Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 196
MeTa post:
Why deleted?
I think the feeling of offence is brought to the answer by the reader
The thing is that at MetaFilter, and in life in general, being offended is always more about the reader rather than the writer. Even if you aren't trying to be offensive, even if you don't think you're being offensive, even if most rational human beings don't think you are being offensive, if your audience reads your comments as offensive then you have offended them.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 12:52 PM on July 17, 2008
MeTa post:
X-posting AskMeFI and Uclue - is it bad?
I'm not an Arby's expert. I'm also not a Uclue expert. You can see my metaphor was planned several levels deep.
In that case, do you have any GreaseMonkey scripts for porterhouse steaks?
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 10:39 AM on July 10, 2008
MeTa post:
Another open letter.
Look, MetaFilter, I like you. Like! I like you! There's a lotta things about me you don't know anything about, MetaFilter. Things you wouldn't understand. Things you couldn't understand. Things you shouldn't understand. You don't wanna get mixed up with a guy like me. I'm a loner, MetaFilter. A rebel.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 9:47 AM on July 4, 2008
MeTa post:
Quickest way to Metafilter Lofi
Also, if you want to LoFi-ize everything, you can checkout the discontinued Ghostzilla project. It embeds a Mozilla client inside any window area (such as the email area of Outlook), hides pictures until you mouse-over them and turns all text to gray & white.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 1:16 PM on June 26, 2008
MeTa post:
Weekly World MeFi
Wait, I missed the part of the thread where everyone was talking about substandard cartoon characters? I guess I'll have to save my Super Globetrotters rant for another day then.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 11:55 AM on June 23, 2008
if you want to know what God thinks of favorites, just look at the people he gives them to
As we all know, God left the site back around Christmas of '05. In a blasphemous show of hubris, mathowie declared God to be little more than a "war3z d00d", and did banish God's AskMe question to the world of limbo. In retribution God visited upon MetaFilter a series of plagues, and the site was pretty locusty for a while. Eventually mathowie sold... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 10:45 PM on June 23, 2008
MeTa post:
Exact Phrase Search
I think that exact phrase queries put a bit more strain on the server than just plain simple ones
That was pb's explanation when this issue was brought up previously*. He did say that it was on the list of features to add though.
*found via... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 4:26 AM on June 16, 2008
Yahoo "Answers"
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 8:29 AM on June 16, 2008
MeTa post:
seofeed? really?
I like his blog post where a bunch of the paragraphs have test appended to the first word, and he mentions that Google isn't planning to replace its "mysterious" search algorithm with user-driven search results.
I'm glad someone is finally calling out Google for their black magic search engine. I've always said that it would be better if SEO professionals could decide what results we should get, rather than whatever Google's concept of "relevance" might be.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 5:57 AM on June 13, 2008
MeTa post:
Answers, not opinions.
I'm still convinced that DTMF really stands for "Dial Tone, Motherfucker!". Dual-tone multi-frequency sounds made-up.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 6:55 PM on June 10, 2008
MeTa post:
metaask
Talk about reaping the whirlwind ...
That's pretty much how MetaTalk works. jessamyn gives the nicest and most reasonable version of the answer, and then the rest of us say basically the same thing but with snarkiness, jokes and name-calling. It's a good system in my opinion.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 2:12 PM on June 10, 2008
MeTa post:
Error when filling out your birthday in the preferences.
[ ] like this
Into this
As the chalk faces smile
As Mrs. Death laughs
As the elevators break
As political landscapes dissolve
As the supermarket bag boy holds a college degree
As the oily fish spit out their oily prey
As the sun is masked
We are
[ ] like this
Into this
Into these carefully mad wars
Into the sight of broken... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 2:19 PM on June 9, 2008
MeTa post:
Gee, man.
There are plenty of others who are either too lazy or too afraid to try it themselves.
It's mostly fear in my case. True story:
When I wrote my one and only FPP, it was a dark and stormy night (not unlike tonight). Every so often I would hear a roar of thunder over the clicking and clacking of the keys on my keyboard, and lightning would fill the room, casting spooky shadows everywhere. I couldn't shake this weird feeling... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 11:47 AM on June 4, 2008
MeTa post:
Asked for X, got Y (where X equals help and Y equals grief)
I didn't get a chance to read the answers that got deleted, and I definitely don't think HURF DURF BLOCKBUYER should be allowed, but what's wrong with suggesting that the OP color or sand the blocks? It seems like it's kind of a "make lemons into lemonade" suggestion that could actually help the OP without being offensive or snarky.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 2:38 PM on June 3, 2008
MeTa post:
suspicious questions?
the thing to do would be to make the calls, and then write an update on the wall under the original note
Yes, this kind of thing happens very often. For example, someone might decide to write "Kevin Rules" on a bathroom wall. Someone else with more knowledge on the subject might cross out "Rules" and replace it with "Is Gay".
It's similar to Wikipedia, but with a stronger urine smell.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 12:04 PM on June 3, 2008
MeTa post:
AskMe OP Fervor
I guess like a matrix where one axis is thread length (number of total responses) and the other is number of OP responses (or alternately, word count instead of responses), and the "winner" being the one that's furthest out on both axes.
I don't know how either of them would fare on that metric, but my personal favorite OP craziness threads are the one about eBay customer support and the one about hotmail settings.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 7:55 AM on June 3, 2008
MeTa post:
Facts do not respect majority opinion.
This is clearly an acceptable alternative to "how should one pronouce..." [citation needed]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 4:24 AM on May 30, 2008
The problem, as I saw it, was his answer came with a reprimand for another user who answered differently. One's answer should stand alone. Let the OP decide and mark best answers.
I don't agree with this at all. I'm not advocating starting flame wars in AskMe threads, but in my opinion if you are an expert about a particular topic and someone posts an obviously wrong answer you can and should correct them.
This is not the... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 6:15 AM on May 30, 2008
I took my son to the zoo the other day.
Thanks, dad.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 8:07 AM on May 30, 2008
MeTa post:
Stinking of gin...
So given that that advice wasn't solicited, and given the paternalistic tone of the response, how am I supposed to react?
Just ignore them. Replying back to answer that you don't like with an insult never helps anything. If you think the answer is totally unproductive you can always flag it as noise.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 7:32 AM on May 27, 2008
Keep ignoring the thread forever.
Agreed. On the internet in general, if you want to avoid a big messy flamewar, the absolute worst thing you can do is reply directly to everyone that you disagree with. Even if you mean well and try to be completely civil about it, you will almost always end up escalating it and you'll get even more flak.
The best policy is normally to state your stance once, and resist the urge to refute... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 12:42 PM on May 27, 2008
Oh, Lord. The stuff I got away with while still getting As.
I remember once leading a class discussion on a book I hadn't read.
I agree with a lot of the comments you made about school being boring, or inadequate, or that teachers often don't put in the necessary effort to be successful. But I still think that the right thing to do as a student is to try, even if there isn't any incentive to do so.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 2:01 PM on May 27, 2008
It may sound strange, but a lot of what I learned in college as a Computer Science major was due to teachers making things hard for me rather than making things easy for me.
The majority of the most important things that I learned in college, I learned by myself. Some of it I learned while staying up all night coding a difficult program for an assignment, some of it I learned while trying to figure out how to prove some weird theoretical combinatorics statement, some of... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 12:50 PM on May 28, 2008
I'm not saying no one learns the basics in our system.
Here is the way I see the American education system working:
K-5th Grade: Teaching the basics every adult should know in order to function in society.
6th-12th Grade: Teaching everything necessary for pursuing any undergraduate degree in college.
Undergrad Degree: Teaching "higher knowledge" in a specific area.
A lot of... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 1:55 PM on May 29, 2008
As far as the actual basics (5th grade or lower), I do think the system does a pretty good job.
Beg to differ.
What specific parts of the K-5 curriculum do you think the system does a particularly bad job at teaching?
For example, in 3rd grade, most schools introduce the concept of decimal numbers to students. How many adults who have passed the 3rd grade do you know who look at the sign at the gas... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 3:07 PM on May 29, 2008
How many of them know what 4.15 X 100 does to that decimal?
Like I said, 3rd grade is just understanding what decimals are, most schools don't teach actually multiplying decimals by other numbers until 5th grade. Remember, K-5 is 5 to 10 year old kids, so they don't cover many advanced concepts. The vast majority of adults understand the vast majority of K-5 material, thanks mostly to K-5 education.
I hated school... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 6:03 PM on May 29, 2008
MeTa post:
It isn't really that clever...
What's homophobic about referencing a gay-owned and operated moving and storage relocation company?
Oh wait, now I get it.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 11:18 AM on May 29, 2008
instead of saying GAAAME OOOVERRR I'm going to say GAAAYYY MOOOOOVER
I always just say GAME OVER YEEAAAAAH.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 12:28 PM on May 29, 2008
I'd probably hit that.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 2:29 PM on May 29, 2008
the reason that "gay" and "fag" are the go-to insults in gaming is the same reason that they were the go-to insults on the playground in 6th grade.
Seriously. The gamers who were playing MUDs and Doom Deathmatch were almost all 18 years old or over. Gamers in general were an older and more demographically diverse group back then. Remember when games like Kings Quest were the best selling games on the planet? The people playing... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 2:52 PM on May 29, 2008
For whatever reason? Wasn't online gaming coming into its own around the fifth generation of game consoles? I think all video gaming had shifted heavily toward 12 years old and younger.
Well, yeah 12 year-olds were always a big part of the console gaming population, but back in 1993 when Doom came out and modem multiplayer first started, most of the 12 year-olds were playing Super Mario World on their Super Nintendos rather than pwning people in Doom.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 5:09 PM on May 29, 2008
MeTa post:
Please, for the love of all that's holy
it was my understanding that we do not permaban in the way you are describing ever, except for SEO spammers.
jessamyn broke down the different levels of banning in a MeTa thread a while ago.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 3:19 PM on May 28, 2008
What is/was the mathowie revelation? link?
He said that PP was actually trolling, and not sincere. Scody linked to mathowie saying it earlier in this thread.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 3:26 PM on May 28, 2008
we summoned him, nice job everyone
Wait, we can summon people here? Can we summon Mr. T next?
Also, nobody summon a Giant Slor, that would suck.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 4:30 PM on May 28, 2008
a fine and properly capped "Cooter"
Is there a GreaseMonkey script to plaster the Cooter Countdown Clock⢠all over the place? If not there should be and everyone should use it.
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 9:46 AM on May 29, 2008
I believe the people of Metafilter can conquer their own personal ParisParamus, who happens to be the actual ParisParamus!
Okay, I'll start sewing Steve outfits for everyone!
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 10:19 AM on May 29, 2008
MeTa post:
AskMeFi: The Key to True Happiness
If you're searching for happiness on AskMe, you're totally fucked.
Speaking from experience: If one's happiness depends on how much delicious cheddar cheese one is consuming, your statement is entirely untrue!
In all seriousness, I think AskMe really does help people in meaningful ways. Once in a while someone will post a story like this one explaining exactly how AskMe helped them, but I'm sure for every one of those there... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by burnmp3s
at 10:52 AM on May 27, 2008
