Much as the plumage of a yellow-throated swallow-tail indicates to potential mates that a bird is potent, healthy, and a good provider, ChickenringNYC's unironic caps and exclamation marks tells the reader "Hey, I'm a tool, no need to take what I'm saying seriously."
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 5:36 AM on July 26, 2008

I don't know, I enjoyed the comments Dee made, but if Brian B. disagrees with something she said and articulates it, even in a jerky manner, that's his prerogative. Trotting out favorites?
C'mon.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 5:30 AM on July 26, 2008

Dude, if I wouldn't stop for my grandma, what chance do you have?
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 8:37 PM on July 25, 2008

Did anyone else grow up in a house full of sextants?

No, but we did have my great-grandmother's ironing board, upon which almost a century before had lain the body of some ancestor who had succumbed while still a child. There's a scorch mark on the wood from a fallen candle. To this day, I prefer my shirts wrinkled.



And my dad had a hat that said "WELDERS HAVE HOTTER RODS", which was something, I guess.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 8:16 PM on July 23, 2008

Thanks for the MeTa.

Wow indeed. Jackass.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 11:33 AM on July 23, 2008

I wish there was a notification when a contact decontactifies.
I NEED CLOSURE!!!
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 8:45 PM on July 21, 2008

Yeah - Somebody dropped me as a contact last week. I assumed it was because I'm an asshole.

I'm more about the who than the why*. It's sort of like some guy on the street walking up to you and yelling that you're a stinking piece of crap and they've never liked you and would have had a better life without you in it. Then he storms off into the faceless crowd, leaving you to wonder who he was and how he knows you.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 9:24 PM on July 21, 2008

but does he have a fish? in his pants?

I vaguely remember that guy.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 8:39 PM on July 21, 2008

Wouldn't this sort of thing be better suited for MetaChat?
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:46 AM on July 18, 2008

You followin' me, CKmtl-guy?
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 11:44 AM on July 18, 2008

They're made up of the same people...

There's overlap between MeFi's membership and a few IRC channels too, but that doesn't mean posting their logs to MeTa is a good idea either.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 12:29 PM on July 18, 2008

... a mudpuppie?!?
*Eyes light up expectantly*
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 12:30 PM on July 18, 2008

Yeah, I'm pretty regular here and I never go there

I have the same problem with Denny's.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 12:53 PM on July 18, 2008

If by creepy you mean very, very funny, then I agree, Burhanistan.

Man some of you people are uptight.
Indubitably.

God forbid anyone should poke a little fun at your precious AskMe, right?
I hardly ever go to AskMe. Heavens forfend folks not believe the sun, moon, and stars shine out of MeCha's backside.

How awful is it that someone not only... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 9:52 PM on July 18, 2008

On non-preview: Aw, raspberries.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 9:53 PM on July 18, 2008

People are just going to keep on piling on in the hopes that you flame out. That is not how the general MeFi community is but there are a lot of jerks on MeTa.

While I won't dispute that there are a lot of jerks on MeTa and can't deny that I've been among them, I do quibble with your first assertion. The point isn't to make someone flame out/lose their shit/run away from MetaHome and never come back. I don't want people to feel that way, and I'm... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:48 PM on July 17, 2008

I can't believe it took 111 comments for someone to make that joke.

I'm not above squatting for the low-hanging fruit.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 11:33 PM on July 17, 2008

On non-preview that sounds really, really dirty.

Fortunately those evil, censor-happy mods will probably unpublish it and save my chances of some day running for office. Right?
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 11:37 PM on July 17, 2008

My guitar fights staying in tune.

And barre chords. My guitar fucking detests barre chords.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:35 PM on July 15, 2008

[more inside]
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:56 PM on July 14, 2008

This is a swell example of why using MeTa as a place for updates may not be such a swell idea.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 5:06 PM on July 13, 2008

If only people would show a little more class, and not use an obit thread about someone as wonderful as this now-deceased lady to make little jabs at other MeFiers. Still, not posting something like this here out of fear of dumb, nasty or ill-considered comments means the terrorists snarkers have won.

I see it as being a two-part problem: Firstly, MeTa is a really inefficient vehicle for updating FPPs, comparable to the NYT publishing retractions and... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 7:18 PM on July 13, 2008

Well, this is pointless and taken a turn for the needlessly nasty. I'm not even going to bother putting on my Louis Renault costume this time.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 6:08 AM on July 13, 2008

homunculus is, to me, the best member of this fractured community. No bullshit, no craven righteousness, no fake morality though optional white-boy poverty. Just excellent posts, over and over and over.
posted by plexi

Goddammit plexi, you've got to be kind.

Or just grow the fuck up.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 7:01 AM on July 12, 2008

The apostrophe seems to trip up just about everyone, even many Mefites. For future reference, you may want to bookmark this site that gives the 13 rules for the use of the apostrophe.

I hope you stub your toe really, really hard today.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 12:27 PM on July 10, 2008

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 12:32 PM on July 10, 2008

Ouch, my toe!
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 12:32 PM on July 10, 2008

Ever notice how amazing the word looks? Apostrophe.

Meh.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 6:51 AM on July 12, 2008

You have no freaking clue where I've been, how I've lived and what I've had to do to survive.

Needs some sassy snaps for me to really take that seriously.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:21 PM on July 11, 2008

This is what happens when our culture bases the worth of individuals on what products they consume.
posted by loquacious at 4:36 PM on July 11 [54 favorites by a bunch of folks chortling from behind their Macs at the Gourmet Fair Trade Java Shack]

But to be fair, plexi seems to be a bit of a knob.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:30 PM on July 11, 2008

Amazing how fierce the reaction against plexi is.

I was fine until he said my life was empty because I didn't go to university.
It is, but it's not like I need to hear that shit from anyone but my mom...

... mmm, that looks good, are you going to finish that?
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:54 PM on July 11, 2008

It's actually more of a memepool-nostalgia zone.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 12:30 PM on July 10, 2008

I was surprised by how often it's faked, and how often real jizz looks fake (and vice versa).

*Quietly registers SpunkOrBunk.com*
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 4:23 PM on July 10, 2008

You took it as an opportunity to ogle?

Well, one finds nudity so infrequently on the internet nowadays that you have to take your opportunities when they appear...

Kidding aside, I found this post pretty inoffensive for the same reasons batgirlHG said and was kind of surprised that there were people who felt otherwise. Buuuut more than a few of those folks are people whom I respect and like immensely, and if they're turned... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 4:41 PM on July 10, 2008

You may want to find some place other than the internet to hang out then.

As lame and grating as the "Grow a thicker skin, this is teh internets!" posture is, it's a particularly bullshit thing to say here considering that they are objecting to pretty crappy comments made on a website/community that prides itself on discourse that's above the internet's low, low standards.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 6:20 PM on July 10, 2008

From this question is pretty tame, but I wouldn't want it on my screen for others to read. Is there any solution to this? to You may want to find some place other than the internet to hang out then in four years.

What a long, strange trip it's been.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 6:32 PM on July 10, 2008

A wise man once said something to the effect of "I support feminism, really I do. That dosen't mean I wanna listen to it all the time."

"I support jonmc, really I do..."
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 7:58 PM on July 10, 2008

"Asshole" is a crisp non-gender specific that doesn't hurt or offend any groups except for possibly the ostomy bag crowd, and even then that'd be reaching.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 9:17 PM on July 9, 2008

If you can afford to miss it the first time, odds are you didn't miss much.

That said, if you return from a hiatus only to find a 404 page, it's all your fucking fault.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 8:59 PM on July 7, 2008

WAITAMINNIT I FORGOT HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT SOME GUY NAMED BARACK OBAMA?!?
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 9:00 PM on July 7, 2008

Jesus, leave that #mefi shit in #mefi. Don't you people have something better to do on July 4th than have yet another game of School Yard Shoving Match?

Yes, I know dnab's Canadian.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:08 PM on July 4, 2008

And flameouts in Metachat are the favorite spectator sport of a significant portion of the MeFi membership.

Assuming you didn't accidentally write MetaChat when you meant to write MetaTalk, wendell, that's a load of bunk (And it's still a load of bunk even if you meant MeTa).
Regardless, keep the MeCha shit in MeCha, too.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:14 PM on July 4, 2008

Man, this open letter annoys me more than the the other one.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 9:30 AM on July 4, 2008

"Ned Kelly had left Stringybark Creek with Scanlon on his tail, bound for Glenrowan. Little did he know, but the Victorians had sent a train full of police in his direction..."
Means nothing to you, right?

Maybe not everyone is as ignorant of things outside of their own country as you think or are.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:50 AM on July 3, 2008

Apologies for the 'or are' at the end, that was sort of gratuitous, but my point is your Kelly example and the opening of the FPP being discussed do provide an introductory sense of context, one that should be - and is - fleshed out in the rest of the post. I agree with Brandon Blatcher that it's not a gimmick I'd like to see on the front page everyday, no one says you have to read the whole damn thing, or even care about the post, if you don't want to.
I don't bitch about... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 11:02 AM on July 3, 2008

'...but no one says you have to read the whole damn thing..."
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 11:03 AM on July 3, 2008

There's a difference between something like "A number D that possesses no common divisor with a prime number p is either a quadratic residue or nonresidue of p, depending whether D^((p-1)/2) is congruent mod p to +/-1."
and
"Fermat was this famous mathematician dude who tantalisingly scribbled in the margins of a notebook something that was to intrigue & confound mathematicians for nearly a century...... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:15 PM on July 3, 2008

maths is an esoteric & specialised field, requiring heaps of study...

Your examples don't hold water, though. It certainly looks impressive to contrast what I presume is an excerpt of Fermat's Theorem against a staid bio, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the excerpt as the body of a successful post on the front page tomorrow, as long as it provided the context and fleshing out the Gettysburg FPP did (Hell, even if it didn't; people have made... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 12:11 AM on July 4, 2008

What's unhealthy about fucking, music, and unemployment?

Well, after you run out of money and the claim ticket for your pawned stereo expires, you'll find yourself with 11 kids and smelling like government cheese.

That was a terrible AskMe question and I'm glad it was deleted but made me feel a bit better about my life.
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 10:33 PM on July 3, 2008

A metafilter-wide fund of this kind should really only be set up if, god forbid, something happened to one of the mods or something.

I don't know, it may raise sticky issues of accountability/stewardship, etc.:
"i usd to like ur site, but now u guys r asholes. Gimme bak my cheez, now LOLbyeeatches
Sincerely
SEOGangsta and his lawyers"

Besides, if anything should happen to the... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Alvy Ampersand at 12:01 AM on July 3, 2008