Giving the gift of Metafilter, with words

August 8, 2009 7:13 PM

Can we add a message field to the gift membership form?

When using the gift membership form, we are limited to just entering their email address. Could we add a field, even just a couple hundred characters, for a message to this person?

Then they'd get, with italics the new section:

"Metafilter member ***** has given you the gift of a Metafilter account! Metafilter is a community weblog.

Message from member ***** follows:

Hi! I met you at the club last night, we danced all night and now I'd like you to join my cult community weblog!

To activate your account, visit the following URL:

http://www.metafilter.com/gift.mefi?invite=************

Welcome!

---
By the way, you can check out *****'s profile on Metafilter here:

http://www.metafilter.com/user/*****"

posted by Lemurrhea to feature requests at 7:13 PM (19 comments total)

Not a bad idea, though the gift form is pretty low priority so I don't know when/if we'll make the change. Usually an email to the person should suffice, no? ("Hey Bob, remember me from the meetup? Well, I went ahead and gifted you an account so if you see a random signup message from MetaFilter, that's from me)
posted by mathowie at 7:40 PM on August 8

Lemurrhea: Hi! I met you at the club last night, we danced all night and now I'd like you to join my cult community weblog!

99 times out of 100 this doesn't work, but the 100th time... it's a recipe for disaster!
posted by Kattullus at 9:41 PM on August 8

I gifted a membership to my fiancee and it would have been really awesome to be able to say something like

You're totally awesome, and MetaFilter is awesome, you two should totally meet.

posted by Deathalicious at 10:25 PM on August 8

Hey baby, wanna have a three-way with Metafilter?
posted by box at 10:36 PM on August 8

MeFi threesome: You, me, your snark.
posted by djgh at 11:03 PM on August 8

I got you a MetaFilter membership, but we can always be friends.
posted by Cranberry at 11:23 PM on August 8

I got you a MetaFilter membership, but we can always be friends spouses.
posted by boo_radley at 12:38 AM on August 9 [1 favorite]

My friend went to a club, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt Metafilter membership.
posted by iconomy at 2:25 AM on August 9

Metafilter: The first one's on me
posted by pupdog at 3:07 AM on August 9

Hey baby, wanna have a three-way with Metafilter?

This seems like as good a place as any to ask this:
How the hell can someone wind up celibate because of reading Metafilter and then have the nerve to ask for help on how to get out of celibacy? Just get the damn vasectomy before one of you explodes.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:43 AM on August 9

Hey baby, wanna have a three-way with Metafilter?

It is my deepest fear fantasy fear that one day a girl will stop me mid-coitus and say "my god... you read Metafilter, don't you?"
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:39 AM on August 9 [2 favorites]

It is my deepest fear fantasy fear that one day a girl will stop me mid-coitus and say "my god... you read Metafilter, don't you?"

It's not that bad when it happens, really. Sort of makes you want to stop and talk about it, but that's usually pretty easy an urge to ignore and press on with the matter at, er, hand. She probably only knows about it because of AskMe anyway.
posted by carsonb at 7:55 AM on August 9

> Not a bad idea, though the gift form is pretty low priority so I don't know when/if we'll make the change.

It's an excellent idea, and it seems to me (though I confess to being entirely ignorant about these things) like the kind of thing that pb knocks out in thirty minutes and then casually drops by to say "It's done." If I'm wrong, yeah, it's not vitally important and can wait.
posted by languagehat at 9:05 AM on August 9

Oh I would like this pony!
posted by lunit at 11:15 AM on August 9

It is my deepest fear fantasy fear that one day a girl will stop me mid-coitus and say "my god... you read Metafilter, don't you?"

She should take it to AskMe.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:17 PM on August 9

This is the worst flame out ever.
posted by iconomy at 1:05 PM on August 9

It is definitely possibly to write them another email, but it just feels weird to write one, guessing at which they'll get first, and kind of senseless. Especially when the gift is a bit of a surprise to a friend, they get the Mefi email and are like Hey!, and then have to look elsewhere for your message. Doesn't really seem to have a downside to implementing it.

But yes, very much the bottom of the to-do list.

This is the worst flame out ever.

Currently I need both hands so that I can send both the gift membership and the explanation email at the same time. When I get this pony, we'll talk about the hand-chopping?
posted by Lemurrhea at 2:07 PM on August 9 [1 favorite]

mathowieAdmin: Usually an email to the person should suffice, no? ("Hey Bob, remember me from the meetup? Well, I went ahead and gifted you an account so if you see a random signup message from MetaFilter, that's from me)

Ah but see, you are missing critical information about contemporary mating rituals.

You know how when we were kids, if you met and liked someone, you were pretty much left with "call them" as your only option? Sure, you could quiz your intermediary friends to see if they liked you too, and you could contrive to "be" in places they might turn up, but eventually you just had to pick up the phone.

No more. First you meet, then you ask to be FaceBook friends, then you track them down on MySpace or VIRB, then you text, then you leave arty Flickr comments, and then you start making each other LastFM lists or something. I am pretty sure that by the time anyone picks up a phone or sends an email these days, they are already picking out china patterns. (On Amazon, over IM.)

It is the indirect communication channel of the message field that is specifically being requested here. The iGeneration is looking to you to help them couple and breed future MeFi members. No pressure.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:29 AM on August 10

Metafilter gift: Wanna cyber?
posted by quin at 7:53 AM on August 10