Monica

Three years ago, we at Mi Yodeya put out our first publication, a Hagada supplement full of questions and answers related to the Passover seder, hand-picked from the thousands of great Jewish Q&As at Mi Yodeya. Seders around the world were enlivened, thanks to people bringing printouts of this booklet.

Today, for Passover 5776, we are proud to present a second edition, significantly expanded and improved. With eleven additional Q&As, "Hagada - Mi Yodeya?" now covers every step of the seder, from preparation (how can I make an engaging seder?) to the closing songs (why does Echad Mi Yodeya stop at 13?). It includes questions of theology and philosophy (did hardening Paro's heart mean he wasn't really responsible?), practical questions (what do you do with the wine in Eliyahu's cup?), and other things you might have wondered about (is two zuzim a lot of money for a kid goat? how much is a zuz anyway?).

You can download the new edition at http://s.tk/miyodeya. Please download, enjoy, and share! I'll have copies at my seder; perhaps you will at yours too?

The Worldbuilding blog, Universe Factory, is still fairly small; we're new and trying to grow. So I was surprised when my latest article, Worldbuilding As You Go: A Case Study, in which I describe a process by analogy with train games, got lots of views in just a few hours. (I mean hundreds, not hundreds of thousands, but more than I'm used to.) Curious about where it was linked (it must have been linked, right?), I looked into the referrers and found Reddit. I didn't know there was a worldbuilding sub-reddit, though I guess I shouldn't be surprised. There are sub-reddits for practically everything, after all.

I've not used Reddit before. Is bookmarking that page and occasionally visiting it the best way to keep an eye out for other interesting material on this topic? Assuming I don't want to commit a large amount of time to that, is just going with the community voting to cull the vast pile of material the way to go, or are there easy personalization options?

You're being too productive. Let me help.

The Worldbuilding blog, Universe Factory, has been publishing a nice mix of articles. (We aim to post something new every three days.) Some recent posts that my readers might be interested in:

- The latest in my "revelation for RPGs" series, in which I talk about transformations in the world and in some of the characters (previous posts in this series are linked)

- Hey look, I was interviewed!

- The third in a series on hard magic (see also part 1 and part 2)

- A Day on Planet Sitnikov, on unusual orbital mechanics and, also by this author, a planet's-eye view of globular clusters

Several weeks ago I wrote about a series of blog articles I was starting over on the Worldbuilding blog called "Revelation for RPGs". This is a series of posts about techniques GMs can use to build, and reveal to players over time, interesting and rich worlds. I'm basing this series on a game run by ralphmelton years ago and chronicled in ralph_dnd.

I've added a couple more posts since then. Here's the list so far:

Revelation for RPGs I: Setting the Stage

Revelation for RPGs II: The Written Word

Revelation for RPGs III: Your World is Made of People

Revelation for RPGs IV: I Can See Clearly Now

I'm telling (in high-level outline) the story of the game as I talk about how it was played. We're about halfway through the campaign now; the latest article shares the "big reveal" of that part of the game. (Those who remember the game should know what I mean by that, and for the rest of you, I don't want to spoil it.)

I have a few more planned for this series.

This is what 1400 copies of our book looks like:



If you've previously said you might be able to help with distribution, please let me know Real Soon Now where and how many copies to send you. (Or if you weren't able to get permission from your rabbis, of course I understand.) If we haven't discussed that, but you'd like some copies for your synagogue, please let me know (while supplies last). My email address is this journal name at pobox.com.

I'm delighted with this book. You can download a copy from http://s.tk/miyodeya. Enjoy!

I'm one of the moderators of Mi Yodeya, a high-quality question-and-answer site for Jewish life and learning. We cover everything from text study to details of halacha (Jewish law) to holiday traditions to practical how-to questions, some beginner-level and some very advanced and a lot in between. The site is community-curated, and the community places high value on answers that include sources or otherwise show their work. We currently have about 13,000 answered questions.

Many of those questions are about the high holy days, and we're publishing a collection of the best of those. We've published collections before (for Pesach, Purim, and Chanukah), but this time we're also doing a print run. Lots of Jews go to synagogues for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur; wouldn't it be great if they could pick up a copy of our book to read and reflect on?

Our members are editing this book right now, and we've identified volunteer distributors who will bring copies to their congregations in several locations (more welcome). Will you help us make this a reality? Would you be willing to help fund our printing costs? Can you spare $5? Or more?

To learn more about the project, or to help us out, I hope you'll visit http://jewcer.com/miyodeya. Thank you.

Answers to anticipated questions:

1. I will not see your credit-card information.

2. Yes you can donate anonymously.

3. Yes, you'll be able to download your own copy, too.

Here are some more pictures of the visiting Stack Exchange unicorn. In this batch she picks up a little local memento, visits an SCA event, and finally (finally!) sees signs of spring in the 'burgh.

( Read more... )

The Stack Exchange mascot, a plush unicorn, is currently making a world tour of moderators who wanted to participate. (I, um, kind of had something to do with hatching that plan.) She arrived yesterday, along with her memory book (looking forward to reading that) and assorted mementos from places she's been. I really need to figure out something that says "Pittsburgh" to add to the collection. At scale is best; she's about 8" tall, so, for example, a regular-sized Terrible Towel would be overkill.

Suggestions welcome! Must be something I can obtain in the next week or so, and must not be an imposition to ship.

She'll be going to the local SCA event next week, so I've already located a baronial token for her (one of the cast comets). But that's a little...specialized.

Yes I'll post some pictures later of her visits around town.

The month of Adar began a few days ago, which means that silliest of holidays, Purim, is coming up soon. And that means that Purim Torah -- discourse of a, shall we say, not entirely serious nature -- is in season on Mi Yodeya. Here are some of my favorites from this season so far -- recommended, and most of the ones I've selected should be broadly accessible. (Feel free to leave comments here if you need help interpreting anything.)

Why don't Jews accept Our Lord and Savior? The question (which skirts the "can Purim Torah be too heretical?" line really closely) lays out some textual "proofs". I had fun answering this.

What does Judaism think of math? Quite a variety of answers here.

What is the text of kiddush for Purim night? I've heard a couple really silly and (within my limits of comprehension) hilarious texts for Purim kiddush, the prayer of sanctifying a special day. The one (so far) posted here looks like it's pretty funny, but I can only comprehend part of it. (If anybody reading this is inclined to provide a translation, please consider adding it there. If you're not comfortable with that, though, please feel free to post here...)

Why didn't Esther follow Mordechai's instructions? This answer is fun, and check out the link in the answerer's first comment.

Is the torah in the public domain? Wikipedia says that only works published before 1923 are automatically public domain. The torah was written in 2448, so that's safe...

I wrote previously about the Mi Yodeya celebration. I also joined Isaac and others for services while there, which was interesting and educational.

( places visited )

A couple observations:

First, none of the services felt rushed, but I do not know how people pray that quickly. I couldn't keep up without vocalizing everything, while the service leader was spitting out the Hebrew cleanly and clearly. I guess it comes in time? But on the other hand, if I haven't gotten it by now...

They sure do a lot of kaddishes. If I recall correctly, at the end of the Sunday-morning service there was a bit of torah learning followed by kaddish d'rabbanan, and I came away with the impression that the former was there mainly to justify the latter. (Kaddish is said at certain points in the service, mainly to act as a division, but it also may be said after any learning.) Unlike in Reform services, kaddish is said either by one person or the mourners as a group. I found myself wondering how that's coordinated -- who gets which ones, how do they know, and if you particularly want one that day, how do you signal that?

Both of these synagogues -- and, now that I think about it, several other Orthodox synagogues I've been to -- had a bunch of different siddurim (prayer books). The content is basically the same in all of them, but sometimes there are minor variations, they may or may not include English translations (which may or may not vary subtly), they may or may not contain commentary, and so on. This has a few consequences:

• You actually get, and have to make, a choice. Friday night I just took a book; it was all Hebrew, no English translation. That's fine for the prayers (I'm going to do those in Hebrew anyway), but I had to work a little more at navigation.
• Some people bring their own, an option that simply had not occurred to me.
• Because not everybody is using the same book, and also I assume because there's an assumption that if you're there you're fluent (which breaks down in some individual cases, of course), they don't call out instructions or page numbers -- you're just expected to be able to follow. I can do that for a Shabbat or weekday service, but might be challenged to do so on, say, the high holy days.

On Saturday morning I used the Koren siddur, which I've heard good things about. I actually found the Hebrew font just a tad hard to read, compared to Sim Shalom, Artscroll, and even Mishkan T'filah. It looked like a nice siddur otherwise, so maybe one to have available even if I don't use it regularly. Or maybe, were I to use it regularly, I'd find the font a little easier.

I'm glad I got the opportunity to experience all that.

This weekend I attended a celebration of Mi Yodeya's fifth birthday, hosted by the site's patriarch and his family, who had the decency to move this summer to within driving distance of my house. So I got to go. I had a great time!

Isaac and his family (names and details elided because he hasn't shared those online AFAIK) are wonderful people and kind hosts. I felt welcome from the moment I walked through their door on Friday afternoon. Friday night after Shabbat dinner we visited another Yodeyan family -- they'd just had a baby girl a few days earlier so they invited folks over to celebrate. I was a little disappointed, but ultimately relieved, that he did not give his daughter a polysyllabic Klingon name after all (and I'll just leave the ambiguity in that sentence hanging :-) ).

Saturday afternoon was the main event. We were joined by about half a dozen other Yodeyans and their families, all local (or approximately so) except for me. Some demurred about sharing their user names, so I still don't know who everybody is "on site", but that's fine. One printed out his "gravatar", the default, uniquely-generated image that's assigned to a user who doesn't upload something else. Another also found a way to display his user icon. I wish I'd thought of that -- but people knew who I was anyway, because (a) I use the image I'm posting this entry under and they could match it up, and (b) I was probably the only person none of them knew otherwise (so clearly I wasn't local).

Lunch was festive and included divrei torah (words of torah) from, I think, all the Yodeyans. Mine went ok -- several others were clearly more erudite, but some of those people are rabbis so I don't feel bad about that. :-) I've been woefully negligent about posting my divrei torah here lately, but I'll try to get this one (and the one I gave in my minyan the week before) posted here.

Shabbat morning at services we heard an excellent d'var torah on the themes of Chanukah and education. One key take-away for me was that in Jewish education we repeat topics all the time; we read the torah in an annual cycle, there's a seven-year cycle of studying the talmud, and students will visit some topics over and over. In secular education, on the other hand, this doesn't happen -- why would you ever repeat algebra or chemistry or freshman English, unless you'd had trouble getting it the first time around? (Sure, you may go more in-depth later, but that's different.) And while it might not make sense to revisit secular topics such as these over and over, there is much to be gained in revisiting torah and talmud and halacha and ethics and the rest. (This was part of a much longer discussion of educational values, not the whole talk.)

This matches my experience on Mi Yodeya, too. Any question that I could ask has been asked before, probably many times, by people way more learned than I -- yet there is value in me asking it anew, and value in others engaging with it instead of just saying "go read this textbook". And similarly, any answer that I could give to someone else's question would pale in comparison to what others have said on that topic in the past, yet I and others get something out of my offering those answers anyway. (Most of the time, anyway -- I've had some clunkers, as have we all.) Jewish topics are not just things to be learned, or looked up once, in books; that we engage with questions, turning the torah and turning it again and again to reveal its 70 faces, is important. And I get to be part of it.

Isaac had a really thoughtful gift¹ for each of us: for each of us he found an answer (or question in some cases, I think) of ours that stood out, and that also fit the format, and printed it in a nice "certificate" format suitable for framing. I love that! And I like the answer of mine that he picked, which I'd kind of forgotten about (but now that I'm reminded of it, it was well-received). Very cool idea!

¹ Technically not, as it was on Shabbat. It, um, involved a kinyan and, I think, his wife acting as agent for all of us. I don't quite know how that works, but I know a place I could ask. :-)

Dear LJ Brain Trust,

I'm too new to this to know if this is a "DB 101" question or more interesting, but Googling isn't getting me anywhere and I'm not getting a clear understanding from casual interrogation of coworkers, so I'm trying y'all.

Let's say I have a dataset that has half a dozen(ish) types of data -- posts, and users, and comments, and a few others. Logically, each of these types is a table, and I can join as necessary across them (to, say, find all posts by a given user). That's fine.

Now suppose I have, oh, 250 such datasets (same schemas, different data), and I'm going to load them all into a single database because I want to be able to do queries across datasets. There are two ways I might approach this:

1. Make 250 sets of tables. Each table is named for its dataset (e.g. Set1.Posts, Set1.Users, ... Set250.Posts, Set250.Users). If I want to do a query across all the users, everywhere, I, um... can I do the moral equivalent of "JOIN *.Posts"? How would that work?

2. Make big tables. I have one Posts table, and one Users table, and so on; at data load I cons up values for a new "dataset" column to say where each row came from. If I only want to look at one site I use a WHERE on that column to restrict the SELECT; if I want everything, it's all there for the taking.

Let me dispense with one possible concern: these datasets are updated from time to time, so at times I'll want to refresh the data from a dataset because an update came out. (An update is a new, complete copy, not a delta.) My database supports data partitioning, so deleting just the rows from that dataset before loading in a fresh copy is not a problem. (In option 1, you just drop the table.)

It seems to me that there is everything to gain and (probably?) nothing to lose by doing #2, if my database can handle that many rows. Because my database is in the "big-data analytics" space, I believe it can handle that. I mean, this database can operate on petabytes of data; my li'l pile of datasets will be well under a terabyte. (In fact, #1 didn't even occur to me, until I mentioned this project in passing and somebody suggested it.)

Is that reasonable, or am I missing something big and obvious? What factors should I be considering that I haven't mentioned? And if I'm wrong and I should be doing #1, how do I write a JOIN that crosses all the datasets?

(All the Stack Exchange data, in case you're wondering.)

I moderate a few online communities, and occasionally something gets flagged as offensive that doesn't strike me that way -- but, in a large heterogeneous community, it can be hard to know whether I don't see it because it's not there or because my own perspective blocks it. Put another way, is that my privilege speaking?

Today I decided to ask that question on the fledgling community-building site on Stack Exchange. If you have experience mediating such issues, please consider answering there. You could comment here too, of course, and I'd like to hear what y'all have to say about this, but I hope that if you can speak from actual experience you'll consider sharing your knowledge over there where it will help people other than me too.

I'm oft fascinated by how online communities work (or, sometimes, don't work) and I'd like this site to succeed. Also, I've written some good stuff for it that I'd hate to have disappear from the network if the site doesn't reach critical mass.