Forgotten?

January 12, 2008 6:21 AM

The shadowy back alleys of MetaFilter...

I've scoured the last 1000 MetaFilter-related MeTa posts and my sleep-deprived brains to come up with a list of pages and files that aren't officially linked anywhere, or are relatively unknown. Find here the remnant .gifs of one-off tweaks and limited-time promotions, ideas and directions abandoned or undeveloped, and there's also a couple of interesting files hosted at MetaFiltr. I feel like there's a lot missing from the list (ie I'm pretty sure BRAND_NEW_DAY.gif is hosted somewhere on metafilter.com) so feel free to add anything I missed. Here goes:

Travel
LoFi
100 random MeFite websites
Google Earth KML File (Copy link to Google Earth)
MetaFilter Taglines [MetaFiltr]
Profile Photos - What do MeFites look like?
Social Explorer - Where else do MeFites hang out?
Recent Twitters - Say what?
Recent Flickr Uploads - Say cheese.
Recent LastFM Tracks - Sounds good.
MarkovFilter - Come again?
User Word Clouds
Shop MeFi - $$
Metatalk thread closure status by month and per thread. [MetaFiltr]
Flag Distribution [MetaFiltr]
Threads containing at least one comment consisting solely of a single "." character - [MetaFiltr]
Kottke header and footer
Give the gift of MetaFilter
Your very own Gold Star (image)
Capital and Stratification within Virtual Community: A Case Study of Metafilter.com by Quartermass
The Best Posts of August, 2006 (3/day)
Banned For Life (image)
Donate to MeFi
The MetaFilter Scholarship Fund (2001)
The Jabber Server (defunct)
MetaFilter's Style Sheet (um, and another one?)
There is no spoon...
Banished won it (image)
dios vs. rothko fundraiser
Katrina Relief corner link (image)
TextAds are phased out.

posted by carsonb to MetaFilter-Related at 6:21 AM (125 comments total)

Dont you have a life? Just wondering
posted by wheelieman at 6:34 AM on January 12, 2008 [6 favorites]

carsonb, that is so cool! You are my new (life-lacking) hero!!!

But I'm disturbed to see my word cloud so prominently features percoset, chucklehead, and quin.
posted by The Deej at 6:48 AM on January 12, 2008

Wow, that must have taken ages. But instead of snarking I will thank you cuz that's a rather useful list!
posted by ClarissaWAM at 6:48 AM on January 12, 2008

What post got flagged 526 times?
posted by shothotbot at 6:49 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

brilliant, thanks!
posted by Wilder at 6:55 AM on January 12, 2008

Wow, who knew there was so much stuff here. Cool.
posted by octothorpe at 6:56 AM on January 12, 2008

Flagged as fantastic!
posted by The Deej at 6:59 AM on January 12, 2008

Nice!
posted by cashman at 7:03 AM on January 12, 2008

Asshole. Secrets are secret for a reason. Why don't you just tell everyone where we hid Miguel's body, while you're at it?
posted by ColdChef at 7:05 AM on January 12, 2008 [5 favorites]

Miguel's dead? Anyone have an office chair I can borrow?
posted by dabitch at 7:15 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

*gives carsonb big noogies*
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:18 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

He has exposed the precious things of the Cabal! There can be no mercy. Dispatch the flying monkeys, Igor.
posted by Abiezer at 7:19 AM on January 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

What post got flagged 526 times?

I think it was the one that announced the Ajaxy flagging system.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:38 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Carsonb, I have added you as a contact. There is no higher privilege.

By which I mean: Carsonb, I have added you as a contact. There are several thousand higher privileges.
posted by Jofus at 7:41 AM on January 12, 2008

There's a surprising number of people living in Kazakhstan.

Methinks many of these have forgotten the negative sign on their longitude, especially since they list their home as Maryland or the like.
posted by dmd at 7:48 AM on January 12, 2008

There's actually a Maryland, Kazakhstan. Funky little town. Good music scene. No decent sushi, though.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:50 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

I think they are the converts the Reverend Meatbomb made on his last Society for Metafilterian Knowledge mission in those parts.
posted by Abiezer at 7:52 AM on January 12, 2008

I was sure that cortex had written this post, but it was another one of you CVCCVC(c) guys. Nice job carsonb.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:53 AM on January 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

Let us not forget "We have cameras."
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:01 AM on January 12, 2008

Only flagged 526 times? We can do better.
posted by Green With You at 8:07 AM on January 12, 2008

But I'm disturbed to see my word cloud so prominently features percoset, chucklehead, and quin.

It's percoCet, you amateur!

And cortex has a soft spot for it. He'd be willing to look the other way while you crack wise in AskMe and let you astroturf until the cows come home, all for a few sweet sweet percocets.
posted by Devils Slide at 8:24 AM on January 12, 2008

There's actually a Maryland, Kazakhstan. Funky little town. Good music scene. No decent sushi, though.

you watch your mouth boy!
posted by sushiwiththejury at 8:30 AM on January 12, 2008

It's percoCet, you amateur!

See what it does to you.
posted by The Deej at 8:32 AM on January 12, 2008

CVCCVC[V][V|C]
cortex validates
mathowie validates
jessamyn validates


COINCIDENCE!!!!!!????!?@@@!?
posted by dmd at 8:36 AM on January 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

I don't know about Miguel's body, but I do know that there's a fish and a pair of pants lying around the longboat. I'm not touching it.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:37 AM on January 12, 2008

Dont you have a life?

Glass houses....

Can someone explain the CVCCVCetc reference?

Also, this is cool, thanks. So many developments along the edges. MetaFractal.
posted by Miko at 9:11 AM on January 12, 2008

This is v. cool. Thanks, carsonb.
posted by dersins at 9:14 AM on January 12, 2008

wow, you spilled the plate of beans. thanks.
posted by your mom at 9:16 AM on January 12, 2008

C = consonant
V = vowel
me = a little noticing of such things
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:18 AM on January 12, 2008 [3 favorites]

whatever. at least I don't have a FAT LIBRARIAN BUTT.
posted by your mom at 9:21 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is great! We should throw this all on the wiki somewhere.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:22 AM on January 12, 2008

whatever. at least I don't have a FAT LIBRARIAN BUTT.

You sound like someone who left recently.
posted by Devils Slide at 9:26 AM on January 12, 2008

whatever. at least I don't have a FAT LIBRARIAN BUTT.

Awesomely, neither do I!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:28 AM on January 12, 2008 [10 favorites]

Dont you have a life? Just wondering

If it weren't for people who had no life, THERE WOULD BE NO INTERNET.

And as we all know, people before the internet were stupid and didn't know anything. I hear that bumping into walls was a problem.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:36 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

whatever. at least I don't have a FAT LIBRARIAN BUTT.
posted by your mom at 12:21 PM on January 12 [+] [!]

your mom has a fat librarian butt.

(yeah, I had to go there)
posted by Afroblanco at 9:40 AM on January 12, 2008

Dont you have a life?

I made the mistake of taking the last cup of coffee from the cafe before closing the store last night at 1am Pacific. It was only after shaking uncontrollably for 2 hours in bed that I realized I wanted all these damn links in one place.
posted by carsonb at 9:47 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Nice list.

Where did you get the flag counts from? I didn't think that information was available...
posted by tkolar at 9:54 AM on January 12, 2008

ALSO, one huge missing spot from this list are the various April Fools' jokes. I was very, very sad to find that most of them are not where they used to be, especially the fake AskMe front page. That thing is a lost work of art.
posted by carsonb at 9:55 AM on January 12, 2008

Where did you get the flag counts from? I didn't think that information was available...

[realizes that carsonb didn't actually create the content]

Where did someone get the flag counts from?
posted by tkolar at 9:55 AM on January 12, 2008

Where did you get the flag counts from?

That's one of the MetaFilr pages. When cortex got his admin privileges he also got direct access to the db. He forgot to protect the MetaFiltr.com/research/ directory, so it all hangs out.
posted by carsonb at 9:57 AM on January 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

All the dorky stats stuff on mefr is stuff that I've done since I got Seekrit Access to the db.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:58 AM on January 12, 2008

He forgot to protect

Naw, it's intentional. There's one directory in there that I've actually blocked, but the rest is for public consumption, if not particularly well-promoted.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:59 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is the unstyled April 1 page from last year. I'll have to dig in my email and see if I can find one that calls the stylesheet that is already on the server. If not, I can create one.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:03 AM on January 12, 2008 [6 favorites]

Any chance of turning Travel into a non-shadowy back alley?
posted by vacapinta at 10:06 AM on January 12, 2008

Well done, carsonb. An amazing feat of metafilter obsessiveness.
posted by Dave Faris at 10:15 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Any chance of turning Travel into a non-shadowy back alley?

Now you did it. The Cabal may have heard that. Nice knowing you.
posted by The Deej at 10:20 AM on January 12, 2008

It would be cool see all of this on the Wiki somewhere.

[...]I got Seekrit Access to the db.

Oh sure, rub it in.
posted by tkolar at 10:25 AM on January 12, 2008

♥♥jessamyn♥♥
posted by carsonb at 10:27 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

You forgot Poland Bingo.
posted by Plutor at 10:28 AM on January 12, 2008

Could someone explain all this to me? Please use simple words.
posted by DenOfSizer at 10:31 AM on January 12, 2008

I always liked the MIT script thing. Wasn't that one of the April Fool's Day stunts?
posted by caddis at 10:34 AM on January 12, 2008

I don't think I had noticed the "Popular Tags" category on the April Foods AskMe. The unstyled page shows those off better!
posted by occhiblu at 10:35 AM on January 12, 2008

I got Seekrit Access to the db.

Which is now neither secret nor sekrit.

♥♥jessamyn♥♥

what does that even mean, is that like getting hugged with cricket bats?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 10:38 AM on January 12, 2008

It's on the wiki now.

what does [♥♥jessamyn♥♥] even mean?

It's love wrapped in an html hug, for the AskMe April Fools' joke.
posted by carsonb at 10:54 AM on January 12, 2008

The Star! The Star! IT IS MINE AGAIN! BWAHAHAHA!!!

Only 119 more and I can play Metafilter as Luigi.
posted by Effigy2000 at 11:01 AM on January 12, 2008 [5 favorites]

I like FAT LIBRARIAN BUTT and I cannot lie
All you other Mefites can't deny
That when a librarian walks in with an itty bitty waist
And a round thing in your face
You get sprung.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:02 AM on January 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

Note that I was neutral on the gender of the librarian.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:03 AM on January 12, 2008

Oh, I don't think you're neutral, Astro Zombie...
posted by dersins at 11:19 AM on January 12, 2008

WhatIsItFilter: help me ID this weird thing I found. It's flat, maybe 2.5 by 3.5 inches but made out of some thin, flexible material. Series of 16 number in groups of four, and somebody's name -- I guess? -- carved into it. There's a creepy black stripe on the back, and some indecipherable writing. I asked all my friends, and we're totally freaked out. Google returns nothing. Help!

What is this supossed to be, anyway?
posted by Memo at 11:31 AM on January 12, 2008

Nevermind, too early in the afternoon.
posted by Memo at 11:31 AM on January 12, 2008

I still want to respond to about half of those questions on the April 1 page.
posted by disclaimer at 11:36 AM on January 12, 2008

...and apparently, I AM NOT ALONE.
posted by disclaimer at 11:36 AM on January 12, 2008

Effigy2000: "The Star! The Star! IT IS MINE AGAIN! BWAHAHAHA!!!

Only 119 more and I can play Metafilter as Luigi."

Just put in a cheatcode, worked for me.

(aside: The MarkovFilter app keeps reminding me that I don't comment too often. My lurking habits still prevail, I guess.)
posted by flatluigi at 11:36 AM on January 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

The MetaGram™ Official Meetup Shoutout Card, can be downloaded here. (Adobe Acrobat PDF)

Be Safe and Smart on MetaFilter! (MetaTalk thread)
Maothowie/Brand New Day (origin)
Jesus Cortex
MetaFilter Flickr group
posted by fandango_matt at 11:44 AM on January 12, 2008

cool - good idea and thanks for doing the legwork.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:59 AM on January 12, 2008

Be Safe and Smart on MetaFilter!

This is one of the best things ever.
posted by davey_darling at 12:24 PM on January 12, 2008 [3 favorites]

The Metafilter Redesign Contest was sweet.
posted by sushiwiththejury at 12:28 PM on January 12, 2008

Good one, sushiwiththejury; added to the list
posted by carsonb at 12:36 PM on January 12, 2008

scripts.mefi and styles.mefi give you some nice Hooray, you've installed Apache! pages. This is probably because matt never thought to drop a little redirect in there more than anything else, but still.
posted by Arturus at 12:37 PM on January 12, 2008

That is the best thing ever, you ostentatious nincompoop!
posted by languagehat at 12:58 PM on January 12, 2008

did anyone mention the deleted thread link?
posted by localhuman at 1:12 PM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Yes, don't forget the deleted thread blog. :D
posted by puke & cry at 1:19 PM on January 12, 2008

And yes, the post that got flagged 526 times was the metatalk thread where mattyboy introduced the asynchronous flagging widget.
posted by puke & cry at 1:20 PM on January 12, 2008

The AskMe followup/roundup of resolved questions was fun. Can't find the link though.
posted by Rumple at 1:27 PM on January 12, 2008

Maybe this is mentioned somewhere above and I missed it, but I think this is really cool:

Metafilter Contribution Index

Scroll down to calculate your own contribution index.
posted by jayder at 1:30 PM on January 12, 2008

I thought the 526 favorite comment would be this one, but no.
posted by Rumple at 1:32 PM on January 12, 2008

He has exposed the precious things of the Cabal! There can be no mercy. Dispatch the flying monkeys, Igor.

I don't remember any of these things at the cabal meetings... or anyone named Igor.

Crap.

I've said to much.
posted by eyeballkid at 1:39 PM on January 12, 2008

It's too bad the pixies got deleted. Although it's pretty amusing this way too.
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:50 PM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Thanks. I had a hell of a time finding that profile photos page again after it had scrolled off the page. Google was no help, but it turned out I was able to find it on Matt's profile. (I would have found it quickly if I'd tried there first)
posted by delmoi at 1:53 PM on January 12, 2008

It's too bad the pixies got deleted.

they just got repurposed.

[hint: reload]
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:02 PM on January 12, 2008

Ha. Awesome.
posted by puke & cry at 2:10 PM on January 12, 2008

That is so wrong, jess.
posted by yhbc at 2:10 PM on January 12, 2008

I mean, the poor chicken. And to have all five of them flying around the page like that!
posted by yhbc at 2:11 PM on January 12, 2008

chickens can't fly, yhbc.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:13 PM on January 12, 2008

Actually, I think the flying sirens should now be on every metatalk thread.
posted by puke & cry at 2:27 PM on January 12, 2008

chickens can't fly, yhbc.

If you don't know the answer, don't answer the question. It's that simple.
posted by nanojath at 2:38 PM on January 12, 2008

This sort of aggregation-of-stuff was kind of what I was thinking of for metafiltr when I started it, but I'm starting to think more and more that we should just have a stuff.metafilter.com front page that tracks all of it as a sort of Portal To Fun.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:40 PM on January 12, 2008

The Metafilter Redesign Contest was sweet.

I wish there had been a more thorough actual redesign as a result, but oh well.
posted by middleclasstool at 3:00 PM on January 12, 2008

cortex says: we should just have a stuff.metafilter.com front page that tracks all of it as a sort of Portal To Fun.

I think the wiki serves this purpose well; it's accessible to everyone and has already gathered an excellent amount of MeFi ephemera. Sometimes I feel like a broken record in MeTa, but read the wiki! read the archives!
posted by carsonb at 3:06 PM on January 12, 2008

METAFILTER PANCAKE SYZZZRUP (via)
posted by eddydamascene at 3:31 PM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

cortex says: we should just have a stuff.metafilter.com front page that tracks all of it as a sort of Portal To Fun.

I think the wiki serves this purpose well; it's accessible to everyone and has already gathered an excellent amount of MeFi ephemera. Sometimes I feel like a broken record in MeTa, but read the wiki! read the archives!
posted by carsonb

Wait. Did I just enter some weird admin/member flip-vortex?
posted by The Deej at 3:54 PM on January 12, 2008

Maybe carsonb can move to Mali and be our antipodal mod.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:03 PM on January 12, 2008

carsonb writes...
I think the wiki serves this purpose well; it's accessible to everyone and has already gathered an excellent amount of MeFi ephemera.

None of which is apparently organized or reachable through the main page of the wiki other than through "The Index".

Not to mention that the wiki itself can be hard to find since there is no link to it from the Metafilter Front Page or from AskMe.

Given the current state of the wiki, tossing this stuff in there is only moving it a very small step above "Forgotten".

read the wiki! read the archives!

Is this a "Save the cheerleader, save the world!" sort of thing?
posted by tkolar at 4:59 PM on January 12, 2008

And there's the thread where they broke through the html filter.
posted by jacalata at 5:20 PM on January 12, 2008 [2 favorites]

None of which is apparently organized or reachable through the main page of the wiki other than through "The Index".

Yeah the wiki flat structuring isn't ideal, but the fact that anyone can mess with it means that it's much easier to get things up quickly and easily. Maybe we should start with some categories. Oh hey look, I just did! There are a few other ways to find stuff on the wiki.

- the search box on the wiki actually does search the site
- googling
- the recent changes page
- you could follow me or cortex around
- you could login and create a watch list
- you could click on one of these Special Pages

I do get your point tkolar, but I think a better idea would be more visibility for the wiki here at MeFi and also maybe some better tools for grouping and finding stuff on the wiki generally. It's a great way for enthusiastic members to help out by putting stuff together in neat new ways and keeps modtime free for doing moddish stuff.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 6:01 PM on January 12, 2008

I miss kittens and pancakes........
posted by bjgeiger at 6:20 PM on January 12, 2008

thanks for the link to the Gift an Account page! I've just gifted two friends with accounts and one's already signed on, yay :)
posted by divabat at 6:25 PM on January 12, 2008

I had the bare majority of these bookmarked, but now I can delete all those and just keep this one. Nice compiling.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:42 PM on January 12, 2008

Ooh ooh! Don't forget about Mr. Blag's Cavalcade of Whimsy!
posted by slogger at 6:44 PM on January 12, 2008

jacalata: "And there's the thread where they broke through the html filter."

That's... epic. Very epic.
posted by flatluigi at 7:34 PM on January 12, 2008

Wow, the StalkerSocial Explorer is pretty neat.

Is the recent Flickr uploads thing broken, or has nobody really uploaded anything in the last day?
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:53 PM on January 12, 2008

Flickr's been having an rough day today.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:10 PM on January 12, 2008

Maybe carsonb can move to Mali and be our antipodal mod.

Yes! I do!
posted by carsonb at 8:59 PM on January 12, 2008

You do can?
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:23 PM on January 12, 2008

A coupla things I've enjoyed through the MeFi years. And let's pour a 40 on the curb for our late, lamented mascot, Oolong.
posted by Lynsey at 9:41 PM on January 12, 2008

I'm not sure what it all means... but I think I like.
posted by ilovemytoaster at 10:09 PM on January 12, 2008

Why a mod in Mali? You guys should be benevolent, not Malicious.
posted by wendell at 10:18 PM on January 12, 2008

For the first time, after years and years of looking at pictures of Oolong, I wondered if the pancakes were cold or warm.

Well... anyone know the answer?
posted by Kattullus at 12:25 AM on January 13, 2008

You do can?

Sorry, jessamyn's off-hand remark excited me so; I lost the handle a bit and got kinda mixed up as to what was jokingly proposed. The thought of bumbling 'b administering antipodal moderation of MetaFilter is perhaps one of a few Great Potential Boons that would rush me west far enough to be East again.
posted by carsonb at 1:17 AM on January 13, 2008

You do can?

Hadoken!
posted by blacklite at 3:47 AM on January 13, 2008

- you could follow me or cortex around

*Stalks cortex*
*Gets eaten by pet bear*
posted by ersatz at 4:57 AM on January 13, 2008

I lost the handle a bit and got kinda mixed up as to what was jokingly proposed.

I'll save my MeTa proposal for when you do something even awesomer. But now I already have your answer!

wendell, if not Mali, where, antipodally speaking?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:58 AM on January 13, 2008

Hey, WTF? Am I chopped liver?!? HELLO, it's me, on the other side of the fucking planet!!
posted by Meatbomb at 8:31 AM on January 13, 2008

Meatbomb, you are already our mod in the astral plane.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:40 AM on January 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

I don't know. If any new mods are going to be brought in, antipodally or astrally, shouldn't they demonstrate a new skill set? Like, say, dancing?
posted by maudlin at 8:47 AM on January 13, 2008

Funny you should mention mods dancing; I found this the other night while 'researching'.
posted by carsonb at 9:15 AM on January 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

Ha! That video should be side-barred.
posted by localhuman at 9:51 AM on January 13, 2008

(I'm about 83% sure mathowie is not the Daily Dancer. MeTa.)
posted by carsonb at 9:56 AM on January 13, 2008

"We're sorry, but this video may not be available."
CENSORSHIP!
posted by mumkin at 10:28 AM on January 13, 2008

"whatever. at least I don't have a FAT LIBRARIAN BUTT."

jessamyn: "Awesomely, neither do I!"

She's right. She doesn't.
posted by terrapin at 10:41 AM on January 13, 2008

It isn't Matt. He has a much nicer crib than that.
posted by Dave Faris at 11:50 AM on January 13, 2008 [1 favorite]

For those playing along at home, what I pointed out here is now no longer the case.
posted by Arturus at 12:44 AM on January 16, 2008

From waxy, overall top links from Metafilter 1999-2006, and top 50 links, and the corresponding MetaTalk thread.
posted by Rumple at 12:40 AM on January 19, 2008

BTW, I didn't realize that I had gone too far by taking/posting/linking to the photo I posted a few comments up, and so I have removed it. The photo was taken and posted in October, and it was never called to my attention that it was offensive to the subject (jessamyn).

I should have known better, but it never made it to my brain. I wish I had been told in person, via email, IM, etc. that it was offensive to jessamyn. I would have liked to been told somewhere other than in the Booooooooobs thread.

I apologize to Jessamyn for any hurt I may have caused her. I am sorry. The photo has been deleted.
posted by terrapin at 5:51 AM on January 24, 2008 [1 favorite]

Metafilter Tagline Generator
posted by Horken Bazooka at 7:36 PM on January 27, 2008