is? It seems likely that it's directly from the French, given the appearance of a pool cue."

From the etymology online, "cue stick" came from "queue" in the "line up" sense. They say first attested in the 1700s, and I think it's kinda interesting because it goes from the idea of a line of people being like a tail to a different sense of lining up, then to a different spelling. Words are weird.
posted by klangklangston at 2:33 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

It's Qah, hvmbvg.
posted by Namlit at 3:16 PM on November 22, 2014 [3 favorites]

Or! Or! Or maybe you're talking about the "Q source," the likely original from which much of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were derived? Huh? Huh???
posted by JHarris at 4:32 PM on November 22, 2014

Welcome to QBOT - The Automated Quilter
www.myqbot.com
posted by clavdivs at 6:19 PM on November 22, 2014

You misspelled Q*bert.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 9:24 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

Did we do this guy already?
posted by Chrysostom at 5:37 AM on November 24, 2014

Yep, Michelle in California got him.

Have we actually got all the important pop cultural Qs?
posted by JHarris at 3:10 PM on November 24, 2014

Um, I didn't. Mine was the James Bond Q. But, you know, maybe that other Cali Michelle did and if so I had no idea she existed and... BEANS BEANS BEANS
posted by Michele in California at 4:37 PM on November 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

"Everyone, 2 free spins on the Dabo wheel for the next 15 minutes"
posted by clavdivs at 5:47 PM on November 24, 2014

Oh! Sorry about that, I looked at the URL and saw "Q (film)" and thought Bond's gadget man.

That movie looks... odd.
posted by JHarris at 7:02 PM on November 24, 2014

By the way, I am updating Bad Gods again. I've made a couple updates in the last few days, and I plan on doing more, though not on any sort of pre-ordained schedule.

Thanks for the interest, folks. You rock.
posted by lore at 9:25 AM on November 25, 2014 [3 favorites]

It is true. He's already got up a new piece about Disney's current proclivity for making princess movies that are just a single past-tense verb, like Tangled and Frozen, and found the Giant Leech "Speak With Monsters" strip. I'm probably going to FPP it, but have to decide how far I'm going to go with it. If someone else wants to do it first I'm game.

Now if only David Neilsen would fix Choose Your Own Damn Pokemon Adventure....
posted by JHarris at 11:39 AM on November 25, 2014

We're very weird. But at least we aren't alone in this madness.
posted by infini at 2:36 PM on November 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

Oh, good. Thought I was imagining all of you spiraling through the madness with me. Maybe we can link arms and spell something important to those on the ground.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:12 PM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

K...U...M...B....A....Y....A.....


can I delink now?
posted by infini at 3:16 PM on November 25, 2014

Why don't we all splat together?
posted by Mr. Yuck at 3:22 PM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Bad Gods: The Oglaf you can show your mom.
posted by klangklangston at 5:59 PM on November 25, 2014 [4 favorites]

Qassiarsuk
'Loom-weight with Thors Hammer'
Found in 32' on a Brattahild farm thought to have been Erik the Reds'

Soapstone 8 cm c. 1000

It is my theory Tjodhildes' church kept this as an icon but it was stolen by brother Cadfaels' dad.
posted by clavdivs at 9:46 PM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

Ivan - "cue" in radio parlance stems from theatrical usage, for an event that follows in sequence from another event, as in an actor's cue, a lighting cue, etc. Cue in that sense means be ready at the signal to execute; so the act of cue-ing up the turntable is readying it for a timed performance event, roughly. maybe you worked this out already elsewhere, as I saw references to a discussion i have not read.

lovey detailed description of getting a turntable ready, btw.
posted by mwhybark at 12:22 AM on November 29, 2014 [4 favorites]

"Queue" is used in telco / VOIP / etc when describing automatic call distribution (ACD) systems that handle all situations where "your call is important to us, please stay on the line while one of the bare-minimum number of resources available wraps up a call, and perhaps tries to get type some of their previous notes during your call so they don't get fired for having bad statistics" and goes back to the beginning of this technology of holding a call in a collective place for anyone to answer it (and specifically gets that call routed to them, not everyone rung at once) as soon as they are available.

My first IT job in 1998 involved being in a phone support role and we constantly watched the number of calls in the queue. In the US, "queue" is typically used in technical contexts like this where the use of the word never morphed into "line." "Lines" are almost always a physical thing, an actual assembled "line" of people which may weave around a block at a concert or around a winding maze at an amusement park, but "lines" are essentially always made of actual people standing around. I was already familiar with queues due to the technical limitations in downloading stuff over the internet or online using dial-up. In IRC chat there were file server bots that could handle a certain number of people and you had to wait in a queue before you got your turn, etc.
posted by aydeejones at 12:54 AM on November 29, 2014

Mr Higgins, won't you be my preceptor?
posted by mmmbacon at 3:52 PM on November 29, 2014