MetaTalk

The sidebar won't collapse in Metafilter, whether you are logged in or not.
posted by stoneegg21 to Bugs at 11:23 PM PST - 6 comments

Nice redesign.
posted by mrbula to MetaFilter-Related at 9:43 PM PST - 51 comments

This was just posted to the front page. The part that captured my attention was the final paragraph...what exactly does this mean?

In related news, MetaFilter was said to be signing a merger agreement with Kuro5hin to pool content between the two sites. We'll bring you more news as soon as we hear it.
posted by BlueTrain to MetaFilter-Related at 7:25 PM PST - 6 comments

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face: How refreshing it was to see the pictures of the MetaFilter members who recently met for drinks in Los Angeles![Scroll down] Stevis, chacal and y6y6y6 all posted photographs of the group on this thread. It seems to me we're all becoming less anonymous and less cagey about revealing personal information about ourselves. Including real names, zipcodes and even professional details. Phone numbers are quite freely exchanged. Some of us have even started swapping CDs through the mail.

If this impression is correct, I'd like to hear others' opinions on what's changed and what it means. People here seem much more nonchalant about the possibility of being tracked down and checked out - by employers, actual or potential, for instance. Are we relaxing more or is it something else - say, a consequence of harder times or a reappraisal of basic(old-fashioned?) Internet anonymity and multiple-identity ideologies?
posted by MiguelCardoso to MetaFilter-Related at 7:17 PM PST - 22 comments

I think it's uncouth that the 'arafat' front page post was deleted. It was a photograph of a moment captured. Like any moment captured. Except it was explosive. Why must a candid photo of Yasser Arafat under siege be purged from Mefi's memory?
posted by crasspastor to Etiquette/Policy at 2:12 AM PST - 25 comments

In an article about how 'push' technologies to give users personalised news are returning (second page), Wired mentions Metafilter as "[a weblog that] provides a personal, human editorial slant that machines can't mimic." I don't see Metafilter as a weblog that brings me personalised news - there's a lot of links and discussion that I skip over - but I do think it serves a useful purpose in bringing me interesting news that falls outside of my usual preferences.
posted by adrianhon to General Weblog-Related at 10:47 AM PST - 1 comment

Is there some sort of official policy regarding deleting posts? I didn't even know it was done until mine was deleted yesterday.
posted by zerolucid to MetaFilter-Related at 9:13 AM PST - 5 comments

Anyone up for a Manhattan MeFi gathering in late April? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?...
posted by lizs to MetaFilter-Related at 8:48 AM PST - 78 comments

We got March 29th 2002. And then there's April 9th, 2001. We're talking almost a year. Isn't there a statute of limitations on doubleposting? I should make a front page post to JenniCam just to see if anyone gives a crap.
posted by ZachsMind to Etiquette/Policy at 9:40 PM PST - 13 comments

"So let me get this straight. We have a post with a link to a cheesy bio page that is uninteresting, really has nothing to do with anything said in the post, and is only provided as a catalyst to debate something someone's professor said?" Apologies to Mikhail, but he brings up a pertinent point. When one chooses to compose a FPP for MeFi, which should come first: an appropriate link, or a soapbox worthy topic? Is it wrong to use MeFi as your own personal soapbox? How can one tell (preferably before they hit the post button) when they're out of line?
posted by ZachsMind to Etiquette/Policy at 10:21 AM PST - 19 comments

Orthodoxy again rears its ugly head. Trolling is alleged three times in a row because the poster's views diverged from the Metafilter norm (and the poster was alleged to be gasp repeatedly expressing similar views), with the worst yet to come; another poster is called blatantly biased and therefore "loses any credibility", and told "not to expect to be taken seriously" even though he has himself explained that bias and has been thoughtful and on point to discussion. Another was recently called out for not leavening his posts with, well, other posts expressing a different viewpoint. Is this really contributory to open discussion and debate? Is it really now to be verboten to express a point of view, especially in an FPP? Can someone join a discussion even though they have pre-existing views, whether they be based on bias or principle? Or are some on Metafilter simply annoyed by points of view they don't like?
posted by dhartung to Etiquette/Policy at 8:39 AM PST - 108 comments

Enough with the pancakes and haiku, already.
posted by rcade to Etiquette/Policy at 5:08 AM PST - 57 comments

Just wondering why this post was killed. I can't fathom how it became controversial enough (or whatever enough) to be deleted, since the description reads:

"
Paper enables a certain kind of thinking. Picture, for instance, the top of your desk. Chances are that you have a keyboard and a computer screen off to one side, and a clear space roughly eighteen inches square in front of your chair. What covers the rest of the desktop is probably piles—piles of papers, journals, magazines, binders, postcards, videotapes, and all the other artifacts of the knowledge economy. The piles look like a mess, but they aren't. From The New Yorker."

posted by beth to MetaFilter-Related at 6:12 PM PST - 14 comments

I have recently noticed that when I put my cursor on some links, like the one here, after a second or two I get a balloon briefly describing the link. Since I am an HTML novice I figure this is an added tag that I do not know. Can someone fill me in?
posted by anathema to MetaFilter-Related at 6:02 AM PST - 31 comments

speaking of google, i did a quick search of the name of my journal/blog/analfoam-site/whatever, called 'pigeonfarm', and metafilter came up a whole lot more than my site itself. anyone else got this going on?
posted by jcterminal to General Weblog-Related at 10:25 PM PST - 4 comments

A reporter asked me this question in email, which I couldn't answer. Does this ring a bell for anyone? If so, I'll paypal five bucks to the first person to find the appropriate thread (I'll ask the reporter to pay me some research fees)

"I'm writing to you today to see if you can help me with a search I'm doing or perhaps offer some suggestions. I'm working on a story about emergency dispatchers, and I remember an incredibly affecting thread about 2 months or so after Sept. 11 that had accounts from New York City dispatchers on their experiences that day. I've put every imaginable search term into the Mefi engine ("emergency operator", "operator," "Sept. 11," "911," "dispatcher", etc.) but the search either times out or comes up with nothing."
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 7:29 PM PST - 19 comments

Currently the front page indicates the mothersmoker thread has 106 posts, but its count inside the thread rests at 103. Why the disparity? (and, no, I did not count to see which is correct)
posted by NortonDC to Bugs at 5:47 PM PST - 4 comments

I don't want to be insensitive, but with posts like this,
this, and this. Isn't mefi becoming too much of an obit page?
posted by jeblis to MetaFilter-Related at 1:53 PM PST - 40 comments

What is the current approach to credit the source of a link?
I've posted a link today and credited the place where I actually found the link, in this case a personal weblog. Inside the thread, someone mentioned that it could be credited to Reuters and I was puzzled by that.

So, when I come across an interesting link and decide to post it, should I credit the place where I found it or should I credit the original source? I didn't want to raise this question in the original thread to avoid sidetracking...

posted by rexgregbr to Etiquette/Policy at 11:34 AM PST - 11 comments

Is Google News Search a weblog? Internet.com seems to think so: 'Googleblog': Search Firm Gets into Weblogging...
posted by andrewraff to General Weblog-Related at 9:03 AM PST - 9 comments

Blind FPPs suck. Is it asking so much to tell me what the link is about?
posted by luser to Etiquette/Policy at 8:37 AM PST - 8 comments

Are congratulations in order? Fark just made Time's 50 Best WebSites list. Is it respectability at last? Is it scary? Or just, er, deserved? It's a very conservative, but well assembled list, and Fark certainly stand outs. I say "Bravo!".
posted by MiguelCardoso to General Weblog-Related at 6:18 AM PST - 40 comments

Is anyone else seeing problems with links on some text ads being a bit too long to fit the box? Screenshot is from MSIE 5.1.3 on Mac OS X.
posted by nathan_teske to Bugs at 12:01 AM PST - 4 comments

Every now and then, I run into an old, really interesting Metafilter thread posted by someone or other on to a current thread. e.g. This posted by nprigoda today has some very interesting links.
I think it would be good to find out some of the most interesting threads from the past. So ....What is your favourite mefi thread? (Since I suspect most people have been bookmarking some of their favs)

posted by justlooking to MetaFilter-Related at 6:38 PM PST - 11 comments

albuquerque/santa fe gathering
i'm the only one, aren't i? am i going to be drinking alone? (it won't be so different from all the other nights...)

posted by sugarfish to MetaFilter-Related at 5:59 PM PST - 7 comments

Overusing the bold tag. As the number of front page posts have grown, some posters have felt the need to yell to be heard. I think this is a troubling trend, and I'd like it to stop. What is the community consensus?
posted by gd779 to Etiquette/Policy at 2:46 PM PST - 19 comments

In a recent thread about events, dong_resin mentioned what I thought was a good idea. Basically, just add a category gatherings, or events to the category list.

On a side note, is it considered gauche to post a gathering or event request to MetaTalk? There were some people interested in a Seattle MeFi, but I think it got lost when it fell off the front page...
posted by patrickje to Feature Requests at 2:05 PM PST - 27 comments

Can someone tell me the secret of keeping up with MeTa threads that have scrolled off the front page but keep getting new posts? Is there something you can search for? (I tried punching in "March 22," but no dice.)
posted by aaron to MetaFilter-Related at 11:35 AM PST - 23 comments

"Ben is Dead is not dead" Zine culture still alive, thanks to MetaFilter and others. (Mad props to the Obscure Store.
posted by ColdChef to MetaFilter-Related at 8:32 AM PST - 8 comments

Assuming one has identified 1 interesting front page "lead" post and 3 "supporting" posts that may add value to a discussion. What is the better : a) Include all 4 posts on the front page and be done with it. b)have 1 lead post in the front page and 3 supporting posts in the first comment. c) sprinkle 3 supporting posts one by one as discussion develops. Realize every situation is unique but some general guidance would be very helpful.
posted by Voyageman to Etiquette/Policy at 3:43 PM PST - 6 comments

Mind if I journal? Any of you'se bloggers catch the cartoon in the current online New Yorker yet? Oh, rats! They changed it already... It was a picture of a post-coital couple in bed: him to the left lying on his back smoking a cigarette, her on the right, turning to her PDA on the nightstand and looking over her shoulder and asking that question... Well, it may still be there somewhere: try hitting refresh.
posted by y2karl to General Weblog-Related at 12:52 PM PST - 8 comments

What constitutes a doublepost?
posted by ZachsMind to Etiquette/Policy at 12:16 PM PST - 37 comments

Slate wonders if Googlebombing will ruin the poor little seach engine that could. Cap'n Haughey gets a meniton for the Critical IP imbroglio. There's some weird editing botch at the end that I imagine will get ironed out later.
posted by Skot to MetaFilter-Related at 12:03 PM PST - 13 comments

I've mailed matt twice about this, but he's never responded regarding this matter:

Given that we've got 17000 (maybe more) people on Mefi. Don't you think it's time we got ourselves a "Change Password" option?

I've looked and looked and I couldn't find a way to change my password.

There's someone who knows my password and has posted messages that Matt's deleted, and Matt's mailed ME the warnings.

Maybe I've not found out how to use MeFi's user profile thing, but considering that I've not been able to, many others also will be in my position some time.
posted by arnab to Feature Requests at 9:34 AM PST - 7 comments

Mefi faux pas? aaron bared his soul, and the results are not surprising.
posted by crunchland to MetaFilter-Related at 4:36 AM PST - 31 comments

I have been out of the country for the past five days and have come back to a number of password requests sent to my email address. I haven't requested them myself.
Is this going to be someone simply trying to access my account pointlessly?
posted by Frasermoo to MetaFilter-Related at 12:43 AM PST - 5 comments

We're probably all familiar with the Absolut Vodka ads. But there are a number of good homemade ads as well. I think an "Absolut MetaFilter" (or MetaTalk) would have hilarious, and diverse results. What would your "Absolut MetaFilter/MetaTalk" include? Taglines, pancakes, 1142? What other Absolut ads do you wish there were?
NOTE: This is not a request. I do not encourage you to make an "Absolut MetaFilter/MetaTalk" ad without the consent of mathowie.
posted by jacobw to MetaFilter-Related at 2:16 PM PST - 30 comments

"Here's a thought: if someone tells you they're unemployed and desperately broke, help them out." Any concrete suggestions on how we can assist MeFi readers who need work?
posted by sheauga to MetaFilter-Related at 1:41 PM PST - 31 comments

I wonder ... should Matt just put a quick link to the Washington Post and the Guardian on top MetaFilter, and suggest that their discussion boards be used to discuss their articles?
posted by MidasMulligan to Etiquette/Policy at 10:34 AM PST - 30 comments

Anybody attending one of the MeFi gatherings, how about posting some pictures?
posted by luser to MetaFilter-Related at 7:44 AM PST - 66 comments

First off, I'm not trying to be snarky or imply that anyone did anything wrong here. I just want clarification from the community on something I'm unsure about. This thread updates a previous thread with new information. However, the previous thread in question was started the day before, and already had this information added, 40 minutes before the new thread was started. Is there a decent period of grace before one can consider it worth posting an update thread rather than adding to the existing one, or is this always ok now?
posted by walrus to Etiquette/Policy at 4:14 AM PST - 15 comments

RE: the sideblog. Ummm, I don't get it. Isn't a googlewhack supposed to result in a hit? If I do this, [screechy hucksters] , will I be transported into another dimension?
posted by machaus to MetaFilter-Related at 4:09 PM PST - 5 comments

13 tips for "writing quickly and well" (link inside). Any other pearls of wisdom?
posted by Voyageman to General Weblog-Related at 12:58 PM PST - 26 comments

Linking to a redirector url from another site instead of the url of the article/site being talked about is sub-optimal. In this example it is a Fark redirector which points to a news site.
posted by riffola to Etiquette/Policy at 12:37 PM PST - 9 comments

I'm having a mid-life crisis and it's all Metafilter's fault! This is especially upsetting as I'm only 31 and this means I'll be dead by 62. Honestly, though, the more I read about what others here are creating and persuing, the more I find myself wondering what the hell I'm doing with my life. Perhaps this is good, in that maybe this will motivate me to get off my ass and contribute something to the world. I'm just wondering, am I the only one who fells like this reading the 'filter? Is this actually a mid-life crisis or am I just going crazy?
posted by jonmc to MetaFilter-Related at 7:12 PM PST - 154 comments

Enough with the porn bombs already! Isn't there anything we victims can do about this cowardly spamming tactic undertaken by so-called fellow users? I'm thinking of changing and then removing my e-mail address altogether, as it's not worth the trouble.
posted by MiguelCardoso to MetaFilter-Related at 7:10 PM PST - 60 comments

There appears to be some serious bad juju going on out on the net. Yahoo, for example, has been wiped off the map. It appears to have had its IP address wiped off all the root name servers. I've tried traceroutes from six different places around the globe, and nslookups from a several servers, and they're all like, "Ya-Who?" Plus all lookups for all sites on my local DNS server have become snail-slow. Anyone know more about what's up?
posted by aaron to General Weblog-Related at 5:05 PM PST - 15 comments

In Metatalk, when I hit Preview and then Back to edit the post, the post disappears.
posted by ParisParamus to Bugs at 4:33 AM PST - 27 comments

Blog Always, You Interest Me (translated) - Even the French are in on it - La Libération weighs in on blogging.
posted by panopticon to General Weblog-Related at 10:49 PM PST - 6 comments

OK, assuming I'm not being banned by the Management, I can no longer use Mefi in Opera or IE 5.0. When logged in, all I see is a sea of blue or a sea of brown (Metatalk), on what appears to be a huge Web page. as I scroll down, single words appear very VERY far apart. Is this a cruel joke?
posted by ParisParamus to Bugs at 7:18 PM PST - 22 comments

Speaking of fonts -- are we no longer allowed to use font tags in comments? Mine seem to be getting stripped out during preview. This interferes with my ability to make [font size=-2]snarky side comments[/font].
posted by ook to MetaFilter-Related at 4:44 PM PST - 19 comments

At least in IE5.0 for Mac, the customization of fonts is no longer working in Mefi. Although it is in Meta.
posted by ParisParamus to Bugs at 3:16 PM PST - 3 comments

Feature idea: A last 10 link after the comment count on each front-page post, which causes the thread to be loaded with only the last 10 comments visible.
posted by rcade to Feature Requests at 1:47 PM PST - 23 comments

Previously a section of Corante, today Microcontent News has launched as a full-blown site. I think that it looks very sexy, with a good choose of categorises, although I'm sure someone here will be able to identify areas for improvement ;-) What I was wondering was whether people think that there will be enough developments in this area to keep such a site busy? Is there going to be much movement on the weblogging/microcontent front over the next year or 2, or will most action/thinking simply be a rehash or re-examination of past events. I suppose with every media outlet under the sun seeming determined to write (generally re-write) something on the subject, their blog will certainly be active, if nothing else.
posted by RobertLoch to General Weblog-Related at 9:25 AM PST - 7 comments

Insomnyuk said: "Someone should try to write a biography about a person they've never met, using Google."

Cool idea. How about doing it with Metafilter? Anybody want to volunteer to do somebody else? Might be fun to see how close it's possible to get, just based on profile page & posts in here and out front.
posted by luser to General Weblog-Related at 6:36 AM PST - 36 comments

here's an interesting dilemma. the hate site referenced in this thread is being threatened with legal action from a company named the vanguard group.

how do we feel about this?
posted by rebeccablood to MetaFilter-Related at 10:57 PM PST - 22 comments

There's still a bug with the autotranslation of certain characters into HTML codes. In this thread I just posted, each paragraph describing the AIMbots began with an equals sign followed by a greater-than sign. Hitting "preview" retained these characters, though in the actual text-entry box, they'd all been turned into "=>". Then, upon posting, they all showed up as "=>".
posted by aaron to Bugs at 8:35 PM PST - 8 comments

Take a trip with me down the Riviera (#1, #2, #3, #4), where no comment is complete without a little vicious personal invective.
posted by rcade to Etiquette/Policy at 7:07 AM PST - 141 comments

So what exactly constitutes a double post? For example, this link on the front page regarding the ATHEIST plates was called a double post. On the other hand, this post regarding the Yates trial was not. I rarely monitor old threads, even if they are only a few days old. What is enough of an update to constitute a link worthy of an additional front page post?
posted by monju_bosatsu to Etiquette/Policy at 2:39 PM PST - 3 comments

Why get irked over a news item that's been covered elsewhere? Were do you think the posted link links to? *Elsewhere!*
posted by o2b to MetaFilter-Related at 11:06 AM PST - 12 comments

I made a slight change to the user pages. Logged in users see everything as it was before, but non-logged in users don't see any contact information except for websites URLs. I had long worried about the spam thwarting measures I have employed not being good enough, and I've also been hearing about non-members hassling members for memberships, posting, etc. So with the new change, non-members won't be able to harvest addresses, or send you an email (unless you've got it listed on your homepage URL somewhere), and they won't know your AIM/ICQ or location.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 10:13 AM PST - 34 comments

*sigh* Okay, somebody's gotta do it.
It's unfortunate and all, and I don't want to seem insensitive, but what was the purpose of this thread being on the front page? Even if Duncan had been a MeFi user, which doesn't seem to be the case, it probably would belong here in MeTa, anyway.
posted by Su to Etiquette/Policy at 8:05 AM PST - 64 comments

Right now I need Netscape Navigator 4 to view Mefi correctly. In IE, Opera and Netscape 6, teh last words on the page are " of his recent cranial bleeding.". Maybe it's just me but I doubt it.
posted by Baud to Bugs at 5:18 AM PST - 10 comments

there is an annoying bug in lofi.mefi: deleted FPP's and the number of comments show up long after deletion -- possibly till they fall of the lofi page. Such as this March 13 gaff:

Google This is google
posted by mathowie at 6:35 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

They don't show up in the "normal" Front page but they do in lofi.mefi. Also the lofi version has no text ads, is lofi.mefi not supported?

posted by DBAPaul to Bugs at 3:38 AM PST - 7 comments

For exceptionally long threads, would it be more CPU-friendly to stop rendering new pages every time someone clicked into the page after a certain point? Say, arbitrarily, 100 posts?
posted by Hildago to Feature Requests at 7:50 AM PST - 7 comments

I just noticed this! As of a few days ago, I've officially been in MetaFilter for two whole years! Well, except for a couple self-exiles where I left for weeks at a time due to offline crap or my just being a type B personality. How many other regulars are there who have been around at least as long? Speak up! When's your 2 year anniversary? Maybe we can throw a party for ya!
posted by ZachsMind to MetaFilter-Related at 7:40 AM PST - 49 comments

The comment counts for each thread listed in the Metafilter sidebar are all way off. I did a little digging, trying to see if maybe each count had gotten shifted the thread before or after it or something similar, but in the end I couldn't find any rhyme or reason to it.
posted by aaron to Bugs at 3:07 PM PST - 4 comments

"Error occurred while processing request." In recent days I've gotten a lot of freezeups as I'm trying to save a post. I've just been taking it in stride because it's nothing new, but is happening more and more often recently. Ufez Jones just mentioned a similar problem, and there have been a few noticable doubleposts recently, which is a common mistake when this error occurs if one is not careful. I'm wondering how many others are noticing this too? I recommend keeping notepad handy, or just copy your post to the clipboard just before hitting preview or post. It saves having to recompose the message if it gets lost.
posted by ZachsMind to Bugs at 2:55 PM PST - 5 comments

I think it'd be handy---esp. within excessively long threads where many users post several times---to have something like this:

posted by username at 5:00 PM PST on March 13 [see also: 1,2,3...]

where the "see also: 1,2,3..." points to other posts by the same user within a given thread. Maybe this has been requested before, and maybe it's not worth the coding hassle -- but I think it'd be very useful.

posted by blackholebrain to Feature Requests at 2:43 PM PST - 10 comments

A gold star for y2karl, whose exhaustive thread regarding minstrel shows is the reason I keep showing up here.
posted by solistrato to MetaFilter-Related at 2:24 PM PST - 4 comments

"Similarity Score" technology is widely used to match keywords between two blocks of text. Search engines use it, obviously, and sophisticated algorithms exist to help teachers detect plagarism in student papers, etc.

Is there a filter that can be installed to compare two FPPs and warn the poster of a high similarity score? I'm thinking, for example, the next time someone uses the words "National Geographic", "Afghanistan," and "girl" in a FPP and clicks Preview, they would be presented with something like "Warning: A FPP with 70% similarity to the above was posted 1 day ago."
posted by PrinceValium to Feature Requests at 10:55 AM PST - 10 comments

Shortform: Maybe an added optional field could be made, which would allow the instigator of a given MeFi FPP to better define their intent of the thread's topic scope? Something that can later be referred to when arguments over topic drift do arise? [more]

posted by ZachsMind to Feature Requests at 12:44 AM PST - 17 comments

Oprah brings online journals to the masses...
posted by owillis to General Weblog-Related at 12:03 AM PST - 3 comments

A real quandary here, folks. While Googling for "kisses of love" I found a site called Butterfly Kisses dedicated to lesbian paedophilia. It's very slickly produced and contains lots of photographs by celebrated photographers such as Sally Mann. This makes it all the more disturbing.

I was planning on posting it but somehow I feel put off by publicizing it. I'm reminded of the ethical problems associated with posting nutjob political sites. On the one hand, perhaps posting the site on MetaFilter will make it be denounced and go underground(which would be a good thing, IMO). On the other, it might just draw attention to something best left alone.

Though I'm aware MetaTalk is read by a lot of people, it doesn't attract as many readers as MetaFilter. What should I do? Post it or forget about it?
posted by MiguelCardoso to Etiquette/Policy at 9:23 AM PST - 191 comments

What happened to the latest post about ICANN? Is it gone because this has been discussed before, or what?
posted by anathema to MetaFilter-Related at 8:02 AM PST - 7 comments

Those Southern Californians are having their own get-together - so why not the mid-Atlantic region? I'm not exactly volunteering to organize, but if any DC/Baltimore/etc are Metafilterites would be interested in such a scheme, perhaps here would be a good place to post about it.
posted by GriffX to MetaFilter-Related at 6:57 PM PST - 18 comments

How do we feel about the real or imagined privacy violations involved in signing up for the google PageRank toolbar system? I find an old discussion here but the privacy issue really isn't discussed in detail. I seek the opinions of the learned.
posted by bingo to General Weblog-Related at 2:02 PM PST - 5 comments

So where did my post about SXSW go? There were 15-16 replies last night. Did I hit a nerve with the weblog gods? Did the posts touch on something some people didn't want to read? An explanation here would be nice instead of just deleting the post. "Community weblog," indeed.
posted by manero to MetaFilter-Related at 8:00 AM PST - 23 comments

When someone replies to a Front Page Post that they started, they are often accused of moderating the thread. This is an incorrect assumption. They are responding to what others have said in a thread that they just happened to start and this should be acceptable behavior.
posted by ZachsMind to Etiquette/Policy at 7:37 AM PST - 20 comments

I'm seriously aware that Matt is gone for the weekend, but do we have to put up with crap like this?
posted by Wulfgar! to Etiquette/Policy at 3:35 PM PST - 72 comments

I was at an art gallery the other day, signing the comments book for an exhibition. As I wrote my thoughts, I realised I'd slipped into Metafilterese, all personal feelings and heartfelt oaths -- I even wished I could link to something related I'd seen at another exhibition. At the end it took everything not to write my mefi user name at the end. I'm wonder if any other addicts have found their Mefi usage slip into the real world...
posted by feelinglistless to MetaFilter-Related at 3:03 PM PST - 23 comments

A sensor which would prevent two posts within an interval of, say, 30 seconds or 60. This would unintentional double posts such as mine in the tactical nuke thread of a few minutes ago. (I tend to push elevator buttons more than once also)
posted by ParisParamus to Feature Requests at 1:31 PM PST - 4 comments

Has consideration been given previously for a Metafilter sort by most visited/most clicked on front page posts? Thanks.

posted by Voyageman to Feature Requests at 6:44 AM PST - 11 comments

New feature for Mac users. The sidebar feature works for me in IE 5.12 under OS X. I think the page holder feature has been around a while, but I had no idea. Anyway, for those using Mac IE browsers, you now have a sidebar version of metafilter (don't ask me about Opera versions, they're not possible as far as I know).

Coding new features actually makes painful time spent in airports fly by.
posted by mathowie to MetaFilter-Related at 5:12 AM PST - 18 comments

Spotted T3's "Give my ass a job" textad today(find it yourself), and it reminded me of something. Matt: Any news on the notalentassclown idea?
This has been your daily trainspotting moment.
posted by Su to MetaFilter-Related at 1:58 PM PST - 2 comments

Is it possible to have an edit facility? I know there are ample opportunities before you actually post, but some of us like to unwind after work on a Friday with a little drink or three and don't always spot our little boo boos until it's too late, thus incurring the wrath of the less tolerant among us.
If we could edit the post, post posting as it were, it would save embarrassment.
Profound apologies for my too too boo boo on Miguel Carduso's radio thread. Should have caught an earlier choo choo.
posted by Fat Buddha to Feature Requests at 11:58 AM PST - 24 comments

NeuroProsthesis seems to be trying to use weblogs in order to optimize their google ranking. Their anchor tag is optimised for google. They have a weblog that talks about running a googlebombing inspired experiment. They have been inserting links in other people's weblog threads encouraging them to participate. They have apparently placed textads in daypop, metafilter etc. I distinctly remember running into an unrelated link to this site in one of the threads in Kottke.org. Jason seems to have removed it.

I think this is a bad precedent. Are there others? What do you think?

posted by justlooking to General Weblog-Related at 11:22 AM PST - 17 comments

For the record - I'm extremely PISSED that BloggerPro has been down for over 12 hours now without warning. It didn't bother me when I was a freeloader, but now that I've payed for it am I alone in wanting a little bit more than I'm getting from Pyra?

I just want needed to vent...
posted by revbrian to General Weblog-Related at 10:49 AM PST - 13 comments

Rules for use of humour (more inside)...
posted by Spoon to Etiquette/Policy at 12:26 AM PST - 52 comments

I'm trying to see if Opera for Mac might be something to switch to. But, at least in Mefi/Metatalk, my font Metafilter font preferences, while they seem to register in "Customize" Mefi, do not take hold. Is there something in Opera: I can't get the font smaller; and there's too much space between lines of text. Is there something I'm not adjusting in OPERA?
posted by ParisParamus to Bugs at 6:57 PM PST - 7 comments

Slashdot song - I Won't Subcribe
posted by RobertLoch to General Weblog-Related at 6:39 PM PST - 5 comments

Has mathowie got some more bandwidth or other upgrade? MeFi/MeTa seem very zippy to me, past couple of days.
posted by luser to Uptime at 10:19 AM PST - 21 comments

Is Deep Linking Good Linking? Jakob Nielsen says websites should encourage deep links as they enhance usability. He suggests three general guidelines. Nutcote(please scroll down)raises the question of etiquette: "Maintaining a links-based weblog, this is an important issue. I can see good points on both sides; to some extent it depends on the kind of site being linked to. When linking to a personal site, deep linking might not be good manners (depending on the site); but this is not the case when linking to an article on a major news site. It is a worldwide _web_ after all.".

Since this is an issue which affects a lot of us, I'd like to know what other bloggers think. Specially as I suspect the decision whether or not to deep-link(as opposed to just linking to an irrelevant main page as well as to the intended page) is not as simple as Nielsen makes it sound. Any thoughts? Thanks!
posted by MiguelCardoso to General Weblog-Related at 6:30 AM PST - 25 comments

The first ever Los Angeles Metafilter Event is Friday, March 29th in Santa Monica. (Details inside...)
posted by waxpancake to MetaFilter-Related at 10:54 AM PST - 47 comments

I think the upper lefthand corner Metafilter logo should have above it "Matt Haughey's'..." Kind of like Don Kirshner's Rock Concert.
(I don't have the graphic design prowess to propose this visually).

posted by ParisParamus to Bugs at 6:18 AM PST - 37 comments

A feature idea: Add a button to the bottom of every MeFi page that says "this is a troll" (below the button, add a link that says "What's a troll?" that links to an explanation). Then it's just a matter of math: If over, say, fifty percent of the visitors to that thread mark it as a troll, delete it (or, at least, flag it for admin review). A system like this might discourage people from posting threads just to piss everyone off.
posted by fraying to Feature Requests at 6:21 PM PST - 52 comments

I've been on metafilter all day, and every comment in every thread from March 2 9:29pm is marked as new. I logged in this morning at or about 12:52 PM, and it is 3:23 as I write these words.
posted by rebeccablood to Bugs at 3:24 PM PST - 3 comments

Most frustrating thing about MeFi: How oddly disposable it is. I mean the discussion, not the links. When you skip it for a few days, and come back, the links still work but the discussions are dead. Forty-eight hours, and dead as a doornail. I know MeFi is all about fresh links -- but still. Would it be so bad to allow for sorting by recent comment on the customization page, so the sorting persists between visits? Or is this already possible, and it's just that no one does it?
posted by luser to Feature Requests at 12:07 PM PST - 15 comments

Is there still a bug in the way MetaTalk calculates the number of new posts? Just now, I came in and got this: "There have been 3 links and 88 comments posted since your last visit." Three new links, sure, but there's only 74 new comments. Now, it's almost always (95% of the time) off by 1 or 2, but never off by 14.

Alternately, does the counter count new posts to threads that have long-since fallen off the front MeTa page? (And if so, is there any way we could once again get pointers to them?)
posted by aaron to Bugs at 12:02 PM PST - 4 comments

Curious, as this is the only one I I've actually run across. It seems that double-posts have been very rare recently. Or have they just been getting caught that quickly?
posted by Su to MetaFilter-Related at 9:51 AM PST - 12 comments

An URL posted here has changed. I posted a link to the Glass Engine on the weekend as http://www.philipglass.com/glassengine/#. The URL now coded inside the Metafilter page is http://euphorbia1.client.dti.net/glassengine/ but it fails to connect. The www.philipglass.com site appears to be down as well (and I really hope I didn't get the place MeFied) so the original URL doesn't work either. This is not a redirect I'm talking about: the code in this Metafilter page is different. I just checked http://www.jerrykindall.com/ where I got the URL -- and his code has changed to the new URL, too. Say, you all aren't trying to glasslight me, are you?
posted by maudlin to Bugs at 3:55 AM PST - 5 comments

Troll, Ignorant, or Other?
posted by jacobw to Etiquette/Policy at 1:24 AM PST - 30 comments

Sorry, Matt, but would it be too much to get the Italics, Bold, and Link icons on the MeTa post threads? Is it something you've been meaning to do or what? It really would make life easier for us non-programming types.
posted by Ufez Jones to Feature Requests at 9:56 PM PST - 24 comments

(Not too be a brown nose but) Matt's use of photographic images in a.wholelottanothing.org is beautiful (and central to the content it seems to me ?) Besides photographica.org, any other photocentric weblogs anyone would recommend? Thanks. PS Do you think there will there be more of these? Will soundtracks happen too?
posted by Voyageman to General Weblog-Related at 4:35 PM PST - 25 comments

In this posting, user dhartung mentions that there are dozens of threads that he doesn't even read, after user RobertLoch asks if it's necessary to keep posting on the same old topics. Myself, I probably read around 25% of the total threads, and click on maybe 35% of the links offered-- even if a topic has been done to death it doesn't really affect me, as I just skip it. How about you? What percentage of threads do you read?

posted by cell divide to MetaFilter-Related at 4:10 PM PST - 26 comments

when hitting the "login" link after deciding I'd like to post something, is it possible to refresh back the page I was at before I logged in? more inside.
posted by christian to Feature Requests at 2:57 PM PST - 5 comments

I suppose this has already been discussed, but isn't it a simple thing to do to prevent accidental multiple postings? Perhaps the current comment could be compared to the previous comment?
posted by aaronshaf to Feature Requests at 1:31 PM PST - 8 comments

getting weary of the bigotry flying around over the past few days. while conservative viewpoints are entirely necessary to keep conversation here balanced, this repeated stereotyping is beyond juvenile.
posted by patricking to Etiquette/Policy at 11:57 AM PST - 43 comments

The Google Time Bomb- how weblogs are increasingly influencing the algorithms of Google's search engine. It looks like fun could be had with this. (From Microcontent news)
posted by RobertLoch to General Weblog-Related at 10:09 AM PST - 28 comments

I always thought it impolite to type in all caps -- etiquette, usability, etc. There are two posts today(1, 2) that use all caps for their links.

All in favor say 'aye'. All opposed 'nay'. I'm curious.

posted by zpousman to Etiquette/Policy at 7:15 PM PST - 20 comments

Happy 2nd Birthday, MetaTalk! Gotta love the one and only comment - if only they knew...
posted by obiwanwasabi to Uptime at 5:38 PM PST - 27 comments

Why doesn't Drudge Report receive any credit for these three links? And why do people insist on posting these links, especially when it is apparent that a number of other readers visit Drudge Report (considering 3 Drudge Report links were posted within 3 hours of each other)?
posted by crog to MetaFilter-Related at 5:09 PM PST - 25 comments

Perhaps on the preview of a post or a comment, there should be a skeleton "next comment" that would show whether one has screwed up in one's tags (whether not closing them, or inserting an extra ") Obviously, this is a response to this entry.
posted by meep to Feature Requests at 10:53 AM PST - 4 comments

I was reading a month-old issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review after dinner tonight and found -- surprise, surprise -- an article on weblogs that I don't remember having read about here. The article isn't available for free on the FEER site anymore, but thanks to the magic of Google caching you can all read it: "Here's Where The Party Is" by Jeremy Wagstaff. Short and sweet.
posted by lia to General Weblog-Related at 6:00 AM PST - 1 comment

I hate when important stories are ruined by lousy posts. How many errors can you find? Where's the cleanup crew when you need them?!
posted by insomnia_lj to Etiquette/Policy at 12:23 AM PST - 32 comments

Hi! I'm MiguelCardoso's wife. My name is Maria João. I use the same computer as my husband does and have just registered under the name Schweppes Girl; using a well-known roundabout way. My username shows up fine on MetaFilter but, when I came to MetaTalk to comment, I find my username is automatically - and annoyingly - changed to MiguelCardoso.

Although I agree with what he says most of the time, I'd like, as do Catch/Holloway and the Acheson couple, to make comments of my own. Why is this? Or should I just order Miguel( ;) to take dictation?
I should add that I don't really mind; but I read MetaFilter and MetaTalk regularly and feel that women are severely under-represented. Does this mean I can be myself on MetaFilter(Schweppes Girl shows up as my login)but must bow to my husband on the perhaps more important MetaTalk? I guess it's just a bug. Am I right? Could it be fixed?
posted by MiguelCardoso to Bugs at 11:21 PM PST - 52 comments

I just noticed that Hotmail has started pinging weblogs.com, just like it's a blog that's been updated. To me, it's a sign of things to come -- corporate creeps in weblogs clothing. Should we care?
posted by blackholebrain to General Weblog-Related at 9:05 PM PST - 8 comments

Sometimes I wish self-posting was OK ...
posted by feelinglistless to Etiquette/Policy at 12:54 PM PST - 28 comments

Do threads with new comments show up under "recent comments" however old the thread? (inside)
posted by liam to Bugs at 12:23 PM PST - 6 comments

After virulent flurry of weblog/blog/metablog press coverage, I was trying to remember the first time I saw a major story in the "mainstream" press. All I could recall is New Yorker and New York Times (linked to inside - can't link from here - please excuse east coast bias.) Can any press group claim credit for being first to write about this ?
posted by Voyageman to General Weblog-Related at 10:14 AM PST - 6 comments

The Globe and Mail on community blogs and blogging as the new intellectual model for the web: "But, in fact, another kind of intellectual-content site has survived, one that makes much fuller use of the Web's unique structure. And the new model is flourishing." It seems that the new model is us.
posted by mcwetboy to General Weblog-Related at 4:54 AM PST - 9 comments

E! Online used MetaFilter as a source for quotes to sum up their article on the Grammy's and the Recording Academy President's comments on Internet piracy in particular.
posted by redleaf to MetaFilter-Related at 6:02 PM PST - 24 comments

Currently, there isnt any option for links in metatalk to open in a new window (metafilter of course has this as a customization option). I guess this is because Metatalk isnt expected to have a lot of external links. But I do sometimes run into some pretty interesting links here. Would be nice to be able to open them in a new window.
posted by justlooking to Feature Requests at 5:42 PM PST - 11 comments

I wouldn't be able to get my username changed from 'ewwgene' to 'eww,gene!', would i? When i signed up, i didn't realize that one could use commas and exclamation points when i signed up.

If this will 'open the floodgates' so to speak, dont bother. :)
posted by ewwgene to MetaFilter-Related at 5:30 PM PST - 25 comments

The unintentional revelations in this thread have got me thinking. Like many other people, I've poked fun at "bizarre" sites. In fact several online venues exist expressly for this purpose.
When the sites are merely stupid or silly, I suppose joking is harmless enough. But rcade's research shows us that some "odd" sites can be related to circumstances like those in today's thread. I've enjoyed sites like the one's above and wouldn't want them muzzled; I suppose what I'm asking is where is the line between harmless mockery and thoughtless cruelty and how much discretion should we exercise before linking to sites like this one?
posted by jonmc to General Weblog-Related at 11:07 AM PST - 4 comments

Slashdot offers subscriptions. Considering their traffic, it's amazing they've held out this long. The interesting thing is that the model is based on usage. Five bucks for a thousand ad-free pageviews, and some options to specify where you will deal with seeing the ads. Pretty interesting setup, I think.
posted by Su to General Weblog-Related at 8:29 AM PST - 17 comments

Now that Geocites has cut off FTP to its free users, we're likely to see a mass migration of Geo-based bloggers to other free FTP-capable hosts. (more inside)
posted by brownpau to General Weblog-Related at 7:48 AM PST - 18 comments

"You may have never heard of "weblogging," because it never yet made anyone rich, but blogging is a way cool deal, man"

In preparation for SXSW, MeFi gets a shout-out in the Austin Chronicle.
posted by ColdChef to MetaFilter-Related at 6:51 AM PST - 25 comments