Dan Hersam's Mefi Contribution Index Calculator is broken

October 7, 2003 12:44 PM

Dan Hersam's Mefi Contribution Index Calculator is broken. Can any of you PHP people suggest a fix?
posted by timeistight to MetaFilter-related at 12:44 PM (9 comments total)

I'll look into it when I have time, but until I do (or someone has any input on what the problem may be) the Contribution Index queries will not be work.

Dan has provided a great service to MeFi users, on his own time and resources, and I'd like to thank him for it. Thanks to him, I've been able to monitor my gradual posting decrease, from the heady days when I had a +plus 11 Index factor to these when I'm thankfully down to the 7 range, just above my friend ykarl.

Tamim's ideal of a 1.00 Contribution Average - meaning one intervention (comment or post) per day continues to be, in my opinion, an impossible goal for those of us afflicted by enthusiasm. But no less noble because of it.

Good post, timestight.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 1:11 PM on October 7, 2003

Not sure if this is the problem but........

I finally got the following code to work a while back. The line in bold was the tricky bit. Without that it didn't work.

$filename = "http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/" . $Thread;
ini_set("user_agent", "MF Distilled");
$lines = file($filename);
posted by y6y6y6 at 2:15 PM on October 7, 2003

Can we see a snip of the afflicted code?
posted by 4easypayments at 3:04 PM on October 7, 2003

Dan Hersam's Mefi Contribution Index Calculator is no longer broken.
posted by eddydamascene at 12:34 AM on October 8, 2003

OhmyGAWD.........I had stopped checking Dan Hersam's [nobly-and-selflessly-provided-at-his-own-time-and expense Mefi ranking (pecking order?) utility (thanks Dan, by the way)] Mefi Contribution Index Calculator because I decided that it amounted to both wanking off and also perhaps a sign of encroaching mental illness.......

So I discovered that I'd moved into the number 3 spot, vaulting past hama7 who either (or both) got tired off fending off the "Night of the Living Dead flesh eating zombie"-like onslaught of the liberal Metafilter hordes on his political positions or simply found something more rewarding to do with his time - and so stopped feeding so much text into the gaping Seymour-esque maw of Metafilter.

Over 2,000 comments. Wow - so this is what I do with my time. I should write a cookbook maybe, or a political screed about how the American Right has embraced Postmodern relativistic thinking as a political tool, and how it has embraced New Age cult beliefs about the power of belief and (in this case) advertising to retroactively change and shape reality.

But no. I'll just do another 2,000 Metafilter comments, in a desparate and probably futile attempt to displace y2karl or miguelcardoso from their lofty perches at the pinnacle of Blogdom.

Maybe I need to use less words. That's it. Nothing but one liners from me now on.

Blort.

Brap.

Eep.

Groot.

Varst.

No one will ever know what the hell I'm talking about and so I'll never get into flamewars or catty Metatalk tiffs.

Querst?

Hroomphlap.

Quistabromptly.

Crawn-lick.

Glip.

Urp.

Ru?

Y!

&
.
posted by troutfishing at 7:46 AM on October 8, 2003

Quistabromptly? I take grievous offense, sir, and challenge you to flamethrowers at twenty paces!
posted by languagehat at 12:33 PM on October 8, 2003

those of us afflicted by enthusiasm

That is such a NICE way of putting it. Heh.
posted by rushmc at 3:34 PM on October 8, 2003

yay, Dan - thanks for this great service - much appreciated! I particularly liked the shoutout on my MeFi birthday - sweet!
posted by madamjujujive at 11:56 PM on October 8, 2003

Thanks for the kind words and thanks for the help y6y6y6. Your solution fixed the problem and I have a feeling I wouldn't have found it for quite some time, if at all.

madamjujujive: I'm glad you liked it, I had almost forgotten that addition.
posted by jaden at 10:31 PM on October 9, 2003