MeFi post: Screw Disneyland. We're Going to the St. Regis Resort Monarch Beach!

Here's a little story about how the government spends its money. Our money.

I was an enlisted man in the USAF during the Gulf War. My original job was satellite imagery. That didn't work out for me morality-wise, so they made me an accountant who processed and paid travel claims. We were told constantly to be on the lookout for Fraud, Waste, and Abuse of moneys, and to report anything we noticed. They cared about malfeasance, and wanted to stamp it out, we were told.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by SaintCynr at 6:26 PM on October 7, 2008

Who's fault is that? Well, our government needs to stop spending. But how can we reign in spending, and at the same time pretend like Medicare is solvent? How can we reign in spending when people want universal healthcare? Something's gotta give...

You want to talk about spending?

Instead of talking about taking away basic human rights we don't even grant now, how about we impeach Bush and Cheney for looting the Treasury to... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Blazecock Pileon at 10:07 PM on October 7, 2008

MeFi post: Waiting on you hand and foot

I think I saw a movie about this. I think it ends badly.
posted to MetaFilter by SaintCynr at 12:45 PM on October 7, 2008

Ask post: Ne'er-do-well needs a job. Bit terrified.

I know this isn't what you're looking for at all, but I want to suggest that you check out some al-anon meetings or other kinds of support avenues, if you aren't already.

Also, please do not feel like you have to pull yourself up with absolutely nothing at all. You are right that it is not enough to be smart, but what you do have is determination. With work and persistence you can accomplish an unbelievable amount of good.

And finally, I'd like... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by bilabial at 10:29 AM on October 7, 2008

MeTa post: methinks?

methinks? He doth express not much.
posted to MetaTalk by Atom Eyes at 2:48 PM on October 6, 2008

Ask post: What to expect out of short stay in county?

I don't know how things work in CA jails -- all my time has been spent in AL jails. I'm guessing this is probably mando time for a DUI or something, right? Many times jails will keep a section of cells set aside for "week-enders" -- it's not worth the hacks' time and effort to move you into gen pop and then out again three days later. You'll probably spend your time locked up with another cellie. You'll sleep a lot, though it will be incredibly noisy. You'll probably be allowed to... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by BitterOldPunk at 12:43 PM on October 5, 2008 marked best answer

There are no 'hardcore guys' in county jail.

This is not true. Damn, nothing could be further from the truth. Your county jail population generally consists of:

(1) "Hardcore people" who are awaiting trial and can't be released because their bond is hundreds of thousands of dollars ranging up to the millions. Bonds that high are not set because the person cheated at tiddlywinks. Murder, rape, child rape,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by jayder at 2:32 PM on October 6, 2008

MeFi post: Gotcha!

Actually, the article makes some very good points. And I like that you've posted this a day after homunculus' post about magical thinking. It's good to think about the process of believing something, about knee jerk doubt and gullibility. More than ever it seems important not to jump to conclusions but to be able to reason clearly, to think things through, to be able to trust and not trust in mature, steady, adult ways.

And it's fun to think about The Sonseed Question... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 3:55 AM on October 6, 2008

MeTa post: Mefi Suggestion Box

Everybody on the site would meet each other in person on a regular basis.

One thing that attracts me to Metafilter is its similarity to an old-school BBS, both in its format and in the quality of its user base. However, there is one crucial difference between the two - the user base of a given BBS was usually constrained to a single area code, given the costs of long-distance telephony at the time. Thus, there was a limit to how bitter the arguments and grudges could... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Afroblanco at 12:11 AM on October 5, 2008

All grudges currently being held would be immediately and totally forgotten, and everyone would truly get a brand new day.
posted to MetaTalk by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:19 AM on October 5, 2008

I too, really do find this place tending toward a den of sexual prudery

See I really feel that there's prudery which is "I like things pretty vanilla and if you don't you're some sort of deviant/perv/bad person" but then there's the same sort of intolerance which is "I like things kinky and if you don't you're just repressed/prudish/uptight" Neither one is really very useful.

I understand that there is sort of a reaction... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 12:19 PM on October 5, 2008

Without the Mattprimatur of being listed on top of the main page, it's too scary to go there.

While it might be scary, or even dangerous, to identify as "Bi-siteual", the rewards of an open mind outweigh the cost.
posted to MetaTalk by The Whelk at 12:58 PM on October 5, 2008

because there's no way in hell this place is "incredibly square when it comes to sex."

I think this place can be incredibly square or incredibly open minded depending on the conversation. In my experience, there's enough variety of opinion here that sometimes it seems to be a roll of the dice which direction a topic will go.

If I could have any pie in the sky feature added to the site it would be debatecamp.metafilter.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by billyfleetwood at 10:16 PM on October 5, 2008

The member counter still exists on MeFi LoFi, the place insiders go to see Deleted Threads in the wild. Currently 80791. Your mileage may vary. A lot.
posted to MetaTalk by wendell at 8:31 PM on October 5, 2008

I know it's completely against the Metafilter way, but I'd love to be able to sort comments by number of favourites. I've got no interest in wading through some of those 200+ comment USelectionfilter or economicdisasterfilter posts once they've turned in to the usual shitfest, but there is usually a few really great stuff in there.

Even if it was limited to posts with over 100 comments.
posted to MetaTalk by markr at 5:08 PM on October 5, 2008

I'll be happy when YouTube shows video name in the video URL and/or people get tired of what often comes off as a contrivance regardless of intent or creativity on the part of the poster.

You want the YouTube Title Adder. Never be rickrolled again.
posted to MetaTalk by gleuschk at 4:47 PM on October 5, 2008

While we're wishing, I wish the first few commenters of each thread would stop trying so hard to seem unimpressed and/or get the first joke in. It's barely one step above going in and saying "FIRST!" I like Metafilter, but don't read it regularly because everyone seems more interested in griping about the subject or (lack of) depth of content.
posted to MetaTalk by CwgrlUp at 3:12 PM on October 5, 2008

I would love limited image use. 5 imgs per year, as jessamyn suggested, sounds great, but chuckdarwin's idea -- one day a year -- also sounds nice.

If I had my druthers, one thread per month would randomly selected by the mods to be the image-friendly thread, with the caveat that it has to be okayed by the OP before commencing. It'll be nuts, a fucking holiday, carnivale, a huge messy explosion of joy and annoyance confined to one tiny portion of the site.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Greg Nog at 1:46 PM on October 5, 2008

More hypotheticals in AskMe.

Hypothetical Ask Me category.

I wouldn't mind a chatFilter.


Why aren't you people over at Cortex's Big Big Question?
posted to MetaTalk by The Whelk at 12:44 PM on October 5, 2008

An almost heartbreaking amount of old posts feature dead links, however.

I'd like the ability to go back and fix those dead links in my own posts - something that is often possible if the page just got moved or if there is an alternate source.
posted to MetaTalk by madamjujujive at 12:40 PM on October 5, 2008

I too, really do find this place tending toward a den of sexual prudery, inconsistent with the general tenor of the site.

Really? It seems Mefi, as a group, is ok with just about anything as long as all parties know what's going on. But it has close to zero tolerance for lying, cheating or manipulating or general stupidity.
posted to MetaTalk by Brandon Blatcher at 12:14 PM on October 5, 2008

Make it harder to accidentally flag as "duplicate" when you meant to flag as "fantastic," or alternately make it possible to unflag something.
posted to MetaTalk by zippy at 12:08 PM on October 5, 2008

The ability to edit posts and comments would be nice (maybe with a time limit or severe repercussions for those who abuse it?). And also a page that listed all the links you have posted in fpps and threads -- for some reason about half of my links don't show up when I view "recent comments". And better search.
posted to MetaTalk by vronsky at 11:23 AM on October 5, 2008

I would dearly like the ability to edit my comment within - say 5 minutes - after posting. Even Live Previewing doesn't catch all my typos.
posted to MetaTalk by reflecked at 11:04 AM on October 5, 2008

I'm with iamkimiam - I'd also like to have a way of marking or noting posts/comments that isn't called "favorite" - maybe just "noted" or "bookmarked"?

and Bookfilter would be great

(btw, thanks Navelgazer for that totally awesome piece of graffitti - totally made my day)
posted to MetaTalk by jammy at 10:46 AM on October 5, 2008

Ad hominem attacks (someone called me a 'douche' because I thought the city offleash dogwalking park was too large) would be deleted immediately.
posted to MetaTalk by KokuRyu at 9:53 AM on October 5, 2008

I was going to say something silly but...

BookFilter! Yay BooFi!

I get ridiculously excited at the thought of a BookFilter subsite. Here are a couple of comments of mine from an old thread hashing out what I'd like BooFi to be.

Boo! Fi! (the idea of it just gets me excited, I can't help it)
posted to MetaTalk by Kattullus at 12:15 AM on October 5, 2008

Private or non-favorite favorites. I often favorite things as examples of some thing other than my endorsement of what they've said.
posted to MetaTalk by iamkimiam at 12:25 AM on October 5, 2008

A couple of months ago, yarrow suggested we add Related Posts links to the blue, like the ones we now have for AskMe. A few people liked the idea but mathowie kinda glossed right by it. I'm not sure he saw it. I like this idea as well as I like ClassicFilter; it almost serves the same purpose, except ClassicFilter would open comments on the old posts, where Related links would just give 'em some visibility, without interactivity.... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by cgc373 at 2:21 AM on October 5, 2008

Deletions. Deletions of posts, deletions of comments. Going back a page and finding this weird gap between my memory and what's in front of me. It's like it never happened. I know otherwise, so there's this momentary "have I gone mad?" thing while my brain tries to synch its internal map with the new reality.

1) I'd like to see just a tiny bug splatter where that comment or post was. Perhaps a symbol. Perhaps the original post, but in incredibly small... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by adipocere at 5:12 AM on October 5, 2008

CLASSIC FILTER

Or like this.
posted to MetaTalk by event at 7:08 AM on October 5, 2008

VideoFilter. For original Flash films.
posted to MetaTalk by Astro Zombie at 8:07 AM on October 5, 2008

really incredibly square when it comes to sex

In thinking this over, I suppose it's a combination of the site largely being viewed at work (I'm inferring here), and therefore MeFi being default SFW - as well as the comfort level and discourse level that arises out of that. If Metafilter were predominantly a site you visited at night after a drink or two (which of course it is in some cases, albeit not the majority), the discourse might loosen up a... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by stinkycheese at 9:46 AM on October 5, 2008

Ask post: Turning Ten--what was special about it, if it was?

Like you, I yearned to be 10 from the age of 7. I wanted to be a “big kid.” I wanted to have my feet touch the floor when I sat for supper. I wanted to see myself in the mirror when I brushed my teeth. I wanted to hold a Louisville Slugger upright at the plate without it dangling from limp forearms. For several years I just knew that all of this and more would happen at 10.

Being 10 meant two candy numerals on my birthday cake. I fondly... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by F Mackenzie at 9:18 AM on October 5, 2008 marked best answer

MeFi post: Tom Davis Gives Up

Excuse my perhaps simplistic grasp of the past eight years in American politics but was it not always the agenda of Karl Rove (and his crowd) to divide the nation on pretty much every issue? This is the death of moderation. As for all the emotionally, ethically, morally, politically exhausted Tom Davis's out there, all I can say is reap what you allowed to be sown. You had way more influence than 99.99 percent of your fellow countrymen.
posted to MetaFilter by philip-random at 1:40 PM on October 4, 2008

I saw this too and then look at votesmart for his voting record. He's just another far right-wing anti-abortion, anti-energy efficiency, pro-war on terror, etc. He's just another Bush. Hey, I've got a crazy idea: how about the system isnt broken but the problem is that the GOP ideology is broken?

I dont see how any of these positions are susatainable and blaming Bush seems like a good way to keep the constients happy while selling them out. How long does America... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by damn dirty ape at 1:07 PM on October 4, 2008

After Reagan and the victories of '94 a lot of Republicans began to believe their own hype. They really thought they could spearhead a kind of bloodless revolution. Gerrymandering and exploitation of divisive "wedge" issues were nothing new, but they became a means to an end that went beyond a single election year. It was like a new Manifest Destiny. The triumph of "conservative" principles was seemingly at hand: permanent control of all branches of government and a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by kurtroehl at 4:13 PM on October 4, 2008

I felt the message of this article was one about how traditional Republicans--the Republicans of low spending and small government--were slowly finding themselves pushed out of the party.

I have more sympathy for those Republicans. I don't agree with their policies, but I feel bad because they essentially shot themselves in the foot. They hopped on the social conservative fundy train because (I'm guessing) they didn't anticipate where it would go. It was going to get... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by schroedinger at 4:25 PM on October 4, 2008

kurtroehl I've asked other people espousing this line of reasoning a simple question. The answer I've gotten, time and again, is that merely asking the question is sufficient proof that I'm far too rabidly partisan to bother answering.

You keep blaming "both sides", you said "until members of both parties are willing to disarm, to shelve the "nuclear option," to shun the firebrands in their own ranks"

What... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sotonohito at 8:49 PM on October 4, 2008

MeFi post: Iron-clad mini feet pounding the dust

The yea and the neigh.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 4:05 PM on October 4, 2008

MeTa post: reasons for leaving

Was it something we said?
posted to MetaTalk by Cranberry at 12:17 AM on October 4, 2008

THE DAMN PLANE TAKES OFF OF THE CONVEYOR, OK?
posted to MetaTalk by loquacious at 12:24 PM on October 4, 2008

I didn't realise so many had disabled their accounts. I read a lot more here than I post so it kind of feels like I knew them. Sad.
posted to MetaTalk by liquorice at 4:32 PM on October 4, 2008

MeFi post: Sarah Palin's Poujadist Agenda

You know who I feel for? That damned brother-in-law of hers. I don't care whether he's a child tasering drunkard or not, that poor sot must be pissing himself 24/7. Imagine being on the wrong side of some uber-vindictive, simpleminded nutcase, and then imagine that same nutcase getting promoted to greater and greater- no, make that absurder and absurder - positions of power, and consistently using that power to do everything they can to fuck you over. How horrible would... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by maryh at 1:35 PM on October 4, 2008

What's most disconnecting about all of this is in everyday life, even the hickiest hick in hicksville wants people smarter than him to do things for him. You don't get your tractor fixed by calling the guy who knows less than you do about it, you don't get your leaking pipes fixed by someone who knows less about plumbing than you do, hell, these people go to church to listen to someone who has thought more deeply about their god than they themselves have.

And yet when it... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by maxwelton at 3:21 PM on October 4, 2008

Sarah Palin has turned out to be this nation's inkblot test. Do you look at her and see:

Someone just like you, a mom with 5 kids?
A sexy, hot librarian in three inch heels?
A ruthless, power-mad back-stabber?
A small town girl who makes good?
A big dumbass who doesn't have any idea of what the V.P. actually does?
A calculating cutie who could charm the socks off of Putin?
An idiot choking on her... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:17 PM on October 4, 2008

Things one ought to know if one has Presidential aspirations:

* American and world history - to avoid past mistakes.
*Geography
* Names of current heads of state, VIPs, etc. - having met some in person can't hurt.
* Rhetoric, as in logical reasoning/debating
* Current events
* Economics, particularly comparisons between 20th-century systems.
* Enough science to make informed decisions about the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by AppleSeed at 7:06 PM on October 4, 2008

Ask post: How to deal with someone so direct?

Communicate back.
posted to Ask Metafilter by salvia at 12:02 AM on October 4, 2008

MeFi post: Oh sh*t.

fremdschamen
posted to MetaFilter by sciurus at 12:56 PM on September 26, 2008

MeFi post: Why does everybody hate me?

One of my sisters suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. And that sentence is true -- she does suffer from it. And so did each and every one of us siblings, and my parents, and anyone else whose life touched hers.

And for so many years we were in denial, we just saw her as an asshole, a rude and crude jerk, unbelievably intertwined with my parents, psychologically, financially, in just about every way, really. She also has epilepsy, and has suffered from seizures,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by dancestoblue at 10:15 PM on September 11, 2008

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