Is this where I sleep with a mod to get a gold star?

December 10, 2009 10:29 AM

What's up with MeFi Office Hours? Is this a new feature? I've never heard of it before.

If this has been covered extensively already, feel free to point me in the right direction then nuke this post from orbit*. I did do a search, check the wiki and FAQ.

*It's the only way to be sure.

posted by slogger to MetaFilter-Related at 10:29 AM (90 comments total)

This is when you can come in and discuss any problems you're having in metafilter class.
posted by drezdn at 10:35 AM on December 10, 2009 [24 favorites]

It's the same phone number they've used for the podcast recordings, but I don't see a note about more of that. I was wondering the same thing.
posted by Karmakaze at 10:35 AM on December 10, 2009

I just hope that ceiling mod pops into the background when the office is open.
posted by boo_radley at 10:36 AM on December 10, 2009 [3 favorites]

Heh. Matt or pb could say more about it, but basically they thought it'd be fun to have the phone lines open occasionally so people who felt like calling (newbies, oldbies, whoever) could say hi and ask questions and such.

I don't think it's been mentioned on the site at all, other than Matt maybe mentioning the general idea a couple times over the years.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:38 AM on December 10, 2009

This would be 100 times cooler with webcams.
posted by desjardins at 10:42 AM on December 10, 2009

Mostly I'm bored with my new droid phone, so I'm forwarding Google Voice calls to it during those hours.

For the last few years I've been meaning to add a little "office-like" structure in my workday by allowing incoming phone calls from people hitting the contact form or whatever, and I figured this was a good test. Eventually you might see the phone number automatically pop up in the footer of the website during pacific timezone daylight hours.

It's just a direct way to solve some problems people may have, connect with members etc. If people abuse it or spammers call to be jerks, I'll stop doing it, but so far it's been fun.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:44 AM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

"Yo what up Matt. Chillin. Damn, you heard. Shiiiit. Aight. Out.

or is it more like

"But I can assure you that Lizzy does not lose much by not suiting his fancy; for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing. So high and so conceited that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with! I wish you had been there, my dear, to have given him one of your set-downs. I quite detest the man"
posted by four panels at 10:44 AM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

desjardins: "This would be 100 times cooler with webcams."

Spin the Chatroulette wheel.
posted by boo_radley at 10:46 AM on December 10, 2009

mathowie- do you actually answer, or just let it roll to voicemail? I'm too afraid to call and find out for myself.
posted by slogger at 10:49 AM on December 10, 2009

Okay Mathowie totally just answered my call which was cool. This is as awesome as the time that he was the first to comment on a post I made. Woo-Hoo!

Note to others: Plan an exit strategy. Mathowie is super nice and so when you get to that pause in the conversation because there was no reason to call him other than because its cool? Yeah. Awkward.
posted by jefficator at 10:56 AM on December 10, 2009 [9 favorites]

I called it the other day after the first announcement hit Twitter: pb answered the phone. I asked him to have Matt call me, as a lark, and lo: Matt called! We had a short conversation, shorter than I would have liked, but it was dinnertime, and my wife wanted me to come to the table.

I think pb said I was the second caller.

It was exactly not like calling any other business :)
posted by pjern at 10:58 AM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

pjern: "Matt called! We had a short conversation, shorter than I would have liked"

~~~ what is imagined ~~~
"Hello, this is Matt returning your call."
"Hm? Oh. Oh! That was a real thing?"
"Yep, totally real. So what's on your mind?"
"I... I gotta go, my wife is calling."
"Super!"
~~~

And that's why I'm not calling. I'd just stammer like an idiot and hang up.
posted by boo_radley at 11:02 AM on December 10, 2009 [10 favorites]

I'm glad you asked this question - I was wondering the same thing!
posted by radioamy at 11:11 AM on December 10, 2009

I'm tempted to call and do the whole "WHAZZAAAAAPPPPP?" thing, but I really like having an account here, so I won't.
posted by mrbill at 11:11 AM on December 10, 2009 [3 favorites]

Office hours are awesome. I love how my MeFi and my school world are merging. Except when you try to flag your professors for chatfilter. That doesn't go over so well. But at least my campus serves real, hardcore taters on Fridays.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:16 AM on December 10, 2009 [6 favorites]

I love this website.
posted by odinsdream at 11:21 AM on December 10, 2009 [13 favorites]

Is this like the guidance counselor? Like AskMe but you can discuss your personal problems directly with Matt and get his opinion on the situation?
posted by anniecat at 11:24 AM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

What's going to be on the test?
posted by Ironmouth at 11:25 AM on December 10, 2009

"All representatives are busy at this time. The Metafilter corporation values you as an important customer wants to make sure you're satisfied with our service. Please stay on the line until a customer service representative can take your call. Approximate wait time is <different voice>ten minutes.</different voice>" [Smooth Jazz Music]
posted by octothorpe at 11:26 AM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star. Fact.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 11:28 AM on December 10, 2009 [14 favorites]

I'm sitting on a conference call right now, can I bridge that into the Mefi Hotline?
posted by Skorgu at 11:31 AM on December 10, 2009

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star. Fact.
posted by jessamyn at 11:28 AM on December 10 [+] [!]

Oh my god. It's a fact. Facts have to be proven to be a fact. Meaning it's happened. Scandalous.
posted by anniecat at 11:36 AM on December 10, 2009 [4 favorites]

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star. Fact.

I have slept with two mods by which I mean I have been asleep at the same time as two mods who were sleeping in my house - by which I mean, on two separate occasions, two different mods slept on a couch in my house and I know that this is true. But jessamyn mentioned one of our cats in a podcast, and that's better than any gold star.
posted by rtha at 11:37 AM on December 10, 2009

This is astonishing. There are how many signed up users? Truly the best of the web (and laser talk handle device communication systems)
posted by patricio at 11:44 AM on December 10, 2009

For Spanish, press 2. For any other language, take ESL classes.
If you want to purchase a slightly used recumbent bike, press 3.
Your call is very important to us.
Our mods are busy helping other MeFites now. Please stay on the line until one of our mods can help you.
posted by Cranberry at 11:55 AM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star. Fact.
posted by jessamyn at 2:28 PM on December 10 [1 favorite +] [!]
Well, there goes that plan.
posted by Maisie at 11:56 AM on December 10, 2009

"Star" is slang for "anus" in Dutch.

twinkle twinkle
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:57 AM on December 10, 2009

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star. Fact.

Gold stars are private and not on display.
posted by gman at 12:05 PM on December 10, 2009 [5 favorites]

I can't really explain why but this is so awesome that I'm at a loss for words (handily keeping me from calling and wasting mathowies's and pb's precious time.
posted by Kattullus at 12:14 PM on December 10, 2009

"mathowies's and pb's precious time."

Actually, now that I've said that, I'd love to know what the typical workday at MetaFilter World Headquarters is like.
posted by Kattullus at 12:15 PM on December 10, 2009

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star.

Not with that attitude!
posted by EarBucket at 12:15 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

[has goldstars]
posted by iamkimiam at 12:16 PM on December 10, 2009

"MetaFilter, may I help you?"
"Uh...hehehe..(shut-up you guys!)...uh, is the server running, Matt?"
"Yes, it is...do you have a proble..."
"Then you better go catch it! Tee-hee! Score, you guys!"
*click*

I'm soooo not calling.
posted by fijiwriter at 12:26 PM on December 10, 2009 [9 favorites]

This would be great if mathowie told the time and temperature in a neutral yet sexy voice.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:29 PM on December 10, 2009 [10 favorites]

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star. Fact.

That's okay, I'm not in it for the stars.
posted by davejay at 12:34 PM on December 10, 2009

This would be great if mathowie told the time and temperature in a neutral yet sexy voice.

I had a rep once who would call in and have me repeat customer numbers over and over. He finally admitted that he liked my voice when I was carefully reading off numbers.

I'm still not sure how I feel about that.
posted by Karmakaze at 12:35 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

Actually, now that I've said that, I'd love to know what the typical workday at MetaFilter World Headquarters is like.

It's exactly like your job, only they gripe about all of us instead of some theoretical upper management people.
posted by davejay at 12:35 PM on December 10, 2009

karmakaze: I'm still not sure how I feel about that.

Drive-by Opinion

screeeeeeeeeeeeech That's way skeevy! VROOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
posted by Kattullus at 12:42 PM on December 10, 2009 [10 favorites]

I totally want to call, but I have nothing to talk about that is actually worth your time, I think. (Though I'm sure I can come up with more worthless and/or actually-already-implemented pony requests.)
posted by ocherdraco at 12:52 PM on December 10, 2009

I just returned a missed call message, clearing up an upcoming projects post. This is so weird.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:54 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

That was from me!
posted by miskatonic at 1:01 PM on December 10, 2009

I hope this will all be worked into the next episode of "Rafflers" somehow.
posted by cashman at 1:07 PM on December 10, 2009 [5 favorites]

Just to be clear, the real worldness of returning calls to my voicemail for a website is what I'm finding weird, you were normal and great miskatonic!
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:28 PM on December 10, 2009

Can I call and pretend Mefi is my bestus friend? I'm so ronery.
posted by Justinian at 1:32 PM on December 10, 2009

Worth noting that this number was only posted after the favorites experiment ended. :)
posted by theclaw at 1:36 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

I love that you guys have made a reasonably significant change to the way you do business because Matt was bored with his phone.
posted by shelleycat at 1:37 PM on December 10, 2009 [6 favorites]

Maybe Matt can replace the Movie Phone guy -- just like Kramer did!
posted by ericb at 1:41 PM on December 10, 2009

3:00 - 4:00pm Pacific coincides with:

• 6:00 - 7:00 pm EST
• 11:00 - 12:00am GMT in the UK

That's a lot of potential drinking time. And a lot of users have phones.
posted by generichuman at 1:45 PM on December 10, 2009

You mean that's not a fax number? Sorry 'bout that.
posted by fixedgear at 1:50 PM on December 10, 2009

Gold stars are private and not on display.

I SAW WHAT YOU DID THERE.

Also mathowie called me the other day, it was awesome.

"Hey Matt what's up"
"Hey Jessamyn, do you know what Vermont's sales tax is"
"No, is your Google broken"
"I figured you would know"
"Let me go Google that...{typing} I think it's something like 6. Does 6 sound right?"
"I don't know"
"Here's a receipt I have, let me do the math... what percentage of $230 is $13"
"I don't know, six sounds good."
"Wait let me get my calculator!"
"Thanks, bye!"
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:02 PM on December 10, 2009 [13 favorites]

If I call Matt, can you then conference call a foreign number, so I can save on overseas toll charges?
posted by fijiwriter at 2:03 PM on December 10, 2009

Wait, you "talk" into the smartphone? And then what? it does a web search?
posted by GuyZero at 2:06 PM on December 10, 2009 [3 favorites]

Also if I call matt from my droid to his droid we actually see little holograms of each other like when Darth calls the Emperor.
posted by GuyZero at 2:25 PM on December 10, 2009

I've done corporate IVR and PBX voice work - lemme know if you want to do hold messages!!
posted by ersatzkat at 2:35 PM on December 10, 2009

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star. Fact.

What about the other way around?
posted by timeistight at 2:38 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Darth Calls The Emperor would be a bad ass concept album.
posted by ersatzkat at 2:38 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

GuyZero: "Wait, you "talk" into the smartphone? And then what? it does a web search?"

Did you not see jessamyn's post? It sasses.
posted by boo_radley at 2:40 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I think the phone should be 24 hours and roll over to vacapinta after normal work hours.

Also, if Matt answers it I am going to ask to have pb call me back.

If jessamyn answers I will ask to talk to not_on_display.

If cortex answers I will just breathe real heavy. Real heavy, for a long time.

I will never call.

At least I don't think so.

Not today for sure.

I promise.
posted by cjorgensen at 2:41 PM on December 10, 2009

Did you not see jessamyn's post? It sasses.

She *is* a librarian, after all. Seems a natural thing to ask :)
posted by pjern at 2:43 PM on December 10, 2009

Based on his call to jessamyn, mathowie is apparently my mother. Weird.
posted by maqsarian at 2:44 PM on December 10, 2009

What about the other way around?

Not sleeping with a mod will get you a not-gold star. Fiction.

?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:47 PM on December 10, 2009

and are bathtubs in fields common in Vermont? Are they abandoned or just communal? If communal, is there a guestbook? If abandoned, can you haul them to the recycler?
posted by boo_radley at 2:53 PM on December 10, 2009

Or is that a faux-pas?
posted by boo_radley at 2:58 PM on December 10, 2009

Edie gave me this phone....she said you could talk to God with it but......I didn't know what to say...
posted by longsleeves at 3:06 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I would tell you, but it is not my office hours.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 3:07 PM on December 10, 2009

Who recycles bathtubs?
posted by odinsdream at 3:14 PM on December 10, 2009

Also, this would be a great TAL episode.
posted by odinsdream at 3:14 PM on December 10, 2009

She *is* a librarian, after all. Seems a natural thing to ask :)

At an 8th grade sleepover, long before the internet, we couldn't remember the date of Mardi Gras.

So we giggled and dared each other, and one of us called information to ask. An un-amused woman told us that she was not amused.
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:30 PM on December 10, 2009

Nifty! I think that was actually faster than the contact form or email would have been.
posted by Pronoiac at 4:14 PM on December 10, 2009

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star. Fact.

What about the other way around?

Sleeping with a gold star will get you a mod?
posted by jefficator at 4:17 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Staying awake with a non-mod will get you a silver circle?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:18 PM on December 10, 2009

Hanging out with case-modders at the Circle-K? Golden!
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:22 PM on December 10, 2009 [3 favorites]

Waking up a mod will get you banned
posted by Mick at 6:03 PM on December 10, 2009

Sleeping with a rocker will get you a black eye?
posted by hattifattener at 6:36 PM on December 10, 2009

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star. Fact.

100% of Stan Chins might disagree with that statement.
posted by armage at 6:51 PM on December 10, 2009

Oh, and can we get vacapinta's number so we can bug him, too?
posted by armage at 6:53 PM on December 10, 2009

This is when you can come in and discuss any problems you're having in metafilter class.

*walks in* *waves hand* Hi, how's it going? Just had a few quick questions about the final exam coming next week...
posted by JoeXIII007 at 7:50 PM on December 10, 2009

Okay I am so calling in if I see it posted. Come on Matt, I wanna talk to you!
posted by IndigoRain at 9:00 PM on December 10, 2009

Nobody asked the really important question: Will sleeping with a mod get you a favorite?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 9:00 PM on December 10, 2009

Not sleeping with a mod will get you a not-gold star.

So that's what happened to Stan Chin's star!
posted by timeistight at 9:13 PM on December 10, 2009

sigh. metafilter. i love you.
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:24 PM on December 10, 2009

Meatbomb Astral Mod office hours are right now!
Phoning me will get you: a gold star, a real star (named after you and all mineral rights in perpetuity), DISCOUNT PROMOTIONAL CODE FOR SHAMWOW™ PURCHASE, a rimjob and a free beer*.

17:32 to about 20:14, (GMT +9:00 Seoul).
1 [phone]

*some restrictions apply; offer does not include rusty trombone
posted by Meatbomb at 12:34 AM on December 11, 2009

Yeah, if you need to reach me, call Meatbomb. He''ll hook up an astro-link.

It may sound like his voice but I assure you, he is channeling me.
posted by vacapinta at 4:31 AM on December 11, 2009

I propose somebody call and sing one chorus of Mathowie's Community Blog then hang up.
posted by wheelieman at 7:50 AM on December 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star. Fact.

You guys have already ruled out bribery, obsequiousness, violence for hire, and sarcasm, and now your taking sex off the table? How the hell am I supposed to get a gold star? Hard work and polite correspondences with others? Because I think we all know that ain't ever going to happen.

As to the phone number... any chance we can have an anonymized collection of the inevitable drunk calls played during a podcast? I suspect much fun could be had.

And by fun I mean shame.
posted by quin at 8:00 AM on December 11, 2009

So, uh, Dr. Haughey, yeah, sorry for bothering you, uh, I was just wondering, uh, on comment number seven here you took off seven favorites for not mentioning hardcore taters. I just thought, uh, that it made sense that I was actually, uh, you know, talking about them.
posted by anifinder at 9:54 AM on December 11, 2009

Sleeping with a mod will not get you a gold star.

What does sleeping alone on the floor of a dark and empty apartment while the mod is away get you?

That sounded much creepier than I expected.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 1:06 PM on December 11, 2009

And you even left out the mouse!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:49 PM on December 11, 2009

YOU PEOPLE ARE AWESOME.
posted by janelikes at 8:13 PM on December 11, 2009

I feel like I should not have this information.
posted by The Whelk at 12:45 PM on December 12, 2009