Ask Chaos Anything!

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

Just now, King Bean said:

wait... Thaidakar... are you under 13?

... *makes reason that internet safety exists* *dissapears into the shadows whilst laughing maniacally*

[Guest King Bean]

o-ok... (you be lookin kinda sus...) also you probably shouldn't be sayin this stuff in Chaos's thread.

Edited March 25, 2022 by King Bean

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

3 hours ago, King Bean said:

o-ok... (you be lookin kinda sus...) also you probably shouldn't be sayin this stuff in Chaos's thread.

neither should you. and besides I am not under thirteen.

[Guest King Bean]

Spoiler

Spoiler

ok

 

 

[Chaos he/him]

Yeah, uh, it's illegal for us to have kids under 13 on the site, straight up.

On 3/23/2022 at 7:26 PM, Thaidakar the Ghostblood said:

what would you say is your favorite tv show? 

what is your favorite food?

what is your favorite book of all time?

who is your favorite sanderson character?

1. Favorite TV show is hard. I don't really watch regular TV shows ever anymore. Let's say Deep Space Nine.

2. Spaghetti with meat sauce.

3. Let's say Oathbringer.

4. Hmmmmm........ I don't know. I'm not really a character person. Elend maybe? Maybe Adolin. I don't have strong opinions.

[Thaidakar the Ghostblood he/him]

On 3/26/2022 at 7:30 PM, Chaos said:

Spaghetti with meat sauce.

mmmm Spaghetti.

[Shardsplinter he/him]

Hello Lord of Discord! 

I think I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't share my appreciation for the wonderful work you, the Staff, the Arcanist and ehmmm...the Keepers? (just everybody in general) do to keep this amazing site running before I started shooting questions. I post quite rarely but the amount of time I spend reading entire threads here, Coppermind articles and pretty much every WoB, is alarming (to my satisfaction and the detriment of my grades ).

 

Aaaaaanyway I've always wondered how you and the rest of the hosts of Shardcast -who happen to be beta (or ganma) readers- deal with having intense debates about Main Cosmere topics, recent WoBs, book releases, etc. without referencing the knowledge you have from as-of-then unpublished works? Those debates and their subsequent theorizing seem so genuine I would find it hard to beleive you are holding back on information (mainly because I would be completely uncapable of doing so...) [If this is some kind of behind the curtain thing you can't really discuss I would totally understand]

Follow up: have you ever accidentally spoiled something for someone from a book you've read as a beta-reader? In my group of friends everybody is on a different point of the Cosmere (I just convinced a coupple of them to star reading) and unintentional spoilers have proveen themselfs unstoppable...

PS: Just read this thread from beginning and now I really wish you would've been my teacher on Many variables Calculus on all those weird surface and line integrals.

That makes me think... have you ever had a Sanderfan student that went like....WHAT IN THE STORMFATHER'S WINDS???!!! CHAOS IS MY RUSTING MATH TEACHER!?!

[Chaos he/him]

2 hours ago, Shardsplinter said:

Hello Lord of Discord! 

I think I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't share my appreciation for the wonderful work you, the Staff, the Arcanist and ehmmm...the Keepers? (just everybody in general) do to keep this amazing site running before I started shooting questions. I post quite rarely but the amount of time I spend reading entire threads here, Coppermind articles and pretty much every WoB, is alarming (to my satisfaction and the detriment of my grades ).

 

Aaaaaanyway I've always wondered how you and the rest of the hosts of Shardcast -who happen to be beta (or ganma) readers- deal with having intense debates about Main Cosmere topics, recent WoBs, book releases, etc. without referencing the knowledge you have from as-of-then unpublished works? Those debates and their subsequent theorizing seem so genuine I would find it hard to beleive you are holding back on information (mainly because I would be completely uncapable of doing so...) [If this is some kind of behind the curtain thing you can't really discuss I would totally understand]

Follow up: have you ever accidentally spoiled something for someone from a book you've read as a beta-reader? In my group of friends everybody is on a different point of the Cosmere (I just convinced a coupple of them to star reading) and unintentional spoilers have proveen themselfs unstoppable...

PS: Just read this thread from beginning and now I really wish you would've been my teacher on Many variables Calculus on all those weird surface and line integrals.

That makes me think... have you ever had a Sanderfan student that went like....WHAT IN THE STORMFATHER'S WINDS???!!! CHAOS IS MY RUSTING MATH TEACHER!?!

For that very last question, yes! He's still on the site: 

Good times. Line and surface integrals are fun, and a good teacher can make a big difference.

So regarding main cosmere topics, it definitely can be tricky and is a bit of an acquired skill. We try our best to avoid scheduling things after the beta, which mitigates a lot of things. For example, after the RoW beta we obviously couldn't do a Taravangian episode until after the book came out. So with Lost Metal, we still have two Lost Metal podcasts we recorded last August and September that haven't come out. Pre-planning! That's not always possible though. I am pretty heavily corrupted with knowledge so it's especially dangerous for me, but fortunately, my wife (Lady Lameness on here) doesn't like spoilers at all, so I get a lot of practice with saying what I think about things without giving stuff away, or even implying I know something on a subject even. For a lot of it, you have to do some mental gymnastics about thinking about what you thought about the question prior to when you learned information on the subject. Or you just avoid it entirely. On Shardcast that's fine, as you can let others blab on the subject.

So it's hard, but not as hard as you'd maybe expect. Another asset I have is that I get very excited about everything, and if I felt very strongly on a specific thing, I can go in with basically the same emotional reaction I always had at the start. This is most useful in cosmere rants, of course, but is useful here too  But yeah, you have to be careful. I can't even try and imply I know a thing on certain topics. That's part of the reason I don't like drawing attention to my status, because I think that makes that part easier.

You do sometimes need to hold onto stuff for quite some time. When Lost Metal comes out, it'll have been over a year since that beta began. So it can be tricky! Note: this was to give him, his staff, and his publisher more time to work on the book, because usually Brandon books are absurdly rushed out compared to general publishing standards. Publishers typically like the complete book about eighteen months before publications. For big authors they fast track it, but still... every Stormlight book is an absurdly big push. Also, the beta is worse than your final product every single time, and in a sense when you read that beta draft you never get that first-read experience that you all get in the final draft. (That one can make reviews and reactions very tricky.)

Quote

Follow up: have you ever accidentally spoiled something for someone from a book you've read as a beta-reader? In my group of friends everybody is on a different point of the Cosmere (I just convinced a coupple of them to star reading) and unintentional spoilers have proveen themselfs unstoppable...

I've spoiled other betas during the beta! I spoiled the Vivenna thing in OB to Feather during that beta. Oops. I'm more careful now. To non-betas, that doesn't really happen. I've been in the know on things for 8+ years (since Words of Radiance formally) so I am pretty practiced. In your situation where you have everyone in different places, I think it's harder than the usual group of people I chat with, who have read everything except the new thing. 

Great question!

[Frustration]

19 hours ago, Chaos said:

Also, the beta is worse than your final product every single time, and in a sense when you read that beta draft you never get that first-read experience that you all get in the final draft. (That one can make reviews and reactions very tricky.)

How much worse would you say that the beta is compared to the final product?

Edited April 4, 2022 by Frustration

[Chaos he/him]

1 hour ago, Frustration said:

How much worse would you say that the beta is compared to the final product?

Depends on the project.  I'd say anything Brandon said he needed to do a lot of revisions on, the final product is quite a bit better.

[Trutharchivist he/him]

On 3.4.2022 at 8:29 AM, Chaos said:

For that very last question, yes! He's still on the site: 

Good times. Line and surface integrals are fun, and a good teacher can make a big difference.

Just read this thread. That was amazing! I hope that there's no rule against upvoting old threads...

But, just wanted to ask a question related to that: why don't you do Wayne stick figures in your lessons? I mean, I guess that it's probably because this'll be overly weird, but still.

[Chaos he/him]

10 hours ago, Trutharchivist said:

Just read this thread. That was amazing! I hope that there's no rule against upvoting old threads...

But, just wanted to ask a question related to that: why don't you do Wayne stick figures in your lessons? I mean, I guess that it's probably because this'll be overly weird, but still.

Nope, that happens all the time.

Eh, stick figures tend to not be relevant, and if I'm drawing anything (which I am terrible at that), it needs to be very relevant. I don't like drawing at all!

[EmulatonStromenkiin he/him]

How do I get rid of the Shadow Creature singing opera in my mirror?

[Chaos he/him]

On 4/30/2022 at 5:08 AM, EmulatonStromenkiin said:

How do I get rid of the Shadow Creature singing opera in my mirror?

Yeah I don't know about that one, I'm afraid! Seeing a mental health professional might be a good start, but if it's real, you got bigger problems.

[EmulatonStromenkiin he/him]

18 hours ago, Chaos said:

Yeah I don't know about that one, I'm afraid! Seeing a mental health professional might be a good start, but if it's real, you got bigger problems.

okay. silly semi-physical quantum beings.

[ThroughTheLivingSequence she/her/they/them]

What's your favorite part of being Head Admin?

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

Similar to that one, what's your least favorite part about being an admin? 

[Chaos he/him]

10 hours ago, Sequence said:

What's your favorite part of being Head Admin?

Meeting all sorts of great people and having an awesome community. The staff is really cool and it's been quite the thing to see how things evolve over time. On the meeting people front, I got married through here so that's cool. Maybe this isn't specifically head admin-y though, so if you want something more in line with that I can cook something else up for you.

5 hours ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

Similar to that one, what's your least favorite part about being an admin? 

The amount of time it takes to be here, but also... Moderating people who have no conception of how to be polite and not rude. The vast majority of people are awesome, and I think even the people who are abrasive but don't quite realize they are, they do want to try. But it is very challenging to describe why someone is being super rude when they seem to have no frame of reference to being nice at all. It's strange. So yeah, that's challenging and takes up a lot of time.

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

1. Who is your favorite non-cosmere character?

2. How would you rank the Cytoverse books from best to worst? 
3. How many 3-year olds do you think you could take in a fight at once?

Edited May 3, 2022 by #1 Taln Fan

[Ixthos Luke/Luke]

On 5/3/2022 at 7:51 AM, Chaos said:

On the meeting people front, I got married through here so that's cool

Now THAT sounds awesome! If this wouldn't be prying, would you be willing to share the account of how it happened?

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

@Ixthos if you scroll down, he's told the story here: 

 

[Ixthos Luke/Luke]

9 hours ago, #1 Taln Fan said:

@Ixthos if you scroll down, he's told the story here: 

 

Thank you, though for some reason all I see is a box that is constantly trying to load something. It looks like I may not be able to access that link.

[Going_North_cal]

Is there a way to turn off emoticon autocorrect so you only see the characters, and not the Shard emoji. I just want to be able to do : D and not have it go to

[Experience he/him]

On 5/7/2022 at 5:44 PM, CalanoCorvus said:

Is there a way to turn off emoticon autocorrect so you only see the characters, and not the Shard emoji. I just want to be able to do : D and not have it go to

I usually just put a period after it. Like this :P.

[Chaos he/him]

On 5/3/2022 at 5:47 AM, #1 Taln Fan said:

1. Who is your favorite non-cosmere character?

2. How would you rank the Cytoverse books from best to worst? 
3. How many 3-year olds do you think you could take in a fight at once?

1. This one is tough for two reasons. One, I don't necessarily get ultra attached to characters, and two, non-cosmere is definitely less my jam. But let's say Kimmalyn!

2. Skyward, Skyward Flight Novellas (did you want me to rate these separately? these seem very connected), Starsight, Cytonic. Those last two are real tough for me. I could probably flip a coin on those two. Maybe Cytonic then Starsight because I at least enjoyed Cytonic like almost all the way through, even though I didn't love it.

On 5/5/2022 at 5:04 AM, Ixthos said:

Now THAT sounds awesome! If this wouldn't be prying, would you be willing to share the account of how it happened?

Sure! Taln fan found the link to it. It's here: 

 

On 5/7/2022 at 5:44 PM, CalanoCorvus said:

Is there a way to turn off emoticon autocorrect so you only see the characters, and not the Shard emoji. I just want to be able to do : D and not have it go to

I could not find a setting for this. Sorry!