A much deserved thank you to everyone who took the time to help me during one of the darkest times in my life four years ago.
posted to MetaTalk by motioncityshakespeare at 1:16 PM on June 13, 2015 (29 comments)

It’s been a busy year on Metafilter, with some big changes over the last twelve months.  Some of the hardest changes were the result of the financial difficulties that came to a head last May with significant staffing cuts.  And the best thing to happen for the site was the tremendous outpouring of generosity from Metafilter’s members in response to that financial crisis, through voluntary funding of Metafilter.  

I want to thank all of you again for your support, and give you an update on where site finances are now, how funding has helped, and how we’re trying to make it easier to support the site in a way that works well for you—including a new alternative to PayPal.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 9:40 AM on June 8, 2015 (220 comments)

They say that cats rule the internet - is there proof that they rule Metafilter? Mefites, show us your pets!
posted to MetaTalk by Deoridhe at 7:18 PM on May 14, 2015 (220 comments)

We just added the ability to follow specific tags in My FanFare which should make it a bit easier to follow movie clubs and favorite topics.
posted to MetaTalk by pb at 11:09 AM on May 4, 2015 (15 comments)

Hi MeFites. After many years of overthinking a plate of beans, I made a thing! I'm pleased to share my PhD dissertation about MetaFilter with you all. A simple question of how we pronounce our own nickname has unfolded into many years of research. This time spent would not have been as enriching or meaningful to me and to the field of sociolinguistics without the support and enthusiasm of my fellow MeFites. I say I made a thing, but really, you made this. Thank you.
posted to MetaTalk by iamkimiam at 10:49 AM on April 3, 2015 (179 comments)

If one is a habitué of AskMe who devotes himself more to satisfying his own curiosity than resolving the problems facing his fellows, one is apt to find, among the ranks of those who are more helpful, that some among us dispose over a sufficiently wide-ranging expertise, or all-encompassing benevolence, that their names recur with a frequency so apparently noticeable that one's thoughts are naturally led to the question of whether the said frequency is merely apparent or is in fact real, a question to be settled not by the comparison of anecdotes and impressions, prey as all such are to the biases afflicting all finite creatures, but by the totting up and comparison of figures, which, though they be in one manner of speaking finite, admit of another view on which Plato's placement of them in the heavens, rather than under the changeable moon with ourselves, quite appropriate—and which makes it fortunate that cortex placed several useful figures in the clouds if not the heavens, so that the curious can indeed determine who the answeringest mefites are, considering the "answeringness" of a mefite to be the ratio of the number of distinct questions posted to "the green" to which the mefite has submitted at least one answer, to the total number of distinct questions posted to "the green" following the first question the said mefite answered, that question marking the mefite's first becoming active on AskMe, and excluding, as apt to be uninformative, those participants of AskMe whose first answer was posted within the last six months.
posted to MetaTalk by kenko at 9:44 PM on March 27, 2015 (181 comments)

The xkcd author mentions an old AskMe in this week's What If?
posted to MetaTalk by Johnny Wallflower at 10:31 PM on March 17, 2015 (57 comments)

So, mathowie, you are still with us for one last night, as a so-called moderator. Interesting. Beguiling, even. Show us then: what are the uncouthnesses, insubordinations and downright fripperies up with which you will not put, while you are still in power?
posted to MetaTalk by MiguelCardoso at 1:57 PM on March 6, 2015 (616 comments)

After 16 years of doing a bit of everything under the sun here, I’m stepping away from the day to day of running MetaFilter and moving into the background. Never fear, I’m leaving it in the best of hands and things are looking good for the future.
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 1:03 PM on March 4, 2015 (946 comments)

Today we're rolling out a new feature that allows you to add a thread to Recent Activity even if you haven't commented in it.
posted to MetaTalk by pb at 1:58 PM on February 3, 2015 (157 comments)

I received an incredibly moving package from my secret quonsar Anitanola this past weekend, and I wanted to share its story here. When I opened the box full of beautiful presents wrapped in ribbon, organza, and silvery tissue paper, it also contained a notecard with “read this last” written on its envelope. I set that aside, and instead read the note on top, which you can see here. It reads:

This is lagniappe! I’m downsizing my stashes and this is a share of the notecards. Maybe you’ll write a note or just pass them on or pitch ‘em! Anita

The package contained an amazing variety of handcrafted and locally-made stationery samples, as well as some charming magnets and art beads. Once I had oohed and ahhed over it all, I obediently opened the sealed envelope last. You can see it here: [front] [back], and here is what it said:

Dear [a fiendish thingy], I’m sorry that this was sent late. Sadly, my mother, Anita Cage, who drew your name in the metafilter “secret santa,” passed away on Monday, Dec 1st, after a long illness. She so appreciated her community of online friends, as she was housebound with considerable mobility issues. Even as she was worsening, however, she was concerned that this reach you, and that I “round out” the package with some locally made artcraft magnets. So I send this as she wished, and on her behalf wish you a fond hello and happy holiday season. [Her son]

I was deeply touched that she had made sending these beautiful gifts such a priority under the circumstances, and I emailed her son immediately to tell him so. In our communications, I asked him if he would like for me to post about Anitanola’s passing on metafilter, and he was relieved that I had offered so that he would not have to figure it out himself. He also sent a link to her obituary (found here), for those of you who wish to read it. She lived a long and inspiring life. Given her extraordinary kindness in helping to make my holiday beautiful even as her health was diminishing, I not only wanted to post to let everyone else know about her passing and her generosity, but I wanted to act on the inspiration of her own note to me. I definitely do NOT want to pitch the lovely notecards she sent, and instead I’d like to offer to send them on to any of you who would like to remember her in a tangible way. You can memail me your address, and that way her stash can wend its way around the world to other mefites in Anitanola’s honor. (This offer is open to anyone who wants one, of course, even if you didn’t know her well— I think she would enjoy the idea of these missives going to as many mefites as possible!) I will also be sending this MeTa post to her son at his request, so if you have any stories about her to share, he will see them here. If any of you want to send a message to him directly, let me know and I will be happy to pass it on. Her passion, humor, and wisdom will be missed.
posted to MetaTalk by a fiendish thingy at 9:04 AM on December 9, 2014 (277 comments)

I've created a script that converts a Metafilter thread into a PDF designed for printing in book form, including title page and contributor index. I used lulu.com to print a few and they look pretty good.
posted to MetaTalk by gwint at 10:30 AM on December 8, 2014 (116 comments)

just wanted to chime in that making a post is HUGELY intimidating here, and I rarely make an effort to do so
posted to MetaTalk by ActingTheGoat at 12:08 PM on November 1, 2014 (68 comments)

The Internet’s First Family by Stephen Thomas at Hazlitt takes a "historical" (recent history that is!) view of MetaFilter. Don't go all gooey when you read it. via Phire's tweet
posted to MetaTalk by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:49 AM on October 31, 2014 (163 comments)

Today we're unveiling a new theme option for MetaFilter. Yes, it's a new design option for MetaFilter for the first time in over a decade, which we are dubbing the "Modern" theme. The new theme is strictly opt-in; no one is being forced to use it and the Classic and Plain-text themes remain as options, so your view of the site won't change unless you want it to. To try out the new theme, select it in your preferences. There is much to explain and show off in this new design and I'll do my best to describe all the thinking that went into the process below.
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 2:23 PM on September 24, 2014 (1251 comments)

I can't login using Lynx. Specifically, I can't get Lynx to even prompt me to accept any cookies from Metafilter, and I think I know why. The problem seems to be with when cookies expire.
posted to MetaTalk by [expletive deleted] at 6:15 PM on August 14, 2014 (91 comments)

To celebrate Metafilter's 15th anniversary this month, I have given myself a MeFi-themed manicure. I thought I would share with you all.
posted to MetaTalk by phunniemee at 7:22 AM on July 8, 2014 (58 comments)

Back in November of 2007 I came across jonson’s fpp about Geoff Manaugh’s blog post on a photographer named Shaun O’Boyle. I really liked the photographs, and sometimes my job allows me to develop a book. So I did. Kind of about that link. I asked Geoff Manaugh to write the intro to the book, and he said yes, and then he surprisingly cited an unrelated Metafilter comment in the essay he submitted.
posted to MetaTalk by Toekneesan at 4:48 PM on October 13, 2010 (17 comments)

Apropos of the horror movie club post below, I would like to suggest a system of having movie clubs/curated movie series, which would appear in a sidebar for upcoming watches. Details below.
posted to MetaTalk by Eyebrows McGee at 9:31 AM on June 8, 2014 (28 comments)

I wanted to thank you all for your generosity in helping MeFi’s future stability and also give some big updates on where we are with the impromptu fundraising efforts over the last couple weeks.
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 3:01 PM on June 2, 2014 (321 comments)

GNFTI, you complete MONSTER. How could you. I trusted you.
posted to MetaTalk by Rhaomi at 12:51 PM on February 24, 2014 (61 comments)

We've had the announcement threads, the planning thread, and the "thank you for the stuff" threads, but I think we all need to take a moment to thank the organizers of the Secret Quonsar swap.
posted to MetaTalk by bondcliff at 1:47 PM on January 23, 2014 (55 comments)

I wrote an article about Jessamyn. You can read it here. Comments and constructive criticism welcome!
posted to MetaTalk by Dr. Wu at 7:21 AM on December 18, 2013 (71 comments)

Has anyone else noticed the weird attention that this AskMe about a small liberal arts college in Iowa has attracted? I get that everyone is welcome to pay their $5 to sign up and say their piece, but it smells a little like astroturf to me.
posted to MetaTalk by Sara C. at 6:27 PM on December 2, 2013 (933 comments)

In response to threads like this in which there are a lot of videos to watch, I wrote a Chrome extension that plays all the YouTube videos linked on a page, one after another in one player.
posted to MetaTalk by ignignokt at 1:55 PM on October 3, 2013 (31 comments)

On July 14, 1999, Stan Chin stormed the internet with the first ever post on MeFi. It was about... cats. (Unrelated: later that same day, a Lampson Transi heavylift crane nicknamed Big Blue crashed through the walls of Miller baseball park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.)

* Oui, it's a few days too early for an anniversary post, but I'm traveling this weekend.
posted to MetaTalk by wensink at 10:21 AM on July 10, 2013 (62 comments)

The recent meta post about weird tags got me playing again with the infodump, and I was finally motivated to create something I've wanted for a while: A clone of the Google Books N-Gram viewer, but for Metafilter: http://mefingram.appspot.com/.
posted to MetaTalk by jjwiseman at 3:42 PM on February 1, 2013 (38 comments)

There is so much music here. Here's the annual torrent of all the songs from Metafilter Music, gathering everything from 2012. There were 558 songs, taking up 3.1 gigabytes. Massive, massive props to all the musicians who shared their music! Check it out, and remember, the song threads never close, so if you find a song you love, please drop by and let the artists know!
posted to MetaTalk by Pronoiac at 8:43 PM on January 21, 2013 (23 comments)

You may already have won! Click on through to meet the winsome winners of the fourth, last, final and concluding week of the Mefites' Choice Awards.
posted to MetaTalk by goodnewsfortheinsane at 2:32 PM on January 3, 2013 (44 comments)

Ten years. Thank you.
posted to MetaTalk by mrbill at 6:20 PM on August 13, 2012 (80 comments)

Welcome to your teenage years, MetaFilter!
posted to MetaTalk by jessamyn at 8:15 AM on July 14, 2012 (195 comments)

It's only 10pm here in Albuquerque, but it's April 1st somewhere, so I'm giving everyone randomized (staff) tags in MetaTalk! Happy April!
posted to MetaTalk by filthy light thief at 9:12 PM on March 31, 2012 (1955 comments)

Hi Everybody! I'm trying to come up with a "MeFi glossary of terms / phrases / behaviors" to include in my PhD dissertation about linguistics and MetaFilter. If you could help me with this, that would be fantastic. I'm looking to create a list of the types of things that say to you (or to others) "Oh, that's so MetaFilter!" or "That sounds like something a MeFite would say." This could be anything from the use of a single character to a phrase or meme, to a way of doing things here. If you can think of something to add, please share it in the comments. Thanks!
posted to MetaTalk by iamkimiam at 11:29 AM on February 29, 2012 (314 comments)

"I wrote a book in 2009 and 2010. It’s getting published this year (2011) sometime. Let me tell you about what it's like writing a print book for a large trade publisher during the long leisurely sunset of print. It was different from what I thought it would be." Jessamyn looks at print books from a writer’s first-person perspective.
posted to MetaTalk by paleyellowwithorange at 2:38 PM on December 3, 2011 (38 comments)

So, four mefites collaborated on a Metafilter-themed panel last month at at the Association of Internet Researchers's 12th annual Internet Research conference, and we thought we'd go ahead and share our presentation notes and such. Come on in!
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 3:55 PM on November 18, 2011 (58 comments)

Mefi Magazine's sexiest mefite entries are now posted and the poll is live. Voting is open to mefites and non-mefites alike. Reading the entries is sexy. Voting is sexy. Poll closes at the end of November 13th.
posted to MetaTalk by mandymanwasregistered at 8:11 AM on November 11, 2011 (63 comments)

How do you all decide which words to link when you make a post? I've noticed that everyone seems to have different styles (linking full sentences, or phrases, or individual words, site names, page titles, and so on). Has anyone put a great deal of thought into it or does everyone just kind of play it by ear?
posted to MetaTalk by empath at 2:27 PM on October 25, 2011 (56 comments)

languagehat has left the building.
posted to MetaTalk by wilful at 1:09 AM on September 15, 2011 (1717 comments)

I came across this interesting bit of information while doing some research on the London based conceptual artist Stephen Willats. According to his wiki, "His 1973 work Meta Filter consisted of pairs of participants seated at a computer, attempting to reach an agreement about the meanings of various images and statements." You can read more about Meta Filter here, and more about Willats at his website here.
posted to MetaTalk by puny human at 11:50 AM on July 3, 2011 (48 comments)

And he came to the place which the MODS had told him of; and Troll built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound his 12 ponies, and laid them on the altar upon the wood.
posted to MetaTalk by troll at 2:49 PM on July 28, 2011 (98 comments)

This post was deleted for the following reason: All my ex-posts lives in Tex-post -- cortex
posted to MetaTalk by dash_slot- at 3:23 PM on July 26, 2011 (371 comments)

There is a certain kind of website that has always brought me great joy…expansive, idiosyncratic, under-the-radar, well-edited, weirdly-colored goldmines of information on something. Help prospect the MeFi archives for goldmines.
posted to MetaTalk by silby at 1:02 PM on July 11, 2011 (58 comments)

So, um, who sent out the mysterious "PLEASE ENJOY" MefiSwap CDs?
posted to MetaTalk by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:09 PM on May 18, 2007 (59 comments)

Closed for Rapture! Everyone Go Home!
posted to MetaTalk by AzraelBrown at 3:09 PM on May 21, 2011 (184 comments)

Did you win a TiVo? Post your winning essay here to compare and contrast.
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 9:23 AM on September 26, 2000 (62 comments)

Kickstarter recently started a "Curated Pages" feature where organizations and sites can show off member projects (here's the Creative Commons one for an example). They recently put me in charge of a "MetaFilter" curated projects page and I know I've seen dozens of mefites fund projects on Kickstarter in the past, but if anyone is currently running a project there, let me know and I'll add you to our page and share the URL when we have a few projects listed.
posted to MetaTalk by mathowie at 4:23 PM on April 4, 2011 (42 comments)

Good news! It's the inaugural episode of the Metafilter Comics Digest podcast! In this episode we cover Ziggy, Garfield, Cathy (RIP!), and a hitting-close-to-home Mary Worth story about internet addiction. The podcast runs just under one hour in length.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 11:30 AM on April 1, 2011 (126 comments)

Hello everyone! I got bored today and wanted to read some witty, short comments, so I used the infodump to sort every short comment on MeFi by its favorites.
posted to MetaTalk by archagon at 12:56 AM on February 17, 2011 (114 comments)

Let's hear it for MetaFilter Music: 5,000+ posts and going strong. I love all of you, from the fine musicians to the devoted commenters and playlisters, to the mods who coded and managed it, to the thousands* of record label execs who've found their next pop star lurking in the shadows here. Here's to another 5,000 posts, then another 5,000, then after that we can re-evaluate. Sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone who's ever contributed, commented, made a playlist, listened to a tune, or even planned to and hasn't gotten around to it.

See within for some fun MeFi Music links, and a little bit of a primer on how to get your feet wet in our warm little musical community!

*Citation needed
posted to MetaTalk by ORthey at 5:45 PM on January 14, 2011 (40 comments)

Here, because I didn't sleep well last night, is a look at the use of the rhetorical device "[verb/adjective/descriptor] much?" on Metafilter. Specifically, on the blue, the grey, and the green.
posted to MetaTalk by cortex at 12:35 PM on December 8, 2010 (92 comments)