Inline images live!

June 26, 2007 8:51 PM

A spiffy solution to the inline-images ban (if you use Firefox). [more inside]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken to MetaFilter-related at 8:51 PM (79 comments total)

I mentioned this a few days ago, but I still see people bemoaning (perhaps ironically) our long-lost inline images. Of course, I was one of the people militating for the ban, or at least whining about their overuse way back when, but I'm a firm believer in do-what-thou-wilt-as-long-as-it-doesn't-piss-other-people-off-too-much, so I thought I'd bring it front and center. As a like community service.

If you use Firefox, this add-on will take links to images and make them inline, in a configurable-size thumbnail, which you can then set to blow up to a configurable large size if you mouseover them. It has a site blacklist/whitelist, and is nicely configurable. Since installing, I have been enjoying the occasional inline image here at Metafilter, mostly because they have once again become the exceptional rather than the 'Look at this bad photoshop that everybody but me has seen 3700 times already' crapfest.

So, if you like, you can see image links as inline images, and if you don't want to see 'em, you can not see 'em. And Matt doesn't have to do diddly.

Rejoice! Unless you don't use Firefox, in which case, you can suck it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:51 PM on June 26, 2007

(er, exceptional)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:52 PM on June 26, 2007

MetaFilter has been filled with really juvenile crap lately. I am not so sure I really want the images back. However, maybe having images in a few longboat threads might lessen that crap by giving an outlet for that angst. Oh, I am torn.
posted by caddis at 8:57 PM on June 26, 2007

I've been happy with Mondo Image, but it's more choice is always a good thing.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:00 PM on June 26, 2007

I've been happy with Mondo Image, but it's more choice is always a good thing.

See, I wasn't aware of this. I really don't pay enough attention these days.

This thing I linked will allow the same functionality everywhere you want it, rather than just MeFi, which may be a plus, but there you go.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:20 PM on June 26, 2007

Don't miss em. Don't want em. But thanks for thinking of us.
posted by Dave Faris at 9:34 PM on June 26, 2007

Metafilter is so much improved without images.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:40 PM on June 26, 2007

MetaFilter has been filled with really juvenile crap lately. [...] maybe having images in a few longboat threads might lessen that crap by giving an outlet for that angst.

There were indeed quite a few images in the longboat, and I hear they did provide a deangstifying outlet for some, but I'm not aware of longboatism ever spreading to Metafilter proper, so I fail to see your point.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:40 PM on June 26, 2007

>Don't miss em. Don't want em. But thanks for thinking of us.

>Metafilter is so much improved without images.

Oh, I agree. It was better before they got out of hand and is better since.

But if only you (and anyone else who uses either the extension or the greasemonkey script mentioned above) can see them as inline, and everyone else sees a link when people post links, no harm done, I reckon.

but I'm not aware of longboatism ever spreading to Metafilter proper

Images were getting way the fuck out of hand everywhere (but especially here in MeTa) before Matt used the 'security risk' excuse (I'm assuming, but it seems pretty clear) to ban 'em.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:45 PM on June 26, 2007

See, I wasn't aware of this. I really don't pay enough attention these days.

I've never felt the need for a link-to-inline tool anywhere other than MeFi, so I figured other people may feel the same way and/or want to buy locally, so to speak.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:47 PM on June 26, 2007

testing
posted by pyramid termite at 10:18 PM on June 26, 2007

I like it.
posted by Brittanie at 10:25 PM on June 26, 2007

well, i couldn't get it to work ... however, mondo image works just fine
posted by pyramid termite at 10:30 PM on June 26, 2007

I've never felt the need for a link-to-inline tool anywhere other than MeFi

I actually installed it with another site in mind, then realized with surprise as I was reading a MeFi thread hey hoopla! that it would do the same job here, too...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:30 PM on June 26, 2007

well, i couldn't get it to work ... however, mondo image works just fine

Sorry, I forgot one important thing -- after you install, there's a little hurricane-looking icon on your statusbar. Click that to enable/disable globally. You need to enable it after install.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:32 PM on June 26, 2007

Cheers.
posted by kisch mokusch at 10:33 PM on June 26, 2007

I couldn't get it to work, either. Until I read the instructions (yeah, crazy idea, I know). You have to enable it by clicking in the "hurricane" symbol in the right side of the status bar. Odd that something is disabled by default when you install it, but there you go.
posted by dg at 10:34 PM on June 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

Or, you could do what the master already said.
posted by dg at 10:35 PM on June 26, 2007

YES
posted by dhammond at 10:44 PM on June 26, 2007

Sweet. Bring on the elephants.
posted by padraigin at 10:44 PM on June 26, 2007

Have never seen pictures on the front page of the blue before.

It's... strange.
posted by kisch mokusch at 10:44 PM on June 26, 2007

stavrosthewonderchicken: See, I wasn't aware of this.

Man, I thought I had senior moments, but the fact that one of the 14 project votes for Mondo Image is from one stavrosthewonderchicken is just too funny.
posted by mdevore at 11:16 PM on June 26, 2007

the fact that one of the 14 project votes for Mondo Image is from one stavrosthewonderchicken is just too funny.

Dear god, it's getting worse than I thought. Yikes.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:18 PM on June 26, 2007

No, no, this is great. It was really lonely in the Forgetful Cranky Old Man club, and it tickles my granite heart to know that there really are others out there. Though I insist that I am more forgetful, crankier, and older than you, and will fight with cane of choice to the first bruise to protect my high ranking.
posted by mdevore at 11:25 PM on June 26, 2007

Over my ancient wrinkled dead body you will!
posted by dg at 11:57 PM on June 26, 2007

Images were getting way the fuck out of hand everywhere (but especially here in MeTa) before Matt used the 'security risk' excuse (I'm assuming, but it seems pretty clear) to ban 'em.

Oh absolutely stav, I just wanted to nip any "image crapper = longboat viking" accusations in the bud. I'm not aware of any actual, literal vikings going out of their way to crap on MeFi.

Have never seen pictures on the front page of the blue before.

Anyonre remember the Jerry Garcia post?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 3:55 AM on June 27, 2007

"Literal Vikings" should be the name of the superfabulous MeFi indie band, soon to top the internet charts, then subsequently sell out, and eventually hit a Clear Channel station near you... probably around next Tuesday. Check TMZ for rehab details.
posted by taz at 4:21 AM on June 27, 2007 [2 favorites]

I added-on that add-on a long time ago and have been fairly happy with it all this time. The only annoying thing is that sometimes the layout of the page is such that an image will we right-aligned, and upon mouse-over, it goes all spastic and herky-jerky, seizing all over the screen like Dostoyevsky.

Otherwise, it's pret t t t y cool.

And it's really easy to toggle on and off. Yay Firefox. Between Greasemonkey, AdBlock Plus, MeFi Navigator, MeFi Asynchronous Flagging, and MeFi Deleted Posts, my JOY IS UNBOUNDED IN THE BLUEGREYGREEN.
posted by exlotuseater at 4:42 AM on June 27, 2007

Hey stavros, thx for the heads up, it's a really cool add-on. And pyramid termite, thx for the test.
posted by micayetoca at 5:11 AM on June 27, 2007

"Literal Vikings" should be the name of the superfabulous MeFi indie band, soon to top the internet charts, then subsequently sell out, and eventually hit a Clear Channel station near you... probably around next Tuesday. Check TMZ for rehab details.

à propos of nothing: When I was in a band called Festus Rockefeller, we used to do a song called 'Gay Viking Lords'. I don't want to do any more viking-themed music projects after that.
posted by chuckdarwin at 5:11 AM on June 27, 2007

I just saw an image! I am so happy!
posted by ND¢ at 5:12 AM on June 27, 2007

I just tape a random photo to my screen while MeFi-ing.
posted by The Deej at 5:15 AM on June 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hey, thanks for the heads up, stav! I'm keeping Mondo Image for Mefi because I prefer how it displays the images, but this is going to come in very handy on other sites.
posted by LeeJay at 5:45 AM on June 27, 2007

"Literal Vikings" should be the name of the superfabulous MeFi indie band

I don't know about the rest of your sentence, taz, but as for this I totally feel like pulling a cortex and actually doing this.

Who's up for drums?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:56 AM on June 27, 2007

cue drummer jokes
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:56 AM on June 27, 2007

cue "pulling a cortex" jokes
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:56 AM on June 27, 2007

^^^^ is sort of pulling another cortex in itself, how meta
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:57 AM on June 27, 2007

and a delmoi
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:57 AM on June 27, 2007

now we just need a plugin that shows the inline fnords
posted by cortex at 6:09 AM on June 27, 2007

now we just need a plugin that shows the inline"

The inline what, precisely?
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:21 AM on June 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm waiting for a plugin that autogenerates comments from the text of my past comments, a la the late, much-lamented (by me at least) Genefilter.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:29 AM on June 27, 2007

Absolutely. Bring. back. Genefilter. It made me very happy indeed.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:40 AM on June 27, 2007

The inline what, precisely?

Smurfs, probably._fnord
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:50 AM on June 27, 2007

Hey stavros thanks for the heads-up, works great
posted by poppo at 7:43 AM on June 27, 2007

Thanks, mr. wonderchicken - fun new toy!

One oddity - the images that appear alone expand nicely for me when hovering over them. But the thumbnails that are in text vibrate rapidly on expansion - a strobe effect. Is anyone else experiencing this or am I having LSD flashbacks?
posted by madamjujujive at 7:56 AM on June 27, 2007

Doesn't seem to happen for me, madam, if I understand what you mean. All smooth and stretchy-springy.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:04 AM on June 27, 2007

Quite cool - thanks! One has to refresh to get rid of images after using the handy-dandy on/off switch, so there can be some danger in the workplace.
posted by fish tick at 8:38 AM on June 27, 2007

fish tick, that is particularly true with the spate of fetish posting we've had lately!
posted by madamjujujive at 8:42 AM on June 27, 2007

These thumbnails... they vibrate?
posted by The Deej at 9:05 AM on June 27, 2007

They do indeed, The Deej - now I know to some that would be a feature... but I have reached the point in my life where I seek stability. I've messed around with some settings to try to fix. Can't figure it out! Still, the overall doohickey provides a net benefit.
posted by madamjujujive at 10:00 AM on June 27, 2007

Does clicking your middle mouse button stop it, madam?
posted by fish tick at 10:56 AM on June 27, 2007

CoolIris previews does the same with whole web pages which is way handy for skipping thru posts.
posted by i_cola at 10:56 AM on June 27, 2007

fish tick, my middle mouse button is a scroll wheel, but neither that or right or left clicking stabilizes the image. The image is static as a thumbnail, but goes crazy when I hover to expand. Images without text work as they should. Thanks for the idea tho. Maybe I will go post a note on the developer's page and see if they have any thoughts.
posted by madamjujujive at 11:11 AM on June 27, 2007

Very nice... I miss the pictures on my Filter.
posted by Duncan at 12:08 PM on June 27, 2007

I know what long means, and I know what a boat is, but what is this longboating of which you speak? I have been trying to use context clues to figure it out, but I ca-a-an't quite get it.

Vikings were liable to land en masse on your beach in their longboats, issuing therefrom to rape everybody and kill everybody else. This would totally make the people lose their train of thought ergo...
Longboating = derailing

Vikings were so anxious to spread red hair genes to Ireland that they would not leave their oars to crap over the side of the longboats, no, they would crap right in the longboats ergo...
Longboating = crapping in a thread

Viking longboats were long compared to other, shorter boats. Consequently they could hold more Vikings than were strictly speaking necessary. These supernumerary Vikings had nothing original to contribute; they could only rape and kill where quicker-on-the-draw Vikings had already made that biological point -- they were essentially a kind of raping-and-killing me-tooism. If the boats hadn't been so long, these schlubs would have been left at home.
Longboating = comment spam

Viking longboats used to sail on seas of blue, and they were very long. MetaFilter is blue, and images of ceiling cats and photoshopped chicken carcasses used to make threads very long, ergo...
Longboating = something about the much lamented img tag

Help me out.
posted by Methylviolet at 1:06 PM on June 27, 2007 [3 favorites]

In Fourteen Hundred Ninety Two
It Was a Literal Viking, Dammit
posted by cortex at 1:14 PM on June 27, 2007

my boat
is long
posted by exlotuseater at 2:25 PM on June 27, 2007

Longboat Annals
posted by anthill at 2:30 PM on June 27, 2007

Ah.
The cabal does not wish me to know.
I am flattered however that all three mods would take the time to not answer my question.
posted by Methylviolet at 4:05 PM on June 27, 2007

Flattered? Shit, you were supposed to be terrified. You might be longboat material after all.
posted by cortex at 4:07 PM on June 27, 2007

So one of the regular Longboat crew, raedyn, has been silent since November, 2006. Wah. Where is raedyn?
posted by caddis at 4:22 PM on June 27, 2007

I will explain. Longboats precede The Raven. Now will you forget about the whole matter?
posted by mds35 at 4:43 PM on June 27, 2007

Methylviolet: modest (and humble) though I may be, I am still willing to blow my own horn on occasion. Let me know if you still don't understand (although I'm not sure I really do, anyway).
posted by yhbc at 6:18 PM on June 27, 2007

Oh!
That is very interesting.
What a strange interesting place this is.
You of the longboats partied -- or smeared poo on the walls depending on one's perspective -- in a series of (unrelated) threads, rather like the recent Night of No Admins. Which owed much of its charm to ascii pictures, a bittersweet tribute to the img tag from our carefree younger days -- days that some hope to recapture with the img workaround presented in this thread, hence the longboat reference here.
Got it.
Thank you, Yhbc.
posted by Methylviolet at 8:04 PM on June 27, 2007

You're welcome, Methylviolet.

Now, here's your prize. With kittens, no less!

Every damn time I watch that thing I have to shout the "we are your overlo-o-ords!" line at the top of my lungs, and grin like a banshee. Is that so wrong?
posted by yhbc at 8:23 PM on June 27, 2007

What a strange interesting place this is.

When translated to Norse and back to English, "strange interesting place" becomes "screwed up pre-school full of poo-smearing children."

Strue! Look it up.
posted by The Deej at 8:41 PM on June 27, 2007

No one directed methylviolet to 9622v2? Well, I am certainly not going to.
posted by Cranberry at 8:52 PM on June 27, 2007

ORLY?
posted by Eideteker at 10:04 PM on June 27, 2007

The original "longboat" comment appears to be This in response to this in response to this.

All being from MetaTalk post number 9622, which is of course an homage to MetaFilter post number 9622, which was itself a link to a Metafilter parody that used to live on a site called spoonfed.net, except that's one of those searchportal.information.com generic adlink placeholder sites now, and then it got mirrored on a site called kineticmuse.com, except that site is just a little asterix in the middle of the page with no links or anything. And none of it has an archive on the Wayback Machine so it it is lost to the ages. Or probably not, things being what they are, but it's lost enough and the ages don't appear to particularly give a shit.

Anyway, the parody was pretty much like the original 9622 post; a bunch of descriptive statements sketching a caricature of a "typical" MetaFlter post and response thread. And the thread turned into one of those crazy ramblers.

Yea, and YHBC lay in wait many's the long day waiting for that MetaTalk number to come up for the sake of a little fun, nearly 3 years after the original had closed. And thus is it referred unto as 9622v2, and thus was the longboat reference born, and then went on to become a running joke and reference.

In conclusion, the point of the whole Ralph Wiggum character is that Ralph is fucking retarded. Nothing he says means anything.
posted by nanojath at 11:15 PM on June 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

♥
posted by taosbat at 8:56 AM on June 28, 2007

♠
posted by team lowkey at 1:19 PM on June 28, 2007

 
                                                        ☻
 
posted by taosbat at 2:02 PM on June 28, 2007

What happens if I do this? (‮‮( ‭
posted by !Jim at 3:57 PM on June 29, 2007

Holy shit.
posted by cortex at 4:11 PM on June 29, 2007

Didn't that trick used to totally fuck up the rest of the page? 8238;
posted by team lowkey at 4:37 PM on June 29, 2007

8238; Oops. I fail it.
posted by team lowkey at 4:40 PM on June 29, 2007

            \\//
        ⊂(@ @)⊃
—oOO— (_{_})— OOo—
 Kilroy sez Holy Shit!
posted by taosbat at 8:59 PM on June 29, 2007

!Jim you are the !winner.
Why does that work?
(‮(I am so confused‭
posted by Methylviolet at 10:23 PM on June 29, 2007

ʎzzıp 1ǝǝɟ ı
posted by nanojath at 9:40 PM on July 1, 2007