September 20, 2002

8:58 AM

To avoid cluttering up the front page, is it OK for those of us who come across a lot of interesting links to use our user pages to list some of those we'd like to share but probably won't merit much discussion? I'm worried about using up bandwidth and the old accusation of using MetaFilter as one's personal blog.

If it's OK, what's the acceptable limit? Would five or six links be acceptable? Or should the opportunity be used (as some, like Zachsmind, have done) to list some of our favourite MetaFilter threads, for example? Please advise.
posted by MiguelCardoso to etiquette/policy at 8:58 AM (32 comments total)

aside from illegal porn, miguel, i think you can put just about anything you want on your user page. go nuts.
posted by moz at 9:10 AM on September 20, 2002

What about legal porn?
posted by eyeballkid at 9:12 AM on September 20, 2002

go nuts.
posted by mathowie at 9:13 AM on September 20, 2002

Never say that to a Portuguese, Matt! But thanks - this is wonderful news.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:14 AM on September 20, 2002

Uh-oh. Five meg QuickTime tutorials on cocktail-mixing, coming soon to a user page near you.
posted by rory at 9:33 AM on September 20, 2002

Users rarely answer all the "questions" on their page:

What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.

I wonder if different and/or fewer questions are in order. Just a thought. Flame away.
posted by whatnot at 9:48 AM on September 20, 2002

I think users are most creative when it comes to gender. It's amazing how many witty permutations there are, although some are intriguing ambiguous and a lot are just plain come-hither.

Those of us who just answer "male" or "female" come across, quite rightly, as sticks in the mud.

The question about the internet always produces suspiciously early, almost Babbage Era answers. One yearns for the simple honesty of "A week ago". ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:09 AM on September 20, 2002

I've always wondered what was up with "go nuts", especially in the gender box. Isn't anyone cheering for the other team? Go ovaries!
posted by madprops at 10:12 AM on September 20, 2002

Madprops:
*in a Michael Caine accent*
In the Royal Navy, womens' breasts are known as upper bollocks. Not many people know this.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:15 AM on September 20, 2002

Remind me never to Google-translate Miguel's home page. An excerpt:

"Good end-of-week, wanted and wanted sick! Until Sunday! In this day, before being more drunk, we will have to combine as we will go to distribute the act of the news article for all the ones that could not be gifts, but will be more still therefore."

I'm dizzy.

posted by SteveInMaine at 10:24 AM on September 20, 2002

Users rarely answer all the "questions" on their page:

Seems like most users don't answer *any* of the optional questions. What say we organize a profile drive -- get everybody to add info to their profile pages. What say ye?
posted by me3dia at 12:12 PM on September 20, 2002

Steve here I'll translate for you. I ended the week with one big hang-over and I left you all a gift in Ralph's porcelain phone, the little articles of my last cocktail. But the week is started off the way I ended, durbnk, so what is new.

I kid Mig, I had to, your too funny. I wish our english was more like your portuguese so the translation was not ruined.
posted by thomcatspike at 12:14 PM on September 20, 2002

Hear hear, me3dia, and maybe drive for more blogs too.
posted by thomcatspike at 12:16 PM on September 20, 2002

Hooray! Everything's tickety-boo!
posted by Smart Dalek at 12:49 PM on September 20, 2002

"go nuts" is slang for go crazy, here in the States.
But I bet you really already knew that.
posted by konolia at 5:10 PM on September 20, 2002

Those of us who just answer "male" or "female" come across, quite rightly, as sticks in the mud.

Yeah, knowing whether you're a boy or a girl sure is boring.
posted by kindall at 6:14 PM on September 20, 2002

Those of us who just answer "male" or "female" come across, quite rightly, as sticks in the mud.

That would be the males more than the females, if my memory of anatomy class serves?
posted by rushmc at 7:17 PM on September 20, 2002

someone (can't remember who or i'd post it) has a brilliant user page that, by careful/obsessive manipulation of style sheet doodahs, replaces the whole page layout (including heading, questions, etc) with something much neater (don't bother following my link - it's the same as everyone else's). anyone remember whose?
posted by andrew cooke at 8:19 PM on September 20, 2002

sawks? iconomy used to have something similar but seems to have moved on to the abstract these days.
posted by MUD at 8:02 AM on September 21, 2002

yea, about sawks userpage something changed in the html so that the background color is no longer all black... very sad.
posted by rhyax at 8:30 AM on September 21, 2002

Was it iconomy who had the brown page with the cartoon squirrel? I've been looking for that since this thread began.
posted by timeistight at 8:44 AM on September 21, 2002

'Twas Danelope.
posted by gleuschk at 9:18 AM on September 21, 2002

That's it. Thanks, gleuschk.
posted by timeistight at 12:25 PM on September 21, 2002

I do not appreciate my name being bandied about in MetaTalk.

Not really - I just always wanted to say that.

I screwed up the body onload attribute and can't save changes to my user page anymore - think I have the only user page with a javascript error on it. I've been getting emails about it for months now. It drives people absolutely nuts. Really. At least one email a day.

I like MUD's interpretation of my intentions, though ;)
posted by iconomy at 3:14 PM on September 21, 2002

I been a tinkerin'.
posted by ZachsMind at 3:28 PM on September 21, 2002

Wow, Zach - that's not a user page, that's a resource. Oh and thanks for linking to my poor user page. This could start a whole new subculture within MetaFilter. What shall we call it? Upping? Upblogging? Userpaging? ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:05 PM on September 21, 2002

yep, Danelope was it. thanks.
posted by andrew cooke at 4:10 PM on September 21, 2002

DO NOT FOLDY, SPINDLE, OR BANDY.
posted by clavdivs at 5:33 PM on September 21, 2002

... sad because Danelope's page breaks in IE5 for the mac. Alas, no squirrel for me.

I like the question/answer thingie Zachsmind, Ufez and a few others have employed (you fill in your own info after the colons)
Left/Right:
Religious:
Smoker:
Animals:
Mac/PC:
SUV's:
Gay Rights:
Abortion:
Death Penalty:
War:
Harry Potter Broom: (my batteries just died! Thanks, and be sure to tip your waitstaff!)

seems like something's missing, not sure what, exactly.
posted by whatnot at 9:18 PM on September 21, 2002

Uh-oh. Five meg QuickTime tutorials on cocktail-mixing, coming soon to a user page near you.

Now that just made my morning.

posted by anathema at 8:03 AM on September 22, 2002

I wish our english was more like your portuguese so the translation was not ruined.

thomcat vs. Google-translated Miguel
Better than Jesus vs. Santa


posted by matteo at 9:05 AM on September 22, 2002

Yay, an SMS form works! If you have a T-Mobile/Voicestream phone, email me and I'll send you the code to do it.
posted by brownpau at 1:24 PM on October 2, 2002