Longest time between making a comment and having it "favorited"?

December 22, 2012 12:06 PM

What is the longest amount of time you've seen between posting a comment and someone marking it as a favorite?

I just saw in my activity today that a comment I made in Ask back on September 21, 2007 was just favorited 9 days ago.

Just wondering if other people have had a similar experience.

posted by reenum to MetaFilter-Related at 12:06 PM (55 comments total)

There is this possibly-relevant FAQ entry: why is my old stuff getting favorited?

I'm not sure what the record is, though.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:09 PM on December 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I dunno about the record either, but rebeccablood's prescient comment from September 11, 2001:

my greatest fear is how our government is going to respond. more erosion of freedom in the name of security. mark my words.

has, as of this writing, received its most recent favorite about three weeks ago.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 12:15 PM on December 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I don't know, but in digging through possible candidates of mine I found out that my oldest example (the dirty hippie one from Dec. 2009 recently got a favorite) that I know of was also mentioned in an old podcast! I haven't listened to it yet, but I assume I am ridiculed.
posted by cmoj at 12:22 PM on December 22, 2012

Since that rebeccablood comment is pre-favorite function, I think it'll be hard to beat unless people go back into the first cat scan or notorious longboat thread.

I had a comment from June 2007 favorited just a couple days ago.
posted by LionIndex at 12:30 PM on December 22, 2012

The very first comment on Metafilter received its most recent favorite about 15 minutes ago. So there's your answer.
posted by dersins at 12:42 PM on December 22, 2012 [11 favorites]

I occasionally see stuff of mine from 2005-6 get a random favorite. It's always sort of weird because I'm giving relationship advice usually about a (now ex) boyfriend or family advice about my (now deceased) dad. I sometimes want to drop people a note and say "While that advice is still okay, I have updated it..."
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:44 PM on December 22, 2012 [4 favorites]

The very first comment on Metafilter received its most recent favorite about 15 minutes ago. So there's your answer.

That doesn't even seem to be the very first comment by the person who posted it. Am I misunderstanding something here?
posted by Flunkie at 12:54 PM on December 22, 2012

Posts were open to comments for a long time back in the day but there was nobody around to comment on them. The first comment isn't in the first post.
posted by Drinky Die at 1:01 PM on December 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh, I see... the thread dersins linked to is the first post on Metafilter (at least as of now - it is #19, so maybe previous ones have been deleted or something). And it's the first comment on that thread.

But it's not the first comment on Metafilter. That comment was made over a year after the thread that it is on.

I've just poked around a little, and here is the earliest comment I've been able to find so far. July 15, 1999, 10:00 AM . And Drinky Die favorited it a few minutes ago, so there's (probably) the answer.
posted by Flunkie at 1:02 PM on December 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Someone inclined to sift some data could take a more holistic approach to this and try and look at late favoriting in general: identify means and medians for favorites on comments more than a month old, say, or look specifically at favorites on comments made before faves existed.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:05 PM on December 22, 2012

Also, note that the comment Drinky Die and I have found claims to be comment #5. Again, perhaps earlier ones have been deleted, but maybe there are still older ones out there somewhere.
posted by Flunkie at 1:09 PM on December 22, 2012

No, probably not. There seems to be no comment posted earlier than that comment posted on any thread posted earlier than that comment. So unless it was really wacky back in the day, with timestamps getting altered or something like that, that comment is the earliest still-existing comment.

And now I've done all the investigificatin' I'm gonna investigificate.
posted by Flunkie at 1:13 PM on December 22, 2012

But it's not the first comment on Metafilter. That comment was made over a year after the thread that it is on.

It's funny that I never noticed that. And by "it's funny" I mean "I'm an idiot".
posted by dersins at 1:25 PM on December 22, 2012

Two fairly old FPPs of mine - one about the Five Families and one about Michael Jackon's death - get pepperings of favorites once in a blue moon. But more recently, a bunch of incredibly regrettable comments I made in a religion thread got a string of favorites. It's the text equivalent of being tagged in an old Facebook photo of you shirtless on a bar table with someone's underwear in your mouth.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:28 PM on December 22, 2012 [8 favorites]

Someone just favorited this comment of mine which is ten-and-a-half years old.

The interesting part, to me, is that it's the first and only favorite that comment has garnered.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:43 PM on December 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Posts were open to comments for a long time back in the day but there was nobody around to comment on them.

If a tree posts in the forest ...
posted by desjardins at 1:47 PM on December 22, 2012

Okay but what was the record holder before this thread was posted and old comments to favorite were getting linked?
posted by shakespeherian at 2:11 PM on December 22, 2012

This is one of the things I really like about Metafilter. It always really makes my day when I see a favorite of something I wrote years ago, often about something that I was really excited about at the time. I love looking back and knowing that someone else is going through that same passion now, and that I played some little role in it.
posted by roll truck roll at 2:12 PM on December 22, 2012

The best I could find: 12.5 years.
posted by no regrets, coyote at 2:28 PM on December 22, 2012

I occasionally get a run of favorites on old comments (since my enmoddening, anyway) - I assume people are doing what I sometimes do, and perusing my history. Internet stalking is a fun hobby!
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 2:46 PM on December 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I once looked at my favorites page, saw something pop up that sounded kinda smart and I thought I should remember it if the situation comes up, and I checked who wrote it... and it was me.

Apparently I am both forgetful AND narcissistic.
posted by Deoridhe at 2:48 PM on December 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Most (all?) of my Vintage comment favouriting happens when I stumble across something on the web; go to post it and then find out it's a double. I'll read the subsequent thread and often hand out a favourite.
posted by Mitheral at 3:22 PM on December 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

If it helps: I've been looking through the infodump recently and adding favourites/bookmarks to comments of old posts I like that I might want to revisit some day.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 3:29 PM on December 22, 2012

Oh, I see... the thread dersins linked to is the first post on Metafilter (at least as of now - it is #19, so maybe previous ones have been deleted or something)

Thread 19 is the Shimmering Veil, beyond which human reckoning can not penetrate. So it is, so has it always been.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:33 PM on December 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

The very first comment on Metafilter received its most recent favorite about 15 minutes ago. So there's your answer.

Yeah, it occurred to me after I answered that this question is Heisenbergian: anyone can go back and favourite the first comment and thus set a new record. It is impressive only in the way that each of us was the youngest person in the world at some point.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:34 PM on December 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Every so often, when I have changed user names on this site, I refavorite and recomment on this song, because I like it so very much.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 4:32 PM on December 22, 2012

Oh, I see... the thread dersins linked to is the first post on Metafilter (at least as of now - it is #19, so maybe previous ones have been deleted or something). And it's the first comment on that thread.

The first 18 posts were doubles.
posted by salishsea at 4:38 PM on December 22, 2012 [3 favorites]

This is a silly question, but how would you know this? Is there something that shows you when people favorite your comments (other than the number at the end of the comment, of course)?
posted by Sidhedevil at 5:19 PM on December 22, 2012

In realtime you can look at Recent Favorites - for a broader view you can go to Favorited by others in your profile and choose "precise." It'll show you the timestamp of every individual favorite.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 5:24 PM on December 22, 2012

Is there something that shows you when people favorite your comments (other than the number at the end of the comment, of course)?

Just click on "Favorited by others: ___" in your profile. By default, your most recently favorited thing (comment or post) is on top.
posted by John Cohen at 5:28 PM on December 22, 2012

The best I could find: 12.5 years.

Here's the second post ever on Metafilter. (How I know that: day 2, day 1.) The first comment on that post is nearly tied with the one linked above. The comments were posted 4 minutes apart, and they were most recently favorited within a minute of each other.
posted by John Cohen at 5:37 PM on December 22, 2012

One of my comments is like my Clock of The Long Now. I know it won't be favorited in my lifetime, but eventually, someone will get it.
posted by Toekneesan at 5:50 PM on December 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

I came here to make the same comment as Toekneesan, only not as well.
posted by arcticseal at 5:57 PM on December 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

each of us was the youngest person in the world at some point.

That just completely blew my mind.
posted by Dojie at 6:23 PM on December 22, 2012 [4 favorites]

each of us was the youngest person in the world at some point.

On the other hand, you're always the oldest you've ever been. And it's always the latest in history that it's ever been.
posted by John Cohen at 6:46 PM on December 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yeah, it occurred to me after I answered that this question is Heisenbergian: anyone can go back and favourite the first comment and thus set a new record.

Somebody's going to collapse the wave function. I figure "Why not me?".
posted by benito.strauss at 6:47 PM on December 22, 2012

The best thing about threads like this is the residual favorites it generates. It's like being a snark billionaire and living off the dividends.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:56 PM on December 22, 2012

Here's my cash cow comment, it never surged all that much but it does provide a modest but steady return.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:00 PM on December 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Hella long.
posted by clearly at 8:14 PM on December 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wow, I never noticed that the ZIPPITY BOP! comment happened nearly a year after Matt made the first cat-scan post. MetaFilter sure was a different place back then!
posted by Scientist at 8:51 PM on December 22, 2012

This comment of mine from 2009 just got a new favorite recently. I think there's been older ones of mine favorites years after posting, but can't go looking for 'em just now.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:55 PM on December 22, 2012

Flunkie: Also, note that the comment Drinky Die and I have found claims to be comment #5. Again, perhaps earlier ones have been deleted, but maybe there are still older ones out there somewhere.

The infodump refers to a comment #2, on post 24, but post 24 was deleted. Really deleted, the way things were deleted back when things really got deleted.

Flunkie: So unless it was really wacky back in the day, with timestamps getting altered or something like that, that comment is the earliest still-existing comment.

I happen to have been studying the timestamps in the infodump lately, so I can speak to this.

I know of two occasions in the early years where I believe mathowie backdated comments. In these instances, a user made a too-long post and mathowie edited the database after the fact, moving the bulk of the post into a new comment, which he then backdated so it'd appear first in the thread. (Notes: 1. This is inference on my part based on internal evidence of the linked threads. 2. This was well before the introduction of [more inside] site-wide, so the extra material couldn't go there. 3. These threads no longer appear as mathowie intended, since comments are now sorted by ID, not by datestamp, in reaction to a clock glitch and associated rioting several years later.)

There are also the three comments of webguyphil, which were backdated a few months for a reason lost to history. (I asked mathowie about it once, but he doesn't really remember.) And there was that time in early 2010 that some complications during server maintenance destroyed a whack of AskMe comments and they had to be restored manually (and backdated to their proper times).
posted by stebulus at 10:10 PM on December 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

This section of the site should be renamed MetaTalmud.
posted by yoink at 1:02 AM on December 23, 2012 [7 favorites]

stebulus: “These threads no longer appear as mathowie intended, since comments are now sorted by ID, not by datestamp, in reaction to a clock glitch and associated rioting several years later.)”

The Clock Glitch Riots. My god. I haven't thought of the Clock Glitch Riots in years... so many friends I lost in those times. We were still so young then, we fresh-faced cadets who'd jumped at the chance when enlistment was opened in 2004; we'd barely composed our first witty tagline, barely mocked our first double-post. After we survived our first barrage of Metatalk flameouts, we giddily congratulated ourselves, slapping each other's backs and saying loudly that now, now we'd crossed over the cusp into Metafilter adulthood – all the while trying hard not to notice that the hollowness in the eyes of the veterans among our ranks was still so foreign to us. When we gathered around the fires to talk of what we'd overcome, the old ones would smile sadly at our naïveté and murmur the name of Kaycee Nicole quietly to themselves.

So we were utterly unprepared, so utterly unprepared, when the riots broke out over the Clock Glitch. We who had never really tasted true battle lost our innocence on that day. None of us were ready for the mercilessness, the sheer unadulterated Dadaist abstraction we were met with at the hands of the quonsar brigades. The carnage was incomprehensible to us. Some went mad; others steeled themselves silently, hiding the madness and carrying it home with them after the riots were over... but none of us came away without a mark.

Nobody talks those days now. Indeed, by sheer numbers of combatants, the Clock Glitch Riots were dwarfed thousands of times over by the Favorites War a few years later. But though I don't talk about them now, they are not gone to me. Often, when the moon is full, when all is quiet, I'm awakened by dreams of my buddies losing it in the heat of battle, my haunted mind seared with in-thread images of pissing elephants and garish image macros. I see in my mind's eye so many kids – they were only kids! – whose minds snapped, kids who gave in to the madness and started enclosing bolded and underlined paragraphs in blink tags or posting the entire text of the Treaty of Westphalia. I'll live with those dreams for the rest of my life. But I honor them, too – those kids, they had courage, and they showed it. They might not have been the wisest or the greatest of Mefites, but they gave themselves to a cause they thought was noble, and they refused to be deterred. And I hope someday people can say of me what I proudly say of them:

They died with fish in their pants.
posted by koeselitz at 1:21 AM on December 23, 2012 [14 favorites]

I lost one of my best sock puppets in those riots. And I'm still suffering from Post Dramatic Mess Disorder because of what I witnessed in those threads.
posted by Toekneesan at 3:28 AM on December 23, 2012

*picks up riots and goes home*
posted by infini at 5:57 AM on December 23, 2012

About tree fiddy.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:46 AM on December 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ancient South Park meme gotta pick me up some new favourites, right?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:49 AM on December 23, 2012

I'd be more interested to see the longest time between a comment being favored and disfavored.
posted by Treaty of Westphalia at 8:22 AM on December 23, 2012

eponysterical
posted by infini at 8:30 AM on December 23, 2012

I have a greasemonkey script which favourites all of my comments the second I post them. Of course, I'm using the special favourites counter which means no one else can see my autonarcissism.
posted by ambrosen at 1:58 PM on December 23, 2012

Usually, when I get a new favorite on an old comment, I think "Did I really write that?" Hopefully that's not out of embarrassment.
posted by orme at 11:57 AM on December 25, 2012

10 years
posted by clavdivs at 7:04 AM on December 27, 2012

Yeah. I occasionally see ancient comments of mine pick up new favourites. I don't think it's uncommon. People can happen on the old stuff if a current thread or comment refers to an old thread.
posted by Decani at 12:29 PM on December 27, 2012

We will see soon enough
posted by DEANKATON at 12:04 AM on January 2