The dust hasn’t settled on Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men mini-series just yet (in fact, it’s just now getting kicked up; #2 came out on Wednesday), but the rumble hosted on Stack Exchange has come to a decisive end. After two weeks of competition, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange has declared the X-Men the winner of the AvX Stack Showdown. Now take it easy, Avengers fans; we’re not saying that Colossus could best the Hulk or that Cyclops is a better tactician than Captain America. The X-Men defeated the Avengers in a basic numbers game; the questions asked on our site in the past two weeks with the tag “x-men” simply got more views than those tagged “avengers.”

The Avengers were off to a strong start initially, with questions like Is Thor the only Avenger that can’t die? getting attention from many users. But once the X-Men pulled ahead in the number of questions asked, there was no stopping them. More questions asked meant more views total, and with questions generating thousands of views on their own, the X-Men had no problem taking and keeping the lead. In the end, the X-Men trounced the Avengers in page views, coming in with 15,642 compared to the Avengers’ 5,315.

Users old and new created a lot of great content about these two teams, but only a few exemplary questions and answers can be awarded with prizes. They are:

• Top X-Men Question: DavRob60 for “How to kill Wolverine?” (score: 23)
• Top Avengers Question: Bridget Fitzgerald for “Is Thor the only Avenger that can’t die?” (score: 25)
• Top X-Men Answer: Ian Pugsley for the answer to “How to kill Wolverine?” (score: 21)
• Top Avengers Answer: Thaddeus Howze for the answer to “Is Thor the only Avenger that can’t die?” (score: 37)

And since the X-Men emerged as the victor, one user was drawn randomly from the pool of everyone who participated in that tag, and will be rewarded with their choice of one of three grand prizes.

• Grand Prize Winner: chcuk

Thanks to everyone who participated in the event. Marvel Comics’ Avengers vs. X-Men is in stores both physical and digital now. It’s an event years in the making and the comic book event of the summer. You cannot miss it! You can also check out all of the AvX videos we made for the event. They’re timeless classics. Just because our event is over doesn’t mean you should stop reading the series and asking questions. The battle still continues!

The Legend of Korra

It’s simple, each question you ask about The Legend of Korra between Monday April 16, 2012 at 16:00 UTC and Monday April 30, 2012 at 3:00 UTC will get you one entry into a random drawing to win a sci-fi/fantasy item of your choice from your local Amazon (under $50).

To be eligible, the question must:

• be tagged the-legend-of-korra
• not be closed or deleted (read the site FAQ to see what is on topic and acceptable)

Others details, along with the list of our past Topic of the Week Contest winners, could be found here .

So don’t be shy, we want you to ask a question now!

If you’ve taken a gander at the Sci-Fi & Fantasy site today, odds are you’ve noticed a lot of questions about the Avengers or X-Men. Why is that? Well, it’s because the site is in the throes of its first big event!

AVX.STACKSHOWDOWN.COM

This event is closely modeled on the Skyrim vs. MW3 event that Gaming held last Fall, but modified for maximized, ultimate comic book goodness. Thanks to designer Jin Yang, developer Emmett Nicholas for getting the site up, and Tim Dillon and Ryan Penagos from Marvel for providing us with awesome art.

The event was inspired by Marvel Comics’ own Avengers vs. X-Men event, which just launched today. Avengers vs. X-Men is a 12 issue mini-series, coming out biweekly, pitting two of Marvel’s premier superteams in battle over an Earth-changing event. With the biggest names in comics on the creative team, this is shaping up to be 2012′s big blockbuster for comics. Be sure to check out the event by hopping by your local comic book shop, or checking out the issue on the Marvel App or at ComiXology.

So how does this translate to the Sci-Fi & Fantasy Stack Exchange site? Glad you asked that, me. We’re putting our Avengers questions against our X-Men questions, in a battle for views! Fans are encouraged to ask the questions that have been burning up inside them ever since they first held a comic, and then share that question so they can both get an awesome answer, and ALSO ensure that their side (Avengers or X-Men) gets the views they need to pull ahead. So far today, the X-Men’s early lead has given way to the Avengers, who are now winning. Come on, X-Men!

What kind of questions are welcome? You are really full of questions, me, but I’ll answer them. Any questions about anything X-Men or Avengers are welcome. All of the activity is being measured through the use of tags, so as long as your question falls within the scope of the Avengers or X-Men tag, it’s fair game! So far today, some of the leading questions are:

• Is Thor the only Avenger that can’t die?
• Why doesn’t Cyclops’ optic blast subject him to recoil?
• How did Captain America survive freezing?
• Is Wolverine an alcoholic?
• Why is the Hulk’s skin green?
• Did Nightcrawler ever get to be a priest?

Like those questions? Upvote and share them! Have a better answer? Post it! Get involved because there are prizes to be won.

Oh, did I forget to mention prizes?

At the end of the contest’s run (April 19th, specifics here), the winning side will be chosen and one lucky participant from that side will win our grand prize! On top of that, the users that have the top question and answer for both sides will win prizes. Lots to win!

So what are you waiting for? Avengers assemble! X-Men…x-trapolate? X-travaganza? The X-Men don’t have a rallying cry, but rally X-Men fans, rally! For more info on the contest, please check out the official rules and prizes page, as well as the Meta post!

When I was a kid, I regularly read Whizzer & Chips and Buster and occasionally read of the Disney comics, but I never got into the DC/Marvel worlds – probably because they were too expensive and I was quite happy with books.  Over the years I occasionally flicked through a comic, and I was vaguely aware of the major storylines, but never a regular comic reader.  Over the last month, I’ve tried out the comic world. more »

Stack Exchange is giving away 2 Blu-Ray sets and 3 DVD sets of Game of Thrones: Season 1. Huzzah! They say that in Game of Thrones, right? Of course they do. Here’s what you have to do to enter the giveaway:

Handy Twitter sharing icon!

1. Find your favorite Game of Thrones question at SciFi.SE and share it using the site’s handy sharing tools (see right). And if you get inspired to ask your own Game of Thrones question, do it! And share it! When you share a question, make sure to…
2. Use the hashtag #SEthronesDVD or #SEthronesBlu, depending on whether or not you want to be eligible to receive a Blu-Ray or DVD of Game of Thrones: Season 1. Only questions shared via Twitter with either the hashtag #SEthronesDVD or #SEthronesBlu are valid entries into the giveaway. You may tweet as many questions as you like; each tweet acts as an entry to the contest BUT only 1 set will be awarded per user.
3. The names of 2 people using the hashtag #SEthronesBlu, and 3 people using the hashtag #SEthronesDVD will be drawn at random. So yes, the more questions you tweet the higher your chances, but you cannot win more than 1 set.
4. The winners will be notified via StackHQ and will have to provide a mailing address via direct message that we can send the set to. Winners will have 48 hours from being contacted to provide a mailing address before a new winner is drawn.

The deadline for entry is Wednesday, March 14th at 3:00 PM EST.

Also, due to the regional limitations of the sets as well as shipping costs, only applicants in the United States are eligible. 

And that’s it! We hope everyone has fun checking out the awesome Game of Thrones content on SciFi.SE and  tweeting their questions. Just make sure you aren’t spamming your followers with a bunch of questions (ultimately, you know what your followers want; operate under the “be cool about it” rule).

Stack Exchange is only responsible for the sets and are not providing Blu-Ray players or DVD players along with the sets.

UPDATE: The contest has concluded and winners have been announced via @StackHQ. Thanks to all who participated, and be sure to ask questions about Game of Thrones here on SciFi.SE when season 2 starts up in April!

Just a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t know anything about Doctor Who. But I was intrigued by this series. So when I had an occasion to get the Series 6 on Blu-Ray, I jumped on it.

But where to start? Would I have to watch 5 full seasons before enjoying Series 6 like it’s suggested here ?

The task seemed too big for me. But Scifi.Stackexchange saves the day again! Someone asked “Which episodes of the new doctor who series are required viewing before starting series six?”.  After reading the only answer of this question, I decided to go with Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead from series 4, and then watch the complete series 5.

Those 2 episodes from series 4 are a wonderful introduction to this universe. It get just enough mystery to urge you to continue. I feel the show suffers from a little slow down in the first episodes of Series 5, and the transition to the new Doctor is a bit rough and confusing. But once I got through this and watched 2 or 3 episodes, I was completely hooked. The way characters are introduced makes me feel really concerned about what happens to them. Amy, the last Centurion, and River are strong, engaging characters I care about. At the end of each episode I just cannot leave them there without watching another.

Before I noticed it, I had watched all the episodes up to the season 6 finale. And now I think I will go back to Series 1 to see what I have missed.

In retrospect, my main concern as a newcomer to Doctor Who was about being lost in the middle of a universe I cannot understand because there are too many unexplained things going on. I could assure you I did not feel like that. If you want to introduce yourself to Doctor Who, and don’t want to start to the beginning, I suggest you do as I did, there will be time to go back if you enjoy the show.

Jeff Atwood, one of the founders of the StackExchange network, chose to mark his last (day-to-day) day at the company with a post disparaging identification questions.  As Jeff pointed out in his post, the story-identification tag is the second most common on our site right now, so I’d like to point out why our community feels that these are a valuable part of the site, where we disagree with Jeff’s viewpoint, and hopefully give you a bit better understanding of how decisions about what’s on-topic are made (and then re-made, and re-made, and …).

The community consensus gets hashed out on “meta” – there have been quite a few discussions about story identification questions (starting way back at the launch of the site, up to and including during the recent moderation elections), so you should head over there if you’d like to make your opinion heard, or read in more depth (good places to start are here and here) – what’s below is heavily based on the content from there (I’ve borrowed some sentences verbatim).

This is my personal opinion as a user of the site, not an official statement.

more »

It’s the new year, which means the winter breaks for TV shows are coming to an end, and the mid-season shows are starting up.  Here’s a quick rundown on what new science fiction and fantasy shows will be premiering in the US this mid-season.  For a reminder of which shows started back in the fall, be sure to check out our post from last fall. more »

The first moderator elections for scifi.stackoverflow.com are now underway!  Back in February 2011 we gained “pro tempore” moderators, whose task was to guide the site through the beta phase (before then the Stack Exchange staff filled this role).  Now that the site is fully launched, the community gets to elect its own moderators.

Moderators are the patient, respectful, and fair folk that lead the site and get access to the most powerful moderation tools and a few special resources.  There’s not much in the way of reward, but there’s plenty of work, so we should be thankful to all of those that have put their name forward, and especially those that end up with the job.

Once elected, the moderators hold their office permanently, so you need to make sure that you get the mods that you want. Likewise, if you want to be a moderator, then this will be your last chance for likely a long time.

The election process is composed of two stages (or three if we get more than 10 nominees, which looks unlikely).  The first, which ends in three days, is nominations.  Any community member with at least 300 reputation may nominate themselves (you cannot nominate someone else – encourage them to nominate themselves instead).  Each nominee writes a brief outline explaining why they are a good candidate, and anyone can comment on these – indeed you are encouraged to do so: ask the candidates anything that will help you make up your mind as to where your votes go.

We’re about to enter the election phase, when all members with at least 150 reputation can cast three votes: 1st choice, 2nd choice, and 3rd choice. All votes are private until the election is complete, at which point the election data file (the vote totals for all the candidates; no identification of who voted for whom) will be freely and permanently downloadable by anyone. The winners are determined using the Meek STV method.

There’s going to be a chat event where you can ask the candidates questions to better inform your vote.  See this meta post for details about when it’s scheduled, or just keep an eye on the chat room calendar.  You can also post questions on meta, if you find that better than chat.

Democracy is a highly imperfect process, but it is a participatory imperfect process. Please participate in our community elections. Your vote is your voice, so use it!

The Dark Mirror and Blade of Fortriu are the first two books in Juliet Marillier’s Bridei Chronicles.  In The Dark Mirror we see the rise to kingship of Bridei, a 6th Century Pict as well as his relationship with Tuala, his half-human foster-sister, and in Blade of Fortriu two of the minor characters from Mirror, Ana and Faolan take center stage  in a story that mostly develops their own backgrounds and futures, with one of Bridei’s significant battles forming a secondary backdrop story.

These stories are based on real historical characters (e.g. Bridei I of the Picts), with more overt magic than stories like Stewarts’s Merlin stories, but still maintaining a generally realistic feel.  This is a form of historical fiction that I particularly enjoy, although not knowing much about the history of the Picts the relationship to real history mostly passed me by.

The central characters of The Dark Mirror are compelling enough that I enjoyed the novel, although the outcome is never really in doubt to the reader, and of little doubt to most of the characters too.  The story never truly captivated me, however, and felt slightly rushed at times, moving quickly from age to age.  The quirky cast of characters that educate Bridei as a child were all interesting, but none very fleshed out (I got the impression that they might be recognisable characters from Pictish history, but I wasn’t able to verify this).

I expected more of Bridei (especially given the name of the series) and Tuala in Blade of Fortriu, although Marillier’s sequels often leave behind the central characters of the previous stories.  Bridei and Tuala do feature, but are decidedly minor characters.  I found the story of Ana and Faolan less interesting, with Ana’s development particularly dull (although the characters note how much she has changed, I didn’t see much change at all), and Faolan’s background less interesting than Mirror suggested it might be.

A love triangle features strongly in Blade; I don’t have any objection to this trope in general, but it wasn’t well done here.  Other than his magical nature and exceptional good looks, there was nothing appealing about Ana’s other beau, even though it was obvious throughout that she would end up with him, rather than Faolan.  Perhaps there’s some sort of redemption and superior love waiting for Faolan in a later book (the end of the story suggests that he might feature centrally in a later novel in the series), but I was rather unsatisfied that he came out of the triangle so poorly.

I’d recommend reading The Dark Mirror, at least – it works well as a standalone novel – and would recommend Blade of Fortriu to anyone that enjoyed Mirror.  However, if you’re new to Marillier, I’d suggest starting with the superior Wolfskin/Foxmask or the Sevenwaters novels.