I'll take "SEO spammer" for $5, Alex.

July 18, 2009 4:15 PM

So you think you know Metafilter?

To repent for not being able to make it to any of this weekend's festivities in person, I made you all a silly little gift: a Metafilter Quiz. 30 questions, 50 points is a perfect score.

Play it at the meetup! Or in the quiet comfort of your easy chair! The link is at the end of the [more inside].

Some quick notes:

-Googling, Wikipedia-ing or even clicking away from the quiz tab or window is of course frowned upon with extreme prejudice strictly forbidden in the interest of sportsmanship.
-I tried to tune the difficulty so that it would be impossible for noobs and a breeze for die-hards. You may well disagree.
-It's perhaps understandably biased towards the last five years or so (when I've been around), but I tried to put some old-timey stuff in there too.
-Correct answers are worth between one and three points, and I tried to sequence the questions so that they very vaguely rise in difficulty. This is of course very arbitrary and subjective.
-Something so inside-baseball-ish as this should of course come with specific feedback and background (and links!) per question, but the free version of ClassMarker (which I used) won't allow it. Perhaps if there is interest we could make a page on the wiki or somewhere where questions and answers are explained.
-If you spot an error of any kind, let me know via MefiMail.

Thank you for everything, Metafilter, and here's to another ten years!

NOW PLAY.

posted by goodnewsfortheinsane to MetaFilter-related at 4:15 PM (233 comments total)

Oh, I suppose you can expect this thread to contain spoilers throughout.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:21 PM on July 18

I got 82 percent without even reading the questions.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 4:23 PM on July 18

66% :(
posted by found missing at 4:32 PM on July 18

86%.

Jesus, what have I done with my life?
posted by flashboy at 4:33 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

goodnewsfortheinsane - how great! Thanks for putting in the time and effort to do this.

48%. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
posted by kbanas at 4:35 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

68% percent. Some of the questions were *hard*, with more than one answer seemingly plausible.
posted by typewriter at 4:36 PM on July 18

My score is embarrassingly low, so I won't be posting it here.

But it was a fun quiz. Thanks gnfti for putting this together!!
posted by marsha56 at 4:38 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

84%
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:42 PM on July 18

I'm embarrassed that I spent 11 minutes and 24 seconds taking this quiz...but not as embarrassed as I would have been if I had taken the time to make it!

Score:
30 out of 50 points
Percentage:
60%
Duration:
11 mins 24 secs
posted by mrmojoflying at 4:43 PM on July 18

84%!
posted by matthewr at 4:48 PM on July 18

76% in about 9 and a half minutes.
posted by Justinian at 4:48 PM on July 18

Nice work! 86%..
posted by davey_darling at 4:48 PM on July 18

82%
That scares me.
posted by Stewriffic at 4:53 PM on July 18

78%. Wow.

I've never seen this "often-linked" photo of donutex.
posted by DU at 4:53 PM on July 18

(I guessed the underpants one.)
posted by DU at 4:54 PM on July 18

62%
posted by AwkwardPause at 4:58 PM on July 18

Here it is (the donut, not the underpants)
posted by DU at 4:58 PM on July 18

I scored 68%. That was fun! I'm okay that I didn't get a 100; really.
posted by heyho at 4:58 PM on July 18

66%

Damn my lack of knowledge of Metatalk shenanigans.
posted by m0nm0n at 4:59 PM on July 18

And that donut photo is fucking HOT.
posted by heyho at 5:01 PM on July 18

82%. Clearly I've spent far too much of the last few years here.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 5:01 PM on July 18

72 percent. Guess that means I'm (un)cool enough to go to tonight's meetup.
posted by donpedro at 5:03 PM on July 18

41/50 (84%)

My knowledge of longboat etymology, banhammer-contests, taglines, and Music Challenge lyrics is sadly lacking...
posted by Rhaomi at 5:03 PM on July 18

68% (12 mins 47 secs) -- but, damn, I'm suffering from wine-flu!
posted by ericb at 5:04 PM on July 18

74%. That was really well put together and the nostalgia made me smile :)
posted by goshling at 5:04 PM on July 18

96%. I wiffed on the longboat-origins question. I was sort of a johnny-come-slightly-latery on that front.

Nice work, gnfti.
posted by cortex at 5:04 PM on July 18

If nothing else the quiz cleared up all that viking/"viking" bullshit that I've been too lazy to research myself.
posted by Science! at 5:07 PM on July 18

Fun quiz. I got 84% with some lucky guesses.
Happy 10th anniversary Metafilter!
posted by various at 5:09 PM on July 18

96%, also missed the longboat one. Very nice job with the quiz.
posted by Upton O'Good at 5:14 PM on July 18

I missed the longboat one! I seriously had no idea how that started and never bothered to ask cortex or jessamyn why they were called that.
posted by mathowie at 5:15 PM on July 18 [9 favorites]

That's OK, it doesn't seem to be in the wiki either.
posted by Science! at 5:17 PM on July 18

Well, wouldn't have helped much to ask cortex.

;)
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:18 PM on July 18

76% in about seven minutes. I knew I would eventually rue the day that I wasn't in on the longboat or viking in-jokes.
posted by scody at 5:24 PM on July 18

72%

I entirely missed out on the longboats thing. This is the first I've heard of it.
posted by grumblebee at 5:27 PM on July 18

84% and I've never even been here before. Where the hell am I?

I really enjoyed the quiz. Good work on it!
posted by educatedslacker at 5:27 PM on July 18

88%. At least cortex beat me.
posted by gleuschk at 5:27 PM on July 18

Thanks for this gnfti. I got 38 out of 50.

Waitwhat?!?! Jessamyn posted the Chicken f*cker?!?!?
posted by pjern at 5:30 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

41 out of 50 points
82%
8 mins 26 secs
posted by stavrogin at 5:32 PM on July 18

Score: 41 out of 50 points
Percentage: 82%
Duration: 9 mins 5 secs
Date Taken: Sat 18th Jul 2009

I'm really familiar with the wiki. Without checking the April Fools entry, I think the AI experiment didn't happen on April 1, but due to a server problem that got a niftier than usual page.

Having not read most of this page, or previewed, sorry if this repeats much.
posted by Pronoiac at 5:32 PM on July 18

I won't take your *test*
posted by nola at 5:33 PM on July 18

86%.
posted by flibbertigibbet at 5:38 PM on July 18

I didn't do so well! 56%. Huh. Now I don't even have a source of pride to point to as a pathetic attempt to justify the amount of time I spend on this site.
posted by Miko at 5:42 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

58%.

I'm embarrassed.
posted by jayder at 5:42 PM on July 18

88% (18 mins 53 secs)

That was a really fun quiz, gnfti. There were a lot of very plausible incorrect answers in there.

Also: What have I done with the last five years of my life ?!
posted by mosessis at 5:50 PM on July 18

It's okay, Miko. Like most quiz masters, I doubt I would do as well as you if I weren't the one holding the cue cards.

Plus, there's a real reporting bias, as marsha56 so candidly notes. The scores in this thread may seem high, but then they are nerds. Speak up losers!

PS I love you nerds
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:52 PM on July 18

I did want to say it was a great quiz. I've created a few quizzes, and it's surprisingly hard to invent the plausible wrong answers. In this one, there were many, and they were quite believable. Well done!
posted by Miko at 5:53 PM on July 18 [3 favorites]

I just scraped in with a pass! And here I was feeling ashamed because I actually recognised and remembered the events that each question was asking about!
posted by liquorice at 5:57 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

76% in eight minutes, eleven seconds, even with a toddler with a poopy diaper pulling at my pant leg the whole time.

goddamn vikings and their goddamn longboats
posted by ambrosia at 5:57 PM on July 18

Will this score appear on my transcript?
posted by found missing at 5:58 PM on July 18

Oh, more than just your transcript, mate.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:02 PM on July 18

I hope you knoooow that this will go doooown on your permanent record...
posted by scody at 6:02 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

Score:
41 out of 50 points
Percentage:
82%

In just under 7 minutes. *kills self*
posted by jokeefe at 6:04 PM on July 18

Yeah, the longboat thing got me, too.
posted by jokeefe at 6:05 PM on July 18

88% - blew the longboat, Viking and April Fool questions (there were two April Fool stunts on the list I didn't remember and I eenie-meenie-miney-moed wrong... was one of them in 2001, my webless year?)

And thanks gnifti for including me as an answer... (even if it's a wrong answer... yeah, that's a spoiler but who'd think I could've been smart enough to first suggest MetaTalk? Come on...)
posted by wendell at 6:08 PM on July 18

I got an 82. I should have signed up for the Kaplan course after all.
posted by Mister_A at 6:17 PM on July 18 [2 favorites]

72%. Whew! Guess I'll skate by with a C.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:21 PM on July 18

42 percent here, which I take as an amazing stat seeing as I've been a Mefi since Sept 2008.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 6:23 PM on July 18

I didn't do so well! 56%. Huh. Now I don't even have a source of pride to point to as a pathetic attempt to justify the amount of time I spend on this site.

S'okay, Miko! I've been here a modestly long time too, have read the FAQ, some of the wiki, and frequent MeTa talk first above all other subsites, and still only scored a 60%. Even with a lot of looking at the right answers and going, "Oh, yeah, that's what happened" my nerdcore cred shot. But then again, has anyone gotten them all right yet?

By the way, really thoughtful survey.
posted by mrmojoflying at 6:25 PM on July 18

... I got 15%, but that's not too bad considering pretty much everything in the quiz happened before I got here, right? Right? *hangs head*

Actually, I'm surprised I knew as much as I did, and a lot of the ones I got wrong, I would have gotten right if I'd gone with my second guesses.
posted by bettafish at 6:25 PM on July 18

And thanks gnifti for including me as an answer

The only place I have this kind of referential celebrity is in the Primate House at the zoo...and they told me I probably shouldn't come back there anymore.
posted by mrmojoflying at 6:28 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

66%
Woo, middle of the road!
posted by sperose at 6:29 PM on July 18

76%
smack in the middle of the bell curve. I was surprised by how many I did know after only not-quite-three years of hanging about.
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:32 PM on July 18

100!!

If you add 34pts to my score.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:35 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

70%. But since my username shows up as an answer, I'm giving myself an extra 10%.
posted by eyeballkid at 6:40 PM on July 18

Score:33 out of 50 pointsPercentage:66%Duration:8 mins 5 secsDate Taken:Sat 18th Jul 2009


I should have done better than that!
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 6:41 PM on July 18

74%. Less lurking, more participating needed.
posted by rsclark at 7:05 PM on July 18

62%. I only got the hard ones and the trick questions wrong.
posted by trip and a half at 7:12 PM on July 18

Yay, 92%! I too missed the longboat and Viking origin questions.

What a well-written quiz. I'd totally publish that to my wall.
posted by carsonb at 7:12 PM on July 18

74% A gentleman's C.
posted by klangklangston at 7:16 PM on July 18

Omphaloskeptic^
posted by Navelgazer at 7:19 PM on July 18

39/50, or 78%. Thanks gnfti, that was a lot of fun - and made me realize that all this time I've been reading "longboat" as "swiftboat".
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:22 PM on July 18

82%! I'm happy and kind of depressed at the same time.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 7:26 PM on July 18

Score: 38 out of 50 points
Percentage: 76%
Duration: 7 mins 15 secs

Yeah, I'll take that. Not bad for no study time.
posted by Skorgu at 7:26 PM on July 18

That was really fun! Thanks for taking the time make it for us!

Since the longboat question has stumped a lot of people, can someone explain it in more detail? The snippet in the quiz was intriguingly brief.
posted by Ian A.T. at 7:30 PM on July 18

68% Hmm. I can live with this for now, but I will be studying for the 20th anniversary quiz! In my defense, I didn't really follow metatalk until election season last year....
posted by gofargogo at 7:31 PM on July 18

wow...I sucked at that... but thanks... neat post!
posted by HuronBob at 7:36 PM on July 18

Seriously, there's a major Lake Wobegon effect going on here. That's not a bad thing per se, and not unexpected, but speaking as the quiz's author, I'd say anything over 60% is damn impressive.

Metafilter, where all the women are strong (at trivia), all the men are good-looking (at trivia), and all the kids are above average (damn noobs).
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:39 PM on July 18

78% in 12.40. Better than I thought I'd do, noob that I am. Thank you, that was fun!
posted by notquitemaryann at 7:40 PM on July 18

Score:38 out of 50 points -- 76%.

Kinda weak for 5 years of obsession.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:46 PM on July 18

but speaking as the quiz's author, I'd say anything over 60% is damn impressive

Seeing as I got 60% exactly, I declare myself darned impressive instead of damned.

But really, I would be interested in figuring out how many of those questions either require MetaTalk specific information to answer, or would me much more answerable by someone familiar with MeTa.
posted by mrmojoflying at 7:51 PM on July 18

58%
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 7:53 PM on July 18

but who'd think I could've been smart enough to first suggest MetaTalk?

I did

But in my defense I had to guess at most of the "hard" ones
posted by dogmom at 7:57 PM on July 18

36%, but I've been here less than 3 months. Things I know: put quotes from previous comments in italics, do not use the @ sign to respond to somebody, people really wanted to talk about Palin (online or meatspace), and nobody writes a blog about getting better gas mileage on their SUV.

I was not really surprised to learn that jessamyn suggested metatalk (even though I got that one wrong), but I was surprised to learn that she had linked to fowl porn.
posted by jeoc at 8:13 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

39 out of 50 points
Percentage:
78%
Duration:
13 mins 7 secs

Thanks goodnewsfortheinsane
posted by Sailormom at 8:13 PM on July 18

27 right. I forgot the percentage already.

It's a good quiz! Very well done. Thanks!
posted by Malor at 8:14 PM on July 18

er, 27 points.
posted by Malor at 8:14 PM on July 18

Excellent job, jeoc, and no irony there.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:16 PM on July 18

Sorry, even though I trust gnfti, I refuse to follow gratuitous URL-obscuring links like tinyurl on twisted, internet-crazy-person principle. So my score would be zero.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:18 PM on July 18

I got 70%, the same score as eyeballkid. So as a gesture of solidarity, I'll just sit around and hate you all.

(Good fun for those of us unable to attend a 10th meetup. Ta gnfti!)
posted by arachnid at 8:19 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

C'mon, good sir. I only did it because the ClassMarker URL is so damn ugly. Because and only because you insist:

http://www.classmarker.com/embedded_quizzes/?quiz=df3ea9b93c0e7884063b129aeeb6568a&group_id=6890

The group_id means you get the MeFi colours you love. Now report your score please, asshole.

PS I love you stav
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:20 PM on July 18

90%

I missed Cohen's response to the Ralph question and the one after it; I can't remember what it was now. I take umbrage to the Cohen question, though. That didn't happen on Metafilter!
posted by team lowkey at 8:22 PM on July 18

Oh, and I got 70%, and this was a great quiz.
posted by Navelgazer at 8:24 PM on July 18

20 out of 50. I suck.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:30 PM on July 18

80% lurker-nerd here.

great quiz! it would be fun to see links to some of the more obscure references
posted by beandip at 8:34 PM on July 18

Score:
27 out of 50 points
Percentage:
54%
Duration:
9 mins 40 secs

I clearly need to spend more time reading here.
posted by lilkeith07 at 8:36 PM on July 18

58% here, not that great since I've been here almost 8 years and visit pretty regularly. I even remember posting in the dios vs. ---- charity thread and couldn't remember who the other participant was.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:38 PM on July 18

Yes beandip, I agree that an explanation of right and wrong answers is warranted.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:40 PM on July 18

41 points out of 50, but that's only because my fingers and the iPhone are incompatible with actually selecting the correct 9622 answer.

I think I'm a little scared now.
posted by bigbigdog at 8:48 PM on July 18

76%.
posted by maxwelton at 8:48 PM on July 18

Now report your score please, asshole.

How can I refuse that?

Score:
40 out of 50 points
Percentage:
80%
Duration:
8 mins 24 secs
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:49 PM on July 18 [2 favorites]

84% in 7 minutes, 43 seconds. I guess I need to spend more time here.
posted by marxchivist at 8:52 PM on July 18

78% in 8 and a half minutes. Should've gotten the Anil Dash one, but hit the wrong answer button.

Nice work, gnifti. MOAR!
posted by hangashore at 8:55 PM on July 18

Heh. Thanks, stav, and not bad.

I'm out for today; back tomorrow.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:04 PM on July 18

I'm happy with 72%. Having elements of this Mefi life remain mysterious promotes the illusion that there always remains significant unplumbed depths that justify returning. Well played gnfti you uber-nerd.
posted by peacay at 9:22 PM on July 18

80% (40 out of 50 points) in 16 minutes. Who would have thought that MetaFilter trivia could be that much fun! Thanks so much for taking the time to make such a neat quiz, goodnewsfortheinsane!

(I don't understand the scoring, though. If there are only 30 questions, how could some people get 40 out of 50 points and some get 41? Are some answers more wrong than others?)
posted by onlyconnect at 9:43 PM on July 18

My score was embarrassingly low.
posted by brundlefly at 9:58 PM on July 18

72% Woot. Very, fun, good news. Kudos!
posted by cowbellemoo at 9:59 PM on July 18

86% in 13sth mins (am on iPhone! Is slow)
Does that make me the best quasi-lurker so far?
I got the longboat one too!
posted by ClarissaWAM at 10:01 PM on July 18

76% in 10 minutes flat. My time spent rubbernecking at old flame-outs has been well spent.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 10:19 PM on July 18

36 out of 50 correct for 72%. Huh.
posted by Lynsey at 10:20 PM on July 18

66%. You got me good with the anildash suggests ^ for wikipedia links in metatalk - I picked that one even though I was the one that suggested that in metatalk!
posted by mwhybark at 10:21 PM on July 18 [2 favorites]

I also got 40 out of 50 points, but I think it was only because I had to step away for about 15 minutes to do other stuff. I only missed four questions (yeah, the longboat was one).
posted by yhbc at 10:22 PM on July 18

um. longboat etymology was last discussed in a MeTa thread on the occasion of the 'end' (and revenant post-mortem half-life) of the BngBng-Vlt Bl 'unpublishing' blogtempest thread.

Also, grapefruitmoon links to the origin thread, apparently 9622.
posted by mwhybark at 10:37 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

...and here is ms. g. f. moon explicating.
posted by mwhybark at 10:39 PM on July 18

Great quiz! I had thought of doing something like that before the meetup, and never got around to it. This is 1000% better than what I could have thrown together. Oh, and 80%.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:40 PM on July 18 [1 favorite]

... and some evidence that when yhbc missed the longboat question, it hurt.
posted by mwhybark at 10:42 PM on July 18

44%

I gotta say.. I'm not a huge contributor here, but I've been reading it with near compulsive obsessiveness since its beginning; I regretted not signing up when the doors closed, and jumped on the chance to pay $5 to make up for my reticence. I read the fuck out of this site, frequently spending entire days in archives.. and I still failed hard at this quiz.

So yeah, two things: 1. Good job, this is really well done, seriously; 2. How did anyone who did very well manage it? Have you been reading every single thread on all three of the subsites for the past 5 years? I have trouble keeping up with the site on a daily basis, and not for a lack of trying.
posted by cj_ at 10:56 PM on July 18

A 72% in just under 11 minutes, and for almost all the ones I got wrong, I knew it was either the one I chose or one other that happened to be the correct answer (Except one, #26. That one was just flat out wrong on my part.)

That said, I can promise you this, I'm going to do what I can to make sure to perpetuate the correct answer to #3, because that made me laugh out loud. For reals.
posted by quin at 11:09 PM on July 18

Score:
42 out of 50 points

Percentage:
84%

Duration:
17 mins 45 secs (but the friggin' server locked up on me so I'm not counting . . . say . . . ten of the minutes)

Date Taken:
Sun 19th Jul 2009
posted by cgc373 at 11:25 PM on July 18

80%. Boy, do I need a job!
posted by Locative at 11:30 PM on July 18

How did anyone who did very well manage it? Have you been reading every single thread on all three of the subsites for the past 5 years?

I haven't trawled the archives very much, myself -- most of my pre-07 knowledge comes from the nearly complete read-through of the Mefi wiki I did before signing up. It's not that big (only 97 articles at the time I read it) and contains handy summaries of things like MetaTalk, Pepsi Blue, and the obit period. Throw in some anthologies ("unique" threads, comment fables, best links) a complete timeline, and a cited rundown of major in-jokes and you have a pretty solid compendium of Mefi history.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:41 PM on July 18 [2 favorites]

Whew 68%. I was afraid I would get 100%
posted by Cranberry at 11:49 PM on July 18 [2 favorites]

56%, not bad for a noob. I was helped by a few lucky guesses, eg Kucinich, but missed the longboat origins and viral marketing ones.
posted by harriet vane at 11:52 PM on July 18

Ugh, my score was bad (so bad I closed the window in annoyance and promptly forgot). ;)
posted by dabitch at 12:07 AM on July 19

That was fun and well-done, gnfti!

I am wondering about the longboat-origins question, though.

The links people have given above are from grapefruitmoon saying that she started the term, and then a link to a comment she made June 10 2005, here, in which she mentions a Viking longboat. (The main part of the comment is: Makes note to self to write it down in her will that her estate shall demand a Viking style long boat filled with tiny handcrafted skulls for rights to "Metafilter : The Book.") But that comment doesn't link to a picture of a boat, and doesn't seem to be discussing what we now call longboat threads.

Further down in the linked thread is the short discussion about the boat picture, which is just this:

And it appears as though you already have a longboat.
posted by gramschmidt at 8:41 AM on June 11, 2005 [+] [!]

That's not MY longboat. It exists on top of an Italian restaurant downtown.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:53 AM on June 11, 2005 [+] [!]

Then the longboat talk mostly goes away for a day or so, but is picked up again by gnfti when he lists some possible taglines for the thread, including "MetaTalk 9622: That's not MY longboat". The conversation drifts all over the place, with a few Viking/longboat mentions in the next few days, usually with the double-entendre meaning for longboat, rather than using longboat as a name for the type of thread. But by June 17, the term has come to refer to the whole thread. (I haven't read all the way to the end so I don't know if the term gets generalized to other long chatty threads here, or in yhbc's comment later, or somewhere else.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:11 AM on July 19 [1 favorite]

The "Next" link keeps bouncing me back to the first page. Guess it needs a correct HTTP-referer, cookies enabled, or adblock disabled.

Fail.

(Sorry, just felt this thread was lacking the usual snark. Please carry on ;-)
posted by Pinback at 12:31 AM on July 19

Fuck, a high C? Well that's it, I've now officially wasted my life by all possible metrics.
posted by nanojath at 12:33 AM on July 19

66% and a sickening feeling that I was in undergrad again. Interface déjà vu = the howling fantods.

Sweet quiz, though! Thanks.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 12:38 AM on July 19

Christ. Embarrassingly low, but I'm post-meetup tipsy, so that's my excuse.
posted by rtha at 12:39 AM on July 19 [1 favorite]

See, I'm drunk, & as soon as I got home I thought about checking into Metatalk & adding to the wiki.

I've forgotten the point here. Oh hey the iPhone is correcting my egregious typos. That's helpful.

Oh yeah.

You must be this ----------------- nerdy to top my score.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:46 AM on July 19

70%, 10m 45s.

*satisfied*
posted by mdonley at 12:47 AM on July 19

86%. I missed anildash's suggestion, longest thread, flag options and longboat. Thanks for the quiz!
posted by tomcooke at 12:57 AM on July 19

86% in 8 minutes.

That's 620 in dog years.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 1:11 AM on July 19 [1 favorite]

54%. Time spent doesn't count, since I left the browser window open while having supper. I'm happy to have gotten a few right; it could easily have been a washout.

Nicely done, gnfti.
posted by reflecked at 1:14 AM on July 19

66% in twelve minutes.

Should I be embarrassed for scoring so much or for scoring so little? Or for taking it at all? I know that I should feel bad for something here, but I'm having a hell of a time calibrating my shame.
posted by EatTheWeak at 1:18 AM on July 19

I blame the booze.
posted by heyho at 1:26 AM on July 19

2. How did anyone who did very well manage it? Have you been reading every single thread on all three of the subsites for the past 5 years?

Self-appointed member of the Ur Doon It Rong MeTa Squad since 2001.
posted by carsonb at 1:33 AM on July 19

90% in 10 minutes flat. Woo!

I can't believe I missed the longboat question, even after hearing cortex talk about the damned thing at the meetup. Argh.
posted by maqsarian at 1:40 AM on July 19

an embarrassing 66%.....sigh, I need to get back to reading every day, there's just no point in this getting a life malarkey if you can't ace the MeFi10# quiz!
posted by Wilder at 2:17 AM on July 19

78% in 9 minutes, though I misread the one with the SUVblog answer, fnergh.
posted by fleacircus at 2:18 AM on July 19

80% in 7m42s. That was fun - thanks!
posted by goo at 2:26 AM on July 19

Score:
14 out of 50 points
Percentage:
28%
Duration:
9 mins 18 secs
posted by eamondaly at 2:30 AM on July 19

I misread that SUVblog one, too, fleacircus, and I heartily second your fnergh!
posted by cgc373 at 2:35 AM on July 19

68%. While not that impressive, some of the questions I got right had me shaking my head, thinking how on earth do I know that.
posted by stray at 2:40 AM on July 19

80% in around 10 minutes. I did better than I thought I would.
posted by vernondalhart at 2:45 AM on July 19

76% long-time member, first time quizzer ;)
posted by dash_slot- at 4:01 AM on July 19

66%, and I feel pretty good about that. I've only been a member like a year. More, I'd be embarrassed. Less, I'd feel like I wasn't paying attention.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:17 AM on July 19

56%. Epic fail. And I read this damn site every day!
posted by idiomatika at 5:33 AM on July 19

38/50. Would have been 39, but I'd finally gotten THAT SONG out of my head/blocked, until I read the answers. YEAH WELL YOUR FACE.
posted by mimi at 5:39 AM on July 19

ps: thanks, that was awesome
posted by mimi at 5:40 AM on July 19

That was great:

Score: 37 out of 50 points
Percentage: 74%
Duration: 8 mins 27 secs
Date Taken: Sun 19th Jul 2009

Actually a bit disappointed in myself; the 'longboat' and 'Viking' questions were completely foreign to me. Thanks for the quiz, gnfti--really well-made!
posted by youarenothere at 5:40 AM on July 19

78%, ten minutes, I need a life
posted by disclaimer at 5:44 AM on July 19

44%. Don't know whether this a good thing (i.e., I don't spend *that* much time on the site) or a bad thing (i.e., I spend so much time on the site but don't even know what's going on).
posted by orange swan at 6:04 AM on July 19

i suck at this game.

fun quiz, tho!
posted by rmd1023 at 7:05 AM on July 19

76%. I was trying to decide whether to cut off my right hand or push the red button, but having read the thread I see that's actually not a bad score (and wow, not even the mods got 100%!), so you'll continue to have languagehate to kick around.

Great quiz!
posted by languagehat at 7:08 AM on July 19

onlyconnect: "(I don't understand the scoring, though. If there are only 30 questions, how could some people get 40 out of 50 points and some get 41? Are some answers more wrong than others?)"

Some questions (well, correct answers) are worth more points than others. The first 14 I think are 1 point, then 2 points and the last few are worth three.

LobsterMitten: "I am wondering about the longboat-origins question, though."

You raise a valid point: the term did originate with grapefruitmoon, but the restaurant thing was not the first mention. So technically that invalidates the "correct" answer, even if it is still the "most true" answer and doesn't take away from the spirit of the question. But I'll change the wording to reflect this, thank you.

In other words: turns out I myself failed to get the longboat thing right, and I was there. The history of longboats is arcane knowledge, indeed.

mimi: "YEAH WELL YOUR FACE."

Fun fact: yours is only the second time that exact phrase was used on Metafilter: the first was in this very grown-up exchange between cortex and myself. :)
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:08 AM on July 19

86% in just under 10 minutes. Not bad considering how much beer I drank last night.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 7:15 AM on July 19

84%. Bad at everything longboat.
posted by Kwine at 8:04 AM on July 19

76% for me. METAFILTER, I THOUGHT I KNEW YOU!
posted by emelenjr at 8:15 AM on July 19

Oh wait, I got 15 points out of 50 or 30%, not 15% (still awful, just not quite as awful) -- but I think I should get ten points off for not being able to read. Ah well.

Do I get a prize for having the lowest score?
posted by bettafish at 8:20 AM on July 19

I was also concerned about the viking question. When I first read the original AskMe, I thought "He's a literal viking in his dreams. DUH!" but when responding to the question my first instinct was metaphorical viking... metafilter has changed me in ways I don't like.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 8:31 AM on July 19

Literal or metaphorical liking, Solon and Thanks?
posted by cgc373 at 8:49 AM on July 19

Great fun, thanks gnfti!

Score: 46 out of 50 points
Percentage: 92%
Duration: 9 mins 27 secs
Date Taken: Sun 19th Jul 2009

I got the music collaboration track and Ralph Viking ones wrong. I'm slightly worried by how annoyed I am not to have scored 100%.
posted by jack_mo at 8:55 AM on July 19

30%, and I assume I'm the only actual n00b to take it. (This is my first time ever in metatalk).
posted by Obscure Reference at 8:59 AM on July 19

Wow, I'm indirectly referenced in the quiz. I feel like I just won at MetaFilter!
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:08 AM on July 19

Thanks so much for this, goodnewsfortheinsane!

It gave us something to do on our lonely little meetup, where we answered the quiz collectively, and the stuff we had to guess at proved to be effective icebreakers. (Another notable icebreaker was when a tweet appeared about a different meetup discussing the finer points of surprise anal.) I'd like to add props for the really plausible incorrect answers, too!

Also, having a quiz like this somehow gives value to all the time we've wasted on MeFi and how embarrassingly much we know about our beloved snark farmcommunity. Thanks again!
posted by Lush at 9:11 AM on July 19

I missed the longboat one! I seriously had no idea how that started and never bothered to ask cortex or jessamyn why they were called that.

It started in 9622v.2 (THIS MESS) when someone said "I want a cookie" or some such, and I said "I want a longboat." Well, there was a longboat in my Flickr stream and I was challenged along the lines of "You already have one!" To which I replied "That's not MY longboat!"

And it never died.

NOW YOU KNOW.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:19 AM on July 19

51% = wasted effort: 49% = wasted year. I got 50% and am now confused.
posted by dangerousdan at 9:20 AM on July 19

DAMNIT. DID NOT READ ENTIRE THREAD. SOMEONE ELSE EXPLAINED MY OWN JOKE BETTER THAN I DID. I HAVE NO, SUBSEQUENTLY, LOST AT METAFILTER.

not to mention just losing the game.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:22 AM on July 19

NOW, EVEN.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:22 AM on July 19

the first was in this very grown-up exchange between cortex and myself. :)

Oh man. Heh.

The one thing I would suggest you do differently in some alternate universe version of this is to include annotation in the answer key—link to the relevant comment(s) & post(s) for each answer so people who don't know what's up can dig in a little right there if they're feeling all didactic and stuff.
posted by cortex at 9:35 AM on July 19

47/50, 97%, no cheating, didn't even read the thread first.

I would like to give a shoutout to all my fellow 60kers. Lurking ftw.
posted by penduluum at 9:36 AM on July 19

44%, thank whatever gods may be. If I had broken 50%, it would have been the occasion for some serious reflection on the past several years.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:42 AM on July 19

Score: 43 out of 50 points
Percentage: 86%
Duration: 5 mins 58 secs

Oh, dear. But fun quiz!
posted by marginaliana at 10:02 AM on July 19

Yeah, I hinted at that in the [mi], cortex. The free version of ClassMarker (which is otherwise pretty cool) doesn't allow question-specific feedback.

I already made a page on the wiki -- maybe we can crowdsource it a bit? Again, maybe it's beanplating but I imagine there are quite a few people who did the quiz and thought "okay, now I want to find the Vienna thread" or whatever, so it would be nice if that was conveniently in one place. But I doubt I can stomach another MeFi archive binge again, like, right now. :)

I saved some of the source URLs, I'll dump them in there now.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:18 AM on July 19

Off-topic: holy shit, where did this come from? Was it in MeTa? I think I have a couple lying around to add!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:21 AM on July 19

Oh, I see.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:29 AM on July 19

92%
posted by sveskemus at 10:34 AM on July 19

84%

I was just a good guesser on a few, though.
posted by desuetude at 10:34 AM on July 19

I already made a page on the wiki -- maybe we can crowdsource it a bit?

I tracked down annotations for the first 10 questions. Now I have to drive across town. But once I get there there's nothing better to do than track down the other 20, so...
posted by carsonb at 11:11 AM on July 19 [1 favorite]

38%. This is what I get for starting at plastic.com.
posted by bitterpants at 11:19 AM on July 19 [1 favorite]

70% I got really obscure old ones right and probably obvious newer ones wrong, I swear.
posted by hydropsyche at 11:21 AM on July 19

Malor writes "er, 27 points."

It's out of 50 so 54%.

This was great. I got 76% in 12 minutes though I didn't realize it was being timed so I was taking my time. The wrong answers were certianly inspired though I think you may have been helped out by how implausible some of the true answers are. I mean who would believe someone actually threatent to cut off their hand or the chicken sodomizer (is sodomizer the right word? After all chickens only have the one hole).

My only nit is that one of the answers for question three should be [NOT FOOIST] or [NOT FOO-IST] not (NOT FOOIST).

I'd love to see some aggregate results in a few days if the software reports that to you goodnewsfortheinsane.

goodnewsfortheinsane writes "Oh, I see."

This link is better.
posted by Mitheral at 11:25 AM on July 19

86% in ten minutes. Years of obsessive lurking pays off! The dates on some of the items threw me... e.g. the professional white background... was that really more than 2 years ago? Crazy.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 11:30 AM on July 19

Yay! Excellent work, carsonb.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:39 AM on July 19

Got 64% in 7 minutes. I did much better than I expected. Great quiz carsonb!
posted by clearlydemon at 12:12 PM on July 19

Score: 46 out of 50 points
Percentage: 92%
Duration: 10 mins 29 secs

My score is partly due to reading almost every Metatalk thread that's been posted since I signed up and partly due to being a good guesser.

I had no idea about the first music collaboration. I just picked It's The End of the World etc, purely on whim. I didn't know about the longboat origin either, but people arguing about who owns a longboat and that becoming a injoke is just so damn Metafilter, so I went with that.
posted by nooneyouknow at 12:36 PM on July 19

Great quiz carsonb!

Hey, thanks! Oh, erm, I mean, that wasn't me. Thanks go to goodnewsfortheinsane, who yet again has proved true to his username.
posted by carsonb at 12:41 PM on July 19

50%. I think that's a fair rendering of my familiarity with MetaFilter; I get about half the in-jokes. Great job with this!
posted by palliser at 12:54 PM on July 19

90%! Actually the more I think about it, the more disturbed I am by having gotten such a high score. I'm among the many who biffed the longboat one. Also, I swear the choices for several questions rearranged themselves on the answer page. That was weird.
posted by obloquy at 1:14 PM on July 19

carsonb, look at who you're replying to.
posted by Pronoiac at 1:52 PM on July 19

Am I confused?
posted by carsonb at 1:59 PM on July 19

96%

I got everything except what David Silverman said about Ralph.

I'm not entirely sure if I should be proud of that.

Fuck it! It's the 10th anniversary weekend, I'm fucking proud as all fuck fuck!
posted by Kattullus at 2:20 PM on July 19

but do I get extra points for being the Mefite in the wrong answer (13 d bunnyfingers & Mathowie)???
posted by Wilder at 2:29 PM on July 19

96% in just under seven minutes! I can't believe I missed the flagging question, which seemed like it would be a gimmie, but no. I did get a few lucky guesses though.

Embarrassingly high given how low my commenting/posting rate is, but I do read the site pretty heavily. *slinks back to my lurker lair*
posted by kosher_jenny at 3:06 PM on July 19

The wiki page has answers & explanations for most of them, though going by Wilder's comment, there are more references that could be included.

Heh, I misread who you were replying to, carsonb. Doh!
posted by Pronoiac at 3:06 PM on July 19

Man, I totally boned that one.
posted by the littlest brussels sprout at 3:19 PM on July 19

Score:
39 out of 50 points
Percentage:
78%

I can;t well if I won or lost.
posted by The Whelk at 4:39 PM on July 19

Score:
23 out of 50 points
Percentage:
46%
Duration:
12 mins 59 secs
Date Taken:
Sun 19th Jul 2009

I did great at the first half and abysmal at the second. )`:
posted by srrh at 5:55 PM on July 19

66%. I can live with that.
posted by lunit at 6:44 PM on July 19

Metafilter Home For Wayward Boys & Girls
REPORT 2009
Name: tellurian
Form: 19000
Classes attended: 224

Although tellurian is settling in and doing quite well he is prone to distraction. He will sometimes disrupt the site with his attempts to gain attention.
That said, he is a pleasant boy on the whole and can be quite delightful. His recent test score of 86% is pleasing.
I would encourage him to extend himself and try harder.

Forum Master.
posted by tellurian at 6:54 PM on July 19 [3 favorites]

103%!

I liked it so much, I took it twice!
posted by humannaire at 7:07 PM on July 19

96%. I wiffed on the longboat-origins question.

Me too, exactly.

And I'm pleased that if you did have to go blabla about the chicken-fucking image at least you could also credit me for thinking up MetaTalk.
posted by jessamyn at 7:44 PM on July 19

Score: 43 out of 50 points
Percentage: 86%
Duration: 6 mins 17 secs

I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.
posted by flatluigi at 8:00 PM on July 19

Metafilter: has changed me in ways I don't like.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:08 PM on July 19

62%

I'm gonna be quoting that to management if they ever accuse me of spending too much time here.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:11 PM on July 19

68% - though I had at least 3 questions where I knew the right answer but I clicked the wrong button. Damn!

Awesome quiz, gnfti!
posted by Phire at 8:11 PM on July 19

(i'm marking myself up for getting Palinfilter wrong, though - i was aware that you guys were in a tizzy over a Pauline Hanson clone, but that was the limit of my interest)
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:19 PM on July 19

44%. Man, and that's with four years of lurking before committing the $5.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 8:44 PM on July 19

This reminds me of college when I had neglected to study for a test and went in trying to make the best damn educated guess I could using a combination of hazy memories from the lectures, a bit of logic and deciphering the professor's test writing style. I actually usually passed those kind of tests, getting around a C or B- .


I only got a 46% on the metafilter quiz though :( There was no method to it's madness!!


(Considering I knew the answer to only two or so of the questions, I'm thinking 46% is pretty good guesswork. Nothing I'd want to stake my right hand on, but not that bad.)
posted by silkygreenbelly at 9:38 PM on July 19

It'd be fun to see a XY chart graph where X=how long of membership and Y=Quiz score. I know there is a correlation, but it would be fun (well, my kind of fun) to see just how many outliers there are.
posted by silkygreenbelly at 9:57 PM on July 19

76% in about 15 minutes. I blame this score on my cat sitting on my laptop while I took the quiz. Funnily enough, this excuse didn't fly in college, either.
posted by ooga_booga at 10:08 PM on July 19

MetaFilter: it would be fun (well, my kind of fun)
posted by Kattullus at 10:11 PM on July 19

Huh, 72%. I attribute this to my tendency to hunt down in-jokes when they show up in metatalk threads. Also to a great deal of educated guessing.
posted by fermion at 10:25 PM on July 19

86%, but I've been drinking. Not bad!
posted by Greg Nog at 11:03 PM on July 19

74% and I didn't even study. Just like High School!
posted by genefinder at 6:43 AM on July 20

80%
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 7:52 AM on July 20

52%, does this mean I lose at the internets?
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 9:19 AM on July 20

86%, but I've been drinking. Not bad!

70%, but I'm hung-over. Not good.
posted by joe lisboa at 9:20 AM on July 20

64 %. And I guessed at a few (including the longboat one).

Does this mean I have to take MetaFilter again next semester?
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:47 AM on July 20

I got 86%. Which means I am totally a MeFi expert and qualified to advocate for a white background, right? :)
posted by anildash at 11:21 AM on July 20 [3 favorites]

50%. Totally expected to better. My only defence can be that I don't read Metafilter Music much and don't read Metatalk every day, along with the fact that usually the right answer was my second guess or a memory of the event but not the specific bit asked (for example, I loved the anthropomorphic animal metafilter manual, but I totally remembered something about bribes in there, and not the meetup one).
posted by Gnatcho at 11:44 AM on July 20

Score:
50 out of 50 points
Percentage:
100%
Duration:
10 mins 17 secs
Date Taken:
Mon 20th Jul 2009

Am I the only one to get 100%? That can't be right, but here's proof.

What do I get for a prize? A life?
posted by deborah at 12:18 PM on July 20 [2 favorites]

84%, but must of the questions revolved around things that have happened since I joined.
posted by lekvar at 12:24 PM on July 20

Score: 46 out of 50 points
Percentage: 92%
Duration: 9 mins 28 secs
Date Taken: Mon 20th Jul 2009
posted by soundofsuburbia at 12:25 PM on July 20

Yay, deborah! It can be done!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 1:16 PM on July 20

For the record,

Score:37 out of 50 points
Percentage:74%
Duration:8 mins 6 secs
Date Taken:Mon 20th Jul 200
posted by Squid Voltaire at 3:04 PM on July 20

86%, but I've been drinking. Not bad!

i got 142 on an IQ test after staying awake all night on a Bangkok-Sydney flight, then polishing off half a bottle of duty-free whiskey to try & get to sleep. does that redeem my terrible score?

(man, those spatial rotation questions killed me..."which colour would be on the opposite side of this unfolded dodecahedron to the side marked with the X?" "mmngh, huh, wha?" *head asplodes*)
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:10 PM on July 20

70%, 4 min something. Thanks for setting this up!
posted by paduasoy at 4:01 PM on July 20

Elton John impersonator from Italy who hosts a weekly hour-long show on RAI Due.

Dammit who outed me?
posted by romakimmy at 4:52 AM on July 21

60%. Seeing as how I signed up less than three months ago, I'm pretty cool with that.

P.S. I've been stalking you for a long time.
posted by Captain Cardanthian! at 1:51 PM on July 21

I've been reading this site for eight bloody years and 46% is all I have to show for it?!
posted by dmt at 6:30 PM on July 21

Slackers.
posted by deborah at 1:46 PM on July 22