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July 2011 Archives (all archives)
July 29
Two days of madness left to burn that magic to disc and post it to your 'mates—
MeFiSwap Mailing Deadline Reminder Thread: Get those swaps in the mail by
Saturday, July 30! [more inside]
posted by carsonb to MetaFilter-Related at 5:49 AM PST - 318 comments
July 28
Meta-metafilter: What are examples of some other online communities that have successfully kept the quality of posts/forums at a high level by requiring a nominal $5 to $10 signup fee?
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posted by thewalrus to Etiquette/Policy at 8:21 PM PST - 50 comments
And he came to the place which the MODS had told him of; and Troll built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound his 12 ponies, and laid them on the altar upon the wood.
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posted by troll to Feature Requests at 2:49 PM PST - 98 comments
July 27
With less than 2 months under it's belt... Grantland.com has been featured on the blue 14 times... is this product placement? Is this unprecedented? Do users of Grantland not get the concept of RSS feeds?
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posted by matimer to Etiquette/Policy at 8:41 PM PST - 74 comments
July 26
Is there a place on Mefi where members can hook up to work on new projects? Maybe expanding the scope of Mefi Projects or create something like Mefi Collab, a Mefi Music clone that's more general in scope?
posted by Foci for Analysis to Feature Requests at 2:49 PM PST - 26 comments
I posted anonymously to ask me and the advice and help offered, though some of it was very harsh, strengthened me to get out of a bad relationship. I read through the post over and over again when I start to weaken and it empowers me to stay strong. Your advice agreed with the advice of all my real world friends, but they were getting tired of reiterating it. Having the thread to re-read is powerful support. Thank you everybody! I'm in a safer, healthier place today than I would be without the support of many strangers on the internet.
posted by palegirl to MetaFilter-Related at 1:27 PM PST - 35 comments
I know people hate the gimcracks and gewgaws that litter any given website, but when you post the "Print Preview" version of an article, it means paragraphs that stretch out over a foot wide in many browsers (depending on the size of your screen, I guess) and that can be really hard to read. There are
two today, for example. Could we maybe agree to making the "Print" version available in your post, but not as the main link? Just a suggestion.
posted by hermitosis to Etiquette/Policy at 11:42 AM PST - 63 comments
July 25
I'm looking for threads on creating, purchasing for, cooking weekly menus. I know there are a ton of them on ask.mefi, but I can't seem to come up with the right terms to find them. Can anyone point me to some? I accept that I am a searchtard.
posted by The Dutchman to MetaFilter-Related at 2:18 PM PST - 17 comments
There was a Metafilter member who took really nice pictures of Mefites at meetups. I think this was around 10th anniversary time. He was Mefi-Famous for awhile and folks may have been even planning meetups around his travels. I also remember a comment from him where he talked about some of his techniques. Anyone remember who this is?
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posted by marxchivist to MetaFilter-Related at 11:35 AM PST - 28 comments
Mefi links look weird on Google+ and not like any other link I post there. Mefi
example, AskMe
example. Is there a way to provide a more descriptive description, or delete it altogether? Also, will there eventually be a widget (?) like there is with Twitter and Facebook?
posted by desjardins to Feature Requests at 10:43 AM PST - 12 comments
July 24
I remember (but can't find) an AskMe comment where someone said she had slept with her male, virginal friend "to boost his confidence" or something, but that ultimately it changed nothing and 10 years later he still hadn't slept with anyone else. Anyone remember where it was/have better search skills than me?
posted by needs more cowbell to MetaFilter-Related at 11:59 AM PST - 34 comments
July 23
July 22
Wired magazine contributing editor David Wolman recently unearthed this Metafilter thread [now closed] full of armchair opining about what may have led to the crash. When we forwarded it to an Airbus captain we know who is usually understated, he offered an uncharacteristically lengthy reply
posted by Mngo to MetaFilter-Related at 8:23 AM PST - 40 comments
July 21
July 20
July 19
Apart from the 'Obama proposes cuts to SS' thread around the start of the month, there hasn't been much in the way of current-event political threads recently, despite a lot of stuff happening around the world (budget crisis in the U.S., and Murdoch in the U.K.) It seems to me that news has occurred in both of these cases which could be thread worthy, and since I usually value political discussion I've been missing their presence on the front page. Have they been made, and then deleted, or is there some sort of sub-conscious urge not to discuss politics right now?
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posted by codacorolla to MetaFilter-Related at 7:52 PM PST - 102 comments
July 18
There was a comment in MeTa a little while back about what the amount of favorites on a post/comment signifies. "0-7: no one actually noticed your comment."
Maybe a month back? Anyone see this?
posted by Chrysostom to MetaFilter-Related at 12:11 PM PST - 91 comments
This request for sources on a comment I made is valid, but I don't want to derail the thread. Could it be appropriate to put sources and specifics in here, and let the thread continue on the content of the post?
posted by dragonsi55 to Etiquette/Policy at 7:19 AM PST - 23 comments
July 17
July 16
Is there a search-for-contacts, find-your-friends feature buried somewhere in MetaFilter? I'd love to see if any other folks that I know are MeFites, and would gladly grant the site temporary access to my GMail address book to find out... if ONLY there were a WAY to DO it!
posted by D.Billy to MetaFilter-Related at 9:36 PM PST - 57 comments
Two related privacy questions: (a) Can the mods see who has posted an anonymous AskMe?
The submission page suggests "no" but the anonymous submission page suggests "yes". (b) can mods see if multiple accounts are created by an specific IP address?
posted by Foci for Analysis to Etiquette/Policy at 3:39 PM PST - 36 comments
July 15
July 14
We periodically have problems with remote ad servers hanging up page loading on MetaFilter and we'd like to tweak the homepage layouts to make this impact much less of a problem. However, I'm not sure how it will impact the greasemonkey script deleted post type features because the code will change a bit on the home page.
[more inside]
posted by mathowie to Bugs at 4:26 PM PST - 44 comments
July 13
Looking for a fairly recent post featuring digital composite photos created by an artist from hundreds/thousands of photos taken of a single event. For example I think one of the photos was of a gymnastics competition and the photo had images of dozens of athletes and support personnel taken at different times during the day composited into a single photo. The impression was of a span of time in a single photo sort of like those Family Circus cartoons that followed Billy's travels during the day without the linear flow.
Anyone remember it?
posted by Mitheral to MetaFilter-Related at 11:49 PM PST - 2 comments
July 12
In this episode we interview our intern Dom, then cover the usual excellent spots from all parts of MetaFilter. We recorded this on Monday, July 11th and it runs about an hour and a half.
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posted by mathowie to MeFi Podcast at 11:04 PM PST - 34 comments
"Yeah, yeah. Having a section of the site dedicated to talking about the site I originally designed that just to keep people from jabbering about like fonts that they didn’t like in the middle of a thread about some news event, and just being like shut up, don’t do that; having a place dedicated has been great because then people can talk openly about lots of things."
The July 1st
SitePoint podcast is a panel discussion on "...the profession of Online Community, how it’s grown in importance and profile, and what it means to today’s Web," conducted by
Patrick O'Keefe, founder of the iFroggy Network: with Venessa Paech, Lead Community Manager of
Community Engine; Sarah Hawk, Community Manager of
SitePoint; and our own intrepid
mathowie.
[more inside]
posted by zarq to MetaFilter-Related at 7:20 AM PST - 10 comments
Wow, the Arizona senator post disappeared in a cloud of smoke, very quickly; too much flaming/gallows humor? Just curious, though I do know people on both sides of the issue.
posted by obscurator to MetaFilter-Related at 7:18 AM PST - 45 comments
July 11
There is a certain kind of website that has always brought me great joy…expansive, idiosyncratic, under-the-radar, well-edited, weirdly-colored goldmines of information on
something. Help prospect the MeFi archives for goldmines.
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posted by silby to MetaFilter-Related at 1:02 PM PST - 59 comments
So most mefite google+ users probably have mainly mefites in their circle(s). As the sign ups are open again is this now significantly changing or are we just one small circle among many others.
posted by adamvasco to MetaFilter-Related at 11:49 AM PST - 214 comments
When, if ever, do admins admit they were wrong? Throughout the history of MetaFilter and MetaTalk in the 11 years I’ve been here, I see admins justifying or defending their actions and I almost never see admins admitting they made a mistake.
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posted by joeclark to MetaFilter-Related at 7:51 AM PST - 62 comments [closed]
July 10
Following up on my question
here, chime in if you're interested in becoming a part of an accountability group. If there are more than a few people, maybe we can get more than one group started.
[more inside]
posted by SampleSize to MetaFilter-Related at 7:06 PM PST - 28 comments
July 9
What's the deal with The Deck? How is MetaFilter/Matthowie compensated: is it just eyeballs-on-the-published-page or is there an incremental payment for click-thrus? I ask because I often see items that are sort of vaguely interesting, and I'd be a lot more inclined to click-thru if that were to result in additional revenue...
posted by OneMonkeysUncle to MetaFilter-Related at 9:09 AM PST - 51 comments
July 8
July 7
Cormac McCarthy may not have been widely known until All the Pretty Horses, but he is very widely admired. He has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award, to name a few, and no one will be surprised if he wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.
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posted by bearwife to MetaFilter-Related at 1:28 PM PST - 60 comments
Can any atheist, agnostic, exotheologist, or noogenesist explain the Richard Dawkins hate on Metafilter. This has been bugging me for ages. It happens every time his name is mentioned here. I obviously missed the memo.
I read the front page Derren Brown thread just then, and clicked my way to a
ding dong Richard Dawkins argument from the past. I tried to work it out by myself, but just like an Australian trying to decipher the Conan-Leno bunfight, it seems one needs some requisent knowledge that I just don't possess.
[more inside]
posted by uncanny hengeman to MetaFilter-Related at 11:51 AM PST - 281 comments
July 6
Matt Haughey of Metafilter and his wife Kay split household chores right down the middle, except when it comes to garbage duty. Does the person taking out the trash have "garbage hands" that are only suitable to replace the trash bag and deal with all matters dirty?
Judge John Hodgman decides!
posted by staggernation to MetaFilter-Related at 11:52 AM PST - 74 comments
After the last round of holiday crapfests, I'd like to take a moment to thank mathowie, cortex, jessamyn, and restless_nomad (and, if it's still relevant, vacapinta -- for some reason I remember reading that vacapinta is not modding anymore...?) as well as pb for all the wonderful work they do keeping this place running.
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posted by ChrisR to MetaFilter-Related at 8:40 AM PST - 95 comments
July 5
An otherwise
great post (thanks, Slarty Bartfast) is appended with the following:
I am hoping we will not debate here whether "Everything but Marriage" is really marriage equality. I am hoping we will learn about and admire the efforts of those heroes who suffered and fought so that we can all be free someday.
I was going to respond in the thread to this, but I thought MetaTalk would be a better place. It seems like a bad idea to me to preemptively tell people how to discuss political activism (or any topic on Metafilter, really...). "Learning" and "admiring" are not discussion (although they can arise from discussion). I appreciate the desire to see a FPP discussion go well, but basically telling people not to engage with one another seems bad style. Is there some kind of posting etiquette about this?
I figured others might have the same response as me, so to avoid totally derailing the thread, we can discuss here.
posted by Philosopher Dirtbike to Etiquette/Policy at 11:28 PM PST - 40 comments
I am the MetaFilter pintern (paid intern) Dom, and would love to hear any funny stories the Mefi community has about breaking bones, in order to keep the boss's spirits up while healing from his scaphoid fracture.
[more inside]
posted by Dominic. Allen to MetaFilter-Related at 12:25 AM PST - 140 comments
July 4
So I made this comment
here, kind of tongue in cheek.
Then a few minutes later I check my favorites and find
this made six hours before.
Just interested in others MeFi coincidence stories if there are any?
posted by Xurando to MetaFilter-Related at 4:52 PM PST - 19 comments
I should probably know this but if I ever did, I've forgotten, and I'm drawing a blank hunting around right now. Is there a way to MeMail someone who has disabled his/her account, or otherwise find useful contact info from their page?
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posted by Decani to MetaFilter-Related at 2:41 PM PST - 17 comments
How has
this crap not been deleted already? Editorialized posts about community drama? Better posts about more interesting/important issues have been deleted for less.
posted by Talez to MetaFilter-Related at 10:59 AM PST - 1131 comments
July 3
I came across this interesting bit of information while doing some research on the London based conceptual artist Stephen Willats. According to his
wiki, "His 1973 work
Meta Filter consisted of pairs of participants seated at a computer, attempting to reach an agreement about the meanings of various images and statements." You can read more about Meta Filter
here, and more about Willats at his website
here.
posted by puny human to MetaFilter-Related at 11:50 AM PST - 50 comments
Didn't see this in the FAQ: is there an online venue where one can chat live with fellow Mefites? I know there's nothing official sponsored by the site, but what's the most popular of any home-brewed solutions?
posted by WCityMike to MetaFilter-Related at 10:49 AM PST - 37 comments
I just wanted to give a shout-out to everyone who's been participating in the
Autism/Aspergers/Empathy thread and say that I really appreciate the wealth of personal perspectives, good advice, and non-judgmental discussion. I made some comments early on that I realized (after posting) could be perceived as antagonistic, but the thread has been really cool, and a great eye-opener for me.
Thanks, Metafilter!
posted by verb to MetaFilter-Related at 10:13 AM PST - 8 comments
July 2
July 1
The LibraryThing widget is pulling random books from your LibraryThing account. Since Twitter and Last.fm and many of the others seem to default to most recent, it seems like the LibraryThing widget should pull your most recent books too, just to be consistent.
posted by COD to Feature Requests at 2:15 PM PST - 25 comments
What makes one post that features a Kickstarter link get axed, and another one stays? Is it the number of links supporting it, or is it a judgement call based on the coolness of the project? Is the front page of Metafilter the appropriate place to shill for money?
posted by crunchland to Etiquette/Policy at 2:42 AM PST - 92 comments