Workshop Booze Up VI - These Are Not The Potatoes You Are Looking For

[Jubal]

Queen's a fair chunk bigger than a standard worker (which is the sort of wasp you'd be more familiar with), is the main & obvious thing. You'd expect some queens to be around at this time of year, especially in houses as they want not-too-frozen places to hibernate. A worker still alive at this point would be really odd.

[Glaurung]

It might have been a bit bigger than what I'd think of as normal, but I'm not sure. I was just trying to work out the quickest and most effective way of killing it without getting stung.

The queen vs. worker distinction did occur to me. I'm hoping it was a queen; if it was a worker I'd guess there was an active nest somewhere in the house, which is not a happy thought at all
I'm still wondering how it got in as well - there's no visible sign of a wasp-sized hole through the ceiling to the attic.

[Jubal]

It could have got in months ago - they can hibernate for long periods in very small spaces.

[comrade_general]

It could have got in months ago - they can hibernate for long periods in very small spaces.

This. Happens randomly all the time in my house.

[Gmd]

I'm sad about Alan Rickman so i'd thought id share a video of my personal favorite character of his (die hard not included)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDJq0bNJbQA

[Jubal]

In a small piece of Web news, the Ning (more specifically the Nerdfighter Ning, but frankly nobody knows what any of the other nings are anyway) has announced that it's dying very abruptly as of the end of this month because of financial issues. I used to frequent its rather good chatbox; it's also about the same age we are.

http://nerdfighters.ning.com/profiles/blogs/very-bad-news

So we can chalk that down as:
a) Another community a lot larger and better funded than us who for some unknown reason we outlasted
b) One less possible lot to invite to the Atheniad, alas
c) A slightly sad passing moment in the history of the Great Wide Interweb

[Son of the King]

Can/should we attract any of their users here?

[Jubal]

I invited a few already - I feel like being too aggressive with it might not work well, though there are a lot of people there we could really do with...

[Glaurung]

The Nerdfighters site still seems to be there, on the day it was expected to disappear. I don't know whether that's because the admins have succeeded in getting it onto an affordable hosting plan (e.g. by getting the membership count below 100,000), or whether ning.com just haven't got round to deleting it yet.

I'd be inclined to invite people from Nerdfighters if we can. I don't think it would be aggressive, as long's it's suitably worded.

I think it's worth observing that Exilian's democratic structure means we shouldn't suffer from the same problem. At the moment, it seems to be entirely up to Nerdfighters' site owners whether the site lives or dies - the admins seem to be working hard to give it a chance of survival, but the owners aren't talking to them. I don't think that could happen to us.

[Jubal]

It seems they've got a short transition period and the current admins (who aren't the current owners) are setting up a new Ning site, which I imagine will have the core community rolling over but without the extra member numbers. So that's probably somewhat saved them for now.

[Pentagathus]

If anyone is sad that they're single today I'd just like to remind y'all that even Hitler had a wife so you're literally worse than Hitler. Just saying.

[Jubal]

Thanks, Penty!

[comrade_general]

True story.

[comrade_general]

Happy Birthday, Mr. Washington!

[Jubal]

Going to London today to audition to be on Only Connect (for non-Brits, it's a quiz show) with friends, wish me luck!