I like seeing what the people behind the screen names look like

September 15, 2008 7:04 PM

Can we make the meet-up photos more prominent?

Ideally there'd be picture links to the last few sets on the sidebar or along the bottom of the MetaTalk front page (like the recent photos in profile). Or at least the little photo icon in the recent meet-ups sidebar section would be a clickable link.

Back when meet-up pictures warranted their own MetaTalk posts I used to look at every one. Now I forget to, often for months at a time. Tellurian mentioned that under the new system a lot fewer people view the pictures. God knows I always forget about meet-up pictures. I think looking at pictures of MeFites enjoying themselves together helps good community feeling.

posted by Kattullus to Feature Requests at 7:04 PM (35 comments total)

"New system" = current system of posting meet-up photo links in original thread.
posted by Kattullus at 7:07 PM on September 15, 2008

Perhaps you could pay me to come over to your house, print out the pictures, and hold them in front of your face.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:24 PM on September 15, 2008 [8 favorites]

There's a link to the original thread on the sidebar and then links in a box at the top right of that thread. Seems pretty easy to find to me.
posted by octothorpe at 7:40 PM on September 15, 2008

I sort of feel that they're prominent already. We debated having a little picture icon for each set of photos uploaded but figured that might get unwieldy for big meetups.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:03 PM on September 15, 2008

Why don't you encourage Flickr peeps to contribute their meetup photos to one giant MeFi _hoto_ool?
posted by iamkimiam at 8:09 PM on September 15, 2008

Well, one of the results of the current system seem to be that fewer people look at the meetup pictures. Tellurian said: "As an aside, we get crap hits when we post in the old thread instead of making a new post. Previous meetup pictures where I've started a new post have been anything from 300 to over 600 hundred views. Posting inside the old thread - double digits." I don't know if anyone has other stats but it seems to me to help good community feelings that more people look at the meet-up pictures. I know from personal experience that I used to look at every meet-up picture back when they were posted as their own links but now I just forget. Every once in a while I remember about the pictures and look at all the sets linked on the front page of MeTa, but that's only every few months or so.
posted by Kattullus at 8:10 PM on September 15, 2008

Oh, I suppose I should explain my reasoning for why I think it's a good thing that people look at meetup photos. I know that personally, for me, putting faces to usernames helps me humanize MeFites. Once I've put a face to the username I'm much likelier to remember who users are and what they've posted and said in the past. Knowing users a bit helps put what they say in accurate contexts, making it less likely to misunderstand something egregiously. Which should make shitstorms less likely to break out.
posted by Kattullus at 8:14 PM on September 15, 2008

I completely forgot there were meetup photos in the old threads, and had just assumed that no one was posting new threads to show their pictures.

(That is, I'm another data point who always used to look at the pictures when there were new threads for them, but doesn't any more).
posted by yhbc at 8:16 PM on September 15, 2008

Can we make the people in the meet-up photos more handsome and/or beautiful?

Of course, Meatbomb cannot be improved upon, but, you know, everyone else...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:28 PM on September 15, 2008

Probably not flap. Too much phosphor burn.
posted by netbros at 8:47 PM on September 15, 2008

Can we make the people in the meet-up photos more handsome and/or beautiful?

Second. I've seen some of these photos and think they ought to be less prominent.
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:32 PM on September 15, 2008

Well, one of the results of the current system seem to be that fewer people look at the meetup pictures

This is true for me, I used to look at all of them, but I can't remember the last one I saw.
posted by popechunk at 9:40 PM on September 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I think the sidebar-linking-to-original threads works fine; I've been able to play "what's he look like? oh I didn't know ____ was a girl!" many a quiet evening at the manor. Less clutter than a new thread for each.

(Funny, Kattullus, you look exactly like your profile pic, and I recognized you instantly at the post-ROFLcon meetup. But abcde I would never have picked out of a line-up.)

(Oh, and smallest meetup EVOR? I challenge you!!)
posted by not_on_display at 9:54 PM on September 15, 2008

Ah, but by definition a meetup of one isn't a meetup since there's no one to meet. Therefore the record held by me and mds35 (and the other brave souls who've been two two-person meetups) stands.
posted by Kattullus at 10:01 PM on September 15, 2008

Kattullus: Ah, but by definition a meetup of one isn't a meetup since there's no one to meet. Therefore the record held by me and mds35 (and the other brave souls who've been two two-person meetups) stands.

Curses! Foiled again!
posted by not_on_display at 10:06 PM on September 15, 2008

At the very least, make the "photo" icons link to the thread (it's weird to have button-y icons that don't do anything, especially since there are few other icons on MetaFilter and all of them (that I know of) act as links.

Also, I went into a thread and didn't see the picture links for a while. They're just not prominent enough. Once a meetup has happened, go ahead and make the photos nice and prominent. I say front and center, normal font size. Also, since nearly everybody uses flickr or picasa these days, perhaps you could pull it in as a stream and display thumbnails at the top? That would be even keener!
posted by Deathalicious at 10:44 PM on September 15, 2008

I think the friendly fair fellow with specs who a bunch of people thought was a girl from his userpic has a good point, but angular brunet dude's suggestion above really works for chubby blonde with occasional pink bangs.

And petite smiley surfer girl, often seen with chill lurker boyfriend who reminds me of some actor and no, it's not Bill Paxton, dangit, you do know there is one, right?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:57 PM on September 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Bill Pullman?
posted by Kattullus at 11:06 PM on September 15, 2008

I completely agree with this. I never look at meetup pictures any more.

I sort of feel that they're prominent already.

This is clearly not the case.
posted by languagehat at 6:12 AM on September 16, 2008

Matthew Lilliard?
posted by iamkimiam at 7:56 AM on September 16, 2008

I wonder if people stop looking at meetup photos due to the law of diminishing returns. After a certain point, pictures of people you don't know stop being interesting (and it seems a good chunk of meetup photos aren't labeled with usernames, which makes looking at them even more futile).
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:57 AM on September 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

It appears that there are two Flickr pools...the one the girl with pink bangs linked to above (Metafilter), and #mefi. MetaFilter doesn't allow you to add more than 6 pictures at a time. Who mods that group? Can we change that setting please? There is no way I'm returning each day for the next 15 days to upload six more pics! #mefi has no upload limit, btw. I added all my past meetup pics to that pool.
posted by iamkimiam at 8:08 AM on September 16, 2008

GEEZ, I am SUCH a whiner. It's fine. I found that you can add more photos by clicking the "Add more photos" link. You just have to add 'em 6 at a time.
posted by iamkimiam at 8:15 AM on September 16, 2008

Or at least the little photo icon in the recent meet-ups sidebar section would be a clickable link.
---
At the very least, make the "photo" icons link to the thread

Yeah, this! Just having the meetup date link in the sidebar isn't enough, because many of those links go to comments at random points down the thread. Having the picture icon link to the top of the page (where the photo links wind up) would be a good start.
posted by carsonb at 9:09 AM on September 16, 2008

At the very least, make the "photo" icons link to the thread

I think we can do this and maybe list them all out on the "past meetups" page. Even though I know people don't check it much, it's still another way to highlight them.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 9:37 AM on September 16, 2008

We have photos linked from the Past Meetups page now.
posted by pb (staff) at 11:12 AM on September 16, 2008

Cool, can we link the little photo icon in the sidebar also?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:37 AM on September 16, 2008

I could email a link to my real flickr page, but my anonymity is valuable to me.
posted by plexi at 11:38 AM on September 16, 2008

yay, they're linked now!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:46 AM on September 16, 2008

...and there was much rejoicing.
posted by carsonb at 12:33 PM on September 16, 2008

That is much improved, thanks!

*does a little dance*
posted by Kattullus at 12:42 PM on September 16, 2008

Hah! Going through some old sets I find a picture of my friend Peter who's not a MeFite but knows a few. He's the one standing in the back talking with the woman in a blue jacket and a black skirt.
posted by Kattullus at 12:52 PM on September 16, 2008

pb, that is fantastic! Thanks!
posted by Lynsey at 12:56 PM on September 16, 2008

Ibid.
posted by plinth at 5:18 PM on September 16, 2008

Goddamnit, guys, I was hoping my one meetup photo would disappear into the Flickr ether. Now look at what you've done.
posted by bettafish at 7:38 PM on September 16, 2008 [1 favorite]