DrossFilter - brute force thread cleanser

April 23, 2009 7:09 PM

As a bit of a brain saver I've made a GreaseMonkey script that hides every comment in a discussion on mefi that has less than 5 favourites.

It was the anencephalic baby thread that drove me to it.

I was thinking about writing a snark filter, but, you know, natural language parsing and all that, so I decided to make it simple and dumb. And it works. Only quality snark makes it through.

And if you ever find yourself thinking "I can't believe I just spent thirty minutes reading 180 comments about W, which was mainly X, Y and Z bitching", you might also find it handy.

Naturally, if you wish to fully participate in a thread you will have to turn the script off.

Here is the script. It is based on someone else's script that highlighted favourited comments.

Future developments I will never get around to implementing:

• Scale the cut-off point to the length of the thread
• Add a show all comments button

posted by hifimofo to MetaFilter-related at 7:09 PM (206 comments total)

Why do you hate Metafilter?
posted by Pronoiac at 7:16 PM on April 23 [18 favorites]

As a bit of a brain saver I've made a GreaseMonkey script that hides every comment

Perhaps as a next step, someone will implement this one. That'll save me even more time.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 7:17 PM on April 23 [8 favorites]

That's the dumbest fuckin' idea ever.
posted by gman at 7:18 PM on April 23 [16 favorites]

Like it just makes no sense for so many reasons.
posted by gman at 7:19 PM on April 23 [8 favorites]

I hope no one ever uses this, but hey you can't flag what you don't read!
posted by jessamyn at 7:19 PM on April 23 [11 favorites]

Wow. This is the dumbest thing I've heard about all day.

But it's still an hour until lunch, so who knows.
posted by bardic at 7:19 PM on April 23 [8 favorites]

How come no one has commented in this thread? BTW, great script!
posted by Falconetti at 7:23 PM on April 23 [17 favorites]

Tough crowd.
posted by JenMarie at 7:23 PM on April 23 [7 favorites]

DrossFilter: Giving everybody else the big red button.
posted by netbros at 7:24 PM on April 23 [7 favorites]

I for one am not too proud to admit that on long threads, I often start skimming until a comment with a large number of favourites appears. Might as well make it easier.
posted by PercussivePaul at 7:25 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

Can I get a script that makes all the comments read:

You're great and everyone likes you. Have a nice day, and come again.

I'd like that because reality keeps harshing my buzz.
posted by nola at 7:25 PM on April 23 [10 favorites]

Where'd my comment go?
posted by Falconetti at 7:25 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all greesemonkey will censor you anyways.
posted by pwally at 7:27 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

So am I the only one in here?
posted by nola at 7:27 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

*****
posted by Floydd at 7:31 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

Shouldn't that be fewer than five favorites?
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 7:36 PM on April 23 [15 favorites]

As a bit of a brain saver I've made a GreaseMonkey script that hides every comment in a discussion anywhere on mefi that has less than 5 favourites begins with, "yo, dawg".

THANK YOU
posted by iconomy at 7:39 PM on April 23 [7 favorites]

Do not mistake the apparent lack of a response for people being in awe of your brilliant idea; it's just that no one has yet come up with a condemnation that's sufficiently witty to shine through the dross.
posted by CKmtl at 7:42 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

So this is how it happens...I disappear like snow in June, for without favorites I am nothing. If I do not appear on the pages of MetaFilter, do I exist at all?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:45 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

See also this comment filter bookmarklet.
posted by dead cousin ted at 7:52 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

What a terrible idea.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:52 PM on April 23 [4 favorites]

welp, i fucked that up. nevermind
posted by dead cousin ted at 7:53 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

Also, it pleases me that the machine gunners opened fire the instant this tried to take the beach.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:53 PM on April 23 [11 favorites]

I'm writing a greasemonkey script that will memail you all comments in threads that I read that have less than 5 favorites. No need to thank me.
posted by boo_radley at 7:54 PM on April 23 [10 favorites]

Neat. Something similar came up a while ago in this thread: http://metatalk.metafilter.com/17410/Is-there-a-MeFi-distinguished-service-cross
posted by sambosambo at 8:00 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

er... in this thread. That's what I meant. And maybe what dead cousin ted meant too.
posted by sambosambo at 8:01 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

Anyway, favorites are an asinine metric for quality, terrible idea, etc.
posted by boo_radley at 8:04 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

I'm ok with this as long as robocop is bleeding writes a story about it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:11 PM on April 23 [7 favorites]

This is obviously stupid, for the simple reason that once a critical mass of people started using it, no one would be reading comments at root level, so no comments would reach 5. So all the threads would be empty.

If that's what you want, why click the thread, why not just skim the front page?

Or, better yet, go fuck off to Fark?
posted by paisley henosis at 8:16 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

I'm just inspiring wonderful things wherever I go, aren't I.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:21 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

You should also make a script that makes it look like all your posts and comments have 100 favorites. And never stop running the script.
posted by ORthey at 8:24 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

I read your sourcecode, and noticed a potentially fatal flaw, but I'm not going to tell you what it is.

posted by Sova at 4:25 AM on April 24 [5 favorites +] [!]













 
posted by Sova at 8:29 PM on April 23 [40 favorites]

GreaseMonkey jumps the shark.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:33 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

The script should be called American Idol: Metafilter instead.
posted by Bernt Pancreas at 8:34 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

Thanks, sambosambo - I was trying to find that thread, because the déjà vu was overpowering. "Didn't we just beat that dead horse?"
posted by Pronoiac at 8:38 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

You don't want to read snarky comments so you made a script that hides comments that don't get many favorites?

I don't think you understand Metafilter.
posted by flatluigi at 8:40 PM on April 23 [13 favorites]

I seem to have hit a spot that many people find sensitive.

Apologies to those who are offended by the script and its implications.

Perhaps the moderators could delete the announcement?
posted by hifimofo at 8:54 PM on April 23 [7 favorites]

Seriously?
posted by chinston at 8:55 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

hifimofo: "Apologies to those who are offended by the script and its implications."

Go stand in a a corner of the Internet and think about what you did.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:57 PM on April 23 [9 favorites]

I would say something snarky here, but greasemonkey filters out any MeTa posts that have fewer than 5 favorites, so I never saw it.

Please don't take the criticism too harshly: we just don't want to turn into Slashdot.
posted by double block and bleed at 9:10 PM on April 23 [8 favorites]

Hey Hifimofo! Fancy meeting you on this road! I was just on my way to tell everybody at the office that there are bananas in the kitchen. Whoa, is there a fire down ways? Hmmm, must be hot.
posted by iamkimiam at 9:18 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

I seem to have hit a spot that many people find sensitive.

Yes, but oddly, no one is aroused.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:27 PM on April 23 [10 favorites]

I hate you, hifimofo.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:35 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

AN OPEN LETTER TO THOSE WHO ARE CONSIDERING POSTING A METATALK THREAD RELATED IN SOME WAY TO FAVORITES, THEIR MANAGEMENT, THEIR FUNCTION, OR THEIR IMPACT ON THE SITE

Dear Those Who Are Considering Posting a Metatalk Thread Related in Some Way to Favorites, Their Management, Their Function, or Their Impact on the Site,

Please don't.

Yours &c.,

dersins
posted by dersins at 10:16 PM on April 23 [12 favorites]

Eh, it's handy if you came late to a long, contentious thread and just want to see the highlights. I use a bookmarklet for it sometimes, mostly in threads that have 200+ comments of derail and bickering on a topic I don't care a lot about. Before I found the bookmarklet, I'd just close such threads.

I don't really get the reaction here to the greasemonkey version. I guess if it's always on, that would be less than ideal, because normally I want to read all the comments (or none of them, but I don't need a tool for that). But hey, if someone only wants to see certain comments, I don't see the big deal.

Anyway, if someone wants the bookmarklet you can find it here. I forget who wrote it, but I modified it to close the box after changing the filter so it doesn't get in the way.
posted by cj_ at 10:23 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

.
posted by ob at 10:36 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

Why does Greasemonkey bring out the Bunsen Honeydew in people on MetaFilter?
posted by KokuRyu at 10:52 PM on April 23 [11 favorites]

...you can't flag what you don't read!

(to be performed in bluegrass style, with banjos and high lonesome harmonies)

mama always told me, can't flag what you can't read
and you can't raise no jersey cows on bags of chicken feed
through the years this good advice i've always tried to heed
cause mama always told me, can't flag what you can't read
yes mama always told me, can't flag what you can't read
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:52 PM on April 23 [7 favorites]

the "tried to heed" is drawn out with a bit of a pause before then next line, right?

"tried to heeeeeeed"
posted by Burhanistan at 11:12 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

Absolutely, B-han.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:18 PM on April 23 [5 favorites]

 
posted by carsonb at 11:30 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]

I go to sleep and forget I've enabled this script. Tomorrow I wake up to a Metafilter forever changed.
posted by grobstein at 11:39 PM on April 23 [7 favorites]

Your tense shift vexes me most pleasurably.
posted by Burhanistan at 11:43 PM on April 23 [8 favorites]

Can someone write a Greasemonkey script that will hide MeTa posts about Greasemonkey scripts?
posted by crossoverman at 12:06 AM on April 24 [7 favorites]

Your tense shift vexes me most pleasurably.

The past sure is tense.

And BTW, this thread is reminding me of a couplet from one of my songs...

...you put the script in the shredder and the poet in his grave
even the silver toungued devil's at a loss for words
i'm trying to keep my eye on a single pair of wings
in the swirling center of a flock of birds
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:15 AM on April 24 [6 favorites]

[this is bad awful a fucking abomination]

Words fail me.
posted by dg at 12:20 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

(((((hifimofo)))))

and (((((Hitler)))))
posted by bardic at 1:05 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

I just hope that people don't start contributing when they're using this script. We get enough half cocked, ill informed comments as it is without replies based on an edited version of the thread.

Like in that brainless baby thread. Someone read something incorrectly, reacted badly, realised the mistake and apologised gracefully. If you only saw some of that then posted a reaction it would probably be a bad thing.
posted by shelleycat at 1:21 AM on April 24 [6 favorites]

I assume all of you with your underpants in a bunch about this are equally offended by the "Popular" link? No?

I'm not going to use this script, but I can easily see why someone would want to. You may think it's misguided, but hifimofo was trying to be generous and helpful. Be nicer.
posted by Riki tiki at 1:23 AM on April 24 [9 favorites]

You may think it's misguided, but hifimofo was trying to be generous and helpful. Be nicer.

Stop worrying, he can't even see us.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:51 AM on April 24 [6 favorites]

Could the script also interface with the commenting mechanism somehow, so we don't see comments made by people running it? That would be cool.
posted by alasdair at 2:12 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

I assume all of you with your underpants in a bunch about this are equally offended by the "Popular" link? No?

Your first mistake is assuming that I am wearing underpants.



Also, If I wanted to save my brain, I would get the hell away from the internet entirely.
posted by louche mustachio at 2:31 AM on April 24 [7 favorites]

This is madness. How soon will it be that we need a wheelbarrow full of favorites just to buy a loaf of bread?
posted by XMLicious at 2:51 AM on April 24 [8 favorites]

Serrated threads hold nothing together well.
posted by Elmore at 2:59 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

a wheelbarrow full of favorites just to buy a loaf of bread?

a wheelbarrow full of favorites, just to buy a loaf of bread
flagging and tagging all day long, til you fall down in your bed
but you sure can't take 'em with you, I've often heard it said
can't take 'em with you to the grave, when you fall down dead
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:04 AM on April 24 [6 favorites]

Hey everyone, I think this is a great idea. Because favorites = quality, amirite? So I've written a script that makes your comments sounds funnier, wittier, or more scathing (you pick one from a drop-down menu). It's pretty easy to install, too. Here you go.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:10 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

Not only is this a bad idea, but it's already been done by three other idiots in varying ways.

Wait a minute, I'm one of those idiots..
posted by Plutor at 4:11 AM on April 24 [7 favorites]

Im in yor thred, trolin 4 favrites.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:16 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

I could see the occasional utility of such a thing. Sounds fine to me. I've never used a Greasemonkey script, but I could envision myself reaching for it in very long threads.

And, yes, enough favorites means that the snark that got through would be judged higher quality than some random, low-level sniping, so he's done what he set out to do. Favorites are essentially the best metric we would have for looking for quality snark. Favorites are human-driven (like Amazon's recommendation system to a large extent), they don't require scanning for Oscar Wilde quotes, etc. I'm at a loss to think of a better metric that could be used that doesn't involve the step, "Oh, and here's where I plug in the general purpose AI module." So that's out.

I don't think applying the categorical imperative to it (if too many people do it, everything collapses) is a valid criticism. One, nobody's forcing anyone to use the script. Two, it will not be widely used. Three, it would not be used on a continual basis. The categorical imperative sucks for saying "nobody should do this." Cases in point: homosexuality, working as a full-time web designer. The first means that if everybody did it, the population would collapse. The second means that if everybody did it, nobody would be making food, etc. So that's out.

If you hit a thread with three hundred comments and read it, then ten minutes later someone put a gun to your head and asked you to name everyone who posted in it, I doubt that most people would remember every single person. People skim. Sometimes people read a comment without really chewing it over. Automating it seems no crime to me, at all, if you'd like to plow through the Palin thread and pick up the highlights.

So thank you, hifimofo, for taking the time to make this and letting us know about it. I'd like to say that I'm sorry for the usual insta-reaction of "OMG the site will burn down around us with screaming babies in the penthouse and you're a bad man for doing this" to the presentation of an entirely optional script, but the reactions of others are out of my control.
posted by adipocere at 4:25 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

can we have the slashdot colour scheme too, to complete the effect?
posted by scruss at 4:27 AM on April 24 [7 favorites]

The Swizzle Stick was invented in 1880 by Dr. Hereford Schtupp-Oxcart von Swizzle, a Dutch botanist who studied the growth of mold on oranges and fruit flies. Not only was he a fine scientist, he was a fine mixologist, credited with inventing (among other things) the Uneven Bars, a drink made largely from leftover mixers that nobody wanted, and the Helga-Put-The-Hurt, a monstrosity built upon vodka, gin and prune juice that will make you hate your own life.

Anyway, the story goes that he made a pitcher of Helga-Put-The-Hurts (or would that be Helgas-Put-The-Hurt? I dunno) for some friends one night, a batch that was so bad it ate through the wooden spoon he used to stir it. He quickly fashioned a longish piece of metal from his lab and used it to stir the thick, gloppy stuff, and the swizzle stick was born. Along with countless upset stomachs.
posted by jbickers at 5:03 AM on April 24 [8 favorites]

jbickers, that is one of the funniest comment fables I have read in a long time. Well done. I'll buy you an Uneven Bars at the next meetup.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:18 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

As a bit of a brain saver

i suppose you're one of those people who think an unused brain is a good thing
posted by pyramid termite at 5:30 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

hey, I don't know much about greasemonkey, but I was looking at this site and was wondering can you make a version that filters out any cocks shorter than 7.5 in? TIA
posted by Greg Nog at 5:32 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

Good point on turning it into Slashdot. Who is going to start the backchannel site where we can trade favorites for sexual favors and profit?

For a site that seems to enjoy calling itself a community, there sure is a lot of stuff on metatalk about how to avoid and annoy the other community members.

And kudos to whoever seems to have written the script where the user can instantly cross reference any poster's posting history and use it to point out inconsistencies. That little gem, combined with the various *previously* bots, is really making this site feel warm and friendly.
posted by gjc at 6:10 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

If you have this then you are going to miss comments that are "smarter than the room" so to speak. I'll stop being coy. You are going to miss some of my comments that are too awesome for the unwashed here to fully comprehend. I don't try to make my comments play in Peoria if you know what I'm saying. If all you want to see are: "Science fiction reference just obscure enough so lots of people know it but think they are special for doing so" and "Unthinking adolescent anti-authoritarianism a la 'yeah fuck THE MAN'" then go ahead and install this script. There are unappreciated pearls of comments scattered about Metafilter that don't seek to appeal to the lowest common denominator but which will enrich your life in ways you can't even begin to imagine. I'll give you a tip on how to recognize them. They say "posted by ND¢" at the bottom. Why don't you make a greasemonkey for that.
posted by ND¢ at 6:14 AM on April 24 [18 favorites]

adipocere: Do you understand the reason why some people dislike favorites?

I don't believe anybody here is pissed at hifimofo. I believe they are annoyed with the idea that favorites (yet again) are being twisted into a strict definition of quality. The term "favorite" is often misleading in this way, but it's probably the best and most efficient term at accomplishing the task it is needed for.
posted by P.o.B. at 6:15 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

Yes, I understand why some people dislike favorites. Understanding what someone else says, however, does not mean agreement. Reading comprehension is not a guarantee of unanimity. The idea that consensus will emerge if we just express ourselves clearly enough is simply not true.

Again, this is purely optional. It doesn't require any work on the part of the mods. Nobody is being forced to use it.

So, people being annoyed that someone else might view favorites in a different light, and possibly even make use of that viewpoint, carries little weight with me.
posted by adipocere at 6:26 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

Hey everyone, I think this is a great idea. Because favorites = quality, amirite? So I've written a script that makes your comments sounds funnier, wittier, or more scathing (you pick one from a drop-down menu). It's pretty easy to install, too. Here you go.

Fail. Lucky Star doesn't make anything funnier.
posted by cimbrog at 6:42 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

The next step is to obviously write a greasemonkey script that filters out comments from any user number not 12682. Now *that* will make for some stimulating conversation!
posted by mrmojoflying at 6:42 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

Perhaps the moderators could delete the announcement?
posted by hifimofo

You don't get off that easy. In fact, I'd like to see this taken one step further. Hardcode the shit.
posted by gman at 6:47 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

If this script catches on, we can all either favorite each other with impunity, or end our comments with the copy/pasted text "posted by [username] at 4:25 AM on April 24 [5 favorites +] [!]". But in the meantime, I don't see it being much of a danger. And for the record, ND¢ is right - his comments almost always do = quality.

Fail. Lucky Star doesn't make anything funnier.

You know what Lucky Star improves? Everything.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:49 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

And kudos to whoever seems to have written the script where the user can instantly cross reference any poster's posting history and use it to point out inconsistencies.

My god, did somebody really write that?

What did they call it? The Grudge-O-Matic?
posted by Afroblanco at 7:02 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

What did they call it?

Is it Ghostbusters 2?
posted by various at 7:08 AM on April 24 [7 favorites]

You know what Lucky Star improves? Everything.

Oh? Perhaps I should guide you towards some Osaka/Konata crossover slashfic?
WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW???
posted by cimbrog at 7:09 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

posted by [username] at 4:25 AM on April 24 [-5 favorites +] [!]
posted by blue_beetle at 7:10 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

You know what Lucky Star improves? Everything.

Man, I love 1980s Madonna.
posted by steef at 7:14 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

gman writes "That's the dumbest fuckin' idea ever."

Worse than getting involved in a land war in Asia?
posted by Mitheral at 7:26 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

Damnit, I ran out of favorites making sure all the comments in this thread were visible, except the ones I didn't like.
posted by Reverend John at 7:28 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

hifimofo: Please don't feel bad. While I too dislike this idea, you have started one of the funnier comment threads in recent memory, which more than makes up for the Greasemonkeying around.
posted by languagehat at 7:28 AM on April 24 [5 favorites]

I can't decide if I like "Brute Force Thread Cleanser" more as a band name or a laundry detergent.
posted by iconomy at 7:36 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

Plutor: Not only is this a bad idea, but it's already been done by three other idiots in varying ways.

Yeah, my first thought on seeing this was, "Didn't plutor do this, like, a million years ago?"

First of all, I think that the behavior of Plutor's script is excellent because it gives you options: you can easily switch back and forth between highly favorited and normal comments. I use this when a thread is particularly long and I want to see just highlights from the thread first, then I nearly always turn it off again to explore the thread in depth.

If the thought of turning off comments at all offends you, may I not-so-humbly suggest my own script: Multifavorited Multiwidth, which does not hide any comments at all, but makes it very easy to find remarkable comments in the thread. (I use both Plutor's and mine all the time).
posted by Deathalicious at 7:45 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

ls sfl f wnt t clbrte aprl fls dy vrydy. jst fltr t th vwls. svs brn spc t.
posted by greekphilosophy at 7:49 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

You are going to miss some of my comments that are too awesome for the unwashed here to fully comprehend.

with my providing ndc the fifth favorite on that comment, hifimofo will finally see this revelation.

hifimofo will never know about me. this is because my comments, for the most part, suck.
posted by the aloha at 7:53 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

I've written a script that closes this window whenever I click on this thread. For now though, it's stored in the brain-to-hand instruction set.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:55 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

seriously, none of you ever went into a 100+ comment post you missed over the weekend or because you were busy that day and hit CTRL+F for "favorites +" and just scrolled along reading anything in the double digits?

(could a greasemonkey script seak out "X favorites" and replace it with "Y favorites" where Y is a random number between 1 and 999? that would be way fun)
posted by jermsplan at 7:59 AM on April 24 [3 favorites]

No, you shouldn't agree with the idea of getting rid of favorites. But you should see the very thing your holding up to be as something worthwhile is one of the very reasons people hate the idea in the first place.

Metafilter sometimes fails, or succeeds, at very distinct levels. This is a very community driven site and you are right the mods don't have to do any work in this manner. They've mentioned their policing policy, so I don't need to reiterate that. I'm not trying to neglect all the work the mods do here as far as success', but the failures pretty much land squarely at the communities feet. I've noticed in particular that the success' require a vigilance of consistent treading to maintain a head-above-water approach. This particular idea obviously doesn't meet community approval for a few reasons. It just doesn't float in the popular view, and (to keep with the analogy) sinks into failure. I mean it has been pointed out that if this idea was adopted en masse there would be a huge site failure happening. So it shouldn't be surprising that pretty much everyone is poo-pooing the idea.

But hey if you want to be that guy who's like "this is great!" Then you really shouldn't point to anyone who's like "this sucks!" Not that you have, or are poignantly doing that. I'm just trying to say your position is directly inverted to what I've read as far as what some people feel about favorites around here.
posted by P.o.B. at 8:00 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Apologies to those who are offended by the script and its implications.

Perhaps the moderators could delete the announcement?

Nah, it's not a big deal, and this is in a weird sense how metatalk is supposed to work. Sorry you've gotten such a ribbing over it, but it's territory that, as you've seen, touches on a few different sensitive spots and people are kinda primed to react at this point.

I'm with Jessamyn: I wouldn't use it and I would hope that most people wouldn't use it and that it wouldn't get used most of the time, but, hey, if it brings someone greater enjoyment to filter their mefi experience on their end and they don't let that filtering lead to them contributing to the site in a suboptimal way, it's mostly just not my business.

We don't offer the feature as a site function because that would, re: adipocere's comments, be moving more into categorical imperative territory—an opt-in third party script is one thing, a site-sanctioned-and-provided feature is another entirely.

It irks me a little bit to see the implication that comments fall into two buckets: things with a bunch of favorites vs. dross. The large majority of comments on this site never see this 5-fave threshold, and yet that same large majority, the collective daily output of this site in conversation and Q&A and so forth, is why I like it here.

The high-fave skim may be good short-for-time reading, and I don't begrudge that as a one-off "I've only got time to glance at this thread" tool, but the rest is very far from dross as a whole, and one of my dearest hopes for mefi is that it will remain for a very long time a place where that remains true, where by and large people engage with threads and conversations in toto, where the zing is silver but the substantive contribution is gold.

How faves interact with that is a long-running and contentious discussion in its own right (hence the primedness referenced above), but I believe pretty strongly that while faves are useful tools in a lot of respects, mistaking them for a litmus test is a bad idea. And I think a lot of other people feel something similar to that, and react (sometimes jokingly, sometimes obnoxiously, etc) to things that seem to threaten to clobber that sensibility.

> And kudos to whoever seems to have written the script where the user can instantly cross reference any poster's posting history and use it to point out inconsistencies.

My god, did somebody really write that?

No, I'm pretty sure somebody didn't. I can imagine a couple ways you might approach the problem, but they wouldn't be particularly robust—without direct db access it's a pretty limited exercise—and, regardless, people who are going to remember embarrassing shit someone said on subject x two years ago are plentiful enough in aggregate that a magical utility isn't really necessary.

See also gjc's "previously bots": the bots in question are the human brain. Mefi's collective memory is a pretty powerful and awesome thing. And pointing out, with a link, that a new post is a double isn't griefing, regardless.
posted by cortex at 8:02 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

jermsplan: "seriously, none of you ever went into a 100+ comment post you missed over the weekend or because you were busy that day and hit CTRL+F for "favorites +" and just scrolled along reading anything in the double digits?"

Since joining, I haven't been away from MetaFilter longer than a night's sleep.
posted by Joe Beese at 8:03 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

You sleep?
posted by gman at 8:07 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Dear Those Who Are Considering Posting a Metatalk Thread Related in Some Way to Favorites, Their Management, Their Function, or Their Impact on the Site,

Please don't. Go Fuck a Rainbow.

There. Fixed that for you.
posted by jerseygirl at 8:07 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

laundry detergent.

how about "Hifimofo Hates Metafilter" for your band?
posted by double block and bleed at 8:09 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

As far as I am concerned The Straightener finished the favorites conversation the last time someone wrote this script:

How about people use favorites how the fuck they want without getting shamed by other users for how they use the favorites feature?
posted by The Straightener at 12:40 PM on February 26 [6 favorites -] [!]


I think I am just going to quote that every time this tedious conversation starts anew.
posted by Bango Skank at 8:09 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

I won't say that this is the worst idea that I've ever heard; that would be the time my friend thought it might be funny if we tried to figure out if wild animals get motion-sick, so we caught a bear, a couple of pumas, a rabid skunk, some rattlesnakes, and a shark, and we put them in u-haul trailer, climbed in next to them, and then got some friends to lock it closed and push us down a hill.

Just to put it in perspective, this is probably the second worst idea I've ever heard.
posted by quin at 8:12 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

I see it, P.o.B. You're speaking as if I either cannot understand what people write or that it is invisible to me. Neither of these things are true.

I see it, I get it, I understand it, I grok it. I'm all over it. I've taken it to the Prom. I've met its parents.

Yeah, I know my position is opposed to that of most of the people who commented. I saw the thread. I read the thread. I even *gasp* understood the thread. I considered that, wow, of the people who commented, aside from a scant few others, like cj, I would be running against the grain. I have read many previous MetaTalks about favorites. I even commented in some of them; you can check if you do not believe me. I didn't recently take a shovel to the head or anything, so I'm not lacking comprehension or thought.

I just don't agree.
posted by adipocere at 8:18 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Actually, if I could point to a good summation of favorites it would be yhbc's:

FAVORITES ARE NOT A FORM OF CURRENCY, AND HAVE NO INTRINSIC VALUE.
posted by P.o.B. at 8:20 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

yo dawg
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:21 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Did you say you didn't agree?
posted by P.o.B. at 8:22 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

No, but honestly you don't agree with the thought that there is an intrinsic failure in community participation by using the script? Or just that you don't agree? No skin off your back? You'll do what you want? Just curious here.
posted by P.o.B. at 8:26 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

You guys are magnificent douchebags! Mwah!
posted by Mister_A at 8:27 AM on April 24 [3 favorites]

And I think a lot of other people feel something similar to that, and react . . . obnoxiously

I prefer to think of it as speaking truth to neckbeards.
posted by ND¢ at 8:28 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Like to George Lucas?
posted by P.o.B. at 8:29 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

So greasemonkey can be used for good AND evil? What have you unleashed upon us?
posted by Elmore at 8:30 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I liked how people in the Carrie Fisher thread thought George Lucas would look better if he grew a neckbeard.

THAT'S NOT THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING METAFILTER!
posted by ND¢ at 8:32 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

I prefer to think of it as speaking truth to neckbeards.

I think the neckbeards are the least of our problems here.
posted by jessamyn at 8:32 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

FAVORITES ARE NOT A FORM OF CURRENCY, AND HAVE NO INTRINSIC VALUE.

The hell you say! You're just mad because you already spent all of yours on miniature tootsie rolls and those crappy gum cigarettes. I'm saving mine up for the RC car. Or maybe the robot or Green Machine... shut up! I will too! I only need 25,000 more!! SHUT... UP! YOUR MOM IS A SKEE-BALL!

*sugar crashes face first into the sticky carpet*
posted by loquacious at 8:34 AM on April 24 [3 favorites]

That is my new porn/pirate/band name. Neckbeard.
posted by P.o.B. at 8:35 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Oh no! Without 5 favorites, this comment will fall into a bottomless pit, taking this basket full of adorable puppies with it. Please, think of the puppies.
posted by chrisamiller at 8:36 AM on April 24 [3 favorites]

I think I just created a new form of Porn, Piracy, and Rock! Who's in with me?
posted by P.o.B. at 8:37 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Psst, hey kid. Got any sugar? No? Fuck. I'll give you two for one tickets if you go get me some tootsie rolls and a slushie and get back here before the carpet absorbs me.
posted by loquacious at 8:38 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

As a bit of a brain saver...

It was the anencephalic baby thread that drove me to it...

...simple and dumb...

This is just fucking horrible. Will people stop with the dead baby jokes already?
posted by desjardins at 8:39 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Hi iconomy! is the new Malkovich!
posted by y2karl at 8:39 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Just sayin'....
posted by y2karl at 8:39 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Porn != neckbeard, as if I need to explain why.

Piracy != neckbeard, as gnu/linux is free to download.

Rock != neckbeard, as both Jim and Jerry are dead, though one is likely a little more dead than the other.


No, I will not subscribe to this newsletter. It is scratchy.
posted by loquacious at 8:45 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Dude, loquacious, what are you doing in the ball-pit? I mean your pockets are turned out and that kid ran away from here awfully happy with a handful of tickets.
posted by P.o.B. at 8:46 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

and, regardless, people who are going to remember embarrassing shit someone said on subject x two years ago are plentiful enough in aggregate that a magical utility isn't really necessary.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The MeFi grudgeholders are a breed of people I will never understand. Truly a level of obsessiveness of which even I am not capable. (and that's saying a lot!)

If I actually remembered all the stupid crap people said, I'd have so many grudges that I'd have to leave the site. Permanently. As it is, I actually make an effort to forget the dumb shit that people say. Every once in a while, I'll see someone's name and think to myself, "Oh that's X. He said something really snarky and annoying to me that one time." But then, instead of trying to remember exactly what he said, I'll think to myself, "Yeah, but who hasn't said something snarky and annoying to me?" And promptly let it go.

Perhaps some of that is the fact that I'm a loud obnoxious motherfucker who says whatever's on his mind and sometimes elicits a strong reaction on internet discussion forums. But I think a lot of that comes from seeing people be complete and utter dicks in one thread only to totally redeem themselves in the next thread. So yeah. Grudges are bullshit. And so are their idiot cousin, Picking Through Your Comment History. To my mind, every user gets a clean slate at the beginning of a thread.

(steps off soapbox)
posted by Afroblanco at 8:48 AM on April 24 [3 favorites]

Porn != neckbeard, as if I need to explain why.

Have you seen Ron Jeremy lately? I'll save you some grief. He's in the new Crank movie. Oh, wait...that movie was ridiculously stupid...and fun!
posted by P.o.B. at 8:49 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

As for with what I did not agree, I should have thought it obvious. Thou considerest not the dyslexia that is in thine own cortex, I guess.

Whose idea of community participation are we talking about here? Take a look: there's a large hump in the middle, but overall, you can see that the usage patterns of various MeFites is wild and varied. If you would like to narrowly define community participation as the reading of all comments, by all means, go ahead. I'll define it as being able to answer quizzes on my ponderous writings. Oh, no looking back at threads. I'm expecting full retention here. *whacks a ruler into his palm* Guilt for everyone!

But let's pretend that there's a common consensus. I can construe "failure in community participation" at numerous levels. Maybe you're not flagging enough. Did you check to make sure nobody else had voiced a similar comment, rendering your redundant? Have you made enough good posts lately? Were you all that careful about how you answered that question? One could find a failure in community participation in practically anyone on MetaFilter, should one care to look. What was that bit in The Devils, "give me five words in a man's hand and I can hang him"? Cast the first stone, etc.

Because we are all of us here guilty of not behaving according to the non-standard of "community participation," should one look, I find finger-wagging to be pointless, especially over something as trivial as a purely optional script that a handful of users will use to review long threads. I don't see it as a tool for stalking, insulting people, spamming, or anything that terrible. It's an optional review tool, not an insidious plot to create a cancer from within that will result in the collapse of a community. That's all.

Pardon me for interrupting the full group stomp in progress. Carry on, droogies.
posted by adipocere at 8:52 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

It's true. I don't flag nearly enough.
posted by P.o.B. at 8:56 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Hey loquacious, when are you going to get a real computer so you don't have to do with that crummy != ?

!= ≠ ≠
posted by Mister_A at 8:58 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

But I think a lot of that comes from seeing people be complete and utter dicks in one thread only to totally redeem themselves in the next thread.

True.
posted by nola at 9:00 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The MeFi grudgeholders are a breed of people I will never understand. Truly a level of obsessiveness of which even I am not capable. (and that's saying a lot!)

Well, part of what I'm getting at is that you don't have to be a grudgeholder to remember stuff that happened a while back, and conversely being able to recall and locate and reference old stuff doesn't automatically make someone a grudgeholder. People with long memories for trivial mefiana can be (and largely are) totally decent about it, and people who hold grudges can have totally shitty memories. It's a plane, if anything, not a continuum.

There are folks who hold genuine (and often mutual) personal grudges around here, with varying tenacity and aggressiveness and nastiness, and I hate that crap. But it's a pretty small subset—and I tend to be hyper-aware of a lot of it because we hear about it as mods (via the principals, via third-party observers) and so I'm comfortable sizing it that way.

Aside from that, there are a whole lot of people who remember stuff and might reference history in context in varyingly polite or grouchy manner as a one-off when it comes up but then leave it at that. Describing that as grudgeholding is I think pushing too far to one side of the seesaw; Brand New Day is a nice idea and I like it when people can bilaterally embrace it, but it's unrealistic to believe that there's an enforceable Get Out Of Stupid Behavior Free card that anyone can play.

Reputation is a weird and ever-changing thing, built up out of a thousand individual impressions, and while making an effort to change bad impressions into good ones is noble and laudable work, it's still work because people have a right (if, thankfully, not an obligation or a mandate) to remember what's come before. Social interaction is a tricky beast that way.
posted by cortex at 9:04 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Thou considerest not the dyslexia that is in thine own cortex, I guess.

Oh no yuo dind't.
posted by cortex at 9:06 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

jermsplan writes "none of you ever went into a 100+ comment post you missed over the weekend or because you were busy that day and hit CTRL+F for 'favorites +' and just scrolled along reading anything in the double digits?"

Never. I'll occasionally jump into the middle of a thread if a comment gets linked on Meta but even then I often end up reading the whole thing.
posted by Mitheral at 9:09 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

If you have mod points and would like to support GNAA, please moderate this post up.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:16 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I'm putting a comment in this thread just for the sake of getting more favorites.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:16 AM on April 24 [3 favorites]

FAVORITES ARE NOT A FORM OF CURRENCY, AND HAVE NO INTRINSIC VALUE.

What? I can't trade my favorites in for MetaFiltr Bux™?? You are totally harshing my vibe here, man.

How about Camel Cash, then?
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:19 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Well, part of what I'm getting at is that you don't have to be a grudgeholder to remember stuff that happened a while back, and conversely being able to recall and locate and reference old stuff doesn't automatically make someone a grudgeholder.

Hmmmm. I dunno. I guess this is one of those areas where online interaction differs from normal, person-to-person interaction.

In normal person-to-person interaction, you don't have some kind of conversation log that you can go back to and quote from. I think this is a very good thing. If it did, I don't know how people would be able to stand each other.

This is something that I've thought a lot about - how online communication breeds misunderstanding and contempt. Not always in large amounts; sometimes it can be subtle. For example, lack of such basic things as intonation and body language can make everything come off as more mean, sarcastic, and SERIOUS than it was meant. That's why I try never to address anything serious, personal, or emotional through email or (gah!) IM. Or even over the phone, if I can help it.

Don't get me wrong - in real life, people will say dumb shit, and sometimes, if it's dumb enough, it *will* be remembered. But there's a much higher bar for that in person-to-person communication than there is on a site like MeFi. The reasons for this are myriad : the lack of a "conversation log," the fact that you're not typically addressing thousands (or tens of thousands?) of people at a time, the fact that the people around you know you and know when not to take you seriously, etc.

Anyway, I guess this is all subjective. As I've mentioned, I make a conscious effort NOT to remember the dumb crap that people say. If I didn't do that, I really would have to leave this site, because (otherwise intelligent) people say dumb crap here ALL THE DAMN TIME.

Besides, people should be allowed to change their minds, and shouldn't be held to some artificial standard of consistency to which they would never be held in real life. A comment typically represents just one constituent element of a person's overall opinion on a subject. To deny that is to be unfairly reductionist. A person's contributions to a community make up a sort of Zeno's Paradox series of snapshots that adds up to something far less than the sum of its equal parts. Besides, sometimes people post when they're drunk, angry, or just plain having a bad day. I can think of a million reasons not to play the grudge game. But ultimately, not holding grudges is just part of my own personal survival strategy for MeFi (and life), and as with all things, your personal mileage may vary.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:21 AM on April 24 [4 favorites]

I think the neckbeards are the least of our problems here.

You just say that because you don't have to spend half an hour every morning shaving from your chin all the way down to your shirtline.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:22 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Who is going to start the backchannel site where we can trade favorites for sexual favors and profit?

You clearly don't understand what Metatalk is used for.
posted by dersins at 9:28 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Oh that reminds me – dersins, did I leave my kneepads at your place?
posted by Mister_A at 9:36 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Thou considerest not the dyslexia that is in thine own cortex, I guess.

Oh no yuo dind't.

Oh, no, not this shi@ again.
posted by lysdexic at 9:38 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

These favorites threads make a mockery of everything favorites stand for. I for one am ashamed of you people.
posted by graventy at 9:38 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Pardon me for interrupting the full group stomp in progress. Carry on, droogies.

there's this greasemonkey script that got posted today that would make a lot of that just disappear - have you tried it yet?
posted by pyramid termite at 9:39 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Every time a post is made about favourites, somewhere in heaven baby Jesus bludgeons a baby seal to death.
posted by ob at 9:39 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

FAVORITES ARE NOT A FORM OF CURRENCY, AND HAVE NO INTRINSIC VALUE

I thought they were worth one-tenth of a cent, like Canadian coupons.
posted by GuyZero at 9:40 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I didn't get nearly enough favorites for that comment, you know.
posted by yhbc at 9:41 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

So are you going to just sit back and let everyone else's unfiltered reading dictate what gets through your filter to you? If everyone has this script turned on, then nothing gets favorites.

What really surprises me is that someone who has the wits to write a greasemonkey script would think that this would be a good idea.
posted by dunkadunc at 9:44 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Every time a post is made about favourites, somewhere in heaven baby Jesus bludgeons a baby seal to death.

I always imagined him having issues with dad, a fetish for pain and pure hatred for humanity.

"I was nailed to a fucking cross foryour sins, but you're making shitty FPPs like that?! WTF is wrong with you?!"
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:53 AM on April 24 [3 favorites]

If everyone has this script turned on, then nothing gets favorites.

S#!T THAT'S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN
posted by Sys Rq at 9:55 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Go Fuck a Rainbow.

As much as I love that phrase and how much we've been seeing it around here, every time I read it, I wish it was 'Go Fuck a Razor'. It's just, I don't know, um, edgier.
posted by kingbenny at 9:57 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

(Seems to me it's for the lurkers. No big whoop.)
posted by Sys Rq at 9:57 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

And besides that, I don't feel like Rainbows have done anything to deserve all the unwanted fucking the original phrase requests.
posted by kingbenny at 10:00 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I thought they were worth one-tenth of a cent, like Canadian coupons.

when i get 10,000 i'm cashing them in for celine dion
posted by pyramid termite at 10:10 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Hey, everybody, I just wrote a Greasemonkey script that filters out every Metatalk thread complaining about favorites!

not really, but come on, that would be cool, right?
posted by misha at 10:10 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

when i get 10,000 i'm cashing them in for celine dion

Dude, do the math right. She's on the new $1,000 bill. Gordie Howe is on the $10.
posted by GuyZero at 10:16 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

The idea isn't stupid, really, at least if used for the stated purpose of parsing old big-ass threads. It does change the experience, however. The thread will no longer be a conversation. However, I think hifimofo is fully aware of that:

Naturally, if you wish to fully participate in a thread you will have to turn the script off.

The invective has really been uncalled for here. It does what it says on the box, "simple and dumb" included.
posted by cimbrog at 10:16 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Naturally, if you wish to fully participate in a thread you will have to turn the script off.

Betcha there's tons that won't and will repeat things others have said with the opening line of, "I don't know why no one has mentioned this yet, but..."
posted by piratebowling at 10:17 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

ime rainbows, they're really attractive, but not that great in bed
posted by little e at 10:19 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

So I guess it's too late to comment and still count on five favorites, huh?

I hope it's not too late to say that, although I'm in favor of people viewing webpages however they want, I hope that anyone who does use this stupid-ass Slashdotty thing doesn't also comment.

On preview: Please go back and remove the "posted by..." line from your comment. With this line, the comment appears to be spoofed comments from other members so they're not allowed.
posted by box at 10:25 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Betcha there's tons that won't and will repeat things others have said with the opening line of, "I don't know why no one has mentioned this yet, but..."

So no change, then?
posted by inigo2 at 10:33 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Go Fuck a Rainbow.

Anyone who says this has obviously never been to a Rainbow Gathering.

Hippies don't exactly have a reputation for excessive hygiene as it is. Throw in 1-4 weeks of camping and not bathing, and the stink can get downright brutal.
posted by Afroblanco at 10:36 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Yep, they're a colourful bunch alright.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:38 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Is this the thread where I come for five free favorites?
posted by shakespeherian at 10:50 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Is there a script out there that ignores favorites?
posted by frecklefaerie at 11:03 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I'm going to trawl up some favorites right here:

I don't think George W. Bush distinguished himself as a particularly good President.

That, my friends, is how you score some favorites. Also, saying "assbutt" gets you faves.
posted by Mister_A at 11:05 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

@Mister_A: Flagged for blink tag.
posted by cimbrog at 11:11 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

I can finally see all my comments.
posted by Falconetti at 11:36 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I tried to fuck a rainbow but got carried away and ended up shagging a junky leprechaun instead. He just kept on saying something about pot and how this wasn't great crack.
posted by ob at 11:39 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Is there a script out there that ignores favorites?

Indeed there is.
posted by gman at 11:49 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I'll give you a tip on how to recognize [fantastic comments]. They say "posted by ND¢" at the bottom. Why don't you make a greasemonkey for that.

I would, but can't find that damned "cent sign" key.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:47 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Lots of old typewriters make the cent sign share a key with the at sign--of course, that was before the at sign's rise to fame.
posted by box at 1:07 PM on April 24 [2 favorites]

I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
posted by mds35 at 1:29 PM on April 24 [2 favorites]

I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
posted by box at 1:30 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I wish it was 'Go Fuck a Razor'.

We keep that variant for the neckbeards amongst us.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:39 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Well, part of what I'm getting at is that you don't have to be a grudgeholder to remember stuff that happened a while back, and conversely being able to recall and locate and reference old stuff doesn't automatically make someone a grudgeholder.

That is well worth highlighting and repeating. I would add that you don't have to be a grudgeholder to misremember old stuff. My experience is that once you have gotten onto someone else's shit list, you have a place holder there for life. And God forbid you should have ever shown any feelings over being persecuted. That is like chum for sharks hereabouts.

This is something that I've thought a lot about - how online communication breeds misunderstanding and contempt.

I think it has to do with the fact that people can get away with it. Baseless accusations and personal slanders become institutionalized by repetition and that becomes who that person is forever. They are reified into a cartoon. And it is so easy to hate a cartoon.

Dios is a good example for that--he came in angry and harsh and now there are those who will never miss a chance to get in another lick. Worse yet for him is that it still so obviously bothers him when he is attacked. So, if he shows up anywhere to express an opinion, there will be a contigent of picadors, pitchforks and torches awaiting. Which offends his sense of justice. And when he complains of the unfairness, well, that's when people really pile on.

Here's another example: once upon a time, I made a lot of posts about the war in Iraq. Throughout the same time, I made maybe three about the person of the 43rd president. Yet, if and when there was ever a callout, however on point or not, from someone or another, I would always get this We Know You Hate Bush crap. Which was news to me. I mean, I don't hate Bush. I didn't hate Reagan either, for that matter. Not personally, not as a topic of conversation, nor as a focus of attention. If you asked in real life, how I felt about the current administration, I could say so without dwelling on the person of the former president. Because I didn't and don't give a rat's ass about him, personally.

But all the time here, it was We Know You Hate Bush.

It can really be annoying to get such crap flung at oneself over and over. Generally, however, it is a big mistake to ever let on that you are so annoyed. Because if there is anyone out there who ever had a grudge against you, it gets reactivated the minute you show any feelings about it. Poor dios hates being attacked and has been unrelentingly
honest about it. Look where it got him. The Unforgiven is always a midnight movie for him here.

(I would add, parenthetically, that this is what bothers me about the moderation here. The mods ought to be as pure as Caesar's wife, so to speak. And yet they are human, too, and hate being attacked as much as the next person, and can hold a grudge as readily as the next person, and can show feelings and hurt feelings as well as the next person. And can have the same problems acknowledging any error. Which is why I hate to see any of them ever get sharp with anyone here--because if anything enables a little mob action here, it's when a moderator decides to take sides, whether by simply jumping in on some tag team action or by doing something as seemingly innocuous as favoriting someone else's zinger.

And, Lord knows, moderator or not, nothing smells like blood in the water as taking open offense at by a third party favoriting a zinger some enemy has posted at one's expense.

And, yes, I was looking at you when I wrote that.

... (You'll just have to guess who...

Or I will have to guess who, too, for that matter...)
posted by y2karl at 2:41 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I thought I saw Joe Hill last night.
posted by languagehat at 4:39 PM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: It was the anencephalic babies that drove me to it.
posted by Elmore at 6:26 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I don't think you'll find any threads with 180 comments about W these days.
posted by troybob at 6:28 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Damn. I missed the opportunity to artificially inflate my sense of self worth by posting early in this thread to harvest some favourites.
posted by Decimask at 6:31 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Is there a script that will send an automatic 'thank you' message to everyone who favorites my posts?
posted by troybob at 6:33 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Oh? Perhaps I should guide you towards some Osaka/Konata crossover slashfic?

That was actually pretty funny. Haruhi Suzumiya is in this too? How many different animu is this guy using?

I have to confess I love fan-made art. I've seen people create some amazing artwork and make great music based on something as humble as a 13-episode animated television show.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:35 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I flagged cimbrog for the @ @tack.

Also, if it's OK with everyone, would you please address me as "The Bhagwan" from now on? TIA.
posted by Mister_A at 6:44 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

@The Bhagwan: Ok!

@Marisa Stole the Precious Thing: I have to confess I didn't really read through the whole thing, I just Googled "Osaka x Konata fic" on the assumption that it existed. I'll go take another look just for the heck of it. While fan made stuff can be really good, I've shied away from fan-writing for a long while. Which is really odd considering my RACC background.

@Metafilter: I favorited a declawed, circumcised anencephalic kitten from Palestine.

(I was just kidding around with the @ stuff at first, but its addictive!)
posted by cimbrog at 8:06 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

..@@.....@@.....@@.......@@....
___________________________

Ice Planet Hoth
posted by grobstein at 8:14 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

I shook the favorites tree and all I got was these damn peaches.
posted by liketitanic at 10:11 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

THE SIXTEEN WAYS WILL BLOW YOUR MIND

in the future this is enough to get sixteen favorites, please I need them for my children! no please! the sun is so far! Oh god! Please! oh God! Oh god no!
posted by The Whelk at 10:24 PM on April 24 [1 favorite]

What a bunch of nasty motherfuckers. READ MY COMMENT I DEMAND IT ME ME ME oh get the fuck over yourself and let people do what they do sheesh.
posted by Non Prosequitur at 11:31 PM on April 24 [3 favorites]

Actually upon reflection I agree with mr_crash_davis; to save our brains we need a script that cuts out comments with disproportionately high favorite counts. Because e.g., speaking of holding grudges, apparently the Supreme Court of the United States is not impressed by the Ortho Effect™
posted by Non Prosequitur at 12:00 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]

ND¢": I'll stop being coy. You are going to miss some of my comments that are too awesome for the unwashed here to fully comprehend. I don't try to make my comments play in Peoria if you know what I'm saying.

Hear, hear. I have this experience all the time; I'm fairly certain that, if it hadn't been a bit too much for most people, and if it had thus gotten favorites, my recent commentary on Xenophon in AskMe would probably have been much better received than it was.

Ah well. Such is the price of being a subtle and superlatively intelligent human being.
posted by koeselitz at 2:12 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]

Confession: hifimofo, remember at the last meetup, I wouldn't listen to anything you had to say? It's because in real life, I won't give anyone with less than 500 favourites to their name, the time of day.
posted by gman at 5:29 AM on April 25

*checks favorite count, narrows eyes*

Just you wait, gman. Just you wait.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:49 AM on April 25 [2 favorites]

Why is it when anyone makes a Greasemonkey script and mentions it here, the result is a 200 post thread with people screaming that "THIS WILL DESTROY METAFILTER AS WE KNOW IT!"? Like, you know that in order to use such a script, you have to voluntarily choose to install and use it, right? And that relatively few people will bother? And that its use is not mandatory for everyone?
posted by DecemberBoy at 6:14 AM on April 25

Oh, I don't think this sort of script will destroy Metafilter. I just think it shows what the writer thinks of the site, those of us who participate, and the value of favorites- in other words, I think it's in bad taste, far worse than dead baby jokes.
posted by dunkadunc at 6:22 AM on April 25

Not really seeing anyone saying the script will DESTROY Metafilter. I think the objections are along the same vein as killfiling - disrupts the flow of discussion by filtering out comments under a set level of favorites (as opposed to a user or users). It also touches on that whole contentious "what are favorites for?" argument in sticking to one narrow definition.

But yeah, I don't think a lot of people are going to use this script. Having said that, I think anyone who does should leave a little note on their profile saying so. And why. In 200-500 words.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 6:26 AM on April 25

Why is it when anyone makes a Greasemonkey script and mentions it here, the result is a 200 post thread with people screaming that "THIS WILL DESTROY METAFILTER AS WE KNOW IT!"?

It really depends what the script does.
posted by gman at 6:54 AM on April 25

I'm overwhelmed. Almost every comment in this thread has five favorites or more.

I need a script to cater to my discerning taste. Something that filters out anything with less than fifteen favorites, stat.

Thanks in advance.
posted by djgh at 7:49 AM on April 25

Something that filters out anything with less than fifteen favorites, stat.

Install Mondo Meta.

Choose Delete-Filter from dropdown.

Delete if text: \[((\d|(1[^5-9]))[^0-9].*?favorites?\s+)?\+\]

Located in: Footer

Check Regular expression checkbox

Click Save.

All messages with less than 15 favorites, gone.

JavaScript's support for regular expressions is an awesome thing.
posted by mdevore at 10:54 AM on April 25

Why does Greasemonkey bring out the Bunsen Honeydew in people on MetaFilter?
posted by KokuRyu at 1:52 AM on April 24 [11 favorites +] [!]

I resent this comment.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 5:44 PM on April 25 [1 favorite]

I created a greasemonkey script that cuts off comments in the midd
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:12 AM on April 26

I CREATED A MONKEYFISHING GREASEMONKEY SCRIPT THAT MAKES ALL MY MONDAYFRIDAY COMMENTS MORE MOTHERFATHER XTREME! YET STILL MOTHERFUCKING PG-13-RATED

it's in beta
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:21 AM on April 26 [2 favorites]

I've made a greasemonkey script that cuts off the crust. I've also made one that adds a spoonful of sugar, so the snark goes down easier.
posted by P.o.B. at 3:44 PM on April 26

I've taken everyone's comments on board and renamed the script to A Lurker's Delight.

I feel it is more positive, less pejorative, and it has quite a zing to it. Plus it now appears first when you search on Userscripts.org for MetaFilter!
posted by hifimofo at 6:35 PM on April 26

I hope no one ever uses this, but hey you can't flag what you don't read

HAY GUYS, I wrote a script that goes through and flags every comment with less than 4 favorites!!
posted by !Jim at 12:42 AM on April 27

hifimofo: "I've taken everyone's comments on board and renamed the script to A Lurker's Delight."

I love this. Especially the part where you ignore all the nay-sayers. I'm glad you're so easygoing. The Grey can seem a bit unwelcoming to newcomers.
posted by Plutor at 10:17 AM on April 27

I hope no one ever uses this, but hey you can't flag what you don't read

HAY GUYS, I wrote a script that goes through and flags every comment with less than 4 favorites!!

[HAPPY ENDING VER.:]

. . . as fantastic!
posted by grobstein at 8:21 PM on April 27