Worship at the feet of MetaSolar!!

May 3, 2007 11:50 AM

This Thread. Got me thinkin as to how the Meta World is powered; Are there things we could do to make the Blue a little bluer? The Green a little greener? The Gray a little… sunnier? I for one would happily slap down another $5, or more, to make this happen.
posted by French Fry to MetaFilter-related at 11:50 AM (60 comments total)

If you use firefox, you can make it look however you like - use grease monkey. Or if you use Opera, you can use User Javascript which is essentially the same thing.
posted by bigmusic at 11:54 AM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

I think metaphor may have been used in this post.
posted by chrismear at 11:56 AM on May 3, 2007

heh. in os x, you can adjust your screen bridhtness under system preferences > displays. or if you have an apple flat screen, try the bottom right side of the screen. email me for paypal account.
posted by phaedon at 11:56 AM on May 3, 2007

I meant more in regard to ecological impact. Sorry if that was unclear;)

I realize that I might have missed discussion of this in my searches, if so apologies on the redundancy.
posted by French Fry at 11:57 AM on May 3, 2007

I am powered by love. E-mail me for paypal account.
posted by ND¢ at 12:04 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

i think that's a great idea, french fry.
posted by phaedon at 12:04 PM on May 3, 2007

Post it to MetaPhor.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:05 PM on May 3, 2007

Color me confused.
posted by knave at 12:07 PM on May 3, 2007

It looks like theplanet.com is the hosting provider for metafilter. But they don't look like they brag about using green energy anywhere so it's unlikely they use it.

So a way for you to use metafilter in a green way?

1) use google search for searching (I'm pretty sure they have a large part of their energy resouces as renewable.)

2) Do not hit refresh over and over again in a thread that's going in insane. Just let it go.

3) Turn down the brightness on your monitor.

4) Turn off your computer and only check metafilter once a week.
posted by bigmusic at 12:07 PM on May 3, 2007

limit the length of your co
posted by Mister_A at 12:13 PM on May 3, 2007 [2 favorites]

ev be id
posted by phaedon at 12:15 PM on May 3, 2007

"Are there things we could do to make the Blue a little bluer? The Green a little greener? The Gray a little… sunnier?"

Yes. Acid is a good start.
posted by klangklangston at 12:23 PM on May 3, 2007 [3 favorites]

I think it would be better if we just all agreed to "if it's pee, let it be, if it's brown, flush it down."
posted by gauchodaspampas at 12:29 PM on May 3, 2007

you must mean "if it's yellow let it mellow"
posted by mattbucher at 12:39 PM on May 3, 2007

Membership fees could also include a $5 deposit. When you flameout, the $5 will be used to purchase a tree to offset the carbon created by your flameout. Language Hat will be in charge of holding all of the money.
posted by drezdn at 12:41 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Use the <small> tag on the text in all your posts to conserve disk space and reduce overall energy consumption.
posted by Gamblor at 12:43 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Harness the hot air and methane.
posted by and hosted from Uranus at 12:47 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Oooooh I saw two new MeTas show up in my RSS reader and I was just sure one of them would be about dog phobias, but alas, this and the awesomeness callout are nothing of the sort.
posted by Rhomboid at 12:52 PM on May 3, 2007

i think whats the posters trying to say is can we try to make metafilter a more socially concious friendly place and less of a breeding ground for overfed spoiled rich yuppies obsessed with thier blogs and ipods
posted by petsounds at 1:08 PM on May 3, 2007

not that i dont love my ipod..
posted by petsounds at 1:08 PM on May 3, 2007

Hmmmm $5 to make the world a better place or $5 to get a sock puppet and fuck around on the blue...hmmmmm...
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 1:12 PM on May 3, 2007

Stop making metatalk posts.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:19 PM on May 3, 2007

Language Hat will be in charge of holding all of the money.

I approve of this idea. You can trust me to use it to buy only the finest books for my collection.
posted by languagehat at 1:20 PM on May 3, 2007

"if it's piss, swing to miss"

A website is a hard thing to make energy-efficient at a central level. Small improvements in personal energy-conscious decisionmaking by readers and mefites has to outstrip by orders of magnitude even the most aggressive approaches Matt could take to ecoproofing the server.

So some sort of front-page banner linking to a simple "hey, here are things you can do to reduce your footprint when reading mefi and the web" page would probably have a much bigger potential impact than trying to find a green-energy service provider for the site.
posted by cortex at 1:21 PM on May 3, 2007

"There is nothing Matt can do to try to save the world. You better just change yourself and stop questioning authority." Sell out. You used to be a rocker man. Now that you are an admin you are a total corporate lap dog. How much did you get for your soul cortex? Thirty pieces of silver?
posted by ND¢ at 1:28 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

"Are there things we could do to make the Blue a little bluer? The Green a little greener? The Gray a little… sunnier?"

Are you from the past, or just from Vermont?
posted by jessamyn at 1:29 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

That should be, "if it's pee, let it be, if it's brown, flush it down."
posted by gauchodaspampas at 1:32 PM on May 3, 2007

How much did you get for your soul cortex?

Gift cards, man.
posted by cortex at 1:33 PM on May 3, 2007

Well that certainly sweetens the pot.

Hey hippies! If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change.

Don't go bothering Mr. Owie.

Make mine for Applebees.
posted by ND¢ at 1:36 PM on May 3, 2007

Spend your $5 on a florescent light bulb to replace the incandescent one in your bathroom. It'll have a greater effect on the environment than sending yet more money to minor Media Mogul Matt to help him pay for his ginormous carbon footprint.
posted by Dave Faris at 1:41 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Are you from the past, or just from Vermont?

In a past life, I was a Vermonter.

A website is a hard thing to make energy-efficient at a central level.

I realize this. And I guess my point is that as a person who at least aspires to live a more ecologically friendly existence it’s a bit of a conundrum being so interested in various electronic media. I also realize that coal power, automobiles etc… do more damage in regards to Co2 than my meta comments; BUT the thread I linked brought up a lot of good points about the true “cost” of Co2 emissions heavy energy. I’m not suggesting that my $5 is going to cover the cost of moving the servers to green power. All I’m saying is that thread combined with a particularly beautiful sunny day, got me thinking “hey maybe metatalk can think of some clever idea’s to help sate my greenie jones”. (or at least make a rash of “solar? You brought her to the party comments”)
Perhaps we could include something in the FAQ or somewhere else quite on the site advising how to be a little more eco friendly with one’s power use. Eh?
posted by French Fry at 1:42 PM on May 3, 2007

with Librarything, etc. maybe metasticizing? something like Windshare is what you're picturing
posted by acro at 1:44 PM on May 3, 2007

It'll have a greater effect on the environment than sending yet more money to minor Media Mogul Matt to help him pay for his ginormous carbon footprint.

Have you seen his car?
posted by ND¢ at 1:46 PM on May 3, 2007

Membership Shares:
Applicants much purchase twenty-five (25) Membership Shares at a cost of $1 per share, for a total price of $25; this will entitle applicants to one (1) vote as a shareholder and is a one-time purchase.

Preference Shares:
Preference Shares cost $100 each and must be purchased in quantities of five (5), with a minimum investment of $500. Preference Shares entitle the member to part-ownership in the Lakewind project and to dividends as may be declared by the Board of Directors. Each member is entitled to one vote in the WindShare Co-operative regardless of number of Preference Shares owned.

All new investments require a total minimum investment of $525.

posted by acro at 1:47 PM on May 3, 2007

When you want to indicate to an internet community that you are laughing out loud, instead of typing that whole phrase out, try a smaller abbreviation, such as "laffng out ld"
posted by Kwine at 1:58 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

One way to make MeFi more eco-friendly would be to recode it under the hood to be as crisp and streamlined as possible, thus reducing bandwidth consumption and energy usage.

A client-side behavioral change could have a similar effect. Just stop visiting.
posted by sciurus at 1:58 PM on May 3, 2007

Would lowering disc access and CPU usage on a box really change its power usage that much?
posted by chrismear at 2:06 PM on May 3, 2007

I'm with Klang. Since the real goal here is to feel good, the solution is obviously drugs.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:23 PM on May 3, 2007

Of course, acid is synthetic and industrial (boo!) so the solution is nice, clean, organic magic mushrooms. (Shade grown!)
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:24 PM on May 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Allegedly, Matt could also change the color palette to make the monitors of the people who refresh and refresh use less energy.
posted by Dave Faris at 2:47 PM on May 3, 2007

For one, Matt should get rid of all the unused accounts. They're just taking up valuable resources.
posted by vacapinta at 2:55 PM on May 3, 2007

Also, quonsar's pants should be made from hemp and the fish inside them should be dolphin-safe and organically-raised on a worker-friendly pantsfish farm.
posted by fandango_matt at 3:05 PM on May 3, 2007

Well, I've been recycling my comments and anecdotes for years. Always happy to do my bit.
posted by Abiezer at 3:31 PM on May 3, 2007

Fish farms are neither ecologically sound nor environmentally stable; pantsfish farms doubly so as the pants required have created a huge demand for second-hand pants. This has left many of the homeless and a large number of Burning Man participants pants-less and has a direct relationship to the subsequent burnt retina pandemic sweeping the West Coast.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:33 PM on May 3, 2007

This was the reason for the Pants Cannon.
posted by fandango_matt at 4:07 PM on May 3, 2007

I have been using the theme with the white backgrounds, because Anil Dash told me it would make me seem more professional. Have I destroyed the planet?
posted by nowonmai at 4:09 PM on May 3, 2007

Hey, don't look at me, I've been doing my part to make the world a greener place.

I mean, I've painted everything in sight with day-glo green spray-paint. It took days, and now the cops are looking for me, but you can't say it isn't greener around here.

Your welcome.
posted by quin at 4:15 PM on May 3, 2007

you're, grrr.
posted by quin at 4:15 PM on May 3, 2007

Greener? I thought French Fry was referring to this post.

Get it? Reefer, referring? Heh. Heh heh.

Oh look! A puppy!
posted by slogger at 4:40 PM on May 3, 2007

Are there things we could do to make the Blue a little bluer? The Green a little greener? The Gray a little… sunnier?

More Hasselhoff
posted by y2karl at 5:16 PM on May 3, 2007

French Fry, are you so high right now?
posted by Secretariat at 5:48 PM on May 3, 2007

Duuuuuude I like that idea. But then, I like any idea that sounds good but totally confuses me.

Rock on!
posted by The Deej at 5:58 PM on May 3, 2007

Oh man, honey. Hee.
posted by cortex at 6:01 PM on May 3, 2007

Metafilter: It's metastasizing.
posted by IndigoRain at 8:31 PM on May 3, 2007

The Gray a little… sunnier?

Won't that just cause more global warming?
posted by yohko at 8:45 PM on May 3, 2007

I am powered by love. E-mail me for paypal account.

You know what else is powered by love?
posted by Many bubbles at 8:47 PM on May 3, 2007

Post it to MetaPhor.

But this is what MeTa is phor!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:49 PM on May 3, 2007

more money to minor Media Mogul Matt

Dave Faris, this may just be the Alliteration of the Month.
posted by Mister_A at 7:16 AM on May 4, 2007

If you are that concerned about the environment, you probably shouldn't have your computer on and be reading Mefi.
posted by dios at 8:28 AM on May 4, 2007

But more seriously, the metafilter server itself probably only uses a small amount of electricity. At most a few killowats, and possibly even less. If it's on a virtual host, who knows?
posted by delmoi at 11:40 AM on May 4, 2007