Halfway to Our First Million on MetaTalk

January 11, 2008 3:22 AM

Congratulations to tkolar on posting MetaTalk's 500,000th comment! Imagine, a half million assorted snarks, whines, callouts, flameouts, bugfixes, meetup setups, not to mention all the pony requests granted or rejected, the longboat voyages, the real-life detective stories and serious discussion of male and female body parts. What a long Meta trip it's been.

And what has tkolar won for the half-millionth comment? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!

posted by wendell to MetaFilter-related at 3:22 AM (77 comments total)

So now that callout thread (which was really a spinoff of a related callout thread) has two callout threads of its own.
posted by grouse at 3:27 AM on January 11

Now, I wouldn't call this a callout...

It's more of a celebration!

Whoopie.
posted by wendell at 3:31 AM on January 11

JESUS FUCK WHAT IS WITH YOU PEOPLE AND YOUR OBSESSION WITH ROUND NUMBERS? SEE THAT THING WITH THE GLOWING SCREEN AND THE KEYBOARD? IT'S A COMPUTER. IT DOESN'T KNOW FOR SHIT FROM BASE 10.
posted by dersins at 3:36 AM on January 11 [15 favorites]

HAVE YOUR CELEBRATION IN ANOTHER 24,288 COMMENTS YOU FUCKING GUN-JUMPERS!
posted by dersins at 3:38 AM on January 11 [5 favorites]

It's more of a celebration!

Yay. I'm having fun. Look at me having fun.
posted by grouse at 3:39 AM on January 11

I have a minor celebration every time my comment number is prime.
posted by burnmp3s at 3:44 AM on January 11

This is sort of like driving and looking down at your odometer and noticing it's about to roll from 99,999 to 100,000. And suddenly you get really excited, so you keep driving, waiting, watching the tenths-of-a-mile creep from 5...6...7...8...9...100000!

And then you look up so you can remember where you were when this momentous event took place, and there's a huge crash and you discover you've just rear-ended someone in front of Stuckey's.
posted by fandango_matt at 3:46 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

Heheh... pecan log.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 4:01 AM on January 11

If you are looking for the update on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, it has been placed here for your convenience. Those looking for information on David Hasselhof are kindly requested to refrain from opening a new MetaTalk thread, as that information has recently been posted here, here, and here.
posted by Meatbomb at 4:03 AM on January 11

Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 1999.
posted by flabdablet at 4:04 AM on January 11

And on that note, I'm going to work.
posted by By The Grace of God at 4:08 AM on January 11

Reading this post is the least important thing that has ever happened to me.
posted by bingo at 4:24 AM on January 11 [2 favorites]

And what has tkolar won for the half-millionth comment? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!

Oh that's perfect. His profile lists his first name as Tim. He doesn't get nothing...

Timmy gets to drink from the firehose!
posted by juv3nal at 5:15 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

We're through the looking glass, people.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:18 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

ah sweet, an odometer with moving parts!
posted by Wilder at 5:27 AM on January 11

Blazecock: Eat Me!
posted by Jofus at 5:37 AM on January 11 [2 favorites]

dersins: "SEE THAT THING WITH THE GLOWING SCREEN AND THE KEYBOARD? IT'S A COMPUTER. IT DOESN'T KNOW FOR SHIT FROM BASE 10."

It also doesn't know that what you did there was English words or was supposed to seem like yelling. But that didn't stop you from doing it.
posted by Plutor at 5:40 AM on January 11

There's a rumor Comic Sans Day is coming early this year.
posted by empyrean at 5:42 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

I was cleaning out my favorites yesterday and deleted a comment Matt made somewhere back in the beginning of Metatalk. He described it as " A great place to masturbate".
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:44 AM on January 11

That is all.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:48 AM on January 11

I masturbate every time a comment is posted that is an odd number.

Excuse me a moment.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:08 AM on January 11

Oh. Oh. Ohhh, it's even again.

Excuse me a moment.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:21 AM on January 11

you guys knock it off or else
posted by pyramid termite at 6:48 AM on January 11

Miguel? Is that you?
posted by languagehat at 6:50 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

You think that's neat? We're getting pretty damn close to usernumber 65536.
posted by cortex at 6:54 AM on January 11 [2 favorites]

Wow that is rad, cortex. As I posted in AskMe recently, 65536 is both a prime number and a palindrome, plus it means "Madonna" in Kaballah.
posted by Mister_A at 7:04 AM on January 11

Mister_A, how is 65536 a palindrome? It doesn't read the same backwards as forwards.

Now me, I'm a palindrome. 22022, baby.
posted by Quietgal at 7:27 AM on January 11

The comments are in base 9, so it's not the 500000 comment.
posted by null terminated at 7:33 AM on January 11

It doesn't read the same backwards as forwards.
You can use some really rad fuckin' number theory to show it isn't prime, either.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:49 AM on January 11 [4 favorites]

I would also like to point out that φ(2008)=1000, so as far as I'm concerned this whole year is a celebration of powers of 10.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:50 AM on January 11

Quietgal, here are some clues:

As I posted in AskMe recently...
posted by Mister_A at 7:50 AM on January 11

It's also divisible by two and thus not a prime.

65536 is 2^16.

I think Mister_A was just joking.
posted by voidcontext at 7:52 AM on January 11

65537 is a palindrome.
posted by signal at 7:58 AM on January 11

Sure, so are 65793, 66177, 66433, 66625, 66881, ...
posted by Wolfdog at 8:03 AM on January 11

This man is my exact double!
Dammit.
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 8:04 AM on January 11

.
posted by slogger at 8:06 AM on January 11

If you kept track of the Givewell threads, it's no surprise the tkolar has posted 500,000 comments.

Wait, what...?
posted by Dave Faris at 8:20 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

4593 is a paladin.
posted by chrismear at 8:28 AM on January 11

8008135
posted by BeerFilter at 8:33 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

THIS is my first callout?

Now I'm depressed. I think I'll go give deliberately wrong answers in AskMe to cheer myself up.
posted by tkolar at 8:36 AM on January 11

cortex: "You think that's neat? We're getting pretty damn close to usernumber 65536."

I think he means that the next user number after that will require a new sheet in the Excel file that is the backbone of Metafilter.
posted by geekyguy at 8:41 AM on January 11 [3 favorites]

Excel is tied with Joanie Loves Chachi for Worst Program Ever.
posted by Mister_A at 8:51 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

65,536-knuckle shuffle
posted by breezeway at 9:08 AM on January 11

What!?! Does that mean it doesn't translate as Madonna either!?! My world view has been altered.
posted by iamkimiam at 9:44 AM on January 11

Shh. I'm actually Eno. Don't tell anyone.
posted by maudlin at 9:56 AM on January 11

Although in retrospect, I would like to thank Dave Faris for throwing a little snark my way.

It's not a real callout, but I can *pretend*.
posted by tkolar at 10:01 AM on January 11

I went to check out the very first MeTa comment, and it wasn't very sexy.
posted by ORthey at 10:18 AM on January 11

Let's decide now that MetaTalk will end forever at 1,000,000 comments. It will rejuvenate the site and spur resolution of all open issues, sort of like the decision to end Lost after two more seasons.
posted by brain_drain at 10:26 AM on January 11

Yeah, but look what that did to Babylon 5. We'd end up spending comments 1M through 1.25M just trying to look busy.
posted by cortex at 10:48 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

Ha! You seem to think someone besides you actually watched that show.
posted by shmegegge at 10:51 AM on January 11

duckstab is a palindrome.
posted by [@I][:+:][@I] at 10:55 AM on January 11

I get confused by those signs outside McDonald's that say "BILLIONS SERVED." It always makes me feel like billions of people have been made into little burgers and served to an unsuspecting public.

I'm on to them. I'm totally suspecting.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:58 AM on January 11

I think he means that the next user number after that will require a new sheet in the Excel file that is the backbone of Metafilter.

LAWL.
posted by delmoi at 11:08 AM on January 11

I think he means that the next user number after that will require a new sheet in the Excel file that is the backbone of Metafilter.

I can't beileve I just spent 5 minutes scrolling to the bottom of an excel sheet to see if that was accurate...

...moreover, I can't believe that it was.
posted by sjuhawk31 at 11:48 AM on January 11

Ha! You seem to think someone besides you actually watched that show.

I have it on good authority that Bill Mumy owns the box set.
posted by cortex at 12:19 PM on January 11

I have it on good authority that Bill Mumy owns the box set.

Yeah, but he also owns all three of the only three copies of Loozanteen that were ever sold.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:38 PM on January 11

Your "Yeah, but" says no, but your "he also owns all three of the only three copies of Loozanteen that were ever sold." screams YES, YES, YES!
posted by cortex at 12:44 PM on January 11

What a way to have people discover that I have mixed feeling about the later work of Barnes & Barnes.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:48 PM on January 11

It was the dawn of the third age of mankind. The MetaTalk Project was our last, best hope for peace. It... well, let's just say it fell short of expectations.
posted by wendell at 1:14 PM on January 11

For a long time I believed I was #32768, cortex. Dysnumia, thy name is jamjam.
posted by jamjam at 1:20 PM on January 11

Ha!
posted by cortex at 1:24 PM on January 11

I have it on good authority that Bill Mumy owns the box set.

I know at least one other person who owns it. Because I bought it for them.
posted by chrismear at 1:28 PM on January 11

I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up into your lifeless eyes and wave like this. Can you and your associates arrange that for me, Mr. Cortex?

Nothing personal. Vir Cotto was just my favorite character.
posted by wendell at 1:41 PM on January 11

Impudent.
posted by cortex at 1:50 PM on January 11

We are grey. We stand between the blue and the green.
posted by never used baby shoes at 2:18 PM on January 11 [4 favorites]

And what has tkolar won for the half-millionth comment? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!

Well, I'm sure tehloki favorited it.
posted by miss lynnster at 2:47 PM on January 11

*discreetly unsticks dersins' caps lock key*
posted by Tehanu at 3:36 PM on January 11

NOT SO FAST TEHANU!
posted by dersins at 3:43 PM on January 11

Oh, wow. The content of that comment really gives you a feel for the place. It could apply to a whole lot of the threads here.

Wow, I've found that I've totally forgotten if this thread had an original point and am now just waiting to see how much of a dick [new pitchfork target] is going to brand himself.

posted by tkolar at 2:47 AM on January 11

Happy Friday, dersins!
posted by Tehanu at 3:55 PM on January 11

Yeah, if ever a milestone post deserved to be made into a cross-stitch sampler, that one does.
posted by ook at 4:44 PM on January 11

MetaTalk: I'm totally suspecting.
posted by loquacious at 4:47 PM on January 11

Million dollar idea [NOT FOR STEALING]:

xxsamplr.com, a site where you give it a phrase or an image file and it gives you a cross stitch pattern, suitable for ironic real-life craft project time.

It'd also produce a graphical "finished product" image, suitable for use on your blog or for linking into threads for the purpose of epic faux-americana lulz.
posted by cortex at 4:51 PM on January 11

I think that's a GREAT idea, cortex. (With my track record for supporting Big Ideas, that means it's sure to be a total failure.)

You may want to consult with MeFi's Own clango, a.k.a. r.stevens, whose Pixel Socks appear to be approaching a similar inspiration from another direction.
posted by wendell at 5:36 PM on January 11

cortex: I've got good news and bad news. Somebody else is already cashing in on that idea.
posted by GrammarMoses at 6:53 PM on January 11

Oh, my. This is awesome.
posted by Tehanu at 7:14 PM on January 11

Damn, that *is* awesome.
posted by tkolar at 7:45 PM on January 11

Oh man, I love subversive cross stitch. I showed it to my mom and she nearly gave me a "Shut Your Whore Mouth" pillow for Christmas. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:26 AM on January 12