Argent

I've used Easy Voice Recorder (for Android) a few times now, and it seems pretty solid.

With airplane mode on, 3 hours of audio barely put a dent in my battery. I've been doing this for a few years, with a few different phones, and I don't think I've ever dropped under 70%.

Oh yeah, video won't work. But audio is all we need for Arcanum!

From the first post in this thread: That's all we know.

You might be surprised, actually. I don't have my previous recordings handy right now, but a 3-hour audio file encoded at 256 kbps ends up being about 500 MB - which is a fairly insignificant amount for most smartphones.

Normally you'd show up early and quickly chat with Brandon when he shows up. Then, once he starts talking, you just begin the recording, leave your phone on his table (remember to put it in airplane mode to preserve battery!), and pick it up when you are leaving. I am actually not sure how a computer would work... I doubt you can just leave that on the table. I'd flag down the nearest bookstore employee and ask them - I imagine many of them are familiar with Brandon's signings by now.

I see you've chosen to join us at a very precarious time... We are in a calm - or panic - before the storm mode right now. Try to enjoy yourself, but beware of the stormwall...

We have a viewer, let's go! If hype lasts for more than 4 hours, please contact a physician.

Must be using an Australian file server...

We should do a buddy series where @Overlord Jebus talks about interesting things and I just complain the entire time about how things used to be better. I do accept bribes.

'Tis the season to be jolly! It is that time of the year again, friends. The time when a kindly, pleasant man goes 'round the world, bringing joy to kids and adults alike. The time when many of us will wake up with a present waiting to be unwrapped, while many others still will need to go shopping and find one to give to their love one(s). I speak, of course, of Brandon Sanderson's new book release and the tour accompanying it. With more and more people joining our fandom with each book, I wanted to write down a few bullet points paragraphs about what a signing is, what you should expect, how you should (and shouldn't!) behave, and if you are in the minority of people who like to contribute audio to Arcanum, how you should do that. Brandon Book Signings: Do's and Don't's Some time ago Reddit user RosiYY started a thread on the /r/BrandonSanderson subreddit about some big Do's and Don't's when attending signings. I encourage you to read through all of it, but I'll copy Brandon's top reply here for convenience: Travelling the world to see Brandon! A different Reddit thread on /r/BrandonSanderson had a user from New Zealand (PewPewPokemon) ask about what goes in a signing. Here's Brandon's reply: Etiquette The threads above should cover the basics of what a signing is and how it goes - lecture, public Q&A, reading, signing/personalization line, and (sometimes) private Q&A. You can usually get as many signatures as you want, but the number of personalizations is likely to be limited - it used to be up to three, but recent events have had Brandon drop that to one in the interest of time. If you go through the line multiple times, you can get more. And if you hang out until the very end, you might get a few extra questions in (unless the venue kicks everyone out). Now, let's talk etiquette. And more specifically, signing line etiquette. We'll split these into a few categories based on what role you would be playing at the event. The Average Attendee If you are going to the signing just to get a few books (or other memorabilia) signed and/or personalized, there isn't much you can mess up. Be a decent human being, don't hoard Brandon's time too much (though I've literally never seen anyone take too much of his time). If you have a story you want to share with Brandon, take your time. Having listened to many hours of Brandon interacting with fans, I assure you that even if you don't have some convoluted question about how the Cosmere works, Brandon will value you and your time (though the Arcanists on this site might glare at you...). The Sharder Being a Cosmere aficionado comes with a little bit of extra responsibility. A lot of what makes our tiny corner of the Internet special is Brandon's good grace and willingness to indulge our obsessions - so it is our responsibility to be as polite, understanding, and accommodating as we can. Many of us will have questions we would like answered, and some of us will even go to signings with multiple pages of questions. It is on us to make sure that we don't ask too many and take too much of Brandon's time (or hold the line for too long). If you can stay until the end of the signing, you may be able to participate in a short Q&A dedicated to Sharders and other more hardcore fans - feel free to ask Brandon about whether he can answer a few questions, but be prepared to gracefully accept rejection. The man works way too hard, sometimes he just wants to go back to his hotel and crash, or go catch a flight, or go back to his family. The Recorder Being somebody who records events is much like being a Sharder, only with even more responsibility. If you fancy yourself being one, try to get to the venue where the event will take place a little early (or lots of early, it's your life). If you have professional-grade recording equipment, or plan on recording video, it is good to check in with the venue to make sure that's alright; generally speaking, simply leaving a recorder or a phone on Brandon's table doesn't require any additional prep or explanation, he is quite familiar with our shenanigans by now. If you can, try to hang out somewhat close to the signing table - not only to keep an eye on your recording device (though Brandon will do that for you, making sure it doesn't get knocked off the table, or buried, or anything like that), but to also make sure that you can pause the recording if Brandon asks you to. These days we have the ability to keep "secret WoBs" away from the general public, and Brandon has been mostly good at telling us when he doesn't want something online (he will often speak directly to the recording devices and leave instructions that this answer or that comment shouldn't be released). Still, it doesn't hurt to be close enough to your device, just in case. Miscellaneous Let's go over a few extra points that don't really fit in a common category too well. Recording Devices If you want to record an event but don't already have professional equipment you might be wondering what you can get on a budget. I myself use a Lyker VM-31 I got from Amazon a couple of years back, but it is no longer available. I link it so you can see the 3-star review, and so I can tell you that it's fine. During my earlier signings I was recording with my (Android) phone using Easy Voice Recorder. So if you want to use your phone, it should be okay (though then you won't have it with you when you are talking with other nerds, and you'll miss out on group selfies, so...), just make sure you turn airplane mode on (for battery reasons) and put the phone on silent (so your offline notifications don't vibrate it on the table). This being said, if you do want to purchase a recorder, my two pieces of advice are Do not get anything with analog output.The audio will be hell. USB cables are just fine. Amazon has a number of well-rated digital voice recorders, pick one that fits your budget; or pick one from your local tech store, it doesn't matter very much. Sharing Questions This topic comes up pretty much every tour, so I figured I'd address it here. We here, in the 17th Shard, tend to be a little bit on the obsessive side. We want to know more, we ask a lot of questions. Most of the time that's a good thing. Most of the time Brandon is happy his fans obsess over his books. Sometimes some of us go too far though. In our quest of getting more and more answers, some people inevitably arrive at the idea of... utilizing the attendees who don't have questions, kicking around the idea of printing questions and handing them out. Something like this is extremely bad form. Brandon already doesn't like it when people just grab questions from the Ultimate List; going to him with a question you were handed earlier is much worse. One of the reasons Brandon answers so many questions is because all, or at least most of them are things his fans are personally interested in. It's why some of us maintain our own lists these days. The moment it starts looking like attendees are treating him like a WoB vending machine, he'll clam up, maybe forever. Don't be that guy. Of course situations where you are asking a question on behalf of a friend or family member who couldn't make it to the event, that's completely fine. Private Q&As Some of you may have seen references to people hanging out with Brandon before or after some events, getting what amounts to a pretty private Q&A (I am a notorious offender here). It is very much worth noting that all of these are initiated by Brandon! It is sometimes okay to ask Brandon if he is going to have time for some extra questions after the signing line (that's what I do, by the way), but it has to be up to him to decide whether he is just going to sit at the table for a bit and answer questions, whether he is going to extend an invitation to some people to grill him while he is signing the venue's stock, or whether he'll just answer stuff as he walks to his car (or whether he just won't have time). As with everything else, accept his answer as is, don't beg, don't chase him around.

It's more of an organizational system than a search engine, but in theory, if another fandom wanted to set up a similar system where they categorize and tag pieces of data, they would be able to use Palanaeum to help them do so. I'll let @Mestiv explain the details of it.

In theory, it should be possible. I am not sure why it doesn't work, even parenthesized.

Yeah, I ran into that one in the brief time I looked for the one I was thinking of, @axcellence, but it's not what I was looking for. The phrasing of the one I wanted to find must've been different.

I've seen a WoB to that effect, but I am having a hard time finding it right now...

Oh, boy. It's double fake Tuesday! This was supposed to come out on Monday (fake Tuesday), but it's Sunday today, so double fake Tuesday! Let's see. New Rhythm: Rhythm of Command, a stronger version of the Rhythm of Appreciation. The pairing is a little weird, but okay. Ulim seems to have the same "physiology" as Yixli - strange eyes, human shape, though he is obviously a different type of voidspren. Venli has been following Ulim's guidance to discover stormform in the first place. Fits nicely with Eshonai's suspicions from Words of Radiance that Venli had been hiding things from her. And speaking of Eshonai, I do think she is dead. Blade hadn't disappeared, and I'd imagine two listeners can correctly identify a dead one. Eshonai's Shardplate is "said to regrow on its own, even now that it's separated from its master from so long ago". I found this to be one of the most interesting bits in this interlude. Unfortunately I can't make much of it. Ulim describes that relationship between him and the Venli's ancestors - either the Unmade or maybe ancient listener cognitive shadows - is one where he is a servant, and they are presumably masters. So it could be a similar kind of relationship, but the Plate has been separated from its master. This may lend credence to the theory that Shardplate is crafted from lesser spren - windspren, in the case of the Windrunners, for example. In which case the greater spren, the honorspren, would be the masters, while the lesser, much more mindless ones, would serve as building blocks in the physical realm. Ulim says he is a spren of redemption. Whatever that means. That comet-like spren Eshonai had been seeing shows up again. I know some people like it for a Radiant spren, but I still think it's a piece of her own soul, the piece that got displaced when the stormspren possessed her. And on the topic of Eshonai being dead... I don't think she is truly dead. We know something is wrong with the afterlife on Roshar, so I expect we'll see her again in Shadesmar sometime in the future.

Welcome, users of Arcanum! As you peruse this archive of knowledge about all things Brandon, you will likely notice that the underlying search engine can sometimes produce unexpected results. We tried to hire some researchers from the Palanaeum to do all the work for you, but they charge so storming much! So until we figure out how to find a few thousand broams you’ll need to do things on your own. This short guide aims to make this process a little easier for you. Basic Search The most direct way to search for content is the omnipresent search bar. Enter the search terms and the engine will come back with results sorted by relevance - the most relevant on top. The details of how each result is ranked is complex (and may, in fact, change over time), but there are some things you may want to be aware of: Tags and exact matches are highly ranked. If you search for a term that matches an existing tag (e.g. Hoid or RAFO), entries tagged with the appropriate tag will show up near the top. Similarly, if your search term doesn’t have a matching tag (e.g. Oracle), entries that contain this specific term will tend to float higher. The software powering Arcanum - Palanaeum - supports the ability to find entries that contain words similar to your search term, though generally they will be ranked lower than exact hits. For example, searching for Cultivate will bring up results that include the word (or are tagged with) Cultivation. Searching for Multiple Keywords As you might expect, Arcanum supports the ability to search for multiple keywords at the same time. If you use this feature, it is important to remember that, by default, Arcanum will aggregate the results of your “X Y” query with the results of an “X <OR> Y” query - i.e. you should still expect entries containing both of your search terms to float near the top, but following them you will find some entries that contain only one of your keywords. For example, searching for Honor Cultivation will, predictably, put this entry containing both words near the top, but as you scroll down (and to later pages) you will see this entry, which contains only the word “honor”, as well as this one, which contains only “Cultivation”. If you want to circumvent this default behavior and search for “X <AND> Y” - i.e. if you want only results that contain all of your search terms - you can replace the spaces ( ) in your query with either plus signs (+) or ampersands (&). For example, to search only for entries that contain both Honor and Cultivation, search for Honor+Cultivation or Honor&Cultivation. Your browser’s search function (for example, Ctrl+F / Cmd+F) can be very helpful in quickly sifting through variations of terms. Let’s say you’re searching for WoBs on Steelpushing, which does not have a tag and could be referred to by many different phrases (Steelpushing, Ironpulling, Steelsight, Coinshots, Lurchers). You can do a search for “Allomancy,” and then use your browser’s search feature to jump to each of those phrases in turn. Searching for Exact Phrases Sometimes searching for specific keywords is not what you are looking for. If there is a specific phrase you want to search, e.g. because you are hunting for a specific entry you remember only partially, you can surround the search phrase with quotation marks. For example, if you want to find out something about the Second Ideal of the Knights Radiant, you might want to search for "Second Ideal". Advanced Search For the hardcore WoB hunters among you, Arcanum offers some advanced searching/filtering capabilities. Search in date range: show only entries whose date is within the specified range. Note that this is the date an entry was recorded, not the date it was entered in the archive. In other words, entries from the Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing will all have an entry date of December 6, 2016 (the event’s date), even if the event itself was entered in Arcanum a week later. This feature is generally useful if you are looking for entries from a specific tour or ones prior to / after a certain book's release. Search for speaker: show only entries that include a specific speaker. Most Arcanum entries come from unknown sources, so the speaker will often be marked as simply Questioner, but lines coming from known members of the community, as well as ones from members of Team Sanderson / Dragonsteel Entertainment will usually be credited appropriately. So, if you are curious about what Brandon’s art director and assistant Isaac Stewart has said on record, you could search for him specifically. Search for tags: show only entries tagged with the specified tags. Interested in all questions about Hoid that have been RAFO’d? You can search for those. Please be aware that choosing and clarifying tags is a part of the review process every event goes through; it is possible that some entries have not been properly tagged yet. Exclude those tags: show only entries not tagged with the specified tags. Interested in all questions about Hoid that have not been RAFO’d? You can search for that too. Advanced...-est? Search There is one more trick, deep in our sleeves, but it is only for those who dare brave the dark corners of Palanaeum's backend - PostgresSQL. It is a trick so dark, we can only speak of it in whispers. It is the ability to apply some of PostgresSQL's text search operators directly in Arcanum. We speak of this: "But Argent," I hear you cry out in dismay. "we know not how to perform these dark rituals! Do we need to sacrifice cats and rats for this power?" No, friend, no sacrifices are needed. Let me teach you some tricks: AND queries together: we touched on these earlier, so this should be of no surprise - you can use the && operator (written as just & in Arcanum's search bar) to search for "X <AND> Y". As mentioned earlier, you can search for Honor&Cultivation and expect to see only entries that contain both search terms. OR queries together: these are less useful, as Arcanum treats all spaces as || operators. Still, if you wanted to, you could use the Postgres OR operator (written as just | - that's a vertical bar - in Arcanum's search bar). So you should expect the results for Honor Cultivation and Honor|Cultivation to return identical results. Negate a query: here's something new. Those of you with strong GoogleFu will know that you can force Google to exclude certain keywords from its results by prepending a minus sign to them. Well, you can achieve the same thing in Arcanum by prepending an exclamation mark (!). Remember how Honor&Cultivation gave you only results that included both Honor and Cultivation? Well, you can search for Honor&!Cultivation if you want results with Honor and not Cultivation (note the ! in the query) - i.e. results that have only Honor. Remember, spaces are equivalent to ORs, so searching for Honor !Cultivation will actually give you all entries that either have Honor or don't have Cultivation; and since the overwhelming majority of entries don't have Cultivation, you end up with pretty much every entry in the archive... Query following a query: I'll confess, this doesn't strike me as too useful, but you can constrain your query so it makes sure some search terms appear before others. You'd do this with the <-> operator. For example, you could search for Bridge<->Four (and get pretty much what you would expect, results where "Bridge" appears before "Four"), or you could search for Four<->Bridge (and find out that the word "Four" has never appeared before the word "Bridge" in Arcanum). Query containing / is contained in a query: This is one of those features that feel like they could be useful, but I can't come up with a good use case to show them off. In short, it allows you search for one search term in the results of another, effectively giving you the intersection of two queries. This is accomplished with the @> and <@ operators, where the angle bracket indicates the direction of containment. For example, you could search for Sadeas@>flute if you were interested in the results of a Sadeas query which contain "flute" (or flute@>Sadeas for flute query results that contain Sadeas, which is equivalent). The thing is, both of those seem equivalent to the results of searching for flute&Sadeas, so maybe this only comes in handy with even more complex queries. Best not to worry about this one, I think, unless you know PostgresSQL. Especially since I can't figure out how to make the other direction of this operator, the "is contained in" version (<@) to work... Event Search At the moment, the functionality to search events has not been implemented. If you are looking for a particular event, scroll through the Event list. To make this a little easier, you can change the number of events you see per page to (up to) 100, and then use your browser's search/find feature (Ctrl+F / Cmd + F).

So, I don't know if I ever shared this here, but a couple of days after this thread went on an 18 month hiatus in 2014, I had asked Isaac for clearer, higher resolution versions of the highprinces' glyphpairs, the ones on the warcamps map. He sent me this: Even if this is new to us, it probably won't get us very far, considering the recent reiteration that "glyphs are memorized, not read", but I thought people could at least enjoy clearer versions of those glyphpairs.

I don't know if this is profound or obvious. We know Shallan hasn't dealt with either one of her parents' deaths, so anything she becomes, anything she does, it all has those murders looming in the background. There is, however, also an argument to be made that once you pretend something for long enough, it becomes truth. In Cosmere terms, that girl, the one who "could not laugh, for laughter had been squeezed from her by a childhood of darkness and pain", is Shallan's Spiritual aspect, while the person she has become is her Cognitive one. And we know that these tug-of-war kind of conflicts can go either way - she can fully embrace the person she has become, the person who can laugh and enjoy life, or she can let her true self come up, and she can try to deal with it.

Not all Words of Dragonsteel (ayy, I made up a term!) make it to Arcanum. This particular one is not very relevant, as the White Sand graphic novel is already out.

Yeah, that seems to be the problem. I looked a little bit into it, and it looks like Yahoo intentionally informed the maintainers of the DMARC protocol (which is a way for email clients to determine what a valid email domain looks like) to blacklist a ton of Yahoo domains, likely due the massive password leak they experienced recently. You can read a little more about it here, but I think it would be wise to look into moving to a different email platform...

It's good that you guys like, 'cause, boy, would I have been upset if we had sunk all this time into something people didn't like

You shouldn't need to give up, let's see if we can resolve this. Are you guys using the Contact form, or the Newsletter Signup? I know at least one of them breaks a little bit every time Brandon posts about the newsletter because a million people go sign up at the same time...

Sounds like Mistborn, but yeah, can you add a little more detail to your question?

We call it dynamic scrolling - sometimes you scroll a lot, sometimes you scroll a little. Makes the entire website experience more exciting In all seriousness though, it's a good idea. We'll probably get around it sometime.