I can't be the only person who wants this August 9, 2007 7:17 AM Subscribe
Pony request : anonymous bookmarking
This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- goodnewsfortheinsane
You know how sometimes you want to favorite something, but you don't want everyone else to know that you favorited it?
I don't think I've ever wanted this. Examples? Which of your present favorites would you rather nobody knew about?
posted by flabdablet at 7:32 AM on August 9, 2007 [4 favorites]
I don't think I've ever wanted this. Examples? Which of your present favorites would you rather nobody knew about?
posted by flabdablet at 7:32 AM on August 9, 2007 [4 favorites]
Plus, I don't want these to be attached to a single browser.
You could use del.icio.us. You can mark bookmarks as 'do not share' while adding them, and there are addons for IE, Opera and a particularly good one for Firefox.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 7:34 AM on August 9, 2007
You could use del.icio.us. You can mark bookmarks as 'do not share' while adding them, and there are addons for IE, Opera and a particularly good one for Firefox.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 7:34 AM on August 9, 2007
I think this is pretty dang niche, Afroblanco. It really does seem like something better suited to an off-site bookmarking solution. Create a folder called 'secret bookmarks' in your browser—or an alternate, anonymous del.icio.us account—or even a sock named "for anonymous favoriting", though maybe not with that name because (a) a ha! and (b) it'd kind of send the wrong message anyway.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:35 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:35 AM on August 9, 2007
I think the benefits of this are outweighed by the potential loss of favorites. Favorites would become close to karma, rather than this odd amalgam of bookmarking and back-patting. With anonymous bookmarking functionality (beyond del.ico.us, ctrl-b, etc.) you'd be getting added benefits without repaying this with encouragement for the posters/askers.
You can see this dynamic break down in flame-out threads, when everyone favorites the thread to watch the idiocy unveil, but this is largely the exception that proves the rule.
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:36 AM on August 9, 2007
You can see this dynamic break down in flame-out threads, when everyone favorites the thread to watch the idiocy unveil, but this is largely the exception that proves the rule.
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:36 AM on August 9, 2007
Which of your present favorites would you rather nobody knew about?
It happens. I wanted to favorite Pollomacho's hilarious "Who says Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice is not a dashingly handsome *black* man?" comment, just for the example of...well, I'll let you decide what it's an example of. But I knew folks would misinterpret, and if I really wanted to save it I'd create a Mefi Precious Moments file in my bookmarks.
posted by mediareport at 7:39 AM on August 9, 2007
It happens. I wanted to favorite Pollomacho's hilarious "Who says Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice is not a dashingly handsome *black* man?" comment, just for the example of...well, I'll let you decide what it's an example of. But I knew folks would misinterpret, and if I really wanted to save it I'd create a Mefi Precious Moments file in my bookmarks.
posted by mediareport at 7:39 AM on August 9, 2007
Aloysius Bear: You can tag things "do not share" at del.icio.us? I had no idea! Awesome. Thanks. That'll teach me not to look closely at tools I use regularly.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:02 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by crush-onastick at 8:02 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
But I knew folks would misinterpret
I don't get this. Do people really go around scrutinizing and analyzing other people's favorites? I've never given a single thought to the possible interpretations of my favoriting activities; if I favorite something that pretty clearly doesn't conform to my beliefs or whatever, I would assume (if I gave it a thought) that anyone who saw it among my favorites would think "I guess he wanted to save this for some reason." If someone decided to think badly of my favoriting activity, why the hell would I care?
PLATE OF BEANS ALERT!
posted by languagehat at 8:03 AM on August 9, 2007 [4 favorites]
I don't get this. Do people really go around scrutinizing and analyzing other people's favorites? I've never given a single thought to the possible interpretations of my favoriting activities; if I favorite something that pretty clearly doesn't conform to my beliefs or whatever, I would assume (if I gave it a thought) that anyone who saw it among my favorites would think "I guess he wanted to save this for some reason." If someone decided to think badly of my favoriting activity, why the hell would I care?
PLATE OF BEANS ALERT!
posted by languagehat at 8:03 AM on August 9, 2007 [4 favorites]
languagehat - I agree with the sentiment and I was going to favorite your comment until you wrote PLATE OF BEANS ALERT in caps. That's the sort of behavior I don't want to encourage and I believe that my favorites clearly have a massive impact on their recipients. Oh no, now I've written that phrase in caps. I definitely won't be favoriting this post. LOOK AT WHAT YOU MADE ME DO.
posted by allen.spaulding at 8:07 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by allen.spaulding at 8:07 AM on August 9, 2007
That's why I base my favoriting not on the content of the comments or posts, but on an elaborate mathematical algorithm.
Wait, what time is it? I have to go favorite some Stavros post now!
posted by klangklangston at 8:08 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
Wait, what time is it? I have to go favorite some Stavros post now!
posted by klangklangston at 8:08 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
Mmm....beans.
The idea that someone might look at a favorite of mine and think it endorses the sentiment being favorited definitely pops into my head and affects my thinking about what to favorite. Sorry, it just does. Most times, that's a good thing, stopping me from bothering to favorite stuff that made me shake my head and go, "what the fuck?"
posted by mediareport at 8:10 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
The idea that someone might look at a favorite of mine and think it endorses the sentiment being favorited definitely pops into my head and affects my thinking about what to favorite. Sorry, it just does. Most times, that's a good thing, stopping me from bothering to favorite stuff that made me shake my head and go, "what the fuck?"
posted by mediareport at 8:10 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
If someone decided to think badly of my favoriting activity, why the hell would I care?
Personally, I agree; I favorite weird crap all the time, too; my favorites list is a bumpy, deceptive map of strange landmarks:
- things I just plain like for their own sakes
- things I want to get back to in the future
- questions I want to see answers to, as they come in or later when I might wonder the same thing
- things I don't like but want to remember for some reason
- things I neither like nor dislike but want to track for trending purposes (e.g. the Cho-shooting meta-reaction)
But I don't think this is a no-go just because I don't worry about my favoriting; I think it's a legit concern, even if I don't share it. I just don't think it's a common or vital enough concern to justify the work required to make it happen, when there are a lot of at-the-ready off-site solutions that will get folks 95% of the way there already.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:12 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
Personally, I agree; I favorite weird crap all the time, too; my favorites list is a bumpy, deceptive map of strange landmarks:
- things I just plain like for their own sakes
- things I want to get back to in the future
- questions I want to see answers to, as they come in or later when I might wonder the same thing
- things I don't like but want to remember for some reason
- things I neither like nor dislike but want to track for trending purposes (e.g. the Cho-shooting meta-reaction)
But I don't think this is a no-go just because I don't worry about my favoriting; I think it's a legit concern, even if I don't share it. I just don't think it's a common or vital enough concern to justify the work required to make it happen, when there are a lot of at-the-ready off-site solutions that will get folks 95% of the way there already.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:12 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
Perhaps what you're really looking for is for each comment to display how many people flagged it as "fantastic".
posted by allen.spaulding at 9:07 AM on August 9 [1 favorite +] [! 23 flagged as 'Fantastic']
As a pony request I'd like to see that too, with whichever flag got the most flags displayed as the caption (and count).
posted by blue_beetle at 8:21 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by allen.spaulding at 9:07 AM on August 9 [1 favorite +] [! 23 flagged as 'Fantastic']
As a pony request I'd like to see that too, with whichever flag got the most flags displayed as the caption (and count).
posted by blue_beetle at 8:21 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
I know a lot of people have suggested making all favorites non-public. I always thought that seemed like a good idea, and I've always wondered what exactly Matt likes about public favorites. Has he said anywhere? Matt?
(The idea was that public favorites seem to encourage jokey one-liners by commenters looking to build up their numbers. On the other hand, someone pointed out that the favorites have almost eliminated the 'X wins the thread' comments.)
posted by agropyron at 8:22 AM on August 9, 2007
(The idea was that public favorites seem to encourage jokey one-liners by commenters looking to build up their numbers. On the other hand, someone pointed out that the favorites have almost eliminated the 'X wins the thread' comments.)
posted by agropyron at 8:22 AM on August 9, 2007
It might be nice to have some sort of favorite sorting system, so I can have categories. Just to keep the seperated the "funny shit", "worthwhile comments", "crazy stuff jessamyn has linked in metatalk", and others. Favorite flags.
posted by graventy at 8:22 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by graventy at 8:22 AM on August 9, 2007
Do people really go around scrutinizing and analyzing other people's favorites?
Yes, some do. Sad, huh?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:27 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
Yes, some do. Sad, huh?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:27 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
my favorites list is a bumpy, deceptive map of strange landmarks:
- things I just plain like for their own sakes
- things I want to get back to in the future
So is mine, but I find it hard to distinguish between the two. Or rather, by the time I trawl my favourites for the things I wanted to get back to, they're often buried in a huge pile of cheesy one-off jokes I happened to like (I'm easily amused like that), and I tend to get overwhelmed.
Anyone else get this?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:40 AM on August 9, 2007
- things I just plain like for their own sakes
- things I want to get back to in the future
So is mine, but I find it hard to distinguish between the two. Or rather, by the time I trawl my favourites for the things I wanted to get back to, they're often buried in a huge pile of cheesy one-off jokes I happened to like (I'm easily amused like that), and I tend to get overwhelmed.
Anyone else get this?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:40 AM on August 9, 2007
I would be fully behind this proposal. I mostly use favourites to bookmark things whenI am at work that I want to read later when I get home. This is mostly NSFW links, and Youtube stuff and things that are blocked by the cybernanny. I'd hate to think that somebody might form an opinion of me by browsing my MeFi favourites. Like a future employer or somebody.
I would like all favourites to be be made private: firstly to address the subject of this thread and secondly to suppress some of the cheap wisecracks around the place and thirdly ah what the hell nobody really cares what I think.
posted by nowonmai at 8:41 AM on August 9, 2007
I would like all favourites to be be made private: firstly to address the subject of this thread and secondly to suppress some of the cheap wisecracks around the place and thirdly ah what the hell nobody really cares what I think.
posted by nowonmai at 8:41 AM on August 9, 2007
It might be nice to have some sort of favorite sorting system, so I can have categories. Just to keep the seperated the "funny shit", "worthwhile comments", "crazy stuff jessamyn has linked in metatalk", and others. Favorite flags.
Yelp has a limited version of this and I just can't bring myself to like it. I'm pretty content with a unitary model of saying this-is-good-but-im-not-going-to-post-just-to-say-so. Also, I'm pretty fantastic.
posted by allen.spaulding at 8:41 AM on August 9, 2007
Yelp has a limited version of this and I just can't bring myself to like it. I'm pretty content with a unitary model of saying this-is-good-but-im-not-going-to-post-just-to-say-so. Also, I'm pretty fantastic.
posted by allen.spaulding at 8:41 AM on August 9, 2007
Hey! I am shouting into the wind, but I DO NOT WANT YOU TO HEAR ME! STOP LISTENING! AGHHH!!!
posted by prostyle at 8:48 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by prostyle at 8:48 AM on August 9, 2007
Que?
Virginia Tech. There was a storm of posts about Cho, VTech, school shootings, gun violence, etc, in the week following the shooting. Struck me as an interesting case study of a Metafilterian response to a major news event; I pretty much split my time that week between deleting bad posts on the subject and favoriting them. And someone did ask me about it at the time, I think.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:52 AM on August 9, 2007
Virginia Tech. There was a storm of posts about Cho, VTech, school shootings, gun violence, etc, in the week following the shooting. Struck me as an interesting case study of a Metafilterian response to a major news event; I pretty much split my time that week between deleting bad posts on the subject and favoriting them. And someone did ask me about it at the time, I think.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:52 AM on August 9, 2007
Flagged as Chock-Fullo'-Beans.
I favorited languagehat's post, above. What can any of you read into that?
I like being able to look at who favorited my posts and comments, as hell, we might have things in common, and looking through that person's posts and comments might lead me to things that interest me. That, and I'm cyber-stalking 13 of you.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:54 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
I favorited languagehat's post, above. What can any of you read into that?
I like being able to look at who favorited my posts and comments, as hell, we might have things in common, and looking through that person's posts and comments might lead me to things that interest me. That, and I'm cyber-stalking 13 of you.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:54 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
I only favorite four sorts of things
- smoking hot dudes/ladies
- people who I would kill on sight if I ever saw them
- dumb stuff I find amusing
- future podcast material
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:59 AM on August 9, 2007 [4 favorites]
- smoking hot dudes/ladies
- people who I would kill on sight if I ever saw them
- dumb stuff I find amusing
- future podcast material
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:59 AM on August 9, 2007 [4 favorites]
This (meaning categorization of favorites) seems like a job for tags. It could be implemented in parallel with post tagging features. Each favorite could have private tags, and public tags. The public tags would be precisely that, and the private tags would help the user keep track of posts.
The reason I'm in favor of such a possibly asinine idea is that I really really hate forcing FPP's into chronology. Sure, it's useful to see new things, but MeFi is more than a link blog, it's a compendium of great things on the Internet, regardless of age.
If users could tag their favorites, it would go one step closer to a strong site-wide taxonomy that would make all that months-to-years-old goodness more accessible, thus cutting down on double posting, and increasing ease of search.
Everything I just said goes triple for AskMe.
posted by potch at 8:59 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
The reason I'm in favor of such a possibly asinine idea is that I really really hate forcing FPP's into chronology. Sure, it's useful to see new things, but MeFi is more than a link blog, it's a compendium of great things on the Internet, regardless of age.
If users could tag their favorites, it would go one step closer to a strong site-wide taxonomy that would make all that months-to-years-old goodness more accessible, thus cutting down on double posting, and increasing ease of search.
Everything I just said goes triple for AskMe.
posted by potch at 8:59 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
jessamyn-
See? each person breaks down their favorites into their own, personally meaningful, categories.
posted by potch at 9:00 AM on August 9, 2007
See? each person breaks down their favorites into their own, personally meaningful, categories.
posted by potch at 9:00 AM on August 9, 2007
*climbs down off soapbox, folds up easel, and wanders away*
posted by potch at 9:01 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by potch at 9:01 AM on August 9, 2007
I only favorite four sorts of things
- smoking hot dudes/ladies
- people who I would kill on sight if I ever saw them
- dumb stuff I find amusing
- future podcast material
Your Being a librarian, I'm sure you'll appreciate that (minus the podcast thing), this is pretty much how I sort my books at home, too.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:05 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
- smoking hot dudes/ladies
- people who I would kill on sight if I ever saw them
- dumb stuff I find amusing
- future podcast material
Your Being a librarian, I'm sure you'll appreciate that (minus the podcast thing), this is pretty much how I sort my books at home, too.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:05 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
Now's as good of a time as any to make this announcement. For the past three months, I've been systematically analyzing the favorites of various MeFites and feeding them into a neural network of my own design. After the network is acclimated, I'm able to query it to establish a single word that represents that user's personality. The more favorites, the more accurate the word is. Here are some of my preliminary results:
cortex: lodestars
goodnewsfortheinsane: part
languagehat: apprehensiveness
jessamyn: cargos
dios: dogfish
mathowie: faces
quonsar: configuring
Pastabagel: clove
jonmc: yawl
wendell: spine
posted by Plutor at 9:13 AM on August 9, 2007 [2 favorites]
cortex: lodestars
goodnewsfortheinsane: part
languagehat: apprehensiveness
jessamyn: cargos
dios: dogfish
mathowie: faces
quonsar: configuring
Pastabagel: clove
jonmc: yawl
wendell: spine
posted by Plutor at 9:13 AM on August 9, 2007 [2 favorites]
Here's how to make your public Favorites list meaningful only to yourself.
Generate a ridiculously long string of random digits. Forty thousand digits or so. Keep this key handy.
Pick the first available digit in the sequence. Call it n. In every post with n or more comments, add to n a multiple of 10 which is still within the limit of comments (so add 0 or 10 to n if there are less than 20 comments, 0, 10, or 20 if there are less than 30 comments, etc). Call the new number m. Favorite the mth comment. If m is 0, favorite the original post. Retire the current n and pick the next digit in the sequence. This generates the noise -- a long stream of effectively random favorites.
Now for the signal. When there's a genuine favorite to make, look up n. If your genuine favorite is not the potential n - plus - modifier comment, mark it, retire the current n, and continue generating noise with the next post. If your genuine favorite is a potential n - plus - modifier comment, you have a couple options: For example, you could mark an arbitrary second comment in the same post as an n collision flag, but that risks betraying your interests to third parties. More subtly, you could skip the next post with n or more comments, but this requires more logging.
Recovering the signal from the noise in the list of favorites you make is a simple matter of comparing the position of a favorited post (taking into account the collision flag) against the favorites sequence against the key digit in the numeral sequence. If n and the key disagree, you like the comment.
posted by ardgedee at 9:15 AM on August 9, 2007 [4 favorites]
Generate a ridiculously long string of random digits. Forty thousand digits or so. Keep this key handy.
Pick the first available digit in the sequence. Call it n. In every post with n or more comments, add to n a multiple of 10 which is still within the limit of comments (so add 0 or 10 to n if there are less than 20 comments, 0, 10, or 20 if there are less than 30 comments, etc). Call the new number m. Favorite the mth comment. If m is 0, favorite the original post. Retire the current n and pick the next digit in the sequence. This generates the noise -- a long stream of effectively random favorites.
Now for the signal. When there's a genuine favorite to make, look up n. If your genuine favorite is not the potential n - plus - modifier comment, mark it, retire the current n, and continue generating noise with the next post. If your genuine favorite is a potential n - plus - modifier comment, you have a couple options: For example, you could mark an arbitrary second comment in the same post as an n collision flag, but that risks betraying your interests to third parties. More subtly, you could skip the next post with n or more comments, but this requires more logging.
Recovering the signal from the noise in the list of favorites you make is a simple matter of comparing the position of a favorited post (taking into account the collision flag) against the favorites sequence against the key digit in the numeral sequence. If n and the key disagree, you like the comment.
posted by ardgedee at 9:15 AM on August 9, 2007 [4 favorites]
I only favorite four sorts of things
- smoking hot dudes/ladies
- people who I would kill on sight if I ever saw them
*Pages through favorites looking for jessamyn's id*
Whew. That was close: I remain ordinary and safe at meetups.
posted by anotherpanacea at 9:18 AM on August 9, 2007
- smoking hot dudes/ladies
- people who I would kill on sight if I ever saw them
*Pages through favorites looking for jessamyn's id*
Whew. That was close: I remain ordinary and safe at meetups.
posted by anotherpanacea at 9:18 AM on August 9, 2007
I can't belive you even suggested this. Now we all know you have lots to hide.
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:22 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:22 AM on August 9, 2007
I would like a list of everyone who has never favorited me so I can attack the philistines on MetaTalk. Screw you, [name] !
posted by Mister_A at 9:27 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by Mister_A at 9:27 AM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
Ardegee— Jesus Christ, give away my whole system, whydotcha?
posted by klangklangston at 9:34 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by klangklangston at 9:34 AM on August 9, 2007
Safe nothing, anotherpanacea—she's got you in her secret favorites.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:43 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:43 AM on August 9, 2007
What I would love to see is a way of searching your favorites. Even some hook that google could pick up on would be nice, because,
posted by quin at 9:56 AM on August 9, 2007
site:metafilter.com/favorites/15055 "foo"doesn't work.
posted by quin at 9:56 AM on August 9, 2007
So is mine, but I find it hard to distinguish between the two. Or rather, by the time I trawl my favourites for the things I wanted to get back to, they're often buried in a huge pile of cheesy one-off jokes I happened to like (I'm easily amused like that), and I tend to get overwhelmed.
Me too.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:58 AM on August 9, 2007
Me too.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:58 AM on August 9, 2007
I would want anonymous bookmarking too, but having read the comments and the mod's reply... will prolly end up having to use the offsite suggestions. though I can see the benefits because you could still click through to follow the conversation.
posted by infini at 10:32 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by infini at 10:32 AM on August 9, 2007
quin, you could try "site:metafilter.com inurl:favorites/27638 foo" and see what that gets you. It picks up at least the first page of favorites, but it doesn't look it's picking up my second page, anyway.
posted by Godbert at 11:22 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by Godbert at 11:22 AM on August 9, 2007
Until this thread, I never really thought Afroblanco was his real name.
posted by Cranberry at 11:33 AM on August 9, 2007
posted by Cranberry at 11:33 AM on August 9, 2007
An interesting experiment Godbert, and you're right, it doesn't pick up subsequent pages, nor does it pick up favorites from within the last seven days.
So, close, but not quite there yet.
posted by quin at 11:37 AM on August 9, 2007
So, close, but not quite there yet.
posted by quin at 11:37 AM on August 9, 2007
Plutor is serious. Everyone knew that. Everyone but YOU. ::points and laughs::
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:23 PM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:23 PM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
"I only favorite four sorts of things
- smoking hot dudes/ladies"
well I'm a smoking hot dude/lady and you never favorite me.
posted by vronsky at 12:30 PM on August 9, 2007
It's really easiest just to learn not to like things.
posted by Wolfdog at 12:32 PM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by Wolfdog at 12:32 PM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
...and even easier because we can't have nice things anyway.
posted by junkbox at 12:58 PM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by junkbox at 12:58 PM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
I keep my favorites anonymous by donning a Nixon mask before I click on the plus sign. I used to do the whole Dead Presidents thing, but I ruined too many ties. I guess closing your eyes would work as well.
posted by kosem at 1:25 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by kosem at 1:25 PM on August 9, 2007
I'm posting in this thread just to troll for non-anonymous favorites.
posted by kyleg at 1:59 PM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by kyleg at 1:59 PM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
> If your genuine favorite is a potential n - plus - modifier comment, you have a couple options...
blah blah blah. It should have been perfectly obvious that all you have to do is change the n in the sequence. No favorite/key collision. I feel bad now.
posted by ardgedee at 3:50 PM on August 9, 2007
blah blah blah. It should have been perfectly obvious that all you have to do is change the n in the sequence. No favorite/key collision. I feel bad now.
posted by ardgedee at 3:50 PM on August 9, 2007
That's a fairly early cite. I'm not sure if it's the earliest, though. I was wondering about the etiology of that just the other day, and thanks to a little bit of db assistance from pb I may have the definitive answer sometime soon.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:17 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:17 PM on August 9, 2007
(Early preview, though: that is definitely not the first, since this shows up nine days earlier.)
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:19 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:19 PM on August 9, 2007
Que? The thirteen thread (298) is 22/1/01, but your 'nine days later' thread (758) is 13/7/01.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 4:24 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by Aloysius Bear at 4:24 PM on August 9, 2007
My hypothesis has always been that it's a Calvin and Hobbes reference (when Suzie wants people to just be nice to her, she caps it with "And as long as I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony.")
posted by klangklangston at 4:25 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by klangklangston at 4:25 PM on August 9, 2007
rodii's comment here, and thirteen's followup, suggest that 298 is likely to be The Source.
posted by Aloysius Bear at 4:26 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by Aloysius Bear at 4:26 PM on August 9, 2007
Ah. The problem is that I'm innumerate, apparently. Disregard, pending further research.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:31 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:31 PM on August 9, 2007
And, there we go: barring PEBKAC query/search errors, tellurian is dead on. Congrats to thirteen for kicking off that monster of a meme.
Face-saving factoid, though: it's not the first time that someone mentioned a pony in metatalk. Mo Nickels, in a semi-epic "how I make a post" comment, uses the word in the fixed phrase 'dog and pony show'. So, um, there.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:45 PM on August 9, 2007
Face-saving factoid, though: it's not the first time that someone mentioned a pony in metatalk. Mo Nickels, in a semi-epic "how I make a post" comment, uses the word in the fixed phrase 'dog and pony show'. So, um, there.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:45 PM on August 9, 2007
Do people really go around scrutinizing and analyzing other people's favorites?
No, I only scrutinize those who favorite mine and I assume it's because they lust after me.
posted by jonmc at 5:00 PM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
No, I only scrutinize those who favorite mine and I assume it's because they lust after me.
posted by jonmc at 5:00 PM on August 9, 2007 [1 favorite]
tellurian is dead on.
Thanks for the segue. First use of '.' in an obituary thread?
posted by tellurian at 5:02 PM on August 9, 2007
Thanks for the segue. First use of '.' in an obituary thread?
posted by tellurian at 5:02 PM on August 9, 2007
From a quick tag-based scan, it looks like a pretty solid candidate, yeah. I'll see if I can do some db magic to confirm/deny.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:24 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:24 PM on August 9, 2007
I like cake, but right now I'm eating pie. Can I favorite both?
posted by slogger at 7:51 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by slogger at 7:51 PM on August 9, 2007
"- smoking hot dudes/ladies"
Crap.
"- dumb stuff I find amusing"
SCORE!
posted by majick at 8:01 PM on August 9, 2007
Crap.
"- dumb stuff I find amusing"
SCORE!
posted by majick at 8:01 PM on August 9, 2007
I like being able to look at who favorited my posts and comments, as hell, we might have things in common, and looking through that person's posts and comments might lead me to things that interest me
This strikes me as the reason that was given for making them public in the first place, although my memory is not what it once was. Actually, it never was. Anyway, i think that's why mathowie did it that way.
posted by dg at 8:40 PM on August 9, 2007
This strikes me as the reason that was given for making them public in the first place, although my memory is not what it once was. Actually, it never was. Anyway, i think that's why mathowie did it that way.
posted by dg at 8:40 PM on August 9, 2007
People look at others' favorites? Why?
posted by desjardins at 9:12 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by desjardins at 9:12 PM on August 9, 2007
Pile-ons, desjardins, pile-ons. Nothing is left unscrutinized by these seething, frothy hordes.
posted by slogger at 9:59 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by slogger at 9:59 PM on August 9, 2007
(Speaking of ponies, I didn't want to start a new thread, but I noticed that the Youtube inline icons have just been ported over to the plaintext theme. Thanks!)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:28 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:28 PM on August 9, 2007
Well, I don't give a flying fuck what other people favourite, but apparently I'm not normal. Seemingly, some people like to do this "social networking" thing all the kids are talking about these days. Personally, I can only tolerate any of you by pretending that you aren't real people at all and that you only exist as little people-shaped chips inside my computer.
posted by dg at 10:36 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by dg at 10:36 PM on August 9, 2007
(They've been there for a good long while, stav.)
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:05 PM on August 9, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:05 PM on August 9, 2007
(Well, I use the plaintext theme daily at work, and today is the first time I've seen them. They've been for for a long time in the regular theme, of course. Perhaps the corporate-network cache of something finally expired on my end or... *waves hands expressively, shrugs*.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:16 AM on August 10, 2007
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:16 AM on August 10, 2007
Afroblanco, you have officially become the first and only person whose favorites i've ever looked through.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 12:21 AM on August 10, 2007
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 12:21 AM on August 10, 2007
(I hear you, good buddy. It's possible you enabled the YouTube icons at some point for the regular theme at home but not for your cookie-cached plain-theme work settings—this has happened to me, and I too have a weird corporate cache problem now and then besides—and so maybe with recent profile-manipulation do to the Also On feature you finally actually cycled your work cookie, folding in the YouTube opt-in?)
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:12 AM on August 10, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:12 AM on August 10, 2007
(Aye.)
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:18 AM on August 10, 2007
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:18 AM on August 10, 2007
"and I assume it's because they lust after me"
I'll lust after you jon. But first you'll have to put on a wig and glasses and pretend to be Tina Fey, mmkay?
posted by vronsky at 10:14 AM on August 10, 2007
I'll lust after you jon. But first you'll have to put on a wig and glasses and pretend to be Tina Fey, mmkay?
posted by vronsky at 10:14 AM on August 10, 2007
[btw, celebfilter: i used to work with the second city and we got to hire tina fey for one of our projects] does that count? ;p
posted by infini at 10:19 AM on August 10, 2007
posted by infini at 10:19 AM on August 10, 2007
Cool infini!
(I'm giving up all my mefi crushes and concentrating on my Tina Fey obsession from now on.)
posted by vronsky at 10:24 AM on August 10, 2007
(I'm giving up all my mefi crushes and concentrating on my Tina Fey obsession from now on.)
posted by vronsky at 10:24 AM on August 10, 2007
I'm not sure she's into dudes, vronsky. After all, she's...A LITTLE FEY.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:35 AM on August 10, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:35 AM on August 10, 2007
Miles upthread:
Que?
Virginia Tech.
Thank you, and duh me. For a moment there I thought Margaret Cho got shot or something.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:03 AM on August 10, 2007
Que?
Virginia Tech.
Thank you, and duh me. For a moment there I thought Margaret Cho got shot or something.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:03 AM on August 10, 2007
. in the obit thread, quickie preview analysis:
tellurian's Kaycee thread citation does look like the first use, indeed. Didn't really pick up right away, though—the next one isn't till almost four months later, in September, 2001. Then two more in October, both from msacheson, as is another from November.
And then nothing for almost a year, until ZachsMind drops one in September 02. There's a smattering throughout the rest of the year, maybe a half dozen, but it doesn't seem to really come into currency until the Columbia thread from Feb 1, 2003. After that, it's a rare month that goes by without a couple (or several) threads containing a solitary dot.
Note: the above is kind of presumputous in that it's based on threads that contain a comment consisting solely of a single "." character. Threads that do not contain such a comment but do contain comments that use a dot plus other content, or multiple dots, or potentially even differing whitespace (not sure what the query catches vs. omits) would be, if they exist, missed by my analysis above.
Another thing worth doing would be to check for Metatalk threads asking about the dot—I'm guessing that, if the caveat above ends up being toothless and the history as defined is more or less accurate, that'd show up some time in early 2003.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:25 PM on August 10, 2007 [1 favorite]
tellurian's Kaycee thread citation does look like the first use, indeed. Didn't really pick up right away, though—the next one isn't till almost four months later, in September, 2001. Then two more in October, both from msacheson, as is another from November.
And then nothing for almost a year, until ZachsMind drops one in September 02. There's a smattering throughout the rest of the year, maybe a half dozen, but it doesn't seem to really come into currency until the Columbia thread from Feb 1, 2003. After that, it's a rare month that goes by without a couple (or several) threads containing a solitary dot.
Note: the above is kind of presumputous in that it's based on threads that contain a comment consisting solely of a single "." character. Threads that do not contain such a comment but do contain comments that use a dot plus other content, or multiple dots, or potentially even differing whitespace (not sure what the query catches vs. omits) would be, if they exist, missed by my analysis above.
Another thing worth doing would be to check for Metatalk threads asking about the dot—I'm guessing that, if the caveat above ends up being toothless and the history as defined is more or less accurate, that'd show up some time in early 2003.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:25 PM on August 10, 2007 [1 favorite]
Please, do not enable anonymous favoriting. Then all I would ever do is favorite comments, because nobody would be able to notice that I wasn't doing anything else. SAVE ME FROM MYSELF!
posted by tehloki at 5:11 PM on August 10, 2007
posted by tehloki at 5:11 PM on August 10, 2007
it doesn't seem to really come into currency until the Columbia thread from Feb 1, 2003. After that, it's a rare month that goes by without a couple (or several) threads containing a solitary dot.
Well, the first time I noticed it happening in any massive way was when my friend Rick died after the Bali bombing. That was October 24, 2002.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:23 PM on August 10, 2007
Well, the first time I noticed it happening in any massive way was when my friend Rick died after the Bali bombing. That was October 24, 2002.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:23 PM on August 10, 2007
Interesting. And via a link from that, a great big pile of "-" in this thread from Sept. 12, 2001. (Also, this little gem. Classy.)
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:57 PM on August 10, 2007
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:57 PM on August 10, 2007
yah boo sux. For whatever reason I have indentified two MetaFilter memes. Suffer in your jocks.
posted by tellurian at 7:22 AM on August 11, 2007
posted by tellurian at 7:22 AM on August 11, 2007
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by allen.spaulding at 7:23 AM on August 9, 2007 [10 favorites]