So we can all be like y2karl ... okay, maybe that's not a positive

May 21, 2008 4:37 PM

When the "title" tag is used on a link, it most often provides useful additional information (or a bit of nonsense that was better left out of the main text). So why not make it easy to do? Can you add a second field in the link dialog box to fill in a title tag? One rule for posters: Please don't use it for important parenthetical information like (pdf) or (NSFW).
posted by wendell to feature requests at 4:37 PM (89 comments total)

Naw, I find it annoying in things like Wordpress where when you add a link and they ask for a title as well (older versions did this, the current one does not thank god). I find the "feature" gets in the way for everyone but the few people that want to do it, and those few people know what they're doing.
posted by mathowie at 4:40 PM on May 21 [1 favorite]

The (vast?) majority of readers aren't expecting titles in links as it is. Add likely-to-be-ignored title text by hand and at your peril, basically.
posted by cortex at 4:41 PM on May 21 [1 favorite]

Titles are generally ignored by almost everyone. Those who don't ignore them will either hate them or love them in equal feverent amounts. Or what those guys said.
posted by jessamyn at 4:45 PM on May 21 [1 favorite]

Also, don't make fun of y2karl. wtf wendell?
posted by jessamyn at 4:45 PM on May 21

Well, I liked your idea, wendell. But unfortunately it didn't...well, you know.
posted by konolia at 4:47 PM on May 21 [2 favorites]

Since all the admins are here, can someone tell me if there's an easy way to see if you've been marked as a best answer? I tend to browse threads I've posted in by my Recent Activity page, and if there've been more than 10 new posts (and there usually are) I never find out if the OP thought I had a best answer. Since I can see my contacts' best answers on the sidebar, I figure there must be a place my own are listed and I'm just not aware. (tia)
posted by loiseau at 4:49 PM on May 21

I LIKE y2karl AND his title tags, more than I thought most MeFites do, therefore the reference. It was more targeted at karl-haters.

Anyway, I guess that's a no.

GREASEMONKEY, PLEASE HOPE ME.
posted by wendell at 4:50 PM on May 21

loiseau, please do not derail my humiliation thread. Thanks.
posted by wendell at 4:53 PM on May 21

loiseau, you can scan for checkboxes on your activity view (go to your profile and click on the number for askme answers). I don't recall off-hand a better method.
posted by cortex at 4:54 PM on May 21

loiseau, if you check my profile page, I have a link to the old AskMe format which makes it a little easier to see if you've had a best answer marked recently. So you check your AskMe answers here or the old style here.
posted by jessamyn at 4:55 PM on May 21 [2 favorites]

Since all the admins are here,

I swear to god, one of these days pb is going to flip out and start popping caps in motherfuckers' asses.
posted by dersins at 4:55 PM on May 21 [4 favorites]

Since all the admins are here...

Too late! They all left!

Except Vacapinta, he's probably asleep.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:55 PM on May 21

No.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 5:09 PM on May 21

loiseau, just add yourself as a contact.
posted by ssg at 5:15 PM on May 21

If we need to get nitpicky, pb is more of a wizard and less of a mod. He does supercoding and big-brain thinking with mathowie but he almost never does actual content moderation on the site and doesn't deal with a lot of MeFite email/contact form/nonsense. He's like [at this point] more of a fifth Beatle, except if the fifth Beatle really did a lot of the behind the scenes heavy lifting. vacapinta, as much as we all adore him, is also going to be doing mostly triage/fire-extinguishing stuff and not jumping in to full on all-day mod stuff, at least for the near future. Just so everyone is straight. It's like....

Five admins
Four mods
Three Portlanders (ish)
Two dudes who work at mathowie's house
One girl.
posted by jessamyn at 5:16 PM on May 21 [3 favorites]

aaaaaaahhhhhh
posted by cortex at 5:16 PM on May 21

Oh I'm sorry and one hollering spaz.
posted by jessamyn at 5:18 PM on May 21 [7 favorites]

so pb is George Martin?
posted by rooftop secrets at 5:22 PM on May 21 [1 favorite]

MetaTalk: one hollering spaz
posted by GuyZero at 5:34 PM on May 21

Who's Pete Best?
posted by languagehat at 5:37 PM on May 21

He's the one with the fish in his pants.
posted by yhbc at 5:41 PM on May 21

so, just to be clear on the rest of them... Mathowie/Lennon, Cortex/Paul, Jessamyn/George, and Vacapinta/Ringo?

I'm not sure on Pete Best, languagehat. Perhaps someone can slot him in?
posted by rooftop secrets at 5:42 PM on May 21

Wait a minute, Pete Best is obviously... pb!
posted by languagehat at 5:45 PM on May 21 [1 favorite]

Pete Best is dios in his brief, unsuccessful secret tenure as an admin back in mid '06.
posted by cortex at 5:46 PM on May 21

Oh I am not Paul McCartney.
posted by cortex at 5:46 PM on May 21

Mathowie/Lennon, Cortex/Paul, Jessamyn/George, and Vacapinta/Ringo?

No way. Cortex is SO Ringo. I mean, come on-- tell me this isn't Ringo...
posted by dersins at 5:47 PM on May 21

So meatbomb is Murray the K?
posted by languagehat at 5:51 PM on May 21 [1 favorite]

What I want to know is what band the Beatles sat around trying to figure out which one of them was which of back in like 1960.
posted by cortex at 5:53 PM on May 21 [1 favorite]

to call Cortex Ringo, though, seems to diminish his contribution to the site (wacky donut humor aside). How about this cortex: think of it as "young, playful, talented, clever Paul" not "older, bitter, backstabbing, egomaniac, Paul".
posted by rooftop secrets at 5:54 PM on May 21

No fucking way! George?! I guess I started this, didn't I....?
posted by jessamyn at 5:55 PM on May 21

All we need now is mathowie to chime in with "Fuck Lennon, I'm Elvis."
posted by rooftop secrets at 5:57 PM on May 21

I always figured Matt was more of a Buddy Holly fan.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:00 PM on May 21

So, what happened to Stu?
posted by yhbc at 6:02 PM on May 21

Waitasec... who's the walrus again?
posted by arto at 6:38 PM on May 21

In best Ed Sullivan voice.... "Ladies and gentlemen, the cabal!"
posted by terrapin at 6:42 PM on May 21

Which Beatle are you?
posted by hangashore at 7:17 PM on May 21

Huh, I really am George.
posted by jessamyn at 7:23 PM on May 21

Well, he was the handsome one, after all.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:28 PM on May 21

It says I am a Volkwagen Beetle.

I have very little confidence in or enthusiasm for that test at the moment.
posted by yhbc at 7:40 PM on May 21

So much so that I can't type "Volkswagen".
posted by yhbc at 7:42 PM on May 21

If Cortex is McCartney, does that mean BBQ is Wings?
posted by self at 7:48 PM on May 21 [2 favorites]

...does that mean BBQ is Wings?

I dunno, but did I ever tell you that Jessamyn was the buffalo wind beneath my buffalo wings?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:34 PM on May 21

Guess what?
posted by self at 8:44 PM on May 21

I would love not only title tags, but a series of parenthetical-generating checkboxes (NSFW, SFW) (PDF) (SLYT) (Wikipedia) that you'd have to fill in for every freaking link.

Then again, I have a box under my bed with various lock-top containers in it filled with nail clippings, "LEFT FOOT," "RIGHT FOOT," "LEFT HAND" ...
posted by adipocere at 8:49 PM on May 21

The Internet says I'm Lennon. I'm not sure it hasn't been looking at my flickr stream, but I don't care.
posted by cortex at 9:18 PM on May 21

I'm george.

I'm didn't select any of the options assigned to him, but i guess i fell in the mean area between all the other ones that lined up with his.
posted by mrzarquon at 10:09 PM on May 21

I am hopelessly Ringo.

The Circle of Humiliation is complete.
posted by wendell at 10:42 PM on May 21

I am Sir Paul McCartney, and I endorse wendell's original suggestion.
posted by MrMustard at 10:57 PM on May 21

I'm Heather Mills and I'll have half of that endorsement thank you very much.
posted by tellurian at 11:51 PM on May 21 [2 favorites]

Wouldn't PB be Phil Spector?
posted by Jahaza at 12:01 AM on May 22

I am actually going to see Paul McCartney in Liverpool on the 1st of June. Shall I ask him which of the mods he thinks he is?
posted by Jofus at 12:58 AM on May 22

I bet McCartney thinks of himself as more of a rocker and I tend to agree.

Except that I mean a chair.

With less personality.
posted by ooga_booga at 1:35 AM on May 22

You can call me George, too. Is that the Beatle bit bucket?
posted by lysdexic at 1:56 AM on May 22

yhbc: "It says I am a Volkwagen Beetle.

I have very little confidence in or enthusiasm for that test at the moment."

If it makes you feel better (and there's really no reason why it should), I got the same result.
posted by dg at 2:12 AM on May 22

George.
posted by Dave Faris at 4:02 AM on May 22

I was sleeping for most of this thread.
If this is Wonderland then Matt is Alice and I'm the Dormouse.

We all just need to figure out who the Red King is and wake him up.
posted by vacapinta at 4:55 AM on May 22

One girl.

I'm George, and it would be nice to see this particular stat increase in the future. Om shanti and thanks.
posted by melissa may at 5:33 AM on May 22

Oh, and I was Paul on the quiz.

Although the only thing he and I have in common is that we're both alive and living in the UK.
posted by vacapinta at 5:40 AM on May 22

I am a radical slice of Lennon!
posted by languagehat at 5:49 AM on May 22

When I was pulled in by the police in Birmingham Alabama, in the year 1976, for "disorderly conduct" my arresting officer, noticing, no doubt, my wire rim spectacles and long hair, said to his fellow copper, "get John Lennon here in the squad car". Does that count?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:08 AM on May 22

I am Billy Preston. YOW!!!
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:27 AM on May 22

Wait. It said I'm Clay Aitken. Wha?!?!
posted by loiseau at 6:38 AM on May 22

A radical slice of Lennon - and I thought I was answering all the George ones.

I'm so proud
posted by Nick Verstayne at 6:46 AM on May 22

Dudes, jessamyn is clearly Paul. cortex = Ringo (duh! Could this be more obviouser?).
pb is George Martin.

I am Albert Goldman.
posted by Mister_A at 6:59 AM on May 22

If this is Winnie the Pooh then I would like to be owl. BISY BACSON.
posted by jessamyn at 7:20 AM on May 22 [1 favorite]

Ooh the quiz says I'm Hare Krishna Harrison. That is rad?
posted by Mister_A at 7:35 AM on May 22

It's too bad there's no mod named Maxwell, otherwise Maxwell's Silver Banhammer would have to be written and recorded and posted to MeFi music immediately.
posted by emelenjr at 7:35 AM on May 22

What we really need is a "Which MetaFilter Admin Are You?" quiz. CORTEX, GET TO WORK.
posted by wendell at 7:38 AM on May 22

In that case you is a GRUL
posted by adamvasco at 7:51 AM on May 22

Which would you rather do:
1) Eat donuts larger than your head
2) Ride a recumbent bike
3) Alphabetize
4) [Ed: How can we stereotype vacapinta?]
posted by Plutor at 7:53 AM on May 22

Wouldn't PB be Phil Spector?

Only when he threatens us all with guns and ruins everything with syrupy string sections will we know for sure.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:07 AM on May 22

Regardless of who's who, I think we can all agree that Metafilter is bigger than Jesus, that AskMe=Sgt. Pepper's, Projects=Abbey Road, Music=White Album, and jonmc=Murray the K
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 8:19 AM on May 22

can anyone name the best rock album ever released? and not what you THINK it is. there is an objectively true answer to the question, and here it is:

In 1965, 3 years after having been politely transferred from the Beatles by Brian Epstein, Pete Best recorded what would be his first and most notorious solo album. He recorded several solo records in his life, and it's hardly surprising that a decent portion of them had titles that made reference to his tenure as the drummer for the biggest band in rock history. But, except for this first one, none of them had the gusto, the sheer and utter stones to be called Best of the Beatles.

That the almost-legendary drummer's name lent itself to this kind of bald faced manipulation was perhaps too convenient for him. It may have proved an irresistible impulse on his part to play the one prank that he alone in all of the world was capable of playing. Whatever the reason, somewhere in the wilds of 60s record shops, a paltry handful of devoted Beatles fans, confused but hopeful, handed over their hard earned dollars in exchange for an LP that they thought would be full of the Greatest Hits of their favorite band but which was, instead, a seething warren for mediocre drumming that had nothing whatsoever to do with The Beatles.

It is rumored, though there is absolutely no evidence of any kind to support the accusation, that years later Pete Best would get the idea to start a band called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and to release an album under that band called The Beatles, but it thankfully never materialized.
posted by shmegegge at 9:02 AM on May 22 [1 favorite]

MATHOWIE'S BANHAMMER

Bunnyfire could see, studying theology,
God was on her side.
Told everyone on MetaFilter.
So- o- o- o.

Matthew MetaFi, majoring in SocialSci,
Emails her a note.
"Can I take you out for some pancakes,
Bu-u-u-un?"

But as she's typing out a reply,
A ping comes o'er the Web.

Ban! Ban! Mathowie's banhammer
Zapped her username.
Ban! Ban! Mathowie's banhammer
Sent her down in flames.

Back online again Matthew plays the good admin.
Quonsar gets annoyed.
Wishing just to have some good, unclean
Fu-u-u-un.

Matt calls Q a clown while Cold Fusion's going down,
So he hangs around
Waiting for the end of the old J-
Ru-u-u-uns.

But when he checks the fish in his pants,
Matt reboots again.

Ban! Ban! Mathowie's banhammer
Cut off his account.
Ban! Ban! Mathowie's banhammer
Knocked that MeFite out.

P. Paramus said, "What a left-wing doody-head."
Sent to MetaTalk.
"A wholelottanothing" that he can do.
Ooh, ooh, ooh.

Josh and Jessamyn, acting just like good admins,
Say Matt's doing fine
(Matthew is just fine)
The trolls do not agree and they tell him
So- o- o- o.

But as he hits "Post Comment" again,
An error box pops up.

Ban! Ban! Mathowie's banhammer
Kicked him out the door.
Ban! Ban! Mathowie's banhammer
Costs him five bucks more.

Ban! Ban! Mathowie's banhammer
Means no more AskMe!
Ban! Ban! Mathowie's banhammer
GYOFB!

Ooh- ooh, ban- banhammer...
posted by wendell at 9:10 AM on May 22 [10 favorites]

Bravo, wendell.
posted by SpiffyRob at 9:20 AM on May 22

  
posted by y2karl at 9:28 AM on May 22 [4 favorites]

What we really need is a "Which MetaFilter Admin Are You?" quiz.

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
posted by Pax at 9:33 AM on May 22 [1 favorite]

"I find the 'feature' gets in the way for everyone but the few people that want to do it, and those few people know what they're doing."

Huh? You click the "link" button, a dialog pops up. You paste the URL and hit return. Or, paste the URL, then hit tab and type a quick title and hit return. Where's the inconvenience? Seems like a no-harm, use-it-or-don't feature to me that makes it easier than trying to remember where I need a closing quotation mark.
posted by Eideteker at 10:40 AM on May 22

MATHOWIE'S BANHAMMER

Someone is already in the process of getting a recording of that posted to Music, right? I'll just wait patiently.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:42 AM on May 22

Doesn't scan.
posted by languagehat at 10:45 AM on May 22

Where's the inconvenience?

For anyone who doesn't know what a link title is or why they would want to add one, it is clutter and a potential source of confusion. This class of folks probably represents the large majority of folks using the widget to make links.

For the remainder of folks who do know what a link title is and why they might, in theory want to use it, I'd venture that again the large majority still don't want to use it most of the time.

So it's a Feature for the subset-of-a-subset that cares, and anywhere between mere clutter and outright unfriendly interface design for everybody else. Meh.
posted by cortex at 10:46 AM on May 22

And while I admire the effort, wendell, I have to agree with lfat on this one. Correct number of syllables != workable meter:

bang bang MAX well's SIL  ver HAM merban  ban  mat HOW    ie's BAN ham mer

Which is just a nightmare when you go and try to sing it.
posted by cortex at 10:51 AM on May 22

c-tex: Easily solved by putting (optional) above the field.
posted by Eideteker at 11:07 AM on May 22

Which mitigates somewhat the confusion aspect for the unfamiliar while doing nothing for the clutter aspect, and, again, solely in the service of a tiny slice of the folks using that link box. It just doesn't seem like a good trade.
posted by cortex at 11:13 AM on May 22

George.

And I like the check boxes idea. The keeping your nail clippings thing - not so much.
posted by deborah at 11:55 AM on May 22

cortex, YOU don't scan.

nyah.
posted by wendell at 12:23 PM on May 22

You could revise it to Ban! Ban! Matthew Haughey's hammer. It scans, but it seems weird to use his real name. Maybe Ban! Ban! MetaFilter's hammer would be better?
posted by ErWenn at 2:54 PM on May 22

I like the keeping your nail clippings idea. The check-boxes thing - not so much.
posted by dg at 4:30 PM on May 22

WITH TITLES WITHOUT THEM

We were talking-about the use of title fields
And the data-those tags could hold if they were real, but that's boring
So we got derailed-and it's far too late-now it's all just noise.
We were talking-about which mod is which fab four-then a link came
A Beatles quiz we all could score-we're all George
We're all George-we're all so unique-and we're all so cool!
Try to realise it's not the tags that count
Good web links don't come from tags
And to see your pony isn't very good
The site goes on with titles or without them.
We were talking-about the lyrics wendell wrote, they were shitty,
The word stress made the meter broke-
Tries so hard-still not quite-try to not be him!
When you've seen that you're not George-then you may find, peace of mind,
Is waiting there-
And the time will come when you see
It's all fun, the site goes on with titles or without them.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:24 PM on May 23 [1 favorite]