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

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

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

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

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

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


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Answer or comments and search engine impact?
Some questions can be rapidly (and efficiently) answered using the comments only.
But is doing that (instead of providing an answer in the answers part) influences the search engine later?
The idea behind this question is about the efficiency of future researches on the question's subject (and so for instance, the amount of duplicate questions later).

I don't know about search engines, but as far as I understand, answering with a comment makes the question remain unanswered, and will keep popping back to the main page until there is an accepted answer or an answer with votes.

Google is probably intelligent enough to down-ranks questions that have no answers or low scores in search results too.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Blender Stack Exchange in languages other than English?
Are there versions of Stack Exchange generally, or Blender Stack Exchange in particular, in languages other than English? If not, where can one direct a user who is hampered by trying to ask a question in English, when English is not a language in which they are particularly facile? Should there be an entry on the resources question that points to help resources in other languages.

I think there isn't; if taking into account StackExchange format then this could be made the same as with StackOverflow which now is in Portuguese, Spanish, Russian except for the main one. As such a proper proposal should be made for that.

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


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Links to blend at Blend Exchange and https issue
I saw today that pasting links from Blend Exchanges gives this error:

I've checked older answers/questions with Blend Exchange links, and images are still working fine (error shows up when you try to edit), but adding new ones gives only text link.
Do GiantCowFilms planning to switch to https:// protocol?
Or maybe better (and cheaper) solution could be changing from:
[](http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/xxxx/)

To external image hosted on imgur:
[](http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/xxxx/)

I like the cheaper solution. I do own one domain with an SSL cert, I might host the picture there. At least that way it will be easier to change all the images if there is a need to.

@giantcowfilms can I ask why did you use image with file id? I'm just curious as I'm mostly web dev.

Its there so if, in the future, we want to gather statistics about how many times each file's link is viewed on the page, or possibly display a unique image for each file we can. Changing all the links after the fact to achieve those goals would be nearly impossible, which is why I did it from the start despite the fact that currently it isn't used for anything.

It has been fixed!

^^Now with SSL Certs (you can see that image link points to https). Thanks to @gandalf3 for recommending https://letsencrypt.org/, which allowed me to get free SSL certs for blend-exchange.
I still have to update the copy-paste on the website. I will do that soon. in the mean time links can be manually fixed

Superb! Thanks for the tip with letsencrypt.org, I will need to contact with my shared hosting provider as they don't allow using SSH.

I don't want to add another question as I think it's connected. When I try to add files to Blend Exchange it gives me error: "The provided url is not valid, please copy and paste the entire url, including the "http://" header." I'm pasting all of it as always.

@LukeD I'll look into that the url handler was updated.

I ran a batch replacement from http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ to https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/, ~2k posts affected

@m0sa Thanks!!!


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Anyone can edit?
Surely I have missed something as I though editing questions or answers was allowed at 2000 rep?
Today, twice, a user with 1 rep edited my answer. I rejected it and so I don't have a link anymore, but here is a screen capture:

Am I wrong about the needed reputation?

The user gets some rep for a suggested edit IIRC.  At 1 you need rep to comment.

That is a suggested edit, and yes anyone below 2000 rep (the edit privilege) can suggest an edit to any post.
Suggested edits differ from an edit, in that suggested edits must be reviewed.
For example if I edited that post, you would not even know. However with a suggested edit SE first pings the OP (you) and you get a link to the suggested edit review queue (here is the link to the review in question)
So yes anybody can edit, but edits from users with less then 2000 rep have to clear the review before the post is actually edited.

OK, and thanks for the proof of concept...

sure :) What I do is every so often look at the responses tab in my profile that shows when one of your posts gets edited.


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bumped to the homepage by Community?
Often this is happening: "bumped to the homepage by Community", when looking at "active" questions.
But what are we supposed to do with it?

@MrZak, ok, but what is the consequence? Just upvoting an answer will validate it as the good answer? Or are we supposed to do anything else? And how many UV are needed to solve the question?

From meta.stackexchange:

The Community user will bump non-negatively scored questions that have at least one answer scoring 0 and none scoring more than that.

Questions are picked randomly from the top-viewed inactive questions.
The number of unanswered questions bumped per hour depends on the site: 4 per hour on Stack Overflow, 1 per hour on Meta, and 2 per hour on Super User and Server Fault. The default for a new site is 1 per hour.

The idea is to give attention to questions which may have been buried.
So if you see one, treat it as you would any other question:

Comment on the question and answer(s) to request clarification etc.
Edit the question/answer(s) to clarify/rephrase/correct etc.
If you feel they deserve it, vote on the questions/answer(s) (up or down) etc.
Write your own answer
etc.


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Dealing with dead manual links
I have noticed that there are quite a few links to Blender documentation that have gone down since the Manual URL was changed recently.
Since this change, it seems that some of the older documentation links are not redirecting, and instead give a 404  error like below.

Some examples:
How to illuminate the darkness inside glass objects in Cycles?
What is the difference between a UV Sphere and an Icosphere?
Creating a Black Hole in Blender
Make a gold reflective object
How to change to spherical Axis
While I have read through this question and agree with the points made, since these links are the documentation for Blender, it seems to me that it would make more sense to fix them if possible rather than to just remove them.
My main question is, is there a way to search the site specifically for the wiki links/ older documentation links? Then one could update as appropriate if so inclined to ensure that links go to the correct place, and that there is current and correct information. Or would it be better to just update them as they are found?

For old wiki links, you can view their original content by inserting?title= into the URL after index.php and before Doc:2.6. For example, https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual becomes https://wiki.blender.org/index.php?title=Doc:2.6/Manual. Can be useful for determining which manual page would be most appropriate.

That's a useful tip, thanks. I always read through the URL and do my best to judge which page is the correct one based on the content for the ones I have changed. Sometimes, not so easy though to find the right page though.

Excellent incentive. I applaud you on seeing a problem and working towards getting it fixed. I myself still have ~60 posts to fix.
(I thought sure there was a meta post on this before, but alas I can not find it.)
Anyway, yes fix them when you come across them. Or if you find yourself with a free hour or two, edit a whole bunch of them (990 as of this writing).  That link answers your main question.
It is rather a bother because you have to go and find the new manual link. This cross reference can help when trying to find the new link. There is not direct correlation between the old links and where they put it in the new manual. (Some things are hard to find.)
As you alluded to, please do not simply remove a wiki link, change it to the manual's link.


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BSE python: to pep or not to pep. Standards vs Readability
The Blender Best Practices: Style Guide has a number of scripting recomendations, including the use of pep8.
Quoting PEP 8, beautiful code, and the tyranny of guidelines.

Getting PEP 8'ed
Once a standard exists, there’s a great temptation to impose that standard on other people’s code arbitrarily. You might even believe you’re doing the world a favor.
The PEP 8 standards warn against this with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emmerson: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”. But that doesn’t stop eager PEP 8ers diving in and complyifying other developers’ code. Once we know how to do something — and we believe it’s useful and productive — we’ll be tempted to jump in and do it wherever we can. Thus once somebody knows how, they can’t help but perpetrate PEP 8.
With any guideline: follow it yourself sooner than impose it on others.

Why?, later in the comments to this answer @David commented how readable the answer code is.  Agreed it is "cobolically" readable, BUT is a travesty against the pep8 rules... the thin edge of the wedge ...
Just this small snippet produces the following pep8 report.
for f in range(1,animLen + 1):
    S.frame_set( f ) # Set frame

    frmNum   = str( f ).zfill(3) # Formats 5 --> 005
    fileName = "angle_{a}_frm_{f}".format( a = angle, f = frmNum )
    fileName += S.render.file_extension
    bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = join( renderFolder, fileName )

# |2| 21: E201 whitespace after '('
# |2| 23: E202 whitespace before ')'
# |2| 25: E261 at least two spaces before inline comment
# |4| 15: E221 multiple spaces before operator
# |4| 24: E201 whitespace after '('
# |4| 26: E202 whitespace before ')'
# |4| 37: E261 at least two spaces before inline comment
# |5| 47: E201 whitespace after '('
# |5| 49: E251 unexpected spaces around keyword / parameter equals
# |5| 51: E251 unexpected spaces around keyword / parameter equals
# |5| 60: E251 unexpected spaces around keyword / parameter equals
# |5| 62: E251 unexpected spaces around keyword / parameter equals
# |5| 69: E202 whitespace before ')'
# |7| 50: E201 whitespace after '('
# |7| 73: E202 whitespace before ')'

The usage of dislike( this ) has started to proliferate.  How do others feel about this.  Should some form of coding standard (pep8, tlousky2017, lol) be adhered to on BSE, or is it open slather?

I think the effort required to globally enforce something like this will be much larger than any conceivable gain is worth:

Lots of existing code which likely doesn't follow spec
New users are arriving all the time; likely won't know (or care) about it
As you say, code snippets don't have to be standardized to be understood.
Being understood is the primary goal for most code snippets here; they usually are intended to demonstrate a concept rather than function as a complete implementation.

On the other hand, editing to improve clarity, readability, and accuracy is something which should always be advocated.   While enforcing an entire standard on a global level might not be very productive or practical, editing individual answers which you personally feel could be worded (or coded) in a clearer manner is absolutely something to encourage!

I personally dislike( this ) as well ;)
But then again, I'm also the kind of person who's too lazy to write spaces in their-css:rules;.

"With any guideline: follow it yourself sooner than impose it on others."  is probably the go I suppose.  I'm certainly too lazy to bother pepifying others' code snippets


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When is showing cycles shader node setup appropriate?
Over the past couple years I have been using Blender I have watched many tutorials (paid and free) and have built up an extensive collection of shader materials that I have made from scratch and used techniques from those in the tutorials. When someone ask how to make a certain material in BSE I have a perfect (imho) shader for it but cant remember for the life of me where I learned that technique or how much I changed etc... I feel guilty if I show how I did a shader set up (even if it is tweaked to fit my scene) that I may have got from a paid tutorial.
What are your thoughts on this? Should I just not post anything if I cant remember where I learned that technique from? Or even if I do remember Should I not post at all to help someone if I got it from a paid service?

[Should I just not post anything if I cant remember where I learned that technique from?]  Yes.

If you went to college for a certain field, would that mean that you couldn't share the knowledge and techniques you learned there?
For me personally, the answer is no. I think that when you pay for college, you aren't paying for the ability to use certain techniques, but instead for the explanations that the teacher gives.
With that in mind, if you fully understand all of the concepts you learned from the tutorial, are comfortable explaining them and would use them in shaders you build from scratch, in my mind, you are in the clear.
This is of course just my personal reasoning, other might disagree. This is definitely a little bit into the gray area, as is pretty much anything related to intellectual property.

If we are talking just about your knowledge learned through tutorials, paid or free, then yes absolutely you can post.
However if this some shader you purchased, then you should think long and hard before you post that. In many cases, like everything on the blender market, you can redistribute it however you want, because of its license.
Now lets take the cycles material vault as an example. The license is about as restrictive as you'll find, yet even here I do not see anything that would prohibit you from showing part of a node tree. You can not redistribute the material, so definitely no blender file, and I would err on the safe side and say don't even post a picture of the whole node tree.
But, for example, if you say watched some tutorials on cgcookie and used that information in your shader, I would say that is ok to include that in a post.

Obligatory disclaimer about me not being a lawyer and do not take this as legal advice

I wonder if a node set up is even copyright-able. They might supposedly restrict it but a node setup is a technique, not a creation. I don't think it would have much legal weight if you made tutorials based on all the cycles material vault and Reynante tried to sue you. Quite honestly, it's a bad business model.  I only took one term of copyright law so I'm not a lawyer either.


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If a user has put links to images in a post, is it OK to move them imgur and editing the post to show the images inline?
When reviewing this post through the First Posts review queue, I was going to edit to convert links to images to inline inages, but when I saw that the images were not hosted at imgur, I decided against it, as there might licensing issues when moving someone else's files around.
I have done this in the past, but I stopped doing it, when it was pointed out that there may be legal issues if moving people's .blend files to Blend-Exchange. This was pointed out in this question on Meta, in a comment by X-27 and and answer by GiantCowFilms. I thought that this would likely apply to images, or files of any type, as well.
I tried to use the <img src="URL"> syntax, but the URLs weren't https, so it didn't work.
A few minutes after leaving the question, I noticed that it had been edited, and out of curiosity I opened it up again, and realised that someone else had done more or less exactly the edit I decided against.
What exactly should we do in these cases? I'm especially keen to know, since I just recently got edit privileges, so no one has to review my edits.

Images and files don't carry the same weight here in my book. If someone added an image to a post asking for help with some problem using an external image hosting site I think it's fair to assume that...

They are somewhat new to SE and don't know that they can upload images here
They already shared the image knowing it would be viewed by random strangers on the interwebs so it's open

Moving it to a permanent host will only serve to benefit future viewers and prevent link rot as well as get provided benefits for SE hosted images to make more concise posts.
I say use your best judgement* and go for it whenever you get the chance. Not to make this any more complicated with that clause but if you spot some PII in a post or something NSFW a flag or a comment to the user should take priority instead.
* The whole point of reviewing is to use your judgement following some guidelines put forth to decide what a post merits, whether it be closure, some editing or a comment.

Replace them.
Aside from the obvious dead-links-are-bad thing, many external images are not accessible over https. Soon only https images will be allowed, and non-imgur http links will have to be manually converted (assuming they aren't already dead). There is already an ongoing effort to change these on SO.
In addition, most images here are screenshots, over which copywrite/licensing isn't as much of a concern.
The main exception is if the image (ahem, gif) is too large to fit on i.stack.imgur. If such an image is hosted somewhere which is known to delete them (or even just looks like the kind of place that will delete them), especially if the image is in an answer, consider at least leaving a comment and suggesting that the OP upload them to a more permanent host (gfycat is one option for oversize gifs).

Good point about the gifs, forgot about those!

Yes always move images to SE's image host. Having an externally hosted image is just plain bad. Either the post can do without the image, or it should be hosted through https://i.stack.imgur.com. Else we will end up with more posts like this:
What to do with questions based on links once the links have expired?
Now in cases where the OP does not own the image (say an image from wikimedia commons), you must still host the image through SE's system. However in this case you need to give attribution for image (I happen to have an example of how I did it).
If you did not already read my answer on dead links, I will restate my opinion that all images outside of i.stack.imgur.com should be banned. So if you happen to catch one in the First Post review before it is a dead external image, then fix it now before we have to edit out another dead image.


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How to access starred questions
When I find helpful question that I might need to read the answer to it later, I check the star, I tried to find a way to access the questions that I starred but couldn't find the link.
Is there a link to questions starred by user?

This is in the favorites tab on your profile under Activity.

Thanks for your answer! couldn't find it among all the other links, must be age.


text:
Why do I have reviews indicated in the top bar, and nothing when I'm clicking on it?
An image to show what I mean (surrounded in green):

Is there a reason for that?

This is a known issue: https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/233535/238438

Also related: https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/q/955/599


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Minor typos found on blend-exchange form
Sorry if I could seem nitpicking (I could probably be), but just noted that the submission form has some minor typos in a couple of texts/placeholders, just in case someone wish to correct those. Not that important, obviously, I guess no one ever noticed this before.

I need to dowload the blend for to help my queston :)

For to help sounds lich an an archaicism to me; not that it shouldn't be changed.

Don't worry about that, it shouldn't at all take long for @GiantCowFilms to fix it.

No, I'm quite glad you pointed this out. I am notorious for making typos.

@GiantCowFilms I know that other issue, too... :)

@X-27 that is not constructive. Please edit your comment.

@LetTheWritersWrite I actually liked that comment, but he can't edit the comment, anyway, that is possible only within 5 minutes...

Fixed!
All changes should now be visible on the site.
P.S.
If anyone feels like giving the copy on blend-exchange a good run down and making changes (there are awkward sentences as well as typos), the repo is available here. Changes can be made to files directly on github (no need to mess with git command line).


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People posting their answers on comments
I've noticed, specially the high rep users, are putting down answers in the comments that might not be very complete. What is the point of that? Either fully answer the question in the answer box or ask the user for more information to make it answerable. Is this a possibly abuse because they want to keep their precious rep points?
Should we be able to flag an answer in the comments?

https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1124/why-are-simple-questions-so-often-answered-in-comments and https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/436/what-to-do-with-questions-which-have-been-answered-in-comments

Sure , that answers why people do it but shouldn't this be flagged?

It's mostly because people are too busy or lazy to write a full answer. I'd say high rep users do this more not to protect their rep but because they care less about it, and writing a full answer stops becoming worthwhile. And yes, I answered this in comment form just to be obnoxious.

I've noticed, specially the high rep users, are putting down answers in the comments that might not be very complete.

I think you just answered your own question there a bit. Remember, the point of this site is to help people, doesn't matter how you go about it.

What is the point of that?

I do this all the time and my main motive is that I'm usually busy and don't have the time to construct a proper answer (one with fancy gifs, links to wiki or even screenshots, maybe I'm at work or I'm tired or I'm not 100% sure of what I'm suggesting etc) or just can't be bothered really. I can come back to it later if I want to... or not.
At the end of the day, it's your time you're volunteering, you're not obligated to answer or acknowledge every post you see.

Either fully answer the question in the answer box or ask the user for more information to make it answerable.

A helpful or useful comment is more valuable than nothing at all.

Is this a possibly abuse because they want to keep their precious rep points?

Straying a bit from the topic at hand, higher rep users are more trusted so reputation has little if anything to do with this. I can't speak for everyone but reputation quickly becomes trivial once you've amassed enough to become a trusted user. If anything I'd say it's more to protect the user from blindly following some haphazard or bad workflow. John Doe has 30 million points so he must be correct, right? In the cases I've seen comments are more used for suggesting workarounds as opposed to being an actual solution.

Should we be able to flag an answer in the comments?

No, I would instead go with https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/a/437/12 that says...

I would try to notify the user first to give them the opportunity to answer the post and get the reputation. If they don't respond in a few days then answer it.

If you can't wait and you see the potential of the comment, by all means answer the question! Again, we are all here to help in some way and if you can confidently pen a proper answer based on a comment, go for it!

+1, these are exactly the reasons I do this too.

Let's face it: most questions are very poorly worded. Very few users can explain the issues clearly and concisely. For confusing questions, or in the cases where there are multiple causes for what people are asking, making comments suggesting  possible solution is the only way to find out what the problem actually is. If the OP responds to the comment, then it makes sense to spend more time developing an answer (or finding a duplicate post).

Is this a possibly abuse because they want to keep their precious rep points?

No offense, but that is laughable. NO.
As you pointed out, it is high rep users doing it more. I, speaking for my self as a high rep user, do not care about the precious rep points. So I can assure you we are not writing a so-so answer as a comment to protect our selves from DVs.
There have been many times I answered in a comment, just because I did not feel like writing a whole answer.
As iKlsR pointed out, this is a Q&A site. In this context, at the end of the day does it make a difference if the user gets his answer from a comment or a real answer?
As cegaton stated, a lot of question are very low quality - as in "I have no idea what you are really asking, but here try this."
If I had to guess I would say that this is what you are looking at when you say there are "answers in the comments that might not be very complete."
Well if I'm not sure what the question is, then no I'm probably not going to take the time to write a full answer, when the OP will just come back and say "thanks, but no that is not it what I mean is..." (has happened to me before, and that kind of thing does not lend its self to be repeated.)
In my mind, there are two main reasons to "answer" in the comments.

The question is unclear, and any answer is just a guess.
I do not want to write a full answer, especially when one line will do.

Now as to whether or not  you should flag them. Lets examine the comment flag reasons.

rude or offensive
Flag any comment that is something a normal and reasonable person would not post.
not constructive
If it adds nothing to the post flag as this.
obsolete
Common example on BSE is a comment asking for the blend, where the post has been edited to include the blend.
too chatty
often used on comments like "Thanks" or one of Iklsr's memes.
other
any time there is some problem that a mod needs to act on. Examples include a whole string of comments that should be deleted, or maybe an argument between users.
There is no comment flag reason that states "This is a guess answer. I feel it should be a real answer so it can get DVed."
Thus no, there is no reason to flag an "answer" in the comment. Either it helps get to the answer, or it will prod the OP to make it clearer.

Well, I was saying maybe it should be an added feature.


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why did i get hold on my question?
I want to know  how to make fireball spell and do not know how.
And i research for method yet don't know in detail.
So i go for here and ask then i got on hold for my question. Why?
This is my question.
because i want to do it with  blender and unity, is it the reason i can't ask in blender forum?

i can't do it. It need 5 reputation to do it but i only want to ask this question and  don't want to ask anymore.

Please edit your first question.

I've upvoted your question - you should have enough reputation now.

First off, thanks for asking why.
Your question was put on hold because it asks for an entire tutorial.
The Q&A format of stackexchange works best when the asker asks a question specific enough to be answered directly, without requiring explanations of numerous sub-topics.
The point is, questions which start from scratch "how to make <thing>?" generally involve too many aspects to cover in one answer. A much more stackexchange-friendly question might be "how to make <thing> a different color?".

All that said, the above still doesn't help you make a fireball ;)
If you are not sure where to start, there are plenty of blender and unity tutorials out there. In this case, I'd suggest looking for unity tutorials, as that is what you'll want the fireball to be in at the end of the day. A quick search turns up quite a few promising results. There's also some popular blender resources linked in the Beginner's Reference, but a search engine is your friend here.
So, no worries, and good luck!
If you hit a wall on the blender side of things, then please do come back and ask a question about it then.


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What am I told I need at least 10 reputation to post more than 2 links. Yet I have - 67 Points -
As you can see I have well over 10 reputation.... Yet ONLY when I try to post more than 2 pictures I get the following messages upon submission of my answers...

AND this is at the bottom of the page.

... >>> Testing to add 3rd image after the fact here >>>

If you edit this question and add another picture does SE still spit out the error message? Also did this happen on more then one day? (What day?) I'm trying to figure out what happened here that SE did not want your pictures.

This happened this afternoon.... I have been able to whip out answers with less than 3 pics since.

@David♦     It just worked by adding it during an edit.

These messages both came from May 4 when you attempted to ask Why is Bump causing blackout of material and self-answer. If you look at your reputation history you can see you hadn't yet earned any reputation. (Well, you had, but the post was deleted, which meant you lost it.)
Looking at the logs, I don't see any time the system blocked you from posting since May 4 except a time you failed the CAPTCHA. (Hey, it happens to the best of us.)
After a rocky start, it looks like you've righted the ship and it should be clear sailing for you now.

♦ I got these exact messages this afternoon, when I had over 50 points.

@ChristopherTiller: Those errors don't show up in the logs. Is it possible you have a UserScript installed? Otherwise, it's difficult to see how you got those warnings. If you still have the problem, we'll need the details of your OS and browser.

Well you were answer banned. That is why you got the "We are no longer accepting answers from this account" message. Looking at your answers, I think it was probably deleting this one that pushed you over the edge of SE's low quality filter.
As of right now your account does not have any bans against it, so read the linked meta post, keep your questions and answers of good quality, and don't delete everything just because it got down voted.
(I'm still looking in to, and waiting to hear back from SE about why you had the "you need at least 10 reputation to post more than 2 links" message.)

♦  Thank you. I erased that one because it really offered no help to anyone as far as I could tell.... As you are saying I have no bans, yet this afternoon I was blocked & screen shot both of those images as I was answering a question.  I am thinking there is a glitch in here somewhere. I may not know Blender all that well.... But I am not new to code.

As per your suggestion I was just able to add a 3rd image during an edit. I will clean my cache out and hope it was on my end.


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Can a frozen chatroom be thawed?
Once a chat rook is frozen, is there a way to get it to be active again? or is that room locked for ever and ever and ever?

Answer below is correct. At least one of your favorite mods can always be found in the farm or lurking around the site, feel free to ping!

Plus we are notified of every meta question, so asking here works too :)

All mods (from any site) carry a bottle of anti-freeze. Frozen chat rooms aren't a big deal. Like spring comes after every winter, frozen chat rooms are easily thawed. Just ping any diamond wielding user. (ok so maybe I added a comment just to keep the whole MOD squad together.)

Only a moderator can unfreeze a frozen chatroom, so you'll have to ask them. One way to contact a moderator is to use a custom flag for moderator attention on some post (yours, for example). Or you could use this meta post you already created, adding a specific unfreezing request to ti.


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Add content to make a post easier to find
I was looking for this answer.
Luckily, I remembered the post was about two displaced meshes which were joined by the shrinkwrap modifier and the data transfer modifier.
With these (is:answer shrinkwrap data transfer) keywords the answer is the first result.
But my initial searches failed.

mesh(es) displace join
mesh(es) seamless join

I am tempted to add content to the end of the question.

Is there a way to solve this problem and make the edges align seamlessly?[How do I join/connect the two meshes?]Or is there maybe a completely different and easier approach to this whole idea?

That way, keyword searches would show this answer in other contexts as well.
This applies to many questions I often see.
Is such an edit approved/encouraged/accepted?

From the site rules edits should be reserved for making a question clearer from the readability and interpretation  point of view like fixing typos, bad language, or poor explanations.

When should I edit posts?
Any time you feel you can make the post better, and are inclined to do
  so. Editing is encouraged!
Some common reasons to edit are:

to fix grammatical or spelling mistakes
to clarify the meaning of a post without changing it
to correct minor mistakes or add addendums / updates as the post ages
to add related resources or hyperlinks

Tiny, trivial edits are discouraged - try to make the post
  significantly better when you edit, correcting all problems that you
  observe.

There is no specific mention about making it easier to find, maybe because 'easier to find' is possibly subjective.
While I would not condone such editing per-se, it is a highly personal subjective matter; the terms and words you used to find such answer may mean nothing to someone else, or even inadvertently make it harder to find by having it pop up in unrelated searches.
It is true that Stack exchange search is not the best at times, and I have frequently found myself searching through Google instead to find answers here.
So my suggestion is, if you can, improve the tags of such question, fix any misspellings, lingo, technical terms and official names (modifiers, tools, operators, UI etc.) as per the Blender Manual or optionally commonly used terms among users, but don't just add random text to answers.
Maybe if necessary do it in the comments section instead, preferably in an intelligible and constructive way like say posting a comment along the lines of:

This answer may also be useful for seamlessly joining mesh(es)

Hopefully comment texts are included in search results thus achieving in your initial intent.

This answer may also be useful for increasing question or answer applicability, increasing question or answer searchability or adding synonyms and relevant search terms. ;)

Haha, nice one, made me laugh. I have to test if comments are included in searches though , but I don't think they are by default unfortunately. Wonder if there is any way to include comments in search results.

@Mecht Using a search with an external search engine, this works.


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Are questions about the 2.8 branch on topic?
So far we only have a few questions that are directly about Blender 2.8, from a quick search on the site, there are these that come up:
What's the purpose of eevee engine?
Game development for 2.8
blender 2.8 eevee & cycles viewport display modes gone
The first two were fairly well recieved, yet the third was put on hold as off topic.
As development continues, and with builds being updated daily on the Buildbot I think it is safe to say that it is inevitable that the site will see more and more questions regarding the branch.
 Is it useful in any way for the community to have these questions answered here now, even if the answer may include "this is subject to change.." ?
Personally, as long as an official build is available, is being actively developed, and shows potential benefit to the community as a whole, then  I don't see a problem with questions about the branch.
Until 2.8 is released, or is at least much closer to being released, how should we handle these questions?

Late here but from a quick glance the first two are more or so general questions as to what will be coming or what the 2.8 workflow will be like. The third is a question about using the experimental branch itself. These questions are likely to not be useful later on as the branch is under heavy development, a button can be here today and gone tomorrow. As the page itself says with 3 different warnings These builds are not as stable as releases, use at your own risk. These questions should not count as valid until the branch has seen an official stable release.

I don't think Blender 2.8 related question should be automatically considered offtopic. It will eventually become the official latest release, so it should be encouraging to have early answers and clarifications about it.
That is as long as they are not about trouble shooting technical problems with the builds themselves, along the lines of "Why isn't this working?" or "Why is behavior X unexpected?", or "Where is < favorite missing feature >?" and the typical "When will it be ready?".
As iklsr politely mentioned, the currently available builds are highly experimental, still broken in fundamental ways, and not at all ready for prime time. They are not Beta builds, nor Alpha, not even ready for public testing. Expecting them to work at this point is unrealistic at best.
Generally speaking those may even be considered bug reports of sorts, which are a widely known type of off-topic here.
Once released I'd expect all kinks to be ironed out, making such questions validity and relevance questionable for the long run too.
One other concern I'd personally have is that encouraging end users (especially beginners) to use these as production software, which may lead to an increase in unwanted bug reports in the bug tracker, which already is managing hell for the scarce developer manpower.
At this point I fear end user bug reports are more of a hassle then helpful. Quoting Sergey Sharybin from the bf-committers Blender 2.8 meeting of August 15 2017 mailing list

Note for everyone: Blender 2.8 tracker is currently for developers to
  coordinate core development. We can not spend time on fixing users
  reports yet: lots of them are requiring core parts to be finished
  redesigning first.

Besides the obvious dangers of potential data loss while using untested pre-alpha software.
Questions along the lines of general usability, or theoretical questions about officially known features and roadmap, should be OK, I guess.
EDIT: And here it is, the official statement of what I have been trying to convey, The message at the official 2.8 snapshots download page has been changed to request bug reports exclusively from developers. My point being we should prevent random users from reporting bugs at all costs, even at the expense of testing 2.8 nightly builds by not encouraging end users to test them at all.

I'm going to disagree with Duarte here, and argue they should be off topic.
At its core Blender.SE is a database of blender knowledge, in Q&A format. As a result posts long-term value should be considered as the top priority. At the same time, Blender 2.8 is rapidly evolving software, and questions about how to use its features could quickly become outdated as the Devs change the requirements and feature are modified. Any answer based on it could quickly become irrelevant, within a few weeks/months. Irrelevant answers will clutter search results, hindering the usefulness of this site.
I think in most cases it would be best to wait until 2.8 is much nearer to release, and its requirements have been locked.

Yes, absolutely.
Yes, 2.8 is rapidly changing. Yes, questions asked about it today might not apply tomorrow. The thing is, the developers are hoping to get people using and testing the branch as much as possible, because that's how volatile, experimental features (especially when it comes to UI/UX) turn into solid, well designed features which last years without major changes.
Why would we want to discourage that?
Answers which are valid in the long-term sound nice, but really. Is there anyone looking at 2.4x documentation now and saying "this is perfect, no need to update this?" I don't think so. Blender is changing all the time. We want answers which are valid now. If tomorrow answers aren't valid — but the questions are — they'll get answered again.

To differentiate between questions about the current release and 2.8, I propose we have a 2.8-branch tag. This tag would only apply to questions about the 2.8 branch, meaning once it has been released (merged into master), the tag would not apply to new questions about 2.8.

Having 2.8-branch or any variation of that still seems like a band-aid fix to my larger concern which is fragmentation. I dislike the notion of having versioned tags of Blender (that will cease to be specifically relevant) in a few months when we could just wait and apply everything to the current stable thing that everyone has. However, I do agree that this should be the place to come when in doubt about new features etc. I'm not sure the best way to quite go about this and I could be wrong but hoping for some more input.

@iKlsR Yes, the tag will cease to be relevant for new questions. It'll remain relevant on existing questions where it serves as an identifier of what branch the question was asking about.

My main concern is that I am not so sure devs do want "people using and testing the branch as much as possible" yet. I've read them complain more than once that they don't have the manpower nor should they be spending the time to triage reports they already know full well are broken ATM. It also opens the floodages for the too many curious beginners posting the usual "this doesn't work correctly!" reports in the bugtracker

Same applies here, though it is not so much trouble for us triaging the occasional  2.8 random post, I imagine most questions (as we've already seen) will be along the lines of "this doesn't work as expected!" or "where is missing feature X!". Not only are those of low future (and immediate) value, most of the time we won't be able to answer them anyway or provide a proper solution. Trouble shooting the problem is a waste because most of them would probably classify as bugs and be fixed eventually anyway.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos All the more reason to let them post here instead ;) As for troubleshooting questions, I think it'll depend on how obscure the particular problem is. If it's an easy fix/something a lot of people run into, then I don't see why it shouldn't be answered. If it's not, I wouldn't say that makes it off-topic per se. Perhaps just unlikely to receive an answer (but you never know), or, if anything, closed as too localized.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos echoing gandalf3's answer bug reports are what is needed to have a proper release.  The Release notes for 2.79 clearly ask for user's feedback. https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.79

Yes 2.79 I agree, but not 2.8, not yet at least. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I interpreted developer's comments well, I fear at this point it would be pretty much feel like a painter having the public constantly commenting over his shoulder on the unfinished artwork "It's not finished", "You missed that spot" "That is not done". It's annoying and not helpful

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos Which I think is all the more reason to promote asking those questions here. That way we act as a buffer between the devs and the curious onlookers. Continuing your painting analogy: we certainly don't want to discourage the public commenting and discussing the painting amongst themselves ("don't you think that house would look better with a door?" "Yes, I heard they are adding doors soon." "If the doors have doorknobs they'll be easier to use!"). All this discussion can be browsed by developers, and maybe useful insights will be integrated (or give devs more ideas).

I concur, fair enough. "That way we act as a buffer between the devs and the curious onlookers" That I can get behind :)

Added a few more examples of unwanted user bug reports I collected in recent times to my answer above. Sergey Sharibyn Mentioned himself that 2.8 tracker is to be used for developer project coordination, which I feel confirms we should act as buffer and not encourage 2.8 user reports just yet

@gandalf3 although it seems the consensus has ultimately been that 2.8 is off topic, will a tag be created at some point?  As development continues,  particularly with greasepencil-object branch and the new open movie on blender cloud, interest will only increase I'd expect.

@Timaroberts I don't know that there has really been a consensus in that direction. I haven't actually seen very many 2.8 questions yet, so I think we're still handling them on a case-by-case basis.

No
Instead there better be a meta tag for "Blender Beta version" since there is constant development on Blender, things might endup in Blender, or might not endup in blender. Not every GSOC project went into Blender, so if people like to discus beta stuf or bleeding edge builds better give them a proper tag.

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


text:
Comment on a suggested edit?
I had to reject an edit for an answer today, since it was erroneous. However I wanted to comment on the edit and explain why I rejected it, and found no designated place to do that.
The reason I chose from the existing options is that the edit does not improve the answer (which is the closest thing), but there was no place to add a free-text explanation, nor anywhere to add a comment.
Am I missing something?
I ended up commenting on my original answer in hope that the person who suggested the edit will see my explanation.
Is there a better way to do this?

It happens all the time. You can always roll back edits or re-edit. Leaving a comment seems like the right thing to do.


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blend-exchange: if .blend file name is too long, the three action buttons become partly unusable
this already happened to me a few times, but it happened again today, so I'm here to report. I used developer tools in firefox to understand what happens, and found  that this is probably due to extremely long .blend filename, which expands its div container so much that it (partly) covers the three blue action buttons below ("flag", "favorite", "download")

In the image above, the file I was downloading today (question is Can't identify where this lip is in hiding in this model).
As you see, all three buttons are partly covered (but normally you can't see where, in the image above the oversized div is visible just thanks to the firefox developer tools) and, if you click on their respective "uncovered" areas, their link works, but not on the "covered" areas.

What browser are you using? I can't seem to exactly reproduce this in Firefox

@gandalf3 That image was taken from FF 45.9.0 ESR (at work we use ESR)

Thanks for the report :)
I've submitted a fix, chances are it'll be live sooner rather than later.
EDIT: The submitted fix is now live.

I like your solution better, I will update the code to implement it.

I received an email about this last Friday, and it was fixed earlier today:
https://github.com/GiantCowFilms/Blend-Exchange/commit/c83b20679e658be0a0037b9f79ce1326ed33abc2
Thanks for the report!
EDIT: gandalf3, true to form, had a better solution, the code has been updated to use it.

Hi thanks, now the long file name wraps, so it should be always usable, thanks. Which answer should I mark as an accepted answer? Your or gandalf3's?

gandalf3's since I ended up using his code.


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Can we ask for render critiques?
I'm new to blender and completed my learning section, and now I play around with blender mostly rendering objects/scenes. Can I upload my rendered images here for asking critiques?
If answer is "No", is there any other SE site for this?

The answer is "No." That type of question is off topic and would be closed as such.
Point six on our off topic list, "Critique and Showcasing."
If you think of BSE as a collective resource that will help future users, a question like "what do you think of my render?" probably will not be useful for anyone but you who made the render. That is part of the reason for having them be off topic.
Now you can come by our main chat room, there is almost always somebody there.
However for an even better place, I would recommend you try the Focused Critiques thread on blender artists.


text:
does user search form show results with wrong rep points?
I was searching for a user by name and the form found it but it showed 0 points (I know he has more than that). So I searched for MY profile, and this form apparently shows wrong rep points aside the user search results... maybe?

ok, not fundamental, but maybe it should be fixed, later.

Nope, no problem here.
Look over on the right of the users page, you will see five buttons "week, month, quarter, year, all."
In that screen shot you were viewing the "Month" page. Which sorts the users biased on how much rep they have gotten in the current month. The rep count displayed is also correlated to what page you are looking at (In this case a month).
Just hover over anyone's rep and you will see it says "reputation this month: X total reputation: X."

Just a note: It is a calendar month and not the previous 30 days, like in some other places.
If you want to have that rep number display total rep, just click on the all button.

oh gosh... of course... I'll never get used to all the options... :(


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Can a question be a duplicate of a future question?
This question was recently marked as a duplicate, but when I reviewed it, I noticed that the question it was supposedly a duplicate of was asked nearly a year later. It seems, however that there would be an automatic limitation that would prevent marking a question as a dup of a future one, but there isn't.
One solution would be to just, vote to leave it open with a comment explaining why, then mark the other as a duplicate of the older one. However, in this case it cannot be done because the older question doesn't have an upvoted or accepted answer. I simply left a comment on the other one linking back, but I have had debate about a similar incident in the past.

Yes you can mark any question as a duplicate of a newer question.
There are no time based constraints on what question is the duplicate.
There is one simple rule:

Always direct users to the best possible information.

If a newer question/answer is undetected as a dup long enough to become better, then I will close the older one as a dup of this one.
So for example (and this was a real case) someone asked about z-fighting. It is an ok question, and there are nothing spectacular about the answers. Now about a year later "the" Z fighting question got asked. This is the question we link all z fighting question to, because it is better. To end the story, last year the older question got closed as a dup of the future z fighting question.
Robert Cartaino's answer (Should duplicates be closed to the oldest question or the "best" question?) talks about this very issue in a bit more detail.

In short, you should not be looking at the time stamp to determine which to close.


text:
Updating off-topic questions in help center
I recently asked a question that was voted off-topic. This, and similar cases could be avoided if there were a description of blender-related off-topic questions in the help center (this is the first destination that is recommended by the site for info on the subject).
I see that similar attempts have been made in the past to make the help center more informative about undesirable blender-related questions, such as here and here. It looks like they were never implemented however.
Anyway, I wanted to suggest from my own experience, and for the benefit of future answer seekers, to include in the help center a sentence saying something along the lines of:
"Questions about unreleased versions of blender are off-topic".

"looks like they were never implemented" but why this list https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/a/6/1245 isn't counted as implemented? There isn't unreleased versions, but your case can fall under techincal questions; also related discussion was there in comments.

@MrZak, by not implemented, I meant that the goal of those questions  was to add info to the help center (the one you linked has an update where the person suggested to edit the help center). But at present I don't see any of it there. I don't know what exactly happened, I wasn't present back then, but I can talk about what I (don't) see now.

FYI we are discussing whether 2.8 questions are on topic or not, so until that is decided editing the help center (at least on this point) would not help.

Oh, I assumed it was pretty much settled here


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Is there a feature that could be developed that would allow for a question to be marked as answered, without an actual posted answer?
There are Questions that at times get answered by the original individual who had asked the question. However, they did not actually provide an Answer entry to their Question. The context that indicates that this question has been answered/solved is in the comment thread of the question.
Such as this question.
Is there a way to vote that this has been answered?
I keep running by it on the "unanswered" filter when I look at questions to see if I can offer help, and items like these will keep popping up (even though they have an answer).

Short answer, no. SE will not have another system to mark "answered" questions that do not have an answer.
Now what to do in case like this one?

If a long time has passed since the "answer" comment, then just write an answer yourself. Give credit to the user that posted the comment, but feel free to actually answer the question, and make it better.
If it is one of these where the OP comes by at some point and says "never mind I did so and so, and it works now," then Vote to close it as "Too Localized" (close > off-topic because > Too Localized).

For this specific question, I closed it as a dup.
Lets say that it was not a duplicate, there is really only one thing left to do - answer it. There is no good comment to use as a source for an answer, so this answer would be new and totaly mine.
Now if you don't feel like writing an answer for the question, then there is nothing to be done to take it out of the unanswered list (because it is unanswered.)
Think of someone coming from google, they are not expected to dig through the comments to see what the OP did.

Answers should be in the answer section.


text:
What is the best time (day, hour) to ask a question?
Sometimes when I ask questions I don't get a lot of views and they go unanswered before, eventually, nobody ever sees them again.  What's the best day of the week and time of the day to ask questions to get the most attention?

There is no best time, you can sift data and observe as much as you want but it ultimately boils down to your question content. The best tip I can give you is to ask a well worded question. Use all the tips and tricks, big images, express your problem clearly and state what you've tried. Nothing screams skip me like a badly formatted wall of text or a vague title. See https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/608/how-do-i-ask-a-question-that-is-hard-to-describe for some tips.

@iKlsR No, I totally agree.  But I asked a simple, to-the-point, well worded question that just didn't get any attention.  Not even a comment to say what I was asking wasn't possible.  I've noticed that there seems to be lulls in traffic at certain times but a pattern hasn't emerged yet.

We have other resources as well, there is a room dedicated to color management and has cycles nuts active there. https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/34814/the-rabbit-hole

I should change my answer... What is the best time to ask? Whenever you have a question, that is the best time!

@cegaton - Ha, good point

I'll try to give a slightly different answer.
Looking at the Most Active Users page I am going to roughly guess that based on the percentage of people that decide to reveal their country of origin, very roughly about 30 to 40% of users are from Europe or neighboring regions.
Lets assume for the sake of this answer that they are a majority, and the most active users, are also the most 'knowledgeable' and more prone to answer a question.
If one assumes they visit BSE at regular European waking hours, and only check the Newest questions queue, and not the Active (I am guilty of this sin, and I am ashamed of it) then one could roughly estimate that a question posted at the "rush hour" or when more "experienced users" are present would have a slightly higher chance of being spotted right away, and thus an ever so slightly higher chance of being picked for answering.
Now this is a lot of 'ifs' and 'buts' and far fetched speculations. I am also being slightly dismissive of people from other regions of the world (no offence meant ;), for which I apologize.
Could this translate to a real measurable accurate time frame? It just could not, there are so many variables and different people, with different habits and variables in their life that it would be impossible to say for sure.
Over my time here I seem to have noticed a slight pattern and possibly spike in activity roughly during late afternoon/early evening between 18 to 20h GMT, maybe corresponding to that free time at the end of the day people find to play around with Blender a bit after a day of work or before diner time(?).
Some times also during weekends especially those late bitter Sunday afternoons, during that depressing pre-Monday time, when the dread of the incoming work week sets in, and you realize it is already too late to accomplish anything useful with your wasted weekend, so you just resign and try to make the most of what is left of it.
Maybe posting then would be more beneficial to post, I don't know...
Sorry for the rambling post

Interesting question. Fortunately it is not that hard to pull such data:
data.stackexchange.com/blender/query/new
With a querry:
SELECT Id, CreationDate FROM Posts WHERE PostTypeId=2 ORDER BY CreationDate

You get a .CSV file with all the answers since the beginning of time and their timestamps.
From this data visualized in GoogleDocs we can see that the most answers are posted in Wednesday , with weekends seeing less traffic:

Sorting this further based on time (data.stackexchange returns UTC times):

For maximum correctness the timestamps were rounded, so for example if an answer was posted after 8:30 and before 9:30, it is counted as posted around 9 o'clock.
It is clear most answers are posted at 6 pm, least at 4 am. Since both answer and question take some time to be written, I would say the best time by statistics to start writing your question is at 5pm UTC.
To generalize some rule of thumb, most answers are written on weekdays after Europeans had eaten lunch (12:00 UTC) :)

Nice.  This is what I was looking for.  I'd already seen a pattern on weekends but the time factor in your graph is very strong.

Given that this site is used by people all over the world living in different time-zones, it is impossible to predict who is going to see your post and at what time. On top of that it is also impossible to predict if anyone knows how to answer, or has the time and will to do it.
If your question is not getting enough attention follow the advice on this link: What should I do if no one answers my question?.

So does editing a question place it back in the Active queue?  I was mainly wondering if people that have been on this site a long time or who have access to site analytics could see a pattern in activity at certain times.


text:
Why are some questions a different color on the screen?
Why do some questions show up in a different color box on the screen and some are just white?

You cropped off the answer to your question. Let me explain.
Look over at the sidebar under the heading "Favorite Tags." Those are tags you have marked as your favorites. SE then highlights any question tagged with one of them.
This how it looks for me (you have different tags marked as your favorite).

So to answer your question it is because you have modifiers as one of your favorite tags, and SE highlights questions that are tagged with one of your favorites.


text:
Where to answer specific question about already described problem?
There is quite well-known problem about applying transforms which also has answers about different use cases (rigid bodies, UV unwrapping).
Recently there was added question about unexpected working of symmetry in Sculpt mode which in the end appeared to be yet another consequence of the pretty much the same problem - unapplied transforms.
My question is about how to handle questions like this one. From one side, applying transforms question is canonical and addresses multiple aspects of the problem. From another side, I think that it's too general while unexpected symmetry question is much more localized.
What should be done in these situations?

answering the question?
just flagging as duplicate?
flagging as duplicate and adding another answer to the canonical question?

So generally my question is about handling localized questions regarding more general ones.

I guess this is somewhat related https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/549/duplicate-answer-vs-duplicate-question

I'd say answer it where it is (and link to the more general question).
Two questions can have the same answer but still be different questions. One of these questions is about a sculpting issue, the other is about transforms. Going with the policy of "flag/tag the question, not the answer", I think that these particular two questions are not duplicates.
I'd also say "to keep sculpting transforms straight" is a perfectly good answer to the latter question.

Ok, that makes sense. Looks like I should ask here on meta about each situation like that as they often tend to be unique and I can't decide.


text:
How to get clarification on old answers from inactive users?
I thought I had seen this question asked before on Meta but now I can't find it.
I had a question recently about "how to convert a large particle system to an object efficiently?"  I found the question on BSE and it has an accepted, well-received answer.  However, to me the answer's unclear as it seems to assume a certain level of understanding that I apparently don't possess.  Both the inquirer and responder are now inactive.
So the generalized question is: How can I get more clarification on an answer without asking a duplicate question?

Without asking new question? Well, probably impossible if meaning using only the site tools. You could ask that in chat maybe and probably answer which is unclear for you will be edited (or maybe you will end asking that question and receiving an answer, or you will search fori info elsewhere and edit the answer yourself). I don't think you can generally avoid asking new question, and maybe you shouldn't

link to this answer please.

@David - https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1389/convert-large-particle-systems-to-one-object-efficiently

Just ask a new question, making a reference (and including the link) to the other question as part of the text, and explain what part of the process you are stuck with. when it comes to old questions, it is also possible that new tools are available and couldn't have been part of the original answer.


text:
What is the proper action for a question that requests links to tutorials
Quite often we get the following question: Can I get recommendations or links for tutorials on such and such topic?
This is not about requests to make custom made tutorials, but explicitly looking only for links to existing tutorials in the internet.
A question like this not only yields link-only answers, but there is no way to mark it as correct or accepted, on top of being strictly opinion-based (and that is not mentioning that the quality of the "tutorials" that are linked will be all over the spectrum)
There was a proposed question to address this, and got shot down.
So, instead of telling the OP that this site is not a "I'll google it for you" kind service, what is the proper way to deal with such questions?
Close them as off topic?
Too broad?
Opinion based?
Just ignore them?
Try to explain to the OP that this is not the kind of site to ask?

Also see https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1/what-questions-should-be-definitely-off-topic/6#6, our #1 OT reason, close these. There is a message specific for them.

Vote to close as off topic.
Then if you feel so inclined, explain to the OP why asking for links to tutorials is off topic.
BSE is not a google this for me service. That type of post is bad for a few reasons.

links brake. (See blender's tutorial page)
It can quickly become outdated.
Does not fit in with the SE system

Like you mention, these types of questions would be asking for link only answers, a no-no right there.

Now Like we did with the resources for blender list, (suspend the rules for one, and only one aggregate post) I suppose if the community is so inclined we could have a tutorial list. Not unlike the one you linked to.
Yet having a tutorial list would not really solve the problem of "Find me a tutorial to make an awesome looking purple sports car (like a Lamborghini but not as short) a convertible carbon fiber hard top, also it has to have two chrome exhaust pipes" type of questions, those we should still close as off topic.

So I can't post a do this for me "question"?


text:
What is wrong about answering with a link?
In this question: Will increasing samples reduce fireflies?
Someone answers with a link to an article, and even tough the answer is helpful, some are saying that is not ok to answer with a link, what's the reason behind this?

If the link goes down, the answer does too. Answers should contain enough information to stand on their own without links, but also having supporting links is good.

Your answer is in another castle: when is an answer not an answer?
Are answers that just contain links elsewhere really "good answers"?
Why is linking bad?
Should there be a policy about 'One-Link-Only-Answers'?
Please define “link only answer”
end of example answer

OK so even though all those links may very well answer your question. I did not answer your question. You had to go somewhere else to get the information. Thus it is a link only answer.
Why are LOAs (Link Only Answers) bad?

Links break, period. then you are left with nothing.
It is not an answer, it only points to the answer (or where you might find the answer)
It is super lazy.

Nothing you can do to prevent problem one. On BSE we have had wide spread link rot. cgcookie changed all their links which broke them all; and blender changed the manual (twice) which broke all the links. The internet is not forever. So don't post just a link.
If I was at Disneyland and asked you "How do I get to Cars land?" I would much rather you say "Go down that path it will be on your right", then "Go back to visitor services then can tell you." Sure I can get my answer from your link but there is an extra step that should not be there.
Now yes being lazy is kind of a problem. Sure if you are about to leave to get on a plane for siggraph and you only have time to post a link, then yes that comment is better then nothing.
But think of the OP, and then all the others that will come after the OP looking for the same answer. If you just took the time to write a bit in your answer, so that the link is now supplemental, it would save so much time for all those that follow. Also it would not pollute the internet with yet another useless post that will be deleted when the link goes dead.

Lets pretend the little blue text was not at the end of that line in the "answer" above - the link was dead.

BlenderGuru has a nice article about how to get rid of fireflies here

I now know nothing more about whether or not increasing the samples will eliminate fireflies then I did before I asked the question. Essentially it is not an answer.
Us mods are instructed to delete (or what I do, convert to comment) any link only answer - even if it is UVed and accepted. They are just not answers.
Now don't get me wrong I have no problem with links. Links should be used in answers to provide further information. But if all you are going to do is post a link, then do it in the comments. (Like I did here)

Quote relevant material to keep the user from having to click on every link given to get basic information.

Copied from How do I write a good answer to a question?


text:
Should we edit a question title that's too vague?
Sometimes the OP is trying to describe the problem with terms that can't be said usual, maybe because he's expert of another application or maybe he's not expert at all. The result is a maybe well written question, with picture showing the problem, but lacking of those keywords that are immediately capable of exposing the issue.
One of the latest example could be:
I have a face that is causing me a lot of trouble and I do not know the technical term of this.
From now on I will refer to the title, but the same can be said for the content in the body of the post too.
The title doesn't give any help in describing the problem itself, it just mentions a face. It can be almost anything, and I may guess it will be shown in the seach page when someone will look for a solution to a problem related to faces, with all the other question with titles like that.
Should I edit it to better specify what the post is about? Or should I leave as the OP wrote it?

The editing page of the rules says to feel free to edit...

... any time you see a post that needs improvement ...

but I'm not sure that editing that way would be an improvement of the post in global terms.
I personally don't find titles like that useful, because they are not saying much about the issue. I'm not inclined to look into the question (but I was curious.. eheh), I would change them all believing that this would make it easier to anyone to choose where to spend our time in aswering or finding a solution to our problem.
But maybe for someone who don't even know those keywords, someone who shares the same level of knowledge of the OP about the topic, those are the right words, those are clearly describing the issue the way he would have done himself. Also, knowing what the problem exactly is about, is half, if not more, of the solution. Heavily editing the body in this sense would be basically answering the problem, but there's a dedicated space for that.
Here's some links I visited while trying to find an answer:
How do I write a good title?
Micro Editing, does everything need to be perfect?
Add content to make a post easier to find

Yes, of course you should edit the title. Put forth the improvement and see if others agree. There is no edict to the contrary. Edits can be rolled back. You can put the old title in the body. What is the worst that will happen to you if there is disagreement?

Do not sweat it. Improve and edit.

People who ask questions here are somewhat expected to have some previous tutorial knowledge of Blender. These tutorials can introduce them to Blender terminology, mistakes and triumphs. The OP may want to know such terms. You can place you edits at the top, and leave your older text nearer the bottom. Never touch the .... I am a newbie, I need it done today and I was just browsing the entire internet and saw this incredible mind boggling CG3D effect. This forum typically happens in the English Language so some people may (quietly) appreciate the assistance to their 2nd or 3rd Language.

You are 100% right, edit away (but read this answer first).
I remember maybe a year and a half ago (or longer) having this same question. I came to the conclusion that there is no reason to not edit a post when a few things are true.

You understand the question enough to make it clearer.
There is something to fix.

About point one, if the question is so unclear that you have to guess what the OP wants just to make your edit, then you are most often better off simply casting a close vote as "unclear" then trying to edit it.
In your linked example, and many such examples where the OP has zero knowledge and does not even know how to describe the problem, yet it is easy to spot and correctly depict; then edit it - simple as that.
Be careful of two things though, one that you really do know what the issue is, and second that you do not so radically change the post that the original intent is lost.
Now about "radically changing the post" even to the extent that you kind of answered his question by your edit. Again tread lightly. There is a faint gray line between a good edit and going too far, one which you must use your own discretion when editing. For something to go from, my thoughts go like this: the more unclear the post, the more you can edit and take it away from the original. But keep the original intent, that is key.
I can remember some edit I made where the OP did not know what to call his problem, in my edit I basically answered his question in the alt text for one of his images (I now do not remember what the issue was). Is that odd? maybe. does it fit with SE's Q&A format? I think it still does. There is now a question that is a little bit clearer, and it has at least one answer. At the end of the day isn't that want really matters? Just clear questions and answers to help people.
In the linked example, the question is clearly about the deformations from the sub surface modifier and the N-gon on the bottom. The OP does not know that, his only intent is getting his model to not look like that (even saying that he does not know the terms to use). So by you editing, adding in the proper terminology, changing the question to make it clearer, you are not only staying true to the OP's intent, but helping him in the process. (Good concise, clear questions get more attention and answers than ones which are unclear.)
About point two don't worry, for a post like this example there are most definitely things to make better. It is just a general "rule" of mine, if there is nothing (major) to edit then dont bother. A single misspeelled word, or a misplaced comma is not going to be the end of the world.

I agree with David. Anything that might make it easier for others to understand the question is helpful. Vague titles like "Problem with rendering", "How do I fix this?" or "Help, blender is broken!!!!" are not conducive to right answers. Clear and concise  titles,  questions and answers is what makes this site useful (in my opinion)


text:
Can a punishment be implemented for using the word "vertice" in a Q/A?
<sarcasm>
Of course, the problem is also pervasive within the Youtube tutorial world.  But it would be nice, even in this this small bastion of BSE hope, if we could change the modeling world for the better.
Just a few possibilities:

Automatically deduct 5 points until the mangling of language is removed.
Lose asking/answering privileges for a week as a way to contemplate the grievous nature of your error.
Be required to type "Vertex, not Vertice" into a text box 100 times before being allowed back on the site.

I realize this may seem a bit harsh but I think the potential rewards are well worth it. I understand that English is not everyone's primary language, but then again, neither is Latin.  That's simply not an excuse.
Is this a feature that can be implemented?  If so, what would be the method of chastening? </sarcasm>
[Just trying to add some humor to your day :D ]

Just a thought - :)

So there should be  tags somewhere around here?

@MrZak - I couldn't get it to work

Oh my... If this gets built then I think the next feature should be something to do with sarcasm on the meta.

@MrZak - mine too

Yep, I guess tag for comments should be added as well. Sarcasm again.

@David - I totally agree

*looks for offended people* *only sees sarcasm and apologies* I think it's fine :)

We must use the one true spelling: Vertexyishthingymajiggies.

Oh my. And I thought "Vertexes" was bad.. Anyway, this isn't going to be implemented (it's up to SE to add features, and I doubt this is one they'd be interested in).
Instead, please feel free to edit posts to address things like this.

Hehe, I know.  I can't for the life of me understand why this wouldn't implemented :)

Just for the record: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vertex

@cegaton I know, but I still don't like it..

Bit harsh don't you think? There are probably more pressing concerns than typos in questions and points should reflect post quality not grammar correctness I think.
It is a common mistake even among native English speakers which are probably not even a majority here, and with no overall discernible gains to site quality or usability, other than language correctness. I mean everyone understands "vertice" and "vertices" even though they mean vertex.
Community user might possibly be programmed to automatically fix that, it already fixes some common mistakes and typos here and there, but I don't know if it is user configurable, nor if can be assigned custom tasks like this.
However making it do proofing on all stack exchange posts might not be a sensible use of server load resources, and that is the task of spellcheckers after all.
Anyway my suggestion is that you edit them yourself, the original author generally gets notified and shown a diff, thus achieving your objecting of improving overall grammar.
You can also leave a comment with your edit pointing to the mistake, and downvote the post if deserved.

But seriously, I was 99.8% kidding

Sure eheh It has been suggested before, there should be an official sarcasm font


text:
Suggesting adding a button/link for uploading .blend file above the text box
How/where do I upload my .blend file comes up all the time. I suggest adding a button/link to http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ for uploading a .blend file above the text box with the other options like B, Italic, Hyperlink, etc...

There are probably technical limitations at play here, not sure the editor toolbar is modifiable on a per-site basis, but I 'd vote for this yes. Along with a button to insert the <kbd> formatting tags

Note that blend exchange is not part of this site, but was created and is run very generously by a user : @giantcowfilms.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos We have a user script for a <kbd> button, in case you weren't already aware of it.

There's also a user script which adds a blend-exchange button.

I use Vivaldi Browser which has a nice Insert Note feature, one of which is this keyboard markup, which I use to insert that snippet, but a userscripts sound pretty neat too. Definitely gonna check those out.

I think this is a great idea, but we'll need to get SE to add this. We don't have control over much of the help center content.
I propose adding something like this at the end of the "how to ask" page:

Help us help you
  If your question involves troubleshooting strange behavior,
  the fastest and simplest way of finding the answer is often by providing a blendfile and/or screenshots for others to examine.

And something like this to the ask question page (à la codegolf):

How to Ask
Is your question about blender behaving differently than expected?
Chances are, the fastest way to find an answer is by providing a blendfile for others to examine. If your file is especially large or you don't wish to share its contents, try to pare it down by deleting extraneous objects and/or replacing the actual meshes with placeholders.

Please feel free to edit these and improve wording etc, or propose your own in another answer.

Hm, I just noticed the question was mainly about the buttons directly above the textbox, not the help on the side.. I don't think there's much chance of getting anything official in the textbox buttons (we've tried before, but we haven't even got an official <kbd> button). However we might be able to get text added to the help/ask question sidebar, which IMO would be the next best thing.

That would be the next best thing. A lot of new users simply arn't aware of http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ and that sharing their .blend is helpful in a lot of ways.

Doesn't the wording of that first (and possibly the second) help message go against the general idea that not all questions need a blend and that ideally we would rather answer a well-worded, illustrated question without downloading a file, save for the cases where they really are required? I feel the question was more about letting the user know where the best place to upload a file was, not indicating that uploading is always the best option.

e.g. "If you need to add a blend file to your question use blend-exchange...etc."

@RayMairlot Edited to add emphasis to the "if your question involves troubleshooting"

So now we will don't need to remind users to: "Please upload file to blend-exchange..." but "Please read How To Ask page to see how to upload file to blend-exchange". It's better then nothing but I can't see this as a solution. Too often users whom upload file to random hostings also show in different ways that they didn't see any help page before asking question. Or Search box. Or Google. Maybe just something short and clear in sidebar on ask question page as "If you need to upload blend file use blend-exchange..." and there give instructions how to prepare file.

I simply cannot understand how adding for example a simple link with text could be such problem :/


text:
Should a question be allowed to contain contact details?
A question has been posted (Mesh distortion on my models clothes when creating a pose) that suggests that answers and information exchange could be done via instant messaging outside stack exchange, because of an exceptional urgency. The users also provides contact details (discord username) in order to be reached.

A troubleshooting confrontation, if made public and permanent through comments and edits, is beneficial to other users (including who asked the question). Because of this, should the information about instant messaging and contact details be removed?
Should the user be suggested to edit the question themselves to remove this information?
Would the contact information (or a request for instant messaging, contact details being moved to the profile page) be acceptable in the comment section?

The post is on a First Post review queue and somewhat puzzles me.

meta-meta-question: can meta questions contain links to currently active main-site questions?

to answer your meta meta question, yes definitely. Any time you can link to real examples of the issue it is helpful.

You start out with the correct assumption which is: contact info should not be in posts.
As such whenever you see this type of thing (usually an email address where you can contact them for more details) edit it out.
Nothing good comes from it. If you privately give the OP some answer off site, then nobody else can benefit from that answer. Likewise if the OP sends you more detailed information (that should be edited into the question) then nobody else has that to write an answer off of.
Users can have almost anything they want on their profile page, so sure their contact info can be there. However if you then find a question with something like this:

If you need more screen shots you can find my contact info on my profile page.

Then just edit it out.
SE does not like extra "noise" in posts things like "thanks" "hi" etc are encouraged to be edited out, how much more so someone's contact info.
You will find that every time this has been brought up on the main meta the same answer comes forward, contact info should not be in posts.
Should I flag a question in which the OP includes their phone number?
Should (real) e-mail-addresses be forbidden in questions/answers?
Allow users to put their e-mail in posts?

It might be worth mentioning that pointing people to offsite contact (as in your "screen shot" example) is that then other answerers don't have the advantage of working from the same information when forming their answers, peer review stops happening, and the aid rendered doesn't go on to help other users. If a question needs more information it should be edited into the question.


text:
Down-voting a question because the OP didn't accept your answer
Is this actually acceptable practice?
There was a recent question where a user basically stated in a comment that they were going to downvote a question because the questioner wouldn't (or didn't know how to) accept this user's answer. Lo and behold, there's a downvote on the question even though there's nothing that I can see wrong with the question.
I understand everyone has the freedom to do as they like, but I was under the assumption that votes were used to describe a good question or a bad question, or a non-vote for a meh question.  Are votes to be used as leverage as well?  You don't scratch my back, I'll cut yours?  Not only is this blatant rep-whoring, but it seems to me to undermine the structure of SE.
I can totally understand when someone doesn't accept your answer even though you spent time to help them.  I totally understand that the questioner should accept a solid answer.  But if we take this to its logical end, what's to stop users from going through and downvoting everything that another user's done, simply out of spite?
Thoughts?

PS if someone when on a tirade and down voted all your posts (up to the daily limit of DVs), the SE system would correct it. It can detect serial rage down voting.

The human brain is an extraordinarily bizarre thing. You're on the internet, anonymous and nobody knows you, so you shouldn't care anyway, and the master overlord gives you points for your hard work, numbers, scores; they won't get you friends, you can't buy anything, they are useless. But you work hard for them and because they are the only representation of your hard work people fight and argue over them, back stab each other and if the system was rigged for it, yes, people would kill each other over these points. If somebody could really answer your question, there would be no more wars.

@AzulShiva - That's an interesting take on this.  I would say, though, that the points aren't useless.  Apart from helping to ensure a certain level of technical precision and completeness in answers and questions, they can be used to "purchase" help from users on particulars problems you're having, and it has the potential to be a plus on a resume.

SILLY QUESTION... DOWN VOTED jk jk

@AzulShiva add to that prevalence of the "meh" factor.  Consider the amount of 0 voted ("meh") questions that have generated interest both in comment and answers.  If  treated  a bit more positively with more up-votes the occasional spite down-vote wont matter all that much.   Compare to votes in meta where  time of writing this comment there are 21 collectively in q & a in less than a month. (even with  Elimazz's DV ).  So many of these issues come down to the "wedge"... vote more.

Like I wrote in my comment:

@Hendriks3D while I sure understand the frustration of not getting an answer accepted (where the OP comments saying how you helped them), down voting the question out of spite is just not right.

That kind of voting is wrong, period.
On the DV Privilege page is says when to down vote:

When should I vote down?
Use your downvotes whenever you encounter an egregiously sloppy, no-effort-expended post, or an answer that is clearly and perhaps dangerously incorrect.

Nowhere in there (or anywhere else will you find) "Down vote whenever you are unhappy with the OP."
Aside from the very big problem with that type of behavior, there is an underlying issue, which is: voting on anything other then the content of the post.
Anytime you cast a vote (Up, Down, Close, or Delete) you should be voting only on the content. Whenever other things start to creep in, problems start. Then you have unhappy users, next it is you holding a grudge, then the other guy which you did not UV is angry and on and on it goes.
"He already has enough rep, no point UVing that question."
"I'm not UVing that - it will push his answer above mine."
"I know this guy, he was a jerk in second grade." DVed.
Do not vote on anything like this is a popularity contest, just vote on the content.
Would be an interesting experiment, anonymize the posts then see if people vote differently.
In a perfect world all the votes would be the same, but as we all know nothing's perfect. Like the example that spurred this question, people do not vote with pure intentions.

All that only goes for the main site, on meta it is a bit different.
Here in cases where somebody has a proposal or feature request, voting is more of a "agree, disagree" than "good post, bad post".
If for example (and by saying this I'm begging for it to be done) my answer here gets DVed, I wont take it as if I wrote a bad answer, but rather that there is some user that wants to keep voting on whatever whims they have.


text:
Why a 2 day wait on bounty's?
I asked a question on BSE, I have no clue what to do next. It is for a work project that is do in 3 days, yet I have to wait 2 days to put a bounty on it. Why is there this waiting period? I would like an answer sooner than later.
Makes no sense to me, kind of defeats the purpose of getting an answer in a timely manner (I understand a bounty doesn't guarantee an answer but it usually happens much quicker).
Thoughts!?

I was able to add a bounty this morning, within 2 hours I had an amazing answer. I feel this setting should be changed to allow bounties at any time if you have enough points.

Related question on SO meta: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/255995/2730823


text:
Blender paid work
I am planning to have a 3D animation short movies, My question:
Is it considered off-topic to offer some paid work related to Blender, in blender stack exchange?

maybe you should change "illegal" to "considered off-topic" or "not allowed".

@Tooniis, updated :)

"Legal" yes, I guess so, but it is off topic and would get closed.
Job offers are off topic. We get maybe one a month or so, and they quickly get closed, and directed to blender artists' job section.
So to save you from quickly getting your "question" really a job offer DVed and closed, just post on BA, its linked above.


text:
Bad answers for bad questions?
Many people can profit from a well described answer to a relevant question. But in practice a good part of the questions in Blender Exchange are asked by people who are just starting out and don't know how to describe their problem. Some have obvious errors in their scene and haven't learned the basics of the features they use.
I think a good answer requires a good question, but what if most of the questions are bad? I feel like one of ten is worth a good answer, and those usually get answered rather quick.
Spam short answers or leave those questions unanswered at all? It concerns me since most of my answers are short and not very interesting.

oh BTW and if people do help you, you should mark their help as answer  (ea https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/88494/how-to-rig-a-chest-lid/88503#88503 ) you ask but dont mark as solved, and that almost a tutorial what you got back there.

Thoughts: 1. Many of the bad questions are also duplicates, so let's all remember our due diligence and vote to close those. 2. Sometimes prodding a newbie to add more detail, reference images, post a .blend via Blend Exchange, or explain what they have tried so far, is all it takes to help a bad question grow into one with potential.

Great answers, thanks.

I wouldn't consider short answer to be bad. On the contrary - if I get to the solution fast without reading an essay it saves me time. I think you are implying answers that contain a hint but are not full tutorials on the matter (like this one that inspired this meta post).
Lot of questions are newbie type ones and for you it might seem obvious (or how to search it might seem easy), but on the contrary it is usually better to go into more detail than it seems necessary (and go full tutorial mode). There is a high probability such question will draw in more newbies and if they don't understand how to get to that solution they might leave downvote. A hint clear to you might not be so clear to a newbie.
An answer containing the full solution (or even related extra info) that doesn't require for additional searching yields the most upvotes.
It is also ok to edit a bad question to make it better searchable, more general or with better tags. This will draw in more people that will see your work you put into the answer. Duplicate questions should be marked as such, yes.
It's not a crime to post hint-like answer, anyone can add another answer and compete with you and for some users the hint might be enough. But there will likely be people not getting the hint and leaving that downvote.
I would summarize it's about estimating the experience of the artist asking (and searching it) and tailoring the answer to that level (or level below).

I think of this site as a collective effort to overcome blender's poor documentation and help others understand how the software works.
Sometimes a lazy or confusing question can open the door to explaining a complex function, or one of the basic concepts without which 3D modeling and rendering can turn into a frustrating experience. We've all been there... So instead of judging a question as being good or bad, think of how you can share what you know and help clear the OP's misunderstandings.
Writing thorough answers, even for simple issues, will only make this site more useful. What matters is not the length of an answer, but its clarity.
If you don't want to answer the quesion, then don't do it, maybe someone else will.
Writing incomplete or confusing answers helps no one.

actually i think that more often people should provide a short answer here.
That encourages people to look things up, or to study.
"Your rigging is wrong because you didnt apply scaling first", instead of someone describing the complete rigging process.
As if StackExchange where a wiki site (which it is not) we could as well take down the only site that tries to be the free book of blender, the place where newbies should learn.  https://wiki.blender.org/
StackExchange is a site for good correct best answers not tutorials, there are plenty tutorial websites (Linda, youtube, blender wiki etc).
Short answers also make this site load good on the mobile app.
If you dont know how to say things i'd recommend to include the .blend file and add some images as well. People like me just look around here to find unanswered questions with no solution and we still help you, to us it are just funny puzzles. But most of us dont intend to be teachers here, just telling a good correct answer, as this is a QA site.
But even various moderators forget its basically just QA that made stackechange a great site.

Can you give an example to clarify your last sentence?

Go to c++ or c# dev site of stack exchange to see how its supposed to be.

No.  I am asking you directly for your assessment.  I will not burden you further.


text:
Medium size images with alpha
When answering a question, I've wanted to include large images that have an alpha channel, but not necessarily at their original size. When I append an m to the image URL to shrink it, the alpha channel disappears, and it looks ugly. Example:
Original: https://i.stack.imgur.com/vAsYY.png

Shrunk: https://i.stack.imgur.com/vAsYYm.png

Can I fix this?

This is because imgur provides a jpeg for the smaller version (yes, it still has the .png extension, but don't let that fool you). Jpeg doesn't support an alpha channel, so imgur replaces it with a solid color.
The only way around this is to resize yourself and upload two pngs, then link them like this:
[![Blender logo](https://small/image.png)](https://large/image.png)

Example:

That wasn't the answer I was hoping for :-( , but thanks!

Nice, I didn't know that despite compiling the posting images post years ago. Heh.