Metafilter is...

September 6, 2012 10:10 AM

Is there a machine picking up on all the "Metafilter: [catchy slogan]" comments?

People love taking random out-of-context quotes and putting them as a description of metafilter.

Metafilter: better than a rabid squirrel
(made-up example)

Is there a machine tracking these, so that we can find out all the things that metafilter is?

posted by Galaxor Nebulon to Feature Requests at 10:10 AM (61 comments total)

MetaFilter: People love taking random out-of-context quotes
posted by Rock Steady at 10:12 AM on September 6, 2012 [4 favorites]

Metafilter: a machine picking up on all the "Metafilter: [catchy slogan]" comments.
posted by kmz at 10:12 AM on September 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm very curious to hear what else you imagine this machine you speak of does.
posted by gman at 10:14 AM on September 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

A machine that runs on beans.
posted by Egg Shen at 10:15 AM on September 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Here ...
posted by philip-random at 10:16 AM on September 6, 2012 [4 favorites]

I imagine that this machine could also do wondrous things, such as show pictures of cats in curious situations, or give people a way to spread their uninformed political opinions to others.
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 10:16 AM on September 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

No... not a machine.

A Gojira-esque daikaiju, yes.
posted by Eideteker at 10:19 AM on September 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: Metafilter.

(not mine)
posted by From Bklyn at 10:23 AM on September 6, 2012

metafilter::ɹǝʇlıɟɐʇǝɯ
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:26 AM on September 6, 2012 [4 favorites]

I can't read upside down.
posted by Max Power at 10:31 AM on September 6, 2012

Metatalk: This question comes up about once a month.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:35 AM on September 6, 2012

What is the answer?
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 10:37 AM on September 6, 2012

"machine" is so 20th century... it's all "bots" now.

BTW, the MetaFilter Quote Fetcher Bot was just given a C&D by a DMCA Bot. Sorry.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:43 AM on September 6, 2012

The answer you're looking for is in the philip-random machine.
posted by gman at 10:44 AM on September 6, 2012

The answer you're looking for is in the philip-random machine.

actually, cortex put all that together
posted by philip-random at 10:45 AM on September 6, 2012

Whenever a "Metafilter:X" reference is made, a site script sends the text to a dedicated Epson dot matrix printer. A child laborer removes the printout, places it into a glass cylinder, and deposits the cylinder into Metafilter's pneumatic tube network. The cylinder emerges in Nepal, where a priest removes the printout and deposits it in an IKEA file cabinet stored in an unnamed minor temple, alphabetized by the first character following the colon. Scanning and OCR-ing these records is discussed from time to time but never really gets off the ground.
posted by brain_drain at 10:46 AM on September 6, 2012 [19 favorites]

Metafilter: discussed from time to time but never really gets off the ground
posted by m@f at 10:50 AM on September 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

*brramp* *brramp* *rip* *shoomp*
posted by m@f at 10:51 AM on September 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

philip-random: "Here ..."

that list only goes up through 2007, sadly.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 10:52 AM on September 6, 2012

MetaFilter: HELP I AM TRAPPED IN THE MACHINE
posted by griphus at 10:52 AM on September 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

> it's all "bots" now

Which, as we all know, is Gaelic for _____
(oh, what's the use ...)
posted by scruss at 10:53 AM on September 6, 2012

Hey! It’s all ball bearings nowadays. Now you prepare that Fetzer valve with some 3-in-1 oil and some gauze pads. And I’m gonna need ’bout ten quarts of anti-freeze, preferably Prestone. No, no make that Quaker State.
posted by terrapin at 10:58 AM on September 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: Imagine This Machine You Speak Of
posted by Mister_A at 11:04 AM on September 6, 2012

Metafilter: Welcome To The Machine.
posted by Kabanos at 11:11 AM on September 6, 2012

Metafilter: It Never Ends.
posted by scratch at 11:20 AM on September 6, 2012

+++
???
Out Of Cheese Error
Redo from start
posted by misha at 11:20 AM on September 6, 2012 [6 favorites]

Metafilter: All The Things That Metafilter Is
posted by rhizome at 11:28 AM on September 6, 2012

To answer your question in a straightforward and non-jokey manner: No, there is nothing automated. There was a script (whose output is linked above) that was written by cortex several years ago and run as a one-time-thing special event that gathered all of the taglines from the comments database as it existed at that point in time. It might have been re-run a second time recently, but it's not a regular occurrence.
posted by Rhomboid at 11:33 AM on September 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

Thanks.
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 11:41 AM on September 6, 2012

There's a thin page on the MeFi wiki, but it looks like cortex's list from 2007 is the most recent and up-to-date.

Related: MetaFilter banners -- it seems there were wacky slogans in the past, such as It's your web, log it and meta-meta-meta-madness.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:44 AM on September 6, 2012

The cylinder emerges in Nepal, where a priest removes the printout and deposits it in an IKEA file cabinet stored in an unnamed minor temple, alphabetized by the first character following the colon.

When the last possible "MetaFilter: ___" joke is deposited, the stars will go out one by one.
posted by Egg Shen at 11:48 AM on September 6, 2012 [5 favorites]

Metafilter: the stars will go out one by one
posted by nooneyouknow at 11:55 AM on September 6, 2012

Updated for the present!

Metafilter
Metatalk

Chronological order ascending by date the comment was made. Metafilter file is significantly larger than the Metatalk file.

And actually the last version of these we had were from some time in 2010, and I'm running the same script now that I ran then to generate them. I should probably just either do this yearly or make it a part of the Infodump or something.

Note that there's room for error in both directions with this thing, since it's hacky and makes assumptions like crazy. So legit taglines might go missing, and things that weren't meant to be taglines may show up, and taglines may run too long or too short if someone did something unusual with their formatting.

And since I just ran them right now, the Metatalk file contains the taglines from this very thread.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:05 PM on September 6, 2012 [13 favorites]

Metafilter: Hey! It’s all ball
posted by mannequito at 12:07 PM on September 6, 2012

metafilter: make it part of the Infodump or something.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 12:11 PM on September 6, 2012

Can this script also delete the accounts of anyone who does the "Metafilter: blah blah" thing?
posted by mrnutty at 12:18 PM on September 6, 2012

Don't praise the machine
posted by The Whelk at 12:24 PM on September 6, 2012

Metafilter: '); DROP TABLE taglines; --
posted by Riki tiki at 12:26 PM on September 6, 2012 [14 favorites]

Metafilter: Welcome to the machine.

Metaflitter: Ooh, shiny!
posted by tilde at 1:07 PM on September 6, 2012

OH, they have to be on an individual line. See, I thought the whole Metafilter: I'm so damn catchy smarty pie was just a thing. Not a THING.

Reposting for the next scrape:

Metafilter: CAPSLOCK IS HOW I'M FEELING ON THE INSIDE.

Metafilter: Vaguely remembering something someone might have posted somewhere else that one time about something kind of like you're almost rememberishing.

/knocks it off
posted by tilde at 1:18 PM on September 6, 2012

"Metafilter: The plastic.com it's okay to like" will always be my favorite. Sadly a lot of people these days probably don't even remember plastic.com.
posted by Justinian at 1:52 PM on September 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ugh, I hate those - they're almost never as catchy or funny as the poster seems to think. Is there a machine to prevent those? I'd drop cash money for something like that.
posted by wolfdreams01 at 2:58 PM on September 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

I really hate them until I see one that I like.
posted by skrozidile at 3:09 PM on September 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

I've only made a handful of those but have had many of my comments adorned by it. It would be interesting to see stats on the original commenters, but that would be a bit more difficult to determine without a lot of manual slogging, I think.
posted by Burhanistan at 3:31 PM on September 6, 2012

I'm going to respect wolfdreams01 and not make three of them from their comment.
posted by rhizome at 4:21 PM on September 6, 2012 [7 favorites]

MetaFilter: I'd drop cash money for something like that.
posted by Mister_A at 6:04 PM on September 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Ugh, I hate those - they're almost never as catchy or funny as the poster seems to think. Is there a machine to prevent those? I'd drop cash money for something like that."
posted by wolfdreams01

Why yes there is.

I just love the idea of a machine harvesting the Metafilter:__ tags, and Cortex has built and updated one! Awesome.
posted by marienbad at 6:04 PM on September 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

The mefitaglines script used to display a random assortment of the latest taglines, but it seems to be borked of late (at least on my Chrome installation)
posted by arcticseal at 7:12 PM on September 6, 2012

I'm an infrequent commenter, so maybe I'm making too many of these. (Sorry, wolfdreams01 and mrnutty.) My most recent one is just two from the end of the list - what can I say? It seemed funny at the time.
posted by RedOrGreen at 8:09 PM on September 6, 2012

I need to spend more time on the Internet. I didn't know the caps lock feeling thing wasn't from here sorry!
posted by tilde at 10:41 PM on September 6, 2012

MetaFilter: delete the accounts of anyone who does the "Metafilter: blah blah" thing?
posted by MartinWisse at 11:11 PM on September 6, 2012

Metafilter: it's hacky and makes assumptions like crazy
posted by chavenet at 10:23 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

Can this script also delete the accounts of anyone who does the "Metafilter: blah blah" thing?

If the regex is poorly written, your account is gonna get deleted, so there.
posted by davejay at 3:42 PM on September 7, 2012

davejay: "If the regex is poorly written, your account is gonna get deleted"

Do you mind if I quote this in every code review I perform from now on?
posted by Riki tiki at 5:52 PM on September 7, 2012 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: I need to spend more time on the Internet.
posted by infini at 10:30 PM on September 7, 2012

Metafilter: The "Metafilter: blah blah" thing
posted by rhizome at 10:43 PM on September 7, 2012

While squirrels can get rabies, they rarely do.
posted by [@I][:+:][@I] at 12:02 PM on September 8, 2012

Wait, what?
posted by Night_owl at 12:08 PM on September 8, 2012

If it's a legitimate rabid bite, squirrels have a way of just shutting that whole thing down.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:21 PM on September 8, 2012 [1 favorite]

There's a greasemonkey script to strip them out.

Even better, there's another greasemonkey script that strips out single-dot obit comments!
posted by double block and bleed at 10:14 AM on September 9, 2012

Metafilter: It seemed funny at the time.
posted by BungaDunga at 8:37 PM on September 9, 2012