MetaFilter

I think you'd also get a lot of people 'quoting' other people and saying that somebody said such and such and then edited it, regardless if it was true or not.

My personal opinion is that this would be a detriment to the site. Adding a layer of on-record/off-recordness really changes the social dynamic considerably. I like that people are committed to what they say once they press the Post button, and that they must deal with the ramifications of that. It makes the... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by iamkimiam at 8:10 PM on September 27, 2009

Double shame on the male participants; when a man says "oh, I know, sexism and objectification of women is such a problem, I'm so with you on that", he's saying it to ingratiate himself with the women listening and get that much closer to getting into their pants.

This thing that you said is a dumb thing, and it's kind of chafing to have that be the next thing to come out of someone's mouth after praise for our work as mods because it makes me worry... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 10:55 AM on September 23, 2009

So when sadtrombone fails, it's not eponysterical exactly, but what? Sonamusing? Acoustappropriate? Onomatopoeticongruous?
posted to MetaTalk by nebulawindphone at 7:25 AM on September 7, 2009

Just remember as well: if you jump into a sausage machine, you'll probably end up making a lot of self-links.
posted to MetaTalk by UbuRoivas at 4:17 PM on September 6, 2009

We get to negotiate the resources of a community by our use of them, we don't get to control them or how other people use them. It's like trying to force people to talk a specific way. It's madness. Also, being snarky and condescending about it is only going to motivate people to exercise their own autonomy and use the control they have in using those resources, whether they agree with the suggestion or not, but rather out of spite. So I would be prepared to see a lot more of it around, and in... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by iamkimiam at 8:29 AM on September 3, 2009

> I just wanted to chime in and let everyone know that I had Mexican for lunch.

It's that sort of homophagy that leads to bad dreams in the first place.
posted to MetaTalk by ardgedee at 1:52 PM on September 1, 2009

(hence the helicopter parent tag)

You could probably use a "helicopter modding" tag.
posted to MetaTalk by dhammond at 3:54 PM on August 31, 2009

Why is this here instead of on the front page?
posted to MetaTalk by oneirodynia at 8:34 AM on August 28, 2009

Man 1: I came here for a good argument.
Man 2: No you didn't; no, you came here for an argument.
posted to MetaTalk by not_on_display at 10:46 AM on August 24, 2009

Wolfram Alpha is actually pretty handy.

It is not a search engine, it is not an encyclopedia like wikipedia.

It's more of a database of keyed and tagged data that you can use like a really fancy calculator. Think of it as a calculator with a brain and a whole bunch of data in that brain to run calculations on.

It's the first and only site I've ever seen that even comes close to being able to "assemble a precis"... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by loquacious at 9:50 AM on August 24, 2009

I am so happy there's a $5 membership charge right now.

We need to up it to $10 for the next week or so.
posted to MetaTalk by ryanrs at 6:47 AM on August 24, 2009

(apparently Ceiling Cat really is watching you)

Stats for:carsonb

Who does carsonb favorite the most?
(simple count of favorites)

loquacious [27]
cortex [21]
Kattullus [18]
y2karl [15]
madamjujujive [15]
klangklangston [14]
It's Raining Florence Henderson [14]
Ambrosia Voyeur [14]
Anonymous... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by FishBike at 3:18 PM on August 22, 2009

"Golly, klang, never had you pegged for a weed snob. Ask me, you haven't really smoked til you done schwaggy knife hits off a neodirthippy's propane stove on the hill behind the carousel."

I remember buying from this kid, maybe he was 17, during a dry spell back in Michigan. He was in one of those '80s townhouses that sprang up in the suburban sprawl, white walls and beige everything else, under a bug-filled frosted fixture in his kitchen,... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by klangklangston at 11:44 AM on August 21, 2009

I was going to do some analysis of tags vs. favorites and comments last night, but I got distracted by the contact network visualization stuff, and then some tornadoes came along which were also distracting.

So, I hope you folks will forgive the super-lengthy comment, because I think these results are sort of awesome.

First, what do MeFites like? This is average number of favorites given to posts with the following key words, separately for each... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by FishBike at 3:42 PM on August 21, 2009

We've done the retard debate before, more than once.

And while this thread has presented a relatively united front against "retard," I'd like to respond a bit:

First off, in terms of harm, I think a distinction can be drawn, with regard to insult, between primary and secondary offense. No one here, so far as I know, is actually retarded, though many of us have family members who are. That's an important distinction between... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by klangklangston at 2:13 PM on August 7, 2009

Well, you told me how to cope with being a sexless single person.

Then you helped me sleep with my friend.

But should I take it farther I asked?

Which led to a no-strings relationship, which was great, but raised some questions.

Then I fell in love with her.

And had to decide whether to tell her or not.

Then I had to decide whether to date her or... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ND¢ at 9:21 AM on August 15, 2008

"Where in the continuum in between those two would we draw the line?"

Reply hazy. Try again later.
posted to MetaTalk by klangklangston at 8:57 AM on July 22, 2009

Another fantastic L.A. meetup! I had a great time. I know I promised a whole bunch of Mefites the Metafilter [more inside] stuffed cupcake recipe so here it is (obsessive process photos can be found on my flickr page). My apologies in advance for the super-long MetaTalk comment:

If you want to make custom fondant cutters-
Print out the shapes and tape the paper to foam core. Take a pin and prick holes around the shapes to transfer the outline. Cut out... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by Thin Lizzy at 2:38 AM on July 19, 2009

Well, Autarky, I guess I'll try to answer by taking your question seriously.

First off, you have to have a deemer. For a comment to be deemed acceptable, unacceptable, totally unacceptable, someone would have to do something about it. Through the miracle of passive voice, you've missed an actor: who?

Who would deem it unacceptable? Your option would be a person, a roving posse of people (perhaps... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by adipocere at 5:07 PM on July 3, 2009

I've been working on a visualization of just this. I'm not yet completely finished, but you can see some of the results here. It is interesting to see when Matt closed down new signups for awhile. The size of each circle corresponds to the number of posts they have made, and I've also drawn in the contacts between users.

I do have an interactive version where you can mouse over each circle to see their username and number, but it is kind of a browser crasher. If... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by localhuman at 12:03 PM on July 2, 2009

Is this where i go to audition for a gig on the Jay Lenin?

"So i was watching that BERNIE MADOFF trial on tv the other day... heh
Looks like his wife was there, heh, she was wearing some pretty sassy glasses...
and by "sassy" i mean "dipped in the blood of the proletariat!"
[cue laughter]
"im just kidding...seriously though she's first up against the wall."
[cut to Eubanks smoking a hammer and sickle bong]
posted to MetaTalk by Potomac Avenue at 3:46 PM on June 29, 2009

1) Whereas, Idiocracy is an overrated film that falls victim to its own premise;

and

2) xkcd is clever, yet I can never seem to work up the interest to check it out unless somebody links to a particularly relevant strip;

and

3) Stupidity is a byproduct of ignorance and ignorance is a byproduct of poverty and poverty is a byproduct of greed and greed is a byproduct of wealth... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:06 PM on June 29, 2009

And here are some stats for carsonb:

Who does carsonb favorite the most?
(simple count of favorites)

loquacious [21]
cortex [17]
madamjujujive [13]
y2karl [13]
It's Raining Florence Henderson [12]
Kattullus [12]
goodnewsfortheinsane [11]
klangklangston [11]
jonson [10]
Ambrosia Voyeur [9]

Who favorites... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by FishBike at 5:24 PM on June 22, 2009

Ok, slight side trip to answer carsonb's inquiry, since the queries are easy. Here are the top 10 users ranked by largest single favoriter (the "loved much by one" list):

ThePinkSuperhero: 11350 (6953 from single user)
Anonymous: 21392 (890 from single user)
puke & cry: 1519 (587 from single user)
Firas: 708 (330 from single user)
afu: 879 (301 from single user)
cortex: 11563 (291 from single user)... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by FishBike at 12:31 PM on June 22, 2009

My MaxFunCon experience, from a Community Website point of view:
(I apologize in advance for the length of this)

I hope this exceptionally long story shows how awesome this community is and how much I rely on it on a day to day basis. Before leaving home to go out to L.A. for a visit and MaxFun, I made the horrendously bad decision to have Lasik laser eye surgery, with the idea that my eyes would be fine by the trip. Those of you who are on my Twitter feed... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by ColdChef at 10:15 AM on June 16, 2009

There's a distinct difference between "this topic is uninteresting to me" and "this post is crap and fails to meet the guidelines", and there's room in MetaFilter for expressing this, and flagging isn't always the best solution.

But speaking from experience it's a lot more productive and effective to offered reasoned, objective criticism than it is to just drop a turd and run away. If you have issues with the substance or style of a post then say so -... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by loquacious at 1:48 PM on June 7, 2009

To the august members of this Meta Filter,

First let me state that it was a great kindness when you let me browse thread #82113 on the subject of "unicorn tattoos". If only was had tattoos like that when I served in the Highlander regiment I think my days in the army would not have been so dreary!

On the subject of messages which lack what is commonly referred to as the "body" of the message, I must say that I am against this... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by GuyZero at 2:09 PM on June 2, 2009

With a little work on your end you should be able to make the pages look however you want, disappearing any page elements you don't want to see, etc., and then it's just a matter of loading each thread and printing it out. The easy, easy no-hassle no-options version of this is to set your MeFi preferences to the 'plain' theme.

There is already a print stylesheet here. A collaborative effort about a year ago. It looks nice.

So... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by smackfu at 1:46 PM on May 28, 2009

Well, if this thread is for talkin' about man stuff, I just wanted to say:

It's a fucking travesty that they're remaking The Taking Of Pelham One-Two-Three. That movie is one of the best goddamned movies ever made, the music is awesome, and it really doesn't deserve to have its grave desecrated. But I guess that's what we do nowadays. I'm sure we'll get finished remaking every movie made during the 60s and... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by koeselitz at 11:01 PM on May 14, 2009

I sold all my 8-tracks with my '78 Chrysler LeBaron. Now what?

Now we peel you out of that white and gold PVC disco outfit, burn the avocado leisure suits and wean you on a little mellow punk rock, slowly inoculate with just bits and pieces of the 80s to prevent reinfection, walk you through how to use video games, CDs, computers and the internet, warn you about ebay, craigslist and spam and then we wait and watch and pray you don't relapse into... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by loquacious at 10:23 PM on April 29, 2009

Your tense shift vexes me most pleasurably.

The past sure is tense.

And BTW, this thread is reminding me of a couplet from one of my songs...

...you put the script in the shredder and the poet in his grave
even the silver toungued devil's at a loss for words
i'm trying to keep my eye on a single pair of wings
in the swirling center of a flock of birds
posted to MetaTalk by flapjax at midnite at 12:15 AM on April 24, 2009

Communicating with @ is bad and you should feel bad for doing it. THAR SHE BLOWS!
posted to MetaTalk by ob at 9:54 PM on April 21, 2009

*leans over to the voice identification unit* "My moderator is on my passport."
posted to MetaTalk by adipocere at 4:09 PM on April 16, 2009

Confused people out do order it of.

That you fixed for.
posted to MetaTalk by UbuRoivas at 2:47 PM on April 3, 2009

On a whim, I typed this, knowing somehow that the internets wouldn't let me down.
posted to MetaTalk by Jofus at 9:54 AM on March 25, 2009

Sock theories usually represent an underestimation of the number of different people on the internet capable of being obnoxious.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 8:30 AM on March 18, 2009

make favorites redeemable for valuable cash prizes

They should be worth one cent each, and redeemable only for gift memberships.
posted to MetaTalk by StickyCarpet at 1:44 PM on March 9, 2009

LOL BUTTS variety

Excuse me, but I think you mean "butts lol". Unless, of course, this is one of those Britishisms like bath/bathe.
posted to MetaTalk by mullacc at 12:06 PM on February 24, 2009

Information wants to be free. And by information, I specifically means MP3s and Adobe Photoshop. But not quotations from Metafilter. That's off-limits, boyo.
posted to MetaTalk by Blazecock Pileon at 11:27 AM on February 23, 2009

                _         __ _ _ _            

 _ __ ___   ___| |_ __ _ / _(_) | |_ ___ _ __ 

| '_ ` _ \ / _ \ __/ _` | |_| | | __/ _ \ '__|

| | | | | |  __/ || (_| |  _| | | ||  __/ |   

|_| |_| |_|\___|\__\__,_|_| |_|_|\__\___|_|   

                                              

Heh, I'm feeling very usenet-ish with this...
posted to MetaTalk by Argyle at 8:55 AM on February 22, 2009

Another alternative is to use your wiles to convince the poster that you are a good friend and worthwhile correspondent, and then after months of patient cultivation, they finally add you as a contact, once they do that you return the favor and BAM! You now have the all powerful ability to alter their tags to suit your whims.

Machiavellian, no?
posted to MetaTalk by quin at 12:44 PM on February 5, 2009

Principles win! Do not favorite this comment.
posted to MetaTalk by CunningLinguist at 12:14 PM on January 31, 2009

My fellow Mefites,

I post here today humbled by the task before the mods, grateful for the trust we have bestowed them, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our profile pages. I thank mathowie and pb for their service to our community, as well as the generosity and cooperation they have shown throughout this downtime.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our community is at war, against a far-reaching network of SQL injection... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:48 AM on January 26, 2009

Metafilter is an instantiation of Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. It's that kind of place.
posted to MetaTalk by scalefree at 9:36 AM on January 23, 2009

I always thought of cortex as the stoner college brother who has an irritating tendency to side with the parents but is otherwise pretty chill.

I think there should be a socioanthropological metric that's sort of like redshift/blueshift except for instead reflecting actual vs. apparent wavelength of energy emitted from moving astronomical bodies it would reflect how much people assume you smoke weed vs. actual practice.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 10:58 AM on January 23, 2009

n00bfilter
posted to MetaTalk by ob at 12:45 PM on January 23, 2009

once the computers are shut off

I think I've identified why you don't understand us...
posted to MetaTalk by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:11 PM on January 19, 2009

It's a new world here at Metafilter. This entire thread, and nobody's used the world 'newsfilter' yet!

Here's a clue, Angry About Stuff People -- stop goddamn well posting links to news that you want to argue about to the front page, and we'll all be better off!
posted to MetaTalk by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:42 PM on January 6, 2009

The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For
Southland Tales
Star Trek VI, Special Edition
Battlestar Galactica Season 1
Elk and Buffalo jerky
Some kind of Russian choclates
A gift certificate to Bookmans
posted to MetaTalk by Snyder at 11:33 AM on December 26, 2008

The 19 Top Best Memorable For Mostly Good Reasons Metatalk threads labeled "Metafilter-related" of 2008, in chronological order:

Shadowy Back Alleys
on unanonymity
Waxy vs. the Times
Mefi writers
What is Metafilter?
Is sansgras the new Kayc—OH HI U.N. OWEN
Askme backtagging is done!
Man, there's something wrong with the colors
all hail... [more]
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 1:21 PM on December 23, 2008