Matt should ride around in a wheelchair like Larry Flint and gamble at all of the nicest casinsos (only at the high stakes black jack tables). We could through a stinky little MeFi-colored rug over his legs, and he could grab the waitresses in unflattering places. Why, he'll leave a trail of busted up hotel rooms and fatherless children in his wake. Think of it. Matt's porn empire!
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 2:47 AM on October 15, 2002

I wish you would all quit the ad hominem birthday wishes.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 5:41 PM on October 13, 2002

I played with filtering MeFi with the XMLHttp object client side and then parsing the HTML. If worked ok, I even got the forms working. It had quite a few bigs. It was like a proxy. It downloaded the MeFi page, filtered out all of the BS. It got way too complicated, though. Also, to add in all of these features to something like that seems like it wouldn't be technically do-able.

I seriously doubt that MeFi could handle, say, a double in traffic- if some app became... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 10:19 AM on October 4, 2002

I left sometime last year.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 3:41 AM on October 4, 2002

When you think about it, aren't we essentially customers since we are subjected to text ads? Shouldn't the proprietor be a little concerned about the turnover since, in good faith, he has sold advertising to external entities? If he wishes to continue to do so, doens't it make good sense to keep the customers he has while acquiring new revenue streams?

posted to MetaTalk by internook at 7:10 AM on October 4, 2002

Let's all stand together for change. I hereby pronounce October MeFi free for everyone! I bet those suicide girls would freak!
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 8:05 AM on October 4, 2002

Ok. You, quit the name calling. You, quit the swearing. All of you quit the tattle-telling. Just pretend you have to face the people you are conversing with/to and treat them accordingly.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 12:51 PM on October 1, 2002

websavvy, that would be OK, then.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 1:06 PM on October 1, 2002

democratize.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 12:21 PM on September 27, 2002

Tough crowd. There are more people who are MeFites than live in my entire county!

Anyway, I won't take any of the comments toward me as negative, because I am only trying to help. I don't see how it could hurt to take what amounts to a decentralized city of people, and empower them. Every city has a mayor, and Matt would still fill that role.

I know that Matt has never once signaled any intention of turning any part of the administration of this... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 1:19 PM on September 27, 2002

Wouldn't it be weird if there were really only about 10 members of mefi other than Matt, and all of the other users and their comments were really Matt, products of a brilliant, yet twisted, mind. I haven't ruled this out.

I also haven't ruled out the possibility that I am really Matt. I think this is a bad sign.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 4:34 AM on September 27, 2002

Posts, and posters should be banned via democracy. This decentralizes the responsibility for making these decisions, thereby releasing Matt of the overwhelming burden of being a contributing member and the police force. Also, this might greatly reduce the number of posts to MeTa about unworthy MeFi posts. You speak with your vote. You click a 'delete' button and then move on. If enough people click delete, the thread is removed (this formula can be figured out somehow). Same... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 8:18 AM on September 27, 2002

complete aside

it is too bad that mathowie strips the style attributes out of HTML elements and disallows things like SPANs, Ps and DIVs. responsible users could use things like height and overflow in the style and minimize lengthy posts that way.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 10:41 AM on September 24, 2002

very good point mathowie. as usual I am humbled by your wisdom.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 1:52 PM on September 24, 2002

Aren't you meet-n-greeters afraid some psychopath will bring a .357 to the outing? I would be. I would only go to one of these incognito, wearing a bulletprrof vest... on the wrong night of the week. Plus I wouldn't introduce myself. I would just have a drink and then go home.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 12:27 PM on September 13, 2002

None taken. I'd be afraid if I showed up too.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 1:14 PM on September 13, 2002

Would you ever sell Matt? If the price were right?
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 12:22 PM on September 13, 2002

A karma point system is the only possible solution to this.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 9:52 AM on September 9, 2002

Some people scan. I don't read word for word, I can't. I scan, so I could see how this might happen. I also never listen to entire conversations, I scan spoken word. Surprisingly, I get the point about 80-90% of the time while taking in 20-30% of the information. I'm happy with that ratio.

Also, some people might be having a bad day.

Oh yes, people make mistakes, too.

Those are three reasons I can think of...
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 9:49 AM on September 9, 2002

What Kafkaesque said...
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 11:27 AM on September 6, 2002

IE- Tools -> Internet Options -> General Tab -> Colors button (bottom left), uncheck use windows colors, set the background to white, text to black. Close. Same window, Accessibility button (bottom right), Under formatting, check ignore colors specified on web pages. (You can even set up your own style sheet here if you want to get fancy). Stick this in your style sheet to B&W all images (if you are color blind like me):

img... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 8:02 AM on September 6, 2002

What is lo-fi MeFi?
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 9:50 AM on September 6, 2002

oh. bummer that it doesn't work with the full functionality. cool, tho.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 10:12 AM on September 6, 2002

sperare, you are a party pooper. Actually, this just popped into my head with little thought or foresight. No cold intentions, but no real concern for what would happen to MeFi if Matt where pushing up daisys. Just curiosity.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 2:46 AM on September 5, 2002

Why spend time implementing a spell checker when scalability is more of a critical issue at MeFi? Doesn't make sense to me. Seems to me that something like spellcheck will increase the CPU utilization, and add yet another round trip to the server (during which every post will be snagged from the database again). Hell, it may create several trips to the server... I say quit bellyaching and use word or http://www.spellcheck.net/, so mathowie can solve more fundamental problems with his limited... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 2:34 AM on January 9, 2002

Yeah. The very same thread is murdering the XML parser I use. Kablooie, the thing pukes on that umlaut. Perhaps I'm idealistic, but considering the current state of MeFi-essentially bandwidth saturation, and lack of developer (you) resources- it seems to me that the MeFi server should be serving XML or RSS data only. Some enterprising developers could implement a client, or series of clients to do all of the stuff that could and should be moved off of your beaten server and onto the client. This... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 4:12 AM on January 5, 2002

Not to mention that someone else could add functionality (like thread tracking) a priori, and then send a streamlined request to MeFi for only the data it needs.

The client handles the presentation. Code on the client works as a middle tier to request a minimal set of data from the DB (via XML-RPC calls to the MeFi datastore).

You could get really selective about what requests are received and the format of the datasets returned to cut your... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 4:15 PM on January 5, 2002

If you don't build a better Metafilter Matt, someone else will.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 3:03 AM on January 6, 2002

Here is a stupid idea that just popped into my head... maybe the preview page should have a 10 minute timer before the POST button is activated, so the poster can think about what he/she has said. Maybe we could build a bad word/agressive grammar detector that prompts the user if he/she really wants to post the blathering he/she typed. Or, a breathalizer that won't allow drunks to post (like in a car owned by a known DUI offender).

Seriously, delete just doesn't work in... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 3:42 AM on January 4, 2002

Actually, it would be nice to put the preview on the client to save the round trip to the server. This would alleviate 1/2 of the traffic caused by posting. It can be done with a SPAN tag and some javascript... just a thought.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 9:50 AM on January 4, 2002

I suppose all clever people have at least two accounts in case they'd like to start an argument with themselves or something.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 4:57 AM on January 2, 2002

stavrosthewonderchicken, you mean a stranger to metatalk or metafilter in general? I observe alot, and sometimes start a long winded post. I can't count the number of times I have started to write something here and at MeFi proper and thought better of it. I guess I am like that in real life too. That would be interesting... seeing what people almost post with the preview button, but out of context so you couldn't place it with the person.

Also I tend to be quite... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 7:03 AM on January 2, 2002

I think we are missing my original point. I am not suggesting that Matt might assign a value to the number of posts or comments, or even a value to any particular post or comment.

What I'm wondering about is past trends, and the real number of live users (ballpark, since many like myself are quiet participants).

crunchland called you a scoundrel Neale.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 7:50 AM on January 2, 2002

owillis: I'm not sure I agree with your stance "to patronize vs. to leech". Take newspaper ads... a fact of life if one intends to read a newspaper. However, these ads don't spin, fizzle, blink, pop up, pop under, or whatever else the "new media experts" can come up with tomorrow. The obtrusive nature of web advertising is what I object to, so I use ad blockers. This doesn't mean I don't want to consume the information provided by the host, I just don't want to be pummeled by... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 1:50 AM on January 2, 2002

So does anyone own a printing press?
Let's hope not...
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 3:17 PM on December 21, 2000

I can help. I am a (ahem) "competent software engineer". Don't know Cold Fusion, but how hard can it be? I think I have a copy of it laying around here somewhere (or get me a version). Of course, I'd have to have an official sounding title if no money is involved.
posted to MetaTalk by internook at 4:17 PM on November 19, 2000