How/why can/do you post to the wrong thread?

December 27, 2009 12:22 PM

Comment "posted in the wrong thread" -- why? How exactly does one go about making this mistake? Confusion with multiple tabs or browser windows? Or is it an in-joke I'm not getting?

Sometimes I see this in AskMe, and I wonder why, that's all. Example at the end of this question about Dr. Who (with unheeded request for deletion).

posted by Rash to Etiquette/Policy at 12:22 PM (64 comments total)

you guys had a penguin at your meetup?
posted by pyramid termite at 12:24 PM on December 27, 2009 [15 favorites]

oops
posted by pyramid termite at 12:24 PM on December 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

In MetaTalk it is an inside joke to reference previous MeTa threads in the current ones (as far as I can tell). The others are just mistakes, like you said - multiple tabs and windows make things confusing.
posted by Think_Long at 12:29 PM on December 27, 2009

Which meetup has penguins? I must know.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:30 PM on December 27, 2009 [27 favorites]

So to reiterate...

1. You take all the hostages into the vault.
2. At that point I arrive with the candy and noise makers.
3. ???
4. Profit!

Oh shit wait, this isn't AIM. Prank call. Prank call.
posted by Babblesort at 12:32 PM on December 27, 2009

I've done it myself -- you have 10 tabs open and you're going through each one and you're also checking gmail in another tab and people are IMing you and then you go back to Ask MeFi.

In the wrong tab.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:35 PM on December 27, 2009 [6 favorites]

with unheeded request for deletion

Flag it and we'll delete it. We don't read the whole site. You can't not heed what you never see. Plus what mathowie said.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:38 PM on December 27, 2009

Blame it on Recent Activity.
posted by Burhanistan at 12:44 PM on December 27, 2009

I've posted in the wrong thread when viewing in Recent Activity mode. It's not too hard to accidentally scroll to the wrong thread to post a comment. No one seems to notice, usually. Which is an indication of how insightful my comments are.
posted by The Deej at 1:01 PM on December 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

Fbzrgvzrf vg'f na va-wbxr, gubhtu abg arprffnevyl n shaal bar.
posted by box at 1:07 PM on December 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

No one seems to notice, usually. Which is an indication of how insightful my comments are.

Nah, don't be so self-deprecating. People don't notice because of the universal applicability of your insights.
posted by Burhanistan at 1:10 PM on December 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

Did Burhanistan say something?
posted by FelliniBlank at 1:32 PM on December 27, 2009

No, no, no, the lube goes on the hamster FIRST.
posted by orthogonality at 1:45 PM on December 27, 2009 [2 favorites]

First, be smart from the very beginning. Pulverize all teeth, burn off fingerprints, and disfigure the face.

Oops.
posted by Askiba at 1:49 PM on December 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm going to use this opportunity to recommend that the Metafilter Unicorn Submit Button, which has at minimum septupled my enjoyment of Metafilter, be made an official feature of the site.
posted by killdevil at 2:15 PM on December 27, 2009 [3 favorites]

Fred said the cabal dues were payable by check but I was wondering if they took paypal as well...
posted by Rhomboid at 2:22 PM on December 27, 2009

Holy cow when people say that script makes the submit button a unicorn, they're not making an obscure joke.

It really is a unicorn! With rainbows!
posted by winna at 2:26 PM on December 27, 2009

Holy cow when people say that script makes the submit button a unicorn, they're not making an obscure joke.

It really is a unicorn! With rainbows!

Pics or it didn't happen.
posted by Caduceus at 2:30 PM on December 27, 2009

It's true. It doesn't actually defecate rainbows, however. You'll just have to imagine that until the next rev.
posted by Burhanistan at 2:35 PM on December 27, 2009

Pics or it didn't happen.

Boom!
posted by killdevil at 2:37 PM on December 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

That's pretty awesome.
posted by Caduceus at 2:39 PM on December 27, 2009

Did anyone manage to create a simple way for Greasemorons like me to add the narwhal preview button in the same size as the unicorn (i.e., both on the same line) rather than the galactic-huge version?
posted by FelliniBlank at 2:48 PM on December 27, 2009 [2 favorites]

I installed Greasemonkey on this computer just for the Unicorns.
posted by that girl at 3:05 PM on December 27, 2009

Fbzrgvzrf vg'f na va-wbxr, gubhtu abg arprffnevyl n shaal bar.

No spoilers, please.
posted by armage at 3:11 PM on December 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

It always surprises me when people interact with Metafilter with multiple browsers/tabs (Mods excepted). I use one. If I see a post or response I want to reply to, I go down to the comment box, type out comment, usually preview, then post. After this miraculous sequences of events I move on to the next post. What's the actual process for folks using multiple tabs? Are you generally picking out posts to reply to, and picking them all before responding?
posted by Atreides at 3:43 PM on December 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

cortex put a MeTa post onto the blue. These things can happen to anybody!
posted by crossoverman at 3:57 PM on December 27, 2009

Yeah, wrong tabs. Why is that so hard to understand?
posted by DU at 4:02 PM on December 27, 2009

Oops, I meant ^^^that comment to be a wrong-tab joke in another thread!
posted by DU at 4:03 PM on December 27, 2009

I'm guessing, Atreides, but maybe people are composing their comments with another, non-browser program?
posted by box at 4:11 PM on December 27, 2009

Though even considering that, I'm not sure how that, but, yeah, what do I know?
posted by box at 4:17 PM on December 27, 2009

re: unicorn. go the extra step and get the narwhal preview button as well.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:58 PM on December 27, 2009

Holy cow, that's a big unicorn.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:07 PM on December 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

What's the actual process for folks using multiple tabs?

There are a couple of posts with interesting conversations going on, so you keep posts A and B open and you refresh those windows now and then while you browse the rest of MetaFilter in a third window. You read something in post A that you want to respond to, but you somehow flip to post B first and type your comment into post B. It's sloppy, but it happens, especially if you're also looking at several non-MetaFilter windows, maybe reading and copying from something you're quoting in your comment. And you might be listening to music and writing e-mail and talking to someone in the room and browsing several other non-MetaFilter pages. All with one hand.
posted by pracowity at 5:10 PM on December 27, 2009

I have sometimes pasted non-Metafilter stuff into the comment box, but I think I've always caught it before I posted. Has anyone ever accidentally posted particularly embarrassing non-Metafilter stuff here?
posted by pracowity at 5:15 PM on December 27, 2009

I'm confused by the narwhal talk. How do I get the narwhal? I really want a narwhal. When I click on jessamyn's link, I don't see anything about a narwhal, only stuff about how big the unicorn is.

The unicorn is great, yes, but, when I installed the script, I was really hoping for the narwhal.
posted by Ms. Saint at 7:01 PM on December 27, 2009

Okay, I finally installed the unicorn submit button script. I like this change. I would like more unicorns.
posted by IndigoRain at 7:12 PM on December 27, 2009

Ms. Saint: "I'm confused by the narwhal talk. How do I get the narwhal? I really want a narwhal. When I click on jessamyn's link, I don't see anything about a narwhal, only stuff about how big the unicorn is.

The unicorn is great, yes, but, when I installed the script, I was really hoping for the narwhal"

There is a link in that thread to this code, I'm guessing you have to paste it into the Greasemonkey script yourself.
posted by IndigoRain at 7:14 PM on December 27, 2009

It's a little confusing, but in this comment you can get the text Rhomboid links to and use it in the place of the original script. Then you'll see the narwhal. Once I get home I'll try to make it it's own installable script so it's not so hacky, unless Rhomboid does it first.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:14 PM on December 27, 2009

Ms. Saint - there are instructions in this thread.
posted by deborah at 7:19 PM on December 27, 2009

Oh my gosh the unicorn. It's like an instant good-feelings button. I can't even imagine writing out an upset post and then clicking that button.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 7:19 PM on December 27, 2009

And as subbes mentioned in the other thread, you can get the unicorn and the narwhal buttons on the same line if you edit the last two lines of the script and change the instances of "width: 300px" to something smaller like "width: 280px".

Also, Rhomboid, if you're reading this: what's the scared-looking black thing near the narwhal's mouth?
posted by cobwebberies at 7:30 PM on December 27, 2009

Oh, I finally got it to work myself. Rhomboid is my hero and my life is complete.
posted by deborah at 7:48 PM on December 27, 2009

What's the actual process for folks using multiple tabs? Are you generally picking out posts to reply to, and picking them all before responding?

I never don't have at least one tab opened to mefi (usually the third tab in my bar, the first is gmail, the other is a random hangout place, those are the big static three that don't ever change). That main tab gets used for cycling between the admin pages to check on the site, and Recent Activity to check on the threads I'm personally interested in and participating in.

But beyond that I'll kick open extra tabs for threads that, say, I'm interested in but am not actively digging into but expect to soon. The Avatar thread from a couple weeks ago, for example, sat in a spare tab for a couple days before I finally got to it today.

Usually I only have two or three "I should read this soon" tabs like that hanging around, mefi threads or other sites; I try to keep my tabs pretty minimalized so I don't end up with any more paralysis of choice than I have to deal with if I can help it. But there are times when two or three of those tabs are bits of mefi I'm meaning to get back to. I don't know when the last time was that it led me to post a comment in the wrong thread, but I know it's happened a few times.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:04 PM on December 27, 2009

Ugh, the images are huge in the pastebin version, whereas using the Greasemonkey version, the unicorn is a much nicer small size. Can we get the narwal the same size? Editing the image sizes in the script just makes half the images outside the area of the button.
posted by IndigoRain at 9:04 PM on December 27, 2009

What. Why would anyone want to ever delete a thread on Dr. Who on MetaFilter? Are you insane?

Oh wait. Maybe I'm in the wrong thread.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 9:34 PM on December 27, 2009

i once suggested a great vibrator resource in a meetup thread like oh hay the meetup was great it was great meeting you check out these vibrators they have great customer service hint hint wait what
posted by kathrineg at 9:51 PM on December 27, 2009

I currently have nine tabs open... and I'd say the average is five. Usually it's, "Oh, this is a cool link - I'll get to that when I finish reading this." "Hmm, I wonder what this word means? Let's look that up in the dictionary later..." "I need to find out what this song is called really quick..." "Oh, this looks like an interesting link..."

God help me if I'm browsing Cracked or Collegehumor or Wikipedia or any site with "suggestions."
posted by biochemist at 10:20 PM on December 27, 2009

I have 15 tabs open, 5 of which are MetaFilter tabs. I don't remember ever posting in the wrong thread because of that, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'd done that at one point.

Also, the whole unicorn/narwhal thing is making me regret having switched to Chrome.
posted by Kattullus at 10:47 PM on December 27, 2009

Atreides writes "What's the actual process for folks using multiple tabs? Are you generally picking out posts to reply to, and picking them all before responding?"

At any particular time, not immediately after a crash, I'll have 50 to 150 tabs open. Not all of those are metafilter, say an average of 20ish. I keep tabs open for a month if I'm interested in the thread but don't want to post or don't have anything to say so there are usually a few of those on the tab bar. Then when I start in the morning I'll go down the pront page and askme middle clicking posts I find interesting. I'll then read through the linked pages and comments; compose a few maybe and then start again.

I've posted in the wrong thread a few times just from confusion. The front page especially sometimes has a few threads who's topics of discussion have headed in the same direction. See pretty well any thread mentioning favourites in November.
posted by Mitheral at 10:58 PM on December 27, 2009

you have 10 tabs open and you're going through each one and you're also checking gmail in another tab and people are IMing you

I knew I was doing it wrong.
posted by philip-random at 11:26 PM on December 27, 2009

Anyone who hasn't hacked their submit button certainly won't be making it onto my list of Top 10 Sexy Mefi Geeks for 2010 - no matter how recklessly handsome they are. Just whispering "Unicorn Submit" is mad, mad sexy, is it not? Sexy cybersubmit unicorn makes all the hacker girls and boys swoon, and compels our nerd passion buttons to go pop! Pop!
posted by taz at 12:48 AM on December 28, 2009

That's funny, I didn't know the 300px buttons were not showing up on one line for everyone. Maybe I just keep my browser window wider than average. I think the black thing is a little fish that the narwhal is about to eat. Here's the original version, for which I can take zero credit whatsoever.

Anyway, I uploaded a 100px button version of the script that has both the unicorn and the narwhal and doesn't have to be manually installed.
posted by Rhomboid at 1:27 AM on December 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

My life is complete now.
posted by Ms. Saint at 5:29 AM on December 28, 2009

Anyway, I uploaded a 100px button version of the script that has both the unicorn and the narwhal and doesn't have to be manually installed.

Just when I think I can't love this place any more....
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:33 AM on December 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

That narwhal has fish lips. Can you make it more whale-like?
posted by Burhanistan at 7:34 AM on December 28, 2009

No, but I will offer a Beluga with a cute kid.
posted by Rhomboid at 7:41 AM on December 28, 2009

Deal!
posted by Burhanistan at 7:46 AM on December 28, 2009

(Belugas are some of the bestest creatures ever)
posted by Burhanistan at 7:47 AM on December 28, 2009

I changed my mind, 100px is too small!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:48 AM on December 28, 2009

I uploaded a 100px button version of the script that has both the unicorn and the narwhal and doesn't have to be manually installed.

Thanks too much! I can die happy. Not only are my posting and previewing now totally modern, but I can also use expressions like "on narwhal, what Username said," "FPUnicorn," and "That'll teach me to unicorn without narwhaling."
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:25 AM on December 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

It's especially good that their respective tusks are facing each other, like a duel.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:31 AM on December 28, 2009

YAY THEY'RE SO BEAUTIFUL!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 3:19 PM on December 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

The large unicorn and narwhal brighten my days, unless I'm using my iPhone, in which case I have to resort to a mental narwhal.
posted by subbes at 8:46 AM on December 29, 2009

What happened to pancakes and kittens? I guess I am just lost in the past.......
posted by bjgeiger at 11:45 AM on December 29, 2009